ALL FORMATS

LIFTING THE LID ON VIDEO GAMES

Samus to Shantae Shadow’s Edge

Crafting the perfect A game designed
Metroidvania to change lives

Issue 19 £3
wfmag.cc

Uncover a bleak,
beautiful Gothic
gothic adventure
 UPGRADE
TO LEGENDARY

AG273QCX
2560x1440
 Gatekeeping in the
golden age of video games

O
ld video game magazines are a treasure- What is the world coming to? Can we expect to see
trove of fascinating history – particularly games aimed specifically at other groups? For example,
those from the early 1980s, an era when senior citizen games in which ominous muggers try to
the conceptual boundaries and even steal the elderly’s social security cheques; tall people
the language of video games were still crystallising. games in which basketball players routinely step on
Advertisements hail long-forgotten games as the jockeys; and, finally, dentist games, in which Strawberry
JESS
greatest of all time, while articles employ curious MORRISSETTE Shortcake is eliminated because she causes cavities.
terminology like ‘screen games’ to describe arcade Jess Morrissette is a In case the authors’ meaning wasn’t entirely clear,
machines and ‘climbing games’ to refer to the genre professor of Political an illustration (‘Cute Shoot’) depicting someone scoring
we now call platformers. Suffice to say, these vintage Science at Marshall a violent headshot on a shooting gallery-style figure
publications offer intriguing glimpses into the roots of University, where he with a strawberry head accompanies the article.
studies the politics of
video game culture as we know it today. popular culture. So, if you’re wondering how many video games had
With that in mind, I was recently skimming through to be marketed towards girls before dudes started
the monthly ‘Glitches’ news column in the March claiming the industry was under assault, the answer
1983 issue of Electronic Fun with Computer & Games is one. Literally. The first one.
when an item caught my eye. Under the provocative Looking back at this news item today, it’s hard not to
headline ‘Yoo Hoo, Feminists…’, the short piece interpret it through the lens of Gamergate and its own
reported on the upcoming release of Strawberry efforts to ‘defend’ gaming from perceived bogeymen
Shortcake: Musical Match-Ups for the Atari 2600. – feminists, cultural Marxists, social justice warriors.
Parker Brothers marketed the game, based on It represents an opening salvo in the decades-long
Kenner’s popular toy line of scented dessert-themed battle to define what counts as a ‘real’ game and,
dolls, as the “first video game cartridge for young girls.” by extension, a ‘real’ gamer. As is still the case today,
What I found striking about the piece wasn’t so much realness to many gamers remains a fundamentally
the historical significance of an early game targeted gendered concept. Contemporary reactions from
at a female audience, but rather the disdainful tone it self-proclaimed ‘hardcore gamers’ to titles like Kim

#19
struck – a tone all too familiar in 2019. Kardashian: Hollywood – mobile, casual, female – aren’t
The authors (the column is jointly credited that different from Electronic Fun with Computer &
to Ronald Chironna, Pat Kinsley, David Celsi, Bill Games’ condescending take on Musical Match-Ups.
Sillbert, and Robert Casilla) open by alluding to That the authors flippantly added a violent element
“nefarious things” afoot in the “game universe.” to their criticism (‘eliminating’ Strawberry Shortcake,
After briefly mentioning the emerging trend of the headshot illustration) is unsettlingly prescient when
erotic games, they identify the real threat: so- considered in the context of contemporary harassment
called “sexual stereotyping.” The authors go on to campaigns targeting women in the video game industry.
frame the pending release of Strawberry Shortcake: Taken as a whole, the article’s a stark reminder that
Musical Match‑Ups as a “quantum leap backwards the ‘boys only’ mentality of gaming culture isn’t a new
for feminism” due to its “cute,” girl-centric content. phenomenon. In fact, there’s evidence to suggest it was
They frame the crisis as follows: there almost from the start.

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 Contents

Contents

6
Attract mode Interface

06. Inmost 18. Shadow’s Edge

Hidden Layer Games on their The game designed to provide
gorgeous gothic adventure hope and healing

10. 12 Minutes 24. Alien Escape

A top-down time-loop thriller A solo dev’s devious world-rotating
six years in the making platform puzzler

12.  Telling Lies 44. Making Metroidvanias

More FMV detective work From Samus to Shantae,
in this Her Story follow-up SteamWorld and beyond

16.  Incoming 50. Bullfrog Productions

18 Nanobots, lunar mysteries,
and giraffe detectives
Profiled: the team behind
Populous, Syndicate and more

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 Contents

WELCOME
There are all kinds of skills
that go into making games,
from programming to design
to music and dozens more
disciplines besides. But the skill
that overarches all those other
ones is – as I’ve concluded

10
after talking to a wide variety of
developers over the past few
months or so – perseverance.

When former Ubisoft and

Rockstar artist Luis Antonio
embarked on his time-loop
adventure 12 Minutes in 2013,
he spent hours of his spare
time reworking and refining
the concept. From there, he
worked on the game for about
three years before publisher
Annapurna Interactive spotted
its potential; thanks to their
funding and expertise, Antonio’s
now able to complete his game’s
motion capture and voice acting.
What began as a comparatively
small solo venture has, through
six years of hard work and,
yes, perseverance, grown into
something far more cinematic

44 58 and unsettling.

Similarly, German student

Kim Seitner spent three years
working on his platform-

Toolbox Rated
puzzler Alien Escape, fitting its
development around his studies.
After being picked up by an indie
publisher, the game’s now on
Steam and the Nintendo Switch
28. Design Principles 56. Bloodstained eShop, giving it a potential
Howard Scott Warshaw on Koji Igarashi brings us another audience of millions. Technical
ingenuity, design flair, intuition
tuning your game’s difficulty slice of baroque action and luck all played important
roles, but without their creators’
30. CityCraft 58. Fujii drive to see them through to the
Devising your own post- Gardening in VR is beautiful bitter end, those games would
never have existed.
apocalyptic metropolis but blooms all too briefly

32. Fantasy World Dizzy 60. Etherborn Ryan Lambie

Editor
The code and tricks behind a Escher-esque environments,
ZX Spectrum classic existential elegy

40. Source Code 63. Supermarket Shriek

Make your own arcade-style A noisy kart racer that has us
continue screen rolling in the aisles

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 Attract Mode
Interview

Retro
Retro gothic
gothic
Three characters exploring a benighted pixel art
world; two indie devs battling to make it. We find
out more about the gothic adventure, INMOST

H
ideous monsters that had spent several years working together Is this a personal game? Have your
feed on suffering. A gothic on a string of mobile and Flash games, personal experiences informed the
landscape battered by wind before a desire to make something bigger game’s tone in some way?
and rain. Look around at the and more ambitious began to take hold. Alexey Testov: Not directly. Inmost doesn’t
gloomy pixel world of Inmost Testov and Vinchkovskiy worked solidly tell about events that happened to me or
and you probably won’t immediately for two months on creating a prototype, people I know, but of course, I’m trying to
connect it to Dizzy, the series of cartoon pouring considerable effort and studio inject into it my personal thoughts and
games featuring a bouncing, grinning funds into their dark proof-of-concept. emotions. I’m trying to make
egg first released in the 1980s (see page With Hidden Layer Games’ coffers running the game raise questions
32). And yet, for Lithuania-based artist low by this point, Inmost might have gotten important to me. When
and game designer Alexey Testov, Dizzy lost in its own form of limbo without I started writing Inmost’s
was one of the many influences that additional funding, but salvation came story, I hadn’t seen my
went into Inmost: an atmospheric and when it won an indie game competition wife and two-year-old
visually striking platform-adventure that in Minsk. The cash prize from that victory daughter for several months.
also takes in elements of such classics helped finance the meat of Inmost’s They were unable to join me in
as Flashback, Another World, and modern development; meanwhile, the game’s Lithuania because of documents issues,
indie darling, Limbo. growing reputation attracted London- while I was unable to move back to them
Inmost takes chunks of those varied based company Chucklefish, which later because I just didn’t have enough money.
2D games and makes them its own: here stepped in as publisher. I was very depressed. In many ways,
you’ll find a puzzle-filled tale that’s more Inmost, then, is shaping up to be a exactly that part of my life defined the
contemplative and deliberately paced captivatingly melancholy adventure – and game’s tone.
than most retro-influenced games we’ve the story behind it is similarly emotional.
seen in recent years. It tells the tale of We caught up with Alexey Testov and
three characters whose fates are, divided Chucklefish’s Katy Ellis to find out more
though they are by time and space, about its making.
closely intertwined. There are obstacles
to overcome and enemies to vanquish,
but Inmost is equally about soaking up the
details of its dank, desaturated world and
uncovering the stories behind its three
lost souls.
Initial work began on Inmost in 2017;
by this point, Testov and Hidden Layer
Games co-founder Andriy Vinchkovskiy

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Interview

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Interview

Can you talk a little bit about

Inmost’s story, and how its three
characters interconnect?
Katy Ellis: Inmost’s story is a dark one,
exploring three playable characters – each
with their own gameplay style – and one
interweaving narrative, told through each
of the characters’ journeys. The story is
set across two worlds, weaving together a Like all decent gothic stories, Inmost


tale of suffering, sacrifice, and family. We’re contains plenty of dilapidated castles
and hidden passages to discover.
purposefully being a little coy about the
details – we think Inmost’s story is best told
while playing and discovering it yourself. All the puzzles in Inmost work mainly to
create a proper atmosphere rather than
Will one character’s actions through the a real problem. In the second half of the
game affect the others? game, puzzles become more complex, but
The use of dialogue and on-screen prompts is


AT: Characters’ actions don’t necessarily kept to a minimum, allowing the art and score to I think they’re still not too complicated.
affect each other directly; they’re divided tell the story. At least not enough to fill you with nothing
not only by different worlds, but also time. but despair for weeks on end!
You will, however, see consequences
of past events, and these events are I read that making the prototype for
distorted in different worlds. I’m trying to Inmost was something of a gamble; could
make the world’s decorations as important you talk a bit about that?
as the story itself. They should help to tell KE: The initial demo of Inmost, made for
the story and fully explain the characters’ a contest at the DevGAMM conference in
true nature. Minsk, was a complete gamble. Andriy and
Alexey risked all the studio’s funds to

“My mood was changing from unlimited create the prototype; they knew that

positivity to the darkest depression”

if the game received no attention they
would be forced to close the company.
But, thankfully, Inmost won the award for
Although characters can’t influence each To what degree is this a stealth game, Best Indie Game, as well as prize money to
other directly, the main hero can affect given the elements of sneaking past help keep the project alive, which is when
NPCs’ stories in his own world. By saving or enemies and luring them to their doom? Chucklefish got involved.
killing certain characters, you may unlock AT: There are some stealth moments in
some possibilities in the future. In addition, the game, but not too much. Sometimes To what degree did the reception to that
the main hero in comparison to the Knight it’s required to act fast to defeat enemies, prototype drive Inmost forward?
is unable to attack, but each enemy can be while other enemies require some AT: It’s difficult to overestimate how
either killed with help of the environment preparations before facing them. We’re important positive feedback is for a
or other enemies, or kept alive, which also trying to create various situations in developer. When we started working
can affect the story itself. the game and don’t want to use stealth on a prototype, we were on the verge
too often. of emotional burnout. Every second I
Would you describe the game as a kind doubted what I was doing. My mood was
of pixel-art horror story? What kind of complexity can we expect changing from unlimited positivity to the
KE: It’s definitely got a spooky vibe. We’ve from Inmost’s puzzles? darkest depression. That was happening
been calling it an atmospheric puzzle- AT: We don’t want to make individual in- for weeks. It’s really hard to live in such a
platformer, which I think suits the game game tasks too complex, as we don’t want mode. But since I found how many people
well, as it certainly creates a mysterious the player to spend too much time around were rooting for the game at DevGAMM
and foreboding environment to explore. a specific situation. I remember playing [an and felt their support, I understood
Some people think that pixel-art games adventure] game as a child, and one of the that someone, somewhere, needs what
can’t be ‘scary’ or ‘creepy’ in the same way mini-games that had to be completed was we’re doing. Community support doesn’t
as games like Limbo or Silent Hill, but there something similar to Reversi. I was stuck allow us to give up, even in the most
are definitely some jumpy moments. on it for weeks – it was really frustrating! complicated situations.

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 Attract Mode
Interview

What tools have you used to Inmost pays homage to one

 of its key influences, Éric
develop Inmost? Chahi’s Another World, in
AT: I create art and animations in this scene. Fans of a certain
age will recognise the
Photoshop, while Andriy writes code in connection in an instant.
Visual Studio. Then we assemble these
elements together in Unity. We’re also
widely using Photoshop and Unity scripts animations, until there were none of the
that we wrote ourselves to simplify our original limitations left, just the general
routine, which significantly speeds up visual style and pixel art.
some important processes. Pixel art is of course a style very close
to our hearts at Chucklefish, so it was
Can you explain how you achieved the immediately a look that resonated with There’s combat and action in Inmost, but


game’s wonderful lighting? us and stood out as a game we wanted you’ll often defeat enemies through
indirect means: squashing them with
AT: Lighting in Inmost is artistic rather than to support. Another great aspect of pixel carts or trapping them in cages.
technological, and it takes a significant art in Inmost is how it plays with your
amount of time to set up lighting for imagination, providing the player with
each location. Each location is configured just enough information to highlight Is there a lasting feeling that you
manually, and we don’t use any lighting silhouettes and then allowing you to want players to walk away with after
sources at all. All the lighting in Inmost is a complete the image for yourself fully in finishing Inmost?
combination of small tricks, lots of sprites your mind. It’s especially interesting when AT: It’s funny you should ask that. I was
with additive blending, and a few hours of it comes to more atmospheric horror thinking a lot about this recently and
work on every single location! games – did you really just see what you there is something I really want to leave
think you saw…? the player with, long after they’ve finished
What’s your thinking behind the use Inmost, and that’s a wish to call their
of pixel art? Do you think it forces The smooth animation I saw in one parents or someone they love or who
players to look at your game world in a sequence, with the character swinging loves you, no matter what may have
different way? on a rope to avoid a shadowy monster, happened in the past. I want players to
KE: Initially, the Hidden Layer Games team immediately made me think of Another remember that we should never forget the
wanted to make a very retro game, with World. Was that game an influence? ones who love us.
two-frame animations and a restrictive AT: Sure! I’m a big fan of retro video
four-colour palette in a pixel art style, games – Another World and Flashback Inmost is due for release on PC and
but they found it a little too limiting. were my main sources of inspiration for Nintendo Switch later in 2019.
They started experimenting with the style, mechanics of movement and characters’
adding in more colours into the palette, animations. Animation is what I pay
gradients, and smoother and longer specific attention to. At the moment, the
three main characters have more than 250 HIDDEN ORIGINS
It’s the small animated details that hit hardest, animations alone. In addition to Another In a vague echo of Inmost’ s characters,


like a little girl playing with a ball, or the rain the designers behind the game were once
falling softly among the trees.
World and Flashback, other games I was
heavily influenced by are Limbo, To The separated by space, before events – and
Moon, and the Dizzy series. I tried to take their mutual love of game design – forced
them together. “Originally, they both worked
the elements I love the most from each
remotely,” Chucklefish’s Katy Ellis explains.
of these titles. It’s interesting that many
“Andriy was from Kyiv in Ukraine, and Alexey
people write that Inmost has a Heart of from a small Russian mining town called
Darkness and Hollow Knight vibe, but I only Zverevo. However, due to tense political
discovered these games significantly after situations between the two countries, they both
we started working on Inmost – although had to relocate to Lithuania in 2016, in order to
I’m very flattered by such a comparison. be able to continue working together.”

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Early Access

Psycho thriller
Developer Luis Antonio tells us all about his
suspenseful time-loop thriller, 12 Minutes

S
ometimes, a game concept doesn’t the concept, the more it naturally became an
Info

GENRE
Adventure truly coalesce until its scope is interactive thriller.”
FORMAT
reduced and all the extraneous Antonio describes 12 Minutes’ early stages of
PC / XBO parts are carved away. Such is development as “extremely slow, but rewarding”,
DEVELOPER the process that Portuguese partly because he was teaching himself to
Luis Antonio developer Luis Antonio went through in the program, and partly because he was still working
PUBLISHER early development of 12 Minutes, a time- as an artist on Jonathan Blow’s indie gem,
Annapurna loop adventure laced with the suspense of The Witness. “Prototyping was very free-form,
Interactive a Hitchcock thriller. At first, 12 Minutes was a and a lot of the work was more thinking than
RELEASE 3D open-world game, in which the player had producing, so it was actually useful that I didn’t
2020
a full 24 hours to explore a city and talk to have that much time to be sitting to work on
its inhabitants; gradually, however, Antonio it,” Antonio adds. “It allowed me to go from the
began to scale down the scope of the game, original [concept] to the more constrained but
 lthough mostly viewed from
A from multiple locations to just one cramped complex version we have now.”


above, the perspective will

shift at key moments. apartment, and from a day-long loop to one The resulting game is disturbingly stark.
lasting less than a quarter of an hour. A married couple’s quiet evening is interrupted
“It started with the desire to explore the time- by the arrival of a man claiming to be a police
loop concept without any preconceived ideas of officer, who violently attacks the pair; in the
what it would be,” Antonio tells us of the game’s struggle, the attacker murders the wife and
initial prototypes. “I knew I wanted to stay away knocks the husband unconscious. When the
from a ‘video gaming’ experience in the classic husband comes to, he finds himself back at the
context, and make something more serious that start of the time loop twelve minutes earlier, the
would require a clear emotional investment sound of the police officer accusing his wife of
from the player, and so the further I went into murder still ringing in his ears. Cast in the role of
the husband, it’s the player’s task to use those
“ The two main aspects left to do are motion
twelve minutes carefully, picking up clues around


capture and voice-acting,” Antonio says of the apartment and talking to the protagonist’s
the game’s last few months’ development.
wife in the hope of altering their dismal fate.
Antonio willingly cites Hitchcock’s Rear
Window as an inspiration for 12 Minutes’
thriller plot, but there’s also hints of director
Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Kubrick’s The
Shining, and, of course, Harold Ramis’ Groundhog
Day woven into its fabric, too. Even the top-
down perspective adds to the game’s cinematic

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

 lthough it began as a solo project,

A


Antonio’s amassed a small team of

collaborators, including What Remains of
Edith Finch story consultant, Stephen Bell.

overtones, with the unsettling god’s eye view “When I started, I never expected it would
recalling a similarly grisly murder scene from the become so movie-like,” Antonio says. “I tried
classic Psycho; for Antonio, though, his choice of to avoid having dialogues for as long as
viewpoint was also made for practical reasons. possible since I don’t like deciding what the
“The main reason for the top-down player is allowed or not allowed to say. In the
perspective was accessibility,” he says. early versions, the interactions between
“The characters are always moving on a single characters were only in service of the time-loop
plane, and that allows the player to avoid requirements, but as those got figured out,
having to deal with I realised there was a FINDING TIME
camera controls and 3D “When I started, I never lot more room to delve Like so many aspects of 12
navigation. It also has the into the characters, and Minutes ’ design, the duration
expected it would of its time loop came
added benefit of hiding the drama side of it
the character faces, so we become so movie-like” emerged naturally.”
about through a process
of experimentation and
don’t have to deal with One of Antonio and refinement. “I just kept cutting
facial animation and expressions, and allows the Annapurna’s masterstrokes was the game’s out all the unnecessary
clutter and noise in order
player to mentally visualise the character faces, reveal trailer, which emerged in June. Succinctly
to find the shortest amount
making it more personal in an eerie way.” distilling the game’s setting and premise into a required for the loop to work
The sense of eeriness has only grown since lean two minutes, it also leaves us hankering for with what I wanted it to do for
publisher Annapurna Interactive arrived on the answers to its mysteries. Is the wife really the characters and themes,”
the scene midway through development. With a murderer? Is the cop really a cop? Just how Antonio tells us. “That ended
up being around twelve
the help of their financing, the game’s earlier can the protagonist escape his cycle of terror? minutes, and since there’s
builds have visibly flourished: backgrounds and Agonisingly, we’ll have to wait until next year to quite a bit of meaning to that
character models are more detailed, the use see how Antonio’s thriller plays out. number, I kept it.”
of light and long shadows is more dramatic
and noir-ish. “They helped remove the two
biggest obstacles that were causing me a lot
of stress: time and money,” Antonio says of
his publisher’s backing. “I can now focus 100
percent on the creative side of things. They
also have a lot of knowledge on the film side of
things, which helps a lot for this specific project.
The last year was focused on the characters’
emotional journey and how that is expressed
through voice acting and animation, and they
have provided a lot of support to make it the
best it can be.”
From its beginnings six years ago, 12 Minutes
has therefore reduced in scope but steadily
increased in detail; ahead of its planned launch
next year, the game still has motion-captured
performances to complete, as well as an
evolving script to record with voice actors.

