Fountains is a solo-developed Metroidvania inspired by Dark Souls and Hollow Knight, built over five years by creator John Pywell. With the game now launching on XBOX, we spoke with Pywell about its development, influences, and unexpected international success.
Sam: So firstly, tell us a bit about yourself – a brief introduction of anything you’d like to say or not say.
John: I’m John Pywell, a computer science graduate from Canada. Halfway through high school, I took my first computer programming course, and when I realized I was good at it, I never stopped. I work full time in the field, plus a ton of my free time as you can see.
Sam: What was your earliest memory of video games?
John: I think my earliest memory of video games was seeing my older brother play a racing game on our Windows XP desktop. The first video game I remember owning is Wii Sports, around 2006. I was around six years old, and my parents brought me to some kind of technology exhibition at our local university. There was a display of the newly-released Wii, which I remember being fascinated with. A few months later, we had one of our own, and Wii Sports is the game that comes with the system.
Sam: Could you tell us some of your favourite games? Do you see anything of those games in Fountains?
John: Well, it might be obvious from the content of Fountains, but Dark Souls 1 is my favourite single-player game of all time. The twisting, interlocking world design of the first game in the series is so mysterious to me. After playing it, I wished there were more games with world designs like that, and unfortunately the sequels are more linear. That’s one of the main reasons I made Fountains. Another favourite game of mine is Satisfactory. If you don’t know of it, it’s a first-person factory-building game. It’s obviously nothing like Fountains, but I love optimizing and solving problems, so I think it appeals to the programmer part of my brain.
Sam: What was your main motivation for making Fountains? Seeing a video game through to the end is not an easy task.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2026/09/17/five-years-of-solo-development-interview/
