ALL FORMATS

116 PAGES MONTHLY

LIFTING THE LID ON VIDEO GAMES

CRAFTED
Inside Amanita
Design’s handmade
adventures

WAR GAMES Issue 47 £6

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How military thinking

can improve your
video game design

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 Critical reception

I
t’s a daunting time for a critic when the Absolutely nobody wants to be on the receiving
reviews for a big game go live. You’ve spent end of a big-game defence mob. If they figure out
maybe an entire week playing something, that you’re female, though, the insults take on a
often in near-total isolation; you’ve gathered particular misogynist flavour that ranges from violent
your thoughts, arranged them into words to patronising. One chap once decided to send me
you’re hopefully proud of, and you’re sitting there graphic screenshots of a bunch of female NPCs he’d
watching the minutes tick down until people can KEZA killed in a game, along with a charming note along the
MACDONALD
read them. I always look forward to reading other lines of “this is what’s coming for you if you don’t change
Keza MacDonald has
people’s takes on a game, too, scanning through the been a video games the score”. I was once publicly referred to on Twitter, by
early reviews in search of the writers whose opinions journalist and critic a quite famous developer, as “a little girl who can’t play
I particularly respect. I vividly remember sitting in a for more than 15 games”. I have many more examples, but sadly after so
hotel room in Tokyo in the middle of the night waiting years, and is currently many years as a Woman On The Internet, I’ve got so
video games editor
for my review of Grand Theft Auto V to go live (a game I at The Guardian. She used to this that they barely make an impact any more.
loved). It was so exciting that I couldn’t sleep. has two small kids It’s exactly this that puts off a lot of women and
Sometimes, however, there are nagging doubts. Did and is very tired. minorities from becoming prominent voices on big
I get this game completely wrong? Is everyone else games – which is exactly what the trolls want, as the
going to like it much more (or much less) than I did? hegemony of opinion reflects their own innate biases.
And of course, the worry that’s especially intrusive if When people say online abuse is best ignored, this is
you’re a woman, or a person of colour, or trans, or what they’re missing: even if you can manage to ignore
there’s anything else about you that might pique the it yourself, other people still see what’s happening,
attention of the online trollverse: am I going to get and if any of those people had anything interesting to
weeks of abuse from strangers over this review? say about, say, Cyberpunk 2077’s portrayal of women,
Every critic gets heckled in the comments. they’re certainly going to feel less inclined to express

#47
Sometimes it can even be fun if people get creative them publicly after watching a reviewer get harassed.
with it and you have a sense of humour about yourself. I’m always mystified by why some care so very much
But where the commenters can occasionally be funny about someone else’s opinion of a video game, and
and arch, the anonymous social media types that have particularly about the score at the end. There’s a lot
sadly come to dominate the discourse around big of knotty psychology to unpack there, and it’s hardly
games are more nasty. They can brigade you, they can unique to gamers. Games criticism has come a long
trawl your internet presence for ammunition to use way, but if you’ve ever wondered why so many reviews
against you, they can mobilise in seemingly no time, are still so boring and read so much more like product
and they hang around in your mentions for months, evaluations than cultural criticism, or why there doesn’t
occasionally derailing your day when you check Twitter seem to be much diversity in review scores, think about
and find some egg avatar telling you to kill yourself how willing you’d be to endure the kind of backlash that
because you didn’t particularly enjoy a video game. sometimes results from having braver opinions.

wfmag.cc \ 03
 Contents

Contents

6
Attract mode Interface

06. Aragami 2 28. Amanita Design

Lince Works on its new and improved A guided tour of the ech studio’s
ninja-stealth opus handcrafted adventures

12. Roguebook 34. Lottie Bevan

The indie game that aims to shu e On the pivotal role nostalgia plays in
the deckbuilder genre the video game industry

14. Okinawa Rush 38. Abandoned genres

The brawler that’s equal parts How indies are picking up the game
inja Spirit and Street Fighter II styles triple-A studios ignore

16. Super Animal Royale 70. Spaceship hubs

An update on the furriest online Why they’re such a vital home from
game on the hori on home in sci-fi games

18. News 78. Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Another wry glance at a month’s ustwo take us behind the scenes on
events in video gaming their adorable eco-adventure

22. Letters 84. Nintendo 64

Your latest thoughts, feedback, Celebrating the console’s quarter
and general ranting century and finest games

24. Incoming 90. Steve McNeil

16 Outlaws, masked goddesses, and a
cameo from Vin Diesel
The addictive dangers of collecting
Super ario ego sets

04 / wfmag.cc
 Contents

WELCOME
In a rare idle moment the other
day, I found myself watching
Jobs – the 2013 movie about
Apple co-founder and tech
impresario Steve Jobs, played
here by a twinkly-eyed Ashton
Kutcher. This shouldn’t be
confused with Danny Boyle’s
film Steve Jobs, in which

WIN
Michael Fassbender played a
more stern version of Steve
Jobs. This got me thinking: why
are there so few movies about

28 £100 VOUCHER the making of video games? If

FOR teve obs got two films, and
PARK LONDON Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg

78
CLOTHING! got a movie made about him
See page 35 (The Social Network), then
where are the stories about our
favourite games?

Off the top of my head, the

only one I can think of is The
Gamechangers, a made-for-BBC
docu-drama about Rockstar
and their post-Grand Theft
Auto III development antics.
First aired in 2015, it starred
Daniel Radcliffe as Rockstar
co-founder and game design
Svengali Sam Houser, and tried
to take in everything from the
media controversy surrounding

70
the studio’s violent output to
the fallout that greeted the
discovery of the infamous Hot
Coffee minigame in GTA: San
Andreas. It wasn’t a great film,
but its heart was in the right

Toolbox Rated place, and I can’t help wishing

we could have more like it. I for
one would happily pay to see
a movie about the wild days of
Japanese developer Toaplan – a
46. We built this city… 92. Super Meat Boy Forever team of developers who, when
…using procedural generation and The sequel’s an infinite runner – but they weren’t making chaotic
these handy hints is it worth your time? shoot-’em-ups, were out on
drinking expeditions or riding

50. The art of war games 98. The Last Campfire

and crashing motorcycles.
If you’re reading this, David
What all game designers can learn Hello Games are back with a Fincher, do give me a call…
from the tactics genre charming adventure-pu ler
Enjoy the new issue, readers.

58. Tasty menus 101. El Hijo

Ryan Lambie
A guide to making better front-ends Stealth meets spaghetti western – to Editor
in  nreal ngine disappointing effect

64. Source Code 104. Backwards compatible

ake a Python homage to TR ’s odding a Sega ame ear and
Light Cycle minigame a Sony PlayStation

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 Attract Mode
Interview

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 Attract Mode
Interview

S H A D O W
W A R R I O R
Game director David León tells us
about the challenges of making
the stealth sequel, Aragami 2

H
aving your debut game was about nimbly leaping from shadow
la nch o solid re iews and to shadow, either taking out or avoiding
enco ra in sales is s rely he enemies – and building on its promise.
dream of any indie developer. here he firs ame s chap ers were
once ha dream s come compara i ely linear, Aragami 2 s will
r e, he ine i able es ion ha ollows feature more open areas with multiple
is, ha ne or arcelona based pa hs. here yo r cen ral charac er was
s dio ince orks, his is wha happened somewhat limited in terms of movement
in the wake of Aragami, i s nin a in the original, Aragami 2 will provide
stealth-‘em-up. “Honestly,” game more freedom on this front, too, with
direc or Da id e n ells s, Aragami s your shadowy assassin now blessed
s ccess ca h s by s rprise. D rin with greater agility and a broader range
all the development, we were obsessed o killer mo es. ha s really pi ed
abo finishin he pro ec he bes way our interest in Aragami 2, however, is
possible. I bein o r firs ame and done i s newly bee ed p co op mode, where
wi h li le reso rces, we ac ally didn players will be able to form miniature
hink abo he re or wha we d do clans o nin a assassins. Done ri h , he
a er he release. co rse, we were process o eamin p wi h o r riends
scared beca se we knew ha i he ame and clearin o s a es o ns spec in
didn o well, we d probably ha e o enemies using a variety of sneaky, deadly
shut down the studio. Therefore, when skills co ld be an absol e rio .
he ame came o and had s ch a ood ere, Da id e n ells s all abo
recep ion, we hen asked o rsel es , he process o plannin and de elopin
wha do we do now Aragami 2, rom he challen es o
nders andably, ince orks has b ildin on he ori inal s mechanics o
op ed o make a se el a ollow p ha overhauling enemy AI – plus, the hidden
e pands on he pared back principles deb ince orks ames owe o Dragon
o he firs Aragami which, a i s core, Ball Z…

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 Attract Mode
Interview

How quickly did you start thinking about

making the sequel?
We saw that what we had in our hands
[with the first Aragami] was something
good and that players liked it, so we
thought that the most coherent thing to
do was to go one step beyond and make
it something bigger and better. What
we want to achieve with Aragami 2 is to
expand the universe of Aragami, to settle
it as a franchise, and to apply everything
we learned from the first title in order to
make the most ambitious game we could.

How has Lince Works itself changed

since the first game? Has the team
grown to take on the challenge of
making the sequel?
Most of Aragami’s development was done
just by seven people. For Aragami 2, we
had to grow the team; currently sitting at Aragami 2 is set a century later. Is there importance, and that inherently meant
20 people. This meant an evolution for the a narrative/stylistic reason behind the breaking with the narrative of the first title.
company, which has matured from being time shift?
a studio focused only on development to Aragami was a self-concluding story with The game looks quite different visually,
a studio that thinks more about a long- a linear narrative. We thought the best too – can you talk about some of the
term IP trajectory. thing was to pick up the story many advancements on this front? Will you be
The internal structure of the team years after the events of the first game, taking advantage of the new generation
changed as well in order to be able to thereby creating some distance between of consoles’ processing power?
tackle larger and more complex projects. the two. This would allow us to have In the original Aragami, we opted for
In addition, we used part of the funding creative freedom in terms of characters the cel-shading style because we were
to invest in areas that at first did not have and environment, and let us explore limited on a number of fronts, especially
much support, such as art or animation; new narrative and gameplay forms. on the technical and production side of
and others that did not exist at all, like Ultimately, we wanted to expand the things. Cel-shading is a technique that
marketing and communications. universe of Aragami’s IP. In addition, the offers very attractive visuals and doesn’t
multiplayer component has much more require as many resources. Obviously,
weight in Aragami 2 than it did in the first we learned a lot from our first project,

Although lurking in shadows is still key


in Aragami 2, the sequel will provide game. There is no single main character and for Aragami 2, we wanted to be more
other means of staying hidden. in Aragami 2, but instead, we approached ambitious and raise the bar considerably.
the concept of a ‘clan’ which takes more The cel-shading technique was limiting us,
so we decided to take the step towards
a more realistic 3D aesthetic but without
losing the cartoonish look, as seen in other
titles such as Overwatch. We’re working
with more polygons and detailed models,
increasingly complex scenarios, and an
advanced lighting system that makes the
game look more realistic.
As for the new generation of consoles,
of course there are direct advantages,
such as faster level loading and higher
visual quality. Aragami 2 is a cross-
generation title, so our priority is to have
the highest quality on all platforms. We’re

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Interview

oc sed on releasin a ame ha will look In Aragami 2, one of our priorities was
bea i l and r n smoo hly on all de ices, to boost player freedom of movement
so players can e pec o ha e an ama in and make the player feel extremely agile.
e perience wi h he ame re ardless o
he pla orm o choice.
In order o achie e his, we rned he
Shadow ssence mechanic in o a S amina
JAPANESE
Sys em ha doesn rely on s ayin in he EXPORTS
How will the ‘Shadow Essence’ mechanic shadows o reco er.
Although Aragami isn’t based on
change from the original? Was there Another interesting element in ny s e ifi e s e n y hs
a certain caution around changing Aragami 2 is that there are several Japanese culture and design
somethin that wor ed so well the rst other ways to remain hidden besides run deep through both games.
time around? sin he shadows. In he firs ame, he e son he oun o ni e
Aragami 2 is a disr p i e se el in many yo prac ically always depended on on nish e evision in he s
ways i will rans orm many mechanics shadows to stay away from enemies, but León explains. “The reason why
we saw in he firs i le, ye i will in Aragami 2, yo can hide in all rass we ended up making a game
i h su h nese in uen e
main ain he core elemen s ha made or bushes, hang from elevated spots, or
is o h u ious nd unny he
s ys. e o he e

“One of our priorities was to boost is o oni

e evision ne o
nd he o
s one o
player freedom of movement” he fi s h nne s in u o e o
broadcast anime in the nineties.
That marked our generation a lot
Aragami special he firs ime. Shadow s alk rom corners and make con e al with series like Oliver y Benji [also
ssence was one o he o hes ea res kills and s offerin a wide arie y o known as eones] Dr. Slump
o adap and impro e or his se el s eal h op ions and ac ical choices. or Dragon Ball. That’s why many
eo e in ou oun y ee ind
so that it made sense from a design
o devo ion o h n ho
s andpoin . In he firs ame, Shadow Can you talk a bit about how co-op will
Japanese pop culture – it was
ssence was sed by players o mo e impact the game? How will we form
something we grew up with since
aro nd he map sin Shadow eap a nin a clans for e ample and how will we e e e i e ids.
elepor a ion mechanic and o crea e be able to co-operate in missions?
shadows. Shadow ssence was ained he in rod c ion o he co op mode was
by s ickin o he shadows, which orced a s ccess in Aragami, and so we co ldn
he player o lin er in cer ain par s o he concei e he se el wi ho i bein one
environment, limiting its mobility. o he main pillars o he ame. I s s ill a

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 Attract Mode
Interview


Look out for more


varied – and often

aggressive – enemy
types in Aragami 2.

CALL FOR game that you can play in single mode,

of course, but we wanted the co-op to be
they can chase you across the map, go
through obstacles, climb rooftops, and
UNITY more complex and stimulating than in the fight with you in melee and in a group.
first game. They can also investigate disturbances,
Like its predecessor, Aragami 2
is built in Unity – albeit heavily
The Kakurega Village acts as a single- such as a light that has gone out or bird
modified by Lince Works, León player and online hub. Here, you can create movements, and communicate with each
tells us. “We’re still using Unity your online squad and invite other players other to investigate areas as a team.
but with an upgraded rendering to take on missions together and advance In the first game, we had a small variety
pipeline and engine version. in the story. The co-op system is drop-in/ of enemies, while in Aragami 2, we have
When we were working on drop-out, so you can join and leave a game a number of different types of enemies,
Aragami, we were also asked a at any time and at any point in the story. each one with its own behaviour. We
lot if it was made in Unreal Engine Moreover, what makes the co-op designed an enemy system based on
4, and I think this is because we
significantly engaging and fun is that clans classes so the player will have to adapt
are always trying to push Unity to
will want to take into account what their their playstyle accordingly. For example,
the limit, to go beyond the default
features that the engine provides.
strengths are when they play together a Keeper won’t leave their post or patrol
We try to adapt the engine to our as a team. Since players can customise unless they have to combat the player, and
needs so that the game takes their characters with different Shadow they will be more defensive than offensive.
on its own identity. That is why Powers and abilities, each will develop But a Fanatic will have a more aggressive
people will not see it as a game its own playstyle. There will be players behaviour and will attack automatically
made in Unity, because it is a with a more aggressive and direct style when he spots you, using heavy attacks
Unity that has mutated a lot!” who are interested in developing combat; and won’t give up. Players are definitely in
others who like to be deadly and stealthy for a real challenge now.
at the same time; and those who prefer
hardcore stealth and deception. In this On that note, what are the challenges
way, we have different profiles of players of getting enemy AI right in a stealth
who can join and contribute with their game, since enemy behaviours are so
own playstyle to the team. critical to the challenge and immersion
in the genre?
Will we see any changes/advancements The important thing is that the player
in things like enemy AI? understands how their actions affect
Yes, absolutely. In fact, this is one of the behaviour of the enemy. Hence, the
the features that we enhanced the feedback given to players every time
most in Aragami 2. AI, in general, has something modifies the behaviour of
received a significant boost, so now the the AI must be greatly refined, such that
enemies are also able to co-ordinate, the player can learn from it and use it in

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 Attract Mode
Interview

their favour. That has a direct effect on among other stuff, will change depending of the gameplay, without some taking
the difficulty. We also have to make sure on your progress in the story. more protagonism than others. We want
that the player is aware exactly when and the player to try and use all these skills and
how they’re discovered by the enemy AI, More generally, what kind of research items as they play the game. In Aragami,
and to keep the game ‘fair’ in that regard. goes into making these games? Did you the use of powers and abilities was
There are small tricks that we do, such visit Japan, for example? How deep into constrained by the Shadow Essence, so the
as penalising the sense or vision of the traditional folklore and history did you player was conservative when using them.
enemies that are out of the player’s field go for the plots? In Aragami 2, we wanted to change that,
of vision, limiting the number of enemies Even though we’d love to visit Japan one and now the most powerful powers work
that can go to investigate a disturbance, day, that wasn’t part of the research by cooldown. In this way, we encourage the
or cutting the enemy’s vision when the scope for the game. In fact, the world of player to use them more, which translates
player is in a higher ground. Aragami is not and does not pretend to be into a more rewarding experience.

What’s been the biggest challenge of

“In Aragami, the use of powers and abilities making Aragami 2 so far?
was constrained by the shadow essence” Without a doubt, the general scope of
the project. The evolution from our first
game to this one is monumental, this
Level/environment design is also key, of a realistic view of the folklore and history being the most ambitious project for Lince
course. What’s your process for creating of Asian cultures, especially Japanese. Works to date. Sometimes it’s difficult to
these? Do you draw them out or go Aragami, for us, is more a tribute to find a balance between how ambitious
straight to grey-boxing on the computer? different influences that we have had and creative you can be with what you’re
To begin the process, we draw the maps from Japanese culture throughout our capable of doing, within the time frame
and define the different areas and lives, adapting them to a fictional world, and resources you have. Aragami 2 has a
observation points or safe points for the and that largely includes pop culture, lot of new mechanics and features, and
player. When all the important elements anime, Asian cinema, or ninja mythology. it’s extremely difficult to fit everything into
are established, then we create the grey the game. In addition, making a title with
box and do a playtest run, with enemies What goes into designing and balancing a strong multiplayer component, using a
and interactive elements present. If the things like the skills and upgrades? player hub, and managing the narrative
result is satisfactory and we approve What we want in Aragami 2 is for the of different online players who may be at
the design of the level, we dress it with different abilities and powers to be different points in the story have all been
final art. interesting and useful in different aspects really tough challenges.
Levels in Aragami 2 are fundamentally
different from the ones in the first game.
Instead of linear levels, Aragami 2 features
large open locations, with different
spawn points, multiple paths and points
of interest, and more verticality overall.
Although the environments will all have
a similar style throughout different runs,
enemy patrols, items and objective
locations, light sources, and obstacles,


Forming our own clan of ninja assassins:


one of the things we’re most looking

forward to sampling in the sequel.

wfmag.cc \ 11
 Attract Mode
Early Access

Roguebook
Build a deck, battle a deck, do the decking

A
GENRE deckbuilder might well pass many stand out in this crowded field that does indeed
Info

Deckbuilder of us by these days – plenty have wash over us a lot of the time.
FORMAT popped up in recent months and “Richard’s been a great help and mentor,”
PC / Mac / Linux years, so it’s easy to let it all wash explains Jean-Michel Vilain, CEO and co-founder
DEVELOPER over you as you continually play… of Abrakam. “He’s been involved in designing
Abrakam
GWENT, I guess? But Abrakam Entertainment board-games and deckbuilders for a long time,
Entertainment
headed to Kickstarter nonetheless, pitching and he agreed to give us a hand since he really
PUBLISHER
Roguebook to the world and managing to liked our previous game, Faeria.”
Nacon
get it successfully funded. How? By doing it From testing early versions of Roguebook
RELEASE
May 2021 once before in 2017 with Faeria – another and offering up feedback, arfield’s role in the
strategy card game, and one that was well- game has changed to become something of
received across the board. One particular fan a consultant. “Sometimes he gives us a small
of Abrakam’s last game was Richard arfield, feature idea,” Vilain continues. “I think he taught
creator of Magic: The Gathering, Netrunner, us to realise the true flaw of any deckbuilder
The world map is KeyForge, and many more. They’re all superb system: if you let players pick cards only when


randomised in each
playthrough, which Abrakam card games – collectable and other – in case it’s going to make their deck stronger, and if you
o es will add si nificant
replay value to the game.
you’re wondering. So it makes sense for arfield give them the opportunity to trim their decks
to be involved in Roguebook, and he has brought very often, players end up with a very thin deck.
a chunk more oomph to the project, helping it to [That’s] not great, since every match they will
play with their deck will feel the same.
“Richard convinced us that we could do
something more fun by giving reasons for
players to end up with larger decks. So we’ve
introduced a talent system which rewards you
with a new passive ability for every five cards in
your deck, while also looking at designing cards
and treasures which benefit from larger decks.
It’s a very interesting design space to explore.”
The game proper is generally straightforward
in how it plays out – you battle against AI-
controlled units using a couple of heroes and

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Early Access

Between battles, there’s



a randomised world to
explore, with decisions
to be made (and decks
to be built).

their drafted decks, attacks, buffs, debuffs, all

that good stuff. It’s not something aiming to
break the mould, rather something that wants
to get things right. All the same, Abrakam does
have a couple of tricks up its sleeve, mainly
via Roguebook’s procedurally generated game
world and through a focus on sheer depth in the
combinations players can build for themselves
and take advantage of.
“There are a few digital deckbuilders around Numbers, lovely numbers.


Don’t just aim for the big
now,” Vilain says, “and we thought it’d be ones, though, there’s more
interesting to have the gameplay phases occurring because it lifts a big weight off our shoulders, strategy than that.

between battles be more of an interesting game Vilain explains. “Every card which feels great
in itself. Our hope is to have players want to to play to you might feel negative to your
finish a battle because they want to advance the opponent.” A technique that might feel good for
exploration of our randomly generated worlds, the player might be one that, on balance, just
and not just be motivated by the reward of adding ends up feeling worse for the opponent – and
one more card to their decks.” that’s something that needs to be avoided in
Depth, meanwhile, has been a goal multiplayer titles where possible, as it leads to
throughout the game’s development – with negative feeling. “On our previous title, Faeria,
playthroughs of Roguebook clocking in at around we had to discard an incredible amount of
two hours and players only facing AI opponents card designs because of that,” Vilain says. “With
there’s no multiplayer , that left the floor open Roguebook, it’s the opposite: we can design the
to some more extravagant options when it game to let players do wild things without having
came to what the player to care how the opponent
can wield in their deck. “We want players to break would feel about it.”
As Vilain says: “For us With around 20 people
the game in explosive and
card gamers this is working on bringing
an opportunity we’ve different ways” Roguebook to life – plus
dreamed about: to let the those contributions
player access incredibly powerful synergies and from arfield – Abrakam is hopeful it will have
combinations of cards, gems, treasures, talents – put together a compelling offering for those
we want players to break the game in explosive craving a more power-mad approach to an
and different ways. otherwise largely typical deckbuilding title. With
That encouragement to break stuff just the expertise both of the team and arfield, the
wouldn’t fly in a Hearthstone, say, as pure, refined uncertainty of a run that comes with randomised
balance is key. Roguebook, meanwhile, relies generation of the game world each playthrough,
both on the fact you’re not playing against and a focus on just cutting loose and letting
another person and the short-run, randomised players have fun with the cards they’re dealt,
roguelike elements to help it lean on this there could be something here even for those
sometimes explosive randomness. “The main who haven’t been paying the genre much heed
reason we enjoy making a single-player game is in recent times.

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Early Access

Okinawa Rush
Steven Miller tells us about the long process of making
a throwback to nineties combat games

I
GENRE f our cover star, Aragami 2, represents For Miller, Okinawa Rush began several years
Info

Brawler a more modern example of an eastern- ago as a part-time project – a game he could
FORMAT infused action game, then Okinawa Rush work on after finishing his day’s work as a carer.
Switch / PC / harks back to the sub-genre’s 2D roots. As the game took shape, however, Miller’s
XBO / PS4
Headed up by British developer Steven brother David stepped in as co-designer and
DEVELOPER Miller, it’s a side-scrolling brawler that recalls artist, and even took the bold step of moving
Sokaikan
such titles as Ninja Spirit and Dragon Ninja, but from London to Steven’s neck of the woods
PUBLISHER
replaces their simplistic run-and-strike combat in the Medway area so they could work more
PixelHeart
with more detailed combat mechanics. Okinawa closely together. “We were both avid gamers as
RELEASE
Spring 2021
Rush’s brawny warriors can pull off a variety of children and loved the Amiga especially,” Steven
punches and kicks, while an immensely satisfying Miller tells us. “That was the golden age for
parry system means an accurately timed hit will us. I’ve always had an intense interest in game
Okinawa Rush draws on some send a deadly ninja star pinging straight back at design, from an early age – drawing mazes or


arcade and computer greats:

Street Fighter and Ninja Spirit, whoever threw it. stages on paper and so on.”
and also First Samurai and
Full Contact on the Amiga.
With the Commodore Amiga being such an
important computer in Miller’s formative years,
it’s perhaps unsurprising that Okinawa Rush’s
resolution, colour palette, and sprite designs
recall some of the system’s finest action
games. “I don’t think we had a particular style
in mind – it was more about what felt right in
terms of the playfield, iller tells us, I’m sure,
subconsciously, we went for an Amiga look but
in a widescreen ratio. The palette evolved from
256 [colours] to 16 million while still trying to
keep to the rules of working within a smaller
palette. Dithering is used in a few places as a
chosen aesthetic rather than a necessity – the
Bitmap Brothers’ games like Gods, Speedball 2,
and The Chaos Engine were big inspirations for
the pixel art.”
Behind those colourful sprites, however, lies a
technically impressive game that simply wouldn’t
have fitted on a handful of Amiga floppy disks

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

there are three characters to choose from, each

with their own moveset inspired by real-world
martial arts a local co-op mode where players
can team up to pull off unique combos and a
lengthy campaign that unfolds over five stages.
Many of these features were gradually added as
Steven Miller and his team use


Okinawa Rush evolved from a single-player game Fusion2 for programming and
with the handful of modes first shown off in an sprite editing, while sound and
music employ the likes of
early demo joined by more ambitious, fleshed- Audacity and MadTracker2.
out ideas. “The project evolved over time, and it
didn’t have clear boundaries in place, in some
respects,” Miller says. “For example, it originally As the project has grown, so too has the team
only had one playable character – and only
one player – but it now has three characters,
surrounding it – the Millers are now joined by
Gary Angelone, who’s handling the console
BASH AND
nine endings to unlock, and two-player co-op ports, French programmer Julien Magnin, and PARRY
as well. So yes, it’s changed massively since its Mike ‘Brassica’ Wright, who’s providing the One of Okinawa Rush’s most
unique aspects is its combat,
conception. It still has those survival and boss- soundtrack. Thanks to the support of publisher
which owes more of a debt to
battle modes, but there are more moves now PixelHeart, there’s a physical, special edition of the Street Fighter series than
and more dynamic features such as using the Okinawa Rush on the way for Switch, Xbox One, your typical side-scrolling
environment to your advantage.” and PS4, as well as PC. It’s been a challenging platformer. “I’ve always been
fascinated by what makes
In 2017, Okinawa Rush couple of years for the
a good fighting or brawler
was successfully greenlit “I’ve always had an project, with the game game,” Miller says. “[Okinawa
on Steam, and also found hitting several delays –
intense interest in game Rush ] is a combination of
enough backers on getting it running at a the two genres – a brawler
Kickstarter to help it cross design, from an early age” smooth 60 frames per with some fighting game
mechanics. We decided to
its £10,000 minimum second was, Miller says,
make the bosses have two
goal. It was at this point, Miller says, that he a particular hurdle. Thankfully, however, the end sets of animations, regular
and his brother decided to start working on the is in sight, with Okinawa Rush’s release planned and ‘damaged’. It’s a bit like
game full-time. The ickstarter was quite rough, for around Easter. “Having backed games myself, the Monster Hunter series,
where you visibly see that
really. Hard work. This was the point we realised I always hated it when they were delayed, but
you’re winning the battle.
we couldn’t do our day jobs any longer, and the now I know first-hand how it feels behind the Some bosses will behave
pressure from the backers is intense sometimes. scenes,” he tells us. “If the game isn’t ready then differently when injured –
Although they have, overwhelmingly, been it simply can’t be released. The struggle has and may even become more
very supportive and understanding regarding been unreal at times, but we’re approaching the deadly in some instances,
lashing out with one-hit death
deadlines being missed.” finish line now.
moves against the player.”
As for the game’s nifty
‘parry anything’ mechanic,
An online high-score table


adds to the retro-modern feel: that was one of the earliest

the better you score, the more concepts Miller came up
in-game currency you’ll earn to with. “Right at the beginning
buy equipment for your dojo.
of development, I thought it
would be amazing to have a
Street Fighter III -style parry,
except in an adventure game
setting. It can be used on
anything – including spike
traps, falling boulders, or
whatever the danger is. Our
parry is much more lenient,
however, the input isn’t that
demanding. The main danger
comes from enemy numbers
and being overwhelmed in
some situations.”

wfmag.cc \ 15
 Attract Mode
Early Access

Critter crunch
Heading back to the woods for an update on Super Animal Royale

W
ay back in our third-ever issue, source of surprise and delight is the game’s
GENRE
Info

Critter blaster we took a look at a little animal- embracing of its storyline elements.
FORMAT
themed battle royale game that “We’re approaching storytelling like an
PC / Mac was imminently releasing in epic fantasy novel, says ichael Silverwood,
DEVELOPER Early Access. Known as Super co-founder of Pixile Studios. “So we’ve written
Pixile Studios Animal Royale, it drew us in with its juxtaposition a deep backstory for our absurd world and
PUBLISHER of cutesy visuals and, as you’d expect from the characters, and we use it to develop everything
Modus Games genre, multiplayer violence… and we weren’t the – new characters, new points of interest,
RELEASE only ones. So here we are now, about two years biomes on the map, and our YouTube animated
Later in 2021 later, revisiting the fortunes of a game that’s series.” Said animated series, Super Animal
almost at v1.0 and going to exit Early Access in Royale Tonight, involves a mix of this storytelling,
the near future – as well as one that’s seen a crafted by the dev team, mixed in with highlights
committed community build organically around – the best clips of skilful plays, or funniest
it over the years. moments, or what have you, as submitted by the
When it comes to the bullet points of changes community. It’s proving a useful and unique way
since we last spoke to Pixile Studios, things are to keep players engaged and entertained, with
pretty straightforward: top of the list is the move the bulletins helping to keep things fresh and
to free-to-play in November 2020, which opened growing that organic player base.
up the ability to unlock all super animal breeds, As for the team itself, Pixile has grown to
cosmetics, and achievements for anyone playing eleven strong with two new hires coming
the game. Unsurprisingly this saw the player base directly from the community – an artist and a
jump up significantly. ore animal breeds to play software developer. “It continues to be a fully
The action is still an have been introduced too, rising from 50 at the virtual team,” Silverwood explains, “spread


engaging mix of cute

crossed with violent, though start of Early Access to more than 300 at the time out across North America, Europe, and Asia.
you’re not exactly seeing fox
guts splattering everywhere.
of writing and, you’d assume, more to come in Community feedback plays an integral role in
future. New weapons, new map locations, giant game development across all our channels, but
emus to ride into battle – all those sorts of things especially in Discord, where we’re able to chat
you’d expect – but what has been a constant directly with players. The team also actively

