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UTTER
KNIGHTMARE
The perils of adapting
game mechanics for TV

Rockfish Games on its open-world battle beyond the stars

Starmancer • Ostranauts • Tiny Bubble Bobble • The Last of Us Part II

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 Muddied through clarity

R
emakes and remasters are important, writing – an IOU for a forthcoming ground-up remake
but they must be driven by art, not tech. of Mafia, releasing in August.
The best twist in Mafia II plays out as just I’m overjoyed to see the original being remade,
another job for Vito Scaletta. One more being unlikely to have experienced it again otherwise.
dead snitch to heap upon the game’s already sizeable But a third version of that scene rendered with new
body count. But it’s arguably the most defining technology plunges Mafia’s universe into a “Vader built
DAVE HURST
moment of the entire series. C-3PO?!”-sized hole of retrofitted continuity: Vito is
Dave has spent most
The first game ends with its protagonist, Tommy of his life trying to going to look like Vito. An ambiguity key to Mafia II’s
Angelo, living out his twilight years in witness find a game as good greatest moment will be lost, diminishing the piece.
protection after testifying against his former crime as Frontier: Elite II. The twist will no longer be twisty.
family. In the final cutscene, Tommy is assassinated There isn’t one, but It’s perhaps a trifling concern, but it’s emblematic of
he’s played a lot of
by two archetypal mobsters. His body bleeds out onto a bigger one. Video games are built for the platforms
open-world adventure
his freshly watered lawn as his voiceover laments that games and RPGs of the time. Casablanca has been re-released on every
a life spent murdering indiscriminately was a bit of a as a result. home video format, despite preceding the concept of
drag, which is about the level of sophistication you home video by decades. Jane Austen’s work is more
could expect from early 2000s game dialogue. Fin. accessible now than it was when she was alive. But I
Years later, players returned to Mafia’s world can’t play Wizball on my PS4.
as Vito, living his rise, fall, rise again, and fall again Remasters and remakes are therefore important
through the ranks of the mob with his best friend Joe. for preserving experiences as their host machines
About two thirds into the game, it’s revealed that Vito succumb to obsolescence. But the quality of these
and Joe are actually the two assassins from the first projects, sadly, is never guaranteed.
game’s ending, when a routine mission has you carry Consider Assassin’s Creed III Remastered and The Ezio
out the hit. Mafia II’s version of the scene plays out in Collection – 4K updates which sacrifice atmosphere for
homage with matching camera angles, even taking a clarity, infamously changing many scenes to have flat,
dramatic beat to linger on Tommy’s corpse. undramatic lighting and a muted colour palette.
It’s a powerful twist, exemplifying Mafia’s themes: In contrast, 2019’s Resident Evil 2 remake
organised crime exploiting and discarding young successfully transplants the essence of a game which
lower-class men, with promises of a better life thrived on directed scares through fixed camera
invariably ending in tragedy. It hits you with stark angles, recreating the feel of the 1998 original within a

#40
inhumanity; the meat-grinder keeps turning, and full 3D environment where the player has total control
you’re now sympathetic to Tommy’s murderers, over where they look. No small feat, and only possible
because you’ve been playing as them for the entire with a team that respects and understands the source
sequel. Have a word with yourself. material on an artistic level.
It’s a gut-punch, expertly landed, relying on that Video games will struggle to evolve as a medium
eight-year gap to stick the landing. 2002’s Vito and if their heritage is inaccessible, so it’s essential that
Joe are essentially play-doh versions of everyone in old titles are regularly refreshed, and old stories are
The Untouchables – they look nothing like their Mafia II cyclically retold.
counterparts. Playing the games back to back wouldn’t However, care must be made to preserve the
spoil the reveal. artistic intent of classic interactive works, or we
This year, the Mafia: Trilogy was released, containing ultimately risk losing the very things that make them
‘Definitive Editions’ of the sequels and – at the time of classics in the first place.

wfmag.cc \ 03
 Contents

Contents

6
Attract mode Interface

06. EVERSPACE 2 28. Games on the box

Why ROCKFISH Games’ sequel is like Knightmare, and other TV shows
Diablo among the stars inspired by video games

12. Cygni 34. Lottie Bevan

The stunning shooter from former Why humans struggle to break out of
animators at Pixar age-old patterns

14.  Ostranauts 38. Star chronicles

Scavenging and ship maintenance in a A brief history of the venerable
dystopian future space game

16.  Starmancer 70. GTA and gun violence

A promising sci-fi sim in the vein of Meet the artist who turned GTA into a
Dwarf Fortress protest piece

18. News 78. Tiny Bubble Bobble

A month in gaming – all compressed Taito’s classic, demade for the PICO-8
into four pages fantasy console

22. Letters 84. Tose Software

Wireframe’s readers speak The biggest Japanese studio you’ve
their brains never heard of

24. Incoming 90. Steve McNeil

70 Wrestling, cricket, football, and moody
dungeon crawling
Video games, according to the former
Dara Ó Briain’s Go 8 Bit star

04 / wfmag.cc
 Contents

WELCOME
The cover gives it away: this
edition offers a celebration –
and exploration – of space-
based video games. And as
our selection of previews and
features hopefully proves, space
games can take on a huge

38
number of forms: there are
traditional shooters, like Cygni:
All Guns Blazing, expansive
RPG-like hybrids, such as our
cover game, EVERSPACE 2, and
claustrophobic sims about life in
a vacuum – see Ostranauts and
Starmancer on pages 14 and
16 respectively.

What that latter pair of games

do, though, is reflect some of
the darker realities of humanity
back at us. Starmancer may
be set in a distant future of
interstellar technology, but its
space stations of colonists are
still sharply defined by their
class and status (though just
how different the quality of their
living conditions are is up to the
player). Ostranauts, meanwhile,
sees our late-capitalist system

94 28 migrate from the confines of a

dying Earth and take over the
solar system. In that game’s
dark future, corporations
reign supreme, while those

Toolbox Rated lower down the economic

ladder fly around in their ships,
scavenging and trading to make
the money they need to survive.

48. Beyond A Steel Sky 92. Streets of Rage 4

Neither game necessarily sets
out to make an overt political
Revolution Games on the series’ sci-fi Sega’s brawler gets the modern or social statement, but then,
city design sequel it deserves games can’t help but follow the
dark and sometimes cruel rules

52. DIY audio production 94. The Last Of Us Part II that govern our contemporary
reality. Even in space, you have
A guide to making game sounds on a Naughty Dog are back with one of to worry about paying your rent.
shoestring budget 2020’s big games
Ryan Lambie
60. Marketing and 102. Gears Tactics Editor
game design Gore, chainsaws, and now an added
Why the two should go hand in hand bit of strategy

66. Source Code 104. Backwards Compatible

Recreate rocket-building action of the Making a 2D shooter on the SNES,
classic Jetpac and more retro stuff

wfmag.cc \ 05
 Attract Mode
Interview

KICKSTARTING
THE SECOND BIG BANG
To boldly move away from roguelikes with
ROCKFISH Games’ upcoming EVERSPACE 2

S
pace is vast, empty, and dark.
Mind-bendingly beautiful too,
it seems, and full of plenty of
chances to get into exciting
hijinks and come out of it with
a hefty amount of loot, if EVERSPACE 2 is
anything to go by. SpaceX might be putting
a few Americans back into space, but It’s a savvy decision on the part of the
ROCKFISH Games is giving everyone else German indie: it makes it so that the leap
something to do between watching launch from the original game to this sequel is
livestreams. What ROCKFISH is also doing a genuine one, stepping up to the more
is putting a limit on the infinite nature of ambitious genre-hole of the crafted
space: about 20 hours or so. single-player experience, rather than the
EVERSPACE 2 is a clear and defined more randomised roguelike. But it’s a risk,
single-player game. It’s set in a persistent too. ROCKFISH is still an independent
open world, it’s driven forward by a central studio and, while funding for the second
narrative, and it encourages progress game started out in a better position
through some typical RPG-like elements. than that of the original, the team did
Those who backed the original game on still turn to Kickstarter to once again get
Kickstarter, who played through its bitty, the project over the line. With £450,000
roguelike scenarios and non-linear story, burning a hole in its pocket, the studio
might be a bit surprised at this. But it’s can be ambitious in what it does – but
a conscious decision at ROCKFISH, and risks are still risks. Doubly so when it’s with
one the studio is confident the fans will someone else’s money.
get on board with: rather than a vague, Regardless, after cooing at the frankly
long-winded experience relying on a lot ridiculous visuals in the game for a while,
of random factors (and repeatedly dying we launched a few questions in the
and starting again), EVERSPACE 2 keeps direction of Michael Schade, CEO and
things open but contained, and aims to co-founder at ROCKFISH Games, to get a
get you in and out in that 20 hours or so better idea of why this switch is such a big
mentioned above. one for the series, and the studio.

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 Attract Mode
Interview

“The leap from the

original game to this
sequel is a genuine one”

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 Attract Mode
Interview

Was a sequel always the plan? What

made you decide to take the plunge?
In our dreams, yes! However, before
we were able to start working on our
dream game, we had to make a few
detours. Creating a full-blown open-world
spaceship shooter for PC and console
has always been our actual master plan
since we had a massive hit with the Galaxy
on Fire series on mobile, at our previous 
Less focus goes on the sedate


studio [Fishlabs Entertainment]. We had exploration of vast nothings; more

goes on action and blowing stuff up.
brought the series to smartphones and
tablets, too, and in the end, GoF2 HD
became the closest thing to a console-like we only had about six months to develop commercial success under our belt, we
open-world space shooter experience like a new prototype from scratch before are now able to craft and self-publish the
Freelancer or Elite on mobile devices. lights would have gone off for good. game of our dreams: EVERSPACE 2.
However, we failed to adapt to the Thus we decided in favour of a
rapid surge of free-to-play mobile gaming, roguelike core game loop which gave us What’s the biggest difference between
and we went out of business in 2013. high replayability and a lot of content the original game and EVERSPACE 2?
The studio remains were then acquired through procedural generation, while What’s the one thing that’s going to
by a big publisher [Deep Silver, which we could still push the platform limits in make veterans go “… huh”?
also acquired the studio’s 52 employees], terms of fast-paced 3D space combat and That’s easy! Despite the overall mostly
leaving me and my co-founder empty- stunning visuals. positive community feedback about our
handed. Fortunately, we managed to first game, the shift from a roguelike to
secure a deal with a triple-A publisher to an open-world space shooter RPG had
develop a fast-paced space shooter in “Just go at been the biggest wish even from some
Unreal Engine 4 for console. Thanks to it and shoot of the most avid fans of the predecessor.
this, we were able to reboot as ROCKFISH
Games and get the core team of the
enemies” As much fun as it was to casually dip into
the original EVERSPACE, be on the edge of
Galaxy on Fire series to jump ship. your seat instantly, and keep going for yet
Despite a much-praised vertical slice The hard work we put into the game another run from the beginning after you
that we created within nine months of together with our awesome community have just died (but with better starting
pre-production, the project was canned who supported us in our first Kickstarter conditions), it is probably safe to say that
from one day to the other, and we were in [£375,000 raised] paid off, and EVERSPACE pretty much every space game enthusiast
big trouble yet again. With the little money became a surprise hit on PC, Xbox One, was yearning for a modern interpretation
we made from this work-for-hire project, PS4, and Nintendo Switch. With this of Freelancer, featuring a vast open game
world to explore, combined with fast-
paced arcade-y space combat and pretty

There’s more of a focus on RPG elements


in the sequel, with a singular, permanent visuals à la EVERSPACE. Just without an

growth through the game rather than
the stop-start original.
overpowered fleet chasing you from
sector to sector, and without losing most
of your gear.
However, other big new features, like
a Diablo-esque loot system and RPG
elements, piloting some 100 deeply
customisable spaceships featuring
distinctive class-specific capabilities, as
well as being able to descend to planet
surfaces and even fly inside spacious cave
systems aren’t small attractions for space
game aficionados, either.
Last but not least, if the original
EVERSPACE wasn’t a sci-fi looker already,

08 / wfmag.cc
 Attract Mode
Interview

From left to right: Erik Schrader,


community ambassador; Nicholas Fodor;
Michael Schade, CEO/co-founder

If you’re getting a classic sci-fi



novel vibe from this, check out

@Psygnosis73’s previous shots online.

EVERSPACE 2 just looks so much prettier. What’s the biggest – or just most useful
I know I’m biased, but we have already – thing you learned while working on the
received a ton of praise for the great first game that you’ve been able to bring
visuals of the prototype from fans and to EVERSPACE 2?
the media alike, and that’s not even the Working together with our community
final game. to help us make the best game we had
in mind was definitely a new experience
Thinking of the first game, on reflection, for us as a team. It was not just about PICKING YOUR SHOTS
what was it about it that made it stand reporting bugs and balancing. Our fans
ROCKFISH is spending its time getting
out? How have you harnessed that for came up with great gameplay ideas of EVERSPACE 2 up to spec, so where does
the sequel? their own, or gave valuable feedback on the team find all the time to take such
Definitely the upfront space combat ours. For instance, during Early Access of lovely screenshots as those you see
action in combination with our tight the first EVERSPACE, we had sensor drones around the magazine – and on our very
shooter-like controls. No need to start that players could craft from resources cover? Why, by not doing them at all, of
every engine manually and lift off with if they wanted to take a shortcut to course. Many of the shots on these pages
an instruction guide-book in one hand. gather loot quickly and move on to the are the work of one Nicholas Fodor
(@Psygnosis73 on Twitter): taker of in-
Just go at it and shoot enemies – instant next sector as fast as possible. While we
game photos; blower of in-game minds.
action. Everybody could understand first thought it would add to the variety
As ROCKFISH tells us: “Nick’s amazing
it. And of course the ever-changing, of playstyles, our community convinced
shots of the original EVERSPACE taken on
beautiful, randomly generated space us that this feature made exploration his PS4 became some of the most loved
vistas which generated tons of desktop obsolete, so we took it out and made pieces of fan art on his Twitter channel
wallpapers – even to this very day. your ship sensor remember the location and on the ROCKFISH Games Discord. We
Thanks to the persistent game world of everything you had discovered in each met with him at last year’s GDC to give that
[in EVERSPACE 2], we are now able to given sector so far. nice and utterly modest guy a big hug as
handcraft every vista to our liking, which well as a physical copy of the EVERSPACE
also enables us to crank up the visual How challenging is it to strike a balance – Stellar Edition signed by the team.”
D’aww. But it didn’t stop there: “Since
quality even more as we now can bake with community involvement?
Nick showed so much creative talent and
high-quality global illumination solutions It’s not that hard. You just have to talk
dedication for our game, we decided to
into the game. But no worries, you won’t to your community and keep them in
gift him a high-end gaming PC, so he could
have to miss out on the fresh feeling of the loop. Of course, you have to make also create some stunning screenshots of
a randomly generated world as we are it clear that we have a certain vision for EVERSPACE 2 in super-high resolution for
taking parts of it to some locations. Let the game that we don’t want to deviate everyone’s viewing pleasure – and to make
yourself be surprised where to find them. too much from, be it for creative or a few bucks on the side, too.”

wfmag.cc \ 09
 Attract Mode
Interview


You can see it was intended from an early


stage for EVERSPACE 2 to focus on the

action and spectacle of space-based combat.

for budget reasons. Like, getting out of developers. You can say what you think
your spaceship to walk around on space and hear your fans out, and it goes
stations or planets, or piloting capital both ways.
ships are features that keep coming up,
but they really don’t fit into the fast- You went to Kickstarter for the first
paced action gameplay core pillar of the game – why go back again? What does version of EVERSPACE 2. More features
EVERSPACE franchise, and they would also using the crowdfunding platform and more scope needs more money. It’s
blow our budget entirely. If you explain help with? as easy as that. Secondly, those early
the implications of such ideas, most fans Well, first of all, we are still self-financed adopters are fans of the genre and fans
are very understanding and supportive. and want to keep it that way. Obviously, of our games. They trust us to make a
Some even start to communicate our the first EVERSPACE will carry us so far, but good game and help us by providing
reasoning to new members of the money does not grow on trees, yet – we high-quality, productive feedback very
community who come up with the same are not filthy rich. However, it’s enough early on. This is crucial for our open
questions. That’s a real strength of indie to start a base version of our dream development approach. Last but not
least, doing another Kickstarter was also
about marketing. Creating buzz for our

Based in Hamburg, ROCKFISH Games has around


20 people working on EVERSPACE 2, and at least new game, and proving to ourselves and
one life-sized Big Daddy from BioShock in the office. potential co-publishing partners that we
are on to something that might become
even bigger than our first game.

Conversely, what does going via

crowdfunding do for the project on the
negative side?
Obviously, this also goes both ways: If
your crowdfunding campaign fails, it will
be much harder to find a (co-)publishing
partner for your game because a) you
were not able to prove that there is
enough demand for the kind of game you
are envisioning and b) you will also have
to cut features and/or content to make a
smaller game on a smaller budget, making
the game even less appealing for your
audience and therefore for any potential
distribution partner, too.
However, even a failed crowdfunding
project has a lot of value because you

10 / wfmag.cc
 Attract Mode
Interview

can analyse the feedback, go back to the

drawing board to come up with a better
vision, and try it again. Basically, a failed 
There’s around 100 ships to


crowdfunding effort has the potential of choose from, but who could
resist the Outlaw Viper?
preventing developers from spending all
their private money and years of their
lives on making the wrong game.
“Every space game enthusiast
What engine is the game being made in? was yearning for a modern
We’re using Unreal Engine 4 out of the
box. We know many fellow studios in interpretation of Freelancer ”
game dev who use custom engines. You
can get stuck on them and are not able
to update anymore. So you miss out on is very important to us, and that is also the get-go, and then take it from there
the latest features of new versions. We something our fans like about ROCKFISH together with our community.
were always fine with the standard engine Games. That feeling of a great video
and eager to play around with the latest game being made for them by a bunch Once you are out and finished, what
updates and features. Unreal Engine 4 lets of passionate developers that they can then? What are your hopes for the
us create games generally much faster. relate to. game, and the future of ROCKFISH?
Building an engine, which is able to port Well, who knows what the future will
games to other platforms, is super-hard. We’ve seen it as December 2020 for bring, especially in crazy times like these?
We also don’t have to hire a bunch of Early Access – assuming this is true, how But of course, we hope that EVERSPACE 2
engine developers, [we can] keep the long do you intend to spend in EA? will make our fans even happier, leading
studio small, and all money goes directly It would be illusionary to give an exact to an even bigger commercial success
into the game. date. The plan is to roughly spend a good that will pave our way for all the great
year in Early Access. We can imagine it to ideas that we already have, and that will
How big is your team? take longer if we and our fans are happy pop up along the journey over the next
Our original team for the first EVERSPACE with the progress we make. ten years or maybe even longer. We are
consisted of about ten developers. Early Access is the natural evolution to definitely not done with making great
We roughly doubled the number for a Kickstarter where development is player space games.
EVERSPACE 2. Still, it’s a nice family feedback-driven. We want to keep that up
atmosphere, and we would like to keep it and get into an already well-developed EVERSPACE 2 comes to PC Early Access
like that. Being a small and efficient team Early Access with many features from late 2020; console versions planned.

wfmag.cc \ 11
 Attract Mode
Early Access

Shoot them up
The shiniest shooter in all the land, it’s Cygni: All Guns Blazing

I
t’s not often a relatively straightforward of KeelWorks’ co-founders – along with brother
Info

GENRE
Shoot-’em-up shooter brings out the coos of delight Meher and Helen Saouma – and helps give the
FORMAT
these days – we’re accustomed to the game both a bit of visual polish you might not
PC / Mac Ikarugas and Radiant Silverguns of the expect in an indie shooter, as well as a nice tag
DEVELOPER world, so why would another game line for the marketers of the world to jump on.
KeelWorks that by its own admission isn’t aiming to reinvent “Ex-Pixar staffer makes game!” is true, of course,
PUBLISHER the genre be of note? Well, because it looks like and the experience at the House of Mouse
KeelWorks Cygni. See it on these pages and tell us it doesn’t subsidiary is sure to have had a huge impact on
RELEASE look fantastic, and we’ll call you a purveyor of Nareg and his work, but it’s not the full story of
2021 untruth. The obligatory ‘looks aren’t everything’ Cygni. This is a team of four (rounded off with
comment will be thrown out there, of course, Vatche Kalenderian [Kalforian] on composing
but looks are something, doubly so when they’re duties) making its first game in the fine city
as hypnotically delightful as the ones here. of Edinburgh, with the intention to grow into
It’s what you’d expect though, given one something more than a four-person team
of the team’s four members once worked making a shoot-‘em-up.
at animation powerhouse Pixar, both going Taking inspiration from Amiga-era shooters,
through a training programme as a lighting artist KeelWorks began work on its first game – which
 ou can’t have a good
Y


shooter without a lot of and working for a time on Toy Story 3. Various would become Cygni – with the intention of
satisfying kablooey going
on (technical term).
other credited and uncredited VFX work goes “reviving the feeling of joy and excitement we
in the back pocket of Nareg Kalenderian, one had playing those games as kids,” the team
tells us. That nostalgic pursuit pootled along
until a slight game-changer entered: the
Epic MegaGrant. “We submitted to the Epic
MegaGrant an early demo of Cygni,” the studio
says. “The playable prototype at the time was a
very early build and a skeleton version of what
was shown in the announcement trailer, but we
knew what we wanted to do with Cygni, so we
communicated this clearly in the application.
But the news about our selection still came
out of nowhere. We were surprised but very
pleased, and the team at Epic were, and still are,
very supportive of us and our work.“
While the game was being made anyway,
the grant nonetheless gave the team a
renewed push to make Cygni stand out; for it

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 Attract Mode
Early Access

to be something special. While internally they

had believed it could be something good,
the support of an organisation like Epic – an
external, independent adjudicator – just
confirmed that internal belief. In part this is
down to how the team works: while the initial
prototype was loose and straightforward,
Cygni’s future development had already been
planned out and blueprinted well beforehand.
“Then through testing, things were amended
until finalised,” KeelWorks explains. “It’s how
we are used to working from our experience in
animation. You always have to have a plan or a
blueprint, and then you add.” I t’s not hard to see where


We’re not privy to those blueprints, sadly, KeelWorks’ unique lighting
tools have come into play.
but we do get a good idea of what Cygni’s going need to make sure something plays well before
for from the team’s brief explanation of what’s it looks the part. “If our game only looks good,
important about a shooter: “We believe the but it doesn’t equally play and sound good,
more satisfying the carnage, the greater the then it will seem incomplete and get lost in the
experience,” they say. What crowd,” they say. “Because
this amounts to in-game is “One of the team’s of our background in the
“massive boss fights, play area animation industry, polishing
obstacles, and more weapons
four members once visuals is very important to
along with large destructible worked at Pixar” us. However, we have always
backdrops at key moments.” believed that gameplay is
Definitely straightforward then, but through to games, what story is to movies; that it is the THE
purity of vision can come purity of design – and blend of having good gameplay, visuals, sound,
a pure shooter is often a thing to behold. And and story, implemented with hard work and
ANIMATION
while everything is coming in pre-planned, it’s passion that would give a chance for Cygni to GAME
not being left to chance – that playtesting will be stand out in the end.” Moving from visual effects
and animation to video
a key part of Cygni’s development until it’s much The game is only officially coming to PC and
games brings with it
further along the creative process. Mac at the time of writing, but informally it’s said unique challenges, and it’s
And that’s a key factor here, because – from to be making its way to PlayStation 5 and the something KeelWorks has
its initial coverage, even comments made earlier next-gen Xbox console too. This would make had to contend with through
the making of Cygni. “In
in this preview – you’ll see a lot of focus on the sense, with Cygni’s 2021 release date. We’ll just
traditional animation, you
game is on those glorious visuals. KeelWorks is have to sate our eye-thirst with these images can take a lot of standard
aware of the graphics/mechanics split and the and the game’s trailer for the time being. shortcuts when you need to
move things faster,” the team
explains. “You’re often able to
 he lazy, quick compari-blend
T hide a lot since it’s just visual


would say: ‘It’s like Geometry

and often only appears on
Wars meets Blade Runner !’
screen for a few seconds. In
video games, everything has
to be a lot more optimised
and tested to death. Players
will be in control of what you
create, so there is more room
for them to break things. To
find the dirt under the carpet,
so to say. So you need to be
more creative and careful
with your shortcuts because
they can come back and bite
you if you’re not.”

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Early Access

Ostranauts
Daniel Fedor talks us through his ‘spaceship life sim’ – and
what it has in common with Knight Rider, Alien, and Lego

I
n Blue Bottle Games’ previous game, that’s been carried forward into Ostranauts, but
Info

GENRE
Space sim 2014’s NEO Scavenger, the premise now it’s basically Maslow’s Hierarchy of Social
FORMAT
was all about the player versus the Needs. I wanted to see if I could approach dealing
PC environment: in a desolate, post- with the social needs of a crew in a tin can for
DEVELOPER apocalyptic world, you scavenged for days or weeks at a time in the same way that I
Blue Bottle Games food and shelter. You fought tooth-and-claw with dealt with survival in NEO Scavenger.”
PUBLISHER other survivors and creatures that roamed the All this means that Ostranauts is a rare example
Modern Wolf wilderness. It was a harsh, unforgiving experience. of a space sim that – refreshingly – doesn’t put
RELEASE Its successor, Ostranauts, is set in the same bleak too much focus on combat. Hand-to-hand or
TBA 2020 universe, promises to be equally unforgiving, ship-to-ship combat could become more of a
but sees the player locked in a different kind of feature after launch, Fedor says – echoing the
struggle: it’s about survival aboard a spaceship, progression of NEO Scavenger post-release – but
and all the technical and social concerns that for now, the meat of the game involves the day-
come from being trapped in an artificial, confined to-day life as the captain of a spacecraft.
space with a bunch of strangers. Your ship will need maintenance; your crew will
“NEO Scavenger was kind of the physiological need constant attention. With the Earth largely
side of things; your hunger, your thirst, your abandoned, human colonies are now scattered
shelter,” explains Daniel Fedor, Blue Bottle across the galaxy, and it’s up to you to carve
 e do like a good, retro-look-
W


ing interface. We can see the founder and the game’s developer. “And all of out an existence – salvaging ship parts, trading,
Knight Rider influence, now
Fedor’s pointed it out.
making money – in a dystopian future dominated
by all-powerful corporations. Fedor describes
Ostranauts as a ‘noir spaceship life sim’ – a game
inspired by the gloomy outlook and ‘moral
ambiguity’ of movies like Alien and Blade Runner.
“I think, with the tone, you’ll feel at home in
Ostranauts if you’ve played NEO Scavenger,” Fedor
says. “They’re both somewhat negative about
where some elements of things are going, and
the characters aren’t always cut and dried; they
might be bad people with good intentions, or
they might be unlawful. Or they’re people trying
to make their own way, but they don’t do things in
black-and-white ways.”
Key to these morally ambiguous characters is
Ostranauts’ deep socialisation system, where the

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Ostranauts leans heavily on procedural generation, allowing Fedor to create an “ A big part of what spurred me to make the game in the



entire cast of characters without having to write lengthy, cumbersome scripts. first place was I like tinkering with spaceships,” Fedor says.

way you engage with your crew directly affects So these control panels are one part that, just
their mood and actions. Flirting with one crew to give people the tactile experience of turning a
member may convert them to your cause, for knob and it actually mean something in the game.
Fans of Alien and Blade


example, but doing so could have the unforeseen But it’s also, I want the point of view to be fairly Runner will likely recognise
effect of making another crew member jealous. limited in the information you have – you’re not the docking display here.