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Early Access

OK Computer  kip to the end – well,

S


maybe not. But you’re not
meant to watch everything.

Lizi Atwood tells us her story of working on Sam Barlow’s

ambitious non-linear FMV thriller, Telling Lies

J
ust like in film, it’s easy to fall into The story and vision is all Barlow’s, but the
Info

GENRE
Investigative thriller the cult of the auteur in video ambitious scale made more hands on deck
FORMAT
games and forget there are whole a prerequisite. Publisher Annapurna Interactive’s
PC / Mac / iOS other teams or individuals making background in film production was instrumental
DEVELOPER it happen behind the curtain. in casting actors hailing from Hollywood and TV
Furious Bee / Of course, when Sam Barlow made Her Story, like X-Men, Halt and Catch Fire, and Westworld.
Sam Barlow the non-linear detective game that brought This is also a contemporary story with modern
PUBLISHER FMV back into respectability, it had really been technology, meaning a nostalgic return to
Annapurna a solo project, at least for the Steam and iOS Windows 95 wasn’t an option, so as well as
Interactive
releases. But when it came to bringing the game coding the game and putting the hours of video
RELEASE
to Android, he sought outside help. footage together, Furious Bee was tasked with
2019
“Sam asked for me to do some bug fixes building a functioning OS desktop that players
on the iOS version at first,” says Lizi Atwood, would be spending a lot of time in front of.
technical director at Furious Bee. “I did some “I had quite a lot of influence in the design
fixes, and then he said, ‘Do you want to do the during that process – the first pass went in
Android port?’, so I did the Android port for him. without any guidance, really,” says Atwood.
By then, he was like, ‘Well, you know, you may as The UI looks indistinguishable from a real
well do the next game too.’” desktop, including a battery icon that might
 he desktop OS makes use of
T That next game is Telling Lies, which returns catch some people out – it’s reading 100% by


dark mode, which makes the

reflection pop even better.
to Her Story’s search engine-style investigation the time Atwood has finished showing me the
of video clips to try to parse the story and find game, though in actual fact her laptop is almost
the truth, only this time with multiple characters out of battery. Fortunately, she’s also able to
spanning different time zones over two years. show the game running on iOS, the icons looking
a bit bigger to feel better on a phone, but
otherwise retaining the conceit that it’s taking
place behind a desktop.
Adding to that immersion is the woman
you can see reflecting back from the screen,
essentially FMV superimposed onto the image,
and still present when you’re watching other
clips. “There’s two FMV games,” Atwood laughs.
“I started by taking footage of myself to put in,
to show that a reflection could be done in video,
and it would be way more realistic than you
could achieve in CG.”

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

 he game is being localised into multiple languages – so

T


ensuring words don’t get mistranslated or appear too

early in another search is going to be challenging.

Who this woman is and what exactly she’s

searching for, however, remains a complete
mystery, and Atwood is at pains to keep a lid on  Play into the late hours and you
any story details or character names. Whereas at might hear the sound of the bins
being taken out or birds chirping.
least with Her Story, the player was aware there
was a murder investigation, the only background
you have in Telling Lies is that you’ve obtained a ultimately no way of finding out how much
stolen NSA hard drive containing hours of video footage there is that you haven’t seen.
footage, and it’s up to you to work out how the What you will be able to do, thanks to a
lives of those you watch are linked. search history, and multiple bookmarking and
It’s very much been described as an open- tagging options, is piece the story together
world game except with text, so you can use through your own discoveries. Say, if you find
Retina (a program modelled after Tails, famously two individual clips that have the same date
used by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden) and time (bearing in mind that some characters
to search for video clips based on a word or are speaking in different time zones to each
consecutive words (it’s not quite Google though, other), with the exact same duration, then
so multiple keywords or more advanced search you’ll have successfully found both sides of a
techniques aren’t possible). That said, a modern single conversation. Initially you may have been
OS does allow for slicker inferring what was being
and more tactile ways to “It’s been described as said by the second party;
search for the truth. As a discovery like this will
an open-world game,
with Her Story, you’ll only open up the truth – and
be provided with the first except with text” further investigations.
five results of a search “You can watch this
in chronological order, so are encouraged to footage in any order you want, but even if you
narrow things down, but the video will play from do watch it close to the end, you won’t have
the point the keyword is used, while also time- the context to understand it at that point,”
stamping any other moments it’s used. If you says Atwood. “So then you can go back to an
pick up on a keyword or phrase through your earlier clip, and then suddenly it takes on a
investigations, you can even just highlight the whole different meaning because of other
subtitles then go straight to search from there. things you’ve watched in between.” It won’t be CARDS AND
It’s also easy to scrub footage backwards and long until players can get their hands on this
forwards. With over ten hours of recordings at themselves, and just like the time shown on the
NOTEPADS
Telling Lies ’ desktop is
your fingertips, it means you don’t need to be top-right corner of the screen, it’s a mystery that
fundamentally used for
sitting through all of it. Nor is that the intention. will keep you playing late into the night. video searches, so it’s pretty
“Sam is not keen on people trying to 100% the sparse on icons or other
game – he’s perplexed that people did that in functionality – but that hasn’t
Her Story,” says Atwood, explaining that there’s stopped Furious Bee trying.
A basic version of Solitaire
is included as a way to blow
off steam should people find
 nderneath that smile,
U


can you tell if she’s lying? themselves stuck, and in fact

a fair few playtesters really
did just play Solitaire. There’s
also a convenient memo app,
so players can actually take
notes in-game. Apparently,
Barlow was conflicted
about this addition after
admitting he enjoyed seeing
hand-written notes taken
by Her Story players. That’s
technology for you.

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News

Headlines
from the virtual front

02

01

03
01. S
 witcher upper 02. N
 ot so Keen-oo
Two new models of Nintendo Switch Death Stranding almost featured
03. C
 an I Play
are on their way, though neither is Cyberpunk 2077 poster man Keanu With Fury
particularly life-changing. The less Reeves, creator Hideo Kojima has
interesting one is your regular mid-cycle revealed. Instead, the director-developer It’s not called Ion Maiden, stop calling it
upgrade for a piece of hardware, which went with his Super Best Friend, Mads Ion Maiden, but by crikey Ion Maiden was
will see the Switch’s battery life increase Mikkelsen, and the rest has been a a brilliant name and a hard one to shift
to around 4.5 to 9 hours depending on whirlwind tour of Twitter photos and from the mind. Which is probably a part
what you’re using it for, compared to friendship bracelets (that second part of the reason why the band Iron Maiden
the original model’s 2.5 to 6.5 hours. may be made up). launched legal action against 3D Realms
Same everything else, same price; the Kojima also found time to throw some and its retro-styled FPS, Ion Maiden.
machine launches later this year. shade on battle royale games, which A bit too close for naming-comfort,
More interestingly, Nintendo also does tick a few of our boxes, saying when Maiden demanded the other Maiden
announced the Switch Lite – smaller and he left Konami he could have gone on change, which 3D Realms has eventually
compact with no removable Joy-Cons, to “make a game where everyone is on complied with. Seems battling a massive
the tinier device is made to be used an island and shoots each other,” but metal band with huge coffers just isn’t
entirely in handheld mode. Dry your instead he wanted to challenge himself worth it. The shooter is now Ion Fury,
eyes, 3DS, you had a good run. It’s also to make something unique. Which is meaning the studio didn’t accept our
launching later this year, and will likely be fair: we’re still not entirely sure what suggestions of Metallicargh, MotorDead,
around the £200 mark. Death Stranding is. or MegaDeath: The Game.

Gearbox creative director wants The Porting to Stadia cost ‘not

Rock as Claptrap in Borderlands movie that high’, says Ubisoft

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News

04
All these stories
and more!
(we have more space
on the internet)
can be found over on
wfmag.cc

05

04. N
 o memes
for you
Devotion, the psychological horror game
05. O
 n two jet 06

from Red Candle Games, will not be planes 06. C

 artoon > Game
returning to Steam following its removal
for including a satirical meme comparing Big names at big studios no more, as > Cartoon
Chinese president Xi Jinping to Winnie two veterans announce their departures
the Pooh. After its release in February, from companies they’ve been fixtures A double-whammy of happiness for the
players discovered a scroll in the game at for either side of a quarter-century. makers of Cuphead has landed, with the
that apparently read ‘Xi Jinping Winnie Twenty-four years ago, Tim Willits joined intensely difficult platformer/shooter
the Pooh Moron’, resulting in Devotion id Software as a level designer but, – with its stunning old cartoon-style
being taken down and the developer before the big 25, he announced he’s animation – revealed to have sold over
being dropped by its publisher. leaving his current role of studio director. four million copies. That’s just one bit of
Things haven’t taken a turn for the Elsewhere, one of Blizzard’s founding good news. The other thing is that Netflix
better, it seems, given that Devotion members is on his way after 28 years has picked up an animated series based
will remain unavailable until the dust at the studio. Frank Pearce, CDO at the on the game, which will be produced
has settled. A spokesperson for the Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo firm, using hand-drawn digital artwork, or
studio said: “While mediation is still in announced on the company blog his ‘tradigital’ art, if you want.
progress, Red Candle’s co-founders have time was up and his bags were packed. We can’t wait for the game based on
reached a unanimous decision to not His departure leaves Allen Adham as the the cartoon (based on the game, based
re‑release Devotion in the near term.” only remaining founder still at Blizzard. on an era of cartoons).

Xbox hardware revenue down 48%, StarCraft commentator Geoff

new gen can’t come soon enough ‘iNcontroL’ Robinson dies age 33

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

Deliver Us The Moon

If No Code’s superb Observation left you
hankering for yet more thrills set in space,
then Deliver Us The Moon could provide a
decent sci-fi fix. Set in a future where our
planet relies on the moon’s resources for
survival, you play an astronaut tasked with
heading to the lunar colony to discover why
the power has mysteriously gone out. Where is
everyone? Are pesky aliens involved somehow?
Those mysteries and more await, as Deliver Us
The Moon primes for launch later this year.
Underflow
Here’s an upcoming real-time strategy game
with an aquatic theme and some seriously
Cornflake Crisis psychedelic visuals. You command an army of
nanobots on a mission to destroy all opposing
There’s lots to like about this self-consciously tiny machines and take over an alien ocean.
zany platformer from developer Mike Laraman, Defeated nanobots can be repaired and added
but we also happen to enjoy its trailer, which to your cause until you’ve amassed a mighty
is by turns cheeky and disarmingly honest. horde capable of Zerg Rushing enemy bases
“My friend Kevin’s doing the music,” one blurb into submission.
reads. “It’s really good.” “This bit’s not finished
yet,” concedes another. “Cheaper than a
boat,” pledges a third. As the title suggests,
Cornflake Crisis’s characters are all morsels of
toasted maize, each with their own abilities
and corresponding outfits. The mix of traversal
and collecting things looks familiar enough, but
we’re definitely beguiled by its presentation.
One stage sees you meet an edible-looking
dinosaur who growls, “I’m aggressively unhappy
about my inability to form meaningful personal
relationships.” Wonderful.

Utopia Syndrome
Developer Andrew Averkin is a 3D artist by
training, which explains why every inch of Utopia
Syndrome’s shadowy world is full of grimy detail.
A point-and-click adventure set in what appears
to be a post-apocalyptic industrial complex, it
sees a lone protagonist hunting for clues and
uncovering “mysterious parallel storylines.”

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Early Access

Airborne Kingdom
Bossa Studios’ similarly themed MMO sadly shuffled
off this mortal coil earlier this year, so if you’re looking
for another game that allows you to build fantastical
machines in the sky, then Airborne Kingdom is worth a
look. The emphasis here is more firmly on city building
and management, though, and there’s also a pleasingly
utopian angle to its premise. As you hover above a
desert world, steadily customising and growing your
city, you gradually attract new citizens from the tribal
communities living below. The studio behind Airborne
Kingdom, The Wandering Band, consists of former
developers at the now defunct Visceral – among them
Ben Wander, who made last year’s indie adventure, A Case
of Distrust. With a pedigree like that, we’re looking forward
to finding out more about their Laputa simulator as its
development progresses.
Lord Winklebottom
Investigates
It’s a point-and-click detective game, except Project Genesis
the detective’s a frightfully British giraffe
investigating the murder of his friend, an axolotl This space-faring epic promises a heady mix of ship-
named Admiral Gilfrey. Expect lots of pipe- to-ship combat and first-person shooting action, with
smoking and clue-following between cups of Seattle-based developer 8 Circuit Studios saying there’ll
milky Earl Grey tea when Lord Winklebottom be a “seamless” transition between the two gameplay
Investigates unleashes its surreal 1920s world pillars. The studio also bills Project Genesis as “an evolution
next spring. in blockchain gaming,” with the technology purportedly
being used to create an online ‘metaverse’ where players
can move characters and items they’ve built up from
game to game. This latter idea seems a bit too ambitious
for its own good right now, but a mash-up of third-person
spaceship destruction and first-person laser battles?
We like the sound of that part.

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Shadow’s Edge

Shadow’s
Edge redefining
the good that
gaming can do
How two women built a game to help young people
through the toughest times in their lives
WRITTEN BY HARRY SLATER

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Shadow’s Edge

V
ideo games have always been
about conflict. From the
medium’s birth, the focus has
been on destruction rather
than creation; on catharsis
through violence in one form
or another. But there are also
games designed to help with some
of the most difficult aspects of being
human – games that use the technology
in ways that aren’t about strength
or oppression, but about hope and
healing. Shadow’s Edge is one of those.
Shadow’s Edge is designed to help
teens and young adults come to
terms with being diagnosed with
a life-changing illness. The city in
Shadow’s Edge is a morphing, ever-
changing place – one that develops
with the actions of the player. It’s a
game built around private thought and
public expression, made with the help of
therapists and teenagers. The story behind
it, and the stories of the people who
play and make it, are as moving as they
are intriguing.
There’s something about Rosemary
Lokhorst, producer and writer on the
game, that makes you want to listen to
her. She’s animated but never over the
top, intelligent but always open. Her story
before Shadow’s Edge involves some of the
biggest technology companies in the world
– Microsoft, HP, Siemens – but there’s the
sense that Shadow’s Edge is a project she’s
more than just passionate about.

GIVING KIDS A VOICE

“Shadow’s Edge is specifically designed to
help teens and young adults that have
chronic illnesses develop emotional
 he different stages of decay
T strength while they’re going through the


in the game’s city represent

different stages of coping hard stuff that comes their way,” Lokhorst
with a diagnosis. explains. “The idea is that it’s a game,
because that’s where teens are – they’re
on their mobile phones playing games –
but it’s not meant to distract them from
what they’re going through. It’s meant

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Shadow’s Edge

to help them really come to terms with at teens. And I said if you want to do that,
their feelings and understand themselves I think you should make a game, and I think
and their reactions better – it gives them you should do it on mobiles, because that’s
a voice.” the device they have in hand most, so it’ll
Lokhorst’s route to this point is a be most natural to them.”
circuitous one. Taking a sabbatical from After that, things started to move much
work to focus on writing, it was at the New quicker. According to Lokhorst, a lot of
York Film School in Los Angeles where that’s down to Sobrato Brisson. “We had to
Shadow’s Edge started to take shape. fill in the blanks, hire a developer, because
 haring your diary with
S
While there, she was invited for dinner I’d never developed a game – I’d developed


other players is optional;

some have found it helps. with a colleague from another project software, so it wasn’t too far off, but we did
she’d been working on – that colleague need to find specialists. Fortunately, Sheri
is the husband of Sheri Sobrato Brisson, is a formidable lady. She had brain cancer
a philanthropist and author who’d also when she was a teen – around 19. She was
survived a brain tumour. It was a book that given a ten percent chance of survival.
Sobrato Brisson had written that sparked 35 years later, she’s still here. Ever since,
Shadowgram the idea that would become Shadow’s Edge. she’s made it her mission to really come to
Within Shadow’s Edge, players Says Lokhorst: “Sheri was talking about terms with what people with illnesses are
can share the art they create on her project, Digging Deep. The book takes going through, because she knows what
an internal social network. It’s questions that are usually asked in therapy it’s like. Most of the projects we do in that
part of the community-building
and makes them more palatable. I bought space are self-funded, meaning she puts
that’s so important for Lokhorst.
the book, and I looked at it and said, ‘This up a lot of the money.”
“The game is one part, but we
have the community too, which
is really cool, how can I help?’. Sheri said
we call Shadowgram. We want she wanted to digitise it, and she was FOR THEM AND BY THEM
to make sure that teens have a thinking about maybe an audiobook or Shadow’s Edge is as much a labour of love
place to go to where they can a scrapbook, at which point I asked her as it is a tool for helping those who need
see and think about what others who she was trying to reach. She told me it most. The lack of that commercial need
do, and be inspired by them and the book has been distributed 35,000 has turned it into something that might
comforted by them. They can times and used in over 200 hospitals have the shape of the games we know
also have their own voice and already. She noticed that every once in a and understand, but its core mission isn’t
put stuff out there in a place that
while there’d be 15- or 17-year-olds using to earn but to help. It was the team’s goal
is not judgmental.”
the book. She wanted to do something from the start to make sure that not only
for teens because there’s nothing out was Shadow’s Edge going to feel welcoming
there for them, there’s no tools targeted to its players, it was going to be built with
direct input from them.
“It’s an awkward space,” Lokhorst tells
me, “because if you’re a teen, your brain
is forming, you’re changing, trying to find
a space in the world, and then something
nasty like a disease or a trauma or a
disability comes your way and everything
that you thought is completely disrupted.
It’s tough for them, and the chemicals in
their brain are different, their hormones
are just starting to go, and so all of that
doesn’t really help the fact that they now
have to deal with this illness.”
It was clear to everyone involved that
 he team creating
T one of the keys to the game’s success was


some real-life graffiti.

going to be control – not in the traditional
sense, about what the buttons do, but in