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

The game is backed up



by a surprisingly
in-depth storyline,
telling the tale of
rebellions and the
attempted quashing
of said rebellions.

plays the game with the community so we been foundational to the game design, so it
can experience things first-hand and imagine hasn’t been tweaked much and has proved to
together where we can take the game next.” be integral to the game’s success,” Silverwood
The update process has changed thanks to says – but there have been attempts to build
this first-hand experience, as well as how Super on it: “This past Halloween we debuted a night
Animal Royale has been received so far: “We began mode where we experimented with each player
Early Access releasing updates every one or two having a flashlight-style cone of vision to make
weeks so that there was a consistent flow of gameplay more suspenseful, which is one of the
new content for players, as we were building the few experiments we’ve run with the line-of-sight
foundations of the game,” Silverwood says. “In the mechanic. Night mode now randomly activates
second year of Early Access, once we had most of 9% of the time to mix things up in matches.” Super Animal Royale


the foundations in place, The updates will Tonight is a lovely touch,
keeping players engaged
we shifted to releasing “We’re approaching continue in the run-up with the game with its
regular episodes.
updates every three to to v1.0 and beyond, but
four weeks, which proved
storytelling like an epic for now, Pixile finds itself
to be more sustainable fantasy novel” in the enviable position
and also allowed us to of having a popular
make each update bigger… Over the summer in battle royale game with a decent player base
2020 we began working on our biggest update established before it’s even properly out. It’s
yet, overhauling the game’s progression systems something that’s not lost on Silverwood. “We’re
and menus and transitioning the base version extremely proud of how far the game has come
of the game to be free. Fortunately, the long- and the community that has grown around it,”
term planning was worth it, and when the ajor he says. “The community of players is one of
pdate was finally released, we experienced a the most special aspects of the game, and is FEATURE DROP
10× jump in concurrent player count and a ton of uniquely positive and sporting for a competitive As well as an apparently
excitement from players.” game. It helps that it’s harder to get upset when stable process behind
What’s surprising is how relatively stable the your death results in your cute animal exploding updates and tweaks,
Super Animal Royale ’s
whole thing has been. Super Animal Royale has into spaghetti and meatballs or balloons development also gets a
seen many updates, of course, but the core and you’re served up an animal pun, but it’s boon from the fact it isn’t
mechanics – like the line-of-sight – haven’t also thanks to our exceptional community over-promising: “We haven’t
been tweaked hugely, or overhauled in any moderators who actively engage with players had to permanently drop any
ideas in the past two years,”
major way. “The line-of-sight mechanic has both in-game and in Discord.”
Silverwood explains. “But
As for that v1.0 release? Silverwood is very sometimes ideas do need to
positive: “Rather than being an end, we see v1.0 be pushed into the backlog
But why, pray, would


anyone ever want to as a new beginning. uch of our work through either for more time to plan/
exit the hamster ball? 2020 was laying the groundwork for the next design/test them to get them
ready for release, or just to
chapter of Super Animal Royale, including regular carve out enough time to
seasonal content synced with new episodes build them if they’re very large
of our YouTube series, new game modes and features. As a small team,
weapons, and expanded storytelling.” we always need to be good
at prioritising what is most
And, because you’re clearly curious, here’s
important.” Rideable emus, of
season one of Super Animal Royale Tonight: course, were very important
wfmag.cc/SARTON. to get in there.

wfmag.cc \ 17
 Attract Mode
News

03

month
that was
02

01

01. In the zone 03. DirectX creator

02. Raw help
Payload Studios has partnered with passes away
industry partners to launch Tentacle Raw Fury, publisher behind the likes
Zone – a four-month virtual incubator of Call of the Sea and Star Renegades, The creator of DirectX, Eric Engstrom,
aimed at helping early-stage indie has made various developer-friendly has died aged 55 following complications
developers through advice, mentorship, resources available to any and all. from an injury. Engstrom – along with
and straightforward assistance. The Anyone with an interest can head to Alex St. John and Craig Eisler – made
initiative is focused on folks from the company’s site and take a look at Microsoft’s Windows-based gaming API
typically under-represented backgrounds template and example documents for in the mid-1990s, around the time the
“including, but not limited to: POC, lower things like pitch decks, PR and marketing company was on the verge of giving up
socio-economic backgrounds, LGBTQ+, plans, even Raw Fury’s generic publishing on gaming altogether. Thanks to the
under-represented genders, disabilities, agreement is up there to pore over, efforts of ngstrom and co, the first
and neurodiversity”. Applications have download, and edit to your heart’s DirectX-powered release, DOOM on
already begun when you’re reading this, content. It’s a fantastic initiative by the Windows 95, helped pave the way both
but they remain open until 24 February, publisher and is sure to be a huge help for the company to retain its focus on
so unless you’re a late reader there to those who need to do the things you gaming, and for the eventual birth of
should still be time to get in on the need to do when releasing a game, but the Xbox. It’s an incredibly sad loss, and
action (and advice). Interested? Have a aren’t quite sure how to do them. one for which we extend our deepest
look: wfmag.cc/tenta Visit: wfmag.cc/Raw sympathies to Eric’s family and friends.

Cyberpunk 2077 mural could land Riot Games and Bungie taking
GatorCheats to court for… cheating

18 / wfmag.cc
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News

04

06

05

06. Classactionpunk
04. Oh crap(com)
Cyberpunk 2077 continues to pile up the
apcom announced it had suffered a 05. Alphabetising woes on developer/publisher CD Projekt
security breach back in November of last Red, as Rosen aw Firm confirmed at the
year, but the consequences of the huge Employees of Alphabet – parent end of it had filed a class-action
leak of data and personal information company of Google – announced in early lawsuit alleging company executives
weren’t quite apparent back then. January the formation of the Alphabet lied about the RPG’s state on last-gen
Now we know at least 16,406 people Workers Union, a… union… of Alphabet consoles, the PS4, and Xbox One. Rosen
have seen their info compromised in workers. It’s pretty self-explanatory, is canvassing for plaintiffs to join the legal
the hack, with up to 390,000 people though still largely surprising given action on its site, so folks in the US who
potentially impacted overall. Initially, Silicon Valley companies aren’t exactly feel aggrieved enough by Cyberpunk’s
Capcom stated nine people – current too comfortable with their workers lacklustre performance on consoles can
and former employees – had seen their pitching in together with things like head on over and sign up – though we’re
data accessed, so it’s a bit of a rise there. collective bargaining et al. Of course, not linking it here, as we’re a UK-based
So far, those impacted are all linked to oogle has a significant stake in the magazine, so there’s not much point.
Capcom professionally, with nothing world of gaming, not just via Stadia, so Regardless, a statement from CD Projekt
at the time of writing pointing towards it will be enlightening to see how things Red said the company would “undertake
consumer information being leaked. progress with the union in the coming vigorous action to defend itself against
All the same bad times at apcom igh. months and years. any such claims”.

Halo Jonas Neubauer, seven-time Tetris world

off around December 2021 champion, passes away aged 39

wfmag.cc \ 19
 Attract Mode
News

09

07 08

07. ucas lm
Games returns 09. CONSUME
08. Primal rage
Stepping back beyond the LucasArts 57.3% of games were bought digitally
years, Disney has announced the Last month we reported on a study in the UK in 2020, with 24.5 million of
relaunch rebrand of ucasfilm ames. claiming video games are, actually, good the 42.7 million games sold last year
The excitement pretty much ends there, for mental health – this month it’s a going the non-physical route. The data,
though, as the brand is purely to act study claiming that, actually, video games analysed by Gamesindustry.biz and not
as a licensor of Lucas-related projects. don’t have a link to increased levels of including Bethesda or Nintendo’s digital
But then the excitement picks up again, violence and aggression. The snappily figures, shows sales of video games rose
because Machine Games announced titled Growing Up with Grand Theft Auto: a whopping 34% over 2019 as people
it is handling an Indiana Jones tie-in, to A 10-Year Study of Longitudinal Growth found themselves needing things to
be published by Bethesda. The game of Violent Video Game Play in Adolescents, stave off boredom and worry in a year
has zero detail right now beyond the by Sarah M. Coyne and Laura Stockdale, where everything went to pot. FIFA 21
fact that it exists (in some form) and shows no real increase in aggressive was the UK’s winner in game sales, while
won’t be out for quite a while, but here’s behaviour across a decade-long study. Nintendo won the console war with
something else: Ubisoft Massive has The actual paper has a lot more words the Switch being the top-selling bit of
been confirmed to be working on a Star than we could fit here, so give it a look hardware eleven out of twelve months.
Wars project under the ucasfilm ames and draw your own conclusions: A big year for games, though not for the
banner too. So… they’re not being stingy. wfmag.cc/violence best of reasons.

LG TVs to get native Stadia app,

. LOOK AT IT no Chromecast required

20 / wfmag.cc
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News

10

11
12

12. Microsoft Switch

11. SuperKwalee-
10. One more Ask 300,000 years ago, Microsoft launched
fragilistic the original Xbox. But before that fateful
Just under a decade’s worth of Iwata day in 2001, the company attempted to
Asks – Nintendo’s series of interviews UK-based mobile games publisher purchase a few established gaming giants
with former boss-man Satoru Iwata that Kwalee committed to donating 100% in order to ease its entry into the console
ran from 2006 through to his death in of the proceeds from its game Teacher gaming market. According to a piece
2015 – were collated and released in a Simulator to FareShare, the charity on the birth of the Xbox in Bloomberg,
book for the Japanese market; fantastic backed by footballer/all-round top guy Microsoft approached EA to receive a
for those who speak the langu- oh wait, Marcus Rashford, in the week after ‘no’, while attempts to purchase Square
we don’t have to be polite anymore! school kids were sent back to classrooms went quite far before things ended, with
That’s because an English translation is for a day before having to return to Square’s money-people saying there
coming on 13 April, titled Ask Iwata and home-schooling in the UK’s third national wasn’t enough of it (money) on the table.
published by Viz Media (not that one). lockdown. The campaign ran for the Best of all, though, is the bit where former
Iwata Asks was always an enlightening week ending 10 January and was able Microsoft employees admit the company
and transparent look into the machinery to raise around £2900 for the charity, attempted to buy Nintendo (“They just
behind Nintendo’s façade, so this is which aims to help reduce both hunger laughed their asses off . ou can find
guaranteed to be a wonderful coffee- and food waste across the nation. So like the whole excellent piece through here:
table book to have around. Chartwells, but better. wfmag.cc/Bloombox

Brian Cooper, founder of Nintendo Japan website,

passed away in November, it was announced

wfmag.cc \ 21
 Attract Mode
Letters

Post Apocalypse
Retro revivals, bygone games mags, and the
folly of pre-orders: it’s this month’s letters

Do-overs
In issue 46, you asked us to one that flickers to the top of necessity cutting themselves
choose which old gaming my head is the XCOM revival. loose of the name and the
franchise we’d like to see I still shudder at the updating expectations that came with
resurrected for some kind of of Syndicate that came out a it, didn’t they come up with a
modern do-over. As much as while back though, and how it better game?
I mop up every retro game managed to savagely miss the I’ll go back in my cave now
repackaging, no matter how point of what made the first to play a bit more PaRappa
many times I’ve bought the two games (and the brutally The Rapper, if it’s all the same
titles concerned across every hard expansion pack) so great. with you.
format I’ve owned, maybe we Let other developers take Stu Acton
knock this on the head? ideas forward. Two Point
Genuinely: how many times Hospital had enough of the Ryan writes:
has one of these modern-day DNA of Theme Hospital – I’d counter this by saying
reworkings actually given us and some of the original some recent revivals have
a really good game? The only developers, of course – but by been incredible. Lizardcube’s
Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s
Trap and Streets of Rage
sequel were both made
Issue #46 with real passion. But then
we got that XIII remake last
year, which missed the point
entirely. Basically what I’m
saying is we should give all
these projects to Lizardcube.

Want to write
to Wireframe?
Message us at
wfmag.cc/hello
or tweet us
@wireframemag

22 / wfmag.cc
 Attract Mode
Letters

Day none Shortcuts

I found myself nodding along Ryan writes:
to the column by Steve McNeil It does feel like the biggest With news that Ubisoft is set to make an
in Wireframe issue 46, and the fans of a particular game or
idea of resisting lining up a list franchise pay the highest
open-world sandbox set in a galaxy far,
of pre-orders of games. I’ve price for their affection: far away, we asked Twitter: what’s your
long failed to see the advantage they put their money down favourite Star Wars video game ever?
of pre-ordering: we’re in an era once to pre-order the fancy
where a big release will require collector’s edition that comes
X-Wing vs TIE Fighter – maybe not as good story-wise as
at least a gigabyte or two of with an art book, soundtrack
TIE Fighter but I loved it all the same. @RobThez
updates, where the price will be CD, and branded crash
at its highest, and as Cyberpunk helmet. Then they effectively
2077 has shown us, it might pay again by sitting through Star Wars Galaxies was the only MMO that made me
not even be finished. And don’t the yet-to-be-patched launch feel like I was living another life. @DarthLordi
get me started on ‘Day One’ version of the game. Still,
editions: a posh box and being I’m currently typing this in a Rebel Assault on the PC. I played it using a mercury
fleeced of more money. room absolutely stuffed with tilt-switch joystick I’d made. @femtosonic
I have no problem with game-related tat, so I’m as
paying full price for a game. If much of a sucker for this sort Knights of the Old Republic, for sure! I just need to
I pay £60 for something like of thing as anybody. Sigh.
Cyberpunk 2077 and it keeps @RealEvilUnicorn
me entertained for months,
I think that’s fabulous value.
Death Star Interceptor (ZX Spectrum, System 3 , 1985).
But I’m not a beta tester. I’m a It’s not the best #StarWars game, but it may be the
customer. Steve, I’m with you. cheekiest… strictly non-canon. @zx_spectrum_30
One single game, enjoy the hell
out of that, and by the time you
I remember seeing the Star Wars sit-down cabinet
get to the end, maybe they’ll
and being utterly mesmerised by it. It felt ludicrously
have fixed the next one.
ahead of the curve for 1983. @lucyhattersley
A J Foster

Mainstream I know, but [Knights of the Old Republic]…

I can be evil, learn evil force powers, and have a purple
Featured copy lightsaber… yes, yes, and more yes.
@nickjordan19

As much as I enjoy the features before. I loved it, and would

in your magazine examining love to read more stuff like that.
the making of games, I do Although I suspect in the
wonder at least once if you days of remote working and The burning
could turn your gaze a little
more inwards. Lots of us
pandemics, most magazines
are Zoom calls and Dropboxes? question
cherish memories of gaming Lloyd Elliott On the subject of licensed games
magazines from days of old, and esteemed studios, we also
and I’d dearly love ‘behind Ryan writes: asked: which of these dream
pairings would you most like
the scenes’ stories of those. I Absolutely not – we’re all
to see? Hideo Kojima doing a
remember when Micro Mart Skype, Slack, and gallons Logan’s Run game it is, then…
published its final issue a few of cheap coffee here. But
years ago – it gave over some seriously, a look back at the Kojima Productions: Capcom: 50 Shades
Logan’s Run - 50% of Grey - 26%
ten pages to the stuff the inner workings of bygone
staff there could never tell us mags is a good shout. Insomniac: Little Women - 15% Slightly Mad: The A-Team - 9%

wfmag.cc \ 23
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Early Access

Hood: Outlaws
& Legends
Multiplayer heists are brilliant, as seen in
GTA Online, so Hood: Outlaws & Legends is
immediately on the right track as you put
together a team of players to take on both other
players and AI-guarded treasures. It’s dark and
bloody, showing a real gritty character to things Ark 2
that will surely help in its effort to appeal to
people who like dark and bloody things. As long There’s not much to be said here – not much
as it’s open to players making it up as they go we even want to bother saying here – beyond
along, this could be a fun one. the fact that, yes, that is Vin Diesel, and yes, he
is in another game. Ark 2 is the sequel to the
dino-riding survival game that’s been so popular
in recent years, but will the added star power
of the surprisingly experienced video game
Open Roads publisher once known as Mark Sinclair knock the
series up a notch?
Fullbright is back, and that’s reason to give a
damn: Open Roads is the next narrative ‘walking
sim’ (though it’s a road trip) from the studio
behind Gone Home and Tacoma. Sixteen-year-old
Tess Devine and her mother Opal are exploring
old family properties, figuring out the past, life,
their relationship, and whatever else along the
way. It might not sound like much, but Fullbright
does g t .

Grid Fight – Mask

of the Goddess
Opting for the ol’ simple mechanics with all the
depth that can arise from such a setup, Grid
Fight sees players bringing together a team to
battle nine goddesses, via the route of strategic
real-time combat with mild RPG sprinklings on
top. It’s mainly hedged on its battle system,
which is – of course – grid-based, but the
storyline behind things and options open to
players (you can recruit many of your would-be
enemies, for example) means there’s a lot going
on under the surface here.

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Early Access

Back 4 Blood
If you think it looks like Left 4 Dead – even with the number four
in the title – then you’ve cracked the code. Alright, Enigma-
level it might not be, but Turtle Rock is being very clear while
making things legally distinct that this is the spiritual successor
to the team-based zombie blasters that came out under Valve’s
watch. But, really, Back 4 Blood is Left 4 Dead 3. Wow, that’s a lot
of numbers.
So, what to expect? Honed, surprisingly deep and teamwork-
heavy multiplayer with masses of enemies that range from mild
irritants to living (virtual, undead) nightmares. Early footage Tchia
shows a game that looks like it ticks all the boxes – well-paced,
open to adaptation, different playstyles support – but it also A colourful open-world adventure with an intriguing USP:
sounds like a game that needs an option to turn the ‘witty’ quips our protagonist Tchia is able to take control of any animal
off. That’s a whole other kind of horror. All the same, Turtle Rock or object you encounter. That’s around 30 animals and
has the chops – Left 4 Dead is a legend, and Evolve was a good plenty more objects, basically. Tchia has a real Wind Waker
game that just didn’t stick the landing – so barring a gargantuan vibe to things, and that, coupled with the fact that you can
cock-up, Back 4 Blood should be a solid multiplayer jaunt. be a dog makes it one that’s very much on our radar.

Happy Game
We’ve a longer look at the whys and hows of Amanita
Design from page 28, but nothing can stop us from really
hammering home and highlighting just how incredible
– and intriguing – Happy Game looks. Set up with the
simple, creepy line of: ‘A little boy falls asleep to a horrible
nightmare. Can you make him happy again?’, Happy Game
sees you playing through three distinct nightmares of the
child in a psychedelic horror show that’s sure to leave
players, at the very least, a wee bit uneasy. It’s comical
and cute at the same time, too, so there’s going to be
some serious head-wonkiness going on in this one.

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Early Access

The Callisto Protocol

Dead Space is back! Sort of. Creative forces behind the classic
horror series, including len Schofield and Steve Papoutsis,
have reunited at a new team named Striking Distance Studios,
to work on this single-player survival horror-‘em-up. Info is thin
on the ground right now but the potential to return to the roots
of what made Visceral’s series so great in its early days has us
very excited indeed – expect more on The Callisto Protocol in
coming months.
BROK the InvestiGator
Yes, this was chosen to sit here because of the
pun title – but it could be more than just that, all
things considered. A mix of adventure/narrative
and straight forward beat-‘em-up, BROK the
InvestiGator he’s an alligator does offer a flourish
by blending together two apparently disparate
genre styles. It can be played as a point-and-click
game on easier di culties, skipping fights, or
you can open yourself up to choosing to either
investigate or punch your way through.

Fisti-Fluffs
p to four players face-off in a battle to see
who will emerge as the supreme warrior; the
mightiest of the mighty. Also: you’re all cats, and
it involves a lot of smashing up living rooms.
Physics-based games tend to work best when
they’re this silly, so there’s every chance Fisti-
will be a hoot, especially on Switch.

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

Perfect Dark
No pressure, folks: you’ve just got to make a
long-awaited sequel (well, reboot) to a much-
loved N64 game while both navigating the
still-lingering fallout of Perfect Dark Zero and the
massive expectations placed on the shoulders
of developer, The Initiative. If this one is even
half as good as people hope it will be, it’ll be an
absolute banger. If not well.

Disco Elysium: The Final Cut

We’re not usually big on going over re-releases and remasters,
but sometimes it’s worth raising a hand and saying ‘Hey, this
is worth paying attention to’ – Disco Elysium, one of the best
games of the past few years, one of the best RPGs ever made,
Loop Hero is coming to consoles in its Final Cut form. In March, those with
a PS4, PS5, or Stadia can get involved in the smart, deep, and
Devolver Digital’s on publishing duty for this Four genuinely intriguing world of noirish detective-ing – with extras
Quarters-developed deckbuilder of sorts, so you like a fully voiced cast, a new area to explore, and improved
know from that it’s going to have something going control options for those using a pad. Evolution not revolution,
for it. You place enemy units, buildings, and terrain sure, but very welcome – everyone should get the chance to
using different cards, setting up the obstacles on a play Disco Elysium: it’s just that good. Existing owners (i.e. on
route your hero has to take – do you want to make PC and Mac) will get a free upgrade to the Final Cut, of course,
it more di cult, thus getting better loot but risking and the Xbox and Switch releases of the game will follow later
death, or go the other way and end up relatively in 2021.
empty-handed but alive? It’s a neat concept.

Season
One of those games that just makes you pause a
second and take stock, Season comes our way via
Scavengers Studio and puts players in the shoes
of a young woman from a secluded community, as
she ventures out into the world by bicycle, seeing it
all for the first time. It’s ‘a third-person atmospheric
adventure bicycle road trip game’, according to the
devs, and involves a lot of documenting what there
is around you – photographing, drawing, recording
the world and what’s in it. It sounds lovely, and
exactly the sort of thing to let wash over you when
you want to de-stress.

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Paint & click

sical
Amanita Design makes whim
handmade
adventures set in organic,
ský tells us
worlds. Founder Jakub Dvor
ar history
all about the studio’s 17-ye
and artist-led approach

WRITTEN BY
David Crookes

> Happy Game is a

psychedelic horror
that will have players
escaping from three
unforgettable
nightmares.

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Paint & click

Botanicula tells the

>

whimsical tale of five

tiny tree creatures on
a journey to rescue the
last seed from their
parasite-infested home.

W
ith its spires, turrets, and steeples, can be. Amanita’s games are mostly point-and-
Prague is among the most romantic click adventures and share an enchanting style,
and beautiful cities in Europe. both in their art and sound. But their games
But while the Czech Republic’s also defy a number of genre conventions, taking
capital might be picturesque, players on wordless journeys that let their
Jakub Dvorský, Prague resident and founder worlds and the thoughts of their tiny characters
of Amanita Design, sees beauty elsewhere. speak for themselves.
He’s as fascinated by rusty old machines and Happy Game, on the other hand, will take the
abandoned industrial buildings as he is by studio into slightly less family-friendly territory.
classical architecture, and spends a great
amount of time in the surrounding forests with
Announced at Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase
in mid-December last year, Happy Game is far
GONE IN
his family. “A sense of freedom is vital to me,” he less jolly than its title implies. “It’s going to be A FLASH
tells us, taking a break from working on Happy Jára Plachý ’s latest game,” says Dvorský of the Amanita Design was a fan of
Game, his studio’s forthcoming title. And it’s a developer he’s worked with for over a decade. Flash, and used the platform
sense of creative freedom that has underpinned “This time he’s created something much darker – for all its games until 2018.
the success of his studio for more than 17 years. we really don’t know what’s going on in his crazy Chuchel was the last title to
From Samorost to Machinarium and from head. Jára doesn’t plan and mull over things too use the technology – just as
Botanicula to Chuchel, Amanita’s games are much; he just creates. We encourage him to do well, because Adobe’s support
for it ended on 31 December
carefully engineered mixtures of the natural, so and help him to realise his vision, no matter if
2020, meaning it’s now all but
the industrial, and the downright surreal. it’s happy and playful or scary and disturbing.”
dead. As you may expect, this
The studio’s passion is such that its games aren’t
has caused some problems for
released until they’re deemed as perfect as they WILD TIMES Amanita. “Our web-only games,
Happy Game is due for release in the spring, such as Samorost, Questionaut,
and it’s demanding the studio’s full attention – and Osada, won’t work now,
“I’m quite busy these days,” Dvorský says – but but we’re trying to find a way
then, these are exciting times for Amanita. to let them live with a Flash
Phonopolis is also in the works: a puzzle game Player emulator,” says Dvorský.
designed by a three-person team which makes But the studio was certainly
prepared. “The end of Flash
use of handmade paper models, which are then
was inevitable, and we knew it
photographed and turned into animated 3D
for a long time,” Dvorský adds.
objects. “Phonopolis is being developed by a new
“This technology used to be
team who’ve brought yet another art style to our fantastic and helped us a lot
studio,” says Dvorský. “But it’s too early to talk in the beginning, but now it’s
further about this game. It still needs a lot of work, obsolete, and we’re developing
and we haven’t even announced it o cially yet. everything in Unity.”

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Chuchel took six years to

>

make, with developer Jára

Plachý taking an organic
These games are part of an ongoing artistic “They were freelancers, even in communist
approach to its design.
evolution where little is planned in advance. Czechoslovakia when the state employed 99% of
If an idea sounds great, or if vorsk encounters working people and it was very uncommon,” the
a team producing something special, he’ll give 42-year-old says. “I felt that was my way as well;
the go-ahead or make an approach. Where that I knew I was unemployable.
path takes them all is part of the excitement.
This artist-led way of working is partly thanks MAKING SENSE
A KOOKY TALE to vorsk ’s mother, who was a film director, Dvorský’s game-making career began when
Jakub Dvorský’s time at the and father, who was an illustrator. “My parents he was 5 years old. At first I worked as an
Academy of Arts, Architecture taught me a lot, but not directly,” Dvorský says. animator, helping my friends with their point-
and Design in Prague was “They never taught me any artistic skills and and-click adventure game,” he says referring to
well-spent. Aside from creating
never pushed me in any direction. I was free to his time at the indie studio, NoSense. “A year or
Samorost, he was introduced
do what I felt like doing.” two later, I was already a game designer working
to puppetry, which led to him
Dvorský grew up in an unconventional on my own project, a combination of a dungeon
working on the 2010 Czech
action comedy film, Kooky. household, at least by old Czech standards. crawler and adventure game with half hand-
Directed by Jan Šverák and drawn graphics and half pre-rendered 3D.”
combining stop-motion, live That game was Asmodeus: Tajemný kraj
action, and puppet animation, Ruthaniolu, which Dvorský designed with Marek
it tells the story of a six-year- Floryán. He’d combined genres and styles that
old boy whose teddy bear has he liked at that time, “and, surprisingly, it kind of
been thrown away, leaving him worked,” he says. Even so, it took three years to
to wonder what his toy was
get the game ready for release in 1997 because
doing and how it might get
the pair couldn’t settle on a genre. Still, that
home. Dvorský designed the
free-form thinking would soon define vorsk ’s
puppets and props and worked
on the visual effects, and also approach to his art.
illustrated an accompanying “I was a gamer as a kid but never a hardcore
book. ou can watch the film one,” he says. “I started with 8-bit games but got
for free at wfmag.cc/kooky. seriously hooked later with early PCs, adventure

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Concept art for Chuchel

>

showing the protagonist

seeking to retrieve a
cherry, together with the
finished result in-game.

games, and dungeon crawlers. I also read many for items made from such material). By clicking
science-fiction books, listened to death metal around, gamers could follow a story in which
records, drew maps and bizarre castles, and the gnome would visit planets in a rusty old
spent time camping in the wilderness. I was a spaceship, solving puzzles. The unusual art style
fairly typical dark-romantic kid, I guess.” and dreamlike music created an experimental,
near meditative experience, which offered no
FLASH OF INSPIRATION guidance, kept players guessing, yet felt richly
When Dvorský began creating games, he did rewarding to play. As one of only a handful of
so in an environment that was very different people on the course to use computers for
from his parents, and he admits to being lucky animation, Dvorský sparked much discussion LISTEN UP
in this regard. The non-violent Velvet Revolution about games as an artistic medium. “Flash was
With its Monty Python-esque
returned Czechoslovakia to a liberal democracy a perfect tool for the creation of Samorost,
styling, psychedelic music
in 1989, ending 41 years of Communist one-party because it allowed me to do three essential game Osada was an offbeat
rule. Four years later, the country peacefully split things in just one piece of software,” Dvorský release, even by Amanita’s
into the Czech Republic explains. “I could standards. Free to play in a
and Slovakia. “The mood is so much darker make both vector- browser, the 2011 game was
“It was a very based, hand-drawn an experiment by animator
euphoric and hopeful
today... society is torn, animations and Václav Blín and composer
era, and I’m glad I hateful, and divided” cut-out animations, Šimon Ornest that encouraged
could experience implement interactivity players to click items to trigger
a range of sounds and bizarre
it myself and be part of it,” Dvorský says. that required only basic programming skills,
animations. Not that Amanita
The mood is so much darker today our current and publish the result on the web where it was
has been a stranger to music.
prime minister is a former Communist state directly playable without any downloads and Blín, Dvorský, and Plachý have
security agent and the society is torn, hateful, installations. Utter magic!” also produced music videos
and divided. It was an excellent time to grow and Samorost’s success prompted Dvorský to for the likes of Kamil Jasmín,
create, that’s for sure.” found Amanita Design in 2003 and start work Danish band Under Byen, and
In 1997, Dvorský studied Animation Film at on a sequel. He earned some money in the Czech alt-rockers DVA, who are
the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design meantime by developing browser games for providing songs and screeches
in Prague. He began work on a game called Nike and American rock band The Polyphonic for Happy Game.
Samorost for his thesis project. “I wanted to create Spree – side projects that provided a financial
an experimental interactive project or a website lifeline and space to experiment.
using Photoshop collages from my photos and
simple animations made in Flash, he recalls.
I worked quite intuitively, and it was only at
the end of the development when I realised I’d
created a game. I launched it on the web to make
it easily playable for professors and a bunch of
my friends. Then it went viral and exploded.”
Samorost was short and quirky, gaining
Dvorský a grade B. Released for free, it allowed
An early title for Apple
>
players to control a space gnome who lived on Arcade, Pilgrims was born
a moss-covered asteroid that resembled a lump from a minigame developed
of dead wood (‘samorost’ being a Czech word for Samorost 3.