Like NEO Scavenger before it, Ostranauts’ detailed sitting with a camera outside the ship with total
systems are partly inspired by the tabletop games situational awareness, you’re peering through
he played as a youth. “There’s definitely some scopes, you’re controlling the situation through
influence there,” Fedor says. “Unfortunately for imperfect views.”
my players, I had a reputation as a killer DM back All of which brings us to the ship customisation,
in the tabletop days, so I guess it’s only natural which will be partly based on another of Fedor’s
that I create games like this, that are extremely childhood memories: playing with Lego. “In a way,
punishing. But as those games evolved over the it’s my love letter to building Lego spaceships,
years, and we graduated from dungeon trawling except now the parts actually do things, and the
for treasure into more characters in the ships
social dynamics – the “You’ll feel at home in actually care about
playstyle of our later the things those parts BIOWARE
Ostranauts if you’ve
sessions is reflected do,” Fedor says. “Each EFFECT
in NEO Scavenger and played NEO Scavenger ” ship is just a series of Before leaving to found
Ostranauts. It’s more than modular tiles, slightly Blue Bottle Games, Fedor
just the stats and the acquisition of money and smaller than a person, so you can paint walls and worked as a technical artist
at BioWare for approximately
power. It’s also about the changes to the world floors and air pumps, reaction control thrusters,
seven years, working on
and the interactions with people, and growth of navigation consoles.” games like Dragon Age:
the characters.” Fedor has big plans for the ship customisation, Origins and Mass Effect 3.
Away from those interactions, controlling too, and hopes that, once the game hits Early Working at BioWare was,
Fedor says, “one of the
and maintaining your ship will also form one of Access later this year, later updates will allow
highlights” of his career.
Ostranauts’ major pillars. It’s a game that revels in players to be able to reconfigure their craft Towards the end of his tenure,
the complexity of docking systems, readouts, and however they like, whether it’s the distinctive he began to tire of “the really
flashing switches. The dashboards you interact shape of Serenity out of Firefly, or something big, slow-moving projects,”
with in Ostranauts are satisfyingly retro-futuristic totally new. “The plan is to release it in Early which hastened his move to
the indie sphere; all the same,
– all dials and flashing buttons – adding to the Access with enough gameplay to keep people
he adds that working there
Alien-like feel of a used, grubby dystopia. Again, entertained until I can get the next update out,” was a vital part of his growth
the look and feel is taken from the entertainment Fedor says. “The plan is to come out of the gate as a developer. “By far some
Fedor enjoyed while growing up in the eighties. with something you can have fun with now, and of the smartest people I’ve
met were during those years,”
“Another childhood fantasy I had was being then over the course of a year or more, add
he says. “I don’t know if I
at the helm of one of the super vehicles I grew things to it that I find important, but also based could’ve done what I’ve done
up watching on TV, whether it’s Airwolf or Street on what players are doing with the game, and after BioWare if I hadn’t been
Hawk or Knight Rider. There are always these their feedback, adding things that support their there first. I did learn a lot. It
scenes where they’re flipping switches, turning play styles… Ostranauts will be a platform that grew to a size that was maybe
a little bit too big for my
dials, and LED meters are going up and down. will evolve and be added to for a year at the
comfort towards the end – it
I wished I could do that as a kid, and it’s a bit of minimum in Early Access. So there’s a lot of room was getting on for hundreds
fantasy fulfilment now I’m doing it in a spaceship. for growth there.” and hundreds of people.”

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Early Access

Starmancer
Care for a station full of space colonists – or if everything goes
horribly wrong, clean up the corpses and grow a new batch

I
n the seminal Dwarf Fortress, failure was industrial look if you want – all steel grilles and
Info

GENRE
Construction / baked into the design: your settlement angular piping – but you’ll probably find that
Management sim of little characters was doomed to carpeted living quarters and a few decorative
FORMAT fall apart eventually, but there was a items dotted about the place will really lift your
PC / Mac / Linux certain thrill in seeing just how long inhabitants’ mood.
DEVELOPER you could stave off the inevitable. The same You’ll need to keep a close eye on your
Ominux Games life-and-death tension runs through Starmancer, colonists’ morale, too: if a colonist is unhappy
PUBLISHER Ominux Games’ upcoming sci-fi management about their living conditions, they might spread
Chucklefish sim: playing the role of an artificially intelligent, that dissatisfaction to other humans. If things
RELEASE organic computer aboard a space station, really get out of hand, you could end up having
TBC
your task is to look after your huddle of to deal with a full-on mutiny. Or worse, your
vulnerable human colonists. They’ll need all entire space station could become overrun
the obvious stuff to survive – food, water, air, by pirates, or ravaged by a deadly alien slime
that kind of thing – but they’ll need comfortable infection. Death and failure are everywhere in
surroundings, too, which means a fair chunk of Starmancer, then – but don’t expect Ominux’s
the game is devoted to constructing a safe and game to be quite as harsh as Dwarf Fortress, says
Like Dwarf Fortress , there’s no


endgame to Starmancer; pleasant environment. You can go for the cold programmer Tyler Millershaski. “Starmancer is
instead, it’s up to players to
come up with their own goals.
much more forgiving,” he tells us. “Your colonists
are literally grown in tanks, and you can regrow
them when they die – you’ll lose their memories
and skills, but not the colony. It’s almost
impossible to mess up so bad in Starmancer that
it’s game over. This is largely due to our ‘purge’
system. When all your colonists die, you can
send out robots to clean up your mess (dead
bodies, blood, etc) and then regrow everyone –
like nothing ever happened.”

PIXELS IN SPACE
Compared to the somewhat austere-looking
Dwarf Fortress, with its text-based visuals,
Starmancer is also a much more approachable
game from a visual standpoint, thanks to the
sterling isometric artwork by Victor Wirström
(you can see more of that on page 36).

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 ou can give colonists jobs,

Y


which can in turn be levelled up.

Wirström’s sprite work, reminiscent of classics

like Landstalker or Final Fantasy Tactics, not only
helps immerse the player in the game’s futuristic
Colonists will appreciate some


setting, but also sells the idea that you’re taking plush carpets and furnishings, but
their peers may grow angry if their
care of a real colony of individual humans, each own quarters aren’t as luxurious.
with their own skills and personalities. This
feeds into one of Ominux’s goals for the game:
that the player will feel a distinct pang of guilt rocket fuel has an inherent explosion risk. The
when things inevitably go wrong. “You could player should understand this. They should There’s a broader universe


solve most problems by venting life support also understand that a low-level engineer has surrounding you in
Starmancer, but the
and killing your problematic colonist – but we a much, much higher chance of causing an game’s main focus is the
day-to-day drama
don’t like that,” Millershaski says. “We want the explosion… Failure should be interesting and unfolding on your station.
player to feel bad every time a colonist dies. understandable – not frustrating. The player
If the player doesn’t care about a colonist, should be able to learn from their mistakes.
we’ve failed.” The player should never
Starmancer has come a “If the player doesn’t be discouraged from
long way since it was first trying new things
shown off publicly around
care about a colonist, or experimenting.”
three years ago; a successful we’ve failed” As for how long
2019 Kickstarter campaign – Starmancer has left in
and the arrival of Chucklefish as publisher – gave the development oven – well, its release is
the budget and time for Ominux to completely “stressfully close”, according to Millershaski.
overhaul the game. “If the Kickstarter didn’t do “Most of our time is spent balancing things like
well,” says Millershaski, “we probably would have how much food a colonist has to eat or how
released Starmancer within a year – or sooner. frequently they fight. We have no intentions
The internals of the game were… fine, but they of releasing a broken game. When you play
were incredibly limiting. Adding new content Starmancer, we don’t want you to feel like you’re
would have been a huge pain. I’m still not sure wasting your time by playing a rough draft.”
how things like modding would have worked in
our old system. So we decided to completely
remake Starmancer from the ground up, with an
emphasis on flexibility and modding.” INTELLIGENT LIFE?
That flexibility means players can experiment The mini societies that spring up in Starmancer ’s space stations sound brilliantly in-depth:
with all kinds of approaches through the course colonists will forge relationships with each other, grow envious or even violent if they feel
of the game, whether it’s crafting new items disadvantaged when compared to their peers, and can become depressed or even traumatised
from scratch, or retrieving and conducting if deaths occur in their midst. Beneath these systems, though, Starmancer ’s AI isn’t necessarily
as complicated as it sounds, Millershaski tells us. “Our colonists aren’t that complex, because
research on the alien artefacts colonists
they don’t need to be,” he says. “They just need to be smart enough to make the player believe
discover on their journey through space; whatever it is they want to believe. Take low morale perks, for example. When colonist morale is
Starmancer is a game designed to encourage low, they randomly have a chance to gain the Depressed, Saboteur, or Maniac perk. There’s no
experimentation, and Ominux has been careful hidden algorithm at play; it’s literally random. A colonist might see a dead body and become
to balance the game to make it fair rather than depressed. Another colonist might see that same dead body and have no adverse perks.
The player will come up with their own justification for why this happened. Maybe they’ll think the
frustrating. “The player should always feel like
colonist relationship somehow influences the perk. As the rules become more complex, they have
they’re responsible for their failure,” Millershaski to become increasingly perfect. Any inconsistencies will break the player’s immersion. The trick is
says. “Maybe ordering your engineer to craft figuring out how to make the colonists just complex enough to ‘fool’ a majority of players.”

wfmag.cc \ 17
 Attract Mode
News

Headlines
from the virtual front
01

02

02. S
 tronger
together
01. B
 lack Lives
Paradox Interactive’s staff announced
Matter last month they have reached a deal to
secure a collective bargaining agreement
Following worldwide protests, largely with the company. The deal will apply to
in support of the Black Lives Matter staff based in the studio’s home country 03
movement, video game publishers of Sweden, and applies to factors like
and developers have been quick to safeguarding benefits and help with 03. D
 ating Doom
implement supportive messaging in their negotiating pay rises. You know, like a
titles. Additionally, events such as Sony’s union. Because it’s a union. Didn’t use The quest to get Doom on all of the
PS5 reveal were postponed as a mark of that word soon enough, really: Paradox’s things will never be over, because there
respect and support for the actions in staff has unionised, there we go. are constantly more things to get it on.
response to the killings of George Floyd, The agreement is with two trade unions, Still, this doesn’t stop people from trying,
Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Unionen and Saco, and came into force and the best of the most recent crop
countless others. Donations from the (all things going well) at the end of June. of Doom-runners has to be Playdate,
likes of Ubisoft, Square-Enix, Riot Games, In a move scholars are calling ‘Huh?!’, the yellow handheld gaming device with
and more have been announced, with Paradox itself issued a press release a crank you might remember from a
monies going to organisations such as supporting the move to unionise, while back. The port, by keen games’ Nic
the NAACP and BLM itself. The irony of stating: “We’re proud, both as a Swedish Magnier, is very early and rather basic,
EA coming out in support of Black Lives company and as a member of the games but it’s recognisably Doom, it clearly runs,
Matter when it censored the mention industry, to add our name to the roster and you can actually play it. Plus it runs
of Colin Kaepernick in Madden NFL 19’s of companies who support unionisation.” better than the SNES version, which has
soundtrack has not been lost on many. The surprises may never stop. to count for something.

, Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning Sky Sports working with EA Sports to

coming from THQ Nordic recreate football chants for live matches

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News

04

06

06. S
 mart details
04. K
 erbal Space 05 Seems ‘putting players first’ might be
shocker more than just marketing spiel from
05. S
 im refind-ery Microsoft when it comes to the next
Kerbal Space Program 2 was delayed generation of Xbox. The company
earlier in 2020, and it seems part of the A lost Maxis game, thought… well, lost, revealed its smart delivery function for
reason why might have been revealed has turned up thanks to the efforts of Xbox Series X, which will “ensure that
thanks to a Bloomberg report. The article Ars Technica and one of its readers you always play the best version of the
claims Take-Two – publisher of Kerbal 2 who goes by the name postbebop. games you own for your console, across
– shut out the game’s original developer SimRefinery was made by Maxis Business generations.” What this boils down to
Star Theory, moving development duties Simulations, a ‘serious game’-focused is that whichever version of the game
to a new internal studio and poaching subdivision of the main company, and you buy doesn’t matter – what matters
members of staff from the original team, was created after a request was put in is the machine you play it on. Buy it on
via LinkedIn messages, to continue by oil giant Chevron in the early nineties. Xbox One but play it on Xbox Series X,
working on the game. Star Theory was The sort-of game was thought lost, but a and you’ll get the best version of the
left without a contract to work on and floppy containing an unfinished version game available. The system will function
intended to pitch ideas at this year’s of the game was found by postbebop on games specifically made for each
GDC, which was subsequently cancelled and uploaded to archive.org. While it generation of console, as well as titles
owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The was briefly available, it was subsequently optimised for the new machine, and
studio has since closed. Ah, corporate taken down by the uploader, citing even backwards compatible titles. It’s not
fun times. Kerbal Space Program 2 concerns around the legality of making universal, but it will be up to individual
continues to be developed in-house at the game available. It’ll likely reappear developers to decide if they want to
Take-Two. though, so keep your eyes peeled. implement the feature.

No Man’s Sky gets cross- Amazon’s free-to-play shooter Crucible sees

platform multiplayer cuts; new content delays following release

wfmag.cc \ 19
 Attract Mode
News

09

07

07. G
 ames for… 08
good? 09. HogwaRPG
08. Riot off
The US Food and Drug Administration Basically, there’s a Harry Potter RPG
has approved a new treatment for Riot executive Ron Johnson was relieved coming with Avalanche Software at the
use on people with attention deficit of his duties after he shared a Facebook helm, to be published by Warner Bros.
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Oh, post downplaying the murder of George That’s Avalanche as in Disney Infinity,
and it’s a video game. EndeavorRx was Floyd, who was killed by Minnesota not as in the team behind the Just
developed by ‘digital therapeutics’ police. The post commented on Floyd’s Cause series, by the way. A recent leak
startup Akili as a vehicle to deliver criminal record and attempted to paint a claimed details of the upcoming game,
therapeutic experiences to young people picture of a man who… deserved to die? stating that it’ll be named Hogwarts: A
suffering with ADHD. It has been the No idea. Something like that. Social Dark Legacy, and will see players take
focus of clinical trials for over seven media is a disease. control of a student from the start to the
years with over 600 children involved to The now-former employee shared a end of their education in the massive
see if the game could offer any actual comment on Floyd which was deemed private school full of overprivileged
help, and – according to the studies – it offensive by Riot. Johnson was placed on brats. Mature themes have been touted,
can. By playing the game for 25 minutes leave, and later the same week relieved which is unsurprising given how many
a day, five days a week, for four weeks, of his duties. A statement from Riot read then-kids are now full adults in Harry
a third of the children in the study “no in part: “Riot is taking thoughtful and Potter fandom, though it’s doubtful things
longer had a measurable attention deficit deliberate action to help combat racism will go full-on BBFC 18-rated. It’s still
on at least one measure of objective and injustice in the communities where a rumour for now, but keep your eyes
attention,” apparently. Well, then. we work and live.” peeled for more – likely later this year.

CD Projekt Red announces delay to British Library Simulator?

Cyberpunk 2077 : now out 19 November Sure: wfmag.cc/library

20 / wfmag.cc
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News

10

12

11

12. War in schools

While some continue to bang the drum
11. Hello there for games causing nothing but harm, in
10. Uzi retires other areas we see steps here and there,
You may not have seen it, so here’s bits of progress to show there is hope
Early in June, professional League of Sony’s PlayStation 5, as revealed during for things to be taken more seriously.
Legends player Jian ‘Uzi’ Zihao announced a June video showcase. The console, Take Poland, for example, which has
his retirement at the age of 23, citing ill arriving later in the year for an at-the- recently announced it will include 11 bit
health and related issues he blamed on time-of-writing undisclosed fee, looks like studios’ This War of Mine on the official
his career as an eSports star. Roundly someone has been mainlining 1980s sci- schools reading list for the country.
regarded as one of LoL’s greats, Uzi’s fi with a home networking router in their This means students aged 18-plus will
pro career stretched back to 2012 and peripheral vision, frankly, and reactions to see the game take a part of their formal
saw multiple podium placements in the machine’s striking look have run the education in the 2020/21 school year,
worldwide tournaments. His stepping gamut. Regardless, this is what it looks if they’re involved in subjects such as
down prompted an outpouring of like, it stands up vertically and can be history, sociology, philosophy, or ethics.
support from fellow professionals, and used horizontally, and a bunch of games The game portrays life for civilians during
has highlighted elements of professional like Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales the siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s.
eSports that are only just beginning to and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart have been 11 bit studios CEO Grzegorz Miechowski
show themselves in earnest. That being: announced for it. Oh, and Stray, the game said: “I’m proud to say 11 bit studios’
it’s hard on the body and mind. We wish from Annapurna Interactive where you work can add to the development of
Uzi all the best. play as a cat, looks incredible. education and culture in our country.”

Star Citizen passes $300m in crowdfunding Sega to celebrate 60 years

donations; finished game nowhere in sight with… Game Gear Micro? Huh

wfmag.cc \ 21
 Attract Mode
Letters

Post Apocalypse
Wireframe now has its own letters page!
Here’s what you’ve been saying this month

Epic deals?
As much as I’ve been filling my free, and there’s hundreds Ryan writes:
boots with the extraordinary of hours of gaming in just It’s a good question. From
generosity of the Epic online those three titles alone. These the perspective of the
store sale, it does bring to aren’t small indie games: the firms behind the likes of
mind the old days of magazine industry is now appearing to GTA V and Borderlands,
cover tapes and cover discs give away some of its biggest giving away older games
a little. contemporary releases. is good publicity, but we
I remember when Amiga I’m a happy consumer, but can’t help thinking of
Power magazine launched with I’m genuinely curious what the knock-on effect this
the promise that each issue the industry’s take is on this. has on indie studios. As
would carry a free game on the Epic followed this up by giving consumers, getting free – or
cover disc, and the first two a ‘£10 off £14.99’ coupon for extremely cheap – stuff is
issues duly delivered on that a further purchase. More of rapidly becoming the norm;
promise. But the industry at these coupons were issued Rockstar and Gearbox can
that time was in uproar at the when you bought more games. probably afford this race to
idea, forcing the magazine to I no longer need to buy a new the bottom, given the sheer
retreat from its plans. game for the rest of the year. number of people that play
Now I’ve seen over the Is this an industry, I wonder, their games. Smaller studios,
Issue #39 past few weeks the Epic Store making some of the most on the other hand, have to
giving away for free some huge wonderfully intricate games fight even harder to get their
PC titles: Grand Theft Auto V, we’ve ever seen, that’s also games noticed among the
Borderlands, and Civilisation shooting itself in the foot? shouts of “Free stuff!” criss-
VI were all made available for Abi crossing the internet.
Want to write
to Wireframe?
Message us at
wfmag.cc/hello
or tweet us
@wireframemag

Your
gaming life
We asked you to show us
your game collections. You
responded! We’re rather
envious of @patlabor89’s
handsome glass shelves.

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Letters

Shortcuts
Why-oh-why-oh-why Sony unveiled its shiny, retro-
I write with abject disgust at anything to grumble about. It futuristic PlayStation 5 on 11 June.
the new issue of Wireframe just won’t do. Here are your reactions so far…
magazine that has just arrived Pass on my incredibly
on my doorstep. May I be begrudged congratulations
the first of no doubt many to to all concerned on a – grrrr –
register my disdain for the new excellent magazine.
format, the move to monthly, T Stone
and the changes you’ve made.
In these dark and difficult Ryan writes:
times, I was forensically seeking Blimey, this took me on a
something to complain and real emotional rollercoaster.
moan about, especially when I Thank you!
saw that you’d introduced a new
letters page. The perfect forum
for me to do so.
You then go and spoil it by
making a hugely impressive
magazine, that I thoroughly
enjoyed, leaving me bereft of
As far as hardware goes, I’m intrigued by the digital
version. I’ve not bought a physical disc in years, so it
makes perfect sense to buy that one, but the idea of

On the grid not having a Blu-ray player still feels weird and wrong.
– @PiSquare

I thoroughly enjoyed your had no chance. I live in hope

Not so keen on the form factor, but really impressed
feature last issue on Hotshot that one day someone revives
with the line-up of games. And what joy to see
Racing, and did so wondering Split/Second in particular. But
Sackboy make a return! – @LlamaFluff42
if the fate of the arcade racing for the minute, I’ll be grateful
game had in some part been that Hotshot Racing is at
sealed by some terrible least keeping the proverbial I was impressed – although it was all focused on the
scheduling on the part of a trio flag flying. pretty stuff, the potential for the new box is huge IMO.
A digi-only version, too, is a massive win for me.
of games companies. That two Patrick Flynn
– @tomjepsoncrtv
potential franchises were killed
off by launching against each Ryan writes:
other. The old splitting of the Let’s not forget ModNation Meh. More of the same, just slightly shinier.
vote, if you will. Racers, either, which also – @MarkRipley
My favourite of the two launched around the same
was Split/Second, a terrifically time in May 2010. So that’s That case is so ugly that I’m going to have to sit
entertaining arcade racer that three really terrific racing it BEHIND my entertainment centre. It matches
won me over particularly for its games that split their nothing. White? Ridges? The bulges? Art is on the
ability to trigger obstacles and audience by coming out in walls, on shelves, and of course on screen - not some
brilliant effects as you zoomed the same frame – a bit like ugly piece of case plastic. But I’m 100% in day one for
the Demon’s Souls reboot. – @Pyr0sa
through. Then there was Blur, The Three Stooges trying
a slick and power-up-fuelled to shove their way through
extravaganza that was no a doorway and promptly I just want to play Stray, but that’s also on PC which
less entertaining. getting stuck. But yes, we’d we all know is the best platform. – @ryanteck
Launching one new arcade love to see a reboot of Split/
racing franchise into the market Second, though we won’t hold Playing Stray ? Are you crazy? You’ll end up watching
was always going to be tough. our breath on that front. Until a cat doing nothing for five hours. Or napping.
Two at the same time? They then, Hotshot Racing it is. – @Motionwerk

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Early Access

Crazy Lemmings
Not the official Lemmings. Rather, a platforming
puzzler where you control lots of critters as
you try and, well, cure madness. That’s what it
says here. You need to keep your lemmings alive
as best you can, avoid obstacles and traps, and
sidestep comparisons with much-loved nineties
puzzle franchises.

Oneteam Soccer
MaryPark St. Back when people were allowed in offices, there
was a roaring trade in motivational posters,
On the surface, MaryPark St.’s striking which assured us of vital information such as
monochrome, hand-drawn visual style is its most ‘There’s no ‘I’ in team’. As it turns out, that’s the
arresting feature, but developer Marcelo Colonia case for Oneteam Soccer, a game whose gimmick
also appears to be making a fascinatingly is that all the players move together as one.
low-key and thoughtful adventure here. We’d reach for a gag about the England defence
The narrative follows Dave, whose aim in life if we had one at hand.
is pretty restrained: all he wants to do is meet
his best friend. The problem is, his friend is
always busy. It’s a simple story, but it’s also one
that explores themes of loneliness and isolation.
The developer further reveals that its game
includes “at least one spider”. Arachnophobes
need not apply.

Drake Hollow
Right then, what do we have to do here? Defend
villages of vegetable characters? Gotcha.
Entertain them with yoga balls and puppet
shows, while defeating beasties? Fair enough.
Explore a sizeable land, setting defences, and
using the occasional tennis racket as a weapon?
Yep, yep, we’re in. Looks quite the action-
adventure, this one, with a bit of building and
resource management, too. It’s out this summer.

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Early Access

RetroMania Wrestling
Twenty-nine years after the release of the arcade hit
WWF WrestleFest, Retrosoft Studios has the rights to make
an official sequel. Spoiler: it has, and it’s grounded its
aesthetic firmly in the wrestling ring of the original. Up to
Happy Grumps eight players can all brawl together from the comfort of
their sofas, and each of the game’s wrestlers gets their
A single-player dungeon crawler that’s looking to capture own entrance style and accompanying music. No room
something of the temperature of the real world, Happy Grumps for Giant Haystacks, sadly.
is a game which gives you the, er, easily achievable task of
spreading happiness across the planet. The objective really is as
straightforward as that. You do this by exploring dungeons and
freeing the creatures you encounter from the shackles of their
respective foul moods.
That’s quite a task, but thankfully, help is at hand. The game
throws in unlockables and combos to discover and deploy as
you aim to turn those frowns upside down (there’s one from our
book of clichés). You can also do a bit of shopping to beef up your
happiness arsenal. That said, you’ll be up against at least eleven
distinctive different types of grump on your travels.
Each run through the game is randomly generated, and the
project is the work of just two people, Glenn LaBarre and Drew
Conley. It’s in Early Access for the minute, and it should be
spreading cheer later on this summer.

Phoenix Point:
Danforth Update
Sizeable improvements are on the way
for spiritual XCOM heir Phoenix Point,
with changes to recruitment, resources,
maps, and alien citadels on the list
of tinkerings. The game has been
evolving since its original list, in close
conjunction with its fan base. The new
update is due by early summer.

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Early Access

iB Cricket
Let Wireframe be the 476th outlet to observe
that cricket is a sport not particularly well-served
in video gaming. But iB Cricket has an angle
WaveCrash!! the others before it didn’t: it’s presented in VR.
To play it, you’ll need a PC VR kit, a bit of space,
History tells that once upon a time, the mush, blocks need to be matched. and a willingness to stand in the middle of your
the gaming gods decided to cross the When they’re successfully combined, a lounge for several hours, praying for rain.
Street Fighter saga with a puzzle game wave of attacks head in the direction of
mechanic. Households were duly torn the opponent, who then has to dodge
apart by Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, them, crash them head-on, or take the
and the world was right. It’s perhaps damage on the metaphorical chin.
with that in mind that Flyover Games Each bout continues until one
has embarked upon WaveCrash!!, a contender is defeated, and there are
game that visually – in the best sense – special attacks, combinations, and
wouldn’t look out of place in the 1990s. attack modes to use in the quest for
Appropriately, it also marries brawling victory. Colourful, taxing, and offering a
with brain power. clear and present danger to pre-existing
The idea is that two fighters do battle, friendships, the game is currently
but instead of smacking each other in scheduled for full release in September.

Showtime! 2
Movie studio management is something gaming
has tickled around without fully realising, but
Showtime! is a quietly popular strategy game
that’s built up a keen audience over the years.
The sequel is due this summer, and sees you in
competition with over 20 AI-controlled movie
studios to try and earn box office success.
It should be easier once the cinemas themselves
have reopened, granted.
The game absolutely encourages you to cheat,
to make terrible sequels, and to disguise the
shallowness of your films with mountainous,
headache-inducing visual effects. Mrs Brown’s
Boys D’Movie 2 for the win.

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Early Access

Wire Flying
Maid
This is one of those titles you’d be
hard-pushed to call misleading.
Wire Flying Maid is about a maid,
and she flies between an assortment
of obstacles from, well, wires.
The aim is to hook a wire to the wall
and keep flying, and you control the
action purely using your mouse.
Nothing could go wrong.

Minecraft Dungeons DLC

Mojang has announced a pair of DLC packs before the end of the year. The former is
for its newly released crawler, Minecraft jungle-set, obviously, and brings with it a trio
Dungeons. The entry-level Diablo III-alike of new missions. The latter is in more wintery
will be expanded with Jungle Awakens DLC climes, and more details on that have not yet
scheduled for July, and Creeping Winter been released.

A Hand With
Espresso For The Demon Many Fingers
And then they came for our A conspiracy thriller that’s just
coffee. Described as a visual gone on sale as this issue is
novel, Espresso For The Demon released, this one requires you to
follows a trio of classmates delve deep into the CIA’s archives
getting a job at a new coffee and investigate wrong-doings.
shop that’s opened up. You make Shouldn’t take too long. It’s a
choices that affect which way slow-burn, first-person game that
the story goes, with the promise involves rummaging through lots
of multiple possible endings. of boxes for clues, and mapping
Perhaps the most overt attraction out your theories on a cork-board.
is the anime-styled visual look Basically: crime detective and
of the game, though. Plus the quality administration practice in
promise of caffeine, of course. one game.

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Total Knightmare

TOTAL
KNIGHTMARE
The perils of adapting
video games for TV
The creators of Knightmare and Last Commander
describe the tricky process of introducing video
game elements to television shows

A
WRITTEN BY sk your average player what it is
AARON POTTER they prefer about video games
compared to other forms of
entertainment, and chances are
that the word ‘interactive’ will
eventually crop up. Where movies, television,
and literature are generally passive, video
games offer us the ability to affect their
characters and locations with change – or at
least the illusion of it. This hasn’t, however,
stopped a small portion of producers from
attempting to rework video game concepts for
a television audience on numerous occasions.
Games are tough to adapt in any medium, so
we spoke to the few experienced creatives –
past and present – with a track record of getting
it right.
There are two ways video games have
surfaced on television over the years. We’ve
seen shows centred on the discussion of video
games (GamesMaster, Games World, and
Gamezville, to name a few) and programmes
that are either inspired by or directly focused
on a single game or genre. The gap left by the
former has unequivocally been filled by the glut
of personality-driven channels on YouTube,
but it’s in the latter where the idea has
arguably been more fruitful. ITV’s Knightmare
is perhaps the best example; between 1987
and 1994, it inspired the hearts of fantasy
enthusiasts with its unique blend of real-space

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Total Knightmare

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Total Knightmare

In Last Commanders,



Skye’s red attire was

inspired by Claire
Redfield’s look in dungeon crawling, puzzle-solving, and virtual appearing on computers like the BBC Micro,
Resident Evil 2. reality adventure. Commodore 64, and Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
 im Child, creator and
T Knightmare was then sneakily conceived over


producer of Knightmare. OOOH, NASTY time from as early as 1984, with Child recognising
“I’ve always been a games player”, says Tim Child, that Anglia’s “powers that be” neither knew nor
Knightmare’s creator and long-time producer, cared about its concept: of an interactive game
when speaking about his inspiration for the that took place in a virtual world. As such, he
show. “Games like Atic Atac and Dragontorc tested the first studio pilot under the heading
introduced me to the mini world of dungeon ‘experiments in chroma key for weather
exploration in 48kB. Of course, the image side of forecasting’. “That sounded so boring that none
these simplified worlds was at best minimalistic, of my then-bosses bothered to turn up for the
but the depth of gameplay and invention was sessions,” reveals Child. “No one clocked that our
highly impressive.” caption camera was pointing at a hand-painted
Child originally worked as a line producer for dungeon scene rather than a weather map, and
a regional current affairs programme at Anglia that our ‘live-action’ camera was pointing at a
Television, occasionally taking up reporting and man dressed as a medieval warlord rather than a
presenting duties. It was while doing research weather presenter.”
for this that he picked up on the “then-current Knightmare tasked a team of four contestants
boom in home computing”, as well as the games – one playing the game, and three acting as
their guide and advisers – to traverse the vast
unknowns of a dungeon. Directly inspired by
Last Commanders takes


place on a remote station fantasy properties like Dungeons & Dragons,

drifting through space.
Knightmare required contestants to use their wits
and communication skills to overcome various
puzzles and obstacles, all while interacting with
the many unusual characters they’d meet along
the way. Think Skyrim, only with less ‘Dovahkiin’
and more ‘bickering’.