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Shadow’s Edge

 he development
T


team is small, but

incredibly passionate.

the sense that stability and commonality

are thrown out of the window when a
catastrophe hits.
“A lot of the time these teens don’t Digging deeper
have control over their disease,” Lokhurst Where other games about illness are often shallow, Lokhorst
continues. “It’s not like they can make wanted to ensure that Shadow’s Edge offered a much more
some of these decisions – their parents will enduring experience. “We saw a couple of games that had
make them for them. They feel like they’re you attacking your illness, like shooting your cancer, which
out of control, like they have no future, make you feel a little bit better at the beginning. But we
like they have nowhere to go. And that’s wanted to make something that has a longer impact – give
the teens the tools to reflect upon themselves, give them
really what we wanted to do – give them a
the tools to come to terms with what they go through, to dig
place to go. From the very first rung of the
deeper, if you will.”
development process, we involved teens  obrato Brisson and
S


that had illnesses. We often get asked ‘is Lokhorst started the
project after a chance
this specifically for cancer patients?’, and dinner meeting. play it like that.’ From the first concept, it’s
no it isn’t. changed quite a lot – the world changed
“The idea isn’t to put everyone in one from fantasy to more realistic and urban,
bucket. We’re not saying that every disease the characters changed – everything we
is the same and everyone goes through had them select had to be a metaphor.
the exact same things, but there are The metaphors and the characters,
similarities. If something happens in your they’re all based on the lived experience
life, it’s a disruption to how you’ve been of patients that we worked with, either
– generally in the beginning people don’t during the game-building or with Sheri’s
want to know about it, or they just keep experience in counselling. All of that lends
going as they are, try to muddle through. authenticity to the emotional process that
And we wanted these teens to be able to players are going through with the game.”
talk about those similarities. From the very Emotion and metaphor are two
start, we included various different types of the driving ideas behind Shadow’s
of illnesses, and asked teens with those Edge, and they’re used to great effect.
diseases to help us make this game. That The development team worked with
was really rewarding to see, because this is psychologists to break up the stages of
a game we’ve built for them – it shouldn’t grief, paring them down to just three –
work for us, it should work for them.” disruption, disillusionment, and discovery
That ethos isn’t just the player-first  fter a successful
A – each representing a step in the process


career in tech,
approach sometimes spouted to hype up Lokhorst was looking of coming to terms with being diagnosed
a game’s launch. The ‘kids’, as Lokhorst for a more creative with an illness.
outlet for her talents.
often affectionately calls Shadow’s Edge’s As players work their way through the
players, have been an intrinsic part of game, things begin to change. During the
the development process. “There were a first stage, the city is storm-blasted and
couple of things in the beginning where wrecked, and the character you’re talking
we thought this is how the game should to scrambles to continue her normal life in
work, and the teens said ‘No, we wouldn’t the ruins. The tone darkens, and talking 

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Shadow’s Edge

Storytelling part of the game to themselves. We started

The game’s changing nature was enshrined from the start
to think more about how we could
of its development. Not simply for aesthetic reasons,
but because the narratives of the players change the more separate the personal diary but still give
they play. “We believe that telling your narrative is very players that graffiti idea and that writing
important in the healing process,” Lokhorst says. “Every time on the wall idea. Writing in your diary is
you tell your story, you tell it a little bit differently, because private, it’s in your own personal space, no
 rt is a fundamental
A


you’re starting to reflect. You’re starting to accept the part of the Shadow’s one will see it unless you hand your phone
changes in your life, and starting to incorporate them as you Edge experience. to somebody. What you choose to share
tell them and as you live them.” with the world is much more expressive, it
can be literal writing on the wall or it can
be a drawing – we wanted it to be both.
to your guide becomes more difficult – she “We also know, from narrative therapy,
grows reluctant to share, withdrawing into that being able to build your own story,
herself. Finally, the city brightens, as the really create your own self by writing, can
player starts to come to terms with the be incredibly helpful. Art creation is also
realities of their diagnosis, whatever those very soothing and can help get things out
may be. there. Sometimes it can calm you down
“Everything there symbolises getting as well, depending on what mood you’re
on with your life,” Lokhorst says. ”Not just  he guardians are the
T in; doodling or drawing can just really


NPCs that players interact

moving on, but incorporating what you’ve with in the game. help you out. It’s a little bit nicer to share
learned and what you’ve experienced into with others if it looks cool and different.
who you are now. And realising that your It doesn’t have to be an artistic A+, but
life can still be beautiful, even with the that’s the nice thing about graffiti – it can
conditions that you have and even with the be done with stencils and stickers and it’s
way that you’ve changed.” still going to look cool.”
There’s also a creative element, with The idea for customisable avatars was
players able to leave their mark on their also dropped after feedback from young
city with graffiti tags. It’s another level of people. There’s a pressure inherent in
metaphor, one that adds a truly creative creating something to represent yourself,
aspect to the game. “The very first idea we so rather than adding to the list of weights
had, we wanted your story to be the writing a newly diagnosed patient can feel like
on the wall,” explains Lokhorst. “We chose they’re carrying, the team decided to have
graffiti for a number of reasons – it’s an NPC guide players through the game.
expressive, you can go a bit wild with it, but It then became something even more
it’s also real and raw. And that’s what we personal, with players seeing the world
wanted the kids to be able to be. We want through their own eyes.
them to be themselves – it’s OK not to be “Among the 200 kids helping us to
OK, it’s OK to be angry – it doesn’t matter, develop the game, we had one or two kids
that’s not the point; the point is you are that wanted an avatar, but the others said
feeling, and those feelings are valid.” no because an avatar is pressure as well –
That idea evolved over time – there’s you customise it and it becomes who you
still graffiti in the game, but there’s also a are in the game. Being in a first-person
personal diary that remains private to the view and then writing your diaries feels
player who’s writing it. much more like the experience is part of
yourself rather than playing a role. We did
EXPRESSION about 40 or 45 different surveys, from over
“We believed that graffiti was a really nice 300 teens and young adults, and it was
way to express all of that stuff that players fantastic and humbling how they wanted
normally wouldn’t,” Lokhorst explains. to help us.”
“It then evolved into the teens repeatedly Shadow’s Edge is different from other
saying that they wanted to keep the diary games that have tried to tackle illness,

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Shadow’s Edge

list. The team is talking about new versions

of the main game as well, designed
specifically for sufferers of certain illnesses,
and a version for siblings, helping them  any of the messages
M


are filled with hope
through the diagnosis of a brother or for the future.
sister, could be on the way.
“In the far future there might be only one
Shadow’s Edge,” says Lokhorst, “but it might
be an AI version where, depending on what
you click and what you answer, you might
get fed different answers, instead of us
 eens and young adults
T making a version of Shadow’s Edge for one


were involved in the

development process thing and a version of it for another.”
from the start.

UNDERSTANDING AND EMPATHY

because it’s not about overcoming Lokhorst’s big hope is getting the game
anything. That’s something deeply FDA-approved, allowing it to become
personal to Lokhorst, who’s battled with an an official tool used in conjunction with
autoimmune disease for 20 years. “There’s therapists to help children and young
nothing I can do about it. I can take adults through some of the most difficult
whatever medication, I’ve searched for the parts of their lives.
last 20 years and there’s nothing that can And in all honesty, you wouldn’t put
be done about it. And so for me to then it past her. There isn’t just a drive to
try and make a game that would somehow everything that Lokhorst says – there’s
overcome that doesn’t really work.” compassion as well. When she talks, you’re
swept up in her vision of a better world,
A STORY FOR US ALL shown for a brief moment that, amidst all
The game isn’t just Lokhorst’s story, or the horrors that have surrounded gaming
Sobrato Brisson’s; it’s as much a part of the in recent years, there’s still a place for
people who play it as the people who built genuine people to do things that matter.
it. Says Lokhorst: “One of the kids said, ‘The And Shadow’s Edge does matter: right here
game helped me recognise things about and now, it’s changing lives for the better.
myself that I didn’t know. Positive things.’ The world needs more games like Shadow’s
And this was a girl who’s been living with Edge, more people like Rosemary Lokhorst.
depression – she’s 19, and she’d been It needs hope and love and kindness, but
living with depression for six years. If that’s more than that, it needs understanding
the thing we can do with our game, where and empathy – and those are the twin
we really make people realise something pillars of Shadow’s Edge.
about themselves, then I think that’s what “One important thing is that Shadow’s
we do differently, and more successfully, Edge isn’t meant to be a distraction, it’s
than other games where you’re just trying meant to be something that can help,”
to overcome an obstacle or raise some Lokhorst says as the interview comes to
awareness about what it’s like to be ill.” a close. “It’s a game, because we believe
The story of Shadow’s Edge is far from that having something entertaining makes
over. While it’s out now, there’s still work it more palatable. There are messages
to be done. The next steps for the project out there about how to deal with certain
involve incorporating new technologies – things, and how there’s hope in the world,
an AR or VR companion app that lets young and that’s what we wanted for Shadow’s
adults decorate their hospital rooms, or Edge. If we can help one kid, then it’s
create art shows using the images they’ve already worth the tears and the pain and
created in-game is high on Lokhorst’s to-do the cost to us.”

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Interactive

Interactive
Alien Escape
Kim Seitner tells us all about his brain-teasing,
world-rotating platform game, Alien Escape

S
ome of the greatest games ever spikes are joined by crates that, depending on
made have emerged from breaking how clumsy you are, will either crush the hero
the established rules of a given like a falling anvil, or drop down to form a useful
Are you a solo genre. With Lemmings, DMA bridge. There are also keys to collect, fellow aliens
developer working
essentially created a platformer to rescue, and bonuses awarded for completing
on a game you
want to share with where the player has no control over the stages in as few rotations as possible.
Wireframe? If you’d characters moving around on the screen; all It’s the kind of game whose difficulty sort of
like to have your they can do is use barriers, bridges, pick-axes, creeps up on you; after the first dozen stages
project featured in
these pages, get and other tools to help coax the creatures in or so, the frequency of grisly deaths gradually
in touch with us at the right direction. Similarly, Capcom’s Bionic increases to Super Meat Boy levels. For Seitner,
wfmag.cc/hello Commando up-ended platformer convention by getting the balance of these levels just right –
switching the ability to so that the challenge
jump with a grappling “Bringing everything escalates rather than
hook – thus creating hits the player with
a mechanic we’re still
together took so much demoralising spikes –
happily playing around longer than expected” was a key part of Alien
with decades later. Escape’s development.
Alien Escape, created by German student Kim “It was a constant swapping of levels back
Seitner at NoFuel Games, takes a similarly elastic and forth,” he tells us. “Luckily, I have three little
approach to genre conventions. It’s a platform brothers who were involved many times in game
puzzler where, with a press of the left and right testing. Having the exact right difficulty of a level
shoulder buttons, levels have to be rotated was something which was really important. A lot
this way and that to guide a fragile alien to the of game testing was needed to see which levels
exit. It’s a little like Tsutomu Kouno’s wonderful were working and which not.”
LocoRoco, but transferred to a more compact Alien Escape began as one of Seitner’s earliest
puzzler where each stage takes place on a single design experiments while he was studying
screen. Early levels require little more than a programming at university. The seed for its
few spins left and right to guide the alien past world-rotating mechanic was first planted
some spikes and on to freedom; soon, though, when a friend showed Seitner Fez – Phil Fish’s

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Interactive

Alien Escape was created with a mixture of



GameMaker, Photoshop, and Aseprite.

 eitner cleverly plays with his own rules in

S


some stages, such as here, where honey

allows you to defy gravity and stick to walls.

GRAVITY RUSH
In the process of designing
Alien Escape, Seitner quickly
 he complexity and sheer number of hazards steadily
T realised that it was vital to


increases over each of Alien Escape ’s 72 levels. tune the earliest levels so
that players have time to get
to grip with the game’s rules.
 hrough careful rotation, crates can be moved into place
T


and used as platforms. Get the timing wrong, and they’ll “The most important rooms
2012 platformer in which a 2D landscape can also crush you to death. are the first ten,” Seitner tells
be rotated in 3D space. Inspired by what he us. “This is where the player
saw, Seitner began thinking about a puzzler slowly gets a feeling for how
where levels could be rotated clockwise and The most challenging part of development the rotation gravity mechanic
works. I realised that a lot of
anticlockwise in 90-degree increments. “I tried came at the end, as Seitner began work on
people had trouble imagining
the room rotating mechanic, and I realised it’s Alien Escape’s release on Nintendo Switch; a how they had to change the
kind of fun,” Seitner says. “I also realised that it last-minute bout of polishing and bug-fixing gravity to get to the goal.
had a lot of potential to combine the mechanic meant that its planned launch in June had to be So the first levels are built in
such a way that they’re very
with other elements to interact with, and make a pushed back by two weeks. “The hardest part
simple, with elements placed
challenging puzzle game out of it.” for me were the last two months,” says Seitner. on specific spots to make it
“Bringing everything together took so much as easy as possible for the
IN A SPIN longer than expected and was really debilitating. user to understand which next
From there, development on Alien Escape took I learned how important it is to get a balance move could be the right one.”
After that, the rest of Alien
three long years, as Seitner worked on the game between studying, working on the game, and
Escape ’s 72 levels quickly
in-between his studies and steadily built up his having some time for myself.” increase the likelihood of
coding and design skills. Inevitably, crafting those Despite these setbacks, though, Seitner’s sudden, repeated deaths...
increasingly intricate levels also took a long time, achieved something pretty remarkable with Alien
with initial ideas sketched out on paper, and the Escape: developed a deviously tricky game and,
player’s path through the obstacles essentially with the help of German indie publisher Korion,
worked out backwards. got it on both Steam and Nintendo’s coveted
“Every time I created a level or came up eShop. Spurred on by that success, Seitner’s
with a new game element to interact with, now working on his next project – and even has
I first thought about which rotations would be a few ideas for expanding Alien Escape further.
necessary to solve the room and how,” Seitner “I’m working on some smaller games right now,”
explains. “For example, if a level can be solved Seitner tells us. “Also, an online multiplayer
with a minimum of ten rotations, I imagined how brawler together with Korion, called Ninstar.
the two final rotations would be and afterwards For Alien Escape, it would be awesome to add a
built the other needed turns around them. second player mode or a few new mechanics.
So it was like building the level from the end to Or, even better, a sequel! But first, let’s see how
the start.” people like [the original] Alien Escape.”

wfmag.cc \ 25
 Interface
Column

Building runways
to release

B
ack at my first games job in
2014, devs would approach our
marketing agency with just a month
– or worse, a week – before launch
and ask us what we could do for
their game. The answer was virtually nothing
– at least nothing that would get them results.
Admittedly, the runway games needed for a
HALEY UYRUS successful launch was a bit shorter five years ago
Haley Uyrus is the than it is today. Back then, it was still conceivable
Marketing and that an indie game could launch six months after
Communications
Manager at Mediatonic. its announcement and succeed. But with the
Before joining their marketplace now becoming more crowded every Not all indie developers can define a genre, as PUBG did,
ranks she worked at


Failbetter Games on
day, this kind of short build-up would be nearly but nurturing your community and building partnerships
can help improve your game’s chances of success.
titles such as Sunless impossible, especially for a new studio without a
Skies, Sunless Sea, and well-known name or IP.
Fallen London.
Instead, that runway now looks like a year – Luck really means hitting the right game at
sometimes even two or three – for indie devs. the right time, but within the category of luck are
According to a PC Gamer news story published games that popularise new genres (think PUBG)
in January, half of Steam’s 30,000 games were or do something so special and unique with
released over the last two years, making visibility their IP or mechanics (Cuphead) that audiences
one of the biggest marketing hurdles for eagerly take notice. It’s the wild card principle,
developers. A longer build-up to release doesn’t and it’s not easy to build into a reliable strategy.
guarantee success, either, and can just as easily The few games that hit the right place at the right
be a title’s downfall without consistent marketing time end up attracting platform partners, money,
and communication. and community more easily, too, which help to
It’s no longer possible to stick to the further their reach.
same marketing cycles of our predecessors. The more of the four categories you have
Instead, from the beginning, we must plot out in your marketing plan, the wider visibility
bigger, more strategic moves in order to gain and awareness for your game will spread.
a large enough portion of delicious eyeballs Similarly, whichever ones you can’t attain will
to turn a profit and continue making games. point to the areas of your marketing that will
Furthermore, the days when a developer can require extra elevation. If you don’t have tons
rely on a publisher for success are over. It’s of cash for advertising, you know you’ll need to
paramount to always have at least one person grow your own community, to carry awareness
on your internal team focused on marketing via word of mouth. If you don’t have a community
strategy and business goals throughout the or money, then you’ll need strong platform links
development cycle, even if you have external to gain extra eyes directly on store pages, and
“It’s no longer
help at the same time. if you don’t have any of those, you’ll need an
possible There are all sorts of creative ways developers extraordinary amount of luck.
to stick to and marketing strategists are carving out paths Hard work and traditional marketing activities
the same to the top of the charts. To simplify things, in shouldn’t be abandoned. Hard work is just a
2019, there are really four main ways indies much longer, slower road to success if you don’t
marketing
can reliably achieve commercial success (in this explore those additional strategic avenues.
cycles of our order): store and platform partnerships, money, Try to find the routes that will put you a few
predecessors” community, and luck. steps ahead.

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 Toolbox
Contents

Toolbox
The art, theory, and production of video games
28. Design Principles
The delicate art of
difficulty tuning

30. CityCraft
Ways to shape a post-
apocalyptic city

32. Coding Dizzy 3

The Oliver Twins on
squeezing the ZX Spectrum

38. Making Anew: Part 7

Tips for ensuring
crowdfunding success

40. Source Code

Code an arcade-style
continue screen

42. D
 irectory
Get free industry advice  he Oliver Twins dig into the programming
T


tricks used to squeeze Fantasy World Dizzy

with Ukie Hotline onto the ZX Spectrum – see page 32.

 ost-apocalyptic cities are

P


more than just smoking ruins.