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As before, Dvorský created the backgrounds the game, it’s been so long,” laughs Dvorský.
for Samorost 2 by taking photos of moss and I recollect that we made several mistakes during
MUSHROOM mushrooms. The gameplay and premise were the development, though – we didn’t make any
largely the same too, and the sequel retained prototypes, and we barely did any playtesting
FOR MORE? the organic, rusty look of the original. This time, with early builds.
Fun(gi) fact: the white- however, Dvorský enlisted some help. Tomáš “Generally we just hoped the initial design
speckled, red toadstool, vo k, who worked with vorsk at oSense, was good enough. We went ahead and created
Amanita muscaria, is a produced the music, while another Tomáš all the elaborate graphic assets and made them
common sight in woodlands
vo k worked on the sounds. clav l n, functional, but this intuitive and naive approach
across the world, and many
who Dvorský met at university, helped with the worked out surprisingly well in the end.”
will know of its hallucinogenic
properties from reading Alice’s
design and animation. Those who worked
Adventures in Wonderland. It “Samorost 2 was our “We didn’t make any prototypes, on Machinarium
forms part of Amanita Design’s first attempt to create and we barely did any playtesting received little
an independent remuneration.
logo, not only symbolising the
with early builds”
studio’s connection to nature, project and make We spent very little
but also its trippy approach to some money out of it so that we wouldn’t need back then because everyone was trying to make
game design. to do commissions like Rocketman for Nike. some money on other jobs,” Dvorský recalls,
Luckily it worked, so we were able to continue in adding that the team mostly worked from home
that direction and make Machinarium.” and only met up occasionally at a tiny Prague
By now, the studio was beginning to evolve: it apartment. “The studio only supported a few
was becoming less dominated by Dvorský and people, with little money. The whole team
more of a collective. “I like to work with people believed in future success and felt they could
who are talented and who are also nice people, earn it back with their revenue share.”
not only to work with but to be friends with,”
Dvorský says of recruiting and building the studio. BACK TO NATURE
“I was naturally picking up people from my social Machinarium went down a storm, winning the
bubble to work on the games at Amanita Design.” Excellence in Visual Art Award at IGF 2009,
Machinarium took three years to develop, and selling over four million copies. There had,
and it was the studio’s first full game. Players however, been an issue with piracy. Amanita said
took on the role of a tin can droid called Josef as few as five percent of gamers had paid to play
– named after osef apek, who first coined Machinarium by August 2010, which could have
the word ‘robot’ – and attempted to solve a impacted on future projects. Instead, the studio
With Machinarium, think
series of puzzles which later became massively got on with their next title, Botanicula, in 2012.
>

Pixar’s WALL-E, but layered to the point of mind-bending agony. This game was entrusted to Plachý, who had a
with a distinctly “Honestly, I can barely remember that we made background in animated movies. He originally
off-kilter approach to
its design and humour.

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Creaks was initially designed independently of

>

Amanita, but Dvorský was impressed and brought

its creators, Radim Jurda and Jan Chlup, on board.

wanted players to be able to choose between

one of two paths to determine how the game
would progress, but Dvorský encouraged him to
evolve the title into a point-and-click adventure.
Unlike the far trickier Machinarium, the plan Concept art for Creaks,

>
was to make a more accessible game that was in which monsters are
nonetheless full of odd characters, collectables, subterranean mansion with enemies that come rendered harmless by
shining a light on them.
and humorous animation that would encourage to life in the dark, yet change into harmless
gamers to continue exploring. “We were still furniture when light is shone on them. Those
learning, especially when it came to game design enemies – the Creaks of the title – resemble
and polishing the gameplay,” Dvorský says. everything from robot canines to jellyfish, and
are impeccably animated in a manner typical
TO BE A PILGRIM of Amanita. The hand-painted backgrounds are
Where most studios grow as their games make similarly delightful – these were rendered in
money and then hire more staff, Amanita has acrylic paints and scanned into the computer.
gone in the opposite direction. Samorost 3, a Initially, Creaks flourished independently of
game five years in the making, was made by just Amanita, with Dvorský bringing its creators on
six people; it also used the antiquated Flash board, giving them autonomy, and helping them
platform for its animations, albeit modified for see the game through to release. “Both the art
external processing using scripts and other tools. and gameplay style come from Radim. He’s a
In Samorost 3 and the games that followed, talented game designer who can invent strictly
Amanita’s aim was to produce living, breathing logical yet elegant and creative puzzles,” says
worlds that players would want to continue Dvorský. “His art style is similar to our older
interacting with over and over again. In this works, and it’s strongly influenced by ech and
respect, it became just as important that gamers astern uropean films, art, and book illustration.
would finish what they started, so when Plach “Like Machinarium, we also wanted to
developed the playful comedy-adventure emphasise the hand-crafted feeling and make
Chuchel, the aim was to incentivise players it look like an illustration from an old adventure
to press on to the game’s conclusion; unlike book. That’s why the drawings are created with
Machinarium’s complex puzzles, later games ink on paper and shaded with watercolour.
took a more accessible approach. I believe it creates a certain timeless quality that
“In Chuchel and Pilgrims, the design was isn’t present in 3D or vector-based 2D graphics.”
such that anybody should be able to finish the By bringing in other teams and projects,
game and enjoy it,” Dvorský says. “That’s why Amanita has widened its scope, and become
we reward players, even for ‘bad’ decisions and more prolific in the process games are being
‘wrong solutions’. We came to care more about delivered faster with gaps between releases
the flow of the playthrough, the learning curve far smaller than in the studio’s earlier years.
and all these things.” et Amanita’s creativity and unique style remain
More recently, Amanita has also sought to undimmed, and for Dvorský, there are exciting
look beyond the point-and-click genre; Creaks, times ahead. “I’m lucky to live in a cool bubble of
released in uly , was the developer’s first diverse, intelligent, and generally nice people,”
platform-puzzler. Designed by Radim Jurda he says. “And I’m happy at how things have been Amanita Design founder,
>

and Jan Chlup, it has players explore a vast working out.” Jakub Dvorský.

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Column

Here’s Looking
At You, Kid
N
ostalgia used to be a disease. Nostalgia’s why we love a sequel. Games
A military doctor devised it in are particularly prone to them because we
the 17th century to account keep improving our graphical and technical
for frequently miserable Swiss capabilities, meaning games made even a
mercenaries with fever, stomach decade ago can feel antiquated and drab.
pains, and fainting fits who yearned for the The classic titles everyone’s heard of but no one
mountains of home. He thought nostalgia was under 30 has played – Silent Hill, Tomb Raider,
caused by brain and ear damage from the DOOM, Deus Ex – are still creatively brilliant but
LOTTIE BEVAN relentless clang of Switzerland’s cow-bells. Sadly, no longer meet the basic specs required in
Lottie’s a producer and it wasn’t. Nostalgia’s a common, healthy human 2021. And it’s no coincidence that all of those
co-founder of award- emotion: remembering games are the first in a
winning narrative
microstudio Weather the golden days of “Recreating the emotions long line of sequels.
Factory, best known for childhood and good But sequels set
Cultist Simulator. She’s things now past.
of a child in the cynical themselves a di cult task.
one of the youngest
female founders Games remind me heart of an adult is hard” It’s not just a return to
in the industry, a of those Swiss soldiers. Pallet Town we want, it’s
BAFTA Breakthrough
From the enduring popularity of pixel graphics the feeling we had when we were eight and chose
Brit, and founder of
Coven Club, a women to chiptune, it’s an art form obsessed with its our first-ever starter Pokémon. The beautiful
in games support past. Reddit is full of PC gamers opining about Final Fantasy VII remake is heralded as one of
network. She produces,
markets, bizzes, and teenaged LAN parties. There’s serious hype about the best Final Fantasy games in recent memory,
arts, and previously ‘Playdate’, a black and white wind-up Game Boy- but Square Enix updated the original turn-based
produced Fallen looking console. Roguelikes are an entire genre combat, disappointing many who remember
London, Zubmariner,
and Sunless Skies at of games defined by their similarity to a title that’s the old system. And games are all about the
Failbetter Games. older than I am. You know what else is older than feels. Recreating the emotions of a child in the
me? Syphilis. The past isn’t all great, people. cold, cynical heart of an adult is hard. Toy Story 3
manages it, but it’s a Pixar film with a million
budget about saying goodbye to childhood.
We’ve seen a classic nostalgic trip recently in
Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk’s a fun genre, but it
isn’t woke. It’s ames ond fan fiction written by
nerds, all sex and chrome and male heroes and
Uzis. It’s also a lot of other interesting things –
American fear of Asian success, socio-political
commentary, the future of AI and humanity – but
you can’t separate that from the neon-drenched
man with a gun. A lot of people expected
Cyberpunk 2077 to give them the same thrill
they had when they read Neuromancer in 1984.
For many, it did. For others, it challenged their
politics in uncomfortable ways. You can revisit
the 1980s. You can’t stop living in the 2020s.
Sid Meier said a game is a series of interesting
choices. The problem with gaming nostalgia
Cyberpunk 2077 : set in the is we’ve made those choices already. You can


future, but with its feet

firml lanted in t e sci fi
make new ones this time around, but you’ll
neo noir o t e 19 0s never feel quite like before.

34 / wfmag.cc
 Attract Mode
Competition

WIN A £100 VOUCHER FOR

PARK LONDON CLOTHING!
Here’s your chance to get your hands on one of three £100
vouchers to spend on video game apparel at park-london.com

Three lucky winners will each receive a £100 voucher to spend at Park London - purveyors of quality video
game-based T-shirts, hoodies, and more. After a retro-themed Atari shirt? A Commodore 64 or Assassin’s
Creed-themed hoodie, perhaps? Park London has all these, plus plenty of other quality garments based
on your favourite movies, TV shows, and musicians - you can browse the full range at park-london.com.

To be in with a chance of winning one of those £100 vouchers, head to wfmag.cc/parklondon and follow
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ompe i ion closes on Monday, March . ri e is offered o par icipan s worldwide a ed or o er, e cep employees o he aspberry i o nda ion, he pri e s pplier,
heir amilies or riends. inners will be no ified by email no more han days a er he compe i ion closes. y en erin he compe i ion, he winner consen s o any p blici y
enera ed rom he compe i ion, in prin and online. ar icipan s a ree o recei e occasional newsle ers rom ire rame ma a ine. e don like spam par icipan s de ails will
remain s ric ly confiden ial and won be shared wi h hird par ies. ri es are non ne o iable and no cash al erna i e will be offered. inners will be con ac ed by email o arran e
deli ery. ny winners who ha e no responded days a er he ini ial email is sen will ha e heir pri e re oked.

wfmag.cc \ 35
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Gallery

Super Animal Royale

REA
MORD
Super Animal Royale is a battle royale game,
sure, so it’s going to be overlooked by both
those not drawn to the genre, and those
E
turn to
page 16
who already have their favourites. But how
many other battle royale games offer a vista
like this, to be taken in while you’re sitting atop
your battle-emu? Exactly.
“Super Animal Royale’s bright, colourful art style
contrasts against the surprisingly viscous personalities of
its Super Animal protagonists,” says Michael Silverwood,
co-founder of Pixile Studios. Its flat, clean art also
stands out in a genre mostly dominated by games.
n closer inspection, the game has surprising depth in
its characters and world, thanks to meshes that deform
the characters in pseudo during their animations, and
a shadow system that gives environments the illusion of
depth. verall, the game has minimalist sensibilities,
but only adheres to those roots loosely to allow for stylish
flourishes, often inspired by classic cartoons.

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Gallery

GAME
Super Animal Royale
ARTIST
Kyle Doyle
RELEASE
Out now (Early Access)
WEBSITE
wfmag.cc/SAR

wfmag.cc \ 37
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The death and rebirth of video game genres

The numerous playable



characters in Thimbleweed
Park olvin les
re ires re eated switc in
etween c aracters

THE DEATH AND REBIRTH OF

VIDEO GAME GENRES
Major studios may have turned their backs on 2D platformers and point-
and-click adventures, but for indie devs, they’re a playground of creativity
WRITTEN BY MOLLY SOMERSCALES

P
opular culture shifts with trends RPGs and something like The Witcher 3 to see
and technology; video game how far that genre’s come over the course of
genres are no different. Since the three decades.
medium’s birth, innovations in As video games have evolved, however,
technology and hardware have some genres have quietly fallen by the
Thimbleweed Park driven game development, and game genres wayside other than the evergreen Super Mario


revived the
LucasArts-style have adapted to reflect these improvements series and its various spin-offs, platformers
point-and-click you only have to look at the earliest text-based have all but disappeared from the mainstream
adventure in
fine st le since the 2000s – largely replaced by more
modern genres, like first-person shooters and
ever-more ambitious open-world action-RP s.
Point-and-click adventures have similarly
been confined to the past. ut with the
death of older genres came their rebirth at
the hands of indie developers. Searching for
platformers, point-and-click adventures, and
shooters on Steam or the intendo eShop
unlocks a treasure-chest of affordable and
charming games.

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The death and rebirth of video game genres

C te and cree is t e rand o Killmonda ames



e oster or t eir ame, Little Misfortune , ets t is

across er ectl
Switched On
In Little Misfortune , Since its launch in 2017, the


s rinklin litter on
Thanks to indie developers, then, genres nsettlin o jects is a Nintendo Switch has provided a
long abandoned by triple-A studios still thrive. ke ame mec anic platform for indie developers, and
ut why We spoke to the minds behind a few indeed, many of the people we
popular retro-style indie games to find out. spoke to for this article said their
alone. For those studios, surrounded as games sold the most copies on this
system. Others spoke of constant
PLAYING IT SAFE? they are by huge investments, external
fan requests for a port of their
One reason why older genres might appeal shareholders, and massive sales targets,
game to Switch. As more and more
to indie developers is their comparatively taking the time to reinvent an older genre
indie games have appeared on the
small scale; where major developers might is simply too risky why experiment when eShop, however, discoverability has
feel duty-bound to make ever-larger games huge franchises such as Call of Duty continue become an issue: how do you sort
with additional modes to pull in the big bucks the best games on the store from
and content, their smaller “With the death of year after year Indie the worst? “Hundreds of games of
counterparts are free older genres came studios, by contrast, rely varying quality are given the same
to make more focused, on other things to stand store presence,” Indie Game Lover’s
their rebirth” Oliver says. “It’s a visibility problem
intimate experiences. out innovative gameplay
that plagues other digital stores.
That’s the opinion of Danelle and Oliver, mechanics, unique art styles, and engaging,
I hope that Nintendo is able to
admins for Indie ame over. With a triple-A offbeat storytelling. Where better to start
deliver a solution while the number
game, ideas and content can be stretched than with older genres that aren’t dominating
of games on the eShop is still
thin to pad out a twelve-hour experience,” the current gaming landscape relatively low compared to Steam
liver suggests. Features like multiplayer are so that browsers are able to find
included simply to justify that game’s full price. ADVENTURE TIME ‘the good stuff’ and aren’t put off by
Danelle adds that large studios can sometimes Rem Michalski has created a number of point- a slew of low-quality games.”
feel removed from the gaming community and-click adventures under his Harvester
itself, with developers driven by ‘big bosses’ ames banner The Cat Lady, Downfall, and
breathing down their necks to make ‘money- Lorelai were all created from Michalski home
only choices’ . during his spare time. For
Retro genre indie games are occasionally Michalski, it’s the
backed by firms with deep pockets, as with freedom to take
Ori and the Blind Forest and its successor, creative risks that
Ori and the Will of the Wisps, both supported distinguishes the
by icrosoft. ut for the most part, larger typical indie game
studios have left the traditional 2D platformer from its triple-A

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The death and rebirth of video game genres

EXPERIMENTATION
For some of the developers we spoke to,
that creative freedom is something money
simply can’t buy. illmonday ames’ atalia
Martinsson, for example, says that she
wouldn’t compromise her studio’s integrity
even if a major publisher dangled a huge sum
of money in front of her; the studio wouldn’t
go into a deal with a company that would tell
us we need to change something”, Martinsson
says, because that wouldn’t feel honest .
Instead, she and her studio are happy to
keep on making handcrafted games like Little
Misfortune and Fran Bow, with their exquisite
animation and offbeat narratives.
e tro i t o r s rom


Yooka-Laylee o erin la ers eveloper an ao, director of such titles

a chance to experience his 2D
arcade ames
counterpart. The best thing about being as To the Moon and Finding Paradise at his
indie is not having to ‘play it safe’ and not studio Freebird ames, agrees that older,
Freebird Games’ top-down
trying to cater to everyone’s tastes but staying established genres are ripe for unusual or


advent re, To the Moon: a

eart wrenc in stor o love, true to your vision, he tells us. And people unorthodox storytelling. ao describes this as
deat , and re ret
dig that. There’s this feeling of not knowing treading new territories and suggests the
what to expect when they combination of nostalgia
get a game that’s not your “They enjoy my weird along with the new
usual ‘colour by numbers’ spin on what some riches of material and its
title, but a twisted child of call a dead genre” delivery lends to a surge in
a cra y artist’s imagination. interest levels .
The role of indie games is to stretch Top-down adventure To the Moon is
boundaries, to experiment and show players primarily a narratively driven experience,
what’s on the other side. where the beautiful pixel artwork and heart-
ichalski also adds I don’t know what it’s wrenching story of love, death, and regret
like to have people breathing down your neck, are allowed to take centre-stage. Fran Bow
questioning everything you do. follows a similar path in exploring the dark

RETRO REVIVED:
Tamarin
Like Yooka-Laylee, developer Chameleon Games’ Tamarin is a throwback to the cartoon-
like 3D platformers of the nineties. Brought to life with some gloriously detailed character
models and environments, Tamarin has plenty of triple-A polish – partly because some
of the creative talent behind the game formerly worked at Banjo-Kazooie studio, Rare. As
Tamarin’s creative director Omar Sawi told us back in Wireframe issue 15, the game was an
opportunity to revisit a genre neglected by the modern industry. “There are so many games
nowadays that start by exploring DLC or games-as-service, or they don’t focus on giving
you a good, traditional experience,” he said. “I think a lot of big companies just want to get
the money, and games these days are all about grinding. I hope there’ll be more games like
Tamarin and that the genre won’t go away. We need single-player or story-based games
where it’s possible to finish them, and there’s satisfaction from concluding them.

 Cutesy 3D platformer
Tamarin not only revives a
enre rom are s ast, t
also features some of its
creative talent behind the
scenes

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The death and rebirth of video game genres

sides of mental illness. These are subjects

that larger studios seldom explore – certainly
RETRO REVIVED:
not to the level of intimacy displayed here.
Similarly, artinsson says she wants her The Messenger
games to connect with those things that are Released in 2018, The Messenger brought back the fast-paced, intense action of Tecmo’s classic
Ninja Gaiden games from the late eighties. For developer Sabotage Studio, however, making a
personal, but in a way that allows players to
2D action platformer wasn’t simply about copying what came before; rather, it was a process
feel comfortable and reassured that there are
of deconstructing the original Ninja Gaiden games, and sorting the good from the bad. “It’s
other people – or other characters – that also
kind of like curating,” creative director Thierry Boulanger told us in issue 43. “You’re taking an
go through these problems. experience, recording it, and then analysing it in terms of game design and experience. How can
I love how games can connect to you we shape this [classic game] into just giving you the good stuff, and giving you more of it?”
so personally, she adds. ou can release Sabotage Studio is attempting a similar trick with the 2D JRPG genre with its upcoming Sea of
something through playing that helps you. Stars, a modernised homage to such SNES-era gems as Chrono Trigger and Illusion of Gaia.
Harvester Games’ creations are of a
similar ilk. Rem ichalski feels the dark
adult layer” of his games appeals to both him
and his fans. The discussion of peripheral
and taboo issues such as grief and pain
may not appeal to everyone, but they leave
a strong impression with those who relate.
Such games may never achieve the large
sales numbers of a colourful intendo
platformer, but they can create a loyal fan
base who feel the games ‘spoke to them’
personally. They enjoy my own weird spin on
what some call a ‘dead’ genre, ichalski says.
For avid Fox, the veteran adventure game
developer who worked on such classics as
Maniac Mansion and Zak McKracken and the
Alien Mindbenders at LucasArts, the promise of
a return to the past was central to the point-
and-click adventure game, Thimbleweed Park.
a ota e t dio s e essen er didn t j st a tri te
The game is filled with references


to t e ori inal inja aiden ames it also introd ced

lent o mo r, and some neat lot twists

Rem Michalski’s The Cat Lady dealt with taboo themes rarely


to c ed on oint and click advent res o t e ast

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The death and rebirth of video game genres

i id orce l a ro t ack t e lon ne lected



ori ontall scrollin s oot em in fine st le

homage, The Messenger. They’re all games

that, according to Indie Game Lover’s Oliver,
combine pixel art, low resolutions, or low
polygon counts but with modernised controls
and unique twists on gameplay that may not
have been possible to deliver with decades-
old hardware .
They’re games that are reminiscent of
older games in look and progression,” he
adds, but bring their own modernised
RETRO REVIVED: sensibilities to the table. anelle agrees, and
cites the likes of Stardew Valley and Starbound
Rigid Force Alpha as examples of superior modern takes on
apanese firms Konami and Irem
and call-backs to LucasArts’ heyday, delivering bygone genres. I understand the incredible
may have long since abandoned
their once-popular shoot-’em- on its ickstarter promise of opening a dusty amount of work and passion it can take to
up titles – Gradius and R-Type old desk drawer and finding an undiscovered create indie games, she says. They require
respectively – but indie developers LucasArts adventure game you’ve never played aspects from every creative realm rolled into
are still working hard to keep their before . ut despite maintaining the same one. The countless hours and dedication
spirit alive. Rigid Force Alpha, basic controls, innovations were necessary to indie developers put in are well worth a
created by solo developer Marcel ensure accessibility and evolution. second glance.
ebenstorf, is a sci fi blaster firmly We added a lot of features such as
in the vein of those eighties games.
a built-in hint line, Fox says, and most IN VOGUE
But because Rebenstorf is a former
importantly, he adds, there are no dead Genres can drift out of fashion, but it’s not
level designer behind such games
ends” – which addresses a problem several uncommon to see them come back into
as Anno 1701 and Might & Magic
Heroes Online, he brings a modern early adventure games presented, where vogue, either. The platformer, epitomised
flourish to an ageing genre. For him, players found themselves in an unwinnable by the likes of Spyro, Banjo-Kazooie, and Crash
there’s plenty of untapped potential situation” if they forgot to pick up a quest Bandicoot, was a popular one in the late
in the humble shoot-’em-up, as he item earlier in the game. ewer point-and- nineties, but mainstream interest in it palled as
told us in Wireframe #15. “With click adventures, such as Thimbleweed Park the new millennium dawned. In more recent
modern technology, there’s a lot of or Amanita Design’s output (see page 28) years, however, the genre’s seen something of
potential for completely new ideas,” do more than hark back to an earlier era of a miniature renaissance, with new entries in
Rebenstorf said. “Just imagine a
gaming, then they take existing genres and the Spyro and Crash Bandicoot series emerging
battle royale shoot-’em-up. A totally
mechanics and improve on them. in and respectively. n the indie
wild idea! And let’s not forget, there
That ‘new, but improved’ approach can also front, Playtonic Games introduced Yooka-Laylee
are already some interesting efforts
in terms of creating genre mixes be seen in such games as acht lub ames’ in – both a modern platformer and
such as Starr Mazer or Drifting delightful platformer Shovel Knight, Thomas a spiritual successor to those games of old.
Lands. In short, the genre isn’t dead.” Happ’s eerie Metroidvania, Axiom Verge, For developer avin Price, who worked on
and Sabotage Studio’s pacey Ninja Gaiden Yooka-Laylee at Playtonic Games, the project

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The death and rebirth of video game genres

otem and i ardc e


revived t e scrollin
eat em in rass , nc
style with treets o a e

RETRO REVIVED:
Streets of Rage 4
Sega’s brawler series quietly drew to a close in the Mega Drive era – until indie developers
Dotemu and Lizardcube brought it kicking, punching, and stomping back into the 21st century.
“I understand the incredible The studio’s scrolling beat-’em-up not only sensitively brought the series up to date, with bold
amount of work and passion it hand-drawn characters and precise controls, but it also improved on the originals in subtle ways.
can take to create indie games” “One line of thought we have is to identify frustrations from old games,” lead game designer
Jordi Asensio told us in Wireframe #26. “For example, enemies going outside the screen is very
annoying, so we tried to fix that with screen boundaries.
was a chance to revisit an established genre “We want to add moves to the characters, new ways to use them, new possibilities,” concurred
from a contemporary angle. There’s a lot fellow developer Cyrille Lagarigue, “but we don’t want a game that has a feeling that is too
still to experiment with, Price says, and different from the originals. o we’re always adjusting to find the right balance.
combining new ideas with platforming
action captures the classic tone whilst also
appealing to modern gamers who expect
certain features but have not been able to try
them in platforming .

REVIVAL
Indie developers breathe life into dead genres,
and their passion, authenticity, and innovative
ideas can’t be faked. ediatonic, the ritish
studio behind Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout
managed to update the classic platformer
by fusing it with the hugely popular battle
royale genre. Indie darling Among Us took a
retro-looking, top-down format and made
it into an immensely successful multiplayer
social game, with over 176,000 concurrent
players at its peak in .
While it’s unlikely that we’ll see a triple-A
studio like aughty og tackle a platformer
or a point-and-click adventure anytime soon,
there’s evidence everywhere that those
abandoned genres can find a new home – and
Like To the Moon, ree ird ames indin
appreciative audiences – in the indie sphere.


Paradise is a c armin , stor driven

advent re ilt in aker

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 Toolbox

Toolbox
Contents

The art, theory, and production of video games

46. CityCraft
Using procedural generation to make your metropolis

48. Design Principles

Howard Scott Warshaw meets director Steven Spielberg

50. The art of war games

How to improve your game design with military thinking

56. Narrative Design

The indie game that holds the key to better exposition

58. Menus in Unreal Engine 4

et your game off to the best start with our handy guide

64
64. Source Code
Recreate the Light Cycle minigame from TRON

66. Making Anew #15 Cyber cyclists create deadly light trails in our


homage to TRON. Make it yourself with this

Pre-production, and using it as a foundation for your game month’s Source Code – see page 64.

46
How can algorithms help you


make an entire cityscape?

Find out on page 46.

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Contents

Studying war games can help you



improve your own development

projects. Find out more on page 50.

50
56

58
Make a main menu worthy of a triple-A game


with our Unreal Engine 4 guide on page 58.

What can The Red Strings Club teach us



about exposition and storytelling? Antony de

Fault explains on page 56.

wfmag.cc \ 45
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Advice

Making cities with

procedural generation
Algorithms can help us recreate some of the complexity
and scale of real cities – without breaking the bank

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 Virtual Cities atlas, designs
game cities, and consults on their creation. game-cities.com

T
ake a moment to think about the to tackle even a modestly realistic open city will
staggering amount of stuff you’ll find face a erculean, if not impossible, task. ut it’s a
in the average apartment. Now take task that could be helped massively via procedural
another moment to consider just how generation – why create everything by hand, after
different apartments are from each all, when you can have a clever algorithm design
other, that there’s a practically infinite variety of your assets and spaces automatically
them, and that they’re but one type of residence
in a contemporary city. ow remember that, THE BASICS
residence aside, cities also contain buildings Procedural generation is the automated,
focused on production, consumption, leisure, semi-random, and rules-guided automated
administration, and education. Add in major creation of content by a program. Infinite unique
landmark buildings, infrastructure, parks, possibilities can be generated, as well as assets
hospitals, stadiums, networks, actual people, the and content of all types. odels, textures, street
groups they form or the activities they engage in, names, or P s can all be produced quickly and
and you have an initial sense of the sheer scale cheaply – though not always to the required
and complexity of the average urban centre. standard. Procedural generation is still technically
odelling a city in its exhausting entirety is all demanding and also a design challenge, but,
but impossible when it comes to video games, despite the method’s limitations and di culties,
and both abstractions and si e reductions are when it comes to the creation of urban space, its
ANALOGUE vital. ven when employing large teams, making possibilities are still exciting and worth exploring.
GENERATION modular assets, and reducing fidelity, cutting Procedural generation is the only way a single
Semi-random generation corners is still unavoidable. Sometimes, reducing developer can conceivably hope to produce
doesn’t have to be digital scope isn’t enough, either. A small team attempting a large open-world city it is, of course, what
to work wonders. A well- allowed a handful of programmers and designers
thought-out system based on to craft a universe for No Man’s Sky. ut despite
a combination of dice rolls, offering an infinite and often stunning game
tables, and card-draws can
world, there was something missing from No
provide on-the-fly concepts for
Man’s Sky the sense of authorship that things
cities, and ideas on fleshing
them out. What’s more,
had been consciously designed and placed. The
analogue systems leave room intent of a human author was only evident in its
for the author of each place systems, and thus its wondrous digital creation
to express themselves, and sometimes felt a bit too random.
thoroughly reshape generated n the other hand, games like Diablo
configurations without combined procedural elements with substantial
breaking any rules. sections designed by hand, that made the overall
The Sinking City ’s town of Oakmont procedurally combined


modular elements to boost its size and complexity. experience coherent and convincing. A few well-

46 / wfmag.cc
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Advice

HOUDINI
One of the few professional art
tools built around procedural
generation is the impressive
Houdini by SideFX. I haven’t tried
it out for myself yet, but have
only heard good things about it,
and, as it comes with an option
for a free trial, I can’t help but
suggest people interested in
The medieval fantasy city procedurally generated assets


generator by watabou is
a wonderful example of and game spaces give it a go:
what proc gen can wfmag.cc/houdini.
achieve. You can try it at
wfmag.cc/fantasy-gen.

placed handcrafted elements lent a believable at night – making certain, for example, that one in
quality to an otherwise procedural world, which every six windows always remains dark.
in turn placed them inside a vast space which
satisfied both our desire to be surprised and our MORE IDEAS
appreciation of the creator’s touch. ne simple way to hide your buildings’ simplicity
Similarly, when it comes to procedural cities, and randomness is to ensure they can’t be
a few careful, obviously authored touches can interacted with or explored in detail. reating
help paint a more convincing world a specific impressive views is something procedural
landmark, a factory, a ceremonial axis, a set of generation can successfully handle it’s a solid
posters, or a distinctive neighbourhood can all be illusion, and a way to create a sense of scale.
placed in a randomly generated urban fabric to Another option is to use procedural
make it more intriguing. generation during early development. That is, to
The rest of the city needn’t follow complex rules algorithmically create a city following appropriate
to look good. Imagine, for instance, that we’ve rules and based on predesigned, authored
already generated a relatively straightforward city structures, and then using them as canvases to
on a grid. To populate be corrected, fleshed
each of its blocks, we “It’s the only way a single out, and polished by
could determine height hand. n such a canvas,
ranges depending on
developer can hope to iconic landmarks
location – floors produce a large open city” could be individually
Introversion’s sadly


for downtown, – floors designed for a further suspended indie game

for suburbs, and – for everything in between , sense of authenticity, but what really matters is Subversion was to have a
clever city generation tool
randomly divide each block into - street-facing that this approach allows small teams to create at its core. Have a look at
what it would look like at:
lots, and generate buildings of the appropriate detailed and large urban worlds. Frogwares did wfmag.cc/subversion.
height in each lot. xtra rules could include this when developing akmont for The Sinking
merging adjacent buildings of the same si e or City disclaimer I worked on the game’s pre-
adding gardens around every building sporting production its ity enerator tool developed to
more than floors or less than . create its town can be seen at wfmag.cc/sinking.
Procedural generation can effectively be Finally, every city needs to follow its own spatial
applied to any scale and most situations, from the logic. enerating medieval cities without knowing,
architectural all the way to the metropolitan scale, say, what the role of the cathedral is, and how
and from the creation of physical environments it affects space, is doomed to failure. Similarly,
to their combination with semi-random systems a modern metropolis simply has to feature a
simulating life. central business district, and architectural styles
The latter, at their simplest, could be as have to fit their era, meaning that research is – as
rudimentary as turning window lights on and off always – an absolute must.

wfmag.cc \ 47
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Advice

The principles
of game design
n t e final e cerpt ro is ne book, o ard recalls a
eart stoppin eetin it director teven pielber

AUTHOR
HOWARD SCOTT WARSHAW
Howard is a video game pioneer who authored several of Atari’s most famous

. onceuponatari.com

T
he last time I presented something They sat me down, put a mic on me, hooked
to Spielberg was early June, about up the console to a recorder, and I played and
a month and a half ago. We met at narrated the entire game flawlessly. That had
the Consumer Electronics Show in never happened in any of my demos, before
Chicago, and I had the tape. I was or since. It was a magical moment. A one-take
nearing completion on the Raiders of the Lost Ark wonder. We added a few special effects, created
game, my second project for Atari and my first a master, and that was it. y the way, the total
for Spielberg. Atari needed a way to demonstrate running time was minutes and seconds.
the game for Spielberg in hicago. I could have If it takes you longer than this to play all the
simply played it for him, but I thought it would way through Raiders, you probably didn’t make
Howard Scott be better to make a demo tape that could serve the game.


