So, hey, I'm Alex. I'm uh I'm very happythat you guys are hosting me todaybecause I'm a big fan of your podcastand uh yeah, so what I do is that Ifounded a studio here in Cyprus withguys from metal band Sabaton and I'mmaking a tycoon about heavy music androck festivals, Lord of Metal. So, yes,that's what I do. So, I I specifically wanted to talk toyou because the thesis here is reallyfascinating. Could you walk me throughwhat leads you to thinking this is agood idea? And I don't mean that in abad way. I mean that was a fascinatingway. The idea is pretty simple. So we'retalking about heavy music fans. I don'tdiscern rock and metal but basicallylike we're talking about the whole likeyou know spectrum there. But it's dozensof millions globally and I think thatthose folks have not had a game thatwould be a testimonial to the pinnacleof their existence. And let me explain.So festivals is basically like you'reyoung, you're like in your 20s, you goto uh whichever there's like a major
heavy music festival there. It issomething that you remember and carrythis memory with you up until likeyou're old and everything. It'ssomething to tell your grandkids about.And it's the same for the bands who areperforming on the stage because you getthis whole like energy from the crowdand and everything. So it's all aboutthe emotion and what basically was thefoundation for Lord of Metal was that wewant to take this emotion and we wantyou to feel it a luxury of your homebecause I remember back in CO I was kindof like re-watching the you know likelive footages from Vakan and from abunch of like other heavy musicfestivals and I was like I want to getback there so much and I want to relievethose emotions And that I think was thefirst trigger, [laughter]the first like catalyst of this process.I've been a metal head like for all mylife. I mean literally I I love going toconcerts. I love listening to metal allkinds of. So I I I don't deserve really.
And I was thinking what would be thehighest point of experience like okayyou can listen to like musical albums atthe comfort of your home and everythingbut what was the thing that would makeit like you know get it into the recordsfor history so to say that would beconcerts and that would be live showsand that would be festivals andfestivals is the biggest concentrationof like you know the biggest bandsperforming for the biggest crowd offans. So, it's the crowd energy, is theperformance and everything that kind oflike brings the spinnacle to it. So,that's how it came to be. Honestly, Iwas like and also like a bunch of likeExcel sheets and uh you know techwriters and everything kind of like thebuilding bricks. So, we were havingbeers with folks from Sabaton like Idon't know couple years ago and u I wasjust like guys I figured out you have aband which has been you know performingfor like 25 plus years. You also hostyour major festival in Fallon Sabatonopen air for like 10 years. You have all
the writers, tech writers. You have allthe crazy stories that you know you getto tell like as organizers like fromtech staff, from security, from hostsand everything. That's how kind of likeit was all coming together. I sat down.I probably spent like two nights. I justput together like a game design documentwhich still stands by the way. And itall got from there. So I want totransition this emotion. I want to dothis as a give back to folks who areorganizingevents, festivalsfirst and foremost. So, it's basicallythe the thing that is the game thatconnects fans and the bands and it alsolike gives you kind of a bit of a lookbehind the curtain of what's happeningbackstage like how you get theeverything built up, what kind of aproblems you encounter as the organizerwith a little bit of a twist and like abit a little bit of a power fantasy, youknow, spice sprinkled on top of it. So,there was a Swedish firm called theOutsiders, I believe, who made a gamecalled Hellsers. Can you remind me likewhat do you do in metal Hellsllingers?