Find out how to devise your own
on page 30.

wfmag.cc \ 27
 Toolbox
Advice

The principles
of game design
What is design innocence, and what does it have
to do with tuning your game? Howard explains all

AUTHOR
HOWARD SCOTT WARSHAW
Howard is a video game pioneer who authored
several of Atari’s most famous and infamous titles.
onceuponatari.com

R
EO Speedwagon was a popular adjust it towards a given goal? How well can you
rock group of the 1970s. empathise with the hypothetical experiences of
You know, before you were born. others? These are all skills.
In 1978 they released an album The amount of time you have also makes
entitled You Can Tune a Piano, but a big difference. I know that E.T. could have
You Can’t Tuna Fish. This title is printed just below been a very different game if I’d had more than
a picture of a tuna fish with a tuning fork in its five weeks to design it. Yars’ Revenge wound
mouth. This gets my vote for best album title up a very good game, but I had seven months
ever. I like it because it’s clever, it’s a pun, and it for that one. I also did Raiders of the Lost Ark.
makes an important point. If pianos are easy to That game presented a unique tuning challenge,
tune and fish are impossible, can you tuna which raises another critical factor in tunability:
video game? game type.
Where do video games fall on the spectrum For the purposes of this discussion, I’m
of tunability? This depends on several factors. going to reduce the entire world of gaming to
The first is who you are. Are you a gamer? two types – action and adventure. And the key
Do you have a sense of fun and insight into distinction is, adventure games require some
 re your game’s puzzles
A what creates fun? How is your sense of dynamic uncovering of secrets or special knowledge


satisfying to solve, or too reasoning? Spatial relation and timing? How well to complete. Action games simply exercise
obscure? The Secret Of
Monkey Island was a classic, can you assess an experience to know how to essential skill sets: you may need to practise,
partly thanks to its
fine-tuning.
but you don’t need secret knowledge to engage
or explore the game.
Let me be clear: tuning a video game is never
an easy or trivial exercise, but there’s a huge
difference between tuning an action game
and an adventure game. And the difference
is this: in an action game, the designer can
have the authentic play experience, just as
any other player would. This enables you to
get a very accurate read on game feel, ramp-
up, and difficulty. In an adventure game, the
designer can never have the player’s experience,
therefore they have no first-hand insight into
what that play experience is.
When you can’t actually play the game like
any other player, all the tuning decisions you
make are reduced to second-hand guesses

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 Toolbox
Advice

 complex game for its time, Raiders of

A


the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600 posed
some tuning challenges for Warshaw.

impediment to accurately tuning

adventure games is loss of
innocence. Which is rather funny
in light of my having cut my game
design teeth at Atari, where
innocence was in such short  he REO
T


Speedwagon album
supply, the idea of losing it wasn’t anywhere that inspired this
near as notable as finding it. article. There’s a track
on here called The
Adventure game tuning requires a skill which Unidentified Flying
and assumptions. This is a tremendous handicap is not widely reputed to be in the average Tuna Trot.

when it comes to assertively and knowledgeably programmer’s repertoire. This is a job for
tuning a game. There are no reliable signposts empathy. The onus falls on the developer
along the road. Nothing to hang my hat on as to be able to project, intuit, and ascertain
I’m making choices and creating or adjusting how challenging a given task will be for the
possibilities in the game. uninitiated. The only
It’s no secret that credible alternative is to Beasts within
“Tuning is where a video
secrets are the secret gain access to an endless How often does wildlife appear
game truly comes into in the creation of a game?
to designing adventure stream of fresh players Frequently. Most games
games. And the funny its own... or doesn’t” on which to experiment, feature a variety of avatars,
thing about secrets is and even then, how since players and opponents
their creators can never know what it’s like to representative is each player of the population need to be represented on
the screen. This gives us
solve them. All you can really do is guesstimate at large?
an opportunity to engage
the difficulty to the best of your ability and do Game design is tough enough, but tuning is with beings (both real and
consumer testing (something of which I’ve had where a video game truly comes into its own… fictional) that one rarely
quite a bit of experience). or doesn’t. The concept of an initial design gets to deal with in real life.
that just plays like a dream in its prototyping Consider Donkey Kong, Banjo-
Kazooie, Crash Bandicoot,
KEEPING SECRETS stage is just that – a concept. I’ve never seen it Spyro the Dragon, Bowser,
You see, secrets are like virginity: once you’re on realised. There’s an old saying, a plan is a basis and Pikachu, just to name a
the other side, there’s no looking back. Once you for change. A prototype is the implementation few. It also means you get to
attain an experience, it’s impossible to return to of the plan, but that is not where a game ends. be something you normally
aren’t, like the animal you may
an unknowing state. You can’t unlearn a secret In fact, unless you’re doing E.T. for the 2600, that
truly be. Don’t believe me?
– at least not without a lot of time or some really is where a game begins. And the road it travels Then answer this question:
intense drugs. And when you’re making video from that point on is called tuning. how do you feel about
games, that much time is definitely not available Tuning an adventure-style game takes taking on the persona of a
in a development schedule. And as for drugs, an incredible variety of skills and talents. hyperactive hedgehog?

well, that depends on the developer, of course. In the pantheon of video game development
But even so, drugs are unlikely to generate such activities, tuning an adventure-style game is
acute (and specific) short-term memory loss. the pinnacle, it’s the apex challenge, and it’s
(Important note: kids, don’t try this at home.) enough to take you to the edge and frequently
As the designer of an adventure-style game, over. It’s no place for innocence, but it is all
the key issue you’re dealing with isn’t really about purity of experience. Which, like REO
game mechanics or level layout. The major Speedwagon, totally rocks.

wfmag.cc \ 29
 Toolbox
Advice

CityCraft: Shaping
your post-apocalypse
Ways to imagine the structure, urbanism,
and life of your post-apocalyptic cityscapes

AUTHOR
KONSTANTINOS DIMOPOULOS
Konstantinos Dimopoulos is a game urbanist and designer, combining a PhD
in urban planning with video games. He is the author of the forthcoming Virtual
Cities atlas, designs game cities, and consults on their creation. game-cities.com

Z
ombies, droughts, floods, nuclear off in Metro 2033, before zombies roamed the
fallout, climate collapse, resource streets of the Walking Dead’s Atlanta, before
Failing exhaustion, meteor strikes, alien people abandoned Milton in The Long Dark,
Materials invasions, earthquakes, disease, and before S.T.A.L.K.E.R’s Pripyat got trapped
With time, things that aren’t famine, and good, old-fashioned in the Zone, these were all fully functional
maintained tend to crumble. warfare could all bring human civilisation to and liveable places – places that existed and
Concrete slowly turns to dust, near collapse. And as the post-apocalypse has developed long before they met their cruel fate.
iron rusts, glass windows
break, wooden beams bend,
long provided storytellers with lone survivor It’s important, then, to realise that the post-
dust blocks air ducts, copper fantasies, it’s also provided a popular backdrop apocalyptic versions of these cities were built
corrodes, and plaster cracks. for video games. directly on top of their former selves; in many
Temperatures, humidity, Handily for video game world-builders, the cases, on their ruins. These are all places with
biological factors such
post-apocalypse allows for the mixing and pre-existing histories, geographies, characters,
as insects, caustic gases,
earthquakes, pollution, matching of historical elements, technological and details.
flooding water, and fire are artefacts, architectural styles, and eras. What’s So, before the destruction, there has to
only some of the factors that more, its urban environments tend to be actually be a city to be destroyed. Its post-
can damage building materials, some of the eeriest and most evocative of the apocalyptic iteration will inherit many of its
collapse large constructions,
turn corporate towers into
medium; we humans are deeply moved by the historical characteristics, providing a layer of
empty, barely-standing husks, sight of a dead city. cohesiveness and realism. A pre-existing city
or twist bridges into grotesque could be completely imaginary, borrowed from
shapes. And as even plastic DESTROYING YOUR CITIES reality, or anything in between, but it should be
and steel can degrade under
Before Fallout 4’s Boston was devastated by war, planned through sketches, or a few descriptive
the right circumstances,
researching what might before Moscow’s subway tunnels were sealed paragraphs. A believable foundation with its
happen to your city’s materials surviving landmarks can set the town’s tone, and
after the apocalypse is a inform the new spatial relations of dilapidated
good idea. buildings, post-apocalyptic governance centres,
and forgotten functions.
Metro 2033, for example, replicates Moscow’s
 Frostpunk allows
players to ensure the stunning underground network, complete
survival of a brutal
industrialist society in
with all its art and architecture, providing a
the last city on Earth. very particular and believable sense of place.
The pre-war buildings and recognisable
landmarks still standing in Fallout 4 give its
version of Boston a unique atmosphere. As for
The Long Dark’s town of Milton, its fictional yet
entirely believable history goes back a century
before the apocalypse.

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 Toolbox
Advice

 s Steve Meretzky’s Superhero

A


League of Hoboken masterfully
showed, the apocalypse doesn’t
need to be grim.

 ost-apocalyptic settlements don’t

P


have to be huge to be interesting.

Pictured here, the town of Milton
Deciding on the way your city was destroyed from The Long Dark.
is another crucial factor in post-apocalyptic
design. Each type of disaster can have very
different effects on both the built environment new society occupying the devastated space.
and wider society. A virus or zombie plague Have people gone feral? Is there a democracy?
will mostly kill off humans, shattering the social An oligarchy of the powerful and most savage?
tissue but leaving constructions intact to slowly Has society perhaps evolved towards fairness,
rot, whereas a great flood would transfer human and embraced equality and direct democracy?
Nature
life to the upper sections of taller buildings, and Have new religions clouded minds, or has
make boats and bridges vital. Nuclear bombs everything collapsed into chaos?
Rampant
would leave behind ruins and mutants; a fire And what does everyday life look like? Pripyat, the almost utopian city
built for the staff of Chernobyl
in a medieval setting would leave smoking How is it organising its space? From the simple and abandoned after the
ashes and a few stone buildings, while severe things such as having access to water – it was nuclear disaster, is one of the
climate change would probably require drastic after all a failing water chip that kicked off few places on Earth we could
societal modifications. the Fallout series – and producing food to a describe as post-apocalyptic.
Interestingly it has effectively
When the apocalyptic working economy, some
been taken over by nature.
event occurred is another “Deciding the way your basics simply have to be The town and the area around
defining factor. A disaster put in place. Residence has it have evolved into a wildlife
city was destroyed is preserve, as the lack of human
two centuries ago would to be organised, and the
give time for societies to another crucial factor” size of populations decided. activity gave nature the space
it needed to go wild. Similarly,
at least partially rebuild, Designers must further many types of apocalyptic
and for older materials and edifices to further imagine popular pastimes and what people are events – especially those like
erode. A more recent event may find people still dying of, and try to plan urban space around viruses and plagues that are
in shock, and fires still burning. the needs and functions of their new society. almost exclusively aimed at
humans – could be followed by
Will we have new architecture and new planning
a return of the planet’s habitat
A NEW GEOGRAPHY paradigms? Have old buildings been adapted for to pre-industrial levels.
A few scattered ruins, an old building here, new uses? Did society preserve pre-apocalyptic
some scavengers there, and a house built of styles and modes, or is everyone just living
scrap-metal do not make a city. What world in ancient boathouses tied to the derelict
builders need to do is imagine a cohesive skyscrapers of yore? As ever, it’s questions like
The recognisable


new reality: a civic geography and an urban these that define the shape of a city. Boston of Fallout 4 is
as unsettling a virtual
organisation based on the ruins of the past. city as it is familiar.
They have to decide where the new downtown
will be, or if one will exist. They have to
think of living quarters, shopping areas, and
production capabilities, and decide whether new
settlements need defences.
They may even declare that parts of the
old city have survived, and now serve as the
new centre – just like the Strip in Fallout: New
Vegas. World builders will have to define the

wfmag.cc \ 31
 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

Squeezing the
ZX Spectrum Download
the code
from GitHub:
The Oliver Twins explain how they squeezed wfmag.cc/
wfmag19
Fantasy World Dizzy into just 41kB of memory

AUTHORS
PHILIP AND ANDREW OLIVER
The Oliver Twins have been making games since the
early eighties, and can now be found at their new
consultancy firm, Game Dragons. gamedragons.com

W
e were relatively late getting and door’ puzzles, but dressed up with lots of
our first ZX Spectrum. It was themes: for example, the Mucky Grease Gun that
October 1986 when David enabled a rusted mine-cart to be moved in order
Darling of Codemasters sent us to access a mine. There was a manhole cover
one, and suggested we convert blocking another route, which could be opened
our games from the Amstrad versions we were with a crowbar. At this time, Dizzy could only
creating at the time. Beginning with Ghost Hunters, pick up and drop a single item at a time, leading
we went on to create 17 Spectrum games over to some additional gameplay of figuring out the
the next five years, many of them bestsellers. optimum route and where best to leave items for
The most fondly remembered of those are the collection later.
Dizzy games. While Dizzy was slow to catch on, we
With Dizzy, we wanted to create a cartoon eventually produced a sequel, 1988’s Treasure
adventure where the player solved puzzles. Island Dizzy, with a new story and improved
Being fans of adventure games like Zork, we game mechanics. It was commercially successful,
 X Spectrum games took
Z
knew we needed an inventory and interesting, but there were lots of areas we wanted to


ages to load, but colourful

screens like this one kept logical puzzles. These were functionally still ‘key improve; so in the summer of 1989 we designed
players company for those
lonely minutes. Dizzy 3: Fantasy World Dizzy. We knew from
the outset this would be a hit, whatever was in
the box, but we wanted to make sure nobody
was disappointed. We also wanted to stretch
the Spectrum to its limits and make the best
possible Dizzy game.
We enhanced the inventory by having a
pop-up window selection system. We added
names to every location and added 30 coins to
collect; but most important was the story and the
introduction of a bunch of new characters, and
a lot of dialogue. There were 50 screens in all,
and the game took over 30 minutes to complete
if you knew what you were doing; but, like all
games at that time, if you lost all your lives, you
had to start over. Most players would play for
over 50 hours to beat the game. That’s quite a

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 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

THE ZX
 The Spectrum’s price point
helped bring gaming to the
SPECTRUM
eighties masses. The ZX Spectrum was an
affordable computer with
just 48kB of RAM and a
lot of entertainment for £2.99, and squeezed ‘rubber’ keyboard. It had
into just 41kB. blocky, low-resolution
Fantasy World Dizzy was met with critical and graphics, but it could plug
into a regular TV and used a
commercial success, and went on to sell over
cassette player for storage.
half a million copies, being converted to many
Its main processor was an
different computers; years later, it still has a cult data, plus another 768 bytes for the colour
8-bit Z80 running at 3.5MHz.
following. So how did we squeeze all that onto attributes, making a total of 6.6kB. After a few The screen resolution
the Spectrum? other system memory reserves, there was only was 256×192 pixels, and
41kB of RAM left for the game. supported eight colours, with
FIRST-GEN BEDROOM CODERS ‘colour attributes’ limited
We weren’t taught to code or make games; HEXADECIMAL AND BINARY to one foreground and one
we had to work everything out for ourselves. You’ll notice there’s an awful lot of counting in background colour per 8×8
There was no internet, and few books on the hexadecimal and working out in binary. The fact is character. This severely
limited what colours could
subject. We got ideas and inspiration from other the 8-bit language requires you to be constantly
be displayed and where, but
people’s games, either in arcades or on home thinking in these numbers. Everything relies on it,
it was efficient on memory
computers. We’d challenge ourselves to achieve and if you start thinking in these terms, you will
and improved the speed
as much as possible, but also gave ourselves self- write better code. of printing graphics to the
imposed, tight deadlines: we set ourselves the screen; it also led to the
challenge of creating one game a month. GRAPHICS distinctive appearance of the
Fantasy World Dizzy took about six weeks, We created the sprites (all the 2D graphic assets) computer’s games.
and we developed it first on the Amstrad and in our own ‘Panda Sprites’ utility, which we’d
then converted graphics and some routines to written and published on the Amstrad when we
the Spectrum. Since the Spectrum was similar were at school. We figured every hobbyist would
in many ways to the Amstrad and also based want to create games with animated sprites, and
on Z80, most of the game code was identical. went to great efforts to give the editor plenty of
The only differences were in the input routine features, even including rotation of sprites for
(reading keys) and output routines (display and people making top-down games. This feature
sound). This was our 17th (and last) game on the led to Dizzy doing his spinning jump. We spent
Spectrum; so, reusing code from other games, time creating flexible sprite printing routines that
the Spectrum version only took a day or two. people could put in their own games. We even
allowed them to write their games in BASIC, which
RAM was really easy to use. It was possibly the first
We ensured our games all ran on the 48K middleware for game creation.
Spectrum. The screen was 256 pixels (32 bytes) × Printing sprites on a Spectrum was interesting.
192 pixels, so a total of 6144 bytes for the bitmap As with the BBC B and Amstrad, the way the

wfmag.cc \ 33
 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

screen memory is laid out but also coming up with advanced techniques to
is odd (see Figure 1). If you reduce the runtime logic required.
watch a Spectrum game’s title For example, there’s a common routine you’d
screen loading, it starts top- need to get the memory location of an X and
left, goes across to the right, Y coordinate on the screen. The conventional
jumps down one character method was as shown in Figure 3 (we recently
line (eight pixels) and works pulled this from the internet – a luxury we didn’t
all the way down the screen. have back then).
Finally, it fills in all the colour We’d literally write random bytes to memory to
attributes to display the see what appeared where, then reverse-engineer
finished picture. the screen memory configuration and develop
code to write to it! But we knew everything
 igure 1: A diagram
F CODE printed on to the screen went via this, so if we


showing the ZX
Spectrum’s screen
There isn’t space here to explain assembler could speed it up, our games could have far more
memory in hexadecimal. coding on the Z80 in detail, but here’s a basic things on the screen (see Figure 4).
overview. The 8-bit chip had a main A register, This required two tables each of 192 bytes
three multi-purpose paired registers: BC, DE, and to be created, each on consecutive page
HL, and then two further paired registers: IX and boundaries – all the Low screen addresses in
IY. These were duplicated for use by interrupt the first table, then 256 bytes later all the High
routines. The paired registers gave 16-bit screen addresses.
pointers to address up to 64kB RAM/ROM. Because the code was now very short, we’d
There were standard operations: LD (load), paste it in-line, when needed, to avoid the extra
ADD, AND, XOR, SLA, and SRA (shift bits left ‘call’ and ‘return’ from a routine.
or right within a byte), along with conditional The upside-down levels (Figure 5) were
 he Oliver Twins
T


learned Z80 from a operations – compare and jump to a new section created as normal; we’d just flip the values in the
£2.99 Pocket Guide.
of code – but it didn’t have multiply or divide lookup tables.
operations, and many things had to be done by
creating loops and lookup tables.  igure 3: The conventional method to locate
F


Not all operations would work on all registers: the screen memory from a coordinate.
everything would work with register A, but only
subsets of operations worked with the other
registers, so there was an awful lot of register
swapping needed to write Z80 code.
The simplest ‘load’ (LD) instruction took four
clock cycles and, depending how it was used,
could take up to 19 (see Figure 2).
Coding assembler efficiently was essential,
given the limitations of the 3.5MHz Z80
processor. This was where being a ‘Code Master’
really came into play. We were literally obsessed
by writing fast, efficient code, counting every byte
and clock cycle (time to execute an instruction),

Instruction eg. Comment Clock cycles

LD r,r LD A,B Load single 8 Bit register, with another 4

LD r,n LD A,10 Load a fixed number 7

LD r,(rr) LD A,(HL) Load 8-bit register with contents of pointer 7

LD rr,nn LD HL,&4000 Set of 16-bit register 10

 Figure 2: An example of
register use on the ZX LD rr,rr LD HL,DE Paired register operations 11
Spectrum, and how
many clock cycles an LD r,(ir+n) LD A,(IX+5) Load register with contents of pointer+offset 19
operation could take.

34 / wfmag.cc
 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

 he Olivers showing off

T


some of their earliest

Codemasters titles,
including Super
Robin Hood.

 igure 4: The improved method

F


to locate the screen memory

from a coordinate.