Warshaw in full Atari

demonstration mode.
other promotional purposes as well. The execs From the time I left that studio in Sunnyvale
agreed and sent me to a video recording studio until this meeting in Chicago, the tape never left
to make the demo. my side. There was no way I was going to miss
Have you ever done something absolutely seeing Spielberg’s reaction.
perfectly At exactly the right time I did. ust Full disclosure I’m a huge film buff, and Steven
Steven Spielberg (left)


meets Howard (right) once. At that studio. Spielberg is a hero of mine. I love his work,
circa 1982. Atari’s E.T. is
just around the corner.
from Duel on. I think Raiders of the Lost Ark is a
masterwork, and I was honoured to be a part of it
in this way. ut I’m not just meeting my hero, I’m
working with for him. It’s one thing to meet your
idol, it’s another to have them evaluate your work.
It’s another still when they evaluate your work
which is a derivative of their work. This is huge for
me as long as he likes it.
For a serious creative person, a lot of self-
image and mental well-being is on the line at a
time like this. I was confident but very nervous.
I’m one of the top video game creators of my
time, but what I really want to be is a film director.
Finally, the moment came. There I was, up
in the crow’s nest of the enormous Atari show
booth with a TV and a tape deck and Steven
Spielberg. I inserted the tape and hit play.
Spielberg watched it thoroughly and intently.
He didn’t move at all for the entire 12 minutes
and seconds. I know because I watched him

48 / wfmag
 Toolbox
Advice

Can you complete



Raiders of the Lost Ark

in just over 12 minutes?
If so, you’re probably
Howard Scott Warshaw.

thoroughly and intently for the entire 12 minutes prospect for a task or design, and the answer will
and seconds. At the end he thought for a bit, invariably revolve around the word ‘doable’. I’m Word nerd
soaking it in. Then he looked up at me and said, confident this design has su cient doability to
Many people don’t consider
That’s really great, oward. It feels just like a be worth pursuing. This is distinct from another nerds to be facile linguists or
movie y inner world exploded with joy. Steven contribution: bogosity (noun, the quality of being communicators. Be advised:
Spielberg thinks the demo tape of my game for bogus, a mangle-isation of bogus . ogosity and new-word construction and
his movie feels like a movie. eah, baby doability are independent properties. In other deployment is an essential
part of the nerd repertoire. To
That was one of the greatest moments of words, creating a game in five weeks can have be clear, I’m talking specifically
my life but that was then, and this is now. significant doability and still represent a high level about techie nerds or geeks.
I finish laying out the design for the E.T. game of bogosity on the face of it. In other other words, Word nerds and/or grammar
and Spielberg thinks for a bit, soaking it in. Then the possibility of doing something doesn’t make it police are beyond the scope
of this text.
he looks up at me and says, “Couldn’t you do a good idea. This paragraph is proof of that.
something more like Pac-Man?” After a few moments of breath-holding, Steven
y inner world collapses. Something more relents on the Pac-Man proffer and accepts
like Pac-Man ne of the most innovative film my assertion that the design is appropriate to
directors of all time wants the task at hand (the
me to make a knock-off punishment fits the
“There was no way
My impulse is to say: “Gee crime . As he does, I
Steven, couldn’t you do I was going to miss realise my design is now
something more like The iel erg s reaction” approved. The first major
Day the Earth Stood Still?” milestone is achieved, my One of the very earliest


Fortunately, my brain kicks in microseconds inner world is resurrected, and (though I’m not licensed games,
Raiders of the Lost Ark
before my mouth engages. et a grip, oward. sure about this there seems to be a faint got a big marketing
push from Atari.
This is Steven Spielberg, and he obviously likes emanation coming from Steven’s chest, a sort of
Pac-Man. All this takes a fraction of a second reddish glow. I have a theory about this but this
in my head. Then I regroup and take another is no time for theory. There are hard facts to face
tack entirely. Steven, E.T. is amazing, and we
need something special to go with it. This is • An accepted design only opens the door to
an innovative game for an innovative movie. I begin continuous crunch mode. It is truly the
believe this is true, but I’m also aware of another gift that keeps on taking.
fundamental truth: the game I’m proposing is • Tomorrow is day four of the 5.5 days allotted
one I might possibly finish in five weeks, which for the task of my schedule is already gone.
is a critical component of success in the overall • I still have to make it through a earjet ride
delivery process. home before I’m anywhere near dinner! (OK,
That’s why I need to defend this design with not all the facts are hard.
everything I’ve got. I’d rather not fall back on this
explanation because I’d rather not come off as The design is now set and approved. It’s
desperate, but I will if I must. It harkens back implementation time. There’s nothing to it but
to one of the great linguistic contributions of to do it. And as the golden light of late afternoon
computer science: doability (noun, the quality of kisses the flats and backlots of Warner studios,
being able to be done. From the modern nglish the Atari delegation boards the waiting limousine
o Ability . Ask any software engineer about the and sets off for the airport.

wfmag \ 49
 Toolbox
Beyond war games

Beyond war games:

military thinking
and game design
Lessons from military planning can be applied to any
a e involvin so e or o con ict, akin strate
and tactical kno led e use ul tools or desi ners

AUTHOR
STUART MAINE
Stuart Maine has been a designer for 23 years, across PC,
console, and mobile. He helped set up Well Played Games,
and is currently working on an unannounced title.

I
imagine everyone’s read one of the – the longer-term strategic thinking. The same
many quotes attributed to the military applies to game design; that while players see
strategist Sun T u, author of The Art of and interact with the immediate ‘surface’ of your
War and no doubt total nightmare to game, there’s a deeper layer – the states and
play Civilization VI against. Here’s one: systems that govern how the game works behind
“All men can see these tactics whereby I the scenes. As a designer, you decide which
Force multiplication can conquer, but what none can see is the strategy approaches your game rewards or punishes.


be powerful in Age of
Wonders, but grouping out of which victory is evolved.” Hopefully we all agree that real wars are
your units limits your
ability to explore the map.
What he’s referring to is that his opponents a terrible waste of lives, but there’s a huge
see the immediate, second-to-second decisions amount of thinking related to military tactics and
of his tactics, but there’s another layer below that strategy which can be applied to game design.
And if you’re thinking: ‘But I’m not working
on a war game’, I believe these topics apply
to any game involving conflict. In Diablo, you
use strategy to work towards a combination
of equipment and abilities, then apply tactics
in each fight. In Escape from Tarkov you use
strategy to decide on your long-term objectives,
then tactics when fighting players and Scavs.
Signs of the Sojourner even turns conversations
into a form of conflict

FORCE MULTIPLICATION
et’s look at force multiplication first. This is a
military term for making 1+1 = 3, and it can be
applied to any game where players have ‘units’

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 Toolbox
Beyond war games:

Players that co-ordinate in



team-based shooters can

use force multiplication to
quickly take lone
opponents down.

just smashing the enemy, so now players must

weigh up spreading out versus having a single
powerful force.
LONE WOLVES
Ironically, while force
deployed to a specific area e.g. sending tanks FORCE MULTIPLICATION multiplication can be a major

into battle in Command & Conquer, or fighting CASE STUDY factor in team games, it’s often
balanced by players being poor
beside a friend in Fortnite). I’m going to use one of my own games,
teammates. Despite explicit
Let’s assume you and I have two combat units Warhammer Combat Cards, as an example, goals centred purely on the
each – mine are A and B, and yours are 1 and 2. because I specifically made force multiplication team as a whole (such as
If we send A to fight and to fight , assuming part of the gameplay hopefully demonstrating capture this point, or destroy
their strength is equal, that, like most of the this objective), some players
all of the units will be “As a designer, you decide topics covered in this will always default to wanting
wiped out. But if I can article, it can be useful in the most kills or simply
which approaches your whichever activity they find the
manage to get both A the right circumstances).
and fighting , they will game rewards or punishes” The game’s battles most fun.
Of course, you set your
easily destroy it without take place on three
game’s rules and can reward
even taking a casualty. I can then send them ‘lanes’ with cards placed to the left, centre, or
or punish whichever behaviour
both against 2 and wipe that out too. right, each attacking the card opposite them. you like, but it’s worth balancing
This is force multiplication – that two units However, if there’s no card opposite, they attack forcing players to ‘play properly’
fighting a single enemy are more than twice as with just letting them have fun,
powerful because their combined firepower even if it’s at the expense of
easily wipes that enemy out before either their team.
of them are destroyed. This effect becomes
exponentially more powerful if you can get
three, four, or more units to attack a single
enemy, meaning a single large ‘blob’ can move
around an area wiping out the same number of
enemy units that are spread out.
The problem comes when this tactic is so
effective that it’s pointless using anything else,
leading to repetition and boredom as everyone
adopts it. Games can counter the power of
force multiplication by limiting the si e of unit Games that work best if


players function as a team

‘stacks’ or imposing penalties such as a lower need to consider tools to
speed on such stacks. Another way around it is make co-operation easy. For
example, Apex Legends ’
to make victory about claiming locations and not ‘ping’ system.

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Beyond war games

Death spirals have a



psychological effect too. How

many times has frustration or
panic driven you to take bigger
risks and make more mistakes?

the centre lane, giving force multiplication – Games can lessen the impact of death
two or potentially three cards all attacking one spirals by not making it clear who’s winning
N card. But because it’s deliberately built into the so the losing player keeps fighting and maybe
BASED COMBAT gameplay, it’s now something that players need snatches a victory) or with asynchronous goals,
Role-playing games like Grandia to consider when they’re building their decks of which more in a moment. Alternatively, you
introduced providing short strategy and during the battles tactics . Should can introduce mechanics to let players recover
bursts of perfect information they take tough cards to block the side lanes, or their lost ‘power’, though there should, of
during battles by showing the fragile but dangerous cards to take advantage of course, be a downside to this. For example, you
order that your characters and empty lanes? can get back your dead units, but an ‘auto-lose’
the enemies will act in. This countdown begins, which means you need to
lets players see which actions
DEATH SPIRALS hurry. Or maybe a ‘risk-and-reward’ system
they can take before an enemy
Death spirals is a term for when a player who like the super moves which build up in fighting
attacks, or even interrupt
is losing finds it harder and harder to claw back games as you take damage, so the closer you
and push them back up the
timeline. Solving this sort of a win. Imagine we both have ten units to fight are to defeat the greater the chance you can
puzzle can be made into an with. We meet in a skirmish and I lose a unit pull off a last-second turnaround.
interesting mental exercise or but you don’t. You now have more units than
a challenging test depending I do, making it easier for you to achieve force DEATH SPIRAL CASE STUDY
on whether the player can take multiplication and destroy more of my units. One game that turned death spirals into a key
their time or has to choose in Unless I can regain my units, I’m likely to spiral aspect of its combat was the obscure 2002 pen-
real time. into defeat. Worse, I might realise this has and-paper RPG, The Riddle of Steel. Players had a
happened and that I’m going to struggle to win, pool of combat dice which they had to secretly
meaning now I’m deciding whether to just quit. split between attacking and defending, but as
You often see death spirals in turn-based war they took damage, they lost dice from that pool.
games, where the first player to act destroys This meant that as players got closer to death,
some of their opponent’s forces, so the they would take increasingly bigger gambles to
retaliation which comes back at them is reduced defeat their opponent in a single go before their
in effectiveness. As a result, the first player’s death spiral got too bad. With just a few simple
units suffer less damage, leaving them more rules this system cleanly simulated combats
powerful than their opponent going into the that could range from ‘pecking’ an opponent to
second round, and repeat. death, to fighters suddenly delivering a killing

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Beyond war games:

to do. Because victory in these games is 100%

down to outplaying your opponent; they suit
competitive gamers looking for the rush of RECON VERSUS
victory through pure skill and cunning. The STEALTH
downside is that these games are extremely At the opposite end of perfect
intimidating for more casual players who don’t information is deliberately
enjoy knowing that a loss is entirely down to limiting what the player can see
them just not being as good at the game as at any time. Games where you
Using line of sight in your game automatically embody a character do this by
their opponent.


adds an element of risk, so care needs to be taken making you walk somewhere to
with layering on other randomisation factors. There are two ways to mitigate perfect
see it, while ‘god’s eye’ games
information – chance or subterfuge. Introducing
use fog of war. This can lead to
chance allows players to feel that they lost military tactics revolving around
blow. More than that, having both combatants because an attack missed or their opponent reconnaissance and ambushes.
reveal how many dice they’d assigned to attack found a better power-up, removing some of the Perhaps the ultimate example
and defence simultaneously gave fights a sting of defeat. I’m going to skip over chance is Frozen Synapse, where
theatrical flair often missing from RP battles because I covered how to employ it in your both players have to plan out
which are meant to be exciting but are often games way back in Wireframe issue 25 the next turn simultaneously,
just a bit slow). wfmag.cc/25). The other approach is meaning everything comes
down to what you can see right
subterfuge – allowing players to keep
PERFECT INFORMATION information hidden from each other – opening
now and what you think your
opponent is going to do next.
A game is said to have perfect information when gameplay avenues like blu ng, spies, and
its players know every single thing about the scouts. Just be sure players have most of the
state of the game at that point. Nothing is being information they need, otherwise the game
hidden behind fog of war, they know what their might as well be random. You’re looking to
hide as little as possible; just that key piece of
“Games can lessen the impact information that players really wish they knew
about their opponent’s forces.
of death spirals by not making
it clear who’s winning” PERFECT INFORMATION
CASE STUDY
opponent is trying to do to win, and there are no Rather than use a single game as an example,
dice rolls that will determine how successful an let’s look at the relationship turn-based tactics
attack is. Chess is the classic example, whereas, games have with player information. These
for Tetris to have perfect information, it would games revolve around players planning their
need to show you the exact sequence of pieces turns in exacting detail to deliver the most
it will be dropping for the entire game. damage to their opponent, while offsetting the
The idea is that if players know everything retaliation that will come in their opponent’s
about the game’s state, then they’re free to
focus on their strategy and, more importantly,
It’s possible to get any game

to think about what their opponent is planning with an economic model into
a death spiral – mistakes
forcing you into a loss
leading to further losses.

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Beyond war games

turn. In effect, they work like pu le games in that

players are trying to solve the current situation in
the most effective way possible.
However, these games almost never
have perfect information, so no matter how
carefully you plan, there’s always a chance that
something unexpected will mess up what you
thought was going to happen. Examples include
a 99% likely shot in XCOM missing, rolling a 1
in Blood Bowl, or your Advance Wars CO being
‘lucky’. Into the Breach is pretty much the only Board games often include multiple routes to


victory, forcing players to consider which goal
example of a turn-based game I can think of their opponents are working towards.
which lays everything out with almost nothing
left to chance.
But then you need to ask if players really do there aren’t a huge number of tactics they can
SAME GAME want perfect information in their games, or use besides sending as large a force as possible
BUT DIFFERENT does that small element of chance give combat at it. I guess they could try sending forces round
Strictly speaking, competitive
more spice? to attack each other’s HQ directly too, but that’s
card games like Hearthstone unlikely to succeed due to the force multiplication
or Magic: The Gathering have ASYNCHRONOUS GOALS problems we’ve already covered.
a shared goal of reducing your Sounds fancy, but it basically means that each But what if one player needs to search the
opponent to zero health before player wins in their own way, as opposed to a map to find something and bring it back to win,
they do the same to you. But I single ‘first to achieve wins’ goal. For example, while the other needs to build enough non-
think you can argue that their one player might win if they conquer a certain combat buildings across the map? Now players
gameplay revolves around amount of the map, while another player needs have to balance gathering resources to build
asynchronous goals because
to collect enough stuff, slowing their
each player builds a deck to
achieve victory in a certain
resources to complete a “You want a range of opponent by destroying
piece of research.
way, and every action is about e ually effective tactics that their units and/or
You use asynchronous base while protecting
countering their opponent
for long enough to win using goals to force players players can adopt” themselves against
that particular method. The to think about what the the same), whether to
competitive meta is simply other player might be doing and how they can spread out or commit to holding certain areas
players working out the current counter it in addition to what they need to do and so on. uch more interesting
most efficient deck to do this. to win). For example, if both players are simply Asynchronous goals can also be applied
trying to capture the centre of the map, then outside of direct warfare, such as being able
to win by achieving science, culture, religion,
or other goals in Civilization, or the separate
‘survive for long enough’ or ‘track the vampire
down’ goals in Fury of Dracula.

ASYNCHRONOUS
GOALS CASE STUDY
As mentioned earlier, not every game that
employs conflict needs to revolve around
combat. Case in point, some of the games that
use asynchronous goals best simply feature
players talking about who among them is a
traitor. Examples include Among Us, Werewolf,
Victory in competitive card Secret Hitler, Avalon, Battlestar Galactica, and


games comes down to Shadows over Camelot.

whichever player is able to
get their predesigned In all these games, players are ostensibly
combinations into play working together to achieve some goal, except
while slowing their
opponent’s plans. everyone knows that there are traitors in the

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Beyond war games:

The more money involved in its high-level



play (usually through eSports), the more

important balancing out a game’s
dominant strategies becomes.

group or for added comedy, sometimes in because players all rush to collect the cards
Werewolf there really are no traitors but nobody which allow for the dominant approach, driving
knows that). The loyal/traitor players have to purchases which include them. After a while, STRATEGIC
each work towards their own goals, which are the developer then degrades the performance THINKING AS
usually pretty easy to achieve if only you could of those critical cards or boosts other cards to A  R
convince your allies that you’re really on their counteract them, encouraging players onto the
You can apply strategic thinking
side. For these games to work best, they need new ‘meta’, and the cycle repeats. to the development process
some way for players to work towards figuring Still, unless you’re planning to continually itself by considering goals
out the facts, otherwise they can devolve into update your game, I’d look to avoid creating for the game you’re making.
endless arguments and who can lie best. dominant strategies. You want a range of equally For example, if you’re looking
effective tactics that players can adopt in the to create a demo for your
DOMINANT STRATEGIES moment, all driven by clear strategies that players portfolio, then you should focus
Ultimately, the point of applying military thinking can foresee being successful. onflict is a central on a small, highly polished
is to try to ensure that your game has a range mechanic in many games, so I think it makes experience. Other options
include experimenting with a
of equally valid approaches to achieving victory. sense to consider the many solutions developed
new technique or genre, making
If one option is clearly the most effective, then in the real world to attempt to master it. A final
a game focused on a topic
why would players bother to use the rest of the quote from Sun T u ictorious warriors win first
you’re passionate about, or
content you’ve carefully created? and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to simply aiming to make as much
In the past, this wasn’t as big an issue because war first and then seek to win . money as possible. In any case,
as long as it took your player most of the length having a strategy for why you’re
of the campaign to figure out the dominant making this game will help you
strategy then at least they’d already enjoyed the come up with the right tactics
game. But nowadays it’s far too easy for players to reach that goal.
to go online, read about the best way to win, and
then be forced to adopt it or feel that they’re
somehow ‘playing the game wrong’.
One caveat: ‘live service’ games that are Valve’s Robin Walker has talked


about each character class’s

continually updated and patched – such as weaknesses in Team Fortress 2
competitive card games – actually welcome being deliberately considered to
avoid a dominant best choice.
players figuring out a dominant strategy. This is

wfmag.cc \ 55
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Advice

Better exposition
with The Red
Strings Club
Games are often bad at exposition, but a little indie title
contains the key to doing it well – by mixing cocktails

AUTHOR
ANTONY DE FAULT
Antony is Wireframe’s game writing and narrative design
columnist. He’s also creative director of Far Few Giants, and you can
default.games or @antony_de_fault on Twitter.

E
xposition, in which we expose or menu (Skyrim), or B) distribute each topic to a
explain a bunch of facts that are different character or object in a space and allow
important to where the story is going, the player to burn shoe leather walking from one
is inherently boring. ames have a to the next (Batman: Arkham . The player pressed
particular problem with exposition some buttons during exposition, so job done
since the user expects to be able to interact with Problem is, once we’ve seen this a few times,
the story. This expectation often leads to genuine most players recognise these situations as flat
frustration when we’re denied interaction for chunks of exposition and listen to them one at a
even a short stretch of time. time, in order. We’re almost back at square one.
Red Strings : The nature of the
So, what do we currently do when the player uch of The Red Strings Club’s cyberpunk story


mixology metachoice needs to be told a whole heap of backstory happens off-screen or prior to the game’s events,
minigame is mostly irrelevant,
like plumb-hacking in We do the simplest interaction possible and is reported to the player through discussion
BioShock. What matters is break the exposition down into a few ‘topics’, with characters. It’s an e cient conceit which
novelty and thematic relevance.
then either A allow the player to select those allows the game to tell a broad story about an
chopped-up chunks of exposition from a dialogue entire society for four hours without the budget
to actually show all that.
To solve the ‘canned’ exposition problem,
writer ordi de Paco first takes delivery back to
basics: each character has a moderate number
of topics you can discuss with them exactly once,
and this looks a lot like any other game’s menu
of discussion topics. I could ask the whereabouts
of an important person in danger, or about the
character’s reason for choosing their line of work.

THE NEW THINKING

ut crucially, inspired by the manga Bartender,
this game also allows me to mix the character
a supernatural drink which can change the
character’s state of mind. If I serve the person
a drink that puts them in an egotistical mood,
their response to the ‘line of work’ topic is likely
to include lots of juicy details egotists love to

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Advice

Red Strings : Choosing



the correct voice can

be challenging, but
most choices will
result in enough
partial success to
advance the plot.

talk about themselves. ut if I ask them the

‘important person’ question in this state, they’re
likely to fruitlessly steer the conversation back
to themselves. For that, I should put them in a
compassionate mood, and in each state, their
language changes markedly to assure me that my
choice has had an effect.
This is revolutionary for two reasons. Firstly,
the introduction of a metachoice like emotional
state a choice whose purpose is to modify other
choice results branches the outcomes of what
would otherwise be fixed, linear content. This
could equally apply in spaces. For example, Classic triple-A shoe


leather exposition in
Dark Souls’ item descriptions could yield different the latest Spider-Man.
text if you killed the previous owner for it or were Red Strings gives us the blueprint for copying o fi re o t w at s
going on, I must walk
given it willingly. Secondly, how much I learn from its success, too. ater in the game, you play to highlighted people
the topics depends on my ability to successfully as a hacker, rather than the bartender. ou’re in an enclosed area.

pair a metachoice with a topic, and the exposition presented with a new mechanic wherein you
is therefore gamifie . ow, when I look at the have access to a phone and must socially
menu of topics, I no longer need to get through engineer your way through several people to
them one at a time, I’m thinking about whether steal corporate secrets. Again, each person has
the pairing is correct. The choice is interesting a menu of topics you can ask them, but this time,
rather than banal, despite being sort of an illusion. the metachoice has a new flavour you have
I asked de Paco about this, the ability to mimic the
What
and he told me he uses a “The choice is interesting voices of anyone you get
a out lore
‘failing forward’ narrative decent vocal samples of,
rather than banal, despite One of the hottest game
design philosophy . and you choose whose
e explains that the being sort of an illusion” voice you’re speaking
writing trends of the past
ten years was the Dark
player is rarely punished with. aturally, people will Souls ification of exposition,
by choosing an inadequate option, it mostly affects discuss the same topics differently depending on primarily telling the story
the flavour of the content, and I tried to always who they think they’re speaking to. It feels new, through item descriptions
or collectables, in the case
provide something stimulating no matter your but the structure of ‘metachoice topic’ is the
of Destiny). The vague and
approach , but that the anticipation of matching same as before. puzzle-like nature of the lore
topics and emotions is exciting enough . So, if you’re telling a story which leans on in Dark Souls helps it feel
If we think about what exposition is, you can exposition, consider introducing a metachoice like a treasure hunt, but at its
see why this is such a radical improvement. which both personalises the texture of the writing core, attaching exposition to
items is a whole-game-wide
xposition is a bunch of facts which lay out and varies the amount or quality of information form of the shoe leather
context for understanding upcoming story events. yielded. The nature of that metachoice is up burn method, spreading
In attempting to maximise my performance at to you, and should feel relevant to your story. chopped up exposition across
metachoice-to-topic combination, I‘m thinking A character or system could respond to you physical space. In my opinion,
gating lore detail behind a
deeply about the other exposition I’ve learned differently based on your outfit in a fashion game,
metachoice could have made
for context, and I’m paying close attention to the or what sort of weapon you hold in a shooter, it more engaging.
result to see how successful I was. y absorption or simply based on where or when you speak to
of the expositional information will be better. them in an open-world game.

wfmag.cc \ 57
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Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

Creating main menus

in Unreal Engine 4
Learn the basics of bringing a main menu to life –
and o to add visual air to ake it stand out

AUTHOR
RYAN SHAH
An avid developer at The Multiplayer Guys with a strong passion
for education, Ryan Shah moonlights as KITATUS – an education
content creator for all things game development.

I
f you fire up any game on any device, is their experience within the software. aving
you’ll see a main menu. This is the central a good with your main menu is essential, as
hub that connects the player to the world you don’t want to annoy your players before
of the game contained within. There they’ve even played your game.
are many ways to make a good main efore we put together our main menu, we
menu, but there are even more instances where need to understand what we need. An important
developers get so carried away with aesthetics part of the is to not include too many bells
that the user experience is affected. and whistles in our menu – they are there to
A main menu is an example of a user interface allow the player to start a new game, load a
or I . There’s a common misconception that I previous save, or change settings.
and are the same things. This isn’t technically ain menus have evolved over the years.
true, but there’s merit to the claim. is a part Where once a simple ‘Press Start to begin’ was
of the design philosophy behind I. As  I refers enough, we now have a lot of functionality
to how a user interacts with the software, the that needs to be covered, including changing
language, logging into game servers, toggling
subtitles, and so on. What you’ll need in your
 Main menus constantly
evolve to suit the main menu will change from project to project.
functionality that needs to An example of this would be to look at the main
be presented to the player.
menu of Rocket League versus the menu of Dark
Souls. Rocket League needs to allow players to
join each other in parties, and allow users to find
matches, view stats, and change their cars.
Dark Souls, on the other hand, needs only to
let the player know which version of the game
they’re playing, what is installed, and give
them a place to read the latest news, change
their settings, and make adjustments to their
save data.
ecause they can be so vast and project-
specific, we’re going to be as project-agnostic
as possible with the design of our main menu.

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Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

DON’T QUIT
An interesting point to
note is that modern main
menus tend to leave out the
previously popular option,
‘Quit Game’. As technology
and design principles have
advanced, most devices
allow players to quit a game
with a couple of button
presses of the controller –
much faster than scrolling
down to the ‘Quit Game’
option in a main menu.

Sleeping Dogs received



criticism for placing ‘New

Game’ above ‘Continue
Game’, an example of
poor user experience.