THE KEYS TO SUCCESS

Knightmare was one of the earliest shows that
managed to demonstrate how the design

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Total Knightmare

TREGUARD
SPEAKS!
Hugo Myatt appeared as
the team’s resident dungeon
master, Treguard, in all 112
episodes of Knightmare. For
The iconic Knightmare helmet rendered
him, staying true to the in-game


its wearer blind, leaving navigation to

the other three team members. fantasy was crucial to the whole
experience. “We had no idea
how the kids would react to any
philosophies and ideas popular in video games Commanders does is speak to the intended age scenario,” he says.“This meant
could work for a TV audience. Knightmare also group without ever talking down to them or we had to stay pretty hyped
enjoyed an impressive extended run of eight feeling patronising,” he says.“There are moments up and ready for anything. In
seasons – not to mention the further revivals in the show which are really scary, almost like a the early series, before we had
it’s had in the years since its 1994 cancellation. found-footage horror for children – and the kids Lord Fear as a villain, I had to
When asked what he thinks made Knightmare love this, they react to it and take delight in being provide the menace as well as
avuncular advice. It was a tricky
resonate with people, Child cites the show’s thrilled this way.”
path to tread, as to be fair to all
unpredictability, and the cast and crew’s Described as first-person puzzle-solving with a
the teams I couldn’t be seen to
willingness to think on their feet in whatever sci-fi twist, Last Commanders follows the efforts of
favour one team over another.”
scenario the contestants placed them in. Skye, leader of the resistance; she helps groups
“Everyone got an enormous lift,” he says. “And of friends and siblings from across the UK guide
when [the team] ended, either in glorious defeat her group of freedom fighters as they take on
or victory, the whole studio would be on their the rogue A.I. Sciron. It’s the kind of stuff that
feet applauding.” might seem a little clichéd in the context of a
Equally important was Child’s own familiarity modern video game, but works perfectly well in
with the workings of contemporary video games. the context of a TV show aimed at kids. And if Last
Knightmare tapped into the accomplishment that Commanders’ setting looks reminiscent of retro
players naturally enjoyed about puzzle-solving shooting games, then Meloy makes no bones
and co-operative play; it just helped that this was about the show’s similarities to nineties corridor
all dressed up in a way that felt faithful to the blasters, and directly cites them as inspirations.
fantasy world it depicted, coupled with an early “Standing in those long metallic corridors with
glimpse of what virtual reality and games could neon lighting really felt like I was walking through
achieve together. Doom, Unreal, Quake… but in real life,” he says of
While technology may have been key in the show’s set.
helping Knightmare succeed where other
attempts to bring video games to TV had failed, “No one clocked that our caption camera was pointing at a 
replicating that success in more recent years hand-painted dungeon scene rather than a weather map”
has represented a formidable challenge. The
most obvious question any television producer Last Commanders may indeed be a kids’ show
faces today is, ‘Why bother?’. If a video game fan with a few roots in mature titles, but Meloy has a
can simply turn on, say, Skyrim or a Resident Evil good reason for referencing them. “Resident Evil
sequel, and become immediately immersed in and old point-and-click games played a role in
a virtual world, why would they bother to watch how we integrated puzzles with the environment,”
something similar on television? Similarly, why he says. “The Resident Evil games always used
watch a television show about video games puzzles that felt like they belonged within the
when there are already an army of successful police station or the mansion, and so we wanted
 yan Paul Meloy, producer of
R
streamers to choose from on YouTube our puzzles to feel like part of the world rather


CBBC’s Last Commanders.

and Twitch? than just a puzzle for the sake of it.”
This is just one example of how Last
AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS Commanders understands what elements from
Ryan Paul Meloy, producer on CBBC’s Last games can and can’t work in TV; Meloy and his
Commanders, thinks the answer to that question team employed a similar strategy when looking at
comes from a place of video game literacy – the shows that came before. “There was a list of
offering up a television concept that proudly dos and don’ts that we had in mind,” he says. “I’ve
leans on its digital influences while having the seen most of the video game shows that have
confidence to take risks. “What I think Last been on terrestrial UK TV.” The basic rule was

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Total Knightmare

The Adventure Game First aired: 1980 First Class First aired: 1984
This BBC series is often cited as a forerunner to The Crystal Maze, but First Class was another early attempt to fuse the traditional game show
there are traces of Knightmare to be found in here, too. Contestants format with the brave new world of video games (host Debbie Greenwood
entered rooms and solved puzzles, much like those aforementioned called it a ‘video quiz’ in each episode). Two teams of three school kids
programmes, but there were also portions of the show that involved answered general knowledge questions, and earned points by playing brief
playing a video game or two. In series one, for example, viewers were bouts of Paperboy, 720°, or Hyper Sports. At the end of the series, the
treated to the curious sight of TV presenter Maggie Philbin typing her way winning team received a new computer for their school. With its preppy air
through a text adventure on an absolutely colossal HP 9800. It was a far (like a junior University Challenge), First Class was a tentative early step
cry from Knightmare ’s interactive digital dungeons, but in 1980, just seeing for UK TV, but a not- unsuccessful one: it ran for four series between 1984
a video game on television was something of a novelty. and 1988. It was arguably upstaged by ITV’s edgier Knightmare, though.

Time Commanders First aired: 2003 FightBox First aired: 2003

It was Knightmare, but for history buffs: in each episode, a team of four Hosted by Lisa Snowdon and Trevor Nelson, FightBox was essentially
players oversaw a digital re-creation of an ancient conflict – the Battle the reverse of Knightmare: it attempted to create the illusion that digital
of Troy, say – and made minute-to-minute decisions that determined video game characters were fighting in a real-world television studio.
its outcome. With its dramatic lighting and intense pep talks from historical Contestants built and trained their characters using a piece of software
experts, Time Commanders effected a deadly-serious tone, which was downloaded from the BBC’s website, before taking part in a series of
only slightly undone when you realised that you were basically watching fights and challenges in front of a studio audience. The chunky, humanoid
four blokes (the contestants were overwhelmingly male) yelling panicked warriors looked unconvincing even at the time, and despite FightBox ’s
instructions as someone else played Creative Assembly’s strategy opus, similarity to the hit Robot Wars – where radio-controlled ‘robots’ battled
Rome: Total War. each other – it was far from a success, and vanished after just one series.

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Total Knightmare

to follow in the footsteps of the ones that work,

and the aesthetic of one particular show made
perfect sense for Last Commanders’ retro sci-fi
setting. “GamesMaster drew me in as a kid,” says
Meloy. “Although it’s a formatted review-based
show, it still had this cool, cyber-gothic look and  ciron is a rogue A.I. with forces
S


feel, very much like a nineties video game.” lurking in the unlikeliest of places.
The second series of Last Commanders aired in cynicism that pervades modern TV production
March 2019, and Meloy is convinced that some practice. Action is over-recorded, real-time
of its success can be attributed to it being a video problem-solving is almost non-existent, and the
game TV show that understands its audience, resultant entertainment elements are artificially
and also allows contestants to play remotely from enhanced by editing down by three to five
anywhere in the country. “We send out a ‘Mission hundred percent. With no real confidence in their
Pack’, and all kids have to do to play from home formats, it’s all just polished up in post.”
is power it up,” he says. “Everything thereafter is Meloy, by comparison, paints a much brighter
set up on our end. There’s no pressure on the picture. Having swept up awards for Last
children or their parents to get to a studio or
even set up the video communication technology. “GamesMaster drew me in as a kid… it had this cool,
This means we can cast all over the UK. Kids who cyber-gothic look, very much like a nineties video game”
normally couldn’t take part in TV shows due to
geography or disability can join the fight.” Commanders, his ambitions show no sign of
slowing down. “I think the more we make it, the
THE UNKNOWN ROAD more we’ll be able to implement in the show’s
As popular as shows like Knightmare and Last storytelling, scene-setting, and puzzles,” he says.
 hroma key tech used for
C
Commanders have been, there’s no denying “Season Two had a more complex narrative, so


weather forecasts powered

that television shows based on video games you saw a more populated Space Station and Knightmare’s dungeon settings.

are a hard sell for today’s networks. Few last how the NPCs on board each played a part in the
long enough to acquire even a small following, twists and turns of the story.”
meaning that the people behind them have to Will this dedication inspire future generations
work hard to even get their ideas greenlit; for to take on the tough challenge of turning their
every successful show like Knightmare or Last video game passion into a package less daunting
Commanders, there are disappointments like for mainstream audiences? Only time will tell, but
FightBox, or any number of the other attempts there is at least already 21st century precedent
you’ll find dotted around these pages. for other television producers willing to make
When asked whether he sees the legacy of a show of their own. As Meloy highlights, “My
Knightmare live on in any video games or TV hope is that Last Commanders feels like it’s made
shows today, Child isn’t particularly optimistic. “I for kids of this generation. In the same way that
can’t honestly say that I do,” he says. “There are Knightmare really spoke to me, I’d love it if in 15 or
games played on TV today that borrow a bit from 20 years someone out there looks back on Last
Knightmare, but the effects are overtaken by the Commanders with that same fondness.”

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Column

Horse Face, Plate Face

H
ere is a game that will ruin your Dark Souls makes you learn enemy tells and
life. It’s called ‘Horse Face, Plate dodge or attack accordingly. Celeste expects you
Face’. It hinges on the eternal truth to recognise terrain and react with the right
that every human who has ever moves to climb it.
been either had a long face like a The problem with systems is once you’re in
horse or a round face like a plate. Occasionally one, it’s hard to get out. Most of our pattern
there have been unspeakable comminglings recognition takes place subconsciously: we often
between the two tribes which result in Rami don’t realise we’re in one. And one major side
LOTTIE BEVAN Malek, but he’s beautiful and Egyptian which is effect of liking patterns is not liking change. If
Lottie’s a producer and the genetic equivalent of the Konami Code. He’s we’re ever smart enough to see the systems
co-founder of award- cheating. Almost everyone else you will ever around us, it takes bravery to overcome our
winning narrative
microstudio Weather see for the rest of your life will be an HF or a PF. innate human desire to leave that system be.
Factory, best known for You’re welcome. Change is a break in a pattern. Change is
Cultist Simulator. She’s Humans love a system. We’ve evolved to impossible to predict. From the base of our
one of the youngest
female founders seek patterns in the world, from predicting the ancient monkey souls, change feels frightening
in the industry, a weather to knowing not to bugger about with and wrong. There are obvious parallels to the
BAFTA Breakthrough
fire. In modern society, there are patterns upon Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the world
Brit, and founder of
Coven Club, a women patterns: red and black, which originally told right now. There are less obvious but just as
in games support animals to stay away, is now the most popular profound parallels to games industry culture, to
network. She produces,
markets, bizzes, and colour scheme for selling high-end gaming how we interact with people on the internet, and
arts, and previously laptops to bold and fearless men. Selling high- how important it is to learn to think for yourself.
produced Fallen end gaming laptops to bold and fearless men is, We all have an evolved tendency towards
London, Zubmariner,
and Sunless Skies at itself, part of the pattern of buying cool-looking following the pattern and doing what everyone
Failbetter Games. stuff because that makes other people like you. else around us is doing. But you need just an
That’s then part of the system of capitalism, which hour or two in Playdead’s brilliantly pattern-
is part of the larger Platonic system of never phobic INSIDE to see how dystopian that can be.
being satisfied with anything because there is an Look, all I’m saying is games are part of a co-
unreachable universe out there, where we aren’t, optive genetic narrative which preferences the
where everything is literally perfect. Thanks, Plato. status quo, and we’ll never build Utopia until we
Games capitalise on our, er, patternophilia. learn the importance of individualistic critical
They place a player in a mesh of systems and thinking. Oh, and that I’m a horse face. H/t,
much of the fun is in identifying and mastering fellow HFs!
them. What once was new and unknown
becomes a satisfying feedback loop of stimulus
and response, of understanding and control.
“Red and Pokémon teaches you to recognise types and
black is now respond with super-effective techniques.
the most
popular colour  Playdead’s sinister, alluring
INSIDE : resolutely pattern-phobic.
scheme for
selling high-
end gaming
laptops to
bold and
fearless men”

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THE BEST-SELLING MAG FOR PC HARDWARE, OVERCLOCKING, GAMING, AND MODDING

PC HARDWARE
ENTHUSIASTS

ISSUE 203 OUT NOW

VISIT CUSTOMPC.CO.UK TO LEARN MORE
 Attract Mode
Gallery

GAME
Starmancer
ARTIST
Victor Wirström
RELEASE
TBC
WEBSITE
playstarmancer.com

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 Attract Mode
Gallery

REA
MORD E
turn to
page 16

Starmancer
Swedish artist Victor Wirström’s pixel art adds a
playful dimension to Starmancer, a construction/
management sim where your minute-to-minute
decisions can result in the deaths of your colonists.
“The art has changed significantly since the start, but
it’s always had that mix of cutesy and gritty, retro-
RPG-inspired look,” Wirström explains. “I tend to
lean too much towards the dark and gritty designs,
and it’s something I’ve had to balance with adding
more colour and variety. I was hugely impressed
and inspired by [Supersolid co-founder and artist]
Kenneth Fejer – the mix of pixel art and 3D was
something that not many others were doing at
the time. The game Delver was another inspiration
source. I didn’t actually know 3D modelling at first,
and I spent a few weeks learning Blender and got
hooked on it. It was much easier than I had imagined.
At one point we debated going either full 3D or full
2D, but in the end, we stuck with this style.”
We’re really glad they did.

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Finding space

Finding
A potted look at the vast, all-encompassing history of
gaming’s oldest genre: space. Is space a genre? No idea
WRITTEN BY IAN DRANSFIELD

THE SPACE RACE 1962 1983

Spacewar! marked the first time a game hope in a younger generation: it was
had been made for a minicomputer – the because it would look good on the fancy
PDP-1. A competitive two-player affair, new computer of the day.
it saw rival ships battling it out in the While Spacewar! had a brief run of fame
gravity well of a star, all the way back and became a diagnostic tool for those
in 1962. But this decision to set things in testing their PDP-1s, it largely fell into the
space didn’t come from a grand desire realm of the curio – the relic – rather than  ou mean I, the player, get
Y


to destroy the Death Star?!

to open up the universe to exploration being something every gamer has played
by everyone the world over – these at some point in their life. Its influence
computers cost around £820,000 in 2020 spread, though, and by the 1970s there text-based titles like 1971’s Star Trek and
money, after all, and weren’t seen much were others looking to capitalise on 1974’s Star Trader. It took things back
outside of MIT and co’s labs. No, space this public domain software. It wasn’t into space after 1978’s close encounter
was a logical decision based on the display the first video game, but Spacewar! was with Space Invaders, bringing about a
technology of the PDP-1. Gaming’s history directly responsible for the creation of lasting impact through 1979’s Asteroids.
of spacefaring travel wasn’t because it was the arcade. First came Galaxy Game – a Star Wars gave many an eighties kid the
there, or to beat the Soviets, or to inspire clone of Spacewar! which never received chance to interact with the blockbuster
widespread release (limited to just two movie’s universe in 1983. There were
machines made, ever). Next, Computer even nascent attempts – by Activision,
Space, the first commercially released no less – to introduce a simulation
video game, the first arcade game in the approach to video game
modern sense, the birthplace of Atari spacefaring, with
(created as it was by Atari co-founders 1983’s Space Shuttle:
Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney), and a A Journey into Space
near-total clone of Spacewar!. released to a largely
The gaming space race had begun, bewildered audience
and over the years that followed – the of Atari 2600 owners.
rise of the microcomputer (and personal The journey was just
computer), the introduction of the home beginning, but it soon
console, the explosion of the arcade kicked into hyperdrive
scene Spacewar! had helped to create – thanks to the influence of
space would be one of the main arenas Atari’s groundbreaking Star
designers went back to again and again. Raiders, and an influential
Spasim kept things in the mainframes British classic.
and research labs for a while, but space
was explored more publicly through the  Computer Space, the
first – and sexiest –
arcade video game.

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Finding space

g space
JUMP TO HYPERSPACE 1984 1993
A chunk of carefully crafted assembly The Space Flight Simulator carried on down mainstream: pacey, explosive combat;
language on a BBC Micro is all it took the route of pure simulation, meaning the a story you might actually care about;
to create an entire universe. OK, so educational aspect of space games was simpler mechanics; it all added up.
‘all it took’ is massively underplaying never forgotten – something that would Then, at the end of 1993, we ended up
the difficulty in using assembly and prove important later down the line. with arguably two of the most influential
machine code. And it didn’t really feature Epic, Starblade, Star Cruiser, Skyfox II, space-based games ever released:
an entire universe, even if those eight Psi-5 Trading Company, Space Rogue, September saw the release of Master of
galaxies might have felt like it at the time. Lightspeed… they all came and went. Orion – not the first 4X strategy game, but
All the same, Elite was a game-changer Some were good – some great – where certainly the one with the biggest impact
– in more ways than one. It took what others were middling at best. But it took – while Elite’s own sequel, Frontier, landed
had come before and refined it into an an Origin Systems release in 1990 to (and took off again) in October, bringing
experience of freedom, of openness, ratchet things up a few notches again: with it an entire procedurally generated
of exploration. combining space combat with cinematic universe to explore, shaded polygons to
It didn’t go pure simulation, instead presentation, bringing the excitement admire, and the ability to land on planets
keeping the excitement of space-based – and bombast – into the vacuum, up between bouts of battling with idiots
combat. It didn’t go full arcade either, stepped Wing Commander. Chris Roberts’s trying to steal your luxury goods. Space
with trading of goods playing a big part tale of close encounters of the blasting had finally found its place in gaming, and
in your progress (and enjoyment) of the kind single-handedly dragged the space the next few years would bring with it
game. It wasn’t wholly original, but Elite genre into the welcoming arms of the more incredible highs… to a point.
brought together disparate elements into
a single package in a way we hadn’t seen
 un fact: the hand you see there is modelled on the
F


before, and single-handedly changed the hand of Wing Commander creator Chris Roberts.
trajectory of space games.
It’s not that Elite was the only game
to look to the likes of Star Raiders for
inspiration, of course – Derek Brewster’s
Codename MAT did a great job of tweaking
that formula for ZX Spectrum owners.
And other titles focused on specific
aspects, rather than always lifting
wholesale from Elite’s blend. 1986’s
Starflight offered another take on the
explore-trade-fight dynamic, while 1990’s
Star Control focused more on the combat
side of things, mixing real and turn-based
battles to great effect. Releases such as
Buzz Aldrin’s Race Into Space and Shuttle:
© NASA

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 Interface
Finding space

 ou want emotional
Y


storytelling, you get

yourself a Hamill Homeworld ’s space-RTS


and a McDowell. mix was legendary.

GOLDEN AGE BREAK DOWN 1994 1999

We should have seen it coming, really – genuinely very good story. It was, indeed, it wanted to blow stuff up and have a cool
1995’s Frontier: First Encounters (i.e. Elite good to be bad. story pushing it all forwards.
III) was a huge disappointment; inflated Wing Commander itself looked to Elite This bountiful period could only go on
expectations meeting the reality of for inspiration with its Privateer spin-off for so long, though. The big money started
publisher mismanagement and a rush to series, which brought more freeform to move away from space-based games.
wring some money from unsuspecting approaches to the experience, allowing The people just weren’t as wowed with
consumers. Meanwhile, Wing Commander for trading, piracy, and more on top of the big inky black as they had once been.
– with its third and fourth entries – the expected Wing Commander-style Homeworld was a genuine classic and sold
warped into some unrecognisable mix store. Microsoft Space Simulator kept well in 1999 – it even got a sequel – but it
of underwhelming game and hugely kicking the pure simulation can down the was saddled with the double-hit of being
overwrought full-motion video story street, meanwhile. both a space game and an RTS. FreeSpace
sequences. The bloat was beginning The push into space made its way in 2, meanwhile, was – is – an all-time classic,
to show. a more concerted fashion to consoles, and sold next to nothing on its original
But this wasn’t a period of bad games too, with tentative experiments like release. When the money dries up, the
– not at all. Even First Encounters (once Frontier’s own Darxide seeing what might support quickly leaves too – and soon
patched to fix some huge bugs) was a be possible on the 32X, and later on enough, space games were a thing of
good ‘un. The Mark Hamill-fronted Wing Psygnosis knocking it out of the park with the past. Out of fashion. Drifting aimlessly.
Commander sequels offered a taste of the space opera epic Colony Wars on
Hollywood-ised gaming. This was actually PlayStation. The latter especially stepped
FreeSpace 2 is still one of


a golden era for space-based titles, mixing away from the complexity the Elites and the finest space games.
those early influences and building on the others of the world had embedded into
foundations laid. Case in point – Star Wars: the genre, instead taking – once again –
TIE Fighter. The original X-Wing released huge cues from the narrative ambition of
in 1993 (and was superb, no doubt), but Wing Commander. The mainstream didn’t
it was 1994’s follow-up, pitting you as a want knobs to fiddle, the argument went –
pilot of the Empire and fighting against
the Rebellion, that made for the finest
entry of LucasArts’ space sim series.
X-Wing bedded-in with the 3D tech and
complex control system that made you
feel like a space pilot, but TIE Fighter lifted
from a certain Wing Commander to tie it all
together with cinematic elements, and a

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NO ONE CAN HEAR THEM 2000 2011

So it was we entered uncharted space – a even Roberts had left his own studio while in 1999 but seeing numerous follow-ups
world of space games where there was it was still making the game. and sequels through the 00s, never quite
still the passion, but the support had It wasn’t for the want of trying that the hitting the same level as Elite that it so
left it all behind. There were dalliances space genre went into this dark period. clearly wanted to. The mainstream did
– Homeworld got a sequel in 2003, but There was just no big publisher interest, get the odd look-in, of course, with the
sales were poor. Chris Roberts moved on which led to more projects being smaller Star Wars prequel trilogy producing the
from Wing Commander to make Starlancer in scale or hobbyist pursuits, so quality Starfighter games; knockabout, fun little
in 2000, but it was… well, more Wing was often lacking, or things were rough arcade shooters, but you could tell the big
Commander, really, and the market just around the edges. Most impact likely money just didn’t care by this point.
didn’t care. By the time the more Elite-like came from the fact the marketing spend All through these dark years, though,
and ambitious Freelancer made it out in no longer told gamers this was the genre there were rays of light – things that had
2003, few were still paying attention – they had to play. No, we were all-in on the ambition and quality, even if they
terrestrial-based first-person shooters by didn’t quite have the audience or major
this point. publisher attention. But they were the
Freespace 2 ’s mods let you live out your finest
As such, it was no surprise to see, say, examples that led the way, and showed


Battlestar Galactica (and Babylon 5) fantasies.

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident receive a positive the space game wasn’t quite dead just
critical reception and sell very few copies. yet. It was a slow start, but EVE Online
Nor was it too unexpected to see the launched in 2003 and proved to be one
wildly ambitious X series, first releasing of the most resilient MMOs ever made,
mixing an intricate system of trade, war,
and politics to utterly beguiling effect.
The Galaxy on Fire games on mobile
offered a peek at what we could have
been playing on home formats would
publishers give a bit of money to help the
ideas come to fruition. Galactic Civilizations
showed that the efforts of Master of
Orion weren’t in vain. And the FreeSpace
2 modding community – with the game’s
source code released in the early 2000s
– continued pumping out high-quality
(though again, rough around the edges),
Freelancer saw delays and has been lost in


the mix somewhat, but was a good game. fan-made content. There was still some
interest; still an audience – it would just
Starlancer, however, has been a bit lost and


was a decent-at-best game. have to be approached directly.

EVE Online is hard to get into, but a legend


for all the right reasons.

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BEGIN AGAIN 2012 2014

Kickstarter wasn’t new in 2012. The space But going directly to the people produced
game subgenre certainly wasn’t fresh at more truths than anything else, and from
that point. But just as David Braben and 2012 space became cool again.
Ian Bell had brought disparate elements Or was it from 2011? Given a certain
together into one fantastic package in Kerbal Space Program first publicly
1984’s Elite, so did Braben and some released back then, there’s an argument
other folk at Frontier Developments bring for it. Continued development on the
together the desire of the people with the then-beta version of the game carried
ability to raise some cash and the proven on for years, and the fervent fan base  econds later, everything probably
S


exploded hilariously.
track record for making stuff where you’re continued to grow in a manner similar to
in space and it’s all great and that: Elite that of a hastily constructed ultra-rocket FTL : the poster child of both indies


and crowdfunded games.
Dangerous launched on Kickstarter in in the game itself. A smaller Kickstarted
November 2012. hit, FTL: Faster Than Light, released later
Was this the catalyst? Probably not by in 2012 and brought with it another new-
itself. Star Citizen followed onto Kickstarter, old mechanic in the form of roguelike
marking Chris Roberts’s first return to elements (as well as a truly special
gaming since he left the industry before soundtrack). Space Engineers launched in
Freelancer was finished. It was another Early Access, piggybacking off Minecraft-
bump in the right direction, and the wildly mania and layering on a thick, black load
popular crowdfunding project behind the of… well, space. X Rebirth brought back
game showed there was still an appetite Egosoft’s attempt to ape Elite and… well,
there for space games; it had just been no, that one was an abject failure.
– forcefully – suppressed for a time. But momentum was building – thanks With hopes high for Star Citizen to
in part to the influence of going direct; get out there in the next year or two,
via crowdfunding, but also through the public sentiment was at a high when Elite
Strike Suit Zero brought


space back to consoles. ever-improving output of the independent Dangerous did finally release in 2014.
scene and the increasing ease at which It saw some teething troubles, and there
any player could get any game, anywhere. were modern quirks to work out (like a
We also started seeing space games – lack of offline single-player mode), but
gorgeous shiny ones, no less – make their this was it: the space game was back in
way back to the consoles in a big way, a big way, it had the rapturous applause
with the likes of Strike Suit Zero slaking the welcoming it, and it had a fair bit of money
desires of those in PS4- and Xbox One- behind it too – whether the publishers
land by 2014. and marketeers expected it or not.

 It’s not just about

flying, as Space
Engineers showed.

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Finding space

Rebel Galaxy was

BOLDLY GOING BACK 2015 TODAY


alright. Rebel Galaxy
Outlaw was great.

