How Parasite Inside got this way

Not long ago, I had a great chat with one of my supporters who asked a lot of questions about why I started making Parasite Inside and how the project has grown into what it is today. It wasn’t the first time I got questions like that — and every time, I realized there’s genuine interest in the journey behind the game.

So if you’re curious to learn how PI came to life — from early ideas to the toughest parts of development — here’s the short story. I’ll be sharing it in short chapters to keep it readable and let you follow along as things evolved.

This isn’t just a game dev diary. It’s a story about ideas, doubts, unexpected turns, plenty of trial and error, and a relentless drive to build something truly unique.

First Steps in Game Development

I’ve loved video games for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I had a PlayStation with just three games: Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 3, and Silent Hill. All three were in Italian — a language I didn’t understand — so I played them with a printed translation guide beside me. Those games had a huge impact on my tastes and imagination.

In 2018, while working a full-time job completely unrelated to IT or game development, I finally had a bit of free time for hobbies. That’s when I installed Unity for the first time. I had no clue what I was doing. C# looked like from Matrix. Still, I followed a small tutorial course and, after a few months, managed to make a tiny rocket game.

But life got busy again, and Unity had to wait.

Attempt #2

That pause lasted until 2021. I’d been waiting endlessly for Hollow Knight: Silksong — and finally decided to make my own metroidvania instead, just for fun and learning.

Over the next two years, I spent every spare moment (outside of my regular job) diving into Unity. My wife even helped by drawing sprites for the game, while I tried to make them come alive in motion. It was purely a learning project, but every now and then, I wondered if it could be something more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7eed4OqgMc

The Birth of Parasite Inside

That metroidvania project was never meant to be commercial — and it got mixed feedback from friends. I realized it was time to move on and try building something truly my own.

Around that time, Unity started experimenting with questionable monetization changes, which gave me the final push to explore Unreal Engine. I started dreaming of my own version of Dead Space, or maybe a Lovecraftian detective horror. I wanted something in 3D — even though I had zero idea how 3D game development worked.

I don't remember how, but I download the first NSFW game I’d ever played — an early version of Too Much Light. It was buggy, rough, and oddly inspiring. That led me down a rabbit hole of discovering just how big and active the adult game genre actually is.

I hadn’t even installed Unreal Engine yet, but I was already sketching out scenes, writing down mechanics, planning puzzles, and drafting a rough story. It all felt both exciting and overwhelming.

Project COLOS

In September 2023, I finally installed Unreal Engine and created my very first project, calling it "Project_COLOS" — even though I already knew the final title would be Parasite Inside. You know, just like how AAA studios give their games fancy placeholder names. xD

With no experience, I started with the third-person template. The project opened, and my immediate reaction was: "What the hell am I looking at?" Everything was unfamiliar compared to Unity.

Still, after a few days of confusion, I started learning. Tutorials, documentation, trial-and-error — progress was slow and painful, but I pushed through, putting in a few hours almost every day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0Wg2gkw9OY

Diving into 3D Assets and Modeling

Since I had decided to go full 3D with the game, I knew I had to somehow tame that wild new territory. At first, I turned to free 3D models from the internet and used them for testing inside the project. Once I got a basic understanding of how things worked, it became clear I needed to explore the marketplace (now called Fab) to start building out the environments.

I threw together a small test scene — just two rooms — and instantly watched my framerate drop from 180 to 20, even with Nanite enabled. After spending days troubleshooting, I discovered that a single flat floor mesh had over 8,000 polygons, and the texture files were larger than the rest of my project combined. That was a turning point.

I realized marketplace assets needed heavy optimization, and mixing different styles or quality levels would only harm the visual consistency of the game. So, with some help from my wife (who had a bit of prior experience), I dove into Blender.

Creating my own environments kicked off in full swing. I redesigned the first location three or four times — I honestly lost count.

With environments under control, I turned my attention to characters — and that’s where things got trickier. Modeling a character from scratch took a lot of time, but when I finally got one moving inside the engine, it felt incredible.

https://youtu.befzTosXLoA

Still, learning rigs, skeletons, weight painting, morphs, and everything else at once was overwhelming. I decided to look for a ready-made model to get things moving. After a long search, I discovered Ryan Reos’s work and instantly knew it was the right fit and bought his latest model — Akali. I figured newer meant better, but in hindsight… that model gave me more trouble than I expected. Even so, I was still very happy with it overall.

I also knew Oni would need her own custom sci-fi outfits and unique elements. That was just a matter of time and effort. Eventually, I bought more models from Ryan for use as NPCs and began tweaking them visually to fit the world of Parasite Inside.

The First Playable Build

After building out a few locations and getting the core systems in place, I attempted to compile the first playable build of the game. That’s when Unreal’s build log turned into a storm of errors. The engine simply refused to put the pieces together.

I spent weeks combing through every single compile error — and even fixed all the warnings while I was at it. Eventually, the game launched, ran smoothly, and didn’t crash. That moment felt like a huge win.

But then I hit another bump: the project was still called "Project_COLOS." I decided to rename it properly to ParasiteInside — and that’s when Unreal gave me round two of chaos.

Unlike Unity, you can’t just rename a project folder in Unreal. Paths, references, and internal links all break. So I spent another couple of weeks resolving the fallout from the rename.

On top of that, I was facing issues in my day job at the time, which made it all feel heavier. But I got through it. And finally, I had something I could launch — something called ParasiteInside.exe.

That moment, when the game launched under its real name — that was pure happiness.

The Release of Parasite Inside 0.1.0

By the end of February 2024, after countless tests on every PC and laptop I could get my hands on, the game finally ran well. Everything was stable. It was time to share it with the world.

With the incredible support of my amazing wife, I posted download links to the first public build of Parasite Inside on the most popular platforms. My expectations were low — it was my first public game, the graphics were basic, the sound was rough, there weren’t even any enemies yet… so I braced myself.

But within a few days, judging by the feedback, I realized — people actually liked it.

Sure, there were negative comments too. I did my best not to dwell on them. Instead, I focused on improving what I had.

Just one week later, I released version 0.1.1 — fixing bugs, tweaking mechanics, adding a new outfit, and making some general improvements. Despite still working a full-time job, my mind was already drifting completely toward game development.

Dreams Coming True

Not long after the first public release, something amazing started to happen. Thanks to the support of fans, I was finally able to leave my day job and dedicate myself fully to game development — something I had only dreamed about since childhood.

A little while later, I officially registered my own studio.

What once felt like a far-off fantasy was now my reality. And none of it would’ve been possible without the unwavering support of the one person closest to me — and without all of you who believed in the project and helped it grow.

It still feels surreal. But it's happening.

Where I Am Today

Today, I can clearly see that what I create resonates with people — and that means everything to me. I’m committed to working hard and pouring my energy into making the kind of games I’ve always dreamed of.

Thank you for being here with me.

— Kodman