The idea is you’ll take what you learn here and created, just double-click the new asset to open
customise the end result until you achieve up the editor.
something that works for your project. There are two main areas to ‘ esigner’
and ‘ raph’. ou can tell which section you’re
GETTING STARTED in by looking at the top right-hand side of the
The most common features in a modern-day window. esigner is where you can lay out your
main menu are I, and raph is where you can add functionality
via lueprints to your I. et’s put together a
• Allow the player to load a previous save game simple main menu so that we can have a brief
• Start a new game overview of what can offer us.
• A place to make alterations to the settings of ake sure you’re in the esigner section as
the game we want to piece together our I visually before Widget Blueprints are


adding some code. Within the esigner section, your window into the
powerful UMG tool in
These features are usually represented by there are five main areas of interest. n the top Unreal Engine 4.
‘ ew ame’, ‘ oad ame’, and ‘Settings’. It’s left-hand side, we have the palette – this is a
common to also include a ‘ ontinue ame’ collection of various widgets that you can add to
option, which loads the your I such as buttons,
last saved state in one “Having a good UI images, and sliders.
button press. elow the palette is the
with your main menu
To make a I within hierarchy this is the
nreal ngine , we’ll is essential” ‘scene outline’ of your
need to use the nreal , showing which
otion raphics feature – is a widgets are paired, and is a good way to quickly
visual designer for user interfaces. To create a select widgets within the I for editing.
widget, all you have to do is either right- At the bottom of your screen, you have the
click in the content browser or click the green animation area. ou can use these to add life
‘Add ew’ button on the top left-hand side of and movement to your widgets making them
the content browser. move around the screen, fade in and out, and so
Within the context menu that pops up, select on. At the centre of the screen, you have the I
ser Interface Widget lueprint, then name area, which lets you see what your I looks like.
this new widget UMG_MainMenu. nce this is Finally, on the right-hand side, we have the

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 Toolbox
Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

etails panel. This comes alive when you select a

widget within the scene, and allows you to alter
CLEAN SLATE properties of said widget, such as its colour, si e,
Another solution in Unreal or position on screen.
Engine 4 to create UIs is Slate. verything in your widget has to
Powered mainly through C++ be a child of a parent widget – a common
macros, critical user feedback theme in nreal. This is why a canvas panel
led to the creation of the is automatically added to every widget you
simpler, designer-focused tool, create with . A canvas panel is a widget
which later became UMG.
that allows the children connected to it to be The sun-shaped icon exists only for children of canvas


panel widgets. The closer the child widget is to the
placed wherever you want. ou then anchor anchor, the more static the child widget will remain
these children to specific positions so that when when the screen size is altered.
viewed on different screens or at different
screen si es , the child widget in question will
remain in the relative location to their anchor. is sitting in a different place from where you
An easy way to visualise this is to look for a left it. This is because a canvas panel and the
button widget within the palette window. nce anchor system aims to keep everything relative
you’ve found the button, simply click and drag it to the anchors instead of looking exactly how
onto the centre of your screen. you design it in .
ou’ll now have the button selected and aturally, this isn’t what most people want
can see the ‘ etails’ on the right-hand side of when designing their I. They want their I to be
your screen. ou’ll also resolution-independent
notice the sun-shaped “Everything in your UMG whilst looking as close
icon, which is telling to how they design the
widget has to be a child of
you where the anchor I as possible. There’s
for the child widget is. the parent widget” nothing worse than
The problem with this putting hours into a I,
Top: By using a mixture of approach is that your child widgets won’t stay in only to realise you’ve been working at the wrong


different panel widget the same place if the screen si e changes. For resolution and that cool button you’ve spent all
types alongside a border,
you can easily lay out your example, widgets default to a that time designing disappears off the screen
UI in a way that looks great resolution. If this widget were displayed on a at the wrong resolution. Fortunately enough,
at every resolution.
screen, you might find your child widget for those who would rather design without the
Bottom: This is how your
anchor system, there’s a solution.


widget should be laid out.

To see the benefits of the alternative
approach, we need to delete the canvas panel
within our scene. To do this, you can
either select anywhere inside the canvas within
the scene view or you can select it within the
hierarchy. With the canvas panel selected you’ll
notice the green outline showing where the
canvas panel is currently sitting , either right-
click and press ‘ elete’ or just press the DELETE
key on your keyboard.
We now have a blank . Within the palette,
go ahead and drag a border anywhere into your
scene view. This will automatically become the
parent of everything moving forward within our
. nlike canvas panels, which can have
multiple child widgets, borders can only have
a single widget as their child. Fret not – you
can use a mixture of spacer widgets these are
essentially used to make blank spaces for when
you need gaps within your Is and hori ontal

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 Toolbox
Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

The Details panel



contains several settings

for each widget. Here,
you can change the
widget’s transforms,
behaviour, rotation, and
so on.
boxes or vertical boxes these widgets allow you
to align child widgets hori ontally or vertically .
ven though borders can only have one child, GET PADDING
panel widgets such as vertical box, hori ontal et’s start with the vertical box. Find the vertical
box, and uniform grid can have multiple box you placed in the scene by clicking on it in
children, which is a handy way to circumvent the the hierarchy. nce clicked, head to the etails
border widget’s limitations. panel on the right-hand side of your screen. ou
The best way to understand how this all fits can confirm if you’ve got the right object selected
together is to learn by practically putting a I as you’ll see the name of the vertical box as well
together. From what you’ve learnt so far, put as the base class on the top of the etails panel.
together a I with the following hierarchy At the top of the etails panel, you’ll see
settings that let you change the padding and the
- Border alignment. Padding is an invisible border that
-- Vertical Box surrounds the widget that can shift the widget
--- Button inside its bounds. ou can press the arrow
----Text to the left of the padding text to show all the
- --- Button options available. Try putting in different values
----Text to gain a better understanding of what padding
There are a several widgets


- --- Button does to your widget. nce you’re comfortable you can wrap around
----Text and ready to proceed, set your padding to . existing widgets, giving
you more control over your
on all values as we don’t want padding for our existing hierarchy.
I recommend looking at the sample content example widget .
available via the nreal ngine launcher, to see ow turn your attention to the hori ontal and
other Is and how they’re put together. veryone vertical alignment tools. These shift your widget
has their own style of how they put together Is based on your chosen alignment. For hori ontal
with , and some workflows may feel more alignment, your choices are eft, entre, Right,
natural to you than others. and Stretched to Fill the -Axis. For vertical
ou may notice that the I doesn’t currently alignment, you can choose between Top, entre,
look all that ‘normal’. If you did everything ottom, and Stretched to the -Axis. For our
correctly, you’ll have three buttons squashed example, we want our buttons in the centre
at the top of your . We’re going to fix this of the screen. o ahead and select ‘centre’ on
by editing the options within the etails panel. both the hori ontal and vertical alignment. ou’ll
As with the widgets themselves, there are many notice your buttons are now a lot smaller. et’s
options within this section, so we’re only going change that.
to give you a brief insight into how you’d use this Sometimes you have a specific hierarchy but
etails section. need to insert a widget in-between a parent

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 Toolbox
Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

and a child. For example, we want our buttons OVERRIDE

to be a little bigger. What we can do is select Another thing we can do in the etails panel
the button in the hierarchy and right-click. is override functions. ost widgets in
Select ‘Wrap With ’ and then ‘Si e ox’. As you’ll come with functionality that can be changed.
be able to see, this takes the widget you’ve For example, buttons have code that fires when
selected and inserts a parent between it and its they’re clicked, hovered over, and various other
original parent, giving you a lot more potential interaction functions.
for changing your hierarchy without having to What we can do is tell them ey, if
remove things to slot in your change. happens, do . To do this, select a button
Select the newly created si e box within the select the top-most button for our example ,
hierarchy and head to head over to the
the etails panel. ou “From here, you should have etails panel and scroll
can either set absolute to the bottom. ou’ll
the tools to
si es Width eight see a section marked
override or a general put together a UI” ‘ vents’ with a number
idea of si e in ax of green buttons
esired Width eight . contained within. Press the green button next to
To activate the mode you want, press the tick ‘ nPressed’.
to the left of the option you require. For now, ou’ll be taken to the raph view, and a new
set Width verride to . and eight override node will be created. If you gave your button
to . . ou’ll see that your button has been a name, you’ll see that written on this event. If
Only events connected
resi ed. ead back to your hierarchy and wrap you didn’t, then a default name will be supplied


to eac ot er will fire ote

t at nodes fire in a linear the remaining two buttons with si e boxes and to this event. To prove this button works, add a
fashion, left to right –
events supply power to make sure they’re all the same si e. Print String node to add some text to the screen
whatever is connected to sing what you’ve learned so far, change the when this button is pressed.
the right of them.
padding of all these si e boxes so that their Right-click anywhere and within the context-
If done correctly, your ‘bottom’ is set to a padding value of . 5. sensitive menu, search for ‘print’ and select


Blueprint will look

like this.

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 Toolbox
Creating main menus in Unreal Engine 4

The Blueprints button is



found at the top-centre of

your Unreal window, just
above the in-game viewport.

‘Print String’. Press ENTER to create the node. within the content browser. ack in the main
Remember, only connected nodes will fire. view, head up to the lueprints button, which
rab the output pin of the nPressed event and sits above the centre of the viewport. lick SIZE BOXES
connect this to the left-most execution pin on the lueprints button and select ‘ pen evel If you’d like to edit multiple
the Print String node. lueprint’. From what you’ve learned so far, size boxes (or any widget
within UMG), you can press
We’re almost ready to test the button, but create an vent eginPlay node and two other
CTRL and then click multiple
there are two things we have to do first. First, nodes reate Widget and Add To iewport
assets within the Hierarchy.
we have to tell nreal ngine that we want this note To get Add To iewport, you’ll have to drag Note that your options are
widget to accept our mouse clicks, and then we out from the blue output pin of reate Widget . limited if you choose different
have to draw our widget to the screen. ook all of these nodes up. We’re almost done types of widgets, so only
reate an ‘ vent onstruct’ by right-clicking ou’ll notice that the reate Widget node doing this for widgets of the
anywhere and typing ‘ onstruct’. ow do the isn’t actually creating anything yet, as the class same type is recommended.
same for ‘ et Player ontroller’. As its name input is empty. Instead of clicking and dragging,
implies, the Player ontroller controls all click the ‘ ropdown’ button to view a list of the
input related to the player. With ‘ et Player classes that can be used with this lueprint
ontroller’ created, click its output pin. rag node. From the options, select your I. Finally,
the output pin to tell the ontext Sensitive press ompile and close this lueprint.
node tool we’re looking for events based on ow comes the fun part testing our I. ead
this Player ontroller. back to where we pressed the lueprints button
Type in ‘Set Input ode’ and select ‘Set and either press the big Play button or click
Input ode I nly’. onnect this node to the the dropbox beside it and select ‘ ew ditor
onstruct node. ou’ll notice that ‘In Widget To Window’. If you followed everything correctly,
Focus’ is looking for an input. lick the input you’ll now see your I on the screen. ore
pin and drag out, just like you did with the importantly, you can click the buttons. lick the
Player ontroller. When the browser pops up, button you added the ‘ nPressed’ value for.
type in ‘Self’ and select ‘ et a Reference To Self’. ou should see a message appear on the top
ead back to the ‘ et Player ontroller’ and drag left-hand side of the I saying ello . ou’ve put
out the output pin again. together your first widget
This time, search for ‘Show ouse’ and select From here, you should have the tools
‘Set Show ouse ursor’. Press the empty box needed to put together a I. As for next steps,
inside the S T node to set this node to TR . ow, I recommend experimenting with the different
connect all the nodes up and press the ‘ ompile’ features of to gain a deeper understanding
button on the top left-hand side of your screen. of the system, and also checking the nreal
ou can now close your I, but you can samples on the pic ames auncher to learn
open it again later by double-clicking the asset more tips and tricks.

This is how your Level



Blueprint should look.

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 Toolbox
Source Code

The TRON cab had



two game controllers:

a rotar w eel and
a jo stick

 attle a ainst
enemies in t e ori inal
arcade classic Source Code

Code a Light Cycle

AUTHOR
arcade minigame
MARK VANSTONE Speed around an arena, avoiding walls and deadly trails

A
t the beginning of the 1980s, the Light Cycle section of the movie, where screen. There are various ways to code this
Disney made plans for an players speed around an arena on high- with Pygame ero. In this sample, we’ll focus
entirely new kind of animated tech motorbikes, which leave a deadly trail on the movement of the player Light Cycle
movie that used cutting- of light in their wake. If competitors hit any and creating the trails that are left behind as
edge computer graphics. walls or cross the path of any trails, then it moves around the screen. We could use
The resulting film was ’s TRON, and it’s game over. Players progress through line drawing functions for the trail behind
it inevitably sparked one of the earliest the twelve levels which were all named the bike, or go for a system like Snake, where
tie-in arcade machines. The game featured after programming languages. In the Light blocks are added to the trail as the player
several minigames, including one based on Cycle game, the players compete against moves. In this example, though, we’re going
AI players who drive yellow Light Cycles to use a two-dimensional list as a matrix of
around the arena. As the levels progress, positions on the screen. This means that
more AI Players are added. wherever the player moves on the screen,
The TRON game, distributed by Bally we can set the position as visited or check
Midway, was well-received in arcades, and to see if it’s been visited before and, if so,
even won lectronic ames aga ine’s trigger an end-game event.
(presumably) coveted Coin-operated Game For the main draw() function, we first blit
of the Year gong. Although the arcade game our background image which is the cross-
wasn’t ported to home computers at the hatched arena, then we iterate through our
time, several similar games – and outright two-dimensional list of screen positions
clones – emerged, such as the unsubtly (each 10 pixels square) displaying a square
named Light Cycle for the BBC Micro, Oric, anywhere the Cycle has been. The Cycle is
and ZX Spectrum. then drawn and we can add a display of the
The Light Cycle minigame is essentially a score. The update() function contains code to
Our homage to the
variation on Snake, with the player leaving a move the Cycle and check for collisions. We


TRON i t C cle
classic arcade ame trail behind them as they move around the use a list of directions in degrees to control

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 Toolbox
Source Code

Light Cycles in Python Download

the code
from GitHub:
Here’s Mark’s code for a Light Cycle minigame straight out of TRON. To get it wfmag.cc/
working on your system, you’ll need to install Pygame Zero – full instructions are wfmag47
available at wfmag.cc/pgzero.

# TRON

speed = 3
dirs = [0,90,180,270]
moves = [(0,-1),(-1,0),(0,1),(1,0)]

def draw():
screen.blit(“background”, (0, 0))
for x in range(0, 79):
for y in range(0, 59):
if matrix[x][y] > 0:
matrix[x][y] += 1
screen.blit(“dot”,((x*10)-5,(y*10)-5))
bike.draw()
The TRON arcade game


was released in t e same screen.draw.text(“SCORE : “+ str(score), center=(400, 588), owidth=0.5,

ear alt isne ocolor=(0,255,255), color=(0,0,255) , fontsize=28)
rod ctions motion ict re
TRON was released
def update():
global matrix,gamestate,score
if gamestate == 0:
the angle the player is pointing, and another bike.angle = dirs[bike.direction]
list of x and y increments for each direction. bike.x += moves[bike.direction][0]*speed
Each update we add x and y coordinates to bike.y += moves[bike.direction][1]*speed
score += 10
the Cycle actor to move it in the direction
if matrix[int(bike.x/10)][int(bike.y/10)] < 15 :
that it’s pointing multiplied by our speed
matrix[int(bike.x/10)][int(bike.y/10)] += 1
variable. We have an on_key_down() function else:
defined to handle changing the direction of gamestate = 1
the Cycle actor with the arrow keys. if bike.x < 60 or bike.x > 750 or bike.y < 110 or bike.y > 525:
We need to wait a while before checking gamestate = 1
for collisions on the current position, as the else:
if gamestate < 18:
ycle won’t have moved away for several
bike.image = “bike”+str(int(gamestate/2))
updates, so each screen position in the bike.angle = dirs[bike.direction]
matrix is actually a counter of how many gamestate += 1
updates it’s been there for. We can then test
to see if 15 updates have happened before def on_key_down(key):
testing the square for collisions, which gives if key == keys.LEFT:
bike.direction += 1
our Cycle enough time to clear the area.
snapBike()
If we do detect a collision, then we can if bike.direction == 4 : bike.direction = 0
start the game-end sequence. We set the if key == keys.RIGHT:
gamestate variable to 1, which then means bike.direction -= 1
the update() function uses that variable snapBike()
as a counter to run through the frames of if bike.direction == -1 : bike.direction = 3
if key == keys.SPACE and gamestate == 18:
animation for the ycle’s explosion. nce it
init()
reaches the end of the sequence, the game
stops. We have a key press defined the def snapBike():
SPACE bar) in the on_key_down() function to bike.x = int(bike.x/10)*10
call our init() function, which will not only bike.y = int(bike.y/10)*10
set up variables when the game starts but
sets things back to their starting state. def init():
global bike,matrix,gamestate,score
So that’s the fundamentals of the
bike = Actor(‘bike1’, center=(400, 500))
player Light Cycle movement and collision bike.direction = 0
checking. To make it more like the original matrix = [[0 for y in range(60)] for x in range(80)]
arcade game, why not try experimenting gamestate = score = 0
with the code and adding a few computer-
controlled rivals? init()

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 Toolbox
Advice

ndie re ections:
AUTHOR
JEFF SPOONHOWER
Making Anew art
Jeff Spoonhower is a game
developer, artist, and
How do you build a solid foundation for an
university professor who has
been working on triple-A and
indie game? Jeff has a few tips
indie games for over 18 years.

A
anewthegame com
question we’re often asked about types, story delivery systems, and more, with the
Anew: The Distant Light is, “How did hope of answering the following questions: which
you get started?” Here, I’ll share elements should we incorporate into Anew? In what
some perspectives on the early ways could we innovate and try something new?
phases of development that helped What creative risks would make our game stand out
us build a solid foundation for the rest of our in a crowded marketplace This phase established a
game: conceptualisation and pre-production. solid foundation for planning some of the important
high-level design decisions for our game.
BUILDING THE FOUNDATION ext, we began conceptualising the story and
Early concept art helped to The first decision we made was to make an art direction, developing tools and processes,


define t e overall vis al tone

for the game. action-exploration (or Metroidvania) game. It’s a prototyping gameplay systems and player controls,
genre we loved, and we thought it would be a fun and planning the gameplay flow. We had no formal
lot o time was s ent


workin on and animation challenge to work on a more open-ended style experience in Unity, so we learned how to use it
s stems in t e first ear o
develo ment
of game. We conducted a research phase during during this phase as well. It took several years to
which we played as many Metroidvanias as we gain a sense of mastery over Unity – it truly is a
could, taking notes on gameplay mechanics, enemy deep and powerful program.
y first creative challenge as art director was to
devise an engaging sci-fi premise that would work
within the rules of the action-exploration genre.
The delivery mechanisms and scope of the story
needed to function in tandem with the design
goals. Since the game world was going to be
expansive and diverse, the story needed to contain
multiple plot points, characters, and mysteries to
entice the player to finish the game.
Meeting each of these narrative criteria was
a challenge and required several revisions.
For example, early versions of the story allowed
the player to control multiple characters, thus

66 / wfmag.cc
 Toolbox
Advice

systems, a dynamic night-and-day system, enemy

AI, player weapons and abilities, visual effects
and lighting tools, and systems to manage the
loading, streaming, and saving of game world data
seamlessly during live play. Each of these systems
were complex and would require testing and
reworking to function properly.
We began to design the world map, which
included concept sketches of each one, points
r rains elt like t is as we worked t ro endless READING UP


desi n c allen es w en we started workin on new.” of connection, and the player’s path. We began
If you’re working on your
with paper and pencil designs, then updated them
first game, you probably feel
digitally using an online whiteboard application. overwhelmed by the amount of
experiencing the narrative from different To understand and troubleshoot our gameplay, information you need to absorb.
perspectives. It was interesting, but proved too narrative scene ordering, and placement of items ot only must you figure out
complex to implement. I also experimented critical to the player’s progression, we translated the type of game you’re going
to make, its scope, features,
with dialogue, but vocal performances of the our whiteboard drawings into text in a oogle and uni ue identifiers, but you
characters’ thoughts and emotions were too ‘on- spreadsheet. This document became the ‘script’ for also likely need to learn a host
the-nose’ for the type of storytelling we were trying our game and was updated throughout production. of new game development
to achieve. These early phases took over a year to and content creation tools
and processes. ometimes
Video game narratives complete. Each design
it’s helpful to step back and
are intricately linked to task and mental exercise
“We were already read a few good books on
gameplay. To work out the required hours of planning game development. ere
story’s finer details, we first e hausted and we d and meetings to solve. are a few that I found helpful
developed the architecture, ust started off” We were already exhausted, and inspirational in the early
phases of production on Anew :
objectives, and rules of the and we’d just started off hris rawford on Interactive
game; designed the world map and a player’s on the long journey of production After working torytelling hris rawford ,
progression through it; and created many of the on many triple-A games, we knew the road to evel p cott ogers ,
systems and pipelines from scratch. In fact, it’s completion would be di cult, but setting up hallenges for ame esigners
renda rathwaite and Ian
not uncommon for the story to be finalised near a strong foundation early in development has
chreiber , and rinciples of
the end of production, after all the critical design enabled us to build an even better game, so ame esign endy espain .
and gameplay elements have been proven out in the time spent in conceptualisation and pre-
the context of play. Having the narrative laid out production was well worth it.
at the beginning, though, was essential to moving
forward in the development process
While working on the story, I developed the
overall artistic direction, and designed the systems
and pipelines for the creation of art, animation,
visual effects, textures, and sound design elements
in nity. The look and feel of our game’s organically
shaped terrain, architecture, characters, props, and
backgrounds needed to seamlessly converge in
order for the world to feel consistent.
ue to time constraints, I was only able to create
a handful of concept art pieces. Figuring all this out
was frustrating and time-consuming, but also an
ultimately rewarding process that took many ‘runs
up the hill’ to figure out. othing is ever easy in
game development.
Steve Copeland, my development partner and
game director of Anew, planned and prototyped
game systems, pipelines, and tools that would
allow us to start building the game world. n re rod ction, ran m lti le


tests on wa s to est ri and

This included the player control and animation animate t e la er c aracter

wfmag.cc \ 67
 Interface
Gallery

GAME
Blue Fire
RELEASE
Out now
STUDIO
Robi Studios
WEBSITE
robistudios.com

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 Interface
Gallery

Blue Fire
Although colourful N64-era games like Super Mario 64 and
Donkey Kong Country were at the forefront of Argentine
developer Robi Studios when it started work on Blue Fire,
the game’s aesthetic is altogether darker and more sinister.
According to developer Gabriel Rosa, the team looked to the
exquisitely animated films of Studio hibli for their action-
platformer’s tone. “I believe we’ve drawn from [Studio Ghibli]
in trying to create a perished world but with a glimpse of
hope,” he tells us, “resulting in characters, lore, and locations
that felt as if they expanded beyond the game itself.”
Robi Studios’ fantasy Metroidvania was built in Unreal
Engine 4, and with a team of just eight, a stylised, low-poly
look was conceived to keep the project manageable. Still,
building a large-scale world for the player to explore provided
a major challenge towards the end of development, Rosa
says. “We went through a critical moment in development
when we thought we wouldn’t have enough time to finish the
art for the game. For several days, we analysed our options
on how to compromise the visuals, since we only had a few
months left to finish Blue Fire. I’d wanted to start working
procedurally for some time, and at that moment we decided
to give it a try, knowing it was a huge risk since we weren’t
familiar with procedural workflows. uckily, we had positive
results very quickly, and it completely changed our game
visually and our studio’s scope.
“The other big challenge was keeping it together
emotionally,” Rosa adds. “There were times when we would
look at all the things we still had to do against our time and
budget, or see things that still needed so much work… Yet we
had no alternative than to show them off to third parties and
explain that this or that would be better later on. All these
issues in the context of a young company like us – where
many problems would appear and stack up from one minute
to the next – at times can be pretty heavy emotionally.”

Blue Fire is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

wfmag.cc \ 69
 Interface
There’s no space like home

R E ’S N O
THE
P A C E
S E HOME
LIK he Unreliable,
we ta
a
ke
nd
a look at the
RPG refu
ge
wk to t e hub
m t he Ebon Ha ceship as a gam
Fro the spa WRITTE
N BY
t io n of
evolu FA R N ELL
CHRIS

F
rom their earliest beginnings, video airship. Those games made an effort, but they
games have realised a specific seldom felt like spacefaring homes shared
human fantasy: to go into space. between you and your crewmates or friends.
Spacewar! led to Space Invaders led That all changed, though, with Star Wars:
to Elite led to… you get the picture. Knights of the Old Republic. KOTOR saw
ut something was missing from those early your missions – and most of your in-game
gaming experiences – the quiet moments experiences – starting from one place, the
depicted in T shows and movies set in space. good ship bon awk. This progenitor of the
Think of R - and hewbacca playing ejarik Millennium Falcon acted as canonical transport,
on board the Millennium Falcon; Shepherd Book an in-game hub, a place to figuratively put up
and ayne being workout buddies on Serenity your feet and get to know your rag-tag band
trying to figure out how the turbolifts worked in of Carths and HK-47s. It managed to feel,
Star Trek: The Next Generation. somehow, like a home – and the game was all
These parts of the sci-fi experience always the better for it.
seemed a little out of reach when replicated The bon awk also served a practical
in games. Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force and its purpose. In a way that echoed sci-fi T shows’
sequel had downtime sessions aboard your ship use of ‘bottle episodes’ to keep production
between missions, Wing Commander had you costs down, using the ship as the backdrop for
clumsily navigating the Tiger’s law and spending cutscenes meant the same environment and
a lot of time in the bar), and the Ragnarok of Final props could be used multiple times throughout
Fantasy VIII acted pretty much as a reskinned the game.

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There’s no space like home

wfmag.cc \ 71
 Interface
There’s no space like home

SHIPS OF THE LINE

Since the Knights of the Old Republic games, the
spaceship hub model has been imitated and
developed further. After codifying the concept
in KOTOR, ioWare went on to refine it with the
Normandy SR-1, SR-2, and the Tempest in the
a ect franchise. After working with the
bon awk in KOTOR II, Obsidian introduced
players to the good ship Unreliable in The Outer
Worlds. Possibly the largest ship in the genre is
Spaceship hubs offer the expansive Sanctuary III for Borderlands 3,


players a home away

from home.
which features an expansive bridge as well as its
own bar, gun shop, and individual quarters for naturally needed a ship to do that.” The ship is
all four player characters and several NPCs. Even more than just a form of transport, however, he
Call of Duty got in on the act with the Retribution adds. “From a gameplay perspective, Sanctuary
in nfinite a a e, demonstrating that the speaks directly to the RPG side of our looter
appeal of having your own spaceship home isn’t shooter. It’s the place where players manage
restricted to RPGs. the inventories, begin and turn in missions,
At the start of Borderlands 3, we knew that reflect on their accomplishments, and plan out
one of our biggest goals was to expand our their activities. When it comes to storytelling, it’s
universe and leave Pandora,” says Graeme where a lot of important story moments happen
Timmins, creative director at Gearbox. “To [as it] ferries players though our expanded
help sell that promise, to go to new planets universe of planets and locations.”
and explore more of the orderlands, we just The role of the Sanctuary III expanded as the
story and world of Borderlands 3 grew As the
story developed, we also recognised we were
going to have a lot of characters that we were
going to need to interact with, and instead of
travelling between planets, it just made more
sense to have those characters close by,”
Timmins says. “It’s also convenient to have a
hub like Sanctuary III where so many game
mechanics are always a single teleport away.
Things like the rew hallenges, unts, Targets
of pportunity, as well as vending machines
and slot machines. Finally, we want every part of
our game to exude character, and the ship was
another great opportunity to do that.”

LEAF ON THE WIND

There’s obvious cross-pollination between
these ships, with a couple of developers even
repeating their most successful tricks, but the
similarities between spaceships are also due to
the common pool of influences they draw from.
The Outer Worlds ’
“Going into the Unreliable’s design, I began


concept artist Bobby researching a number of ships from film and

Hernandez designed the
Unreliable’s crew quarters television,” says Scott Hafner, a designer on The
to reflect t e ersonalit Outer Worlds. Which was great for me, because
of your companions.
it gave me an excuse to dive into three of my
favourite films and shows.
For afner, the three biggest influences on
the nreliable were the Serenity from i e , the

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There’s no space like home

Whether it’s The Outer Worlds (left)



or Mass Effect: Andromeda (above),

ever s i e terior as to reflect t e
look and personality of the interior.