DIZZY SPRITE PRINTING

The Dizzy sprite was 24 pixels wide by 20 pixels with him would have seen a character-aligned
high – put another way, he was 3 × 2.5 characters, white box following him, which would have
with each character being 8 by 8 pixels. looked awful.
As shown in Figure 6, the first Dizzy game In this system, we created a mask image,
used our general-purpose sprite system. slightly bigger than Dizzy, and copied the 24 × 20
He was printed onto the screen using XOR pixels from the screen memory into a temporary
[swap bits with 1s], so he would be printed buffer. We then printed the mask directly to the
once to appear and a second time to make him screen memory, creating a black Dizzy-shaped
disappear. (There was no drawing full screens to hole, and then printed the regular Dizzy sprite Figure 5: Fantasy World Dizzy ’s
 market square, which flipped
back buffers in those days!) This worked easily, into this as before. To remove Dizzy as he the sprites by adjusting the
but when he walked in front of other graphics, moved on, we printed back the temporary buffer values in lookup tables.

he’d appear a little messy, to the screen, replacing

and could be difficult to whatever he’d rubbed out
“We used a new method
see. Our solution was to (see Figure 8). We didn’t
create two versions, with involving masked sprites” need to look up areas of
body and hands moving up the map, or what objects
and down in opposite motion, so he was always had been placed there – we simply copied back
moving and this made him much easier to see. the rubbed-out screen area. It was very fast
Most sprites in our early games worked this way. and effective.
The images in Figure 6 show Dizzy in the open, This worked well, except when two sprites  igure 6: Fast, easy, XOR sprite
F


printing as used in the original

and then in front of a tree. As you can see, when crossed over each other. We enhanced the Dizzy game.
he’s standing in front of background graphics it method by working out what we wanted to
doesn’t work so well. print to the screen, combined the screen with
By the time we created Fantasy World Dizzy, the mask using the AND function, then stored
we used a new method involving masked sprites. that result XOR-ed with the screen. We then
It was slower and more complex code, but gave a wrote the byte onto the screen. This way, to rub
much better result, as you can see in Figure 7. out we used XOR to rewrite the buffer back to
Dizzy could clearly be seen in front of a the screen, so now multiple sprites could go
complex background using the advanced masked over each other without leaving corruption on
sprite system. This meant that whilst Dizzy the screen.
still picked up on the attribute colours of the Each sprite was 24 (3 bytes) × 20 high = 60
background – like a chameleon – he could be bytes × 2 for the mask, so 120 bytes per frame.
 igure 7: The improved,
F
seen more easily when standing over background There were 39 Dizzy frames of animation,


masked Dizzy sprite we used

graphics. To have moved his colour around so he took a total of 4680 bytes or ~4.5kB. in Fantasy World Dizzy.

wfmag.cc \ 35
 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

to do this once as the player entered a new

screen or moved an item.
When moving to a new screen, we’d print
 igure 8: Dizzy with
F


his mask sprite. the whole screen with black foreground and
This explains why the other characters in the background colour attributes so it would
game don’t animate or move around! disappear instantly; clear the screen memory and
The code to print sprites had been iterated print all the sprites making up the background
and iterated to make it very efficient, with screen, with a secondary buffer for the colour
great results. attributes; then copy them all at the end, so the
We don’t have space in this article for the sprite screen appeared instantly.
code listing, but it involved some unconventional Being an 8-bit computer, we gave ourselves
tricks to improve speed. We’d disable interrupts, 256 sprites so each could be referenced with a
store the stack, and use one set of registers for single byte. 48 through to 90 were used for the
source sprite data, pulling [POP] double byte alphanumeric characters, as per ASCII standard.
register pairs from the While Dizzy’s animations
stack; then, using the “We even used some had already been included
alternate registers, we set into this sprite list from
self-modifying code.
this to the screen memory previous games, we freed
address to write [PUSH] Naughty, but fast!” up more space for other
the data back fast. We even graphics once we could
used some self-modifying code, to patch the code remove a lot of his sprites when we introduced
it was about to execute. Naughty coding, but fast! the masking system (see Figure 9). This final
Printing Dizzy was very specific fast code. graphic file took just over 7kB.
It couldn’t be clipped on the side of the screen
and didn’t change colour attributes. Our general- BACKGROUND LOCATIONS
purpose, flexible sprite routine could print sprites We planned out the overall map on a large
of any size, anywhere on the screen, with clipping piece of card (see Figure 10), with individual
and with colour, and even had the ability to flip hand-drawn locations (or screens) glued on.
sprites left to right. If a location needed to be altered, we’d remove
This involved a lot of rotating bytes to get them the first, draw another, and glue it back in the
on any pixel, which was much slower, but we just slot. When planning out the position of puzzles,
used this for printing the location backgrounds where to find the items to solve them, and places
and the inanimate sprites that appeared. It didn’t for coins, we used cut-out pictures and words
matter if it was a little slow as it would only have and placed them on the cardboard on the floor
 igure 9: The original list of
F – being careful not to sneeze, slam a door, or


sprites used in the game.

open a window. On later Dizzy games, we used
tracing paper overlays, but that was an advanced
technique we’d not yet thought of.
We created each location on the Spectrum
screen by having a list of sprites, with the
coordinates of where to print them and the
colour and attributes to assign to them.
Each entry took four bytes: X ,Y, sprite, attribute.
Whilst the attribute byte was primarily to assign
the colour to the sprite, colour only required
three bits, so we could encode other functionality
into the spare bits: solid, background, or ‘sinkable’
for the clouds. This enabled a collision system.
With more bits still available, we added the ability
to flip sprites left to right, to give more variety,
and change the method by which the sprite was
printed – either Direct (erasing previous pixels) or
XOR (toggling previous printed pixels).

36 / wfmag.cc
 Toolbox
Squeezing the ZX Spectrum

 e wanted all the screens to link together,

W


so that they each represented a small

corner of a fantasy cartoon world.

The locations had 60 sprites each on average, we contracted David Whittaker to provide it.  igure 10: The Olivers’
F


therefore 240 bytes. With 50 locations, this took He produced the music and sound effects on original hand-drawn
Fantasy World Dizzy map.
about 12kB of the RAM. Most games at that time a cassette with code built in to play the music.
were character mapped, meaning they held one The whole file was 4143 bytes, so just over 4kB.
byte per character cell on the screen. That’s We used the speech routine we’d developed
768 bytes (32 × 24 characters) if they didn’t use four years earlier to play a recording of one of
 igure 11: Instructions for
F
compression. Our method enabled Dizzy to have us saying, “Fantasy World Dizzy.” This was fitted


the editor, which explain
much bigger maps than many other games. into a buffer space as soon as the game ran and how the data was stored
for the rooms.
We wrote the map editor inside the game. deleted as the memory was used. You can see
This was useful, because we could run Dizzy how all the game elements were squeezed into
around and then press other keys on the the Spectrum’s memory in Figure 12.
keyboard to add or edit the background sprites
while the game was running live (Figure 11). A CRACKING ADVENTURE
This made it fun to edit and fast to iterate. So, that’s how we squeezed a pretty large, fun
There was no recompiling of code when drawing game into just 41kB. We’re always shocked by
and checking elements of the map and puzzles. file sizes these days, and how inefficient they are;
when we take pictures on a regular smartphone
GAMEPLAY CODE they average 4MB. We could write 100 games in
Players took Dizzy through 50 locations, meeting that memory! As for modern games, Red Dead
lots of characters, and solving over 20 puzzles Redemption 2 is over 100GB on PS4 – that’s 2.5
along the way. Gameplay code didn’t need to million games’ worth of memory! Here’s the
focus on speed, but it did need to be clear, easily funny thing – in another 30 years’ time, there’s a
adaptable, and efficient on the memory it used. good chance that 100GB for a big game will be
Each location and item was given a name, considered small. How times change. We enjoyed
and there were conversations with characters the challenge and the art of squeezing so much
 igure 12: A
F
and additional text explaining parts of the story. fun out of so little, and remember those times


Spectrum memory
These were displayed at the relevant times with with great fondness and pride. map for Fantasy
World Dizzy.
a neat conversation panel system. Dialogue was
important for creating atmosphere, and driving &F800 to &FFFF 4k Music
the story forward, but it didn’t come cheap: there &F000 to &F7FF 0.5 k Speech Data -> Buffer memory
were around 250 lines of dialogue, taking about &D000 to &E7FF 6k Game text
6kB of memory. Game code was around 4000
&A800 to &CFFF 12 k Map data
lines, taking about 8kB of RAM.
&9300 to &A7FF 5.5 k Background sprites & font

COMPRESSION &8000 to &92FF 4.5 k Dizzy sprites

Interestingly, we didn’t use any compression &6000 to &7FFF 8k Code [Around 4000 lines]
algorithms in this game. A few tricks would have &5F00 to &5FFF 0.5 k Data/lookup Tables
allowed us to have squeezed in even more – for RAM for Game 41 k
example, there’s a very simple method to reduce &5B00 to &5CFF 0.5 k System reserved RAM
text memory use by half. &5800 to &5AFF 0.8 k Screen attributes
&4000 to &57FF 6k Screen memory
AUDIO
Total RAM 48 k
While the game had great music and sound
effects, we certainly can’t take any credit for this: &0000 to &3FFF 16 k System ROM (inc BASIC)

wfmag.cc \ 37
 Toolbox
Advice

 how real gameplay and high-quality images

S


from your game to allure potential backers.

Indie reflections:
AUTHOR
JEFF SPOONHOWER
Making Anew Part 7
Jeff Spoonhower is a Crowdfunding can be a powerful way to finance and
developer, artist, and college
professor who’s been working market your game. Jeff sheds light on the basics
on triple-A and indie games
for over 17 years.

W
anewthegame.com
hat is crowdfunding, exactly? T-shirts, and other souvenirs. High-level rewards
Think of it as a distributed may be art books, signed posters, and a variety
funding mechanism of ways for backers to actually be involved in the
where individuals online development of your game, such as collaborative
contribute money towards design sessions and voicing a character in-game.
the development of your game. You present Often, the higher-level rewards have limited
your game idea to the community, and quantities, and are therefore especially valuable
‘backers’ collectively pitch in to help you hit and exclusive to backers.
 graphical matrix of
A


backing tiers and a predetermined funding goal. So, instead of

associated rewards is a
quick way to show backers
sheepishly asking Great Aunt Millie for a cheque PLATFORMS
what they’ll receive for for $150,000, you appeal to hundreds or Many crowdfunding platforms exist, but
their donations.
thousands of backers who each pitch in to help here we’ll focus on two popular options for
you cross the finish line. The amount of money indie game developers: Kickstarter and Fig.
backers donate generally depends on their level Indiegogo is another option worth researching.
of interest in your game, and their faith in your It’s advisable to spend time researching each of
ability to finish it. these before selecting one for your campaign.
What your generous backers receive in Kickstarter is the original crowdfunding
return for their pledges is up to you. You’ll need platform, and hosts the most indie game
to entice potential backers into donating by campaigns each year. As such, Kickstarter
offering them rewards. Most crowdfunding attracts a large audience of potential backers
campaigns offer rewards in tiers – the more who are interested in the rising stars of the indie
money a backer donates, the more, and better, game world. On Kickstarter, you set a time-
rewards they receive. Some examples of lower- sensitive, all-or-nothing target funding goal, and
level rewards include digital copies of your game can offer tiers of rewards to backers. If you meet
and soundtrack, an exclusive game wallpaper, or or exceed your goal by the time your campaign
credits on your website. Mid-level rewards may ends, you receive all the funds you raise, minus
include physical copies of your game, posters, a percentage paid to Kickstarter. If you don’t

38 / wfmag.cc
 Toolbox
Advice

also cancel your campaign at any time if you feel

as though you’re not going to hit your funding
goal. Your only obligation on Kickstarter is to
fulfil the rewards promised to your backers on Include a photo of your development team


completion of your game. to help personalise your campaign.
Fig is a newer crowdfunding platform that
has helped fund several promising indie games.
Similarities between Kickstarter and Fig include raised was worth the effort, although it didn’t
a campaign page, the ability to offer rewards, come easily.  simple budget breakdown
A


helps backers to understand
and a time-sensitive, all-or-nothing funding goal. Of course, $35,000 isn’t enough to completely how you plan to use your
Fig differs considerably from Kickstarter, though, fund the development of a game involving two funds, and also establishes
trust and transparency.
in a few important ways. Whereas any developer full-time developers, plus a freelance composer,
can run a Kickstarter campaign, Fig is a curated over the course of five to six years. We have
platform which requires developers to pitch primarily been self-financed, but the money
their campaigns. Only approved projects make raised on Kickstarter helped offset several
it onto Fig. In addition to receiving rewards, costs including marketing, PR, trade show
Fig backers also have the option to invest in attendance, legal advice, and subcontractor
your game and earn a percentage of its sales. assistance. Of equal importance to the money
If your game is successfully funded, Fig becomes raised was the significant increase in awareness Campaign
your non-exclusive publisher and receives a Anew received. Our enthusiastic backers spread
reference
percentage of your profits. the word about Anew with their friends, which
If you’re new to crowdfunding,
It’s important to note that backers brought in more backers and fuelled growth on it’s worth checking out the
are becoming increasingly jaded about our social media platforms. Publishers, content Kickstarter campaign for
crowdfunding due to an increase in low- creators, and game websites discovered us Anew: The Distant Light.
quality games seeking funding, as well as failed through our campaign page, which led to There you’ll find ideas for
funding tiers, rewards,
completions and unfulfilled promises for games interviews, features, streams of our demo,
campaign sections, gameplay
they’ve backed. It’s vital, then, that you have and business partnerships. videos, and other visual
polished and unique-looking We quickly learned that materials to help successfully
assets in place before our active crowdfunding pitch your game idea to
“It’s vital that backers: wfmag.cc/anew
beginning your campaign, campaign required constant,
or backers will ignore you.
you have polished vigilant support and
Gone are the days (circa assets in place” monitoring. We worked
2012) when indie devs could around the clock on
post a few pieces of concept art and a talking- outreach efforts – emailing websites, bloggers,
heads video for a game that didn’t yet exist. streamers, friends, and family to spread the
Today, you must show high-quality gameplay to word about our campaign. We responded to
attract backers’ attention. questions and comments on our campaign
site quickly and professionally. In order to
CROWDFUNDING ANEW fuel interest in the campaign, we posted
We ran a successful Kickstarter campaign for (and continue to post) frequent updates
Anew: The Distant Light in March 2017, earning a on development, as well as new videos,
little over $35,000 from 684 backers. We began screenshots, and marketing assets. A ‘set it and
planning our campaign a year in advance, forget it’ attitude would have certainly led to a
researched successful and failed indie game failed campaign. Having an established following
campaigns, and collected as much advice as we on Facebook and Twitter before starting our
could. My dev partner and I began preparing campaign also helped in our outreach efforts,
for the campaign full-time two months before as our built-in community was eager and ready
it began – writing text for our page, creating to help spread the word about Anew.
a trailer, capturing screenshots, designing While the research, planning, and execution of
graphical elements, planning rewards, and more. our crowdfunding campaign was a tremendous
I f you have prior games


During the month-long campaign, I worked amount of work, we’re glad we decided to industry experience, definitely
full-time on outreach and marketing. We feel embark on the journey, and we hope to highlight it on your page, as it
adds credibility to your game
as though the modest amount of money we crowdfund our next game as well. and studio.

wfmag.cc \ 39
 Toolbox
Source Code

Ninja Gaiden ’s dramatic



continue screen. Who

would be cruel enough
to walk away?

Source Code
SNK’s Fantasy, released in


Create your own
1981, was the first arcade
game to feature a
continue screen.

continue screen
Learn how to create game states,
AUTHOR
RIK CROSS and rules for moving between them

T
he continue screen, while required. Functions are ‘first-class citizens’ currentupdatefunction =
much less common now, of the Python language, which means that updatecontinuescreen
was a staple feature of they can be stored and manipulated just currentdrawfunction = drawcontinuescreen
arcade games, providing an like any other object, such as numbers, text,
opportunity (for a small fee) and class instances. They can be stored in def update():
to reanimate the game’s hero and to pick up variables and other data types such as lists currentupdatefunction()
where they left off. and dictionaries, and passed as parameters
Games such as Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden to (or returned from) other functions. def draw():
coin-op (known in some regions as Shadow currentdrawfunction()
Warriors) added jeopardy to their continue “The continue screen was a The example code above calls
screen, in an effort to convince us to part currentupdatefunction() and
staple of arcade games”
with our money. currentdrawfunction(), which each store
Often, a continue screen is one of many a reference to separate update and draw
screens that a player may find themselves We can take advantage of the first-class functions for the continue screen. These
on; other possibilities being a title screen nature of Python functions by storing continue screen functions could then
or an instruction screen. I’ll show you how the functions for the current screen in also include logic for changing which
you can add multiple screens to a game in a variables, and then calling them in the function is called, by updating the function
structured way, avoiding a tangle of if…else main update() and draw() functions. In the reference stored in currentupdatefunction
statements and variables. following example, notice the difference and currentdrawfunction.
A simple way of addressing this problem between storing a function in a variable This way of structuring code can be
is to create separate update and draw (by using the function name without taken a step further by making use of state
functions for each of these screens, and parentheses) and calling the function (by machines. In a state machine, a system can
then switch between these functions as including parentheses). be in one of a (finite) number of predefined

40 / wfmag.cc
 Toolbox
Source Code

Game states in Python

You’ll need to install Pygame Zero to get Rik’s code running. You can find instructions at wfmag.cc/pgzero Download
the code
class State(): titlescreen = State() from GitHub:
wfmag.cc/
def __init__(self): titlescreen.draw = drawtitle
wfmag19
self.rules = {}
def addrule(self, state, rule): def drawgame():
self.rules[state] = rule screen.draw.text(“Game screen”, (50, 50), fontsize=40,
def update(self): color=“white”)
pass screen.draw.text(“Press [e] to end game”, (50, 80),
def draw(self): fontsize=40, color=“white”)
pass gamescreen = State()
gamescreen.draw = drawgame
class StateMachine():
def __init__(self): def drawcontinue():
self.current = None screen.draw.text(“Continue screen”, (50, 50), fontsize=40,
self.frame = 0 color=“white”)
def update(self): screen.draw.text(“Press [space] to play again”, (50, 80),
if self.current == None: fontsize=40, color=“white”)
return screen.draw.text(str(int(10 - sm.frame)+1), (50, 110),
self.frame += 0.01 fontsize=40, color=“white”)
for s, r in self.current.rules.items(): continuescreen = State()
if r(): continuescreen.draw = drawcontinue
self.current = s
self.frame = 0 titlescreen.addrule(gamescreen, lambda: keyboard.space)
self.current.update() gamescreen.addrule(continuescreen, lambda: keyboard.e)
def draw(self): continuescreen.addrule(titlescreen, lambda: sm.frame >= 10)
if self.current == None: continuescreen.addrule(gamescreen, lambda: keyboard.space)
return
self.current.draw() sm.current = titlescreen

sm = StateMachine() def update():

sm.update()
def drawtitle():
screen.draw.text(“Title screen”, (50, 50), fontsize=40, def draw():
color=“white”) screen.clear()
screen.draw.text(“Press [space] to start”, (50, 80), sm.draw()
fontsize=40, color=“white”)  ules define conditions that need to be
R


satisfied in order to move between states.

states, and rules determine the conditions This is pulled together with a Something else to point out is the use
under which a system can transition from StateMachine() class, which keeps track of lambda functions when adding rules
one state into another. of the current state. The state machine to states. Lambda functions are small,
A state machine (in this case a very calls the update() and draw() methods for single-expression anonymous functions
simplified version) can be implemented the current state, and checks the rules for that return the result of evaluating its
by first creating a core State() class. transitioning between states. Each rule in expression when called. Lambda functions
Each game state has its own update() and the current state’s rules list is executed, with have been used in this example simply to
draw() methods, and a rules dictionary the state machine updating the reference to make the code a little more concise, as
containing state:rule pairs – references to its current state if the rule function returns there’s no benefit to naming the functions
other state objects linked to functions for True. I’ve also added a frame counter that is passed to addrule().
testing game conditions. As an example, the incremented by the state machine’s update() State machines have lots of other
continuescreen state has two rules: function each time it is run. While not a potential uses, including the modelling of
• Transition to the gamescreen state if the necessary part of the state machine, it does player states. It’s also possible to extend the
SPACE key is pressed; allow the continue screen to count down state machine in this example by adding
• Transition to the titlescreen state if the from 10, and could have a number of other onenter() and onexit() functions that can be
frame timer reaches 10. uses, such as for animating sprites. called when transitioning between states.

wfmag.cc \ 41
 Toolbox
Source Code
Directory

Directory

Get industry advice

with Ukie Hotline
Budding developers can get expert tips on localisation,
marketing, financing, and more with Ukie’s free hotline service

What is it? When does it run?