The 2015-to-now thing can be summed deserved award-winner (including a BAFTA And so, here we are. Boldly going
up with one series. In 2015 we got Rebel for best game). The (space) emperor had where we thought we were going before,
Galaxy, a decent, quirky little blend of indeed found his groove again, and it’s but then ended up not going, but then
missions and combat, western themes, not looking like a flash in the pan, either it turned out we are going there after all:
and twangy music. Rough around the – we’ve a more robust foundation for a world where the space game is a huge
edges, but with real heart behind it. developers than ever before, as shown aspect of modern gaming. Be it brain-
In 2019 we got Rebel Galaxy Outlaw, through the likes of this issue’s cover star, off arcade fun, pure simulation, or the
which is, frankly, a bit of a hidden gem. EVERSPACE 2, being made by a German liberating joy of living the life of a space
Why does this sum up the modern era? indie thanks to the help of a Kickstarter pirate (with a heart of gold, naturally)
Well, because they just keep coming. campaign. Meanwhile, Kerbal Space and taking cargo delivery jobs for hours
No Man’s Sky brought the hope – and Program 2 is being funded by Take-Two, on end, there are options for all, and the
hype – of a previous generation back to one of the world’s biggest publishers. quality of the space games out there right
the realm of space games, and while it We’re still waiting on Star Citizen, mind. now is the best it’s ever been.
took a while to really hit its stride, has
become something of a modern classic in
It takes a bit to unlock,


the sort-of genre. Astroneer, meanwhile, but Astroneer allows for

some planet-hopping.
took its inspiration more from Minecraft
to create its own take on the exploit-and-
explore-’em-up. The small-scale indie
was represented with the likes of Heat
Signature, one of the finest mixes of lonely
spacefaring and anecdote-building action
yet seen. There’s even the advent of
consumer VR to consider, which has seen
the likes of House of the Dying Sun and EVE:
Valkyrie bring those Last Starfighter dreams
we all had to life.
Endless Space took 4X strategy to new
heights, then Stellaris popped up and said
‘Yeah, I can do that, too’. Those looking for
less blasting, more mystery, and a hell of
a lot more contemplation got their fix with
Outer Wilds, an absolutely great game and

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Contents

Toolbox
The art, theory, and production of video games
46. Design Principles
Howard dispels the myth of violent games

48. CityCraft
The design behind Beyond a Steel Sky’s cities

52. DIY audio

A guide to making game sounds on a budget
46
58. Narrative Design
A few programming tips for game story writers

60. Finding an audience

Why marketing should be integral to game design

66. Source Code

Recreate Jetpac’s classic rocket-building action
58
 evolution Software talk about the
R


design of the sci-fi cities in their
Steel Sky games. See page 48.

48
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60  arketing is a boon, not a curse

M


– find out more on page 60.

52

66

 n a shoestring budget?
O


Make your own sound

effects and more
without breaking the
bank – see page 52.

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Advice

The principles
of game design
This month, Howard tackles a few misconceptions
around the topic of violence in video games

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

A
s a therapist, I find the I don’t know if you’ve ever attended a seminar
psychological aspects of video for Marriage and Family Therapists before, but
games quite engaging. Today I’d I assure you it is not full of hardcore gamers.
like to explore this angle more Don’t get me wrong, there are gamers in the
acutely. Usually, I’m bringing therapy scene, and more so every day. But this
my psych background to the gaming world, but particular assemblage seemed to lack experience
this time I’m going to share the time the gaming with controller issues. And the presenter, I would
world paid a visit to my psych training. Spoiler soon realise, was downright clueless.
alert: I may have upset the lesson plan. Violence in video games is an issue of
It was a lovely autumn day, and I was tremendous import as well as being near and
attending a protracted family therapy training, dear to my heart. Consequently, I have done
delving deeply into the myriad issues of my time perusing the research in this area. I’m
parenting. This is a wide-ranging topic, hence concerned about the disinformation frequently
the multi-day all-day format. One section they purveyed in settings like this which bear the
saved until very late in the day was games: video mantle of credibility but not always the substance.
games, to be specific. And to be even more Too many times I hear people demonise video
specific, violence in video games and its impact games, flying the flag of salvation to endorse
Yes, violent, disturbing games


like Manhunt exist, but on players. After days of sitting through massive abstinence as the only solution. Prohibition failed
they’re hardly representative
of games as a whole.
amounts of dry information, I was a bit fried and with both sex and alcohol. I’m not sure why video
frayed, the upshot of which was to loosen any games would be any different? Sadly, I didn’t have
comportment restraints. long to wait before they launched the assault.
Let’s kick it off with a few facts: there’s nothing
new about violence in media. Since the invention
of the proscenium arch, violence has been no
stranger to entertainment (just look at the end
of many Shakespeare plays). Also, violence in
media is an example of art imitating life rather
than life imitating art. Some suggest this is a
chicken-or-egg issue; I ask them to remember
that violent human behaviour precedes media
by tens of thousands of years. For proof,
watch the beginning of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001:
A Space Odyssey (though I admit, this is not a
documentary). And one more thing, in 2019,
researchers at the University of Oxford, in one
of the most definitive studies ever undertaken,

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found no relationship between aggressive

behaviour in teenagers and the amount of
time spent playing violent video games.
Suffice it to say none of these points appeared I f anyone starts moaning


about violent games, just
on the ensuing PowerPoint slides. Quite the show them Kirby’s Epic Yarn.
contrary, the presenter regaled us with example
 001: A Space Odyssey
2

after example of outrageous violent and sexual provides a glimpse of life
content from five different video games. What before video games. Here,
Alan’s in the process of
piqued my interest was the fact that only one of inventing Whac-A-Mole .
the examples was available in a released game.
Some were examples of things that had been
proposed in games but removed before release.
Most were from games that were never released
 inema’s friendliest, least
C


at all. Not because of the explicit content, but violent alien; the games
because the games sucked so bad they couldn’t seen in so many other areas) does not prevent industry’s mortal enemy.

pass licence approval. Amazingly, two games behaviour, it only prevents preparation for the
they never mentioned that might have served consequences. When you tell your kids they can’t
their point (however remotely) were GTA3 and play video games at all, you are asking them to
GTA: Vice City. make a choice: either ostracise themselves from
their peer group, or play in secret and lie to you
IN THE TRENCHES about it. You’re not advocating for their benefit,
I look around the room, and I see frightened you’re undermining your relationship. Parent-
and worried expressions on the faces of people child relationships are the most powerful source
taking notes. The presenter cites studies which of influence on any child’s behaviour, as long as
demonstrate beyond a doubt that relationship is intact.
how violent video games will “The presenter, I believe the preferred
make children aggressive and parenting policy for video
I’d soon realise, was
unmanageable. Then, as they games is to get down in the
start to ring the ‘parents need downright clueless” trenches and play the games
to keep kids away from video with your children. Be present
games’ bell, I can no longer hold back. It’s time to provide context and framing for the fantasies Killed with
to act. presented in the games. The most important kindness
I get their attention and briefly share my precursor to influence is connection, and when There are many notable
background in video games and awareness of the we connect through entertainment that is a aspects to my E.T. game for
research. I point out how the materials presented strong connection indeed. And with that, I step the Atari 2600. It had the first
here aren’t accurate. No one is playing these down off my soapbox. 3D world, context-sensitive
powers, the most expensive
games. They are not representative of what’s I’m not sure ‘flustered’ accurately conveys
licence Atari ever bought, and
out there. I then reference the 2004 Harvard the state of the presenter at this point. After the single-handed decimation
University meta-study which invalidated many collecting themselves some, they acknowledge of the entire video game
previous studies (including those cited) which my comments and assure me their materials will industry of the early 1980s.
Actually, that last one deserves
claim violent games inspire aggressive behaviour be reviewed. Then they give the slides a shuffle,
a second look, if for no other
in players. This study found that video games do and suddenly the entire discussion is dropped reason than the massive
not increase violent behaviour in teens – in fact, and we find ourselves in the next section, irony it engenders. It’s ironic
they tend to relieve stress for most players. pressing joyfully onward. because E.T. is an entirely non-
And then I get on my soapbox… In this age I was just trying to bring some balance to the violent game, yet it managed
to kill a billion-dollar business…
of pervasive availability of electronic media, this topic of video game violence. I wasn’t looking for
policy seems misguided. Abstinence (as we have a fight.

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Advice

How Revolution
built Union City
An in-depth look at the creation of the sci-fi metropolis that
debuted in 1994 and returns in this year’s Beyond A Steel Sky

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

S
urrounded by desert, Union City Revolution and designer of the Broken Sword
was the dystopian metropolis series, comic artist Dave Gibbons of 2000 AD and
where Revolution Software based Watchmen fame, and experienced 3D artist and
its classic adventure, Beneath a Steel graphic designer Sucha Singh, to lift the lid off
Sky (BASS 1). Here, the rich lived the creative process.
at the bottom of vast spires, and the poor on
their polluted tops. Digital entity LINC regulated A STEEL SKY
all activity. It was an Orwellian nightmare, an What predominantly set BASS 1 apart from its
inverted take on Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, and a contemporaries, besides the unique artwork
setting that’s about to return in full 3D for its and design, was that the typical dystopian notion
sequel, Beyond A Steel Sky (BASS 2). of the poor living below the rich was turned on
To discover what went into the construction its head. According to Gibbons, this was one
of the original Union City and its forthcoming of the things that attracted him to the project.
 vocative, mood-
E


setting concept art is successor, I asked Charles Cecil, co-founder of “What you would expect,” he says, “is the kind
vital for creating an
imaginary city.
of high-rise where the rich live on top, and all
the horrible stuff happens at the bottom, but
it makes equal sense the way we have it, too.”
All the industrial pollutants located at the top of
the city’s spires flow into the atmosphere,
keeping the rich shaded and clean beneath the
smog layer.
In Union City, says Gibbons, “the cool, science
fiction utopia-looking part was in the bottom
third, then in the middle was where aspirational
people lived in buildings a bit more rooted
in our reality, and finally, above that, was the
rusty, industrial area.” What Gibbons had to
do was make each separate level distinct,
while also making it a convincingly human
habitat surrounded by the Australian desert.
And though Union City was always situated on
top of Sydney, Cecil admits they were “trying
to hide [that] it was in Australia.” BASS 1 even
featured a purposefully confusing subway
station called St. James – a station found both in
London and Sydney, despite Cecil remembering

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 n early block-out of Union

A


City captures the geometry of
that “what Gibbons drew in the introductory the initial concepts.

comic were clearly kangaroos bouncing around.”

 n in-game view of the city.
A

The Union City in BASS 2 seems less shy The holographic signs all share
regarding its location, but aims to be true to the the same font because they’re
controlled by an AI.
original. Time has passed, and now, according
to Cecil, the city has moved away from being an
outright dystopia. “What we wanted to do”, he
says, “was to convey the same city but from a
utopian perspective – actually take pre-existing
assets and interpret what they would look like
ten years later.”
Besides, Gibbons adds, “the whole dystopia
thing has been greatly overdone in popular “We only explored the city to a limited amount
fiction and, particularly, in science fiction.” Even in the first game, so it was good to get another
before the current crisis, he was convinced that bite of it,” Gibbons says. “I’ve always found I do
people wanted a more positive, more colourful some of my most creative work when there
kind of entertainment not unlike Marvel’s are limitations. The limitation here was what
movies. But, says Gibbons, ”just because a we established in BASS 1. We wanted to get
place looks like a utopia, the continuity right. What I
doesn’t necessarily mean it is “The city has moved did was to start with pencil
a utopia.” sketches just as we did in
Then there’s the city’s
away from being BASS 1. This time though,
change from 2D to 3D. an outright dystopia” instead of having someone
“A player can now look up paint over them, it was a Inspiring
and down,” Singh explains. “They can see and question of refining the sketches by sending Gibbons
feel the sheer scale of it. The whole game is them back and forth between me and Charles For Dave Gibbons, coming
about contrast. Not just between characters but and the guys at Revolution.” up with new ideas is akin to
also within the city itself. We’re contrasting the Once at Revolution, Gibbons’ art was then “pregnancy”: it’s something
outside to the inside, the three separate levels turned into 3D models. “It’s really exciting when you can’t rush. “When you’re
brainstorming ideas, the first
to each other, even the way locations are lit.” you’ve done something that is quite rough, going
few things you come up with
for a feeling rather than detail, and then seeing are just what you’d expect
VISUALS these figments of the imagination come alive in to come up with,” he says.
According to Cecil, BASS 1’s visuals were fully rendered, textured 3D,” Gibbons says. “They’re fairly obvious. It’s
when you get towards the
created by having an artist take Dave Gibbons’ As for the comic-book feel and the studio’s
end, when you think you’re
scanned pencil views then just paint over sophisticated toon renderer, Gibbons notes they running out of ideas, that
them. “We created a unique look, employed an achieved a “sort of linear quality. That effect you sometimes the really creative
innovative technique, and the game was pitched get in a conventional comic with a dark outline stuff comes through. You’ve
as an interactive comic,” Cecil says. “With BASS 2, and colour within it, which gives the whole thing exhausted your conscious
attention, and stuff just comes
our objective was to create a game that felt like a really interesting texture.”
through subconsciously.”
any frame could have been drawn by a comic Singh, meanwhile, adds some technical details:
book artist.” “We came up with a method of rendering

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Advice

 rchitectural
A


concepts, details,
and styles from
all three levels of outlines in real time, and picking out the details Chocolate Factory,” says Singh. “Nobody travels
the metropolis.
of models and normal maps.” The outlines can by train or car.”
fade or become thinner as they go into the Before the city’s overall design was
distance, and can also be lit. approached, Singh says, the team came up with
The city’s visuals are also influenced by key gameplay locations. “And once those were
architecture, which retains many of the first defined and positioned, we started building
game’s elements. “There’s plenty of links to the city to support them. A lot of thought went
the past,” Singh says. “When into infrastructure, traffic,
I was looking at how we can “You need to make and how people live or get
translate what Gibbons did their food.”
it feel really tall,
on BASS 1, and to address Cleverly, as Singh describes,
creating a utopian-looking city, really big” “a lot is handled by the city
I was looking at what period in itself.” There’s a food dispenser
history had a utopian emphasis, and I looked at inside each apartment, and everything is
the 1920s, when Art Deco came in.” happening behind the scenes, so that imaginary
The style employs geometric shapes which fit people and actual designers have less to worry
the city’s three-tiered structure. “Along the lower about. Similarly, Singh explains, “we don’t have
Interactive
level,” says Singh, “you have the curvy organic
Writing shapes, the mid-levels become more squared
Charles Cecil convincingly Concept art for the city’s main means


with rounded corners, and the upper levels of transportation: the monorail pod.
argues that “writing a
video game is harder than remain inspired from the Brutalism of the sixties
writing a film. Ultimately and seventies. Art Deco is the glue that holds
we [game writers] have all the three different levels together, permeating
the constraints, and all the and linking them architecturally.”
requirements [of film], but
also have to make sure our
games flow as interactive THE BUILDING
experiences. If we were Cecil reveals that when it comes to size, the 3D
writing for a linear medium, Union City is, “about the size of York; several
things would be much easier.”
miles across, and not very big due to technical
Besides, game designers
also have to take boundaries constraints.” Besides, this city isn’t spreading
into account, as well as the out horizontally; it’s spreading out vertically.
players who test them. “Part Though not a typical open world, BASS 2‘s space
of the players’ joy comes from is continuous, and players will be able to see
pushing against boundaries
across landmarks and game locations, getting
and unexpected things coming
back; an experience which a sense of the overall geography. They will,
of course just can’t exist in however, only be travelling to specific locations
linear mediums.” via monorail pods. “These pods whizz you
around like the glass elevator in Charlie and the

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 ne of Dave Gibbons’
O


countless pencil
sketches of Union City.

power lines as such; everything is kind of hidden

away, and we have a lot of droids doing most of
the grunt work.” The higher you go, the rougher
these droids become; the lower you go, the
more advanced they are. “As for the screens
you see in the mid to lower levels, they are all
holographic,” says Singh, whereas, “the more
advanced the technology gets as we descend
 igure 1: A modular system
F


the spires, the greener the urban environment.” was used to create the varied
towers of Beyond a Steel Sky.
The overall city building, Singh says, was “an Each tower is made from sections (see Figure
iterative process; we started with a block-out 1), “so we could swap the middle section for a  top-down view of Union
A


City. Note the connections
based on Dave’s sketches, refined that, and then different one, the upper section for another one, between the city’s spires.
went to the concept artist who developed these and so on. This way, we could build multiple
further and in detail.” The detailed sketches towers from several component parts, and make
were then used to refine the block-out even them look not too similar to each other.”
more, which also helped Singh establish the
sense of scale. “You ADDING CHARACTER
need to make it feel The characters that populate Union City are also
really tall, really big, key to both games. Gibbons and the team did
and even the size of “hundreds and hundreds of sketches to come up
details like windows with compelling characters who not only acted in
mattered,” he says. interesting and quirky ways, but looked like real
Interestingly, no individuals. All the secondary characters got as
perspective tricks much thought into them as the principal ones,
were used; Gibbons and it all adds to the feeling that this place really
argues that “you exists.” As Cecil adds, “The characters belong
can tell when to those locations, because we’ve designed the
things have a real characters to fit the narrative and the locations
dimension to them, to fit the characters.”
and your sense of Seeing the almost finished city, Gibbons is
space isn’t violated “amazed by how coherently everything hangs
by optical illusions.” together.” Cecil, besides appreciating the
Putting everything coherence and immersion the city offers, also
together was a huge talks about its “drama, claustrophobia, and
task which Singh vertigo,” while Singh is delighted with “the fact
approached with a that we’re able to build a large city in the time
modular method. we’ve had. It looks convincing. It looks good.”

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DIY audio production for game developers

DIY audio
production for
game developers
How to choose the recording equipment you need, build your
own recording environment, and get started with production

AUTHOR
K.G. ORPHANIDES
K.G. Orphanides is a writer, developer, and audio tinker
currently developing an audio-based narrative game, Sunder.
You can find some of their work at mightyowlbear.com

S
ound can make or break a game and asynchronous USB (so data transfer timing
or demo. Research shows that isn’t dependant on your PC’s system clock).
the presence and quality of audio Popular options here include the Blue Yeti
elements can massively improve Pro, RØDE NT-USB, Audio-Technica AT2020, or, if
immersion and perceived visual you want something decent for around £50, the
quality in everything from film to 3D games and Samson Meteor Mic and Blue Snowball iCE.
virtual reality environments. If you already have a USB audio interface,
Here, I’m going to look at recording and such as the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, with an
producing voice and other sounds. This should XLR microphone input, then a wider range of
help you create audio good enough to pass condenser mics opens up. You can still expect to
muster for a demo, game jam, or even – if you pay a minimum of £50, though.
take care with your production – a full release, at
I f you record in the field, a
home and for not too much money. ON THE MOVE


shotgun mic such as the If you want to record ambient sound, or don’t
SGH-6 for Zoom recorders,
or a parabolic microphone
GEAR UP have a fixed recording environment, then a good
kit, can be worth the cost. If you mostly want to record voice, then you quality portable PCM (pulse-code modulation)
need a decent quality microphone and a audio recorder is invaluable.
noise-free environment. The former is easier Look for a pair of integrated stereo condenser
to achieve than the latter. While dynamic microphones, support for 24-bit recording, line
microphones are best for loud noises and live and mic inputs, and expandable SD or microSD
performances, condenser mics are better for storage. You should also buy a windscreen for
voice recording in the studio, as they’re more your recorder’s mics – get one of the fluffy fake
accurate and sensitive to subtle sounds. fur ones if you’re going to record outdoors.
If you exclusively use a computer to record, Olympus’ LS and DS ranges are very good, as
USB is by far the easiest option. USB mics are are Tascam’s handheld DR recorders and the
typically class-compliant, so you just plug them Zoom Handy range. Expect to pay between £75
in and record on any desktop operating system, and £150 for a decent entry-level recorder.
with production-friendly features such as a 24- I’ve done a lot of field and vocal recording with
bit input bit depth (more data values encoding an Olympus LS-12, and with a bit of practice,
your sound improves your signal-to-noise ratio) you can get results that rival a simple studio

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DIY audio production for game developers

setup almost anywhere. Use a windshield and Your computer is likely to be the most
manually configure a low recording level to give significant source of unwanted background
you plenty of overhead for later editing and noise. Fan noise from most laptops and desktop
amplification. Make sure you record in PCM WAV PCs is enough to render a recording unusable,
format rather than having your recorder encode but you have options here.
tracks as MP3s. You could put the PC outside your recording
booth, but that’s inconvenient if working solo. It’s
“This should help you more practical to build or rebuild your computer
into a case with sound insulation and low-noise
create audio good enough fans – great examples
for a demo or game jam” of these are the Antec
P101 Silent and Fractal
If you’re recording environmental sounds Design’s Define range.
such as rivers, insects, or birdsong, you’ll want Probably the cheapest
to position your recorder as close as possible to silent recording solution
the audio source. Parabolic microphone dishes is to equip your studio
and shotgun mics allow you to get clearer and with a Raspberry Pi
more directional sound at a distance. 4 with 4GB of RAM.
This costs around £55,
IN THE STUDIO though you’ll also need
You can have the best hardware in the world, a microSD card and
but if you’re recording in an unsuitable power supply.
s E Electronics popularised


environment, your sound won’t be clean enough Install Audacity on the reflection filters, and its
to work with. The main hazards are background standard Rasperry Pi sturdy Reflexion Filter PRO
is still one of the best
noise and echo. OS, connect a USB mic options around.

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DIY audio production for game developers

and you’ve got a pocket-sized studio PC. You can

even edit on it, although handling large chunks
MAKE DO AND DISTORT of audio is still easier on a more powerful PC
If you can’t afford to shell out on any new equipment, with more RAM.
you can always record sound on a mobile phone or Finally, and most simply, you can use a
PC headset mic at a pinch. And if you can’t create portable audio recorder. You won’t have to
sufficiently clean voice recordings, one option is to worry about computer noise at all, but can’t edit
emphasise the distortion – particularly good if your game
on the fly.
involves found audio, suit radios, or generalised post-
apocalyptic nonsense.
Use the Export audio > Other uncompressed files option
A QUIET PLACE
to encode your recording as an 8-bit PCM. Reimport it Now, you’ve got to tackle the hum of all your
and apply distortion, a wet phaser effect with a high LFO other household devices, and even the quietest
frequency, or slap a vocoder on it before exporting the room is likely to have hard, uncovered walls and
final result as the lowest-quality MP3 you can. floors that create echoes and vibrations that will
be difficult to remove from your recording.

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 asic pop filters still comprise nylon stocking fabric

B  lamshell-style ferrite chokes can be clipped to the
C


stretched over a metal loop, positioned in front of the mic. ends of cables to reduce radio frequency interference.

If you have a spare room to use as a studio, such as hard ‘p’ and ‘t’ sounds in English, the
you can improve its acoustics by putting foam intensity of which can overload sensitive mics.
tiles on the floor – these lock together and Make sure the filter is clipped to a table or
are easy to install. On the walls, heavy velvet stand rather than directly to the mic to avoid
curtains, acoustic sound blankets, or foam transferring vibration. MAKING ROOM
soundproofing wedge tiles are good options. A windscreen of the kind used for outdoor
You want lots of soft surfaces that absorb sound recording can also help, but may muffle
FOR FOLEY
rather than reflecting it back at your mic. some sounds. If you’re recording sound effects,
which can see you stabbing
The ideal room for this will be solidly built and
melons as a stand-in for human
insulated to minimise both unwanted vibrations LISTEN BACK flesh and swishing bamboo
from structural elements and noise leaking in You’ll also need something to monitor and stakes past the mic to mimic
from outside. listen to your sound on. Chances are that you arrows, you might need more
All that said, one of the fastest, most effective already have headphones and speakers of space, as well as a boom arm to
and space-efficient DIY solutions is the common some description. For headphones, a flat sound attach your mic to. Once again,
or garden blanket fort. Stick your mic in front that closely represents the recorded audio is hanging blankets, towels, and
of your monitor, a pillow on each side, drape a desirable, so you’ll want to avoid anything that duvets around the recording
attempts to boost bass frequencies. area can help make an effective
However, using studio or audiophile-grade sound booth at a pinch.
“You want lots of soft
equipment to listen to your audio – particularly
surfaces that absorb if music or ambient environmental sound is also
sound rather than reflecting involved – can give you a false impression of how
it back at your mic” people will be hearing your game’s soundscape.
For day-to-day use, a decent pair of general-
thick blanket over the whole lot and pull it over use speakers should do the trick. Mackie’s
your head. CR4 speakers, at around £100, are an ideal
A more comfortable – and dignified – option compromise between sound that’s detailed and
if you’re regularly going to be recording at your balanced enough for production and a price
desk is a reflection filter. This is a hemispherical point that won’t break the bank.
frame covered in acoustic foam, often with an Speakers and other cabled audio hardware,
integrated mic stand, to keep the worst of any such as guitars or microphones connected
unwanted audio reflections bouncing back to to a USB audio interface, can easily pick up
your mic. electromagnetic interference from phones,
You can get solid models from the likes of microwaves, and other cables. This can result in
Marantz and sE Electronics for prices ranging a noticeable ‘floor’, impacting recording quality.
between around £40 and £150. Avoid using cables that are longer than you
You’ll also want to put a pop filter between need and clip ferrite ring magnets to each end
your mouth and the mic to help reduce of your cables – miniature toroid cores are
unwanted sounds caused by aspirated plosives preferred for use on microphones to reduce

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DIY audio production for game developers

 pen-source audio editor

O


Audacity provides a simple
and powerful cut-paste
audio editing interface.

 ou ideally want your

Y


normal recording amplitude
to be around -6dB.

the risk of magnet hum being picked up by the your mouth and positioned about 18 cm (7 in)
mic. Audio-grade USB cables usually have a away from it. Don’t forget to use a pop filter
built-in ferrite bead. or windshield.
Plug your headphones in and silence any
GETTING STARTED WITH speakers connected to your PC. Click on
SOFTWARE PRODUCTION the microphone recording meter to enable
Regardless of what you want to produce, you’ll monitoring and make some noise. Cover the full
want to spend time making friends with some range of sounds you expect to make and make
digital audio editing software. Audacity 2.3.3 sure the level monitor doesn’t go into the red. If
is capable, well-documented, cross-platform,
and free. “You’ll want to spend time
RECORDING AND Audacity’s project file format uses
making friends with some 
PRODUCTION uncompressed PCM WAV files. If you’re
GUIDES exporting individual tracks, use either WAV digital audio editing software”
format or a lossless compressed audio format
Your first recording
such as FLAC. it does, then you should reduce the gain setting
in Audacity
If you don’t want to get into painful debates on your microphone if you have one.
wfmag.cc/first-recording
about Nyquist frequencies, psychoacoustics, If you’re still going into the red, adjust
Mastering Audiobooks and recording resolutions, then you can safely Audacity’s volume recording slider down and try
with Alex, Audio Scientist record at Audacity’s default settings: a sample again. If your voice is consistently too loud, move
wfmag.cc/audio-science rate of 44.1kHz and a 32-bit floating-point further away from the mic. If everything’s too
bit depth. quiet across the board, try moving closer to the
A Beginner’s Guide If you’re using a dedicated USB microphone mic and increasing your microphone’s gain.
to Recording Bird for voice recording, select that from the toolbar Next, hit record, capture five or ten seconds of
Vocalisations pull-down next to the mic symbol and your silence and make a test recording. If everything’s
wfmag.cc/birdsong output device (either an integrated or dedicated configured properly, you should see no clipping
sound card) from the pull-down next to the – where the waveform is cut off because the
How to Remove Noise speaker symbol. sound was too loud to record, producing a
with Audacity If you’re using a condenser microphone with distorted effect on playback. The Show clipping
wfmag.cc/noise-removal multiple patterns, switch it to cardioid mode and option in Audacity’s View menu will highlight
make sure the front of the mic is lined up with problem areas.

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DIY audio production for game developers

 oise reduction can remove

N


repetitive background
drones but can also get rid
of sounds you do want.
Audacity can show any points where your recording suffers clipping.


EFFECTS BANK You can also use high-pass filters to cut out
Once you have a good test recording, turn low frequencies – anything below the human
the volume of your output device right up and vocal range, for example – while low-pass
listen for background noise. There hopefully filters eliminate high-frequency sounds. If your
won’t be too much, but if there’s a consistent recording’s too quiet, you can amplify it, while
background hum, noise reduction may help. a compressor allows you to even out variable
Highlight the silence you recorded, select Noise recording levels beforehand.
Reduction from the Effects menu, and click Get Meanwhile, adding reverb can add a sense of
Noise Profile. space to your recording. It’s worth taking time to
Now select the whole track, select Noise experiment with Audacity’s effects and browse
Reduction again and click OK. This will reduce its extensive manual. Third-party plug-ins are
consistent sounds but can also eliminate also available.
frequencies you want, so only use it if you Finally, make sure you’re well-hydrated and
have to. look up some vocal warm-ups to do before you
If you don’t have unwanted background start recording in earnest – both your throat and
sound, the silence you recorded can be cut and the quality of your recordings will thank you.
pasted over any unwanted breathing or mouth
noises during sections of your recording that are
supposed to be quiet.