Nostromo from ien, and the Millennium Falcon

from Star Wars. It’s a list Timmins is familiar with
as well.
“When it came to inspiration for Sanctuary “That meant making sure the space looked
III, I drew a lot from the ostromo in the ien functionally correct, but also had those personal
movie, he says. That iconic ship, and entire film, touches and details that make you believe
really, established such an approachable view people lived there. In the centre of the ship, we
of how the future of space travel might look, by have the high-tech engine, but you also have the
keeping it grounded and relatable. We also drew
inspiration from ship designs in Star Wars and
bunk beds and makeshift NPC quarters nearby.”
Explore the Tempest in a ect n me a
MASTERS
i e as well. and you’ll find empty glasses, or see tools and OF SPACE
“For the Serenity, the level of technology lab equipment left out. The spaceship hub has While in many respects a
closely matched our desired look for the recently emerged in the Star Wars franchise spaceship hub is just another
Unreliable, the bridge again, with the Stinger level, it has its own requirements,
for example aboard “Being a huge fan of Alien, Mantis in Star Wars Jedi: and a big consideration is
the Serenity is beat up, Fallen Order. With an size, as Hafner explains. “We
it has lots of exposed
naturally I researched the interior very reminiscent knew players were going to be
wiring and cables, and Nostromo’s layout as well” of the Falcon, the spending a great deal of time
running around Unreliable, so
a mass of switches and antis also has bowls
we didn’t want the interior to be
flashing lights that really scratches that sci-fi itch of fruit, musical instruments, and potted plants
massive,” he points out. “I didn’t
for me,” Hafner adds. “Being a huge fan of the scattered across the ship, again to give that want to inconvenience players by
ien film, naturally I researched the ostromo’s ‘lived-in’ feel. forcing them to run for minutes
layout as well. isual storytelling is a powerful tool at a time, to go from speaking
While the ostromo’s layout differs from the in situations like this,” Hafner says of the with ADA, for example, to getting
Unreliable quite a bit, there are common design nreliable. In the kitchen, for example, we over to the Workbench. So
touches such as the kitchen being a central area created assets that would reflect that people ultimately, I made the Unreliable
for the crew and there being one long central are living here. oard-games are strewn across a bit of a shorter ship overall.”
corridor that stretches the length of the ship. tabletops, empty glasses and dirty dishes are The layout of the ship was also
designed with how a game is
With the illennium Falcon, it was more laying about, playing cards are thrown about
played in mind: “It has a loop-like
about where the crew’s bunks were in relation to next to empty alcohol bottles. The cargo bay is
structure to it, meaning you can
their social space, afner says. And of course overflowing with stacks of crates and unkempt run from the bottom floor to the
the famous holographic board-game gave me collections of goods piled throughout. These back of the ship, climb up to the
some ideas about littering the nreliable with items that are left around help to convey a top floor, run back to the front,
playing cards and board-games of our own. sense of usage and an overall messy-but-homey and travel back down some
This ‘lived-in’ quality, heavily inspired by personality to the space.” stairs and get back to where you
ta a , is a common theme throughout began,” says Hafner. “This was
these ships. YOU CAME IN THAT THING? done intentionally to facilitate
We really wanted to make sure that while we ’Personality‘ is the key word here. In the stories players in getting where they
need to go on the ship as fast
were in a spaceship, which is inherently high- that inspire these games, the hero ship is often
and conveniently as possible.”
tech, it still matched the worn-down world that referred to as another character. ut where a lot
we’ve built Borderlands around, Timmins says. of games that use spaceships as their home

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 Interface
There’s no space like home

ra fiti makes t e


Sanctuary III feel lived-in

and communicates the
character of the crew.

watched over and pulled together by llie. This

vibe of taking the broken, putting it together, and
restoring its function in some way is a big part of
all the designs you’ll find in Borderlands.”
This character isn’t always incidental – it can
strike powerful emotional notes with the player.
Knights of the Old Republic II opens with the player
inside the burning wreck of the ship from the
first game, a deliberate decision to communicate
that something pretty dark and dangerous had
happened, while also flagging the change in tone
from the first game to the second.
a ect goes even further, opening with
the total destruction of the Normandy SR-1 that
players had come to know so well during the
first game. The bigger, meaner replacement,
built by the enigmatic Cerberus organisation,
base allow the player to customise every detail spoke volumes about the new kind of mission
of their character’s appearance, they rarely Shepard would be undertaking. The changes
give them free rein when it comes to interior needn’t always be so drastic, however.
decorating. This makes sense, unlike in a space We knew the companions were going to get
sim, where the spaceship is the player’s in- their own rooms aboard the nreliable, and we
game avatar, a travelling hub is designed to wanted those rooms to feel lived-in, to feel used
As the player completes be an environment that tells part of the story, and occupied, afner says. And we thought a


missions, their rooms

gain trophies and and communicates a character of its own. It’s a good way to do this was to fill them up with items
mementos to reflect reflection of the design seen on spaceship sets in and collectables that the companions themselves,
their progress.
movies and TV – details like the ‘used’ look of the or players, have brought on board. We created
illennium Falcon, or the flowers painted up the numerous art assets based on our narrative
wall of Serenity’s kitchen, give us an insight into designers’ takes on the companions’ interests.”
the crew, as well as the universe they inhabit. For instance, when you welcome Felix, a huge
“If I had to describe Sanctuary III’s personality, sports fan, on board, you’ll notice that he has a
I’d have to say it’s plucky,” Timmins says. “It’s that Tossball stick and Tossball posters hanging up, or
person in your life that might have faced some when the mechanic, Parvati, comes aboard, her
hardships, but instead of being down, it soldiers once empty room is filled to the brim with tools,
on, happy to meet each day and adventure. It’s some photos, and plants. In the same way, the
not a perfect or new ship, but it’s been lovingly player’s own quarters will change according to

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There’s no space like home

“Having NPCs milling about, making small talk

with you, really helps you believe that this ship
is alive, and not just another level in the game, SPACEBNB
Timmins says. These spaceship hubs are
Similarly, in a ect n me a we can intended as your home away
read the messages the crew leave each other from home, but which one is
on the noticeboard, and an entire side mission actually the best to stay in?
is devoted to arranging and getting snacks for
the crew’s movie night. It’s a trope that goes all Ebon Hawk
Spaceship hubs offer an essential place
A classic, retro design, although


for the whole crew to get together. the way back to Knights of the Old Republic II: as
admittedly somewhat spartan in
you walk around the ship, you’ll find characters
its furnishing.
performing maintenance, or just meditating by
their actions. The player’s quarters will slowly fill the ship’s bunks. SSV Normandy
up with trinkets and memorable items from their These touches are what really hammer home Both Normandys feature a sharp,
adventure,” Hafner points out. “When a quest of the immersion in a way games that avoid the professional decor reminiscent of
significance is completed, we may populate that hub aspect of a spacefaring vessel just can’t your favourite Star Trek episode,
room with a memento of something the player manage. Void Bastards, for instance, moves the with more comfortable sleeping
would have seen or engaged with during that player between levels in a spaceship the player arrangements than the Hawk –
quest.” Borderlands 3 operates similarly, filling uses to select their next destination, craft new so long as you’re the Captain.
the Sanctuary III with allies, hunting trophies, and equipment, and set up their loadouts for the next
even lore-plugging audio logs. mission, but it’s little more than a good-looking
Tempest
If the Normandy is your sleek,
set of menu screens. Similarly, The Long Journey
professional corporate office, the
MOTLEY CREW Home sees its crew interact with each other, but Tempest is a smaller, zanier start-
While decoration and environmental storytelling the various rooms of the ship are represented up, where people sit on yoga balls,
are essential for creating atmosphere, it’s the by animated images and menu screens – a ride around on mini-scooters, and
crews of these ships that make them feel like nod to Wing Commander, whether intentional leave passive-aggressive notes to
a home. While Star Citizen boasts fully realised or not. sing a menu gets the job done, but it’s each other on the fridge.
spaceship interiors, and creating a space for
No Man’s Sky lets you “The player’s quarters will the player in the game Sanctuary III
command your own world that provides a Sanctuary III is the ‘Party House’,
slowly fill up with trinkets and where the music’s loud, the
massive space freighters real grounding in the
crewed by anonymous items from their adventure” universe. “Having the
drinks keep coming, and the
floor’s sticky. The sort of place
aliens, without the Unreliable be a physical you’d dream of living in when
dirty dishes, personalised rooms, and staged space and not just a menu item was really you were 17, and absolutely hate
interactions between the P s these can feel important to us,” Hafner says. “There’s something after your 25th birthday.
sterile, or like they stop existing the second the satisfying about being able to grab a chunk of the
player character steps out of the air lock. With game world and call it your own. Unreliable
RP spaceship hubs, however, you can often Everyone has their own room,
feel like you’ve walked in on a conversation that but tends to hang out in the
began while you were out exploring a planet. kitchen. There are board-game
nights, but after two rounds the
We knew early on we wanted the companions
game’s forgotten amid the chat.
to take on a life of their own once set free on the
Queue for the bathroom is a
ship, and we wanted to showcase the fact that nightmare, though.
this is now their home as well, and they should
appear settled in,” says Hafner. “The companion Stinger Mantis
events aren’t meant to be over the top, they’re The listing on the website said
meant to be normal activities that people would ‘yacht’, but your bed is a bunk
take part in. Simple things that folks would do next to the ship’s engine. Also,
while living in a space like this, sharing a drink when the ship’s landed, the
together, talking about last night’s show, or door’s left open all the time. For
camping enthusiasts and gap-
fighting over the bathroom are simple yet subtle
year students only.
activities for the companions to show that this is Toilets have no gameplay function, but are essential


now their new home together. for making the ship seem like home.

wfmag.cc \ 75
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 Interface

Alba
How we made Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

how we mad
e

a wildlife adventure
WRITTEN BY ustwo games’ David Fernández Huerta chats to
RYAN LAMBIE us about making a charming island paradise

P
roving that open worlds don’t have local populace into signing her petition, fixing
to be huge to be beautiful, the up bird boxes in order to coax wildlife back to
Mediterranean setting of a i ie the island, and taking wildlife photos, which are
ent e is an island you can run, skip, then recorded on Alba’s mobile phone app. It’s
and jump across in mere minutes, an open-ended game, but one that provides a
but it’s one packed with personality and charm. delightful counterpoint to the dark, dystopian,
The game’s a gentle eco-fable about a young and sprawling e n , which launched
girl – Alba Singh – who, along with her best on the very same day as Alba in December 2020.
friend Inés, resolves to save her grandparents’ Alba’s compact setting also speaks to a
island’s nature reserve from a greedy property game design that respects the player’s time.
developer’s hotel construction project. It’s a quest The density was a much more important
that involves doing odd jobs to help coax the conversation for us than the size of the island,
so it felt alive but not overly busy or too sparse,”
explains creative director David Fernández
Huerta. “I love open-world games, but with kids
at home and all the obligations of adult life, it
takes me over six months to complete one. And I
do complete them. I love finding every nook and
cranny and collecting all the collectables, and I
think that compulsion is quite universal.”
Work first began on Alba in 2018, when Huerta
and developer and sound artist Kirsty Keatch were
reminiscing about their childhoods in Spain. It was
an unusually hot British summer, and the sticky
heat made them think back to the rural lives they
enjoyed as youngsters. “We’d both been living far
from home for years,” Huerta says, “and when we

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How we made Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Ecco-conscious
For Huerta, Alba was partly informed by the eco-conscious games
he played as a youth. “I think there were a lot of games when I was
growing up that had similar ecological themes, or dealt with very
personal issues. I’m thinking of games such as Ecco the Dolphin,
or Lost Eden, The Dig, Grim Fandango… There was an era in the
nineties when games started to be quite mature in their themes or
aesthetics, as the technology allowed for more nuance. I always felt
that the jump to 3D graphics in the late 1990s and 2000s created
a shift towards more action-oriented games and that it somewhat
dumbed down what games were doing in terms of literary depth.
But that really only lasted a few years, and even big triple-A studios
Creating Alba’s charming are incorporating these themes again, seemingly taking a page


menagerie of creatures required from the indie game book of the 2010s. I’m definitely hopeful that
a “strike team” of artists and
designers, according to Huerta.
as the industry grows and becomes fully mainstream, we’ll have a
growing number of experiences that go beyond entertainment, but
 nvironment artist Jessie van
E

we can’t forget that games are first and foremost about play.”
Aelst studied real-life locations
around Valencia to design
Alba’s setting. Google Street
View came in handy here.

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How we made Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

Animated Animals
The detail in Alba’s assorted birds and other creatures is an
undoubted highlight, and that’s because a considerable amount
of time and effort went into ensuring that each one had its own
unique behaviours. The birds are able to “perch on branches, have
specific animations for landing and taking off, have a variety of
idle animations, different movement patterns, and lots of other
details that, when added up, really make a big difference and gave
each species a distinct personality, uerta explains. It’s hard to
measure how long it took to make a single animal, as the task was
split between 3D art and animation, the art for the wildlife guide, the
programming, behaviour design, placing it in the world, doing user
testing, plus some additional work for the ones that were trapped
or those that appeared in cutscenes, but a lot of them took up to
two weeks distributed across team members.

these characters appeared in the game they

stopped being my grandparents and became
characters in their own right, with personalities
and traits that would help the [game], but by
basing them on real people, they have this look
to them that’s different from your typical video
game grandparents.”
The lack of clichés among the game’s cast
extends to its well-observed script: Alba’s
grandparents often throw modern phrases into
their conversations (“It’s a pile of pants!”) – which
helps make them feel more like real people.
“They’re active and have goals of their own,” says
Birdwatching with Grandpa Huerta. “One of these goals is to connect with


is a way of bonding, while

secretly realising the activity their granddaughter, whom they see once a year.
isn’t spoddy and nerdy and found that we had these memories in common, Grandma uses these modern phrases as a way
is actually fun. Huh.
these shared experiences of a very particular kind to bond with Alba, which is something that my
of rural world, it all kind of developed naturally in own grandma would do all the time with me. In
that direction. Having these memories in common the same way, Grandad shares his hobbies of
meant that it was very exciting and natural for birdwatching and hiking with her. It’s a way for
us to come up with situations, locations, and them to be close to a person they have limited
characters that felt authentic and believable, which access to but that they love with all their hearts.”
"For the is exactly what you’re looking for when you create According to Huerta, the script really came
first couple a virtual open world.”
Alba grew from that seed of an idea, which
together when Georg Backer came aboard,
furthering the developers’ aim of writing
of years I'd gradually developed further as Huerta and his characters with nuance. For the first couple of

been writing team did their research, which ranged from

birdwatching in London nature reserves to
years I’d been writing [everything] myself, and
I was hesitant to add another writer, fearing
[everything] studying Spanish architecture on Google Street
View. And while the game’s partly drawn from
that the vision would suffer, uerta tells us.
“I couldn’t have been more wrong. We started
myself, and I personal experiences, it’s all fictionalised to the working with Georg, who has an incredible

was hesitant point where it becomes “like a dream”, according

to Huerta. “Alba’s house and her grandparents
amount of experience, and he took the world and
the characters and gave them that nuance. The
to add another are modelled after my own, but this is done to characters already had their own personalities
give them a sense of authenticity rather than to and their own voices, but they used to be much
writer " recreate a personal story,” he explains. “Once more archetypal. When he joined us this was

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How we made Alba: A Wildlife Adventure

As little Alba hops and skips



across the island, it’s striking

how, even compared to the
animation of some triple-A
games, her youthful gait
says so much with so little.

something that stood out to him, that felt at odds oan orgu concentrated specifically on the
with the authenticity of the game, so he started animals you’ll find flitting and scurrying around
working out what different characters thought the island, from birds of prey to squirrels and an
about the hotel, and made the mayor a much elusive family of wild cats. Early in development,
more nuanced character like he was the hero of the game’s creatures were “a bit robotic”,
his own story. Then, our senior designer John Bye according to Huerta, but thanks to Borguñó’s
wrote the dialogue for most of the background work, and a “strike team” of programmers,
characters, and the game totally changed – designers, and animators, they managed to
suddenly the whole island was full of personality.” breathe life into Alba’s wildlife.
Alba: A Wildlife Adventure
Huerta emphasises Alba was a team effort – The result is a game that captures a child’s-eye

creative director David
including its heroine’s adorable run animation. view of nature, and helps reinforce the game’s Fernández Huerta.

“That’s the work of our principal animator Simone hopeful ecological message: that by pulling
Tranchina and our senior programmer Gianluca together, we can all do something to help the
Vatinno,” he says. “For the original prototype, I environment. So, does Huerta think the game
had made a very crude and expressive model and could help awaken the same wonder at the
set of animations for Alba, with the intention to go natural world in its players? “I would love it if that
to a more traditional character model when we was the case,” he says. “When I was younger, I
entered pre-production. But we kept trying and was really into nature documentaries and books,
trying versions of the character, but none felt as some of which have stayed in my memory and
expressive and fun as the old one. When Simone shaped my way of thinking. I think games can
joined and did his first pass on the character, we be that as well. I always felt that connection with
decided to try the old sphere look, but done in nic t e e ge g; those games were always
a much more polished way, and everything felt about saving animals from industrialisation and
right… Simone had a strong vision for making pollution, and it made it sound like the coolest
Alba’s character feel alive, fun, and free, and thing ever. If this game had a similar effect on
he pitched the idea of blending animations new players, we would be incredibly proud.”
randomly, including the skipping animation,
among other additions. He and Gianluca gave it
a go and everyone was blown away, it was pretty
much perfect the first try.
By going for depth rather than breadth, Alba’s
comparatively small development team was able 
A well-observed script
means that even minor
to focus on perfecting little details that make a big characters are more than
difference to the setting’s atmosphere animator mere stereotypes.

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Interactive
Online Diary

Online Diary

GITTIN ’ GUD
Polishing off some turtles in a few rounds of
Command & Conquer Remastered
WRITTEN BY IAN “INSUFFICIENT FUNDS” DRANSFIELD

T
he folly of war is second only to and my experiences with Command & Conquer
the folly of thinking you can win at Remastered, specifically when playing it online.
a (digital) war when played online I didn’t go into this with an attitude as I did with
against other humans. While the cry Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 I didn’t think because
of ‘Shall we play a game?’ rings in I’d played it a fair bit as a younger idiot I’d be able
your head as these virtual skirmishes come to to run headlong into multiplayer competition and
virtual life, virtually, and the power of nostalgia make a good showing for myself. Fact is, I hardly
helps you ride through multiple games with a played Command & Conquer (or Red Alert) online
big grin on your face, immune to the fact that in its first go around. The first game didn’t feature
you’re just losing at this re-creation of humanity’s multiplayer on PlayStation, and Red Alert could
worst invention. War, I mean. War is humanity’s only be played via link-up cable, so we had limited
When you get worst invention. Not playing things over the opportunities to break that muddy funster out.


triple-team tank
rushed, you know internet. That’s a close second. And when I say I came into this particular experiment blissfully
you’re not going to
have a particularly
‘you’ and ‘your’ there, I’m really talking about me aware of my limitations, and expected sudden,
successful time. unavoidable war crimes to occur all up in my face.
I wasn’t wrong. C&C Remastered ’s online
mode has been updated and refreshed for the
contemporary world, so it’s as easy as clicking
a couple of things and getting into one of the
few lobbies that always seems to be doing the
rounds. More at busier times of day, of course,
but generally speaking you’re unlikely to be
unable to join a game. I jumped right into a game
with five other folks, the organiser splitting us
into two teams of three, and the match kicking
off alongside that vague adrenaline-anxiety
that wells up inside of you when you’re playing
competitively online. The one that makes your
chest feel a bit tight and fluttery an’t stand the
feeling someone might try to talk directly to you?
Know you’re going to lose imminently and feel
powerless to stop it? No? Just me? Ah.
So the first game lasted a legitimate ten
minutes, at the very top end of my guess. I should

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Online
Interactive
Diary

match’s eventual winner – and it was all thanks to Real-time tips

the miracle of turtling and tank rushing. Turtling,
for those unaware, is the incredibly brave and
heroic tactic of trying to make your base an
impenetrable shell, not venturing very far out
of it, and absolutely riddling it with defensive
structures and units. The intention is to make it o it of ine
Part I: Building up for a big, Mammoth tank- so your opponents can’t get a look-in should they Hey look, it’s ‘practice’ advice!


in sed tank r s o m own, confidence was i

that I’d be able to break through this bottleneck
choose to attack you, thus making you safe in a But do, because even though
of Tesla coils and turrets. classic arms race stand-off-y way. it’s 900 million years old,
Tank rushing is getting loads of tanks and Command & Conquer does
rushing the enemy with them. I did this, after still have a learning curve.
have seen it coming when one of my opponents about half an hour of turtling and seeing off a few Plus playing against the AI
does give you a nice overview
sent a scouting party out to my base in as much waves of assaults – thanks muchly, Tesla oils –
of basic strategies. Like tank
time as it takes somebody to start a game, click with a force of some 25 or so Mammoth tanks
rushes. Just do tank rushes.
some soldiers, and send them to where they rolling up alongside other supporting units with
clearly know an enemy base is located. The full long-range or anti-infantry capabilities. A good
attack came for teammate one in the bottom left mix, basically. Smart, thought through, the sort of
first, then two in the middle, thing you see victories come
and finally me with the “ he rst game lasted off the back of. Fittingly, it
might of all three opponents
ten minutes, at the top was folly.
rushing me. All the time I’d been
It wasn’t even end of my guess” hiding out, watching my
Ignore gimmicks
Spies can be helpful, dogs are
disappointing; the ‘lolrush’ own teammate be wiped even better, and Tanya can
comments in the top corner keeping a jovial out, peeking through the iron curtain at battles take down an entire army…
atmosphere around a tactic that is, let’s be on the other side of the map, and fending off offline. Online, you’re looking
honest, not exactly the hallmark of a good cursory attempts to breach my defences, I at three types of unit that
sportsperson. But then this is Command & thought I’d been smart. I was building tanks. will do little other than die,
Conquer (Red Alert, specifically , where the But my opponents were building tanks too. quickly, and cost you money
immutable power of the tank rush casts its gaze y opponents were building more tanks, because in the process. Ignore the
over every battlefield you enter. That’s to say it’s they were making cheaper ones. gimmicky units.

a useful tactic, even if it is cheap as particularlarly As the old saying goes: there’s always a bigger
cheap chips. tank rush. But by gee golly, it might be as dumb
Suitably baptised by fire, I stepped into a few as a bag of rocks, but Command & Conquer online
more games – avoiding one because people in is a heck of a lot of fun.
the lobby were rude and immediately ganged up
on me for being an interloper. I’m sure that would
art aid confidence was mis laced,
Find friendlies


have proven fun to play as all seven of them and my base took an absolute battering
immediately form a pact and kill the snot out of in the process. But I persevered! Until Go into the lobby for a game,
losing 15 minutes later instead.
pay attention to how people
me within the first couple of minutes. mph. Still,
are talking, and immediately
other games did happen with less snooty folk
leave if they all instantly turn
hosting them, and they all ended up much of a
on you for being an outlander,
muchness no wins, but the feeling I would be or whatever silly things people
able to put some of my single-player learning into say online. Repeat this process
action with a level of success. until you find somewhere with
That success came and by that I mean I was nice people, and you’ll have a
the last member of a team eliminated by the much better time.

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stem r fi e

Nintendo 64
Why yes, it is a quarter of a century old

T
ime, you sly old coot, you’ve release didn’t let on that anybody was
done it again: this coming annoyed with the wait. Not really. And
June marks 25 years since the N64 did stand out, even with those
the Nintendo 64 released other two dominant consoles already
in Japan. It seems like only having done the rounds for almost two
yesterday we were still both trying to years by the point Ninty’s new machine
stop calling the console the Ultra 64, and came out. Because it used cartridges.
champing at the bit, willing Nintendo to We were onto CD-ROMs now, silly
pull its collective thumb out and get the Nintendo! We were all about FMV
console out in Europe before too long. cutscenes and loading times and putting
Fun fact: it didn’t release in Europe until a game into a CD player to hear its
No time for fancy doodads March 1997, so anybody still moaning music. We’d moved on. But Nintendo,


– when you looked at an

N64 box, you knew what you about the one or two weeks’ difference being Nintendo, said no. The Nintendo
were getting. in PS5 launches… yeah. 64 would stick with tried-and-tested
Sega’s Saturn was established, the cartridges with their near-instant
PlayStation had gouged itself a significant loading times and their near-inability to
share of the market, and the upstart be pirated, at least by regular players
Sony was looking to dominate the without specialist equipment. A glance at
generation. But while Nintendo was late the PSone shows what happened on the
to arrive, the hype surrounding the N64’s CD side of things, but hey.

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Nintendo 64 \ stem r fi e

Not often a single game


changes all gaming
forever. The N64 – and
Super Mario 64 – did that
on day one.

But the surprise of the storage by this point had any of these features,
medium passed by and, when it and it helped the N64 stand out as a
released, the N64 blew a fair few minds. 3D-shunting beast. There were also little
Helpfully, it launched with one of the flourishes like the four controller ports –
best games ever made, to this day – something seen in the likes of the Bally
Super Mario 64, a game that reinvented Astrocade previously, but never before
what a platformer could be and set the in a major, mainstream console. And
gold standard for all 3D platformers there was a bundled-in controller made
that followed. It might have teased us for and with 3D gaming in mind. It had a
by appearing to be another traditional lot going for it, did the N64.
Nintendo games But there were
machine, but in “Helpfully, the N64 issues from day
practice, the N64 one. Those
pushed things
launched with one of the cartridges had
further than best games ever made” benefits, but the
might have been drawbacks were
expected, in no small part thanks to felt on the consumer side a fair whack –
the hardware being derived from SGI’s mainly thanks to games being pricier
nyx supercomputer. than their CD-burned compatriots.
The Nintendo 64 was capable of Additionally, this bold new world of video
outputting perspective-correct textures, footage and CD-quality soundtracks on
meaning no warping like in so very many your disc… well, wasn’t on cartridge,
PlayStation and Saturn titles; it featured because it couldn’t be. Nintendo was
mipmapping which helped with the also forced into a fairly embarrassing
clarity of textures in the distance; and climbdown price-wise, as after launching
it used a -buffer – aka a depth buffer in March 1997 in the UK at £250, Sony
– to help with rendering polygons at swiftly dropped the price of the
different depths. o other major console PlayStation to just . intendo’s

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Ocarina gets all the plaudits,



but #truegamers know it’s

Majora’s Mask that’s the cooler
game, because it’s edgy.

hand was forced, the N64 dropped by And even below the legend-tier, the
around £100 not long after launch, and saw game after game that just nailed it,
it was playing catch-up from then on. that brought something special to the
But what a catch-up it played, even table – four-player sessions on Mario
if in the grand scheme it didn’t take Kart 64, or plugging in the 4MB RAM
the crown. The Nintendo 64 was expansion to have your expectations
home to the overwhelmed by
aforementioned “On the N64 it really was Perfect Dark. Or,
Super Mario 64 just, the swearing
– a game that
a case of quality over on Conker’s Bad
changed gaming. quantity” Fur Day. It might
It was home to not have seen the
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a… thousand-plus games of the PlayStation,
Atrocity of a control scheme aside,
well, legend of a game. It was home to or even the 600 or so of the Saturn –


Treasure’s Sin and Punishment

showed there was scope for trying GoldenEye 007, which fundamentally ending up with just shy of games in
something different on the hardware.
altered the direction in which first- total – but on the N64 it really was a case
person shooters – then still referred of quality over quantity. Except for Mortal
to as DOOM clones – were heading. Kombat Trilogy, which was toilet.
ever ones to just leave the hardware
alone, Nintendo had secretly been
beavering away on something else in the
background – a move away from high-
price cartridges and into the much more
modern physical storage medium of…
Zip disks? Alright, they were proprietary
magnetic storage discs, but the media
for what was eventually revealed as the
64DD did bear a passing resemblance

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Nintendo 64 \ stem r fi e

to the short-lived ‘better than floppies, shifted over 100 million worldwide, while
not quite CDs’ storage medium. What is Sega’s Saturn even managed to outsell
there to say about the hardware add-on? the N64 in Japan. IQ
Not much, honestly. It only came out in As such, the N64 straddles a strange In typical bullish Nintendo fashion, the
company attempted to bring the N64 to
apan and saw just nine games released, line: not big enough to be a true
China, a country where piracy was rife, so
including Doshin the Giant (re-released legend, but too good to be ignored in purchasing consoles and games wasn’t a
on GameCube) and the excellent discussions about the GOATs. Modern typical ‘thing to do’, and games consoles
SimCity 64 (look it up on emulators). views of the machine do skew North were banned anyway. Classic Nintendo.
Anyhow, the result was the iQue Player –
Safe to say, the was a dud and was American, and as such tend to overstate
known as Shén Yóu Ji in Chinese, which
discontinued in February of , just its impact. The US-centric commentary translates as ‘Divine Gaming Machine’. Bit
over a year after its original December on the console can obfuscate the limited of an ego. It was a controller with a built-in
1999 launch. performance of Nintendo’s console on N64 SoC, which could download games like
It wasn’t much longer after that the world stage, resulting in a skewed Ocarina of Time and Super Mario 64 from
dedicated kiosks, then hook up to the telly
that the N64 itself bit the bullet, with overall vision of the N64’s position in the
to play them. It was a curious experiment
Nintendo moving on to the GameCube pantheon of gaming history. Still, Perfect on the part of Ninty, but by all accounts
and ditching its previous machine Dark was bloody ace, wasn’t it? was not a huge success in the region.
in 2002. Understandable, given the We await the Nintendo 64 Mini with Even so, the iQue was up and running from
2003 through to it being wound down in
competition from Sony’s PS2 and barely contained glee. Even though
2016, so it wasn’t a bad run.
Microsoft’s Xbox. The N64 did see a few it hasn’t been announced at the time
genuine greats in those last couple of of writing.
years, like the incredible Perfect Dark and
the (originally) vastly overlooked Conker’s
The N64 saw its share of controversy, not


Bad Fur Day, but overall it did feel more least of which in the harrowing “what
like a quiet retirement for the machine the hell is Lylat Wars conflict o 199

rather than it going out swinging. A solid

run of six years and at least three –
maybe even four or five – all-time,
game-changing greats isn’t exactly a
bad one, though.
These days, the N64 has seen a
reputation built around it as one of
the most important machines in the
evolution of gaming, but the sales
figures never did quite back it up. While
massive in the Americas, selling 20.63
million consoles in its lifetime, in Japan
it shifted just 5.5 million, and the rest
of the world (mainly Europe) it sold 6.75
million. For comparison, the PlayStation

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stem r fi e / Nintendo 64

Ten N64 games

to play today
Five obvious picks, and five alternatives

01 02

The Legend of Zelda: Mystical Ninja 03

Ocarina of Time Starring Goemon Super Mario 64

1998 1997 1996
ho’da thunk it One of the finest s ever Alternatively, why not try Goemon? It’s a bit ho’da thunk it part II. One of the finest
made gets put on a recommended list. What are more Japanese-y, sure, and if you’re not up for platformers ever made gets put on a
the odds, however did this happen etc. etc. Still, a bit of daftness with giant robots and musical recommended list. What are the odds, however
the fact always remains that Ocarina of Time numbers, you might want to steer clear (and did this happen etc. etc. Super Mario 64 was the
was a trail-blazer, and still stands tall – even at lighten up, let’s be honest), but Mystical Ninja is first platformer to get it all right, and it did so
20-plus years old – as an example of what good a fun and a unique offering in the world of with abandon. It’s frankly ridiculous that nothing
design can achieve. both N64 and gaming as a whole. has bettered it to this day.

04 05
Banjo-Kazooie Wave Race 64
1998 1996
Or go the are route and opt for something with Where PlayStation had idge acer, the N64
a bit more narrative depth to proceedings, as had idge acer – eventually – but mainly it had
you join the warm embrace that is a bear and ave ace . It’s racing, but on water. Mind:
bird working together to foil a naughty witch blown. We were lured in back in 1996 by that
in the best alternative to Mario’s 3D platformer water animation, with rolling waves looking like
hegemony. It’s arguably formulaic at times, but they were about to smash out of the telly and
it’s still an absolute hoot. Best of all, it’s easy to flood your living room. And now? Well, now it’s
play on Xbox, thanks to Game Pass. just a darn fine racing game.

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06

Beetle Adventure 07

Racing GoldenEye 007

1999 1997
On the other hand, you could try a licensed Another ‘who’da thunk it?’ GoldenEye 007
racing game published by EA that, actually, changed console shooters forever, quite frankly,
is surprisingly good. One of those ‘you won’t both for its crafted single-player mode and its
believe it ‘til you play it’ situations, really, and it slapped-on-but-amazing multiplayer. Impossible
wouldn’t surprise us much if a lot of you have to say it hasn’t aged, because crikey it has,
never actually played this one. But it’s inventive, but the impact is eternal with rosnan’s finest
creative, and a lot of fun – and still worth a pop. Nintendo outing.

09 10
08
WWF No Mercy Virtual Pro Wrestling 2
Perfect Dark 2000 2000
2000 Fighting games on the N64 weren’t a particular Across the planet, you could have opted for
Meanwhile, a few years later, are uietly highlight, except for in the world of pro wrestling VPW2 instead, though, which was practically the
bettered GoldenEye with its licence-free tale of where we got things like this. AKI’s best take on same game as No Mercy but a) with a slightly
a spy, the future, and an alien buddy with the the WWF offered technical grappling the likes older version of the same engine, and b) with a
follow-up FPS, Perfect Dark. Time has been kind of which you don’t see repeated these days, and broader set of options to tinker with, including
to Perfect Dark, allowing it to blossom as the an incredible amount of depth – along with a shootfighting think MM . It’s the connoisseurs’
N64’s best shooter, but it wouldn’t have been wonderful create-a-wrestler mode that added choice for combat titles on the N64, and with
possible at all without 007 leading the way. hours of fun. It is, indeed, still real to us. good reason.