Cuz when people It's a rhythm shooter. It's a rhythmshooter. So, basically, it is a metalthemed rhythm shooter. So, you have ametal soundtrack and what you do is thatyou need to shoot at the enemies in theproper BPM whenever it's highlight.Think of it like Get Our Hero, but withguns. We just wanted to take a littlebit of a different angle on that andbecause Metal Sense is really it's likeit's a really cool outlier. I love whatguys did. They have a stellarsoundtrack. They have wow star studded,you know, like soundtrack going on forthe game. I think they've also likerecently opened up like a way for you todo like the UC songs. You can uploadyour own like songs there and play tothem which is awesome. But all of thosegames are kind of revolving around likefictional world settings and it tweaksthe power fantasy up to like you know 15on a scale of 10. I wanted to bring theatmosphere of a festivaland I wanted to bring the power fantasy
of you being the organizer of it andthat's where we got talking with theguys from the bands like I I've donelike a big research basically and and byresearch I mean like me going to a bunchof like open air concerts talking toorganiz it was amazing that's a business expense right well it was not back then because wewere not incorporating so it was like mypersonal investment into like you knowfine-tuning the concept but Yeah, I'vebeen like interviewing folks who arelike on the grounds every day. I meanlike stage techs, backstage runners,everybody who is involved in thetechnicality of the process. And I waslike, "Guys, give me the craziest storythat you've ever had through your workexperience." And when I figured out thatthis turns into a freaking encyclopedia,like you get a whole list of folklorerevolving around festivals, I was like,that's what it is. So what we're doingbasically is that we're doing this likewell power fantasy but it revolvesaround the festivals bringing all thosecrazy stories to life and you get tomanage those you get to manage like all
the crisis like you know when uh I don'tknow like a guitar player's hair gets onfire because what in the fire said sothis is like the mildest one orsomeone's a devil like there's a demonlike literally you know like emergingfrom the you know center of the stagewhat are you going to do about it what Iwanted to do is that I wanted to deliverthe game to a very underserved portionof like I said of the populace which islike dozens of millions of people wholove heavy music in their 30s and 40s.So I figured out that you know what wereally need to make sure that we'recompeting for a small portion of theirtime but we really want to have thatlike one more gig hook.So we have like crystallized the uh coregameplay loop around it being like youknow 15 minutes probably for a PC game.What we're trying to do is that we wantto care to wider audience. We want thosefolks who have very small amount of timeto feel this power fantasy to go andmanage their own festivals to have well
it's basically a game you can head bankto without you losing your IQ becauseit's a tycoon. So you still have to makedecisions. to still to you know to bevery tactical about it and u I think itkind of transcends gaming because whenyou think about heavy music culture itis very easily distinguishable when yousee a heavy metal concert you know it'sa heavy metal concert when you see arock concert you know it's it's a rockconcert because of the attributesbecause of the visuals because of theaesthetics that's what wants totransition on the other side people wantto be a part of the culture so there's alot of like collecting habitWhen I won this vinyl, I won thist-shirt when people are jacket patches. I see that all the time. Those Oh, battle battle vests andbattle. Oh my god. Yes. This is like awhole like, you know, this is a wholeextra layer to that. Uh that's likebossier, you know, loot that people aregetting because I've seen like folks whobasically had like, you know, likecouple of decades of Vakan festivalwristbands, you know, like uh stitched
onto their battle vest. This is amazing.I mean this is a whole like differentdifferent later culture but what what Imean what I mean is it's very simple thereason why we wanted to go with premiumwith PC first and also we're deliveringa lot of physical as well is because wethink that a lot of folks will just wantto be part of this because they want tocollect something because they are partof this culture and that's exactly whatwe want to deliver we want to be reallyold school when we launched the firsttitle in our IP you know we we'retalking about like you know deliveringthe lore of the game outside of the gameitself. So, we had a very successfulKickstarter campaign back in 2024 wherewe basically showed the early conceptand everything. And uh you know, peoplereally loved it. Like the physicalbatches, the ones that include like theOT's, the vinyls and everything, theygot sold immediately because people wantto be part of the culture and they wantto have the signs or like thememorabilia for having those. And ofcourse, we're going to have that. Andall in all, the game itself is basicallylike it lets you, let's say like you're