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Advice

Talking to computers,
for game writers
Most potential video game writers lack the building
blocks of interactive storytelling. Let’s change that

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

W
riting a computer game is very them to name the lead character. They choose
different from the creative ‘Deckard’. Worried that you might forget the
writing you will have been name, you write it on a piece of paper, then slip
taught at school or university. that paper into a bucket on the ground near
When writing a novel, for you. You get a pen and write ‘Protagonist’ on
example, the text-to-reader delivery method is the side of the bucket. Next, in a tense chase
so simple that it becomes invisible and we forget sequence, you ask them to decide which object
about it: the reader generally jumps to the first the protagonist grabs: a gun or holy water. They
page of the actual story, then reads each word choose ‘holy water’, so you write that on another
after the last in the order you put them, and slip and put that in another bucket, which you
they expect semi-regular breaks. That’s more or scrawl ‘Held Object’ on the side of.
less it. The book itself is an inanimate object. Reaching the end of scene, the villain of the
Video games, however, are not inanimate. story corners the hero. You check your notes,
They have a life of their own and tell your story and the Big Bad’s line reads “Put the (Held
for you, like an actor performing your words. In Object) down, (Protagonist)!”. This has been a
order to write a film, a writer often has to give very long story, so you reach into your buckets,
instruction on how a line is acted. Similarly, check the slips, and say aloud: “Put the holy
I f you’re interested in in order to write a video game, you have to water down, Deckard!”


writing interactive fiction in

Twine, check out Anna
understand at least two absolute basics of how Congratulations! You just used a variable.
Blackwell’s guide in issue 10. to instruct a computer to tell your story the way In computing, a variable is like a bucket. It has
you intend. a tag on the outside to tell you what sort of
thing should go inside, and contains a piece of
TOPIC 1: BUCKETS information which you can refer to later. You’ll
Indulge me for a second: imagine you’re telling a need to check the requirements of the tool
spooky campfire story to a friend, but you allow you’re using, but in most computer languages
that looks something like this:

VAR $heldObject = “holy water”

The command above tells the computer

“create a new variable called heldObject, and
put the phrase ‘holy water’ inside it”. Now, let’s
say I later want the computer to read out the
sentence “Put the holy water down, Deckard!”
 Variables: think of them as for me. All game writing tools will have a special
buckets for all the objects,
characters, and other bits of
symbol, for example, ‘$’, which you can use mid-
information in your game. sentence to tell the computer that the next word

58 / wfmag.cc
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Advice

 ou can learn more

Y


about using ink, the
is a variable name (the tag written on the side of if the variable heldObject contains “gun”, open-source scripting
language behind
the bucket!), and that the computer should swap then say “The gun used to belong…” Heaven’s Vault, in the
beginner’s guide
it for whatever is inside that variable. So if ‘$’ is published in
our special ‘I’m-talking-to-you-now-computer’ Just like with variables, your tool will have Wireframe #29.
symbol, the line above would read: a special symbol to tell the computer that a
conditional statement is coming. Here, I’ll use ‘~’.
Put the $heldObject down, $protagonist!
Again, you’ll need to check with the tool you’re
using, but generally, in code, it will look like
Just like in my campfire example, the the following:
game would read that as “Put the holy water
~ if (heldObject is “gun”): “The gun used to
down, Deckard!”.
belong…”
TOPIC 2: CONDITIONS ~ if (heldObject is “holy water”): “The One More Thing
Let’s keep that imaginary campfire scene rolling. villain used to be a…” Those who’ve read my previous
After telling your friend your lightly customised columns would have seen
this in action, but I believe it’s
horror tale in which they defeated the villain with The rule here is: if the condition in the
a mandatory skill as a game
their $heldObject, they ask you how that object brackets is true, write out the thing after the writer to be able to visualise
came to be in the story. But they could have colon. So what the computer understands is that your story as a flow chart.
chosen either a gun or the holy water, and these if heldObject contains “gun”, it should show the The best way to train this skill
are objects with entirely different histories! player the line “The gun used to belong…”, and is to either noodle around
in Twine (which uses a flow
if heldObject doesn’t contain “gun”, it should do
*If it’s true that* your friend chose the gun, chart-like interface), or use
nothing and simply move to the next statement, something like diagrams.net
*then* you read out a passage about the gun’s where it will check if heldObject contains “holy (my flow chart tool of choice)
last owner. *If it’s true that* your friend water”, and so on. to map out all the branches of
chose the holy water, *then* you tell them a scene from your favourite
game. Being able to ‘see’ the
about the villain’s past life as a priest. YOU’RE READY branches, the variation, allows
These two concepts, the variable and the you to instinctively know when
Brilliant! You just used two *conditional conditional statement, will allow you to one branch is imbalanced with
statements*. This is an instruction to the successfully instruct the computer in how to the others.
computer that it should do a certain thing (read tell your story. You can use it to craft grand
the gun-related passage) on the condition that narratives where later chapters reflect decisions
another thing (they chose the gun) is true. A made early on, or simply to let a player name
conditional statement allows us to check what’s their character ‘CAPTAIN BUTTCHEEKS’, as they
inside a variable, then give the computer a so love to do. You can use variables to track
varying set of instructions based on the outcome what inventory items a player has accumulated
of that check. This is incredibly useful because it in your story, and use conditionals to open new
allows you to customise your story based on all pathways based on those possessions.
sorts of things – in this example, a choice that They’re super-easy to use, so get on
was made quite a while earlier. In simple English, inklewriter, Twine, Yarn Spinner, or my Fungus
our conditional might look like this: and start writing!

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Marketing and game design

Why marketing and

game design should
go hand in hand
To make a truly great game, marketing and design
need to be considered together, Paul writes

AUTHOR
PAUL KILDUFF-TAYLOR
Paul is the CEO of Mode 7, an indie
game developer and publisher. Find
him on Twitter: @mode7games

T
he games industry has largely sometimes fairly tedious process of making
moved on from the conception of a video game.
marketing as a process which is Here, I’ll discuss how modern marketing
applied to a finished product. Even methods and thinking can be a boon rather than
the smallest indie now tends to a curse when it comes to game development.
have some awareness of the increasingly fraught By working together and internalising some
and competitive landscape for interactive marketing concepts from the get-go, developers
entertainment, and some understanding that and their marketing counterparts can do a lot
they’re making a game with a particular audience to help each other survive the brutal Content
in mind. Apocalypse of our contemporary era.
 he Pyramid of Game
T Marketing itself has changed significantly in Bear in mind that marketing doesn’t just mean


Design is a worthwhile
primer on how efforts to the last decade, with an increasing shift towards ‘selling’: it’s about finding an audience, serving its
serve an audience can rapid-fire social content and away from carefully needs, and beating its expectations. For a game
inform game design.
crafted PR messages. Momentary impact to thrive, it needs to have a real impact on real
The developers of Billie Bust seems to be everything, and that can often feel people: in order to do that, it has to reach them


Up use Patreon to support

their work, and as a platform incompatible with the laborious, opaque, and and then leave a lasting impression. I’ll explore
for reaching their most
dedicated fans.
the practical implications of this and give you a
few ideas you can apply to your own projects.

ATTENTION AND RETENTION

Gaining and keeping an audience is the objective
here. As well as being a good lens for marketing,
it’s also an excellent framework for design. In The
Pyramid of Game Design, author Nicholas Lovell
describes what he calls a ‘retention layer’: the
component which stores progress and gives the
player a reason to return to the core gameplay
loop. World maps, planning screens, and even
simple leaderboards can all function in this way,

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Marketing and game design

Doom stood out among



other titles of the time with

its fast and furious actions,
controversial satanic
imagery, and adrenaline-
fuelled, in-your-face stylings.

and their main job is to keep players playing. At the other end of the spectrum, you have
Sometimes referred to as a ‘metagame’, this is the ‘cuteness response’. Associated with young
just one example of how a marketing concept animals and babies, large round eyes, softness,
Derek Thompson’s Hit


can interface effectively with design. rounded body shapes, and other cute factors, Makers looks at the process
these can have a huge emotional impact on of creating breakout hits.
It’s useful when thinking
GETTING NOTICED even the most jaded hardcore gamer. about innovation and
originality.
Let’s start with attention. As every content As the audience for games has broadened
marketer knows, you have a very brief period and matured, we can now see a much wider
of time (often less than a couple of seconds) range of emotions on show. Some types of
to gain attention and start to simulation and city-building
convey a message. A similar “Marketing doesn’t games play on our desire
question presents itself within for ordered systems, safety,
just mean ‘selling’:
your game design: how can you and control; survival titles
hook the player? it’s about finding reset our concerns to those
In his book The Advertised an audience” of our ancestors: as long
Mind, Erik du Plessis talks about as your game packs an
the relationship between attention, emotion, emotional punch, you can swing in any direction
and long-term memory. As we create memories, you might want to choose.
they are tagged with emotions, often powerful Sally Hogshead’s book Fascinate suggests
and primal in nature: think excitement, joy, attentional triggers that humans find irresistible,
or fear. Du Plessis describes the “supervisory among them lust, mystique, threat, prestige,
attentioning system” which is “monitoring the
environment for cues to make you change the
focus of your attention.” To trigger that change,
we need to fire the “big emotions” that are OBSERVE AND MEASURE
readily linked to memory. Making assumptions about your audience is a dangerous game – it’s best to base your
Traditionally, video games were aimed at suppositions on data and your own testing wherever possible. This is why it’s still a good
creating a thrilling rush; at triggering a base idea to bring in members of your potential audience early, observe their play, and listen to
their concerns. With modern video capture and streaming software, doing this is easier than
reaction from the player. A title like the original
ever before – you’ll learn a huge amount for both your marketing and development efforts
Doom was so successful at the time because
simultaneously. Resist the temptation to explain away problems or lecture your players – if an
it evoked an unparalleled sense of speed and aspect of the game turns them off or they don’t understand something, think about how you
adrenaline-pumping threat. Its violence felt can make changes to alter or recontextualise within the game itself.
transgressive and shocking.

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Marketing and game design

 Minecraft originated as a
riff on Zach Barth’s game
Infiniminer, demonstrat-
ing how delivery
mechanisms and
presentation can play a
more significant role in
success than a game’s
base mechanics.

and vice. Emotions don’t have to be simplistic

to be powerful: new game genres or indie
outliers often define their own emotional PURPLE COWS
timbre; think of Untitled Goose Game’s pleasantly Many game developers aspire to create
subversive cuteness or Goat Simulator’s free- something unique that will stand out from the
wheeling mania. crowd; similarly, marketing theory abounds with
discussion of unique selling points and other
VISUAL ACUITY efforts to define the mechanics of creating an
Your game’s graphics needs to sell the emotion. outlier. Seth Godin wrote about the “purple
In marketing terms, their job is to convey your cow”: a product so remarkable that people just
value proposition: what can’t help but mention it to
feeling can this give me? “A game which is their friends. The process
Once you’ve made it of concepting a game is
too radical in its
through the very early stages often about trying to build
of prototyping gameplay and newness can come something that’s never been
are starting to think about across as confusing” seen before, but there are
concept art, consider taking some complexities to this that
a step back to visualise a short scene containing are worth taking into account.
a single emotional beat. How does that scene In Hit Makers, Derek Thompson discusses
play on your audience’s base instincts, as well the need for both familiarity and novelty in
as on their memory, in order to leave its mark? any breakout success. We’ve seen how strong
In pure visual terms, you’ll need to think about emotions are often linked to specific memories,
contrasting elements: how can an eye-catching, so a game which is too radical in its newness can
surprising, shocking, awe-inspiringly different merely come across as confusing and alienating
element stand out from the background? – it can’t be anchored to anything concrete. The
audience for games tends to form an opinion
extremely quickly: if your game is in unfamiliar
territory, they will often try to liken it to the
IT’S NOT THAT DEEP closest thing they’ve seen before. This can have
It’s still common for devs to assume that the depth of their game’s story, or the richness of unforeseen consequences: a positive association
its mechanics, will do the job of gaining an audience’s attention. This is often backwards could give you a boost but also create some
thinking: unless that audience has a way of discovering the game visually, they’ll never get to false expectations.
experience its intricacies. There are rare exceptions to this rule: games like Dwarf Fortress Some designers tend to worry that their
have largely gained traction through player stories and word of mouth – but in order to idea is too similar to other existing titles, that
achieve this, your title will have to be a once-in-a-generation outlier. somebody else might ‘get there first’ or that
certain genres are already fully saturated.

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Marketing and game design

More often than not, these beliefs are false and

can be paralysing and unproductive: if your
game is well-executed with a slight original twist
in a popular genre, it can stand to be extremely
successful. Many games which are thought of
as extreme outliers, such as Fortnite, League of
Legends, or arguably even Minecraft, owe more
to their predecessors than they do to a magical
lightning bolt of creative inspiration.  he Game Dev Guide
T


YouTube channel helps
indie developer Matt
RETENTION • Competition and self-imposed challenge Gambell turn his
experiences into bite-sized
There’s often a strong correlation between how – players often use games to test their own Unity tutorials.
much a game is played and how successful nerve, perseverance, or ability to achieve the
it is overall. This sounds fairly asinine, even seemingly impossible. Speedrunning is a great
necessarily true, but there’s a bit more to it than example of this.
that. If someone is able to invest significant SPACE TO
time in a game, they’re able to use it for the It would be easy enough to list other ways BREATHE
following functions: in which players experience a game and then The role of marketing is to
extrapolate these out to different needs which define and serve an audience,
• Socialising – this works even in a single-player are being met, but the key point here is to whereas game developers are
context: the game becomes an interest that understand the long-term value of your game. often producing work to satisfy
a particular personal creative
can be shared with others and used as a point Making sure that there is enough content
need. These don’t have to be
of common ground. to satisfy players has a dual marketing and
incompatible as long as there’s
development function. an intelligent and productive
• Storytelling – events in the game world Players who have these needs met over a dialogue. One way to handle
can become compelling stories for others long period of time will want to share their this is to let marketing, and
to experience, even if they don’t play the experiences with others; they will want to bring marketing thought, stay largely
game themselves. their friends into the game or brag about their out of the way during the very
achievements in public. They might want to first phases of prototyping, then
• Creativity and performance – much of purchase additional content, buy merchandise, start up discussion as soon as
Minecraft’s secondary success was due to the or participate in fan communities. Making your a rough concept emerges. Then,
work can be done to define the
content players were able to create with it. game playable for a significant period of time
audience and think about their
expectations – maybe there
Factorio’s launch trailer shows the are concepts from other similar


player’s progression from a single games which could be useful,

basic unit to a vast system of
interlocking facilities. It’s a perfect or features which might need to
encapsulation of the game. be included.

Erik du Plessis’s The



Advertised Mind takes a

look at the neuroscience of
advertising. It’s a little old
now, but some of its core
principles are still worth
considering.

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Marketing and game design

can, however, miss out on one key element:

value for the end consumer.
If your marketing isn’t providing value to
Introversion’s Prison
others, it won’t gain traction. As people become


Architect has huge depth, more selective with their attention, they turn
but its presentation allows
players to share stories isn’t just an abstract exercise in creating a ‘good away almost immediately from things which
about their prison design’ – it’s a direct connection between your don’t give them any discernible benefit. The
disasters or sprawling
penal monstrosities. game and its audience. trick is to turn your development process into
content which has real value. Let’s think about
SYNERGIES some different types of value:
We’ve looked at how marketing can inform • Practical: ‘How To’ style content; tricks, tips,
development, but let’s turn the tables for tools, and approaches.
a second. • Entertainment: comedic videos, memes,
There’s been much talk of ‘open development’ likeable personalities.
in recent years, particularly among indies. This • Informational: useful data, interpretations of
is usually presented from the perspective of existing data, advice.
‘showing the process’ – involving the community • Aspirational: demonstrating possible career
and others with the day-to-day struggles of path or lifestyle.
making a game. This is a great starting point, and
producing regular content of any kind is a great There are many other ways people use
step up for most studios in contrast to the PR- content to improve their lives (or at least to gain
driven approach of the past. Open development the sensation they’re improving their lives), but
this subset can be useful to bear in mind. So,
instead of having an animator simply talking
about their day in a short video clip, you could
SHY AND RETIRING look at the task they were doing and turn it into
a simple ‘How To’ video. It doesn’t matter if the
It can be difficult for more introverted people to get into the mode of producing content that
content is so obscure that it will only benefit a
resonates with others. In small teams, it can be useful to find a team member who’s more
comfortable with engaging externally, or even bring in some outside help, to encourage others tiny subset of other developers: if it’s genuinely
to share their work. Similarly, many developers worry about giving away ‘their secrets’. In reality, useful, it could well find an audience. You may
sharing knowledge seldom has a negative impact – even if someone manages to replicate be surprised by its reach – people generally
your entire state of current knowledge (which would be pretty challenging from a few videos or enjoy behind-the-scenes content, and it can
tweets), it would still be impossible for them to execute on your ideas in the same way. provide a spark to think about a new career
move or hobby.

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Marketing and game design

Codebyfire’s The Colonists



was based on older

city-building titles, but used
a modern visual style and UI
features to help it stand out.

DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH friction be reduced to make that process as

It can seem challenging to find the value in the straightforward as possible?
day-to-day grind of game development, but RELATIONSHIP
taking the time to think about the concerns Engagement over time MANAGEMENT
of others is a good route to this. Just as we How are you engaging a new player, and how Retention helps to build
discussed thinking about player needs, you can does your design reinforce and reiterate that communities. If you’re using
apply this mindset to a much wider audience. engagement? Are you showing this progression Discord or similar, particularly in
Indie developers such as Jake Birkett in your marketing or is everything too flashy order to reinforce a community
around your game before launch,
(@GreyAlien) and publishers like Mike Rose and front-loaded – players want deep,
ensuring you have depth in early
(@RaveofRavendale) regularly post their evolving experiences, so how is that being
builds can be a godsend for
analysis of Steam data on Twitter; others conveyed in trailers and GIFs? Think about the
keeping everyone on the same
like Matt Gambell with his Game Dev Guide player’s experience at different stages in their page. Once you have enough
project (@GameDevGuideYT) focus on more relationship with the game. content to drive attention, think
development-centric content. Whatever about ways you can rapidly
your area of specialism, think about how Where’s the attention? iterate on your metagame and
to communicate it to others in that field, There’s a tendency to focus on marketing secondary gameplay elements:
particularly those just starting out. channels that are easy and readily available, perhaps you don’t need every
occasionally at the expense of ones which are attack to be fully animated or
every character to have unique
MARKET VALUE more effective. Understanding your game’s
art just yet? Once players get into
Bringing together development and marketing design, and where the audience for that design
your game, they’ll want to stick
thinking from the start of your project is the best are likely to hang out, should point you in the
with it for the reasons outlined
way to create a healthy dialogue. Here are some right direction. above, particularly if there’s
ways you can keep the conversation going: enough scope for them
A reason for excellence to get their friends involved.
Always express value If your game is in a well-established category,
If a feature doesn’t benefit the player directly you will need to execute its most salient
and have a material impact on their experience, elements to a high level. Use references and
it may not be necessary. A good test here player stories to help you navigate this: for
is: Could you explain it in a sentence on a example, if your game has a building mechanic
store page? then how does this stack up against the titans
of the genre? You don’t need to focus solely on
Who is it for? contemporary games, either: check out some
What type of behaviour is this individual feature classic titles as well. Are you doing the same
or entire game looking to facilitate? How can things with the same degree of panache?

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Source Code

Loading from cassette took a while, but Jetpac was


also available in cartridge format.

 he original game allowed two players to take turns

T


Source Code playing and included a record of the highest score.

Code Jetpac’s rocket

building action
Pick up parts of a spaceship, fuel it up, and take
AUTHOR
MARK VANSTONE off in Mark’s rendition of a ZX Spectrum classic

F
or ZX Spectrum owners, there and picking up items. To start, we need to is touching it, apply any thrust to Jetman,
was something special about initialise our Actors. We’ll need our Jetman, and move any items that Jetman is holding
waiting for a game to load, the ground, some platforms, the three to move with him. When that’s all done, we
with the sound of zeros and parts of the rocket, some fire for the rocket can check if refuelling levels have reached
ones screeching from the engines, and a fuel container. The way each the point where Jetman can enter the rocket
cassette tape player next to the computer. Actor behaves will be determined by a set of and blast off.
When the loading screen – an image of an lists. We have a list for objects with gravity, If you look at the helper functions
astronaut and Ultimate Play the Game’s logo checkCollisions() and checkTouching(),
– appeared, you knew the wait was going to “Assemble a rocket, fill it you’ll see that they use different methods of
be worthwhile. Created by brothers Chris with fuel, and lift off” collision detection, the first being checking
and Tim Stamper in 1983, Jetpac was one of for a collision with a specified point so we
the first hits for their studio, Ultimate Play objects that are drawn each frame, a list of can detect collisions with the top or bottom
the Game. The game features the hapless platforms, a list of collision objects, and the of an actor, and the touching collision is a
astronaut Jetman, who must build and fuel list of items that can be picked up. rectangle or bounding box collision, so that
a rocket from the parts dotted around the Our draw() function is straightforward as if the bounding box of two Actors intersect,
screen, all the while avoiding or shooting it loops through the list of items in the draw a collision is registered. The other helper
swarms of deadly aliens. list and then has a couple of conditional function applyGravity() makes everything on
This month’s code snippet will provide the elements being drawn after. The update() the gravity list fall downward until the base
mechanics of collecting the ship parts and function is where all the action happens: we of the Actor hits something on the collide list.
fuel to get Jetman’s spaceship to take off. check for keyboard input to move Jetman So that’s about it: assemble a rocket, fill
We can use the in-built Pygame Zero Actor around, apply gravity to all the items on it with fuel, and lift off. The only thing that
objects for all the screen elements and the the gravity list, check for collisions with the needs adding is a load of pesky aliens and a
Actor collision routines to deal with gravity platform list, pick up the next item if Jetman way to zap them with a laser gun.

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Source Code

Download
the code
Rocket building in Python from GitHub:
wfmag.cc/
Here’s Mark’s Jetpac code snippet. To get it running on your system, you’ll need to install wfmag40
Pygame Zero – you can find full instructions at wfmag.cc/pgzero.

import random coll =

import time checkCollisions(platformList,(jetman.x,jetman.y-32))
t0 = time.clock() if coll == False:
jetman = Actor(‘jetmanl’,(400,500)) jetman.y -= jetman.thrust
ground = Actor(‘ground’,(400,550)) if pickupList[jetman.item] != 0:
platform1 = Actor(‘platform1’,(400,350)) if checkTouching(pickupList[jetman.item], jetman):
platform2 = Actor(‘platform2’,(200,200)) jetman.holding = pickupList[jetman.item]
platform3 = Actor(‘platform3’,(650,200)) jetman.thrust = limit(jetman.thrust-0.1,0,5)
rocket1 = Actor(‘rocket1’,(520,500)) jetman.image = “jetman” + jetman.dir + burn
rocket2 = Actor(‘rocket2’,(400,300)) if jetman.holding != 0 :
rocket3 = Actor(‘rocket3’,(200,150)) jetman.holding.pos = jetman.pos
rocketFire = Actor(‘rocketfire’,(521,0)) if jetman.holding.x == rocket1.x and jetman.
fuel = Actor(‘fuel’,(50,-50)) holding.y < 440:
gravityList = [jetman,rocket1,rocket2,rocket3,fuel] jetman.holding = 0
drawList = [rocket1, rocket2, rocket3, ground,platform1, jetman.item += 1
platform2, platform3, fuel] if fuel.x == rocket1.x and fuel.y+16 > rocket3.y-32 and
platformList = [ground,platform1,platform2,platform3] jetman.holding == 0:
collideList = [rocket1,rocket2,rocket3] fuelLevel += 1
pickupList = [rocket2,rocket3,fuel,0,fuel,0,fuel,0,0] if fuelLevel < 4:
gravity = 1.5 jetman.item += 1
jetman.thrust = jetman.holding = jetman.item = gameState = if fuelLevel < 3 :
fuelLevel = timeElapsed = 0 fuel.pos = (random.randint(50, 750),-50)
jetman.dir = “l” else:
def draw(): fuel.pos = (0,650)
global timeElapsed gravityList[fuelLevel].image =
screen.clear() “rocket”+str(fuelLevel)+”f”
for i in range(0, len(drawList)): if fuelLevel == 3 and jetman.x == rocket1.x and
drawList[i].draw() jetman.y > rocket3.y:
if gameState == 0: gameState = 1
jetman.draw() if gameState == 1:
timeElapsed = int(time.clock() - t0) rocket1.y -= 1
else: rocket2.y -= 1
rocketFire.draw() rocket3.y -= 1
screen.draw.text(“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED”, center = rocketFire.y = rocket1.y + 50
(400, 300), owidth=0.5, ocolor=(255,255,255), color=(0,0,255), def limit(n, minn, maxn):
fontsize=80) return max(min(maxn, n), minn)
screen.draw.text(“TIME:”+str(timeElapsed), center= (400, 20), def checkCollisions(cList, point):
owidth=0.5, ocolor=(255,255,255), color=(255,0,0), fontsize=40) for i in range(0, len(cList)):
def update(): if cList[i].collidepoint(point):
global gameState, fuelLevel return True
burn = “” return False
if gameState == 0: def checkTouching(a1,a2):
if keyboard.up: if a1.colliderect(a2): return True
jetman.thrust = limit(jetman.thrust+0.3,0,5) return False
burn = “f” def applyGravity():
if keyboard.left: for i in range(0, len(gravityList)):
jetman.dir = “l” if
jetman.x -= 1 checkCollisions(platformList,(gravityList[i].x,gravityList[i].
if keyboard.right: y+(gravityList[i].height/2))) == False and
jetman.dir = “r” checkCollisions(collideList,(gravityList[i].x,gravityList[i].
jetman.x += 1 y+(gravityList[i].height/2))) == False:
applyGravity() gravityList[i].y += gravity

wfmag.cc \ 67
 Attract Mode
Gallery

GAME
Cygni
ARTIST
Nareg Kalenderian
RELEASE
2021
WEBSITE
cygnigame.com

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Gallery

REA
MORD E
turn to
page 12
Cygni
Cygni: All Guns Blazing is “a twin-stick
vertical scrolling shooter hybrid with
a cinematic flare”, and honestly the
‘flare’ part could be intentional –
this game is a delight on the visual
cortex. With Nareg Kalenderian,
co-founder of the game’s developer
KeelWorks, a former Pixar staffer
himself, it’s of little surprise this
sci-fi blaster is already looking bright
and mighty. You can find out more
about the game in our preview on
page 12, but here we’ll just leave it
to this shot to do a bit of talking – an
in-game grab from a cutscene, all
rendered in-engine.

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The meaning of a massacre

THE MEANING
OF A MASSACRE
How Joseph DeLappe sought to tackle America’s paralysis
over gun violence by turning Grand Theft Auto into protest art
WRITTEN BY EDWIN EVANS-THIRLWELL

H
ow many ways can a person
get shot in Grand Theft Auto V?
Rockstar’s best-selling game
certainly packs variety on this
front, blending wince-inducing
motion capture with real-time physics, but its
open-world action framework teaches you to
skim the details. Whether you’re capping gang
members on Strawberry Avenue or gunning
down cops on the freeway, one death is much like
another. Joseph DeLappe’s Elegy mod, by contrast,
forces you to linger. Here, a man rolls on the
sidewalk, curled around a stomach wound. There,
a woman is punted sideways by a shotgun blast.
The camera retreats slowly, hitching a little when
somebody runs behind it, curses and screams
permeating the opening bars of Irving Berlin’s God
Bless America.
Freed from the frenzy of actually playing GTA,
I become hypnotised by the moments when the
illusion fails, the sense of mortal injury strangely lost to gun homicides, as recorded by the Gun
amplified by the game’s inability to do it justice. Violence Archive. If Elegy’s carnage seems artificial
Joggers collapse in agony only to pop back to their and absurd, this only reflects the absurdity of the
feet, as though rewinding the scene. Animation subject matter. According to a 2010 study, the USA’s
suites are shared between characters, so that gun murder rates are over 25 times higher than the
sunbathers in bikinis gallop about like SWAT average for other high-income nations such as the
officers, rifles tipped across their bodies. Survivors UK and Canada. As of June 2018, US citizens owned
stroll through puddles of blood without leaving 393 million guns – around ten times as many as the
footprints, kicking corpses aside. And still the US military.
camera pulls back, unable to look away. Elegy was designed to ridicule the scapegoating of
The unreality of video game gunfights is video games for gun deaths, while making America’s
sharpened to a point in Elegy. Streamed on Twitch gun problem feel immediate and overwhelming,
from 4 July 2018 to 4 July 2019, DeLappe’s mod DeLappe tells me. It is a despairing response to a
was an automated massacre simulator fuelled culture of obfuscation and denial. “I think it’s
by real-world statistics. Every day, the mod would probably the darkest thing I’ve ever made,” he says.
re-enact the year’s running total of US lives “But perhaps in that darkness there’s a hint of

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Elegy being exhibited at Abertay University in Dundee.


