About
About me
Sam Paulding is the founder of Heavy Matter Studios and the creator of Port City Tales: Metro Meltdown. In his life he has worn many hats, including graphic design, game design, artist, art assistant, chef, database manager, medical testing assistant, and much more. At home, he is a cat owner, gardener, board game enjoyer, and metal head.
It has always been his dream to live the life of an artist. To create and publish a retro-inspired beat-em’ up dungeon brawler evocative of the 8 and 16-bit era games he grew up with. Port City Tales: Metro Meltdown takes inspiration from some of Sam’s favorite board games, as well as old-school brawlers like Streets of Rage, River City Ransom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, Final Fight, and Double Dragon to name a few, and creates an all-new take on the cooperative dungeon crawl genre. A bit sillier, a bit faster paced, and all about that teamwork!
About Heavy Matter Studios
Sam’s interest in graphic design developed through the process of creating Port City Tales. Striving for perfection necessitated greater skills and proficiencies. It wasn’t long before word got out, and before he knew it, Sam was designing event flyers, posters, business brochures, menus, logos, and projects for other people. Thus, Heavy Matter Games expanded and became Heavy Matter Studios.
At Heavy Matter Studios, Sam aims to provide the best service and a willingness to listen, engage, and collaborate with his clients to produce content that oozes personality. His creative approach is about finding solutions, leveling up ideas, and cultivating a high level of polish.
Collaboration
It often takes a community of dedicated people to create the best products, which is why Heavy Matter Studios believes in collaboration. For Port City Tales: Metro Meltdown, it was important to nail down a nostalgic look, evocative of Saturday Morning Cartoons. The wonderful character design as well as some of the signature look of the card design is all thanks to Johan Andersson.
Johan is a freelance illustrator and graphic designer from Sweden. He dabbles in some designs of his own and is a part-time philosophy student, animation fan, comedy geek, and punk rocker.
His artwork has a strong retro cartoon vibe, with a special fondness for 60’s Hanna-Barbera. With his artwork, he hopes his projects give off the feeling of being board game adaptations of Saturday Morning Cartoons.
Find him @tunacetiV on instagram.