Interview: Hundred Fires Dev on Game Dev, Metal Gear Influence,

Sofia Delgado

We’d like to start this piece with a thank you. It means a lot to us that our first official interview at Neon Loop Media — via our SwitchTwoNews project — is with a solo indie creator who’s poured a decade of work into making his vision real. This is what we built our platform to support. Games made with stubborn passion, clear voices, and no safety net.

In this feature, we speak with the developer behind Hundred Fires: The Rising of Red Star – Complete Edition, a stealth-action title inspired by Metal Gear Solid and shaped by personal history, creative evolution, and years of trial-and-error development. From Unity cinematics to teaching by day and coding by night, the story behind Hundred Fires is as compelling as the game itself.

🎮 Suggested Reading

We talk about game design, building tools solo, narrative influences, and what it takes to bring a project like this to Nintendo Switch — piece by piece, with nothing but consistency and vision.

Hundred Fires blends stealth-action gameplay with a cinematic story. What inspired you to create this experience?

Definitely Metal Gear Solid. When it came out in 1998 for the original PlayStation, I was just a kid, and it blew my mind. The cinematic storytelling, the infiltration mechanics, and the complex political lore left a deep impression on me. Since then, my childhood dream was to create my own Metal Gear Solid, and that dream led me into game design and programming.

The game is set during the Cuban Missile Crisis — why did you choose that historical backdrop?

Hundred Fires is a very personal project, and many autobiographical elements are woven into it. In my youth, I was a member of the communist youth movement. At that rebellious age, historical figures like Che Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos (from whom the game takes its name) were fascinating to me. Back then, I started drawing a comic about the Cuban Revolution. It followed the story of a photographer traveling with Che, blending real events with futuristic, fictional elements. That was the first time I drew Valero Montenegro—originally, he was going to be a revolutionary photographer.

Over time, my political views changed, and that evolution is reflected in the character. Valero starts the game as a revolutionary but ultimately deserts, fleeing with his family. In the original Android game, he even takes part in the Bay of Pigs invasion. He’s a character caught between ideological conflict and personal responsibility—something I can personally relate to.

What makes the new “Infinite Gear Mode” different from the main story, and why did you include it?Infinite Gear Mode is a separate gameplay mode, different from the story. The idea came to me because I always wanted a Metal Gear that never ended, haha. So I experimented with procedural generation, which means each playthrough is unique. I decided to include it as a bonus mode in the final version. In the future, I’d love to keep exploring this concept for other types of games.

As a solo developer, what has been the hardest part of bringing this series to life?

Many people might say the hardest part is learning all the necessary skills: modeling, animation, rigging, programming, lighting, video editing, and so on. And yes, it took years. But I never saw it as a burden—I genuinely love learning everything related to game development. For me, it’s been a lifelong passion rather than a hardship.How has Hundred Fires changed from its early mobile versions to this new Complete Edition?It’s evolved a lot. It all started as a fan game called Metal Gear: Outer Heaven, a remake of the original MSX title. I released it episodically on Android in 2013. It was rough, low-quality, and visually unpolished—but it was the first game I ever completed, and I learned a lot from it. Despite its flaws, it reached over a million downloads… until Konami found out and filed a claim, and I had to take it down. That was a tough moment.But it pushed me to start my own stealth-action series. I rebuilt the game from scratch under the new name Hundred Fires, releasing three episodes on Android. With each release, I rewrote everything from zero and gradually raised the quality.Eventually, due to Android compatibility issues, I had to remove it from the store. I moved on to other projects and prototypes, including free games on my itch.io page. Then in 2020, I decided to reboot Hundred Fires again—this time not for mobile, so I wouldn’t be held back by technical limitations. I wanted to apply everything I’d learned over the years.That’s how The Rising of Red Star was born, once again built from scratch (for the fourth time, haha). I released three episodes on Steam, and now all those episodes are combined in one complete game for Nintendo Switch, including extra missions and Infinite Gear Mode.

What aspect of the gameplay are you most proud of?

The cinematics, haha. Thanks to Unity’s new cinematic tools, I was able to produce them with much higher quality and less effort than before. I created over 45 minutes of cutscenes by myself, and in many moments, it really feels like watching a movie.