“It definitely didn’t get the kind of hostile, threatening
reactions I got for dead-in-iraq,” DeLappe notes.

the government is allowed, for example, to

withhold information that “could reasonably be
expected to interfere with law enforcement
proceedings.” FOIA requests, Burghart argues on
the FE website, are just “a game that our
‘transparent’ government plays with legitimate
critical reflection. It does seem rather hopeless, news reporters on a daily basis. The strategy is to
but [I thought] if you could take those nearly put things off because most editors – not
15,000 Americans a year who are killed in gun reporters – will lose patience long before a
homicides, and literally put it in front of people, DOES ONLINE request is satisfied and move the reporter onto
maybe it can [help to] change some of the something else.”
thinking around it.”
PROTEST WORK? If journalists still struggle to obtain the details,
Debate goes on about how effective the growth of the internet over the past two
HOLDING UP A MIRROR online protest is versus physical
protest. On the one hand, notes
decades has made an enormous difference.
Exactly how informed are regular Americans “If you wanted the information, say, in 1999,
Code Liberation co-founder Phoenix
about gun violence? “Not at all,” says D. Brian you couldn’t get it,” Burghart tells me over the
Perry, blocking a company’s online
Burghart, founder and operator of Fatal operations may do more lasting phone. “It just didn’t exist in a way where you
Encounters, a small but determined activist group damage. “Standing outside a could analyse it as a regular person.” Data is only
that gathers data on police killings. “I think we’re bank with a sign does very little. useful, however, if people are prepared to make
almost completely ignorant. The government and Taking the bank’s servers offline use of it, and Burghart feels that Americans are
politicians have worked very hard to stop for a day? That they can’t ignore.” too polarised on the subject to act upon the
Americans being very well-informed on this topic.” Perry speaks from experience: she figures in circulation. “I don’t see journalists or the
Much of this ignorance can be attributed to the was part of the 1999–2000 Etoy government reaching out to actually use that data
protest, in which artists launched
Dickey Amendment, a rider in a 1996 and inform the public. People are either pro- or
denial-of-service attacks against
congressional spending bill that forbade federal anti-Second Amendment, and there’s just not a
a toy company over a trademark
agencies from using government-appropriated lot of room for discussion and learning once your
infringement suit. But she adds that
funds “to advocate or promote gun control.” In it’s “a constant battle” to stay ahead mind is made up.”
practice, this has amounted to a tacit ban on any of changing cybercrime laws, and Perhaps the challenge activists face, then,
federal research into gun violence – an that events in meatspace are vital isn’t just crunching the numbers but presenting
opportunity seized upon by pro-gun for creating community. them in a way that overcomes preconceptions.
organisations like the National Rifle Association, Besides tracking police shootings, Burghart
which spends millions of dollars each year has experimented with ‘data storytelling’ apps
lobbying against regulation. such as Tableau, and collaborated with a data
One tool US journalists have to compel the visualisation startup, Silk, to produce inventive
disclosure of data on gun violence is the Freedom renderings of the Fatal Encounters database. As
of Information Act, but in Burghart’s experience, with visual metaphors for the relative wealth of
the FOIA is “pretty toothless.” The act is subject to billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, artworks like
a number of exceptions, many extremely broad; Elegy are a means of making research accessible

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The meaning of a massacre

to those who lack the insight or inclination to DeLappe and Biome Collective were able to
untangle the implications of the data itself. “If you represent the broad types of firearms used in
see it, you can kind of understand.” each homicide, for example. “I can’t remember
the exact percentage but it’s somewhere
REMEMBERING THE FALLEN between 10 and 20 percent are rifles and long
Elegy isn’t DeLappe’s first piece about violence guns, assault weapons,” says DeLappe. But they
in America. A San Francisco–born artist and   . Brian Burghart is a former
D were unable to recreate the races and genders of
journalism instructor and editor of
academic, now professor of game research at the Reno News & Review. He’s a
perpetrators and victims, partly due to the game’s
Abertay University in Dundee, he has built a part-time researcher at the own technical limitations, and partly due to
University of South California.
career around turning video games into protest difficulty obtaining the data. “In the end, we went
sites. DeLappe’s other projects include dead-in- with what the game would provide.”
iraq, a digital memorial which saw him typing the
names of Iraq War casualties into the military- ELEGY’S LIMITATIONS
funded shooter America’s Army. While performing This seems an enormous shortcoming, given
this vigil, he became interested in a common that – lack of government-funded research
feature of more combat-driven games – the notwithstanding – there is considerable evidence
disappearing of corpses to free up memory. that US civilian gun violence is linked to racism
“Sometimes they sort of sink into the ground,” and misogyny. One October 2013 study
he says, “or eventually those bodies all vanish. published in the journal PLOS ONE uncovered a
I thought that was kind of curious.” Moving to  oseph DeLappe's video game
J “significant” correlation among white US citizens


Dundee got DeLappe thinking about Grand Theft “interventions” are many and between having a gun in the house, opposing gun
varied. His more light-hearted
Auto in particular – it is, after all, where the series works include re-enacting control, and expressing “symbolic racism” – an
an episode of Friends inside
was invented by DMA Design back in 1997. Quake III Arena.
indirect and often unconscious form of anti-
Following a 2018 mass shooting at the black prejudice. According to another June 2019
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Mother Jones study of 22 mass shootings, 50% of
Parkland, Florida, the university was contacted the perpetrators specifically targeted women, and
by a reporter looking for comment on Donald 32% had a history of stalking and harassment. In
Trump’s suggestion that video games were to general, white men are the US demographic most
blame. DeLappe was incredulous – as he sums likely to own guns.
up, “they want to control video games, but
“DeLappe has built a career In its failure to acknowledge race and gender,
they won’t control the guns: it’s backwards, it’s around turning video games Elegy reveals the limitations of awareness on
ridiculous” – but he was also inspired. “Part of my into protest sites” the issue, limitations possibly preserved in the
thinking was: ‘OK, if you really think these games social make-up of GTA’s Los Santos, which is
are responsible, let’s see what that looks like.
Let’s actually visualise that in some way through
the game’.” AGAINST DISPOSABLE WOMEN
Not a coder himself, DeLappe sought out Australian visual artist Georgie Roxby Smith
collaborators at the Biome Collective, a gaming, has worked extensively with video games, from
arts, and technology co-working community Call of Duty to Skyrim. Her exhibition Lara Croft,
with whom he’d previously worked on Killbox, a Domestic Goddess “shows the familiar icon for
split screen commentary on the psychological violent femme fatale bad-assery in the throes
effects of drone warfare. They began to play of orgasmic housekeeping”, Lara grunting and
screaming as she operates kitchen appliances.
around with representations of gun statistics
GTA5-based artwork 99 Problems [WASTED]
in GTA using existing modding tools. “In some
is even more harrowing than Elegy. It consists
ways, finding out what we could do decided what
of an unclothed avatar shooting herself in the
we did,” says DeLappe. head repeatedly as disinterested bystanders
Creating Elegy meant engaging with the look on, “a dualistic moment of empowerment
disparities of information and understanding and defeat” that highlights the sidelining and
described by Burghart, not always successfully. disposability of the game’s female characters.

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The meaning of a massacre

HACKING RACIST CLICHES

by the closing shots of films. I remember growing
The artist Wafaa Bilal fled his birth country Iraq in
1991 after refusing to take part in Saddam Hussein’s up in an age before cable television and flicking
invasion of Kuwait. His pieces seek to create dialogue channels and catching the last 30 seconds of a
between Americans and the victims of their wars film. There’s just something about it. You always
while exposing atrocities and tackling stereotypes. know when a film’s over – there’s something in
In The Night of Bush Capturing: A Virtual Jihadi is a the motion, the pulling away.”
hack of the propagandist game Quest for Saddam
which switches the American soldier protagonist for LEARNING FROM THE BALL GAME
a suicide bomber. “This artwork is meant to bring
The sardonic choice of musical accompaniment,
attention to the vulnerability of Iraqi civilians, to the
meanwhile, owes something to other games, if
travesties of the current war, and to expose racist
not video games. In the aftermath of the World
generalisations and profiling,” Bilal writes.
Trade Center attacks, God Bless America became
a staple of Major League Baseball matches
based on Los Angeles. Burghart notes that while during the legendary seventh-inning stretch,
the influence of race, specifically, on America’s replacing or following the traditional Take Me
gun culture is undeniable, it is hard to articulate, Out to the Ball Game. “After 9/11, they started
thanks partly to attempts to quash prejudicial asking people to remain standing for a rendition
reporting that have morphed into a kind of of God Bless America,” DeLappe says. “You have
blindness. “In the United States, it has long been this double-whammy of patriotic songs.” The
an ethical axiom that you don’t report race in I nvestigating gun death takes additional irony here is that the composer, Irving


resilience. “I guess it was lucky

stories,” he says. “That came out of the civil that I fell into this job,” Burghart Berlin, wasn’t born in America – he migrated to
rights movement in the 1960s and 1970s, when says, “because it doesn’t seem to the US from Russia with his family at the age of
affect me too negatively.”
reporters were only recording race if it tended five. “He probably wouldn’t be allowed into the
to support the police – if it played on people’s country today,” says DeLappe.
prejudices, let’s put it that way.” If Elegy took inspiration primarily from older
The issue has been further clouded by how media, it was shaped on the fly by the culture
gun violence is depicted in entertainment media. “That ambiguity is and platform dynamics of Twitch. Operating it
The PLOS ONE study notes that buying a gun provocative, obliging you to transformed DeLappe into a livestream junkie,
for self-protection risks being a kind of anti- high on his own supply. “It would crash three
wrestle with the subject”
blackness by default, because black people are or four times a day, so I’d be resetting it on my
“over-represented” in portrayals of violent crime. phone, from my PC. It inhabited my life, my
If artworks like GTAV aren’t a cause of bloodshed, consciousness – I couldn’t really work on other
Burghart comments, they may play a part in things.” He was often drawn into arguments with
perpetuating the assumptions and stereotypes viewers about Elegy’s message. “Mostly, there
that make certain people easier to harm. “It’s “ I was relieved when it was over were gamers being defensive about gaming,


but I missed it too,” DeLappe says

almost like in the United States, reality came to of Elegy. “There’s really something [claiming] that I was basically magnifying the
fascinating about such intense
follow art.” GTAV’s handling of race, specifically, content going on 24/7.”
relies on damaging movie clichés such as the
figure of the African-American youth unable
to escape a life of crime and brutality. It often
satirises these ideas, of course, but it never
bothers to seriously deconstruct them.
Elegy’s violence takes a few additional cues
from the movies. The mod used a forward-
tracking shot to begin with, but DeLappe found
that an endless zoom-out cultivated a more
appropriate feeling of suspense. “It’s kind of
this constant ending shot in a film, that kind of
departure,” he says. “I’ve always been fascinated

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The meaning of a massacre

problem of people equating games with real-

world violence. I had some back and forth with
some of them. Like, really, come on, think about
this. It’s absurd – I’m trying to point out the fallacy
of that argument, by putting something real into
this pretend world that you feel is somehow
threatened. But also making the point that, dude,
real people are dying – that’s the bigger issue.”
DeLappe feels these muddled responses
 tudents being escorted to safety
S


are, in a way, evidence of Elegy’s success. The during the mass shooting at
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High
artwork is intensely unresolved, its preference School in Florida, 2018. “It
These include pacifist mods such as R3QQ’s
for ironic framing leaving the viewer grasping brought gun issues into focus,” Family Friendly Free Roaming, and communities
says DeLappe.
for interpretations. It conjures up several kinds that role-play policing by consent.
of disquiet: on the one hand, unease at the If projects like Elegy offer the hope of breaking
conflation of rickety NPCs with real bodies the deadlock on gun violence, Burghart is
(photorealistic games such as GTAV are often sceptical that any individual protest artwork can
faulted for straying into the uncanny valley – in spark meaningful change. After nine years of
Elegy, doing so is the point). On the other, the research for Fatal Encounters – during which he
paralysis induced by an ending shot that never
quite ends.
ADVOCACY has investigated around 26,700 deaths – he’s not
sure much more can be said about gun violence
But that ambiguity is of course provocative, IN AZEROTH that isn’t already painfully apparent. “If these
obliging you to wrestle with the subject rather Designer and academic Angela events in Las Vegas or Newtown, these massive
than bouncing off it, as you might if the underlying Washko has spent hours shootings, the Pulse nightclub – if those aren’t
data was presented more straightforwardly. “I investigating both the prejudices enough of a trigger to get people to go out and
think [Elegy]’s probably a bit of a confusing piece and forgotten corners of World of do a little research, I don’t know what would be.
if you just came across it, which is fine,” DeLappe Warcraft. In 2012, she founded The I seriously don’t know what could happen that
Council on Gender Sensitivity and
says. “That means you’ve got to figure it out.” In would make them go do that.”
Behavioral Awareness, a kind of
denying you the interaction games are expected There’s some light on the horizon, however.
free-roaming, one-woman soapbox
to provide, Elegy challenges you to decide exactly In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Congress
designed to facilitate healthy player
how helpless or how apathetic you feel before discussions around sexism and passed a provision clarifying that the Dickey
a disaster that seems self-sustaining. This might feminism. The World of Warcraft Amendment did not outright forbid research
extend to going beyond the mod’s own omissions, Psychogeographical Association, into the causes of gun violence. In December last
such as its inability to show the correlation meanwhile, sought to rediscover year, representatives voted to approve funding
between gun violence, race, and gender. areas of Azeroth left empty due to for the first time in decades. The sum, a token
certain updates. In 2018, Washko $25 million, was half what House Democrats
CITIZEN JOURNALISM organised /misplay, a naked troll had asked for, but it sets a precedent for more
and orc parade, as a raucous
This invitation to act upon – rather than ambitious measures.
way of rethinking “what types of
consuming – the data echoes what Burghart DeLappe is similarly undecided about Elegy’s
actions could take place in the epic
regards as the key to changing the debate around legacy. Certainly, his discussions with GTA players
game landscape.”
guns: putting accessible data presentation haven’t given him much hope. “I’m sure there
tools into the hands of ordinary people, so that are certain artworks that have changed people
they can continue the work of analysis and – books, films, poetry, whatever – but it’s not like
dissemination. “Sometime in the near future, the Donald Trump’s going to watch my piece and
ability to make visualisations out of complex data say, ‘Oh, we should ban all these weapons.’ It
will be something that average people can do, just doesn’t work that way.” He notes, however,
without a steep learning curve,” he says. It’s worth that cultural adjustments of that magnitude are
remembering here the myriad artistic and quasi- hard to see coming. “You just don’t know when
educational uses to which GTAV has been put by you’ll reach that tipping point.” The key, as Elegy
other modders and more adventurous players. suggests, is not to look away.

wfmag.cc \ 75
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Interactive

Interactive
Demaking Bubble Bobble
Programmer Paul Hammond tells us how he
squeezed the classic Bubble Bobble onto PICO-8

W
hen Taito designer Fukio Like many other gamers of his generation,
Are you a solo Mitsuji first started designing Hammond has fond childhood memories
developer working his co-op platformer Bubble of Bubble Bobble. He first encountered a
on a game you Bobble back in the mid-eighties, conversion of the game on the Commodore
want to share with
Wireframe? If you’d he almost certainly didn’t 64 in the mid-eighties, and then again a
like to have your imagine that it would still be played and fondly decade later on a PC. “It was in 1996, and my
project featured in remembered over 30 years later. And one thing (now-) wife and I rented a small flat together
these pages, get he definitely couldn’t have predicted is that, in south London. Too cold to do anything
in touch with us at
wfmag.cc/hello decades in the future, someone would sit down else other than sit in front of the gas heater
and remake the game in PICO-8 – and yet that’s playing Bubble Bobble while keeping one eye
exactly what New Zealand’s Paul Hammond did on the screen and the other on the carbon
earlier in 2020. monoxide detector on the wall!”
PICO-8 is, in case you didn’t read our feature
To create his Bubble Bobble in issue 12, Lexaloffle’s ‘fantasy console’ and BOBBLE HAT


demake, all Hammond development environment designed to recreate One of the reasons why Bubble Bobble ported
needed was a copy of PICO-8,
Notepad++, and Paint.NET. the feeling of using an 8-bit system from the so well to home computers and consoles was
1980s. With its 128×128 pixel display, limited because of its clean, focused design: one or two
colour palette, and 32kB of memory, PICO-8 has players completed stages by jumping around
become a popular venue for game designers platforms, spitting out bubbles to capture
who enjoy the challenge of working within enemies, before headbutting said bubbles to
its confines. And squishing Bubble Bobble – a burst them. The game’s lack of scrolling and
100-level game with dozens of enemies and comparatively simple mechanics made it a
items – into PICO-8 was a challenge Hammond, viable candidate for computers like the C64
a programmer in the financial sector, was eager and ZX Spectrum, though it’s telling that most
to take up. “I drew a sprite one lunch-hour home conversions were generally forced to
at work and liked it,” he says. “Nothing more, leave a few features out in the process. This
nothing less. Once I decided to actually make the makes Hammond’s port all the more impressive;
game, though, I did realise it would be pushing he’s managed to fit the game’s two-player co-
the limitations of PICO-8 – size-wise, anyway.” op and 90 of the original arcade game’s 100

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“ I’m highly graphically


challenged, but was
really pleased with the
results,” Hammond says
of his dinky sprites.

 o create the stages, Hammond used the

T


utility Batch-A-Bobble to view the arcade
ROM’s original layouts, and added a few
designs from the NES version.

depending on which direction the bubbles are

moving. I had to work around that where
“ I would have loved to add in the shifty look the enemies possible. Adding in bouncing on the bubble was


have before they jump,” Hammond confides, “but knew I actually easier than I thought, although a day
had to conserve space.”
before release, I discovered a bug that made BEST BUBBLE
them randomly pop if you had the fast shoes Bubble Bobble was ported
levels into a single PICO-8 ‘cartridge’, though a power-up.” to just about every system
few elements – secret rooms and a couple of imaginable in the eighties and
power-up items – had to be left out. “It really SOAP OPERA nineties, and most of them
made a commendable attempt
was a project of compromises,” Hammond The project hasn’t been entirely without its
at replicating the original
says. “I managed to add most of the features I setbacks, as you might expect – getting the game. Our favourite conversion
wanted, but some I had to leave out are potions collision detection just right was a particular from the era, though, has to
that fill the screen with collectables and massive challenge, Hammond tells us – and simply be the Sega Master System
version. Released in 1987, the
lightning bolts. I didn’t even know about the getting all those 90 stages to fit required a
adaptation is not only faithful
secret rooms until I started researching, so not few clever programming tricks. “To start with, I to the arcade – it includes
adding those wasn’t a problem.” used the pseudo object-oriented programming most of the secret areas
Those omissions aside, Hammond’s PICO-8 style I’d used on my other projects but halfway that other home versions left
Bubble Bobble looks and feels remarkably close through, had to ditch that and refactor my code out – but it also includes an
extra 100 levels, new items,
to the original: the to make it smaller. In
and an alternate ending. It’s
bright and colourful “Once I decided to actually the end, to free up arguably the definitive 8-bit
levels follow the layouts make the game, I did realise more tokens, I had Bubble Bobble.
of the arcade game to produce a single
where the resolution
it would be pushing the string representing
allows, and the way the limitations of PICO-8” all 90 levels and chop
bubbles gently bounce it up. This used less
and float around the screen feels pleasingly than half as many tokens as having an array
authentic – and, just like the original game, it’s with 90 entries. Oh, and I also wrote a code
possible for the player to bounce on bubbles minimiser one weekend so that I could keep all
by holding down the jump button. “I got lucky my comments and long variable names intact.
in that my first attempt looked pretty good and It took the compressed size down from around
included the ‘jostling’ effect,” Hammond says of 150% to just below 100%.”
his demake’s bubble behaviours. “Following the The result of weeks of sprite drawing,
air-flows was tricky since I wanted to keep my programming, and compression? A charmingly
level definitions small by horizontally mirroring tiny homage to an arcade classic that you can
the levels where possible. If you look at the play right now – head to wfmag.cc/bubbob to
arcade definitions, they tweak the airflows try it for yourself.

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Interactive
Stunt car racing in PICO-8
Continuing the PICO-8 theme, developer Tom Mulgrew tells us
how he made the arcade racers Loose Gravel and Ramps

I
f the Bubble Bobble demake on page Despite those limitations, PICO-8 is surprisingly
78 left you hankering for more games adept at running a pseudo-3D sprite-scaling
that push PICO-8’s limits, then let effect akin to Sega’s classic coin-ops like OutRun
us introduce you to Tom Mulgrew, and Power Drift. It was games like these that
who’s managed to create a series of Mulgrew had in mind when he made Loose Gravel
startlingly quick arcade racers on the fantasy – a simple yet effective racing game that runs
console. Like the Bubble Bobble demake’s Paul at an impressive pace. There’s “a dissonance,”
Hammond, Mulgrew is a New Zealander who took Mulgrew says, between PICO-8’s low-resolution
to PICO-8 as a hobby. “Once you start playing exterior and the speed at which it can move
with the integrated editors and making simple sprites around. “Its actual performance is still
little games,” Mulgrew tells us, “it’s very easy to several factors faster than the old consoles it
get drawn in. The limitations are actually a strong resembles,” he explains, “and capable of some
point, keeping the scope from growing out of quite sophisticated rendering.”
hand, and encouraging you to just dive in and Sprite scaling may be an obsolete technique
make something.” nowadays (“When even your $50 phone has 3D
accelerator hardware, pseudo-3D can feel a bit
irrelevant,” Mulgrew notes), but as he began
developing Loose Gravel, he started keeping a
log of his progress on Twitter, and found that his
followers immediately responded to his miniature
racer. “PICO-8 is definitely a 2D platform, so it was
only a matter of time before I started wondering
whether it could do this type of game,” Mulgrew
says. “I realised I could use the animated GIF
feature to create a visual diary in a Twitter thread,
and that was it, I had to give it a try. Once I
 Loose Gravel ’s rendering
algorithm was based on how had something working, I was surprised by the
the ZX Spectrum version of positive feedback it generated. A lot of people
Chase H.Q. implemented its
sprite scaling, Mulgrew tells us. really respond to this style of game.”

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 ulgrew rightly
M


points at Frederic
Souchu’s Virtua
Racer demake as
another example of
what PICO-8 can do.

PLAYING WITH POWER

Mulgrew’s next experiment with PICO-8 sprite
scaling is even more striking. Called Ramps, it’s UNDER
loosely based on Geoff Crammond’s 1989 racing
game Stunt Car Racer, which stood out from the
THE HOOD
“Internally, the race track is
crowd with its rollercoaster-like tracks filled with made up of a sequence of
steep climbs and death-defying jumps. “Ramps a point where the rendering code was having small, straight ‘segments’,
was originally a test to see if PICO-8 could render trouble scaling up to larger tracks, and it each with a 3D start and end
a full 3D track like Power Drift in the arcades,” took a while to find the right approach to get position and angles describing
the direction and gradient
Mulgrew says. “And when I first got it up and the performance I was hoping for. But I was
of the racetrack,” Mulgrew
running I was a little surprised, given that it was surprised and encouraged by how many people explains. “So the physics code
rotating, projecting, and rendering about 1000 from the PICO-8 community came forward to must first find the segment (or
scaled billboard sprites 30 times per second, all offer support and advice at this point. Frederic segments) that the car is close
driven by unoptimised Lua script.” Souchu deserves specific mention – he’s done to, and might be colliding with.
Then the trick is to convert
Mulgrew’s work doesn’t begin and end with some amazing things with PICO-8 (Virtua Racing,
the car’s position and velocity
making diverting PICO-8 racers, either; in late anyone?) – and even went as far as to dive into into the segment’s coordinate
2019, he began a series of tutorials that showed the Ramps code and optimise some inner loops.” space. In this space, the
other PICO-8 users how to make a sprite-scaling While there are aspects of PICO-8 that make x-coordinate is the car’s
horizontal position relative to
drive-‘em-up of their own – you can find them at it a little intimidating for complete newcomers –
the road, while the y-coordinate
wfmag.cc/pico-race. “With Loose Gravel, I found learning the Lua language that underpins it is one is how far above/below the
a lot of people respond hurdle – the platform’s surface of the road they are.
to pseudo-3D similarly, “Ramps was originally a compact size and friendly Transforming coordinates into
but there seemed to be a community make it a this space requires a bit of
test to see if PICO-8 could understanding about how to
perception that because worthwhile starting
it was 3D so it must render a full 3D track point for budding game
build and apply basis matrices
(and their inverses), so there’s
some magic voodoo,” like Power Drift ” developers. Which led a bit of trigonometry involved.”
says Mulgrew. “Which is us to our last question:
a shame, because it really is the simplest form with New Zealand-born developer Nick Walton
of 3D possible to implement – all you need to making his Pokémon homage, Notemon, (see issue
learn is one simple 3D projection equation, and 7), Hammond with his Bubble Bobble demake, and
you can unlock a whole new genre of games. So Mulgrew with his racing games, does this mean
I wanted to write up the basic algorithm to show there’s a chapter of the PICO-8 community down
that it’s not necessarily as complicated and out of under? Says Mulgrew: “I wasn’t aware of this,
reach as it may appear.” actually – although I don’t get out much these
days! Perhaps there’s something about PICO-8
KING TUT that appeals to New Zealanders. Incidentally,
 ICO-8 “is quite well suited
P
These tutorials are all part and parcel Bubble Bobble on the PICO-8 is fantastic. Everyone


to sprite-scaled pseudo-3D,”
of a platform with a lively community of should go play it now.” Mulgrew says. Loose Gravel
is certainly proof of this.
enthusiasts that share one another’s work and You can play Ramps for yourself right now
exchange advice. Says Mulgrew, “There was at wfmag.cc/ramps.

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Online Diary

GITTIN ’ GUD
Coming to the realisation that online shooters
are just bewildering. This month: Valorant
WRITTEN BY IAN ‘AAAAND I’M DEAD’ DRANSFIELD

T
o think last month’s initial effort beneath in this free-to-play 5v5 FPS is a solid,
was bad seems so awfully quaint fun little romp. It’s a romp that’s way too hard
now, given my première pop at times, sure, and if you’re of low-to-middling
at Riot’s latest online-‘em-up ability as I am, your mileage will very much vary.
Valorant saw a first run lasting But the mechanics in Valorant can come together
a genuine, actual, I’m-not-making-this-up to make something special. It’s a mash-up of
six seconds. I wish this was a lie. Counter-Strike, Overwatch, League of Legends, and
But don’t fret, dear reader, my attempts didn’t plenty of other online titles whether shooters or
end there. I am, if nothing else, committed to this no. And that’s not to say it takes vague inspiration
journalling of my failures. Much as the swearing from these games: you start rounds with cash
increased in volume significantly enough to spook and spare time to buy weapons and armour from
the dog in that first batch of matches, the tide an on-screen menu. It basically is Counter-Strike
 hy yes, I did include this
W did shift to the positive. Valorant takes some at this point, but with a different colour scheme.


image as an ego boost.

getting used to, especially if you’ve been out of Valorant takes inspiration.
the online mix for a while (hello!), but what lies What it led to in my few days playing the game
was a series of highs and lows, along with a
surprising realisation – but I’ll get to that. The lows
came in thick and fast after that initial six-second
death, with a feeling I had been thrown in at the
deep end and was surrounded by newbie-seeking
sharks and old Second World War mines. Even
after the opening tutorial to get to grips with the
basics, I was… unprepared, let’s say.
Valorant relies on a few core aspects – a few
key factors you need to bear in mind to get the
most from it. First up, it’s a team-based game.
You’re in a squad of five, and matches won’t even
start without a full complement on each side.
Because teamwork is important. Go out on your
own to explore, like muggins here, and you’ll end
up with yet another bullet in the face. Stick with
the others who at least look like they know
what they’re doing, though, and your lifespan
increases exponentially – seven seconds, 20, a
 hen people say ‘It’s got some
W


Counter-Strike to it’… well whole minute.

