It Took 29 Days to Make Flunked. It Took Three Years to Learn How.

Making a game alone is already a tall order. Making one with 3D environments, motion capture, original music, and a psychological horror story sounds like something that should require a studio.

For Filipino solo developer Ryle Johnson, it took 29 production days.

In-game graphics via Flunked

That number comes with an important asterisk, though. Flunked wasn’t really three years in the making, as Ryle explains. Those three years were spent learning game development, particularly Unreal Engine 5, before he finally decided to put everything he’d learned into one small project.

Exclusive interview with Ryle Johnson, aka OledEye

Flunked follows Melt, who wakes up after Christmas Day and learns that his sister has gone missing. His search eventually leads his toward a watchtower connected to a larger tragedy involving a crashed ship. It’s intentionally simple, with Ryle describing the game almost like a short film rather than an enormous narrative.

In-game graphics via Flunked

The surprising part is how Ryle managed to give that short story a cinematic presentation as a solo developer.

Motion capture, for example, doesn’t necessarily require the elaborate setup we might associate with AAA games anymore. Ryle recorded his own movements with a camera, processed the footage through software, and brought the resulting animation into Unreal. He even joked that the actual recording involved him wearing a jacket and Scotch tape.

Ryle’s motion capture footage

And he didn’t stop at development. Ryle also performed in the game, wrote much of its music, directed the project, and financed it himself.

Of course, being a one-person studio means there is nobody else to blame when something breaks.

A few days before launch, Flunked almost didn’t ship at all. Ryle couldn’t get his game engine to export a playable build. It took him around six hours to finally get the build out, just in time to prepare the rest of his launch materials.

Paylstation playing Flunked via YouTube

That might be the most revealing part of Flunked‘s development. The 29-day figure makes for a great headline, but the game isn’t really a story about speed. It’s a story about knowing what you want to make and figuring out how to get there with whatever you have.

Ryle doesn’t claim that Flunked has the most original story ever written. For him, execution mattered more. His advice to other aspiring developers is similarly straightforward: figure out what you want to make, understand why you’re making it, and stick with that vision long enough to actually finish something.

In-game graphics via Flunked

That’s what makes Flunked worth paying attention to, especially for Filipino gamers. It’s not simply another “support local game” story. It’s an example of what a developer from General Santos can accomplish without waiting for a large studio, a massive budget, or a team of dozens of people to make the idea happen. Ryle’s own words are perhaps the simplest summary: if the big studios can do it, why can’t he?

Twenty-nine days was enough to ship Flunked.

The three years before that were what made those 29 days possible.

Flunked Finds an Audience Beyond the Game

Flunked has also started gaining attention from content creators, with two YouTubers already featuring the game on their channels. OledEye uploaded a full gameplay video exploring the game’s story, visuals, sound design, and horror elements, while leireill featured Flunked in a video focused on its Filipino horror setting and themes of delusion.

Watch the videos here:

Paylstation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9FgfA2xZj4&t=192s

leireill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEPQNQ8NDQo

Beyond gameplay content, Ryle is also working on two upcoming “Movie Poster” projects that will adapt Flunked into approximately five-minute short-film versions. He has also begun submitting these versions to film festivals, giving Flunked another life beyond its original format as a game.

Players and viewers can follow Ryle and find more about Flunked through his social media and project pages:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OledEye/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oledeyegames/
Itch.io: https://oledeye.itch.io/