The annual Ukie Hotline is an initiative created by The Hotline started on 22 July and will run for
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 Interface
Making the perfect Metroidvania

Making the perfect

METROIDVANIA Samus and Simon pioneered it. Shantae and

SteamWorld brought it back. Meet the
developers perfecting the Metroidvania

WRITTEN BY ANDREW KING

A
modern portmanteau derived following year, Tom Happ released Axiom Verge,
from inelegantly smashing hailed by Polygon’s Jeremy Parish as the best
Metroid and Castlevania’s titles indie Metroidvania ever made.
together, the Metroidvania Since then, Metroidvanias have come
harks back to the mid-nineties, to dominate the indie space. The Mummy
and two seminal action platformers: Nintendo’s Demastered, The Messenger, Iconoclasts,
Super Metroid and Konami’s Castlevania: Dandara, SteamWorld Dig 2, Chasm, Yoku’s
Symphony of the Night. For about a decade, Island Express, Hollow Knight, Guacamelee! 2,
both series continued to serve up non-linear Sundered, Death’s Gambit, Monster Boy and the
forays into interlocking, unlockable worlds. Cursed Kingdom, and La-Mulana 2 – and many
But after Metroid: Zero Mission in 2004 and more – have all appeared in the past two
Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia in 2008, the series years. The genre’s collaborative, as developers
went largely silent – at least, as far as their 2D, bounce ideas off each other, iterating on the
exploration-focused outings were concerned. community’s suggestions, and taking the genre
This absence inspired indie developers to to bold new places.
take the Metroidvania into their own hands. But how do they do it? How do these indie
“The genre was wrapped in cherished developers create compelling worlds that
childhood memories for much of the team,“ are exciting to explore the first time, and still
says Rodrigue Duperron, marketing and interesting to backtrack through the 100th
communications specialist at Thunder Lotus, time? How do they make unlocking new areas
the studio behind 2017’s Sundered. The and discovering power-ups challenging but
Metroidvania genre was, Duperron adds, not frustrating? To find answers to these
“Ripe for indie reimagining, especially with questions and more, we spoke to many of the
a key genre franchise – which shall remain developers making the most compelling games
nameless – being rather quiet through most of in the sub-genre.
the decade.”
While fans clamoured for new Metroid and ENTERING THE UNKNOWN
Castlevania adventures in vain, indie studios It’s rare to find a game that isn’t at least a little
stepped in to fill the void. WayForward bit like Samus Aran. As she blasts and bombs
Technologies made the Metroid-inspired sequel her way through Thebes, Metroid’s heroine
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge in 2010; DrinkBox finds new, useful tools hidden in the nooks
released the first Guacamelee! in 2013; and the and crannies of her world. She doubles her

44 / wfmag.cc
 Interface
Making the perfect Metroidvania

GLUTROIDVANIA
Chasm was released in July 2018, kicking off an
entire summer of Metroid-style games. Dead Cells,
Guacamelee! 2 , and Death’s Gambit, plus Switch
ports of Salt and Sanctuary and Iconoclasts in
a similar time frame, made it difficult to stand
out, according to James Petruzzi. “In 2012, when
we started, there was almost nothing else like it
out there. But when it launched, they called it the
Month of the Metroidvania because eight other
Metroidvania games came out the same month
that we came out. It’s like, how are you supposed to
succeed when you have that much competition?”

Chasm ’s gorgeous


artwork helped it
secure an impressive
backing of around
$190,000 on
Kickstarter in 2013.

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Making the perfect Metroidvania

Wonder Boy license. He even provided a video

endorsement for their Kickstarter. With that,
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom was
born: still a Metroidvania, as Game Atelier had
planned, but now it would be a new entry in a
storied series, rather than a new entry in one
that few people ever knew existed.
João Brant and Lucas Mattos, the main
developers at Brazil’s Long Hat House,
experienced a similar shift in design in the
early production of 2018’s Dandara. After their
 Monster Boy ’s distinctive,
anime-inspired art style was first release, the mobile game Magenta Arcade,
introduced fairly late in
development: just a year
the duo began work on another touch-based
and a half before it shipped. action game.
“It was this arena with ground on top and
ground on the bottom; the grounds would
jump; she gets a nifty new gun; she somehow, move, and if you stayed on them too long you
improbably, turns into a ball. By the time she would die,” Brant explains. “You could jump
takes down the pterodactyl or angry jellyfish between them and shoot enemies like an
awaiting her at the end of her journey, her arena game.”
toolset is barely recognisable. The core is The final product retained that movement
there, to be sure, but so much around it and combat, but transplanted it into a more
has changed. Games are like that. When an substantial Metroidvania. Players still jumped
indie Metroidvania arrives as a colourful from wall to wall, but now they did so as part of
thumbnail on a digital store, it’s often massively a search for power-ups and experience points.
Dandara developers Lucas Mattos different from the hazy concepts that inspired And, instead of using this gravity-defying


and João Brant originally met

while studying computer science
its creation. Central ideas may remain intact, traversal to move through linear corridors,
at university in Brazil. but much of the presentation changes. Dandara’s jump would be used to explore a
And, lots of times, central ideas change too. world that sprawled in every direction.
“We made a string of levels, a string of

“NISHIZAWA MISUNDERSTOOD rooms,” Brant said of the pair’s work during

the first few months of pre-production.
THEIR MESSAGE AND GRANTED “Then we started making branching paths.

THEM THE WONDER BOY LICENSE” [The shift happened] right in the middle of the
prototype, actually.”
It took considerably longer for BitKid, Inc.
“We started to work on the Monster Boy to unearth the core of Chasm, a fantasy RPG
game in 2014,” says Fabien Demeulenaere, released in 2018, but which began life back in
co-founder of Game Atelier, the Parisian 2012. According to designer James Petruzzi,
studio behind 2018’s Monster Boy and the the game was conceived as a sci-fi mining
Cursed Kingdom. “Back then it wasn’t called game called Solus.
Monster Boy. It was called Flying Hamster 2.” “Your ship crashed on this planet, and you
The original Flying Hamster, Game Atelier’s had to mine down and find stuff to repair
first game, was a little-known platformer your ship and eventually escape,” Petruzzi
released for the PSP in 2010. After they says. “I didn’t really like sci-fi stuff, though,
launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a because I was procedurally generating all
sequel, the team contacted Ryuichi Nishizawa, these tunnels under the ground. And in sci-fi
who directed the first two titles in the long- you kind of need projectiles; I don’t think
running Wonder Boy series, to express thanks melee works as well. And I was kind of like,
for inspiring what was then still called Flying ‘It’s so claustrophobic.’”
Hamster 2. So, in the final release, sci-fi guns were
To their surprise, Nishizawa misunderstood gone, replaced with swords, axes, and spears.
their message and granted them the Mining mechanics were eschewed in favour of

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Making the perfect Metroidvania

MUMMYVANIA
“The Mummy Demastered started as an opportunity
with Universal, where they approached us asking for a
retro-style game for their upcoming film,” says Austin
Ivansmith, explaining how the game got started at
WayForward. “They asked us to pitch them a game idea
and were open to pretty much any type of game we
wanted to make. With the film dipping into the Universal
monsters lore, we felt it was a good opportunity to
do a nod to classic Castlevania games, which were
themselves really inspired by the old monster films,
Although The Mummy Demastered ’s a licensed


game, WayForward were given free rein to so doing our own side-scrolling, monster-hunting
make the pixel-art Metroidvania they wanted. adventure made the most sense. And since the
film would have this mercenary group with limitless
resources, it made perfect sense for our hero to be a
Symphony of the Night-style exploration modern Prodigium agent and battle with more Contra-
and combat. And the spaceship like sensibilities instead of a melee whipmaster.”

became a sleepy mining town whose

residents had disappeared into the
monster-infested mines below.
Rather, most of the genre’s descendants opt
FINDING THE FUN to include many of the same tools as well. It’s a
Ideas are a dime a dozen; the hard part challenging line to walk.
of making a game is working out whether “All genres are [formulaic], and if
those ideas stand up under the cold light of they’re not, people complain that they
scrutiny. For game director Olle Håkansson at don’t feel like the games [should feel],”
Image & Form, that cold light was cast on the says Petruzzi. “With Metroidvanias
original SteamWorld Dig about three months in particular, if you see a high ledge,
into development. it’s like, ‘Oh, I know I’m gonna get a
“The first prototype that we tested on double-jump.’ Or, if you see a little
external players didn’t have wall climbing, nook you can slide into, it’s like, ‘Okay, I’m
and it was extremely unforgiving,” Håkansson going to be getting something for that.’”
explains. “If you didn’t consider the way you In fact, during the development of Dandara,
were digging, you’d make yourself a pit that Long Hat House just stopped thinking of the
you couldn’t climb out of. game as a Metroidvania at all.
“We tried many different versions of tutorial
levels that worked on ingraining the idea of
digging carefully, but there was always a player
or two in our tests that missed the cues.
“Finally, we decided to give up on the idea
of the meticulously planned mine shafts
and just give the player the ability to wall-
jump. That was the moment the gameplay
suddenly clicked, and from there on we were
in production.”
Giving up on preconceived notions of what
a game should be is an important step in the
process of discovering what a game actually is.
This can be especially challenging in a genre
as reliant on formula as the Metroidvania. The
heirs of Super Metroid and Symphony of the
Night are rarely content to inherit the lock-and- Image & Form’s SteamWorld Dig 2


built on the Metroidvania concepts

key structure that made their ancestors sing. introduced in the hit 2013 original.

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Making the perfect Metroidvania

Sundered combined tried-and-true



Metroidvania mechanics with

unpredictable procedural generation.

“We thought about a jump that [would

allow you to] jump mid-air, but we just would
have needed to make the jump slower so
you could aim mid-air. So we didn’t do it,”
Brant says, adding that it would’ve been a
mistake to include a double jump or similar as Austin Ivansmith, creative director of The

SOULSVANIA
mechanic simply because “people expect it” of Mummy Demastered, explains.
a Metroidvania. “Our underwater ability was based on
The Dark Souls series Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow’s ‘Deep Seeker’ soul,
GETTING STUCK looms large in modern and was actually meant to be the first ability
(AND UNSTUCK) Metroidvanias. Dandara, for the player acquired,” he says. “There were a lot
example, combines familiar
The feeling of being stuck is part of the of water puzzles early in the game, but almost
Metroid-style backtracking
Metroidvania’s appeal. The player encounters none later in the game.
with a leveling system and
a locked door, or a high ledge, or a gap in “This was mostly because of a hurried
‘corpse run’ mechanic,
a wall they’re too big to squeeze through. where the player drops their oversight in the layout of the levels, so midway
None of the tools currently in their arsenal experience points when they through development, we swapped our
are any use. They scour the map for leads, but die, but have one chance to underwater ability to be one of the last items
frustratingly, they can’t find any unexplored retrieve them before they’re we acquire, and it was serendipitous, because
areas. Then comes the ‘Eureka!’ moment. lost forever, inspired by From it played so much better to backtrack to all the
The player suddenly remembers an alien Software’s imposing action water rooms the player remembered from the
statue in an empty chamber they haven’t RPGs. Hollow Knight also first area.
draws from the series in its
returned to in hours, or a high wall they can “It just goes to show that even with lots of
imposing, mysterious world
now climb, or an expanse of lava they can now planning, it’s important to think on your feet
and deliberate combat.
sprint across unscathed. and be able to make big shifts to design issues
To deliver such a moment, Metroidvania throughout the course of development.”
developers must perform a delicate high-wire
routine, avoiding an abyss of frustration on one OUTSIDE EYES
side and frictionless ease on the other. Spotting the moments when big shifts in
“I think everything in games is that sort of design are needed often requires a fresh set
balancing act,” says Petruzzi, who, with Chasm, of eyes. For a programmer who’s spent the
wanted to create a game that was challenging past three years making a game, glaring issues
– like the Castlevania games he played in his may be impossible to spot; playtesters play a
youth – without pushing players to turn to a crucial role, then, offering nimble fingers and a
strategy guide. “You never want to go too far new perspective.
in any direction,” he continues. “You want to “[What helps a lot is] seeing the reaction of
walk this line between accessibility, difficulty, the player”, says Monster Boy’s Demeulenaere.
and convenience.” “Then you understand that, ‘Yeah it’s not
The shadow of Dark Souls looms


Used right, late game discoveries can large over the great Hollow Knight. going to work,’ or, ‘He knows that this is the
recontextualise everything that came before, right approach,’ and sometimes the ideas that

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Making the perfect Metroidvania

we had didn’t work at all during the playtest. action platformer, The Messenger – have moved
You realise that, really, the best thing to do is to beyond the fix phase to work on a free patch,
try with people who don’t know anything about Picnic Panic, that will reward players with the
your game. amount of new content they would typically
“Playtesting began very early during the associate with a paid expansion.
development process. Meaning that, for three “The idea with this DLC is that it’s low-stakes,
years in a row, there were people coming light-hearted; we’re just having a good time,”
almost every day, playing the game, testing it. says Thierry Boulanger, The Messenger’s creative
People coming from the schools that we have director. “It’s a smooth send-off to that whole
in Paris. That really helped, because we can story, that character and that world.”
have a very clear view of what you’re doing and
all the ideas for what you think are going to “IT JUST GOES TO SHOW
work, never working perfectly in the end.”
THAT EVEN WITH LOTS
HEADING OUT THE DOOR OF PLANNING, IT’S IMPORTANT
Of course, the ultimate playtest happens once
the game’s released. And given the live nature TO THINK ON YOUR FEET”
of modern game development, studios will
likely be working on their Metroidvanias for Long Hat House, likewise, is working on
months if not years afterwards, fixing bugs and DLC for Dandara, though Brant warns that
tweaking any gameplay issues that might have “something horrible could happen and we WayForward’s Shantae and the


Pirate’s Curse freely draws on the
hampered the game at launch. don’t launch anymore, so no promises.” Metroidvania genre while establishing
Since Chasm released last August, the That kind of Murphy’s Law approach is a its own uniquely light tone.
team at BitKid, Inc. have worked to make realistic one: when it comes to game design,
their Metroidvania more satisfying to play for anything that can go wrong often does.
modern audiences without losing the old- But many of the Metroidvania developers
school edge that drew in early fans. we’ve spoken to have learned to roll with
“We spent about two months doing major the punches, and to pivot when an idea
fixes, tightening up combat timing,” Petruzzi doesn’t work.
says, noting that Chasm’s Castlevania-style Like expert Metroidvania players, they’ve
combat didn’t click with many PC gamers, while learned to use every weapon in their
earning solid reviews on PS4. “We didn’t want arsenal, back-track, and work through their
to break it because we have some people who frustration, until those locked doors are finally
love it… So, I was trying to find some balance forced open.
between that, where it doesn’t feel totally
stilted but it doesn’t feel like a modern game
either, where you can just keep running while
you’re attacking.”
Meanwhile, the developers at Sabotage –
who released last year’s time-bending ninja

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Developer Profile / Bullfrog Productions

Developer Profile

Bullfrog Productions
Another one snuffed out by the corporate embrace

I
t was less going out with a It might have been subtitled Revolution,
whimper, more going out with but it was not quite the revelation
a confused shrug – the death we had expected from Guildford’s
of Bullfrog Productions, one of ambitious sons.
the greats of the British games See, Bullfrog was a studio with a
industry, came quietly and over an capital-R Reputation. It wasn’t a team
extended period. Its last game didn’t that just made games; it was a creative
even feature the studio’s logo, nor was force absolutely riddled with imagination
it a production of the studio, instead and known for understanding that
a console port. The company that had the word ‘unique’ isn’t just something
brought us true legends like Dungeon to be used as vague praise. It shifted
Keeper, Theme Park, and Syndicate ended perceptions on what games could be,
its run by bringing Quake III to the PS2. multiple times, on what should be fun,
multiple times, and what we could
expect from developers, multiple times.
So when we lament the slow-burn death
of Bullfrog, quietly absorbed into the
EA conglomeration blob in the early
noughties, it may well surprise you to
learn that the studio actually began
its life in 1988 emerging from another
company, and because it was developing
a port of a shooter from another format
it had released on years prior. Ah,
symmetry. Of sorts.

LES AND PETE

The big names in Bullfrog were Les
Edgar and Peter Molyneux. You may well
have opinions on the latter, that’s fine,
and our dealings with the former show
him to be a nice enough sort. That’s not
the point here, though – the two had
gone into business together some years
before developing business software,
and through an act of subterfuge (and
a mistake on Commodore’s part) had

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Bullfrog Productions \ Developer Profile

 eter Molyneux:
P


a man who
makes people
have opinions
about him.

 es Edgar is
L


largely out of the

gaming sphere
these days.