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Lessons from
Valorant

Work team
It’s obvious but bears
repeating: work together. This
is five-on-five, made to be
played as a team. By playing
 our powers might seem useless at
Y
as a lone wolf and as part of


first, but you soon realise what can a machine (in need of some
be done with a simple smoke-screen. oiling), it quickly becomes
apparent who a) succeeds
more, and b) has more fun.
A few matches in – each match is a first-to-13 Clue: it’s the team player.
rounds affair, with rounds being just a few
minutes long at most – I actually knew what I was
Genuinely, six seconds in my first game.
doing. Well, I didn’t, but it felt like I did, and that


was significant. The feeling of being all at sea had

Similarly, the time between learning ‘not using abated, and a smidge of confidence entered my
your hero’s unique powers is dumb’ and ‘actually game with the use of my character powers – why
using them is smart’ improved my chances of yes, I will place a smoke-screen there. I even
surviving manyfold. While I may have lobbed managed to get the winning kill in a couple of Practice
the odd disorientation grenade to the wrong rounds. I was even player of the round in one Specifically: practice
place and hit my own team with it a few times… round, of one match, ever. And I was having fun your character’s special
powers. Otherwise, you
and yes, I did put a pool of slowdown goo in with it.
might get things like the
front of a teammate which caused them to But that’s where the surprising realisation
above image, where I shot a
die… and yes, some of my defensive (magic) wall came in: I was having fun. But I won’t be going discombobulation grenade
placement needed a bit of work because there’s back to Valorant. Something had happened while (technical term) straight
a difference between good blocking and just playing – it crept up bit by bit until the full weight into the wall, thus making it
getting in the way – while all that may be true, of realisation hit me in the face like so many backfire on my entire team.
there was an improvement bullets from cowardly snipers We… did not win.
with each passing short “The swearing hiding behind some boxes.
game, all thanks to this While I was having some
greater understanding.
increased in volume fun playing the game, I was
That’s a big positive significantly enough having significantly more fun
here, because with to spook the dog” watching others play via the
Valorant it’s not like, say, spectate function.
Call of Duty, where it’s about learning a map and Thus it dawned on me: I get it. I see why people
knowing which gun go big bang best. There’s a watch stuff like this being played. When you’ve Turn it down
bit beyond that. I don’t want to sound like I’m played it yourself and you know the basic ins If you are made anxious by
saying the game is sponsored by Mensa, but and outs, when you know what you need to do the thought of conversing
with strangers online and/or
that addition of a bit of thought – a bit of tactical – generally – to be good at the game, it makes
being insulted by them, just
skill beyond just running and gunning – lifted the watching other players who can do this stuff so
turn them off. Valorant opens
whole experience for me significantly. I felt like much more satisfying. I won’t be returning to
up with communications
there was something to learn beyond the three- Valorant next month – the hunt for a game to preferences and allows you
lane map layouts, which gun to buy, and where keep me playing continues – but I might be tuning to switch off team chat. Less
the bombs are planted (and disarmed). As such, in to some matches in future. Especially if Riot successful? Sure. But your
I felt rewarded when I did learn these things. cleans up its act behind the scenes. brain will thank you for it.

wfmag.cc \ 83
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Developer Profile / Tose Software

Developer Profile

The mysterious
Tose Software
The Japanese firm has made thousands of games
over the past 30 years. So why is it so obscure?

A
ccording to its website, and undoubtedly among the most long-
Tose Software likes to lasting. So why is its name so seldom
think of itself as a “silent seen or discussed?
force behind the scenes” – As Tose’s “silent force” motto suggests,
which is a pretty accurate the firm’s obscurity is intentional. Since
description of a company that, for the the earliest part of the eighties, it’s taken
past 30 years, has essentially worked on contract work for other, better-known
in the shadows. Today, Tose’s staff companies: Nintendo, Taito, Namco, and
count is well in excess of a thousand; Capcom are just some of the studios
it has offices in seven locations across it’s developed for. Much of the time,
Japan, as well as facilities in China and Tose’s work for these companies goes
the Philippines. It has been on the uncredited; indeed, its desire to remain
Tokyo Stock Exchange since the late firmly in the industry’s background is
1990s, and has worked on hundreds of such that its staff either appear in end
games on every generation of console credits under pseudonyms or not at all.
hardware stretching back to the “We try to act behind the scenes,”
Nintendo Entertainment System. Watch Tose’s director of Chinese sales, Koichi
the end credits of Animal Crossing: New Sawada, told Gamasutra in 2006. “We
Horizons, and you’ll see Tose Co., Ltd. follow our clients’ desires, instructions
listed among the game’s lengthy roster. and everything, so our policy is not to
By most yardsticks, Tose is one of the have a vision. In our company, we follow
biggest video games developers in Japan, the customer’s vision. So instead of

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Tose Software \ Developer Profile

wfmag.cc \ 85
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Developer Profile / Tose Software

a couple of annual reports published in

the 2000s provided some rare, direct
admission of its work over the previous
couple of decades. Among the games
pictured were early NES titles Ninja
Kid, Super Xevious, and Dragon Power,
originally released in Japan as the very
first Dragon Ball Z licensed tie-in.
 he number of games Tose have
T Admittedly, not all these were


worked on is truly mind-boggling. particularly great, but looking further

For a better idea of just how many,
see the list at wfmag.cc/tose. down the list, it’s clear that Tose played
at least a small part in a fairly significant
number of great games: it ported the
showing the Tose brand up front, most And that’s when Tose began, with only first two Dragon Quest titles to the Game
of the time we refuse to put our names five employees.” Boy Color, while the PlayStation versions
on the game.” of Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, and VII on the
Tose’s air of secrecy means that SMALL BEGINNINGS PlayStation are also pictured. (The same
pinning down a definitive list of all From its base of operations in Kyoto, photograph also confirms that, yes, Tose
the games it’s worked on is nigh-on Tose’s aim was to make games for really did help out on Kid Icarus back
impossible. Tose doesn’t necessarily the rapidly growing arcade market, in 1986.)
develop games from scratch, either, beginning with the ninja-themed According to COO Yasuhito Watanabe,
which further muddles questions of who joined the company in the
attribution; the company handled “Our clients didn’t know early eighties, Tose was still a small
some of the programming duties on company in the NES era, even as it
the original Kid Icarus back in 1986,
much about how to make helped crank out hit after hit for its
for example, and later co-developed a game. For the most part, clients. “Back then, our clients didn’t
the Game Boy sequel, Kid Icarus: they left development to us” know too much about how to make
Of Myths and Monsters, though you a game,” Watanabe told Famitsu.
wouldn’t necessarily have known this by shooting title Sasuke vs. Commander, “They would supervise, but for the most
playing the games themselves. and side-scrolling blaster Vanguard, part, they left the development part to
What we do know, though, is that Tose both published by SNK in 1980 and us. Basically, the team would work with
was originally started up in 1979 as a 1981 respectively. With Tose still a tiny instruction from someone supervising
subsidiary of the electronics company company at this point, Saito handled on behalf of the game company. I say
Toa Seiko, Co., Ltd., itself founded 20 much of the game design and music ‘team’, but it was really more like a
years earlier. Toa Seiko already had by himself. single programmer and another person
some experience in the games industry, The explosive success of the Nintendo for support.”
having taken on the job of making Space Entertainment System soon saw Tose
Invaders cocktail cabinets on behalf of branch out into that arena, and the
the game’s original developer, Taito. sheer number of games the studio
A 2017 article published in the Japanese worked on for that system alone is quite
magazine Famitsu provides a rare mind-boggling. We know this because
insight into Tose’s inner workings, and
reveals that its current CEO, Shigeru
 Mobile is a big part of Tose’s business in the
Saito, originally began working on those 21st century. Here’s Dokuro, ported to Asian
phone networks by Tose Philippines, Inc.
Space Invaders cabinets at Toa Seiko
back in 1979. “I was a student studying
psychology at that time, and I did circuit
board repair work as a part-time job,”
Saito said. “I got a job at that parent
company after that, and while they did
arcade work, it was in a completely
different division, and we spun that
division off into its own company.

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 Interface
Tose Software \ Developer Profile

 ose co-developed Kid Icarus: Of Myths And

T


Monsters, released for the Game Boy in 1991.

like Nintendo; its fortunes haven’t

 ose has grown into a huge firm over the past 30
T dramatically risen and fallen like Sega’s.


years, and now has a corporate image to match. Instead, Tose has modestly and diligently
Here’s its board of directors, pictured in 2016.
plugged away in its own niche, and
grown into a company of formidable
TOSE TODAY When asked how many people worked size. Given the sheer number of
Since the turn of the millennium, Tose on The Legend of Starfy 4 – a fairly developers that have worked with Tose,
has quietly but steadily built up a innocuous question, you might think – right up to the present day, it’s clear the
sizeable business, and diversified into Tose’s representative politely declined company has thrived because its work is
such areas as mobile phone games to answer. (In early June, Wireframe so well-respected – Nintendo wouldn’t
and apps, and software for pachinko contacted Tose to ask for their input collaborate with just anyone on a game
machines. Among its higher-profile in this developer profile; to date, we’ve as jealously guarded as Animal Crossing:
works in recent years you’ll find the received no response.) New Horizons, after all.
Starfy series (see box, bottom right), Tose has also been careful not to talk Talking to Gamasutra about the firm’s
and a rare foray into publishing with the about its work in its more recent annual secretive air in 2006, Tose’s Koichi
puzzler Susume Tactics! for the Sony PSP. reports. Its 2015 and 2016 reports are Sawada summed it up best. “Well, we’re
Even today, Tose’s desire to make positively stuffed with graphs, charts, based in Kyoto, right?” he said. “So we’re
games by stealth remains undiminished; glossy photos of bosses Shigeru Saito ninja. You can’t find us!”
there are only a handful of interviews and Yasuhito Watanabe, and plenty of
with the firm on the web, and one of business-speak (“We will aim for the
the few published in English, published Next Leap Forward in the worldwide
at cubed3.com in 2006, is filled with entertainment industry”). But in these
The Right Starfy
Tose may have spent much of its existence
such responses as, “We cannot answer publications’ combined 88 pages, there
developing games on behalf of other studios,
this question because Nintendo is isn’t a single mention of a video game it’s so the Starfy series is something of an outlier.
responsible for determining and worked on. Beginning on the Game Boy Advance with
announcing the marketing policy of Tose, then, stands out among Japan’s Densetsu no Stafy in 2002, it’s a cheerful series
the game,” and, “We cannot answer big hitters in the games industry. It of action platformers in the vein of HAL’s Kirby
franchise, albeit set under the sea – Starfy being
this question because, we are afraid, hasn’t defined genres like Taito or
a starfish who can run, jump, and kill things with
answering it may affect our business.” Capcom; it hasn’t straddled the globe a spin attack. The series was something of a
hit in Japan, though Nintendo – who co-owned
the series with Tose – seemed nervous about
its chances in the West. The fifth game in the
series, released under the title The Legendary
Starfy, was the only title to emerge in America,
and is, for now, the aquatic hero’s swansong.

 here, in the ‘special thanks’ section in

T


Animal Crossing: New Horizons ’ credits, is  way from all its ghost developing,
A


a hat-tip to Tose. What did they do on the Tose also made the unbearably
game? Perhaps we’ll never know. cute Starfy series of platformers.

wfmag.cc \ 87
 Interface
Developer Profile / Tose Software

Out of the shadows

10 tantalising Tose titles
A sample of the many games Tose has had a hand in over the years

01 02 03

Vanguard Dragon Ball Kid Icarus:

Arcade 1981 NES 1986 Of Myths And Monsters
Although released by SNK (and included in Published by Bandai and better known as Game Boy 1991
the recent 40th Anniversary Collection on the Dragon Power in North America, this marked a The Kid Icarus games have never quite attained
Switch), Vanguard was actually Tose’s first- long relationship between Tose and the Dragon the status of Nintendo’s top-tier series, but
ever game as a developer. It’s a fast-paced Ball manga and anime franchise. Dragon Ball Of Myths And Monsters is a worthy handheld
side-scrolling shooter in the mould of Konami’s was a not particularly good top-down adventure port of the NES game, and one of the better
Scramble – a derivative title, then, but its game; Tose later made Dragon Ball Z games of monochrome renditions of a console game on
speed and up-tempo soundtrack make it an varying merit for the SNES, Mega Drive, Saturn, the Game Boy. Co-developed with Nintendo
absorbing one. and more besides. R&D1, it’s an absorbing fantasy platformer.

04 05
Dragon Quest I & II Super Princess Peach
Game Boy Color 1999 DS 2005
Square’s classic RPG games had already been Although lacking somewhat in the challenge
ported to the SNES from the NES originals stakes, this platform spin-off is packed with
(released as Dragon Warrior in the West), but charm – we wouldn’t be surprised if the same
Tose handled the pair’s translation to the Game people who worked on the Starfy games
Boy Color. The graphics inevitably take a hit also developed this Peach outing. The action
when compared to the SNES versions, but back involves hopping around levels, bashing things
in the late nineties, this remained a thoroughly with a parasol, and rescuing Toads. All in all, it’s
pleasing way to play the games on the go. an underrated little game, we’d argue.

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 Interface
Tose Software \ Developer Profile

06 07

Ultimate Ghosts The Legendary Starfy

’n Goblins DS 2008
PSP 2006 Western gamers missed out on the four earlier
Once one of Capcom’s biggest names, Ghosts games in the series (unless they imported
’n Goblins was given one final entry for Sony’s them, of course), but The Legendary Starfy is
handheld. Series mastermind Tokuro Fujiwara perhaps the best of the lot in any case. Like
oversaw proceedings, but much of the heavy Super Princess Peach, Starfy isn’t a particularly
lifting was handled by Tose. The result is original or even difficult platform game, but it’s
another solid horror platformer – and a quiet but been made with a lot of care and attention, and
pleasing final hurrah for the series. the wealth of minigames add to the longevity.

08 09 10

Chrono Trigger Dark Souls Splatoon 2

DS 2008 PS3 / Xbox 360 / various 2011 Switch 2017
Tose also handled the PlayStation port of We include this as an example of how Tose’s This third-person shooter romp typifies Tose’s
this RPG classic in 1999, but the Nintendo DS name can pop up in unexpected places. You’d long-standing relationship with Nintendo.
version is arguably the definitive one. Overseen rightly associate Dark Souls with FromSoftware Tose reportedly co-developed the sequel, and it
by the game’s original writer Masato Kato, it and director Hidetaka Miyazaki, but some gets a ‘special thanks’ shout-out in the credits
retains all the character and brilliance of the development – reportedly, a bit of work on the (along with another Japanese collaborator,
SNES original, throws in the bonus material action RPG’s graphics – was outsourced to one Monolith Soft). What did Tose actually do on
from the PlayStation version, and tailors the of Tose’s Chinese studios. At the end of the this superior Switch blaster? As ever, their work
experience for the handheld. It’s fantastic. game, you’ll find Tose listed in the credits. remains shrouded in mystery.

wfmag.cc \ 89
 Interface
Column

World’s Best
Pokémon-er
I
f I was playing on my Switch and you longer of any more use to my daughter, who
casually walked over to me, snatched will presumably be taking her A-levels and
it from my hands, and started playing getting her HGV licence by the end of the week,
on it, I would, quite reasonably, punch I excused myself to pop to the loo, during which
you in the face. And yet, earlier today, brief departure she managed to casually secure
someone did precisely this, and I didn’t. And herself a second Pikachu, like it wasn’t even
I could definitely have beaten them in a fight. a thing.
They were much shorter than me, unsteady But why am I telling you this? Is it about
STEVE MCNEIL on their feet, and seemingly oblivious to what the power of games capturing children’s
Steve isn’t the world’s is, I’m sure we all agree, a perfectly reasonable imaginations? To allow them to explore new
best Pokémon-er, but response to expect after stealing someone’s worlds in a time of lockdown? To give them a
he did get to see them
do their thing recently. stuff. Not only did I not hit them, but I was also sense of achievement? No, the point here is
delighted that they did it. Why? Because they solely that my daughter is better than you.
were my four-year-old daughter, and they’d
decided it was finally their turn to have a play
on Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!.
As someone who, since her conception (or
possibly even during it), has wanted nothing
more than to lose entire days with their
child just playing video games, I’d have been
delighted if, at this point, she’d dropped it, spilt
juice on it, and then distractedly wandered off
to pull some Play-Doh off a shelf. Just the idea
she’s ‘getting into’ games is, in 2020, a sufficient
glimmer of hope in an ocean of turds to forgive
almost anything. But she didn’t do that. She sat
down and, presumably mirroring what she’d
watched me do, began to toy with the analogue
stick to make the character move in the
desired direction.
And then, she sought out and began to fight
a Pokémon! Alright, fine, she might have just
randomly stumbled into an encounter as she
poked away at the left stick, but regardless,
she was in battle. Obviously, at this point, you’d
assume she’d be out of her depth and need
daddy to step in… but, no! She navigated to the
items menu, and declared, “We should feed this
one a Razz Berry to make it easier to catch.”
“Just the idea Reader, she was right. And I could have wept.
she’s getting She then casually timed her button press to
launch the Pokéball, and successfully caught
into games
the Pokémon (a Pikachu, no less) on her first
is a glimmer attempt. It was at that point I yelped so loud
 on’t be shocked, Pikachu,
D
of hope”


that everyone in Europe heard it. Clearly no your capture was inevitable.

90 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Contents

Backend Contents
Reviews, retro games, and lots more besides
92. Streets of Rage 4 PC, PS4, XBO, Switch
94. The Last of Us II PS4 OUR SCORES
1–9
96. Skelattack PC, XBO, Switch, Mac Trash. Unplayable; a broken mess.

97. The Procession to Calvary PC, Mac, Linux 10–19

A truly bad game, though not
necessarily utterly broken.
98. The Flower Collectors PC
20–29
99. Lost Words Stadia Still awful, but at a push could be
fun for two minutes.
100. One Step From Eden PC, Switch 30–39
Might have a redeeming feature,
101. Half Past Fate PC, Switch but otherwise very poor.

40–49
102. Gears Tactics PC Adds in more redeeming features,
but still not worth your time.

50–59
Average. Decent at best. ‘Just
about OK’.

60–69
Held back by glitches, bugs, or a lack
of originality, but can be good fun.

70–79
A very good game, but one lacking
spit and polish or uniqueness.

80–89
Brilliant. Fabulous fun. Everyone
should at least try it.

90–99
Cutting edge, original, unique, and/
or pushes the medium forward.

100
Never say never, eh?

 g 94: Has the wait – and

P  g 112: He’s been wakka-
P


hype – been worth it? wakking for a while now.

PLUS
104. Backwards Compatible
Making retro shooters with Dezaemon,
and more old-fashioned delights

108. Now playing

There are a lot of words about Football
Manager this month, with no apologies

112. Killer Feature

Pac-Man is 40, so let’s look at the
ghost muncher’s killerest feature

wfmag.cc \ 91
 Rated
Review

Review

GENRE
Streets of Rage 4
Info

Beat-’em-up
FORMAT The right to bare knuckles
PS4 (tested) / PC

S
/ XBO / Switch
DEVELOPER treets of Rage 4 understands the detail without clutter. Story mode restricts events
Dotemu / lay of the beat-‘em-up land well. to a handful of comic book stills between each
Lizardcube / Since the end of the original trilogy meaty stage. Levels remain linear and tightly
Guard Crush
in the 1990s, the genre has seen paced, and while there are a few more this time,
PUBLISHER competent clones, flabby mutations this is an unabashed arcade romp designed
Dotemu
weighed down with RPG-style progression, and to be finished in short order. Longevity relies
PRICE
plenty more in-between. It would seem like on difficulty levels, performance rankings, and
£19.99
there’s nowhere new to go without disrupting leader boards, or endless (online or local) co-op
RELEASE
Out now the fine balance brought by Sega’s original runs purely for the joy of the fight.
three Bare Knuckles; their harmony of control and It hasn’t forgotten the old techniques either,
aesthetic refining the 2D scrolling brawler and links them together with an even slicker flow.
to its pinnacle. Stinging jabs stun opponents momentarily, lining
What Streets of Rage 4 does, then, is recognise them up for a follow-up flurry or grapple. Double
its predecessors thrived on the same simplicity forward taps engage blitz attacks to clear space
and monotony that led to this evolutionary in front. The fluid mechanics of grab, vault, and
dead end in the genre, and it doesn’t try to throw enable timely dodges or swift reversals to
REVIEWED BY reinvent or over-complicate. It capitalises on dismantle threats from the rear. Sure, the ageing
Jon Bailes the sense of freshness accumulated through its cast are a little slow on their feet these days.
prolonged absence, tightens and modernises, The moveset here is based on that of Streets of
then gently prods at the boundaries to coax out Rage 2, so characters can’t run (except youthful
some extra depth. newcomer Cherry Hunter) or roll as in Streets
For a fighter coming out of retirement, Streets of Rage 3. There’s still no block button either,
of Rage 4 is remarkably lean and sharp. The crisp
new visual style, with bold cartoon characters in
 ame modes include a one-credit arcade run,
G


relief against pencil-sketched backdrops, adds a boss rush, and a multiplayer arena. brawl.

HIGHLIGHT
As ever, your big special
attacks drain health
when used. But now, like
Bloodborne, this health can
be regained if you follow up
with more damage before
you get hit. It’s a minor
tweak, but it ups the risk/
reward stakes considerably,
daring you to unleash
your full power but quickly
punishing carelessness.

92 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

I t’s not all about the streets.



Later levels take you to

more upmarket locales.

 loyd Iraia is the new tank

F


character, equipped with
robotic arms and some
delightfully destructive
so aggressive crowd control is a must, closing grapple moves.
enemies down and corralling them together for
efficient take-downs.
New tactical possibilities emerge as subtle battles can drain lives in seconds, while a few
extensions from the old foundations. There’s bosses are oddly feeble. The combo system
a greater supply of weapons, especially handy can feel mean, as a large score boost can be
when thrown to keep agile foes at bay. A charged wiped out entirely with a single hit, and in busy
regular attack will send thugs skidding away. fights, it’s all too easy for the odd punch to sneak
Launched enemies can be juggled with follow-up through. At times, your limited defensive options
strikes to finish them off before they can recover. feel over-exploited by sweeping invincible attacks
A well-timed special when you’re surrounded or flying kicks that track you vertically in mid-air.
can turn the tables back in your favour. It all And despite the tight controls, it would help if
combines seamlessly, as a combo counter specials could instantly cancel other moves.
pushes you to maximise the pressure. The only remaining question is whether, in
In response, your opponents swarm in greater 2020, the design could have been pushed yet
numbers than they used further and delivered even
to. They’re still predictably “New tactical more. The levels are full of
one-dimensional, and possibilities emerge” personality and contain a few
each has only a couple of interactive environmental
different moves at their disposal. But they’re features, but are hardly experimental. The
a little more cunning as they circle and jockey new characters have some different tricks, but
for position to make their move, and new aren’t a great departure from past favourites.
additions, such as shielded riot cops and stocky Eventually, there’s no disguising the sense
martial artists, ensure you can’t simply attack of repetition. But Streets of Rage 4 succeeds VERDICT
head on. Bosses and a few other key enemies because it isn’t ashamed of what it is, sticking A masterful, modern revival
then introduce special flash attacks that can’t be to its roots and excelling within their limitations, of a console classic.
interrupted, and working out how to deal with tapping into the genre’s last reserves without
these is an extra headache. As they begin to
stack, these new dangers force constant tactical
improvisation and add scope for performance
becoming diluted. As the new leader in its field, it
deserves credit as much for its skilful restraint as
its unhinged violence.
86%
refinement, without altering the series’ DNA.
The marriage of old and new even extends to
the all-important soundtrack. As a collaborative
effort, it’s more diverse than in any of the past
games, but still steadfastly 1990s in flavour.
Original composer Yuzo Koshiro’s opening tracks
replicate the house anthems of the first game,
before Olivier Derivière’s stage themes wander
purposefully through jazzy synths and dirty
basslines, or thumping industrial beats under
screeching electro alarms. If anything, it flags
on a few boss battles, but as each piece mixes
and bridges to suit the on-screen action, it’s a
constant enlivening presence, augmenting the
game’s assured swagger.
When Streets of Rage 4 does falter, it’s due
to relatively minor irritations and imbalances.
Extended play unlocks all the characters from


Difficulty is uneven, as certain run-of-the-mill the original games in their pixelated forms.

wfmag.cc \ 93
 Rated
Review

Review

The Last of Us Part II

GENRE Is it the Citizen Kane of video games? No!
Info

Stealth-action

T
FORMAT
PS4 (tested) he Last of Us Part II does the one As this game begins, Ellie witnesses brutal
DEVELOPER thing I needed it to do: justify violence exacted against someone close to her.
Naughty Dog its existence. Her quest for revenge leads her from the
PUBLISHER I was in the middle of a four-year Wyoming mountain town where she and other
Sony break from video games when survivors have carved out a life of peaceful
Interactive
Naughty Dog’s stealth-action game launched in routine, to a war-torn Seattle, where rival factions
Entertainment
2013. But, after graduating from college in 2016, – a brutal cult and an anti-government militia – vie
PRICE
£49.99 I realised that if I was going to make a living as a for control.
writer, I needed to find something to write about. Ellie’s journey is enriched by the conversations
RELEASE
Out now I dusted off my PS3, bought a few used games I’d along the way. TLoU Part II includes the best
heard good things about, and started catching up. (and most) character work that Naughty Dog has
The Last of Us was one of those games. In produced thus far. The time in between combat,
the year that I left college, got my first full-time as characters talk, and joke, and bond, is the
REVIEWED BY job, and watched the United States burst into draw here as much as any firefight. Both of my
Andrew King flames, The Last of Us – and more specifically, playthroughs clocked in at around the 30-hour
the bond between its lead characters and its mark, and on my first time through I thought
powerfully ambiguous ending – convinced me the game was overly long. But, on a second
that games were not just an effective escape, but playthrough, I appreciated the character-building
worth paying attention to; that I could love their benefits of the game’s length. That surplus of
characters and find meaning in their narratives. dialogue does mean that not all conversations are
So, for me, The Last of Us Part II needed to have winners, but the vast majority work.
something to say that would enrich the first, not They also benefit from a stellar cast. Ashley
detract from its power. It’s difficult to talk about Johnson brilliantly highlights the ways that
how exactly TLoU Part II does that without spoiling the 14-year-old Ellie we know has changed to
some of the game’s best surprises. But I can become the 19-year-old version we meet here.
say that the events of TLoU Part II are intimately She masterfully brings out the playfulness of
connected to the conclusion of the first game, and young Ellie, and leads with the awkwardness of
 tudying the environment
S that Naughty Dog masterfully extrapolates the an older Ellie, less comfortable in her skin, more


to deduce safe
combinations was one of
consequences that would follow a human being self-conscious. The extended cast, including
my favourite side activities. who acts like a video game character. Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, Patrick Fugit, and Ian

94 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

Alexander are likewise excellent, and Naughty

Dog’s best-in-class performance capture work
ensures that every nuance makes it to the screen.
Add in that load times on a base PS4 rarely
lasted longer than a few seconds, and TLoU Part
Joel’s back in The Last of Us Part II for a
II is a technical achievement as much as it is a


story that explores the consequences
narrative one.* of his actions in the first game.
(*Of course, much of what The Last of Us
Part II manages to pull off is a direct result of a
labour force engaged in heavy periods of crunch. development. The Last of Us Part II still uses these
I loved this game. It’s visually impressive, and the in-between times for conversations, but now the
fidelity with which human faces and gestures are actions you’re accomplishing are more interesting. HIGHLIGHT
rendered adds to its emotional power. But added Sometimes, as in the case of this game’s set Largely on the basis of its grim
graphical detail isn’t worth the human cost of pieces and chase sequences, they’re even thrilling. and gritty marketing, there’s
extended periods of overwork. Overwork is not Most impressive, though, is the game’s capacity a widespread perception
that The Last of Us Part II is
the same thing as hard work.) to make porous the boundary between story ‘misery porn’; that it revels in
As she hacks her way through Seattle, Ellie has and combat. Naughty Dog’s pre-release statement inflicting unrelenting suffering
new weapons and abilities that that each enemy in the game on its characters. And while
lend combat and stealth an “The game includes would have a name initially there is pain and trauma in this
story, there are also moments
increased dynamism. She can the best character seemed like a gimmicky bullet
of tender love, of characters
now go prone, sneaking under point. But, a combatant calling making grand gestures to
trucks and through tall grass.
work Naughty Dog out, “Ashley, on your right!” show they care, and doing
In flooded areas, she can has done thus far” really does make the world feel small things to lend support.
swim around vision cones, more cohesive, as if the story Ellie’s guitar, gifted to her by
Joel, plays a pivotal role in
coming up for air and blood. New devices, like of factions at war is rippling through the ranks many of these scenes.
stun grenades and trip mines, further increase the of each patrol you fight. Naughty Dog’s goal to
range of possibilities and strategies. humanise the throats that Ellie slits plays out in
While players spent much of the first game overarching ways, too – ways that are impossible
finding ladders and fetching palettes to progress, to talk about without spoiling the game’s second
TLoU Part II fills each moment with more half. Suffice to say, TLoU Part II boasts one of the
interesting objectives. There are fascinating more interesting structures I’ve seen in a triple-A
letters to read, and I never got tired of studying game, and creative director Neil Druckmann’s
environmental cues to figure out combinations comments that he wanted the player to feel VERDICT
for locked safes. The Last of Us used boring like the villain flatten out the nuances of what’s Despite minor issues with
busywork as a means to an end, a skeletal actually going on here. the game itself and major
structure on which it hung the sinew of character The thing is, though, just like its predecessor, frustrations with Naughty
TLoU Part II is elegantly unsatisfying. It doesn’t Dog’s leadership, The Last
have a villain – a main, one-off, cartoonish Big of Us Part II is a 30-hour
Music plays an important, powerful


role in The Last of Us Part II. Bad to focus your ire on and weave a storyline gut-punch of a game, and
around. What it does have is structural daring and I’m glad I got to play it.
a resulting emotional punch. No game has tied my
stomach in knots and hollowed me out like this.
I suspect it will be a long time before another
game does it again.
94%
wfmag.cc \ 95
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
I find little outside the look of
Skelattack to gush about, so casting
the brain-net a bit wider: it’s lovely to
see Konami back on the horse. This
is the studio’s effort to push and
publish indie titles under its label,
and even if this game is a misstep,
I do hope the trend continues.

 ialogue can raise a smirk,

D


but it’s bloated and tends

to waffle on way too much.

 nimation is delightful, and almost

A


Review good enough to distract you from the
fury of another ill-deserved death.