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Column

The priciest Mario

game of all time
L
ockdown can do funny things to out again to pair him with the NES/TV set, so why
a tipsy web surfer. I’m sure many not grab a couple of cheap expansions to let him
of you could glance up right now stretch his legs?
and see something you impulsively And then I had what I call ‘Bath Whisky’. For
treated yourself to after a rough ‘2020 the uninitiated, this is where you drink whisky, in
moment’. Mine’s pretty extreme though: I just a bath. Somehow I accidentally purchased every
bought the world’s most expensive Mario game. single remaining set on Amazon. Whoops.
Not the sealed copy of the original NES Super But I wasn’t done yet. One tumble down a
STEVE MCNEIL Mario Bros. that sold recently for a mere £90,000. wiki** hole later and I discovered there were
“Let’s-a-go?” More I wish I had that level of restraint. No. To get me several sets unavailable to purchase if you were
like “Le-go”, amirite? and my kid through lockdown, I have now bought just some casual Lego Mario-er. A set that had
(I am rite.)
every Lego Mario set*. To be clear, when I say only been available during pre-orders, with
every set, I mean EVERY. SET. an exclusive “Stone-Eye”! North America-only
I began innocently enough back when it Thwomp and Toad expansions! And, the pièce
launched, grabbing just the starter pack and a de résistance, “King Boo and the Haunted Yard”,
character pack my kid picked out. “This is OK,” found only abroad. And on eBay, of course. On
I thought. I’ll just try it once. o big deal. I can there, you could even find people who’d created
stop any time I want.” We played with it; it was complete sets of the character packs, for just a
fun. It went back in its box. Everything was fine. modest(ish) contribution in recognition of their
It genuinely is great, by the way. Lego Mario time and effort wading through duplicates.
makes bespoke sounds as he navigates and It’d be foolish not to buy these rarities too,
recognises the various bricks and baddies, and right? I mean, it’s an investment. If you bought a
the related app times you and logs how many PlayStation 5 and an Xbox Series X at launch, you’d
coins you collected. You can create endless levels, be £900 out of pocket, and they’d be worthless
and re-run existing ones to beat your previous in 10–15 years. For just another £150, you could
bests. If you’ve got a young kid, they will love it. have a single game that covers your entire dining
“I’ll just Anyway, in the run-up to Christmas, that big table forever, to the delight of your partner.
try it once ego S T thing popped up on the cial Oh God, what have I done?
No  ig deal Nintendo Store with a 15% discount. “It’s been a
tough year,” I thought to myself. “That’ll make a
 can sto m a ega ige t int t t at t i i n t m e
nice project. I’ll treat myself.” Christmas came, and e en i e t an t e ca t t it ce tain m e t an nee e t
any time several expansion sets went on sale on Amazon. en n a tic ic
 want” We were going to be getting the little Lego Mario mean i

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 Rated
Contents

Backend Contents
Reviews, retro games, and lots more besides
Super Meat Boy Forever PC, PS4, XBO, Switch
GG Aleste 3 PS4, Switch, Game Gear OUR SCORES
A Monster’s Expedition PC, iOS, Mac Trash. Unplayable; a broken mess.

Terror Squid PC, PS4, XBO, Switch, Mac

A truly bad game, though not
Ghostrunner PC, PS4, XBO, Android necessarily utterly broken.

The Last Campfire PC, PS4, XBO, Switch, Mac, iOS Still awful, but at a push could be
fun for two minutes.
Good Mourning PC
Might have a redeeming feature,
El Hijo PC, Stadia but otherwise very poor.

Haven PC, PS5, XB S/X, PS4, XBO, Switch Adds in more redeeming features,
but still not worth your time.

Page 98: Entirely avoiding



the No Man’s Sky level of Average. Decent at best. ‘Just

hype, it’s Hello Games’ latest. about OK’.

Held back by glitches, bugs, or a lack

of originality, but can be good fun.

A very good game, but one lacking

spit and polish or uniqueness.

Brilliant. Fabulous fun. Everyone

should at least try it.

Cutting edge, original, unique, and/

or pushes the medium forward.

100
Never say never, eh?

PLUS
Backwards compatible
There’s a lot of hardware tinkering
going on in this month’s retro pages

Now playing
ox surfing and other such treats in
the games that had our eye recently

 Page 108: This month

we’ve been playing
some Very Normal And
Sensible Games.

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 Rated
Review

Review

Super Meat Boy Forever

Procedurally degenerated

S
uper Meat Boy Forever welcomes you that aura or due to the specific demands of
back with a slap in the face. A decade the mobile market at which it was initially
GENRE
Info

after its predecessor redefined aimed , Refenes has retained the cartoonish
Platformer/Auto-
hardcore platforming, testing the gruesomeness but designed a radically different
runner
nerves and wrecking the controllers game, migrating to a neighbouring genre and
FORMAT
PC (tested) / PS4 of a million players in the process, Tommy looking to other classics, rather than its own
/ XBO / Switch Refenes, sole remaining member of the original predecessor, for inspiration.
/ PS5 / XB X/S / creative team, has come up with a sequel The most drastic departure is that you no
Android / iOS / that significantly alters the formula but shows longer exert any control over your movement
Linux
no intention of pulling its punches. ven the speed and direction. The two protagonists,
DEVELOPER
introductory levels will have you screaming at eat oy and andage irl eventually joined
Team Meat
the screen, its teaching methods for newcomers by several unlockable guest stars , rush ever-
PRICE
entailing little more than throwing you in at the forward to save their cubical toddler from the
£15.99
deep end and unlatching the shark cage. clutches of evil r. Fetus. In other words, Super
RELEASE
Out now espite its enormous success and Meat Boy Forever is an auto-runner, hurtling you
influence, the reputation of Super Meat Boy has toward the same thicket of bladed, whirring
remained pristine, untouched by the stream contraptions over and over again, with nary a
of unnecessary, successive iterations that have moment to figure out how to avoid staining the
REVIEWED BY clouded the lustre of the other early- s indie scene with your entrails for the hundredth time.
Alexander Chatziioannou milestone co-created by d c illen, e in ing It could be argued that the change
of Isaac. Whether in an effort to preserve foregrounds the original’s core qualities.
Super Meat Boy was always about meeting
the challenge head-on, with perfect timing
on your jumps and a deft grasp of its physics
allowing you to complete each ha ard-filled
level in the shortest time. What Forever does,

Destructible environments,


like these boulders and

crates, mean that timing your
jumps perfectly remains vital.

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 Rated
Review

One of the game’s most



memora le oss fi ts its o

against a horde of Dr. Fetus clones.

by transforming a hard-as-nails platformer into

a conveyor belt of death, is disabuse you of
the notion you ever needed to hit the brakes.
ut as exhilarating as it can be when things click,
this purity comes with constraints. There’s less
room for exploration and a severely reduced
capacity for experimentation. ach course poses
a question with a single answer, one you’re led
to through a process of trial and error, until
it’s muscle memory, not a series of conscious
decisions, ensuring every button press lands at
the correct microsecond.
You only have a couple of seconds
That is, assuming you understand what’s


before those rigged blocks explode

required of you in the first place. The game’s so better not tarry.
perpetual motion becomes frustrating when
the path forward is unclear, whether due to
an unlucky dice roll from its level generator or for die-hard fans – an admirable ambition, no
because some new mechanic was inadequately doubt, but one that clashes with fundamental
explained. In these infrequent moments of auto-runner principles. erek u’s masterpiece HIGHLIGHT
disorientation, instant restarts, and deaths is about exploration first and competitive high- The punching mechanic is
blurring into one another, Forever becomes scoring second. With those priorities inverted perfectly implemented, with
something the original never was boring. but no way to compare your times against other a satisfying heft and the
A necessary dose of variety is injected in this players’ not even via daily seeded runs – a liberating ability to extend
your jumps by chaining strikes
rigid template via a range of newly introduced ba ing omission, given that glaring weakness ,
in mid-air. A shame that the
mechanics. There are shades of VVVVVV’s who exactly is Forever’s Sisyphean gauntlet for randomly generated levels
gravity fields and Portal’s dimension shifts, oreover, with randomness already imposing don’t allow it to be as creatively
self-destructing blocks, expanding platforms upper limits on complexity lest levels start used as in the boss fights,
where it really shines.
and, most prominently, the unravelling at the seams,
ability to punch enemies “Each course poses the full potential of some
in mid-air, thus extending of the game’s best ideas
the length of your jumps.
a  uestion with a single remains untapped. It’s not
ot all of those work equally answer” a coincidence that the most
well, and some of the enjoyable sequences of
more elaborate ideas like the directional warps Super Meat Boy Forever, both as spatial pu les
propelling you to the other side of the level and as reflex tests, are the handcrafted boss
result in some of the immediacy getting lost. fights. ven when they’re frustrating, even when
ut the possibilities inherent in them are they’re confusing, they demonstrate something VERDICT
fascinating, even if they’re not fully explored of the ingenuity that made the original game A fascinating experiment in
because of Forever’s other major break with special. And, while the achievement of delivering procedural generation, but
traditional platforming tropes its reliance on an innovative, mostly fun variation of a beloved Super Meat Boy Forever ’s
procedural generation. formula that manages to remain cohesive on best parts remain the
Taking a page out of e n ’s book, Refenes the shaky foundations of procedural generation handcrafted ones.

62%
has decided to outline the rules and delegate cannot be underestimated, ‘most impressive’ is
level-design duties to the machine. I’m assuming not necessarily a synonym for ‘best’. Still, there
that’s where the ‘Forever’ in the title originates is enough here for a few engaging hours, if not
from the desire to create an endless playground exactly forever.

wfmag.cc \ 93
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
GG Aleste 3 captures something
that eludes a lot of abstract-
looking bullet hell shooters: a
cinematic sense of occasion.
he first stage alone, where you
blow up gigantic star destroyers
by hitting their vulnerable cores,
makes you feel like you’re in the
midst of an 8-bit space opera.

Review

GG Aleste 3
It’s a mega blast

F
irst, the bad news: at present, GG the emphasis is on memorising enemy patterns
Aleste 3 is only available as part of the and controlling the centre of the screen. In this
GENRE Aleste Collection, a Japan-only release respect, GG Aleste 3 remains true to its series
Info

Shoot-‘em-up which also gathers together a bunch lineage: like earlier games, your craft has
FORMAT of other eighties and nineties Compile primary and secondary weapons. The first can
Switch (tested) / PS4
shooters in one bundle. The better news: it’s such be upgraded by collecting the tiny pellets that
/ Game Gear Micro
a great game – at least if you’re into traditional shower forth as you gun down certain enemies,
DEVELOPER
shoot-‘em-ups – that it justifies the price of the while the latter can be switched and upgraded by
M2
collection by itself. grabbing lettered power-up icons.
PUBLISHER
M2 The first Aleste game in about 28 years, GG There are six secondary weapons; these range
PRICE
Aleste 3 is a sequel to the pair of handheld entries from homing missiles to more defensive spinning
£35 (approx) that appeared on the Sega Game Gear in 1991 shields to bolts of energy that fire straight ahead,
RELEASE and 1993, and developers M2 and director and each has its own glorious name (‘Rising Laser’
Out now Manabu Namiki (composer on such shooter is my personal favourite).
classics as Battle Garegga) have programmed the GG Aleste 3 is by no means the hardest in the
game so that it could conceivably run on that series, but there’s a pleasing balance here that
ageing bit of Z80 hardware. What does this mean feels nicely pitched for modern audiences: getting
from the player’s perspective? Chunky pixels, hit will downgrade your weapons, but it won’t rob
REVIEWED BY warbling chiptune music, and a somewhat limited you entirely of your defences like, say, the original
Ryan Lambie number of bullets and enemies on screen. This Aleste – also known as Power Strike – which was
isn’t to say GG Aleste 3 feels outdated, however: an unremittingly harsh game. GG Aleste 3 doesn’t
it’s still a fast-paced and immensely absorbing exactly tear up the shooter rule book – as always,
horizontal blaster with some classy music and it’s blast the bad guys, avoid the bullets, save
superb design flourishes, from big, imaginative the galaxy – but it does provide an experience
end-of-level boss designs to the tiny birds that that’s so true to its retro roots that it all still feels
flutter across the trees at the start of stage two. somehow fresh.
GG Aleste 3 (or Galvanic Gunner Aleste 3) also
VERDICT stands in stark contrast to the kinds of modern
A satisfying throwback shooters that have appeared in more recent
to a bygone era of years: the great curtains of swirling ordnance
Compile shooters. that define the bullet hell subgenre are nowhere

81%
to be seen, and neither are there additional
baubles like elaborate score mechanics. Instead,
the sequel quite rightly harks back to the style
and pace of earlier spaceship shooters; here,

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 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Tap on the monster and
he’ll have a little sit-down.
It’s such a simple thing,
but it’s emblematic of the
good feeling that resonates
throughout every second
of A Monster’s Expedition.
And every time you start the
game, he’ll be having a little
nap. Make sure you look out
for the coffee stand as well.

Review

A Monster’s Expedition
(Through Puzzling Exhibitions)
A museum piece that’s full of wit, whimsy, and wonder

A
Monster’s Expedition is a game that sense that you actually are on an expedition.
resonates with good cheer. It’s a The sort of expedition you might make on a
GENRE

Info
happy grin in digital form, packed full Saturday afternoon with a backpack full of jam
Adventure / puzzle
with little moments that are going to sandwiches and ginger beer.
FORMAT
warm the cockles of your heart. And But the simplicity of the mechanics means
iOS (tested) /
on top of all of that, it’s also a supremely engaging you can drop in and out whenever you feel Windows / Mac
puzzler with plenty of tricky challenges. like it. It’s lovely to be able to pick up where you DEVELOPER
The game sees you working your way through left off, like climbing back into bed on a frosty Draknek & Friends
a strange museum. You’re playing as a podgy morning and snuggling down under the covers. PUBLISHER
monster with spindly arms There’s a decent level of Draknek
and legs. The exhibits are “Like climbing challenge here as well, but it’s PRICE
all remnants of human never enough to leave you Free (Apple Arcade
civilisation, replete with funny
into  ed on a frustrated or furious. Slow but sub)

descriptions that are going to frosty morning” steady progress is the order RELEASE
Out now
raise at least a chuckle. of the day, and you can always
The museum is made up of little islands, and you wander off somewhere else if you can’t get past a
need to figure out how to move between them. tricky section.
Sometimes that’s as simple as pushing a tree over A Monster’s Expedition is a heart-warming and REVIEWED BY
and bridging a gap next to it. The trees all roll and friendly adventure. It might not be the deepest Harry Slater
move in the same way, and you need to figure out game in the world, it might not shake up the
how to move them to where they need to be. foundations of the puzzling genre, but it is going to
After a while, you’ll be building rafts by make you feel warm and fuzzy in ways most games
combining logs, then pushing off from rocks to can only dream of. This is a slice of escapism VERDICT
explore even further. There are taller trees as designed to whisk you away from grey reality and e fi ed o he i
well, which can bridge longer gaps. The map is brighten up your day. ou should definitely let it. i h oodness nd i h
huge, and it’s open for you to explore however h ’s su e o u i o’
you want. Postboxes scattered around let you s i e on you e.
Some of the


82%
jump across bigger distances when you’ve descriptions of the
museum exhibits are
unlocked them too. guaranteed to make
While the islands themselves might be small, you laugh out loud.
you never feel hemmed in, and there’s a real

wfmag.cc \ 95
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
A game this spartan and
oppressive has few pleasures,
apart from simply surviving a
few more seconds than the last.
There’s nonetheless some source
of amusement in hearing the
different words of encouragement
(or admonishment) coming
from the dark computer voice
after every detonation result,
like ‘Radical’, ‘Jolly Good’, or
‘Holy S***’.

Review

Terror Squid
If this is Ritual 4, you’d


hate to see what it

looks like at Ritual 32.

A survival shooter where you are your own worst enemy

T
error Squid is the hardest game I’ve close proximity with a detonator that takes time
ever played. Just how hard, exactly? to charge. sing the detonator also moves you
GENRE My record time has been just 9.51 to the next phase – or ritual, as the game calls it
Info

Bullet hell seconds. At the time of filing this – with a new pattern of projectiles you then have
FORMAT review, just to get into the game’s to deal with. Frankly, the first ritual is child’s play
PC (tested) / Mac /
Top 100 requires surviving for at least 20 compared to what you have afterwards as these
Switch
seconds, though perhaps that says more about become harder to detonate, meaning you’ll end
DEVELOPER
the number of players who have dared to pick up having to avoid multiple projectile patterns on
Apt Games
the game up. a map with less space to hide. And that’s usually
PUBLISHER
Apt Games Taking place on a 3D sphere, with vector-style where my run ends.
PRICE
graphics that would make it sit comfortably In fact, as a game where the leaderboard
£7.19 (Steam) / alongside other old-school arcade shooters, it’s only takes time into account, you might find it
£8.99 (eShop) not exactly a shooter, even though it’s firing bullets better to just try and last as long as you can on
RELEASE non-stop. As your titular squid moves, it leaves the first ritual, literally running rings around the
Out now behind a trail of projectiles, and since you’re on a sphere until you’ve filled up every last inch before
relatively small sphere, that means it’s all going to hitting the detonation, instead of rushing head
come back to a bullet hell of your own making. first into one ritual after another. ut either way,
Erratic movements are to your detriment, so most of us mere mortals are unlikely to survive
REVIEWED BY you need to think about how you move so that you further than the third or fourth ritual before
Alan Wen stand a chance of dodging the upcoming danger. your squid meets its maker, let alone see the 16
Your only help comes from a cooldown-based possible rituals that exist before it loops back ad
warp dash and the ability to blow up projectiles in infinitum. I’ll have to concede that I was only able
to see beyond the first few rituals by referring
to a YouTube video uploaded by a player called
It’s a small world after


all. Far too small. Timoshi, who at the time of writing topped the
leaderboard with 687.12 seconds survived.
VERDICT True to its hardcore nature, there are no
Old school, no frills, hard concessions, no cheats, no power-ups, only your
as hell, and it doesn’t pure skill to survive. To say that this won’t be for
care. Take it or leave it. everyone is an understatement, then. Judging

60%
by Terror Squid’s disturbing teaser marketing, it
might just be content with becoming a cult urban
legend, lingering in a dark, dusty arcade visited by
those few in the know.

96 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
The parkour is incredible.
Running through a cyberpunk
megacity with a grapple and
gravity-defying wall runs
could’ve kept the game going
for its entire campaign if One
More Level wanted it to.

Review

Ghostrunner Filthy, glowy,


ea ti l c er nk

High-tech, low society, stratospheric frustration

D
i culty is a tricky thing to get right in one hit, and to avoid enemy fire, you can slow
in any game. ou need to carefully down time and dash in any direction to get an
GENRE

Info
balance the player’s comfort in their advantage. The problem is the enemies simply
Action / platformer
own utility with the uncertainty don’t feel designed with your skillset in mind.
FORMAT
of the challenge they face an our hitbox feels way bigger than you, meaning PC (tested) / Switch /
imbalance can either result in a game being too bullets that should’ve missed you end up taking PlayStation 4 / Xbox
easy, or hair-pullingly frustrating. A great example you out. There are enemies that can home in on One
of this in action is Ghostrunner, a game with you, enemies with swords that require parrying DEVELOPER
fantastic ideas let down by wildly uneven di culty with hugely inconsistent results, and dreadful One More Level
in each of its components. exploding enemies with huge areas of effect that PUBLISHER
Set after the apocalypse, Ghostrunner is a are all too often crammed into narrow passages. All In Games,
505 Games
cyberpunk platformer that combines the parkour As I mentioned, the difference between good
PRICE
and mobility of Mirror’s Edge with the one-hit-kill and unfair di culty can be summed up as the
£24.99
di culty of Hotline Miami. ne moment you’ll be ratio of player utility to systemic uncertainty, and
RELEASE
flowing through the gritty, high-tech dystopia of Ghostrunner certainly has that a bit off. When
Out now
the massive harma Tower, humanity’s last refuge, you don’t know whether an attack will register,
in a series of wall runs, leaps, grapples, and slides, or whether a shot will sail past you or kill you, or
and the next you’ll be taking down the ruling whether you’re out of range of an exploding fool,
tyrant’s henchmen in bullet hell-esque combat that uncertainty is ramped up way too high to REVIEWED BY
segments. The story is as generic and predictable be enjoyable. Joe Parlock
as anything, but the aesthetics are on point. ritty, Ghostrunner is a superb platformer with a
high-tech, and synthy, it’s pure cyberpunk schlock mediocre first-person slasher grafted on like a
that I can’t help but love. buggy cybernetic implant. When it lets you run
Ghostrunner’s platforming could’ve been an and be free, Ghostrunner is possibly the most fun
entire game on its own, and it would’ve been I’ve had with a game in absolutely ages, but its
incredible. Fluid and physical, running and commitment to a faulty idea of di culty really
climbing through harma Tower is electrifying, pulls it down.
and I struggle to think of any game with parkour VERDICT
feeling this great since Mirror’s Edge. It’s nice to see Overly frustrating, but with
Some of the enemies


platforming put front and centre so frequently, are flat o t n air some of the best platforming
with plenty of tough segments requiring your in recent memory.

65%
full attention instead of just being a way to get
between combat encounters.
With platforming this good, it’s a shame the
combat really drags. verything in the game dies

wfmag.cc \ 97
 Rated
Review

Review

he ast am re
GENRE
Info

Adventure
FORMAT
iOS (tested) / Switch
/ PS4 / XBO
DEVELOPER
A merry blaze from the developers of No Man’s Sky

T
Hello Games
PUBLISHER e a t am fi e is the sort of game Along the way, you’ll help these trapped
Hello Games
you get lost in. Not a confused, creatures, solving pu les to aid them in their
PRICE
stumbling, frustrated lost, but the escape. nce you’ve saved all of the Forlorns
Free (Apple Arcade)
/ £11.99 (PS4/XBO) / sort of lost you experience staring in an area, you can move on to the next. The
£13.49 (Switch) at a beautiful landscape. The sort rescued creatures settle down around a camp-
RELEASE of lost that fills your heart with wonder and fire, the colourful hues of life returning to their
Out now hope and sticks with you long after you’ve felt it. once-gloomily-dark-blue forms.
The best kind of lost. There are other characters too, from an
The game is a adventure that sees you ancient fisherman to enormous slobbering pigs,
trying to find your way out of a series of ethereal mad bird kings, and huge, hungry frogs. Each
During conversations, landscapes. You play a character called Ember, of them has a story to tell, and each of them


you often get a glimpse

into what’s happening separated from the rest of your expedition, is looking for your help in one way or another.
inside of Ember’s head. stuck on your own in a world full of oddities and ou’ll need to talk to them to move things along,
Discovering a secret chest dangers. It’s also filled with lost souls, known but those conversations are an absolute joy.


always puts a smile on as Forlorns, stuck in place by their sadness, The pu les here are reasonably simple. ou’ll
your face, as well as giving
you a glimpse into the confusion, and hopelessness. move blocks around, sometimes using a magical
story of a wanderer who
came before you.
horn, push switches, and try and snatch keys
from wary crows. There’s a logic to everything
you do, far removed from the slightly cra ed
object combining of classic adventure games.
That’s not to say they’re overly simple, and
the little Eureka moments peppered through
the experience are more than enough to make
you feel smart. The world you’re exploring is big
enough that you never feel trapped, but small
enough that you never feel overwhelmed. As with
most adventure games, there’s some backtracking,
but it’s never more than a few screens.
Some of the ideas here really are brilliant.
ne particular gem involves a map that you

98 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

Parts of the world need


to be manipulated
manually so that you can
keep going, requiring
need to find the parts of. As you shu e it you to swipe the screen
around, it changes the world around you, to get them moving.
allowing you to reach new places and uncover
new secrets. ou’re never playing a pu le for
more than a handful of minutes, then it’s off to supposed to do and being told. ven the hints,
another new challenge that’s going to stretch which you can ask from the ghostly guardian of
slightly different parts of your brain. the camp-fire, are delivered in a way that asks HIGHLIGHT
There’s a gorgeous sparkle to the game as well. you to figure them out for yourself. One puzzle involves getting
very screenshot is like a little work of art, with There’s a grand scope here without the past a carnivorous plant. A
sleeping pig and a sweet
little details bringing the scenes to life before your airiness or meandering, and a fluency that’s
piece of fruit are your only
very eyes. There are clever environmental cues second to none. It blends together concepts tools, but the game gives you
that make sure you remember the important from a whole bunch of other genres into a all the clues you need in little
information, and often after a tricky section you’ll seamless, elegant whole, always enticing you to snippets of text to figure out
find a shortcut back to where you started. play for just a little bit longer. what to do. It’s a lovely little
microcosm of everything
Ember manages to be es, there are a few
that makes The Last
charming and endearing “ ometimes you ll ust moments when things ampfire so entertaining.
even though you can’t are a little too esoteric.
see their face. Their
sto and stare at the oments when the way
movements are brilliant, world around you” is a little bit too obscured,
little legs wiggling when or you need to try and
they reach into chests, head bobbing when they remember too much to move forwards. ut
walk. The controls are solid, too. ou can choose they’re few and far between, and often the
between a floating joystick or touch controls, solution is well within your reach if you take a
and both of them are more than up to the task. slightly different tack.
ven just wandering around the world of The e a t am fi e isn’t perfect, but it’s still a
a t am fi e is a simple, effective joy. There’s a remarkable achievement. Its story of hope and REVIEWED BY
deep sense of wonder to the experience, from loss is beautifully life-a rming, its pu les are arry later
the little beams of light breaking through the smart without ever being smug, and its charm is
canopy of trees, to the snippets of story you utterly undeniable. All in all, it’s a wonderful way
discover in hidden chests. to while away a chilly winter’s afternoon.
ou’ll want to push on to find out what VERDICT
happens next, to uncover the next chapter of A heart-warming and
the story and find the next intriguing idea the endearing puzzling
game throws into the mix. And sometimes you’ll adventure that will stay
just stop and stare at the world around you, with you long after
drinking it all in, bathing in the warmth and the you’ve finished.

86%
colours and the joyous glow.
e a t am fi e manages to strike an
almost perfect balance between exploration
and guidance, between knowing what you’re

wfmag.cc \ 99
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
ach new scene you watch fills
 A key theme is the tense up your urn with memories. It’s
relationship between father only after a few playthroughs
and son, but it never quite that it’ll be full enough to see the
flo ris es
true ending to the game, which
In typical platformer style, leads you to repeat runs. It’s a


you’re almost always moving shame there’s too much

from left to right, with story repetition in that process and
scenes inters ersed
the individual scenes do vary in
uality, but there are still some
memorable moments like one
particular game show scene
Review
that play on twisted ideas.

Good Mourning
Happy death day

G
ood Mourning prides itself on being differ or lines of dialogue are tweaked, but for the
the world’s first run-based walking most part, each run has the same characters in
GENRE simulator. onfusing as that might the same order. What’s more, which scenes are
Info

Walking sim sound, it’s a narrative game where shown is randomised – not only does this result
FORMAT each playthrough presents different in some repetition, but there’s no ownership over
PC (tested) randomised elements of its story. It’s an interesting the narrative or the choices you make. Instead,
DEVELOPER experiment, but the lack of a carefully crafted it feels, rather cynically, like a ploy to extend
Platonic
experience hampers enjoyment. longevity without enough content provided.
Partnership
What immediately intrigues is the art style. The game certainly touches on some dark
PUBLISHER
Presented in , the visuals are all stark black themes, from marriage break-ups and poor
Platonic
Partnership and white with splashes of colour, well-suited parenting, to infidelity and depression. There are
PRICE to this modern noir tale. oupled with hypnotic some aggressive and disturbing moments, but
£3.99 soundscapes, the game has an abstract the often heavy-handed writing isn’t quite strong
RELEASE aesthetic that gives a haunting, nightmarish vibe. enough to really interrogate these traumatic
Out now For a game all about death, that coldness is ideas. There are some comedic moments too, but
(Early Access) perfectly chilling. like the visuals, they’re merely splashes of colour
As with any walking sim, you’re tasked with on a very dark background.
wandering through scenes, making a few dialogue As the world’s first run-based walking simulator,
choices, and seeing how the story plays out. Good Mourning makes an interesting case for
REVIEWED BY ere we follow a nameless guy who’s just died. the sub-genre. Repeating a story to uncover
Ed Nightingale eginning with his funeral, he must relive his different perspectives is a sound idea, and the
past through fragments of memories, slowly game’s surreal aesthetic sets a stark tone. ut
piecing together what kind of man he is. What’s by randomising its story, the player is left out in
fascinating is that the narrative decisions we the cold.
VERDICT make are not his but the people around him his
Good Mourning is an death is inevitable, and our journey through the
Good Mourning is all about


intriguing experiment, narrative reflects how the choices of others can sel reflection and
impact our own lives. understanding the impact of
but its narrative structure
t e relations i s aro nd s
doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. et the concept of choice is, mechanically, the

56%
game’s biggest flaw. n the first run, it’s hard to
tell exactly how the narrative branches or what
impact any decisions have. Future runs prove
that branching is limited. A few story scenes

100 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
The art style is fantastic.
Combining low-poly models
with a watercolour style
Review helps make the wild west feel
vibrant and whimsical, as if

El Hijo
from a child’s perspective,
and it helps make the
environments quickly legible
to the player.

A delightful western with disappointingly wonky stealth

E
l Hijo doesn’t lift stealth games out between the environment, the player, and the
of the rut they seem to be stuck in AI, and there is very little of that to be found
GENRE

Info
recently. While you may get a Hitman here. It’s not so much stealth as it is avoiding
Stealth
or a Dishonored every couple of years, cones of vision on enemies that rigidly stick to
FORMAT
between those high points lies an their patrol routes. Hiding is entirely dictated by PC (tested) / Stadia
endless sea of rudimentary sneaking, wonky AI, a binary system of whether it is light or dark, or
DEVELOPER
and so, so much conveniently placed tall grass. whether you’re in cover or not. There’s none of Honig Studios/
I’m a massive stealth fan, yet regularly find myself the emergent gameplay or storytelling that makes Quantumfrog
despairing at unsatisfying games that seem to use or breaks a stealth game to be found, making the PUBLISHER
stealth as filler, rather than the core design tenet. whole experience feel flat and dull. HandyGames
El Hijo, unfortunately, is another drop in that vast The game does try to liven things up PRICE
ocean of mediocrity, and its few charming points sometimes by including some very basic puzzles. £17.99
aren’t enough to rise it from the muck. All too often they amount to pushing a box RELEASE
Following a boy who has been forcibly around or avoiding a swinging light, but there are Out now
separated from his mother as he ventures across times when there is a hint of something special.
a spaghetti western-inspired landscape, El Hijo is, itting a buffalo with your slingshot to make them
ostensibly, an isometric stealth game with light move and provide mobile cover, or having to
puzzle elements. As you strike out across the traverse a sandstorm by timing your movements REVIEWED BY
world, you’re incredibly vulnerable to the monks, provide a nice change of pace, but it’s over too Joe Parlock
cowboys, and sheriffs who seem obsessed with quickly, and once more you’re back to avoiding
making you, and all children, their slaves. enemies that feel more like shop window
One thing I do love about El Hijo is how it mannequins than cowboys.
provides a unique viewpoint into the rootin’, With a wonderful art style, El Hijo tells an
tootin’ cowboy genre, by shifting the perspective emotive and serious story of rebellion against
to an innocent child. You’re not a merciless gun- authority in a lawless world. But the systems VERDICT
slinger or a God-fearin’ peacekeeper, you’re a boy underpinning the game are so basic that El Hijo’s Delightful visuals and
looking for his mother, crawling through frenzied worthwhile message is sadly lost. a new perspective on
gunfights, exploded bridges, blasted-out canyons, western tales aren’t enough
and a whole host of tropes that make a western to make El Hijo more than
Oh no! The AI has deviated


what it is. This isn’t a Red Dead Redemption-style slightly from its rigid a rudimentary and dull
celebration of the genre, it’s a critical lens at it we patrol route! Run away! stealth game.