Powermonger took  Bullfrog back in the



the Populous early days.

template and  uiffy the toad-like thing
Q


focused it on war. from Flood; a... weird one.

bagged themselves a few Amiga dev Powermonger. The callous satire of loss of both its founding fathers really
machines. After some success in the cyberpunk legend Syndicate. An early did hammer home the point: this was
bizdev world, gaming came a-calling foray into fast-paced 3D shooters with no longer the studio that burned so very
when a friend of Molyneux asked Magic Carpet. Ignoring the odd sequel, bright in those early years.
him to port Druid II: Enlightenment to you really couldn’t accurately predict A series of sequels and spin-offs
the Amiga. what Bullfrog would do next. The same – mostly focused on the Theme Park
studio that brought us the bright-and- franchise – followed, and while plenty
THE BIRTH OF GOD cheerful Theme Park also threw the were serviceable, there just wasn’t that
Stepping out of the businessy cocoon, dark-and-nasty Dungeon Keeper our way spark to be found. All things considered,
Bullfrog was born to facilitate releasing – though admittedly the amount of evil it’s actually not that surprising at all that
the port. Soon after, another shooter going on behind the scenes in the park Bullfrog’s last contribution to the world
– Fusion – was launched… and nobody management simulator makes it less of gaming was a decent-but-uninspiring
really cared. It was around this time surprising Bullfrog would go all-out evil PS2 port of a true PC trailblazer. It can’t
that Edgar suggested they wind up in a latter release. help but feel completely wrong for the
this brief experiment and just go do studio to end its life in such a way, but
something else. Naturally (?), this served on reflection, it was absolutely a fitting
as inspiration for a little something
“Populous made Bullfrog end for what Bullfrog had become.
called Populous. It might not have started a studio known for
with a bang, but Bullfrog only took one its creativity and one
port and one original release before
worshipped by fans”
it hit its stride, and in a way nobody
expected at all.
Populous invented a genre, and a But it couldn’t last, of course. If you
game focused entirely on creation and read the intro to this piece you’ll already
worship made Bullfrog a studio known know that. By 1995, Bullfrog had been
for its creativity and one worshipped bought by EA, and by 1997 Molyneux
by fans. Do you see what we did there? had tired of his role as a corporate VP
From there – and thanks to a bit of at the publisher, wishing to return to
financial breathing space – the hits development in the trenches – and
kept on coming. Flood, the bizarre, doing so by leaving altogether to form
brilliant platformer with a bequiffed, Lionhead Studios. Edgar followed,
rotund, toad-like creature lobbing leaving his role as chairman in 1999.
grenades everywhere. A Populous sequel Bullfrog had already become just Populous wasn’t where it all


and the more war-focused spin-off, another EA Studio by this point, but the began for Bullfrog, but it may as
well have been.

wfmag.cc \ 51
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Developer Profile / Bullfrog Productions

Frog stupid
10 bullish sentiments from Bullfrog
It was hard not to make this all about Syndicate

01 02 03

Populous Syndicate Magic Carpet

PC / multi 1989 Amiga / PC / multi 1993 PC / PS1 / Saturn 1994
Not Bullfrog’s first, but certainly its most Casually cynical about our increasingly Taking the theme of accruing mana to increase
impactful, Populous put you in the role of… corporate world, Syndicate dropped on the your powers sounds a bit like Populous, but
well, god. Players were tasked with building a Amiga and PC, causing less of a stir than if it the similarities ended there with Magic Carpet.
civilisation in order to get more followers and had been made by an American company and An early 3D first-person shooter of sorts, the
so accrue more power. So, more Old Testament arrived on consoles first. Its blithe disregard for game was huge around the time of its launch,
than new, really. It also, handily, created the god the sanctity of human life is just as impactful as with the fantastic tech and graphics behind it
game genre, something very closely associated its take on strategic combat, and it’s an absolute wowing audiences. Yes, those reactions look
with Molyneux over the years. legend of a game. quaint today, but it was 25 years ago.

04 05
Theme Park Hi-Octane
Umm… all of them? 1994 PC / PS1 / Saturn 1995
It all seems so simple now: a game where you Made to appease new owners EA, Hi-Octane
run a theme park. You build it, you set the routes was developed in almost shameful secrecy
patrons take, change the prices, put loads of owing to its derivative nature. The result was
salt on the chips to make people thirstier, thus a very un-Bullfrog title: a racing combat game
making them buy an overpriced drink which with little in the way of discernible personality
you’ve massively watered down with ice… there and few memorable aspects. It’s no surprise
was a running anti-corporate theme going on at all this was made in around eight weeks – it
behind the scenes at Bullfrog, that’s for certain. definitely shows.

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Bullfrog Productions \ Developer Profile

06 07 08
Syndicate Wars Dungeon Keeper Theme Hospital
PC / PS1 1996 PC 1997 PC / PS1 1997
Bullfrog had made sequels before, but it wasn’t You want to say ‘it wasn’t an evil studio’, but with The Theme Park bubble hadn’t burst, so
really a studio known for going back to the well titles like Dungeon Keeper it’s hard to stand by naturally the next step was… hospital?
very often. Syndicate Wars, though, was a good that argument. Flipping the whole fantasy trope This shouldn’t have worked, but Theme Hospital
example of why it is sometimes a solid idea to on its head, the game saw you taking control of was a superb mix of in-depth management and
retread old ground. Building on everything the the dungeon heroes would attempt to penetrate, wickedly funny medical conditions, making for
original created – and adding in destructible building defences, keeping its denizens happy, a compelling, deeply entertaining time. It’s no
cities – this dark, distressing world of the future and slapping a lot of imps. One of strategy surprise spiritual successor Two Point Hospital
surpassed its roots. gaming’s finest, no doubt. is doing as well as it is.

09 10

Dungeon Keeper 2 Theme Park Inc

PC 1999 PC 2001
The final great game from Bullfrog, and even The last game to feature the Bullfrog logo on
that’s arguable owing to the vocal contingent its box was hardly even developed by what
of ‘the sequel was rubbish’ shouters. Dungeon then remained of the studio. Instead an effort
Keeper 2 was really more of the same, but with spearheaded by the team, but ultimately made
a fully 3D engine and a few different monsters by the EA hive mind, Theme Park Inc was… fine?
and rooms. But when the original was so good, Unmemorable at best, but not the worst way for
did it matter that the sequel was so derivative? a studio to exit this mortal plane. The Quake 3
The answer is ‘no’, by the way. port followed, and… that was that.

wfmag.cc \ 53
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 Rated
Review

Review

GENRE
Bloodstained:
Info

Ritual of the Night

Igavania
FORMAT
PS4 (tested) / XBO
/ Switch / PC
Symphony of Blood
DEVELOPER

B
ArtPlay
PUBLISHER loodstained: Ritual of the Night is a rooms, and hidden paths containing secret
505 Games Castlevania game in all but name, treasures. Some of Bloodstained’s familiar
PRICE and even then the subtitle isn’t elements go deeper than these surface level
£34.99 too far off. This is all by design, of details, though. The enemy designs are an
RELEASE course; Koji Igarashi, the former eccentric mix, with a traditional sword-wielding
Out now
lead producer of the Castlevania series, left knight found in the same room as a giant
Konami around five years ago to found his own spell-casting house cat with horns. But there
studio and give fans (read: Kickstarter backers) are also clear analogues to enemies from
exactly what they want: a spiritual successor to Igarashi’s Castlevania games, such as the undead
REVIEWED BY the seminal Symphony of the Night. Igarashi and creatures that rise from the ground, grotesque
Richard Wakeling his team at ArtPlay have succeeded in their goal, monsters that hurl projectiles into the air, and
crafting a brand new Igavania that bottles the big armoured guys that heave spinning axes.
essence of those classic side-scrolling, monster- They might look different, but their behaviour
slaying adventures, for both good and bad. is pulled straight from the Belmont archives.
Let’s start with the good, then. It’s not an Those well-versed in the inner workings of
understatement when I say Bloodstained is the Castlevania series will clearly get a kick out
HIGHLIGHT essentially a new Castlevania game. There are of these well-trodden ingredients, and that’s
The sprawling castle at the some obvious elements that jump out straight without mentioning the way you can attack
heart of Bloodstained is a away, even if you’ve only ever had a passing right before your initial strike lands to get in
treat to explore. There’s a
interest in the series. The gothic castle is a a fast second attack – a trick for those who
delightful flow to its mixture
of combat and exploration, Castlevania staple, its opulent interior decorated still maintain the muscle memory 20 years on.
and the bowels of the castle with stained glass windows and enormous
throw up some curious chandeliers, where each section of the castle
Bloodstained spends roughly


surprises. Progressing can is bathed in the luminous glow of a blood-red 99% of its time on a 2D plane.
be frustratingly esoteric It’s a shame it doesn’t explore
moon that dominates the night sky. The castle’s three dimensions more often.
at times, but there’s no
doubting the gratification a labyrinthine sprawl of corridors, multi-layered
of opening up new areas.

 he story, which concerns

T


protagonist Miriam stopping

the Dracula-esque Gebel, is
told through conversations
and a handful of cutscenes.

56 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

Despite this, Bloodstained is still welcoming to

newcomers. On the default normal difficulty,
combat is a relative breeze until a sudden
difficulty spike towards the story’s conclusion, Boss fights vary in quality, but there are more good


than bad, with most based around learning attack
and by that point you’ll hopefully have a decent patterns and countering with blows of your own.
handle on the game’s intricacies. Combat is
built around a few different mechanics. Its
foundations are composed of either melee or hunts, and a crafting system that’s mostly
ranged attacks, depending on your weapon inconsequential. Other issues arise simply
of choice, with daggers, rapiers, greatswords, because of Bloodstained’s adherence to the past,
spears, whips, a blunderbuss, and many more and these dated decisions are only exacerbated
to choose from. Each weapon type has its own by a disappointing slew of bugs and glitches.
attack range, but you never feel trapped in any At one point, I was wandering the castle for
canned animations. Combat is responsive and upwards of an hour due to unknowingly missing
satisfying, as agile weapons hit with a rapid pace a line of dialogue that didn’t trigger because I
that relies on movement, while their heavier did things in the ‘wrong’ order. The game is also  he isn’t a Belmont, but
S


Miriam still emerges as an
counterparts let you tear enemies asunder with full of opaque puzzle design, perhaps requiring engaging new protagonist.
hefty blows. There’s also a backdash for dodging you to open a chest you didn’t know existed in
out of harm’s way, and both an area you last visited five
jumping and ducking are still “Bloodstained is hours ago, wherein you’ll
viable defensive manoeuvres. find a piece of armour that
essentially a new
The crown jewel of will allow you to gain access
Bloodstained’s combat Castlevania game” to another area you had
is, however, the variety completely forgotten about.
of otherworldly shards that allow you to Exploration is an integral part of any Igavania,
personalise your combat style. Each enemy you but retreading old ground because of
kill has a chance to drop one of these shards, purposefully vague puzzle design isn’t fun.
letting you inherit one of the recently deceased’s There’s been no shortage of Metroidvanias VERDICT
powers. Bosses tend to drop shards imperative in recent years, with games like Hollow Knight A familiar but enjoyable
to progression, whether it’s a double jump for and Ori and the Blind Forest innovating on the throwback to Koji Igarashi’s
reaching higher levels, or a reflector beam that genre in interesting ways. Bloodstained is much Castlevania games of old.
gives you access to previously inaccessible areas. more of a throwback to the past; it has some
But most of the shards you assemble grant
you the use of projectiles, special attacks,
summons, or passive buffs – each one sipping
new ideas but otherwise feels overly familiar.
Everything’s all a bit been-here-done-that,
yet there’s no denying ArtPlay succeeded in
74%
from a pool of mana. There are a plethora of creating exactly what it said it was going to.
varied shards to play around with, whether you Bloodstained has its problems, but there’s
want to shoot beams of lightning out of your still a sense of comfort in that familiarity.
hands, or conjure a gaggle of tentacles to deal
damage to anything in range. You can ostensibly
pick a handful of shards for specific situations,
perhaps deploying a magic shield to err on
the defensive side. But enemy attack patterns
and move sets are so simple that there’s
never any real incentive to alter your selection
of shards to fit a given situation. Instead, it’s
much more about experimenting with myriad
setups and finding what works for you.
Shards are one of the few innovations
Bloodstained introduces to its Igavania
framework. Other attempts at contemporary
The blood red moon has more significance than
ideas are less successful, with side quests


you might initially expect, playing a key role in

that are little more than grindy monster bypassing one of Bloodstained ’s bad endings.

wfmag.cc \ 57
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
You’re ferried to the different
levels in a cute little leaf boat,
accompanied by a guitar-playing
gnome. Together with the charming
aesthetic, it feels like having your
own personal K.K. Slider. Keep your
hands outside of the vehicle for a
musical surprise.

Review

Fujii  isually it can be dark and mysterious, bright

V


and airy, or anything else – but it’s always pretty.

Nurtural Reality

F
ujii is a zen-like musical gardening though the game never explains it to you. That’s a
adventure that’s clearly aiming recurring theme of Fujii; no words are spoken
at a wide audience. While plenty throughout the game, though the occasional
GENRE
Info

of the game occurs close to the piece of text will give you minor instructions.
Adventure
ground, you’re not required But it’s a living, breathing world that inhales
FORMAT
to be bending over all the time, thanks to curiosity and exhales music and mystery in equal
Quest (tested) /
Oculus Rift / your stretchy arms, which make exploring parts; everything from stepping on lily pads to
Steam the environments and restoring the native interacting with flowers adds music to the world.
DEVELOPER flora a breeze. They balloon up humorously It all feeds into a brilliant sense of wonder
Funktronic when you absorb water, too, which is used and awe that permeates the game. Even the
Labs to interact with plants and grow seedlings. inventory is lively and intuitive, as you slot seeds
PUBLISHER The biomes you visit are dark and mysterious and orbs into flower faces for safe-keeping.
Funktronic
at first, but as you interact with the environment, Lush and enticing though the environments
Labs
you spread light throughout the levels and are, and as subtle and calming as the music is,
PRICE
£11.39
discover the radiant beauty around you. Fujii also feels drastically short. There are only two
The world of Fujii runs on pearlescent orbs unique biomes to visit, with the third only really
RELEASE
Out now that are hidden in every corner of the land, serving as filler, and you can see everything the
harvested from plants, and used to unlock game has to offer in under two hours, unless you
doors to access new areas. Collecting and stop to smell every rose. You can keep tending to
managing them creates a rewarding sense of your garden indefinitely once the credits roll, and
REVIEWED BY accomplishment along your adventure, and they there’s plenty of seeds to plant and space to grow
Jonny Foster even serve as a currency in your home garden. them in, but it’s a real feeling of emptiness when
Here, you can plant and nurture the you realise there’s no more Fujii to explore.
seeds you’ve collected throughout the levels.
The branches of a tree also let you buy duplicates
 our garden of zen is a place to unwind, stretch
Y


of the seeds you’ve found, while indicating your green fingers, and nurture your plants.
VERDICT any you might have missed. This is a perfect
Fujii is a gorgeous musical balance between handing you creative licence
adventure, but it’s short- to build your personal forest as you see fit,
lived. A symphony without but also providing a sense of accomplishment
a second act. and something to work towards. I quickly
ended up with more plants than I knew what

60% to do with in my cornucopia of creation.

You can also find eggs to bring critters back to
your garden, which is an adorable addition, even

58 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
At its very core, Samurai
Shodown is a methodical
and patient fighter. The ability
to stare down your opponent
as the seconds tick by,
sweating as you worry about
their next move, creates a
level of tension that’s almost
unheard of in other series.

Review

Samurai Shodown  eapon Flipping Techniques are

W


wonderfully cinematic attacks that deal
a chunk of damage, as you can see.

Forget kicks and punches: swords are the way forward

I
t’s rare that you find either a moment you can easily transition from playing as a tiny
of serenity or combatants wielding American ninja (accompanied by a dog named

Info
GENRE
cold steel in one-on-one fighting Poppy) to a tuberculosis-riddled swordsman.
Fighting
games, but Samurai Shodown has There are so many eclectic personalities and
FORMAT
long made a feature out of both. different weapons spread across the 16 fighters,
PS4 (tested) / XBO
This twelfth entry in the long-running and most of them are an absolute delight to
DEVELOPER
series – a sequel and also a reboot – runs play as. Each, as you’d expect, boasts a curated SNK Corporation
completely against what we’ve come to collection of palette swaps too, with Kyoshiro’s PUBLISHER
expect of our modern fighting games. fourth pink outfit being an absolute belter. Athlon Games
The slow and steady pace of fights is Then there are the graphics, which bring PRICE
accentuated by the risk attached to every single an odd sense of serenity to otherwise intense £49.99
swing of your weapon. From light to heavy situations. Little details are thrown in everywhere, RELEASE
slashes, every blocked attack, outside of kicks, even the attack animations. Genjuro, for example, Out now
leaves your character recoiling tosses a bunch of cards on
so far that local chiropractors “There’s an top of his enemies, which
have time to set up shop
unprecedented level are adorned with some
between rounds. As a result, truly astonishing artwork.
there’s a high level of risk of risk in every fight” Yoshitora’s cuts and slices give
REVIEWED BY
in every fight. Some players way to bunches of blossoming Ryan Esler
go on the offensive and take risks, while others flowers as he battles on; and the minutiae on
develop a strategy of calculated patience. Kyoshiro’s frog attack is astonishing. Samurai
It goes deeper than basic attacks, of course, Shodown takes a cel-shaded art style, familiar
with unarmed combat, spot dodges, and from Street Fighter IV, and gives it new life.
deflecting attacks – to name but a few – making It’s just a shame that there are very few
sure the experience is elevated beyond simply opportunities to really flesh out the experience.
trading turns to attack and defend each round. Arcade mode is short and culminates in a
An obvious highlight of these mechanics is battle that can only be described as a slog.
the Rage system. It allows players to burst out The heavily-promoted ghosts are literally VERDICT
of a basic combo and deliver a devastating remnants of the player’s spirits, and the online A reboot that fails to
cinematic attack called Issen, which removes connection is so ropy and archaic that it falls meet modern standards
nearly three quarters of a lifebar if it hits. It’s on its own sword. All of this means Samurai on many fronts.
flashy and it’s devastating but, for my money, Shodown absolutely lives or dies by your ability
it’s not quite the same as catching a sword with
your bare hands. The consistency of having
shared inputs for many techniques means
to find people to play locally, which – again
– runs completely against what we’ve come
to expect from modern fighting games.
69%
wfmag.cc \ 59
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
The score really is beautifully
done and adds much to the
game’s ethereal atmosphere.
From tinkling pianos and lilting
guitars, to jazz rhythms and
haunting vocals, the sounds
 our journey to the top of the
Y shift almost as much as the


tree is seemingly endless yet perspective. Listen out for

over far too quickly.
musical cues that give hints if
you’re on the right track.

Review

Etherborn  he levels are intricate and

T


pretty, but the camera
Baby, I was Etherborn this way often struggles to keep up.

I
n a world of 100-plus hour RPGs, and repetitive. The puzzles demand you consider
sprawling open world adventures, and multiple planes, angles, and dimensions, which
competitive online games that demand can lead to some aimless wandering if you’re
GENRE
Info

for us to be plugged in, Matrix-like, to not careful before stumbling upon a solution.
Puzzle
platformer the internet, there’s something to be That said, this is a gently cerebral experience
FORMAT said for short, breezy experiences. that’s never too taxing, even when it gradually
PS4 / XBO / Yet the design of Etherborn is minimalist to a ramps up its challenge.
Switch (tested) fault. Developer Altered Matter has created a What ties it all together is a philosophical
/ PC puzzle platformer with, as the name suggests, narrative that, rather than inspiring curiosity,
DEVELOPER an ethereal mood and a seemingly thought- is fluffy, obtuse, and ultimately unnecessary.
Altered Matter
provoking narrative. But the result is thin, wispy, As you rise up the tree, a disembodied,
PUBLISHER and forgettable, despite its striking visual style. breathy voice narrates some sort of history of
Altered Matter
As a faceless corporeal being, you awaken at humankind, spouting existential questions and
PRICE
the base of a great tree. Your task is to climb suggesting something about the insignificance
£13.99
it as you’re whisked away through portals to of humans. It’s all a bit disconnected from the
RELEASE
Out now various levels that require you to run, jump, and playing experience, and fails to add much that’s
complete the same puzzle over and over, that meaningful to the game itself.
being: collect glowing white orbs to progress. Visually, the abstract, polygonal world mirrors
There is one twist, though: Etherborn’s central the conceptual narrative, and a beautiful score of
REVIEWED BY concept. Your character can walk up walls and hushed woodwind and lustrous strings maintains
Ed Nightingale reorient gravity. As such, each level is cleverly peace when your mind is in full concentration
designed like an Escher-esque construct, where mode. Yet after a couple of hours, it’s all over, its
you run effortlessly around mind-bending questions unanswered, its one-note mechanics
corners, fall sideways across the screen, and never reaching a satisfyingly climactic peak.
cope with a camera that just about keeps up Etherborn is gossamer-light, its refreshing change
VERDICT with your movement but never quite gives the of pace a brief flutter among the weightier games
All style over substance, optimal view for such distorted platforming. in your backlog.
Etherborn fails to leave There are dizzying swoops as gravity changes,
a lasting impression. and cinematic framing of the scenery, but while
 he narrative is vague
T


it’s easy to fall, the generous checkpoints allow and it’s never clear who

55%
or what you’re playing as.
for some experimentation.
It’s easy to get lost in these levels, not least
because the minimalist scenery becomes flat

60 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Special orders may come
in from time to time.
These range from rush hour
customers to visits from VIP
food critics. It encourages
you to optimise your
assembly lines to be as fast
as possible.