What kind of response have you seen from Nintendo Switch players so far?

Players who understand how personal this project is seem to really connect with it. Hundred Fires touches on themes like family and ideology but also embraces absurd humor, wild situations, and self-awareness. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to laugh at itself. The reception from players who get that has been very positive. 🙂

How did you manage the development process alone — from coding to animation and audio?

My method is to start with a fully functional prototype. I create one room where I test all mechanics and interactive elements. Once that’s done, I no longer need to program much—I just build the environments and distribute those existing elements across them. That’s how I make it feasible for a solo developer.Then I move on to the cutscenes. Unity’s latest tools made that a lot easier. And by releasing the game in three episodes, the scope became much more manageable. Of course, the real key is consistency. I work as a teacher in the mornings, as a freelancer in the afternoons, and I develop Hundred Fires at night. Every single night, I commit to hitting at least one milestone on my task list. That’s how the game keeps moving forward.

From a technical standpoint, how did you optimize the game to run smoothly on both PC and Switch?

This was definitely a challenge. First, I had to reduce the polygon count of all environment objects, and in the Switch version, I even had to remove some minor decorative items. I also had to completely rethink the lighting system because of the hardware limitations—but with a bit of creativity, I managed to make it look almost the same.The save system was especially tough. I originally used Unity’s PlayerPrefs, but Nintendo requires its own binary format. As I’m not a professional programmer, adapting to that was a steep learning curve. Honestly, there are still parts of the Nintendo Switch SDK I don’t fully understand, haha.

For indie creators who feel passionate about their project but are struggling — what advice would you give to help them keep going?

The best tool you can have is divergent thinking—the ability to find multiple paths around a problem. If one solution isn’t working, don’t cling to it. Be willing to change ideas, backtrack, and adapt. Sometimes going one step back lets you move two steps forward later.Also, work with what you’ve got. If you don’t know how to animate legs, then make a character without legs—maybe a rolling ball instead. Don’t try to make an overly complex game right out of the gate, or you’ll just end up frustrated.And above all: consistency. Set a schedule and a daily goal, no matter how small. Make a list of milestones, break them down into smaller steps, and then even smaller ones. Every day, hit at least one of those micro-goals. That’s how solo games get finished.

Game Store Page

“Hundred Fires touches on themes like family and ideology but also embraces absurd humor, wild situations, and self-awareness. It’s a game that isn’t afraid to laugh at itself

Game Details

A global crisis—and only one man can stop it.

Cuba, 1962: The nuclear missile conflict brings the world to the brink. Only a soldier with infiltration skills honed through countless battles can stop the nuclear attack.

Valero Montenegro, a former fighter of the 26th of July Movement, is caught in a plot of espionage and mystery to save his daughter and the world from nuclear devastation.

A notorious nuclear weapons developer has arrived on the island; Montenegro’s mission is to assassinate the developer and stop the Yanelis Project.

Gameplay: Espionage, infiltration, and classic-style action

This real-time asymmetric action game is heavily influenced by the classic stealth genre, where a lone soldier must face an entire army. The best strategy? Don’t get seen!

Infiltrate the enemy army base.
Use techniques and skills to eliminate enemies without being detected.
Explore the base collecting objects to progress on your adventure.
Got spotted? Are you quick on the trigger? Then don’t hesitate—shoot! The variety of weapons the game offers will help you face enemies and choose your strategy.

⭐ Key Features

A sincere tribute to the Metal Gear saga
Classic stealth gameplay with retro-style items, weapons, and enemies
A wild story with historical characters and nods to multiple sagas
Includes all 3 original episodes in one definitive edition
Exclusive game mode: Infinite Gear Mode, with procedurally generated maps
Extra training missions

Developed by a single Spanish creator from Murcia

Are you working on something personal? Whether you’re building games solo, running a small studio, or finishing your first prototype — we want to hear your story. At SwitchTwoNews, we believe the dev journey is just as important as the final product.

If you’re developing a Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 title and would like to be featured, interviewed, or just share your progress, reach out to us at contact@switchtwonews.com.

We’re here to spotlight creators — not just games. Let’s build something together.