MKAU Interviews: Kevin Lerdwichagul & Liam Vickers (Glitch Productions)

With the recent launch of Murder Drones: Season 1 (trailer below), we had the pleasure to sit down and have a chat with Glitch Productions CEO/Co-Founder Kevin Lerdwichagul, and Showrunner of Murder Drones Liam Vickers about their previous three-season show Meta Runner (2019-2022), and of course the development, vision, and production of Murder Drones.

What was the inspiration behind Murder Drones?
“I always loved spooky horror and weird cartoons growing up, so Murder Drones has a lot of that going on in the show. It’s pretty much my big love letter to horror and cartoons like Invader Zim.” – Liam
What can we expect from the upcoming Murder Drones series?
“We can’t say too much without spoiling it, but we’re going pretty deep into a lot of lore and backstory. Of course we’re also going to have some cool robot fight scenes and the same kind of humour you’d expect from a Glitch show.” – Kevin
On average, how much work goes into the production of a single episode, and how many people are involved?
“We have a team of 24 in house artists plus a bunch of contractors around the world. From the start of scripting to the final render, it takes around 3-4 months for an episode to finish.” – Kevin
Was there anything you learned during the creation of Meta Runner or working with Epic Games that has helped with the production of Murder Drones?
“We learned so much with Meta Runner where we’ve developed the skill of our artists and pipeline to continually advance the production quality of our series. We try to push the envelope with everything we create and we’re going to keep doing that even after Murder Drones. Epic Games has been great because they’ve worked with us to help the transition to Unreal Engine 5 which has been a massive leap forward for the way the series is made.” – Kevin
How do you overcome the numerous challenges that producing shows like Murder Drones and Meta Runner would present?
“We’re a relatively small company which brings a lot of flexibility in our pipeline. Unlike larger companies where there’s a pretty rigid structure, our team is able to talk things out and make solutions on the fly.” – Kevin
How did the success of Meta Runner influence the direction of Glitch Productions?
“We learned a lot of lessons from Meta Runner in how to adapt content to Youtube and the kinds of content we want to make. We experimented a bit with the tone and feeling of Meta Runner, where we can see it become a bit darker and more mature over the seasons and I think that comes through in the direction of shows like Murder Drones.” – Kevin
How do you feel the Australian industry has evolved since you started producing your shows?
“The animation industry is growing a lot in Australia, with new companies popping up and others expanding rapidly. I think because of the size of our local industry, we have a pretty unique opportunity for producing indie content though and it’s something we want to keep focusing on.” – Kevin
Compared to when Glitch Productions began, how has your production hardware/software changed?
“We started with Unreal Engine 4 and some basic computers when the company started. But as our resources and production scale increased, we’ve moved to Unreal Engine 5 and now have a complete render farm and home server that we use.” – Kevin
What advice could you give anyone looking to get into animation?
“Just start making stuff no matter what it is. Practice helps a ton and gives you a little something to put in your resume or application. I mean, the stuff I made on my own is how Glitch found me so you know its not like anything you make is wasted, it could lead to you working for a couple Australian guys in a few years.” – Liam
What is the best way for people to support Glitch Productions and the Australian industry?
“Just watch our stuff and share it around! We live on the indie scene so word of mouth is often the best way to make our content know. Also buying our merchandise doesn’t hurt lol.” – Kevin

Once again, a HUGE thanks to Kevin & Liam for their time. Be sure to check out Murder Drones HERE. If you’d like to check out more about Glitch Production, you’ll find all their links below.