45%
don’t see all too often, wrapped up in a delightful
low-poly art style.
The problems come when El Hijo tries to be
a stealth game. Stealth is all about the interplay

wfmag.cc \ 101
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Haven very much hangs on
your belief in the relationship
between Yu and Kay.
Fortunately, their respective
voice actors Janine Harouni
and Chris Lew Kum Hoi nail the
chemistry that’s essential to
the couple’s banter and more
intimate moments. You can
also hear them narrating the
credits, providing some
wonderful insight into the
people who made the game.

Flow threads become important


for accessing certain areas
otherwise out of your reach.
Review indin t e ri t flow t read,
however, isn’t so straightforward.

Haven
A chilled co-op RPG with a French touch

R
When bedroom scenes in most


games verge on soft porn, just

seeing these two snuggle up PGs have a tendency to add romantic music, exploring Source often feels aimless
after a long day is refreshing. subplots for the sake of it, but Haven and boring. The world’s made of many tiny
isn’t a girl-meets-boy story. The two connected islands, but these seldom differ from
leads are already in a relationship its rocky, grassy terrain. That sameyness makes
when we first meet them, stranded it trickier to make sense of where you’re going,
GENRE on a seemingly empty and fragmented planet not helped by a map that only displays the islets
Info

Loving RPG
after their spaceship breaks down. as nodes, neither pinpointing your location nor
FORMAT Yu and Kay make for an attractive (and typical) showing where you haven’t already explored.
PC / Switch / XBO
/ XB X/S / PS4 /
couple: they bicker, they goof about, they’re Its take on party-based, turn-based battles,
PS5 (tested) physically attracted to each other, but they’re where you control both Yu and Kay with face
DEVELOPER just as comfortable snuggling up without saying buttons and D-pad respectively, does have
The Game Bakers a word. ou aren’t limited to one perspective, interesting ideas, such as combining each other’s
PUBLISHER either, since you’re playing as both of them, with turns for duo attacks, or how you can shield
The Game Bakers dialogue choices sometimes yourself and your partner.
PRICE coming up for one or the “Exploring Source However, controlling both
£19.99 other. You can switch characters’ actions, which
RELEASE between the two at the tap of
often feels aimless also take time to charge up,
Out now (Switch/ a button when out exploring and boring” is as awkward as patting
PS4 TBC 2021)
the mysterious world in your head while rubbing
search of resources, the pair holding hands as your belly. When battles occasionally spike, it
they glide around. Gliding is your best means of only gets more irksome, as you’re barely able to
REVIEWED BY traversal, too, with the couple able to drift and do keep up with enemies changing stance or quickly
Alan Wen -turns with ease, while you collect flow energy recovering from stunned or downed statuses, or
that’s used for cleansing the planet of a corrupt the blighters who keep respawning.
substance known as rust. It adds to the already Yu and Kay have a rock-solid relationship, and
VERDICT chilled and breezy vibe, similarly conveyed by the their reasons for escaping their dystopian fate
Good vibes and a duo you game’s excellent music from French producer in their former home is a story I would’ve been
can fall in love with, if not Danger, which marries vaporwave synths with content discovering through a visual novel – the
with the game itself. Daft Punk’s more laid-back material. dialogue and character portraits would’ve been a

63%
It’s a shame, then, that this doesn’t extend to perfect fit for this. ut through Haven’s muddled
everything else. Haven is meant to be a relaxing execution of RPG exploration and combat, it’s
game, which works well when the couple is disappointing how often I felt out of sync with
chilling back at their ship, but if it wasn’t for the such a likeable duo.

102 / wfmag.cc
THE BESTSELLING MAG FOR PC HARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMING & MODDING

PC HARDWARE
ENTHUSIASTS

ISSUE 210 OUT NOW

VISIT CUSTOMPC.CO.UK TO LEARN MORE
 Retro
Backwards compatible

WRITTEN BY RYAN LAMBIE

Ultimate Sega Game Gear: Part 1

With the capacitors replaced, the sound works


and the image is much brighter. I still need
to re lace t is roken old screen, t o

important that you don’t muddle up uF

capacitors with the uF or uF variety
The main board with all since they’re almost impossible to tell apart.


the old caps removed and

some new ones in place. With the main board done, I then turned
to the audio board – a slightly trickier
If you own a Sega Game Gear, chances soldering iron occasionally, but replacing proposition, since these capacitors are
are it’s dead or dying. The failure rate the dozen-or-so caps in a Game Gear glued solidly to the PCB. Still, I found that
of the handheld’s capacitors appears requires concentration and a steady hand; gently clipping the bulk of the old caps off
to be almost 100%, and given Sega’s the particular capacitors Retro Six provides the board with a pair of sharp snippers
device is now three decades old, there are of the tiny, ceramic chip variety rather was a safer option than the advice I’ve
are vanishingly few working, unmodified than the cylindrical kinds more commonly seen in some quarters, which is to rock
examples left. The good news? Assuming seen in this kind of modification. y advice the capacitors back and forth until the legs
those dodgy capacitors haven’t destroyed Invest in a good pair of tweezers before you break; the latter runs the risk of tearing
your Game Gear’s PCB, it’s possible to get started – moving these components the pads off your P . With the tops of the
replace the components and bring it into position is detailed work. Before that, caps gone, I could then use my soldering
back from the dead. This is something though, I need to open the Game Gear iron to gently desolder the legs and leave
I’m hoping to do with a battered Game and check the status of the boards; in the pads on the board intact.
Gear I purchased from eBay; thanks to the this instance, I’m lucky – there are signs of With all this done, I reassembled the
wonderful folks over at Retro Six (retrosix. corrosion from the caps in places, but I’ve device and gave it a check; aside from
co.uk), I have a complete kit which, once seen far worse in the past. the old damaged screen, it powered up
everything’s finished, will leave me with After a quick inspection, I started gently just fine – the sound even worked thanks
a better system than the one that rolled lifting and desoldering the old capacitors to those new capacitors, which is a step
off the production line in – it’ll have from the main board – relatively easy since forward from the silence that greeted
a clear, modern McWill screen, new case they’re surface-mounted – before cleaning me when I first purchased the handheld.
and buttons, plus a CleanPower GG everything with isopropyl alcohol. Putting Next month, then, I’ll start working on that
regulator that’ll replace the old adapter in the new capacitors was a case of using CleanPower GG board and McWill screen.
with USB-C connectivity. those twee ers, dabs of flux, and ensuring The latter requires removing a bunch of
First, though, there’s the capacitor I didn’t have too much solder on the tip of components and a lot of delicate wiring.
kit to install. I’ve been known to wield a my iron. Again, it’s detailed work, and it’s Nothing could possibly go wrong…

104 / wfmag.cc
 Retro
Backwards compatible

Super-Duper R-Type
If you played a few of the Super Nintendo at a silky smooth frame rate, even
Entertainment System’s earliest titles when there are dozens of enemies and
back in the early s, you may recall projectiles hurtling around the screen.
the glaring slowdown that occurred when ike ilela’s Gradius III ROM hack from
too much stuff was happening on the , the modded Super R-Type makes
screen. Konami’s Gradius III and Irem’s use of an external SA-1 chip, which takes
Prince of Artness Super R-Type were particularly bad on some of the workload from the SNES’s
this front, though the moments where internal processor. If you own a flash
On the subject of clever people doing bullet and enemy movements slowed cartridge that supports the SA- chip –
clever game-related things, Splash down to a crawl did at least make those such as S S S Pro – then you’ll be
Damage programmer Giuseppe shooters a bit easier to navigate. Thanks able to patch the original game ROM and
Navarria has managed to use machine to ra ilian hacking genius itor ilela, run it on proper Nintendo hardware.
learning to upscale a classic piece however, we can now sample both of Be warned, though: without slowdown,
of box artwork. The art in question? those games without the distracting these games become viciously di cult.
Katsuya Terada’s cover for the slowdown issues; his latest ROM hack ou can find out more at ilela’s it ub
Japanese Super Nintendo edition of of Super R-Type leaves the game running wfmag.cc/sa1.
Prince of Persia. For our money, it’s one
of the most beautiful pieces of box
art ever created, and Navarria’s AI-led
upscaling means it’s now possible
to appreciate every fine background Mii of the Wild
detail. You can view (and download) the
full piece of art at wfmag.cc/pop. OK, so Breath of the Wild stretches the
definition of ‘retro’ well past its limits,
but the venerable Mii, which made its
debut on the Nintendo Wii in 2007, is
now over a decade old – so that just
about counts, right? At any rate, Twitter
user im eroic has come up with
a service we had to mention in the
magazine somewhere: they’ve found a
way of taking your ii and ‘injecting’ it
into Nintendo’s open-world Zelda sequel.
Ever wondered what your bobble-headed
likeness would look like tottering around
in yrule’s lush landscape Thanks to
im eroic, it’s now possible – their in the game without resorting to mods of
research reveals that Breath of the any sort. im eroic even plans to offer
Wild uses “an advanced version of the a Mii injection service for anyone who’s
Mii format” to generate its non-player interested. Find out more about this –
characters. This means it’s possible to and browse a complete library of every
have user-generated Miis running around ii ever – at wfmag.cc/inject-mii.

wfmag.cc \ 105
 Retro
Backwards compatible

WRITTEN BY IAN “NORF” DRANSFIELD

The digital revolution

I have failed you, dear readers. I fully crisp, and thoroughly sexy digital signal via
intended this project to be entirely an HDMI lead (and the hardware installed
homespun, like our Ryan does when inside the machine, of course). It was not
he’s a-tinkerin’ with his Game Gears and a quick-fix box that gets you a decent,
the like. I have a soldering iron, solder, but fundamentally image: it presented
a thingy to get solder the iron, flux, a a pure, flawless image for a -year-old
few lights, all sorts of gear. I’m practically games console, as well as allowing it to
riddled with gadgetry to help with this sort connect directly – and actually work on –
of thing. Riddled. But one look at what the modern displays.
PS igital required completely put me off, The PS1Digital is that basic idea
so instead I paid someone to do it for me. again, from the same creator, Black Dog
I can only apologise, though at the Technology, but this time for Sony’s original
same time pull a bit of a flex in that I’m PlayStation. Now, we can argue the toss
supporting small business during di cult about which console was better until Sega
times. That’s the line, I’m sticking with it. gets back into the hardware business, but
But why does this matter? What is the the fact is I was genuinely excited about an
PS1Digital? And who even cares? Well, HDMI solution for the PSone. It’s one of my a luxury, spare-money item especially
regular viewers will remember something favourite consoles ever released, and the at 5 plus postage – but if you can get
of a similar title – formerly DCHDMI, chance to just have one that played fine with one, and you do want one, it’s revelatory.
latterly DCDigital – I mentioned in a any screen (with an input) I had laying about What sets the PS1Digital (and the
Wireframe past: an HDMI mod for the was one I couldn’t pass up. Sure, something DCDigital) apart from other – more
Dreamcast that brought out a wonderful, like this is never going to be an essential – it’s affordable – solutions is how it draws
its signal directly, in digital form, from
the console’s motherboard. There’s no
conversion at play, this is pure, uncut signal,
both visual and aural, then whipped through
a dooleymajigger to pump it out at anything
from p to p.
The results, I’d say, speak for themselves –
even though PSone games were made with
the standard definition displays of the day
in mind, so many 3D polygonal titles get a
genuinely impressive boost from the jump in
resolution and clarity. Tekken 2 looks like my
brain remembers it, for one, while Metal Gear
Solid is just… crisp.

106 / wfmag.cc
 Retro
Backwards compatible

MAKE IT AGAIN
As mentioned on the left, my renewed
interest in revisiting PlayStation games
reminded me of forever-favourite Silent
Bomber: a pants story wrapped around
a magnificent, girthy chunk of fun that
managed to successfully bridge the gap
between arcade titles of yore and the
(then-)modern approach of progress
There are resolution and upgrades and not dying after 13
options, screen adjusts, seconds’ play. It is still utterly brilliant
deinterlacing filters, and plenty more to to play: snappy and responsive, the
mess around with – and even more to come. right level of challenge, and good-
It’s not the ideal for every game – there’s looking enough that it doesn’t actually
a lot of dithering on the PSone, which my work monitor, ready to switch the embarrass you when younger players
basically shows up as a ‘dotty’ look, mostly input over and get a few races done on see it and sneer at its polygons. Best
on sprites. This was blurred fine on RT R4: Ridge Racer Type 4. Just don’t tell Ryan of all, developer yber onnect is still
tellies, but via the PS1Digital they’re just about that bit. going, so there’s literally no reason it
sort of there. Work’s underway to disable It’s worth mentioning that I also had can’t pump out a sequel or remake.
or otherwise circumvent the dithering on an optical drive emulator installed at Literally no reason.
a game-by-game basis, though, so that’ll the same time – the XStation. This natty
hopefully be sorted soon enough – did I little device replaces the PSone’s CD
mention the PS1Digital can update via WiFi, drive with an SD card interface, allowing
direct to the unit? Because it can. you to well, you can probably figure
Also, putting an HDMI port on your that out for yourself. I’m sure Sony
console means losing your serial port, so no doesn’t actually care too much these
link-up games are playable once it’s in there. days, but I’m still scared they might
This is, again, being worked on – a wireless come and kick my door down for having
serial link-up has been touted, which has it put in a second-hand console I only
genuine intrigue around the potential there. nabbed off e ay for a tenner.
DOOM PSone over WiFi? Well… probably not. Big thanks to James at Bytes Free
But I can dream. (wfmag.cc/install), both for having
All in all – and just to hammer the point steadier hands than I and for offering a
home – this is absolutely a luxury that isn’t smooth and successful install service.
for everyone. That said, the PS1Digital is He also took the lovely photos you can
already brilliant, and breathes a whole new see on these pages. I’m off to play Silent
lease of life into the console. I now have the Bomber in resolutions a 5-year-old Ian
machine stationed like a loyal steed under would have baulked at. Baulked, I say.

wfmag.cc \ 107
 Now playing
Emerging

Metal Gear Solid V can,

Emerging


sometimes, be a very
weird experience. Just
let it wash over you.
Ian’s questioning his memory with
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

O
n playing a certain Cyberpunk become more selective with the truth it chooses
2077, I was left wondering: is my to present to me. I need to go back and play again,
brain wrong? Has it opted out of to be sure, to know if I do know what I’m talking
retaining memories, and instead about. That’s the reason I’ve been playing Metal
replaced what actually happened Gear Solid V recently, definitely just that, and not
with a great big pile of What Did Not (happen)? because I only need the slightest of slight excuses
I’m there, playing through emergent encounters to play one of the greatest games of all time.
in CD Projekt Red’s mix of bugs and beauty, and So I set up the situation: pick up where a save,
I’m thinking: “Metal Gear Solid V did encounters from early , left me off the middle of the
significantly better . ut I can’t be sure. It’s been desert in Afghanistan, covered in blood, a horn
Always put aside time to


muck about otherwise some months since I’ve played Kojima’s Konami protruding from my head, ammunition 70%
you’ll never get the most
from anything – in games,
swan-song, and a few years since I’ve played it with spent, wearing a tuxedo. f course. I decide to
life, anywhere. Maybe any real commitment. aybe my mind has indeed head to a prisoner rescue mission one kilometre
don t tr o s rfin in a
combat zone, though. that-a-way, powering my journey using legs only.
So far, so as I remember it. eading up the
nearest sand-dune, I suddenly remember one
thing needs to be handled before getting to a
combat instance mucking about. ucking about
is key to enjoyment in open-world games, and
MGSV allows a lot of it. So I spend five minutes
surfing dunes in a cardboard box, the sun
beating down on the blood still caking up my
formal outfit.
Surf decidedly up, I get back to business: 950
metres that-a-way. n the sprint, I come across
a small guard post – a checkpoint looking out
for mercenary/private army chiefs with horns
and tuxedos sprinting through the desert. They
may be on the lookout, but they don’t see me.
It’s a chance to remember my old skills in the

108 / wfmag.cc
 Now playing
Emerging

Wireframe
Recommends
It doesn’t have to be a-ha


blaring out from the chopper,
you can also use Midge Ure’s
cover of The Man Who Sold the
World, among others. Because
of course you can.

Deus Ex:
the sky, and no, I am not making that bit up. It’s Mankind Divided
PC, PS4, XBO, MAC, LINUX
not what I initially planned, but it’s a new plan I’ve
The overlooked one in the
come up with along the way.
series, Mankind Divided
Which immediately gets thrown in the bin, as I
didn’t do much better than
game, as well as a chance to be distracted, am seen by a troop neither I nor my companion its predecessors – but it
again, mere seconds after the surf incident. It’s had spotted. I try to get off a shot to put him to still nailed that emergent,
short and slight, but still so satisfying to scope sleep before he alerts anyone, but it’s too late: situational thing that makes
out the area, to pick the troops off one by one – he’s fired a shot. veryone’s heard it. They’re on Deus Ex such a captivating
tranquillising them, of course – and retrieve their high alert. This was not my first or second plan, series. Well worth a play to
unconscious bodies to send them home in the true, but screw it – plan three is on the go. uiet this day.
hopes of ‘convincing’ them to join Team Tux. I am starts popping out tranquillizer shots of her own,
done here, but I am emboldened: this is what I the defending troops don’t know whether to head
remember. This is fun. towards me or her, and it’s all a grand old mess
The rest of the sprint goes by without incident both on my side and theirs. Thing is, they don’t
until I arrive at the mission area proper and know I’ve messed up my plan, and I can adapt.
begin my scouting. I set up my companion uiet Firefights, sleep grenades, flanking, and Spelunky 2
in her favoured sniper’s nest – she’s wearing distraction swiftly show themselves to be useful PC, PS4, SWITCH
clothes, because I want tools, and I maintain the Roguelikes are set up to
her to, because I am not a “They don’t know I’ve approach of not killing a be emergent joys, and
weird pervert – to aid in the soul. I even break out the Spelunky 2 is no slouch in
quest to See All The People.
messed up my plan, Hand of Jehuty – a robotic that department. Anything
It’s a few minutes, I figure and I can adapt” attachment themed around that happens by accident is
brilliant – whether positive or
I’m done, I move in… and Zone of the Enders that
negative, it’s always great.
suddenly stop because I realise I’m right next to allows you to rope a dope from a distance –
the communications array for this particular base. which stuns them. Metal Gear Solid V is great.
ne bit of later, there is no ability for this unit veryone’s unconscious and wormholed away,
to contact the outside world, so no chance of I’ve picked the area clean of items and objects
them radioing in for reinforcements. Emergent. – even stealing a couple of trucks for good
Alas, setting off has done that thing of measure – and I’m on my way, the helicopter
‘alerting guards’, because explosions make sound approaching to extract me blaring a-ha’s Take On Kerbal Space
and fire and stuff, and they’ve all seen it. The Me from its built-in speakers. Program
PC, PS4, XBO, MAC, LINUX
radio becomes frantic, alarmed, and troops start As I sit in the chopper, flying above the combat
Physics plus the ability to do
making their way to my playground of plastique zone and away to safety, counting my new troops
what you want when you’re
to find out just what’s happened. It’s fine, I and planning to sell the items I’ve nabbed, three
building some space vehicles
accounted for this, so I start to make my way in a things dawn on me: one, I wasn’t wrong about equals a playground of
loop around to head incoming soldiers off from how great MGSV ’s emergent scenarios can be; emergent fun times, minus the
the side, tranq them, and bundle their bodies up two, this game is magnificent; and three, I’ve risk of anyone actually dying.
through the personal wormholes I can create in forgotten to rescue the bloody prisoner. Much love for Kerbal, here.

wfmag.cc \ 109
 Now playing
On the beach

On the beach
Ryan goes off for a post-apocalyptic hike in Death Stranding

R
emember when ‘walking simulator’ For all ojima’s cinematic flair and taste for
was used as a semi-derogatory term surreal imagery, walking – and climbing – is
by a certain section of the game- what you’ll spend most of your time doing in his
playing public? When things like latest opus it’s di cult to think of another game,
Gone Home and Dear Esther were dismissed as in fact, that puts so much design detail and
‘not real games’ because they weren’t based on emphasis on the task of putting one foot in
dexterity and challenge? I wonder what those front of the other. Cast as post-apocalyptic
Proper Gamers thought when Hideo Kojima, courier Sam Porter ridges a flinty-eyed
The lengthy moments of legendary designer of several Proper Games (not Norman Reedus), you spend much of Death


calm give you a chance to

take in the scenery, but least Metal Gear Solid V, which Ian wrote about on Stranding moving packages from one point
danger can soon rear its page 108), emerged from the marketing smoke on the map to the other. In the early going, at
head in Death Stranding.
with his first independent title, Death Stranding, least, you’ll spend a great deal of time on foot,
As slow-going as climbing an adventure game that (whisper it) truly is a packages delicately balanced on your back,


and hiking can be, there’s a

certain thrill in getting to walking simulator. and getting from point A to point B involves a
your destination, exhausted
and covered in muck.
surprising level of concentration. To avoid falling
over and damaging your goods, you have to
carefully study the terrain, avoiding ruts and
jutting rocks, or anything that might upset your
equilibrium – put a foot wrong, and you’ll feel
your controller vibrate perilously as Bridges tries
to regain his balance.
It’s an offbeat concept for a game, alright,
and it’s easy to see why Kojima waited until he
started his own development studio, Kojima
Productions, before embarking on it. Konami
would’ve probably laughed him out of the o ce
if he’d pitched the idea there. Even Sony must’ve
had a few misgivings at lending their support to
a game that, starry cast and gorgeous visuals
aside, places so much emphasis on completing
fetch-and-carry missions.

110 / wfmag.cc
 Now playing
On the beach

Wireframe
Recommends

ICO
PS2 / VARIOUS
Yes, it’s a game we keep coming
Yeah, I’m in big back to, but that’s because


trouble here. Fumito Ueda’s game is such a
towering exercise in minimalistic
game design. It’s flawed,
But what landscapes they are. With the (fairly) yes – the camera and combat
recent release of Cyberpunk 2077, I couldn’t aren’t the greatest – but like
Death Stranding, it creates a
help but think about the approach of that game
bewitchingly strange world with
versus the design choices Kojima’s team made
the lightest of strokes.
This isn’t to say that Death Stranding is boring, in Death Stranding. Where CD Projekt Red went
though. In fact, there’s something quite ingenious for a maximalist approach in their attempt to
about the way it places intense survival horror create an entire future city teeming with life – and
moments alongside long stretches of almost evidently struggled technically with the scale of
nothing at all. The largely invisible threats Kojima what they were trying to do – Death Stranding
conjures up here lead to some truly pulse- goes the opposite way. America’s remaining cities
pounding moments, but they often give way to are tucked almost entirely away from the player’s
Ōkamiden
hour-long sequences where you’re simply trying gaze, and only implied through an interior here or
NINTENDO DS
to figure out how to cross a river or navigate your a holographic image there. It’s a creative decision
Its bigger brother, Okami, is rightly
way around a hillock. Then the clouds will gather, that adds to the game’s sense of isolation, and regarded as a classic, and has
the mood changes, and you’re suddenly plunged also allowed the team to focus on making the been ported more than once since
back into a supernatural nightmare. assets we do see – the great expanses of pasture, the original’s release on PS2. This
There are similar tonal the eerie, threat-strewn ruins Nintendo DS spin-off adventure?
clashes elsewhere: Kojima “An adventure of a fallen empire – look all Strangely ignored, even though
and his team have put the more dazzling. it packs as much detail, mystery,
significant time and resources
game that truly is a Of course, Death and charm in its cel-shaded world
into creating their idea of walking simulator” Stranding’s distinctly as its predecessor. Can we have a
Switch port please, Capcom?
a post-collapse America, meditative pace also means
with its landscape of volcanic greys and mossy it’s perhaps a bit too arthouse to appeal to a
greens. It’s immersive world-building, but also section of gamers who prefer their sci-fi larded
wilfully undercut by the insertion of jarring bits of with more of Cyberpunk 2077’s extreme gore and
product placement: here and there you’ll notice sexed-up sauciness, and I do wonder how many
cans of Monster Energy drinks, and even adverts of Kojima’s devotees actually saw his delivery epic
for Reedus’s real-world television show. Then to the end. For now, though, your humble writer’s NieR: Automata
there’s the plot: it’s a quite earnest saga about the quite happy to stick with Bridges for a good PS4 / PC / XBO
reunification of a shattered, divided America that while longer – I’m approximately ten hours into PlatinumGames’ action RPG
draws obvious parallels with current headlines. the campaign, and still captivated by the quietly always kept us transfixed with
But then this is contrasted by characters with weird world Kojima’s managed to conjure up. its wealth of ideas and things to
do, but beyond that, there’s the
names like Die-Hardman and Heartman, and a
strength of its world-building:
strange conceit where actors’ names come up
Hideo Kojima is a renowned film countless other games have


on the screen alongside the people they play. nerd. So is Death Stranding a
nod to 1990s Kevin Costner flick,
come up with their own post-
It’s as though Kojima wants to constantly remind The Postman? Quite possibly. apocalyptic settings, but few are
us that we’re playing a game, even as the almost as distinctive – or melancholy
photoreal landscapes threaten to make us forget – as the one that unfolds before
that we’re sitting on a chair holding a controller. you here.

wfmag.cc \ 111
 Killer Feature
Demon’s Souls

Demon’s Souls
The miracle of messaging, and how it can help

FROMSOFTWARE / 2009 / PS3

I
t’s quiet in FromSoftware’s original Demon’s Souls players to really try hard to tackle the challenge, to push
now. Not a… well, soul makes a peep if you’re playing themselves ever onward even though the odds are, at times,
the game on its original home, the PlayStation 3. ludicrously stacked in the favour of the AI. But there was
When the servers were shut down in February 2018, something else at play throughout. People don’t push on just
it all fell silent. Well, ‘silent’ as long as you ignore because something’s challenging – there’s always something
the enemies slinking in the shadows, the dragons flying behind the challenge, or woven throughout it. And in the
overhead, the mumbling incoherent weirdos filling you in case of Demon’s Souls, it was communication.
abstractly on some bit of lore or other, and a few other Spiritual daubings littered the world, you see. Initially
gubbins. Beyond all that? Silence. Where once was noise, you’d encounter some that would act, as you’d expect, as a
now is non-noise. Sunrise, sunset. And so, if you’re playing basic tutorial – general controls, a bit of advice – but soon
the PS3 version of Demon’s Souls now, enough they’d end up appearing in odd
you’re actually missing out on one of the “FromSoftware didn’t stink locations. A bit off-centre. In a hidden
game’s most enduring, smart, and – yep – corner. Awkwardly positioned on a bit of a
up the joint by allowing
killer features: messaging. hillock. And the advice they offered – the
As part of the push to make the players free rein in chatting words they contained – wouldn’t actually
multiplayer in Demon’s Souls that bit to one another” make 100% sense, at least not in those
different, FromSoftware didn’t stink up the first few hours. Rather than ‘press circle to
joint by allowing players free rein in chatting to one another. roll’, you’d get ‘imminent enemy’, ‘try jumping off’, or ‘praise
It didn’t even allow players to actually choose to go and help the sun!’, alongside a rating.
their friends as and when they wanted to, instead relying on Those of us playing Demon’s Souls in its pre-western
a system of anonymous signals being set up and responded release might have been a bit confused had we not read
to… though that’s not the focus here. It all blended into up on the game – yes, I’m talking about myself here – but it
a package that offered a vaguer take on multiplayer than soon became apparent that these messages had actually
we were used to. Hearing some soul coming to help you been left by other players as they made their way through
bleating on about min-maxing to tackle this boss or the their own run in the game. These messages were handed
other would have ruined that all-important ambience. down from the universe of one player to another, the note’s
But – and you may have heard this before – Demon’s Souls creator trying to help others who might be less experienced,
was, and is, a tough game. The sort of thing that pushes or who might have forgotten what was coming up around

112 / wfmag.cc
 Killer Feature
Demon’s Souls

the next oh-so-deadly corner. It was a messenger system

that ended up being a crutch to many a player who needed
it, offering support via an asymmetrical online system that
required no fast reflexes, no quick thinking, and no fear of
being humiliated in a test of skill against a child.
Soon after learning that, though, it also became apparent
Demon’s Souls players were using the messaging system
to lie, to psych out, to troll other players into believing
something that wasn’t true. A message would pop up
saying it’s safe – enough other similarly-minded players
had recommended the comment, meaning it stuck around
longer and seemed legit… until you suddenly got your face
kicked off. This was admittedly far less prevalent than the
genuinely helpful messages left throughout Demon’s Souls,
but it did happen – and it did add on another layer of
subtle excellence.
This crowdsourced wisdom, accessed and applied with Elsewhere
ease via a few button presses, both allowed communication It’s surprising you don’t see the messaging mechanic ripped o-‘borrowed’
in a game that didn’t attempt to do much in ‘normal’ ways more in other games, but then the subtlety of such a system isn’t an
obvious fit for many titles. Much as I would like to see it featured in Call
and followed the Souls series into its later reincarnation
of Duty in place of voice chat. One title that did riff on the original idea
as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and full circle again back was Kojima Studios’ ‘best game ever to score 62% in Wireframe’ Death
to Bluepoint’s excellent remaster of Demon’s Souls on Stranding, which opted for simple animated images rather than words,
PS5. What started as a fine idea evolved into a genuine but offered the same fundamental experience. For a game in which
you’re almost entirely alone the majority of the time, it really worked
cornerstone of the entire style of game FromSoftware was
incredibly well – as well as offering help (or hindrance, though less than
putting out, and it’s impossible to imagine any of them you’d see in the early Souls games), it brought a sense of community, of
without the ability to leave cryptic clues on the floor for belonging, and of that classic wacky Kojima silliness you might hope for.
others to stumble across and gain an advantage from. Or to How do you spell multiple universe theory…
die horribly after listening to them.

wfmag.cc \ 113
Next Issue
Editorial
Editor
Ryan Lambie
Email [email protected]

Features Editor
Ian Dransfield

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David Higgs & Vel Ilic

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criticalmedia.co.uk
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Lee Allen

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Sam Ribbits, James Legg

Contributors
Jon Bailes, Lottie Bevan, Alexander
Chatziioannou, David Crookes, Anthony
Midwinter Entertainment on de Fault, Chris Farnell, Keza MacDonald,
Stuart Maine, Steve McNeil, Ed Nightingale,
2021’s chilliest survival-shooter Joe Parlock, Ryan Shah, Harry Slater, Molly
Somerscales, Jeff Spoonhower, Mark
Vanstone, Howard Scott Warshaw, Alan Wen

Publishing
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Russell Barnes

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ou
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