in your 40s and you don't have theluxury of time of going like, you know,to your next like bloodtock or vocad orwhichever like input big festival namein there, but you want to relieve thatemotion. That's what we want to deliveron. So you said something earlier. You saiduh wanting to be a part of the culture.Yes. And I would say there's two words thatkeep popping up as we talk to people.One is paos and the other is limosol. Okay. And you told me you you don't live ineither of those places. No, I live nextto Limasol. Basically, I live to next toLimosol. Also, my office is in Limol. Iam subleasing. [laughter]It's super fun though since we'rebuilding the company together with folksfrom Sabaton. So, I'm subleasing like aa small portion of Sabaton's office.We're like in this, we call it like thepigeon coupe. It's like a small buildingon top of a building where you haveseveral desks in there. It looks reallylike you know those old school likestartup garages. [laughter] So, yeah, that's that's my office. Onthe other side of things actually youknow like u the reason why we were notafraid of doing physical for the gameand promising to do physical to like tofans and the to the community which we
started building was because well wehave Sabaton's powertrain of like youknow deliver of physical merch andeverything and they're pretty big inthis one. So we were pretty confidentthat we can deliver on a lot of thingsthat a lot of gaming companies would noteven consider of delivering. On theother thing is like we have a veryactive discord uh server there. Shoutout to you guys. There is a veryinteresting like thing happening. Sopeople are getting together to go togigs. Some folks are basically somefolks asked me for like an SVG of Lordof Metals logo and they printed t-shirtsand they went like in Lord of MetalT-shirts like to metal gigs which isamazing. We're building the communityearly. It's because all of this likeculture look I mean metal heads may lookscary but they're are the best people inthe world. There is so much mutualsupport going on in there and wheneverpeople see that somebody's sharing theirculture and is being respectful to themyou're set. Victory. Yes. And that's that's exactly that's
exactly what we want to cater to. Wewant to celebrate those people. We wantto celebrate the bands who areperforming to those people and we wantto celebrate like the pinnacle of theirexperience. Ace
Key insights
6 takeaways · ~2 min read
01
Horns Up Games is developing 'Lord of Metal,' a management simulation game in collaboration with the Swedish metal band Sabaton that focuses on the logistical complexities of organizing large-scale music festivals.
02
The game targets an underserved demographic of metal fans in their 30s and 40s by offering a strategic, non-rhythm-based experience that emphasizes crisis management and backstage operations.
03
Development is informed by qualitative research and interviews with industry professionals, including stage technicians and security personnel, to ensure authentic representation of live music production.
04
The studio leverages Sabaton’s existing merchandise infrastructure to offer physical collectibles like vinyl records and apparel, successfully integrating crowdfunding to meet the collecting habits of the metal community.
05
Community engagement is maintained through an active Discord server, positioning the game as a long-term cultural celebration rather than a standalone digital product.
06
The project differentiates itself from traditional music games by prioritizing tactical decision-making and industry folklore over musical performance mechanics.
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Summary
Lord of Metal, a management simulation game developed by Horns Up Games in collaboration with the Swedish metal band Sabaton, aims to capture the emotional intensity and logistical complexity of heavy music festivals. The project serves as a tribute to the global metal community, targeting an underserved demographic of fans in their 30s and 40s who seek to relive the atmosphere of live music experiences from the comfort of their homes. By blending traditional tycoon gameplay with a "power fantasy" narrative, the game allows players to manage the backstage operations, technical challenges, and chaotic scenarios inherent in organizing large-scale rock events.
The development process is grounded in extensive qualitative research, including interviews with stage technicians, security personnel, and event organizers to curate a collection of authentic industry folklore. This research informs the game’s core mechanics, which focus on tactical decision-making and crisis management. Unlike rhythm-based titles that prioritize musical performance, this simulation emphasizes the organizational side of the industry, offering a strategic experience that respects the culture and aesthetics of the heavy music scene.
A key component of the project’s strategy is its commitment to physical media and community engagement. Leveraging Sabaton’s established infrastructure for merchandise distribution, the studio has successfully utilized crowdfunding to offer physical collectibles, such as vinyl records and apparel, to satisfy the collecting habits of the metal community. The project maintains a strong connection to its audience through an active Discord community and a focus on authentic representation. By prioritizing both digital gameplay and tangible memorabilia, the studio aims to foster a long-term relationship with fans, positioning the game as a celebration of the shared values and mutual support found within the global metal culture.
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