Review

Automachef  robotic companion gives

A


you tips and accompanies you
throughout the campaign.

Overclocked

I
’ve seen enough Kitchen Nightmares to with a bigger focus on the business management
understand the agony of running your features – such as keeping your reputation and

Info
GENRE
own busy restaurant. Between the finances afloat – while you tackle stages with
Puzzle
hustle and bustle of serving those randomly-generated objectives. It makes for a
FORMAT
hungry customers and the stress of well-deserved change of pace from the scripted
PC (tested) / Switch
micromanaging a team of cooks, Automachef campaign, as every level feels unpredictable while
DEVELOPER
instead presents a modern solution to the also allowing for additional freedom in how you Hermes Interactive
culture of overstaffed kitchens by replacing approach the scenarios. PUBLISHER
everything with robotic chefs that prepare, For a more sandbox-oriented experience, Team17
cook, and assemble entire meals. Each level you can also play on the Test Site, which acts as PRICE
in Automachef has you designing elaborate a playground for testing out different machines £10.99
food assembly lines that go through the whole and setups. Then there’s the level editor where RELEASE
process of making a meal, from grabbing the you can create a whole stage from scratch – Out now
right ingredients to processing with custom objectives and
them in the correct way. “Your designs are limitations – to upload to the
Constructing these setups Steam Workshop. Further mod
leaves you to your own
never perfect the support includes the ability to
devices, using crane arms, first time around” make your own food recipes, REVIEWED BY
conveyer belts, and other allowing for near-infinite Olly Smith
machinery to help optimise the perfect design. possibilities when paired with the player-made
Once you’ve put it all together, your skills are levels. If one thing’s certain, it’s that this game is
put to the test as the restaurant opens and the built to last.
customers come flowing in. Your designs are The beauty of Automachef lies in its diverse
never perfect the first time around, and you’ll approach to player freedom. It’s a puzzler where VERDICT
immediately notice flaws that need correcting. every stage has multiple solutions. Sure, if you Accompanying a cute,
Through trial and error, you find creative just wanted the minimum success rating, then industrial aesthetic and a
solutions for these problems, and the most you need not worry about the extra objectives. variety of different game
optimal kitchen setups soon present themselves. Watching your budget, power usage, and modes, Automachef ’s
Bigger challenges appear as you progress, reputation is a restriction for the players who emphasis on player
with factors such as power usage and desire that added challenge, but it also allows freedom is a recipe
insect infestations affecting how you design you to think creatively in a way other puzzle for success.
these layouts. games don’t. Stacking it up against recent gems
If you wish to break up the story, you can also
hop on over to one of the other game modes.
‘Contracts’ is a more open-ended way to play,
like Opus Magnum or Factorio, it feels like the
most accessible game of its type and a top
banana of the genre.
80%
wfmag.cc \ 61
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Nitro-Fueled offers a solid
number of modes to keep local
players busy during nostalgic
game nights, with everything
from fully-fledged grands prix
to explosive battle arenas.
One mode that always ends in
tears is Last Kart Driving, where
players have to survive an
endless onslaught of rockets to
claim victory.

Many of the tracks in



Nitro-Fueled pay visual

homage to the best levels in
Crash Bandicoot ’s PSone
platforming legacy.

Review  xciting, yes, but also

E


startlingly harsh at times.

Crash Team Racing

Nitro-Fueled
Kart-y like it’s 1999

I
’ve never managed a true photo-finish Nitro-Fueled. It’s far from fun for the whole family,
GENRE
Info

draw in a kart racer before Crash Team unless they have the muscle memory to contend
Racing
Racing Nitro-Fueled. My eyes strained with its razor-sharp controls.
FORMAT
Switch (tested) from squinting at my paltry half of the You can even tinker with the UI and swap out
/ PS4 / XBO undocked Switch screen, I wiped my the fantastic new soundtrack for the grainy tunes
DEVELOPER sweaty palms, and struggled to contend with the of yore to achieve the true classic experience – yet,
Beenox melancholy result of all that exertion. This cocktail I found myself rejecting the sentimental options
PUBLISHER of mixed emotions came to define my experience so I could switch between different characters
Activision with Beenox’s exhilarating but brutal remake. throughout the course of the campaign.
PRICE There’s still something inexplicably satisfying In doing so, you can play with the customisation
£34.99 about Crash Team Racing’s Adventure Mode 20 options unlocked via Nitro-Fueled’s ‘Pit Stop’, the
RELEASE years on. At a glance, it’s unnecessary to gate your game’s coin-driven marketplace. It’s all cosmetic,
Out now
progress in such a way, but then the feedback loop but its mere existence feels sinister – as if it
starts to dig in. Unlocking giant doors and dealing could be monetised at any moment. That and
with snarky, carefully animated world bosses… the pittance of coins you receive lead to a
It’s those elements that cemented this game’s monotonous, unnatural grind for items which
REVIEWED BY legacy in 1999, and you’ll be pleased to know the made me long for the cosy infrastructure of
Jordan Oloman same charm still lingers. Nitro-Fueled’s courses are Nintendo’s kingpin kart racer.
lathered in details, but sadly, it’s unlikely you’ll be You’ll long for the thud of the green shell when
able to slow down enough to appreciate them. a grinning cabal of half-cyborg reprobates unload
Beenox’s dedication to the source material a salvo of homing rockets into your bumper in
borders on psychotic and, as such, the original quick succession, wasting three minutes of your
VERDICT game’s systems have been replicated in uncanny time and forcing out a race restart. Catch-up
Crash Team Racing fashion. The crushing difficulty and abrasive boost mechanics? Who needs them, says Beenox.
Nitro-Fueled is a careful system of Crash Team Racing is still very much All in all, it’s a few steps away from the
remake of a uniquely present in Nitro-Fueled, as are the visually inspired overbearing shadow of Mario Kart, asserting its
caustic kart racer. but whiplash-inducing tracks. own sense of identity in a dominated genre. Crash
Oxide Station veterans will no doubt delight Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is an uncompromising

70% in this eye-popping reimagining – but if you’re a

newcomer who hugs the wall to get around tight
corners in Mario Kart, you will struggle to enjoy
remake for masochistic grown-ups – the seasoned
few with calluses where the PSone bumper
buttons rubbed against their aged fingers.

62 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
The hub world is a cartoon
version of a typical British
high street, and it’s full of
parodical shop fronts where
all the game’s best gags can
be found – ‘Pidl’, for example,
is the best gag, because it’s
like a real supermarket except
it’s a word for wee. The other
good one is ‘Beanland’,
because they sell baked
beans in Poundland. See?

I n Pidl, no one can


hear you scream.

Review

Supermarket Shriek
Not even the best game about flinging a goat into stuff

S
upermarket Shriek is a superbly Perhaps it’s nostalgia – those who lived through
well-designed game from a the peak of Supermarket Sweep presenter Dale
talented studio. And it’s awful. Winton’s career will raise precisely one eyebrow, GENRE

Info
If the concept were leaving high maybe, at the subtle references to him (a Kart Racer
school, the yearbook would deem shopfront with his name on it, and literally the FORMAT
it “most likely to have been built around a dubious entire game). Perhaps it’s cutting political satire XBO (tested) / PC
pun.” It’s Britain, sometime after 2016, and a man – fans of moaning about Brexit on Twitter will DEVELOPER
has become stuck in a shopping trolley alongside a enjoy the decaying wall of thrift stores that make Billy Goat
goat. When the man screams, the trolley turns left. the game’s hub world, including buses with the Entertainment
Ltd
When the goat screams, the trolley turns right. words ‘£350 million’ written up the side, a gag so
PUBLISHER
Together, their screams thrust the trolley forward. toothless, directionless, and shorn of vital context
Billy Goat
Players control this phenomenon with gamepad that Ubisoft might steal it for Watch_Dogs 3. Entertainment
triggers, or by screaming into headset mics. No. Actually, it’s that the level design is Ltd
Play sessions, solo or co-op, are dominated fiendishly good. Every curve, oil spill, and PRICE
by a discordant drone of screaming. When using trap-trigger has been carefully placed to £14.99
the microphone control method, you and the encourage repeat attempts when you almost RELEASE
sap you roped into playing with you will produce get to that checkpoint, or nearly get around Out now
a bagpipe cacophony, punctuated with laughter that corner without skidding into magma.
and snorts of “Why on earth does this exist?!”, Treated as a series of death-cheating puzzles,
which will escalate in sincerity as it becomes Supermarket Shriek works so well that you find REVIEWED BY
clear that the microphone gimmick is not an yourself admiring its viciousness after, say, flooring Dave Hurst
optimum control scheme. Not that there is one. it over a moving platform, only to overshoot into
In the tradition of games better YouTubed a giant red button that unsprings a panel which
than played, like Surgeon Simulator or I Am punches you into the drink. It’s the Dark Souls
Bread, the principal challenge is in overcoming of karting, unfortunately steeped in comedy VERDICT
a bad control scheme to beat time trials and pitched at people who’d find a line like “It’s the A terrible concept,
CPU races through various shop interiors, Dark Souls of karting” amusing. Or worse, the perfectly executed. Like if
all built around the idea that traversal is sort of person who would write it, then claim Ronseal started selling
hard if you’re wearing clown shoes. it was ironic to strengthen the narrative. tinned dog droppings.
Somehow, between a concept that’s Supermarket Shriek is a horrendous idea, borne
thinner than a spill on aisle five, the
constant din, and the frustrating controls,
Supermarket Shriek has got something.
of a pun so tenuous that the whole enterprise
should have ended at “Shut up, Kevin.” But it didn’t,
and somehow, that’s not entirely a bad thing.
44%
wfmag.cc \ 63
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Defector features two
completely different twist
endings, each coming as a
surprise. Only witnessing one
of these is criminal, and though
they lead in totally different
directions, both tee up possible
sequels that would be welcomed
with open arms.

Review

Defector  ide activities include games of

S


chance, but you have a gadget or
two to tip the scales in your favour.

Blood and Strewth

D
efector opens in classic spy thriller do and see, all enticing you to go hunting for
style, with your actions under every scrap of information you can find. The
GENRE scrutiny from your superiors. achievements offer interesting objectives to
Info

Action Something went wrong, and you attempt, like flawlessly winning a fist fight, for
FORMAT have to answer for the events example. Unfortunately, some of this filler does
Oculus Rift / leading up to an incident on US soil. You’re thrown detract from Defector’s glistening star qualities.
Rift S (tested) into a series of flashbacks as you recount your You can’t interact with the majority of your
DEVELOPER version of the story, culminating in a dramatic environment, and there’s no collision detection
Twisted Pixel
climax atop the Statue of Liberty. Along the way for walls to stop you from stepping or leaning
Games
you’ll see futuristic gadgets, outrageous stunts, outside of where you’re supposed to. Reloading
PUBLISHER
and ludicrous set pieces as Defector does its best with magazines at your waist in the first level is
Oculus
Studios Mission: Impossible VR impression. fluid and immersive, but later you’re dumped in a
PRICE Each of the game’s five missions only last 30 stationary Gatling gun for five minutes.
£16.00 minutes to an hour, depending on how many And despite an intricate dialogue system, it’s a
RELEASE optional objectives you pursue, but the options shame that the protagonist isn’t given a voice – or
Out now Defector provides you with will keep you coming a human body, for that matter. One mission has
back. Every level features a branching decision you assume someone’s identity, but you only
moment where you must choose which action to see a disembodied face and arms in the mirror,
take, such as whether to go in stealthily or don a loosely connected to a translucent blue blur.
REVIEWED BY Rambo headband and unleash hell. You’ll want to This is especially strange given Defector’s voice
Jonny Foster replay each level to experience the different paths acting is intense and dramatic, and NPC models
and endings, but the optional content doesn’t are detailed.
end there. But even with a few issues cropping up,
You’re given a list of objectives – achievements Defector is undeniably fun to play. Some design
which unlock cheats and modifiers for the visuals decisions feel dated, but my main concern is
and game itself. Some of these modifiers are fairly just that Twisted Pixel sets the bar too high for
basic, like doubling enemy damage or inverting itself. The high-octane action is so gratifying
VERDICT colours, but some add new flavours to the action, that other sequences feel bland by comparison,
Pacing issues aside, like weapons that explode if you don’t reload them. and the dialogue options are too engaging and
Defector is a VR star Between this and replaying missions to explore the thoughtful to be used as sparingly as they are.
worthy of your radar. other branching points, you’ll get six to eight hours These tantalising systems have been designed so
out of Defector and, for once, I genuinely wanted to well that you can’t help but wish there was more

76% see the entirety of what this game had to offer.

It’s largely because the world-building is so
intriguing. Each level is packed with things to
time to experience them. This is the PC’s cheaper,
slimmer answer to PSVR-exclusive Blood & Truth,
and it’s absolutely worth your time.

64 / wfmag.cc
 Now playing
Bayonetta 2

Wireframe
Recommends
Well, that was
unexpected
Getting to it late doesn’t stop Bayonetta 2 from being magnificent Street Fighter III:
Third Strike

W
ARCADE, DREAMCAST,
MULTI
here could they go from Bayonetta out doing Christmas shopping, passes
Making defence tactical is the
Bayonetta? I remember that through her surfing on the back of a fighter jet,
best thing Street Fighter ever
game – for me – coming out and taking on the denizens of Paradiso with a did, and SFIII ’s parrying system
of nowhere in 2009 and, quite brand-new set of hand-and-shoe guns, and ends – perfected with the addition
frankly, ruining other games with our witch heroine battling a rogue demon of guard parrying in Third
for a long time. It was just mechanically peerless; she herself summoned initially to vanquish her Strike – is a monumentally
the sort of systems on systems on layers on angelic opponents. And that’s just the first bit brilliant mechanic.
systems that should be taught in the highest (post-prologue, which itself involves falling clocks
echelons of How To Make So, So Good Games and other such fun).
University. Which isn’t a real place. So from there, Really, if Bayonetta 2 didn’t have all of this
where could PlatinumGames go? delightful nonsense going on I’d still adore it –
Seems not very far. And for once, that isn’t there’s something about razor-sharp mechanics
a negative. Some tweaks are present in Bayonetta that make something intensely satisfying to play.
2, the sequel initially dropped by A parry on Street Fighter III. A
Sega but revived by, of all things, Ikaruga
“There’s a lot to perfect set of colour-switches to
ARCADE, DREAMCAST,
Nintendo. Enemies respond avoid/absorb in Ikaruga. Witch-
ridicule, and a lot GAMECUBE, MULTI
better to your attacks, reeling timing a boss in Bayonetta 2.
away in directions you expect to unpack” It’s not a low-level sense of
Black and white balance is key
to Ikaruga ’s brilliance – white
them to, there’s a new super- enjoyment just handed to you, is vulnerable to black and
special move to build up to… you can pick as seen in plenty of other triple-A blockbusters; vice versa, for both you and
up bows? Honestly, it’s a struggle to get that it’s a small success that you know you’ve worked enemies, making for one of the
bullet point list of new features. But that’s to to achieve and done well to engage. smartest, most intense shoot-
be expected: as a third-person action-combat It’s a game that features a witch dressed in ’em-ups ever made.
game, the original Bayonetta got about as close to her own hair and a bumbling sidekick with the
perfect as you could expect. The changes would most ridiculous Italian-American accent of all
have to focus elsewhere. time, and one that raises a thousand debates
So it is that I find myself playing through about sexuality and the agency of women/female
the sequel with possibly the world’s biggest characters inside and outside of games. There’s a
grin as the endless cutscenes and set pieces lot to ridicule about it, and a lot to unpack at the
take place, often ridiculous, usually verging on same time. But when I’m playing Bayonetta 2, I
surreal, forever captivating. The game opens with simply don’t care – it’s just a really good game. FTL:
The question is usually ‘Where can they go
Faster Than Light
PC, IOS
from here?’, but for Bayonetta 3, I have total
Instead of relying on split-
confidence in Platinum to deliver something that’s
second reactions, FTL
as utterly, genuinely unique as the team wants it demands perfect on-the-spot
to be from a storyline and presentation aspect. planning to get through its
Because it will always have those mechanics to roguelike space-hopping
rely on, and they are so, so good. adventure. And it’s magnificent.

wfmag.cc \ 65
 Killer Feature
PES (née ISS)

PES
Football’s greatest manoeuvre: the Super Cancel

KONAMI / 2003 - ON / MULTI

T
he timing might be a bit off here, but by our ones, resulting in unsanctioned combos. Eventually this glitch
records, Pro Evolution Soccer 3 in 2003 was the was turned into an actual feature, and these days you’re lucky
first of the series to introduce it, and it’s been a to see a fighting game without cancelling as a part of it.
mainstay of high-level play ever since. No, not It’s not a cheat command in any game, let alone PES.
random shots from the halfway line: Super Far from it, this is high-level stuff. See, the automated aspects
Cancel. It’s also hard to quantify whether or not Konami has of any football game are a big help to most players. We simply
ever actually referred to the technique with this, its adopted can’t keep stock of everything that’s happening on the pitch at
name, but that’s how it’s known. all times – it’s 22 people all with jobs to do, and the majority
So what is it? Well, by pressing a couple of buttons together of it simply has to be automated, both so it’s fun to play and
(your traditional ones being R1+R2 for the PlayStation so we can retain our sanity. Switching off that automation isn’t
versions), the player under your control a choice to be taken lightly, even if it
will stop doing what they were doing. “Switching off that automation does only last as long as the buttons
With football games, you see, there’s
isn’t a choice to be taken lightly, are held. It opens you up to all manner
a lot of automated help behind the of mistakes: stumbling past the ball,
scenes to make sure your players are even if it does only last as long misjudging where an opponent is,
always attempting to get to the ball, and as the buttons are held” generally making a buffoon of yourself,
a lot of canned animations that have and so on.
to play out in full. In football games before PES’s introduction But in the hands of the experts – or at least used smartly
of Super Cancel, you had to wait out these animations and sparingly – Super Cancel becomes an essential tool in
without being able to control your player, or watch helplessly the video game footballing arsenal. No more automatically
as they stupidly ran the ball out of play for no real reason. chasing a ball out of play and touching it just before it crosses
Super Cancel stopped all this: it overrides whatever is going on the touchline, resulting in the most pointless corner kick of all
and allows you full, direct control of the player. time. No more getting in the way of a ball that wasn’t meant for
Oddly, the cancel function can be traced back to earlier the player. No more reliance on automated AI-controlled runs
fighting games, of all things, with one of the biggest of the early for through balls. It brings the human element into the game,
examples being Street Fighter II. Some characters were able – and makes it much more engaging, much less predictable, and
through a glitch – to ‘cancel’ moves and quickly switch into new – dare I say it – much more like real football.

66 / wfmag.cc
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