Skelattack
Dead on arrival

F
ifteen attempts. Two separate and – dare I say it – fairness to make it anything
platforms with bouncing mushrooms other than a brief distraction before moving
to increase the range of my jumping, onto meatier ways to pass the time. At its best,
GENRE
Info

a pit of deadly spikes below, and it’s alright. At its worst, it’s a pad-smasher.
Punishing
platformer a few floating, moving obstacles in But most of the time it’s merely alright, and that
FORMAT the way – each with its own one-hit-kill spikes to may well be the game’s biggest issue.
PS4 (tested) / boot. A tough area to navigate, and an obvious There’s something to be taken from it, sure.
PC / XBO / challenge given it took me so long to finally, It looks great – not quite Cuphead levels of
Switch actually, fortunately, get past it. Then Skelattack stunning animation, but enough character about
DEVELOPER hits me with its most memorable feature: it to keep you staring at the screen well beyond
Ukuza Inc
surprise! You’re dead. Turns out there was an your patience levels would otherwise allow.
PUBLISHER oversized Venus flytrap hidden behind some There’s a disarmingly cute air to things despite
Konami
foliage to the side there. Back to the beginning the difficulty, but all that does is make Skelattack
PRICE
of this particular obstacle course with you, oh a game that’s a lot more fun to watch someone
£15.99
skeleton-faced one, for attempt number 16. play than it is to get stuck into yourself.
RELEASE
Out now That’s the main problem with Skelattack – it We’re absolutely spoilt for choice with brilliant
wants so much to be talked about in the same indie titles these days. Were this a decade ago,
breath as the Super Meat Boys of the world, but Skelattack might have stood out more – decent
doesn’t seem to understand it wasn’t just the in short bursts and bloody good to look at
REVIEWED BY endless cycle of death and dying that made as it is. It’s the skip fire of a year that is 2020,
Ian Dransfield Team Meat’s fast-paced platformer so much fun. though, and we have to look for more in our
It was the tightness of everything; the fact timesinks. Games that don’t just look the part
you rarely (if ever) felt like a death was unfair, and offer up fun times in short bursts, but ones
and that the game was designed to challenge that can maintain that level of enjoyment and
and punish you, yes, but it wasn’t designed to not resort to cheap, snarky tricks to (once again)
VERDICT suddenly cry ‘Psych!’ and kill you with yet another kill the player. Death counters regularly appear
These bones need more surprise death you had very little chance of through Skelattack, telling you how many times
than a quick polish to get seeing coming. your bony protagonist has perished and offering
them into shape. Would you believe it, that’s where Skelattack a smarmy comment along the lines of ‘You know
goes wrong. A platformer with a bit of basic there’s an attack button, right?’. Far from making

51% combat mixed in, this indie effort published by

Konami (so not an indie, but you know what
I mean) just doesn’t offer a level of balance
me want to prove anyone wrong, it just made
me raise an eyebrow and turn the game off. I do
know there’s a power button, after all.

96 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
There’s a musician or two tucked
away on almost every screen of
The Procession to Calvary, each
pumping out period-accurate
music. Clicking on them tells you
what they’re playing, and you can
even applaud if you like. It’s a
lovely touch, with the music really
adding to the atmosphere – and
because they change so often, the
tunes never become repetitive.

 he tiny chap on the left helps the

T


musician to keep time, so

naturally he’s called the
Metagnome. Praise be for puns!

Review

The Procession to Calvary

Point and Mich-elangelo

R
enaissance paintings are weird. meta-humour and crude yet equally amusing
Sure, some stunning pieces of art grotesquery. And Renaissance art provides plenty

Info
GENRE
emerged from the 15th, 16th, and of the latter with its borderline absurd depictions
Point-and-click
17th centuries, like Girl with a Pearl of hellish punishments and naked wrestling, ripe
FORMAT
Earring by Vermeer, but there were for the mickey-take.
PC (tested) / Mac /
also plenty of gangly Jesuses, cats dressed as In terms of controls, we’re in standard point- Linux
priests, and a great many tiny, grumpy lions. and-click territory, but with one exception. DEVELOPER
This is a good thing, since it provides a rich A click of the right mouse button prompts our Joe Richardson
vein of comedy for The Procession to Calvary, particularly murderous protagonist – based on PUBLISHER
a point-and-click adventure made entirely of Rembrandt’s Bellona – to whip out her sword, Joe Richardson
chopped-up bits of Renaissance art. Developer ready to lop the head off anyone who stands in / SUPERHOT
PRESENTS
Joe Richardson pulled the same trick in the her way. You can, in fact, complete the game by
game’s sort-of precursor Four Last Things, but simply murdering everyone to skip the puzzles PRICE
£7.99
it still feels refreshingly (an option that would have
RELEASE
different, with about the only “You can, in fact, provided welcome catharsis in
Out now
point of comparison being Monkey Island with that damn
complete the game
Terry Gilliam’s frantic cut-up rubber chicken), but the ‘true’
animation. In fact, one of by simply murdering ending requires a kill-free run.
the game’s PR points is its everyone” And thankfully I rarely felt the
Monty Python-esque humour, need to resort to homicide REVIEWED BY
but I don’t think that’s exactly right. Yes, The since the puzzles are pitched almost perfectly, Lewis Packwood
Procession to Calvary shares some of its surreal offering a fair challenge without being needlessly
comedy with Python, but I’d argue it has much obscure. The only real sticking point was one that
more in common with the clever wordiness and involved using an item from a previous puzzle
fourth-wall-breaking humour of Dan Marshall’s again, the only instance of this in the whole game.
Lair of the Clockwork God. Indeed, some of its All in all, then, this is excellent stuff, but it VERDICT
funniest moments come when God (i.e. the comes with one major caveat – it’s over a bit too Beautiful and unique, The
game’s creator) steps in and apologises for some quickly. I finished the game in around four hours, Procession to Calvary is
particularly poor animation. which greatly saddened me since I really didn’t one of the funniest and
Also, the talking bum is pretty damn hilarious. want it to stop. Still, perhaps it’s better to leave cleverest point-and-click
I had a wry grin on my face for pretty much the your audience begging for more rather than adventures in years.
entirety of this adventure, but I laughed out drag things out beyond the point of enjoyment.
loud exactly three times, and the talking bum
was one of those three. That’s the game in a
nutshell, really: a cross between wry, knowing
And we should be thankful that there are more
than enough slightly wonky Renaissance paintings
to make a sequel.
80%
wfmag.cc \ 97
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Games often strive to reflect our lived
 Clues must be assembled
experience of the city by recreating
on the wall at the end of
each chapter to piece them on a one-to-one basis, but
events together. traversing huge spaces from one
end to the other rarely replicates our
 he view of 1977 Barcelona
T


from protagonist day-to-day experience. We spend

Jorge’s balcony. most of our time in relatively small
areas around our home or place of
work, and by focusing on a small
area like that, The Flower Collectors
Review
feels very relatable.

The Flower Collectors

A balcony, a pair of binoculars, and a Barca-loner

I
n a world where it is ever easier to make things together in this compellingly original take
games that feel limitless, it is refreshing on the detective genre. There are times you wish
to encounter one that remembers the your detective skills would be more thoroughly
GENRE
Info

creative value of imposing limits. The challenged, but, aside from a couple of bits of
Adventure
Flower Collectors does that by placing filler, this is a game that’s clearly prioritising the
FORMAT
PC (tested) you in control of a former cop, forced by injury momentum of its narrative over puzzle-solving.
DEVELOPER
into a wheelchair and, consequently, retirement. In service of that goal, it makes sense that
Mi’pu’mi Games Apparently both unwilling and unable to leave his progress should be swift and friction-free.
PUBLISHER apartment – it is suggested during the course of The Flower Collectors narrowly scoped space is
Mi’pu’mi Games the game that his apartment block isn’t exactly not reflective of what it is doing with that story.
PRICE wheelchair-accessible – Jorge’s world is limited to On the contrary, it does a great job of taking
£19.99 his living quarters and the view from his balcony, large historical events and broad areas of social
RELEASE encompassing a small plaza and a couple conflict and showing how those things manifest
Out now of streets. After witnessing a murder in that on a local or individual scale. History, this game
plaza, Jorge finds himself working with a young reminds us, is not abstract. It has consequences
journalist to crack the case from his vantage for the people that live it. While ostensibly
point, above a tiny slice of 1977 Barcelona. about a murder, the game is really concerned
REVIEWED BY You do this with a pair of binoculars, a with Spain’s fascist past and its transition into
Paul Walker-Emig camera, and a walkie-talkie that allows you to democracy. It not only does a great job of
keep in touch with your co-investigator Melinda educating the player about this specific moment
as she makes forays out into the streets below in time, but critiques the role of the police, the
to do the things Jorge can’t. Observing the local church, institutionalisation, generational divide,
residents and their response to the murder and prejudice in a way that resonates outside of
VERDICT from up on high, you work with Melinda to the specific contours of the game’s setting.
A fantastic A Room With collect clues and piece them together to try and Without spoiling anything, Jorge’s perspective
A View -style detective find out who this man was, who murdered him, on these events shows a level of naivety that
premise used to delve and why he was killed. makes no sense, given his past, threatening to
into Spain’s shameful Though at times there’s an element of undercut the game’s critical potential, but it’s
fascist past. uncomfortable voyeurism to The Flower something I was happy to overlook. If combining
Collectors’ privacy-invading mystery-solving – of a thoughtful consideration of some weighty

77% which I would suggest the game is well aware –

there’s something undeniably enjoyable about
keeping watch from Jorge’s balcony and piecing
themes with a fun and original genre-murder
mystery has led to a little compromise here or
there, I’ll happily take it.

98 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
While you can complete Lost Words
in a single sitting without heading
off the beaten path at all, try to grab
the optional asterisks in the journal
segments if you can. They spice
Izzy’s tale with additional flavour
that make her words, and reactions,
feel ever more authentic.

Review

Lost Words:
Beyond the Page
 an’t work out if Izzy’s glossing
C


over of the pillaging and

murder is intentional or not…

A Hard Day’s Write

L
Info
GENRE
ost Words: Beyond the Page out words and reposition them to help us move
Platformer
sometimes feels like two games tied on (literally – we can use them as platforms to take
FORMAT
together by a single thread. On the us on to the next page). In Estoria, we use them
Stadia
one hand, we have gentle, easy as magic spells, commanding the environment
DEVELOPER
platforming as we dance a sprite around us to do our biding – Rise! Break! Silence! Sketchbook Games
across the scribbles hidden in a young girl’s journal They’re painfully simple puzzles though – even for PUBLISHER
entries. On the other, we have the exploration of beginners acclimatising to video game logic for the Modus Games
a fantasy world within a fantasy world – Estoria, a first time – and as such, they often feel nowt more PRICE
magical land of that young girl’s invention. than busywork. Still, at least the journey takes us £11.99
Isabelle, our young protagonist, might not seem to myriad beautiful places before spinning towards RELEASE
like the world’s most relatable lead, but what Izzy its powerful, poignant climax. Out now
shares with the pages of her journal should, sadly, It’s because of its simple mechanics, gentle
be familiar to us all. This casual, gentle adventure puzzling, and emotional journey that I suspect
meanders between the memoir and make-believe Lost Words won’t appeal to everyone. But while
land, but I was happiest when I was bouncing over I, too, can admit to a little cynicism at games
the words of the former. As pretty as Estoria is, that intentionally – maliciously – pull at your
the animation and evocative storytelling of the heartstrings, Lost Words is an authentic, if
journalling sections is vastly superior; I’ll admit that sorrowful, tale. And while it might be best enjoyed REVIEWED BY
at times, I rushed through my time in Estoria to by a young adult audience new to gaming (not Vikki Blake
return to the inventive platforming and stunning dissimilar to its sibling Stadia exclusive, GYLT), it’s
visuals of Izzy’s thoughts. certainly not exclusively so. I’ll admit to a tear in my
Both worlds, however, put the power of words eye as the credits rolled; it’s a harder heart than
at their heart. In the journal segments, we can rip mine that can listen to the pain in the voice of our
young narrator and not be moved by her grief.
While it might have been stronger if it’d
 ccasionally, you’ll be able to influence Izzy’s
O


storytelling by selecting from a selection of dispensed with the Estoria sequences altogether,
dialogue choices. Often you won’t, though. Lost Words: Beyond the Page is an enchanting, VERDICT
thoughtful adventure. If you roll your eyes at A moving, if uncomplicated,
‘walking simulators’, or need complex puzzling narrative adventure.
then this likely isn’t for you. However, if you have
an evening free and are open to thoughtful,
emotional storytelling, you could do a lot worse
than take a page out of Izzy’s book.
61%
wfmag.cc \ 99
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
The bosses can be a
nightmare, but they’re
finely crafted, and their
varied combat styles fill
them with personality. In a
neat twist, the order they
appear is randomised,  ome battles feature
S


with more complex attack hostages that will grant
patterns added the later you Review bonus health or money. If
you can keep them alive.
meet them, causing fresh
headaches even after you’ve

One Step From Eden

mastered their basic forms.

Deck-building for adrenaline junkies

S
ome games demand instinctive it’s easy to make mistakes when some icons look
reactions, while others call on alike, or cards have status effects that slip the
conscious thought processes. mind in the heat of battle.
GENRE
Info

One Step From Eden expects you Eventually, however, having slowly absorbed
Deck-building
shooter
to do both at once, merging two an encyclopaedia of knowledge about every card
distinct layers of the mind together. It feels and enemy through repeated painful experience,
FORMAT
Switch (tested) unnatural, barely even possible, yet the it flows. As thought processes melt into automatic
/ PC masochistic challenge is hard to resist. responses, you steal glances at your deck and
DEVELOPER This is Slay the Spire meets Mega Man Battle calculate moves while dancing patterns of
Thomas Moon Network, revved up to the pace of a bullet defensive manoeuvres. With some progress,
Kang hell shooter. Battles take place on an 8×4 grid, you begin to unlock alternative characters and
PUBLISHER with your deck-building hero loadouts, and the different
Humble
restricted to the left half. “Eventually, having play styles they offer can really
Bundle
Cards are randomly ordered slowly absorbed an change your approach. Some
PRICE
and available two at a time, cards you’ve been ignoring
£17.99 encyclopaedia of
with each triggered attack since the start suddenly make
RELEASE
replaced by the next in line knowledge about sense, and you can customise
Out now
until you hit reload and every card, it flows” which types are most likely
reshuffle the deck. Between to turn up in random drops,
skirmishes, you select rewards and your route to partially direct the development of each run.
REVIEWED BY towards the stage boss via more battles, shops, What once seemed an excess of information
Jon Bailes rest points, and hazards. morphs into a toy-box of potentials.
Initial excursions are confusing and brutal. In other words, One Step From Eden is a very
There’s tons to learn to make the required mental good roguelike, with the variety, synergies, and
adjustment, and the game refuses to ease you unpredictability all that entails. And when your
in or fully explain its systems. The fundamental brain tunes in to its conflicting currents, it’s
VERDICT hurdle is the amount of visual information that highly rewarding. Still, it remains difficult, in part
A breathless action has to be parsed at speed, as your eyes flit because some late-game enemy combinations
roguelike that demands constantly between your cards, the enemy’s are almost impossible to survive unscathed,
but also rewards skill position, and their rapid, scything attacks. With but mostly down to the relentless intensity
and patience. no forewarning of what you’re up against, and no of its multitasking demands. No matter how
pauses in the action once it starts, it’s essential much you learn to cope, you sometimes just

72% to memorise how each card works and recognise

it from its representative icon. Each costs mana,
which takes precious seconds to recharge, and
need a second to think. When a game based on
improvised tactics denies you that, it takes one
step too far.

100 / wfmag.cc
 Rated
Review

HIGHLIGHT
Of the main cast, I never expected to grow the
most attached to Jaren, a sweetheart nerd
who works at a game store. This kind young
man with a penchant for detective work won
me over so completely that the (mild) twists
and turns of his plot sent me reeling.

Review

Half Past Fate  he side-characters are all well-drawn and

T


fleshed out in their few lines of dialogue.

Like Love Actually, but with actual love

T
wo-thirds of the way through Half There are no illogical solutions here, and the
Past Fate, Bia (one of six characters path forward never involves tricking someone,

Info
GENRE
you switch between through the or stealing, or being duplicitous – by pursuing
Adventure
game) attends a house party for a love, each character makes life for those around
FORMAT
friend she has an obvious crush on. them a little better. As one character puts it late
Switch (tested) / PC
If you walk into the bathroom and inspect the in the game: “It’s not always about rewards…
DEVELOPER
mirror – like most adventure games, you can helping someone out is just the right thing to do.” Serenity Forge
inspect just about everything – she’ll check her There are always rewards for your actions in PUBLISHER
reflection and exclaim: “Lookin’ good, Bia!” games, of course, but the attitude rings sincere. Way Down Deep
This is one of several moments that illustrates It’s the characters that really make the game PRICE
Half Past Fate’s most rarefied quality – its sing. Jaren, a nerdy game store employee, has £17.99
characters have a clear sense been drained of all gamer RELEASE
of self-worth. Before this “Each romance plays toxicity, and his crush on Out now
moment, I didn’t realise how out over a different tea enthusiast Ana is sweet
rare it was for characters and pleasant. Milo and Bia
in games to acknowledge
timescale, from one circle each other for years,
when they’re having a good day to eight years” and the game’s script smartly
hair day. It’s one instance focuses on the importance of
of many where the game treats its characters their friendship. Mara and Rinden are the genre-
with love and respect. standard pricklier pair who clash and hide their REVIEWED BY
Half Past Fate is, essentially, three attraction from one another, and their romance James O’Connor

interconnected romantic comedies packed is paired with a surprisingly compelling plot about
into an adventure game, complete with meet- their personal business interests. There are no
cutes, long-simmering crushes, quests for revolutionary mediations on the nature of love,
love, opposites attracting, and other well-worn but at its heart, this is a game about good things
tropes. Each romance plays out over a different happening to good people, and that makes for an
timescale, from one day to eight years, and side extremely pleasant experience. VERDICT
characters move between stories until everything Half Past Fate is gentle and uncomplicated. It’s Sweet-natured and warm,
culminates in a beautiful, heartfelt finale. It both five hours of easy puzzles and straightforward Half Past Fate is the game
embraces genre clichés and excels beyond them storytelling, and extremely charming despite its equivalent of a cuddle and
thanks to a pervasive good-naturedness, with repetitive soundtrack and small locations. It’s also a lie-in.
wonderful characters and enjoyable, eminently a game of extraordinary warmth and care, with a
solvable puzzles.
The adventure elements of Half Past Fate are
light and fun, albeit never particularly challenging.
gorgeous sprite-based visual style, strong writing,
and a whole lot of heart. You might not fall in love
with it, but you’re likely to form a huge crush.
76%
wfmag.cc \ 101
 Rated
Review

 Gears Tactics does an

excellent job of translating
familiar elements to fit the
genre, like the way you can
still boot Tickers away.
HIGHLIGHT
 oss fights against some
B


of the series’ larger foes Nothing speaks to Gears Tactics ’

bookend each act. They focus on action quite like its
shake up the usual implementation of the Overwatch
gameplay with unique
attacks and specific ability. Rather than being a purely
weak points. defensive tactic, you can use its
cones of fire to create deadly
chokepoints and rapidly dispatch
a group of encroaching enemies
Review
in one fell swoop.  

Gears Tactics
The chainsaw-loving series adds brains to its brawn

M
uch of your time in Gears Tactics that a gun-shot doesn’t immediately signal the
will be spent moving characters end of your turn. The game’s beating heart,
behind various objects before however, are the executions.
GENRE
Info

firing on a familiar bestiary of Damage an enemy enough, and they’re likely

Turn-based tactics
Locust hordes. Which fits, as to enter a downed state in classic Gears fashion. 
FORMAT
PC (tested) Gears of War has always been about firefights If you can get a unit close enough while an enemy
DEVELOPER
playing out from behind waist-high cover. is writhing around on the floor, you can perform a
Splash Damage, Gears Tactics certainly captures the look and brutal execution that grants your squad members
The Coalition feel of Gears, from the gooey chunks of flesh an extra action point, prolonging your turn. This
PUBLISHER that hammer home its violence, right down to allows Gears Tactics to throw Locust hordes at you
Xbox Game Studios the way the camera positions itself behind each by the dozen.
PRICE character’s shoulder as they pepper grubs with You’re nearly always outmanned and
£49.99 hot lead. outgunned, but rack up enough executions in
RELEASE What separates Gears Tactics from other games one turn, and the odds can quickly flip in your
Out now
in the genre isn’t as immediately obvious as all favour. Your plan still needs to be smart, but
the Gears-y stuff. Each unit in your four-person there’s a palpable sense of forward momentum
squad has three action points available to them that latches onto the series’ action-oriented
REVIEWED BY at the beginning of every turn that can be spent approach. This is a fast and aggressive
Richard Wakeling on movement, shooting, and abilities. The success tactics game that only falters when it loses its
rate of each bullet you fire is governed by a impetus. Your time in-between missions is spent
percentage, and abilities range from skills like equipping bland ‘loot’ that does nothing more
Overwatch to the inherently satisfying bayonet than raise numbers on the same weapons you’ll
charge. All of this is built atop the foundations use for the entirety of the game. The inclusion
that XCOM: Enemy Unknown set in 2012, but it of mandatory side missions also disrupts the
VERDICT doesn’t take long before its own nuances begin to campaign’s pacing, forcing you to replay the same
A fast-paced and reveal themselves. repetitive mission types multiple times.
aggressive tactics game Gears Tactics is all about giving you the freedom When propelling you forward at full speed, the
that only falters when it to approach skirmishes in any way you see fit. ebb and flow of Gears Tactics presents a cerebral
tries to breathe.
There’s no movement grid restricting your ability marriage between the genre’s brains and the
to traverse the battlefield, nor is there a stagnant series’ brawn. Some of the combinations you can

74% turn order preventing you from responding to

threats as they emerge. You can even shoot an
enemy before moving or using an ability, ensuring
pull off with your squad are exhilarating, and it
rewards you for being bold and aggressive in a
way other tactics games would never dare.

102 / wfmag.cc
RETRO GAMING WITH

RASPBERRY PI
Retro Gaming with Raspberry Pi shows you how to set up a
Raspberry Pi to play classic games. Build your own portable console, full-
size arcade cabinet, and pinball machine with our step-by-step guides. And
learn how to program your own games, using Python and Pygame Zero.

Set up your Raspberry

Pi for retro gaming
Emulate classic
computers and
consoles
Learn to program
retro-style games
Build a portable
console, arcade
cabinet, and pinball
machine

BUY ONLINE:
magpi.cc/store
 Retro
Backwards compatible

WRITTEN BY RYAN LAMBIE

Bullet hell
I’m plagued with feelings of shoot-‘em-up R-Type III or U.N. Squadron, but certainly liked the idea of the lead character out of
inadequacy. I’ve just loaded up Dezaemon, better than the legendarily dreadful Pop’n TwinBee flying around in a hardcore
a shooting game construction kit released D-Force. (I later discovered that the sci-fi blaster, so I started drawing an
for the Japanese Super Nintendo in 1994. game’s a sequel to the arcade shooter, approximation of that game’s rotund little
I bought a copy a few weeks ago, back Daioh, also developed by Dezaemon ship using Dezaemon’s sprite editor.
when our feature on construction games studio Athena – which explains its It’s here that I quickly realised how
appeared in issue 38, with the naive surprisingly high quality.) horrible it is to draw anything with
intention of cobbling together my own This immediately presented me with a a joypad, so I went off and retrieved
retro-style blaster. For its time, Dezaemon high bar to hit: how could I, a rank game my SNES mouse from the cupboard.
is a pretty impressive piece of software: design amateur, possibly make anything Being able to zip a cursor around the
its stripped-back, icon-based interface remotely as good as this? My enthusiasm screen definitely makes Dezaemon more
allows users to adjust graphics, sound, dampened slightly, I started tinkering with pleasurable to use, but as I ham-fistedly
stage layouts, and enemy patterns to the various icons to see what everything sketched out my TwinBee sprite, another
create their own top-down shooter in the did. I decided to give myself a simple task drawback became apparent: having to
vein of, say, Toaplan’s Fire Shark or Seibu to begin with: edit the player ship. I quite move the pointer back and forth across
Kaihatsu’s Raiden series.
The problem began when I tried out
the example shooter included on the
cartridge, called Daioh Gale. I’d initially
expected something rudimentary and
hastily put together; instead, Daioh Gale
is something of a gem: intense, full of
detailed sci-fi military hardware to blow
up, all grooving along to a catchy synth-
rock soundtrack. Had the game been a
standalone release, it would’ve ranked
among the better genre entries on
the platform – not quite up there with

104 / wfmag.cc
 Retro
Backwards compatible

Dez rez
The Super Nintendo version of
Dezaemon wasn’t a standalone release;
developer Athena made the first entry
in the series for the Japanese NES in
1987, and there were later editions
for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and
Sega Saturn. Of these, the Saturn’s
Dezaemon 2, released in 1997, was
the most flexible, since it allowed for
the creation of horizontal as well as
vertical shooters, and also allowed
users to export and share their games
via the Saturn’s Japan-only floppy disk
peripheral. Dezaemon 2 evidently had
the screen, from brush sizes to the colour Doesn’t SEUCK quite a following in Japan, since a quick
palette to the undo button, becomes scan around the internet reveals that
a chore after a while – especially if If you were a budding game designer in around 200 games were made with
you’re accustomed to using a modern the eighties or early nineties, Dezaemon the utility (you can see a list right here:
application like Photoshop and keyboard was far from the only option available. wfmag.cc/dezaemon). Building on
shortcuts to, say, quickly get rid of a Its most obvious western analogue its SNES predecessor, Dezaemon 2
misplaced pixel. was Sensible Software’s Shoot-’Em- also came with a handful of sample
Still, I eventually managed to get a Up Construction Kit (or SEUCK to its games, the best-looking of the lot being
reasonable approximation of TwinBee friends). Like Dezaemon, SEUCK allowed BioMetal Gust – a sequel to Athena’s
drawn up and, a few icon clicks later, had Commodore 64 – and, later, Atari ST own 1993 SNES shooter BioMetal, and
it flying around in the game itself. I also and Amiga – owners to make their own another impressive showcase for what
managed to alter the music, rework a few vertical shooters. It was a fun bit of the construction kit could do.
enemy patterns, create a new title screen, software, and it’s still at least somewhat
and slightly mess up the background popular today – in early June, entries
sprites as I moved tiles around. Drawing closed for the latest annual SEUCK
and animating sprites may be something competition, run by C64 homebrew
of a chore on a console, but the level developer The New Dimension.
design side of Dezaemon feels positively You can check out this year’s entries
breezy by comparison. at wfmag.cc/seuck.
Like so many other construction kits
of its kind, there’s something likeably
utopian about Dezaemon: theoretically,
it really would be possible to make
something as impressive as Daioh Gale
with the tools available, assuming
you have the time and skill. Will I
actually spend dozens of hours,
painstakingly pushing pixels
around and clicking on
tiny icons on my Super
Famicom? Probably
not, but Dezaemon
has still been a fun
piece of kit to tinker
around with.

wfmag.cc \ 105
 Retro
Backwards Compatible

WRITTEN BY IAN ‘DYNAMO’ DRANSFIELD

Definitive definitions
When we set up these here retro I recently picked endeavour could actually
pages you see in your fine copy of up a couple of make a fun little diary-style
Wireframe, we had to set a bit of a line: battered second- thing to write up on these
what is retro? Long story short, it was hand consoles – a pages – but then I had the
a vague ‘Dunno, about ten-years-plus- PlayStation 2 (slim brain-shudder: this is a
old?’, but with countless stipulations version) and a GameCube PS2 and a GameCube.
attached. But that’s how it has to be (cube version). Neither was They’re not retro, so they
– quick and easy. Because when you sit purchased with the intent of can’t be featured here, really. I mean,
down and start thinking about things, featuring them on these pages, instead, the PS2 played DVDs, the GameCube
retro gaming can turn into a bit of an as just a couple of little projects to muck had a whopping four controller ports as
existential nightmare. about with and see if I could fix them standard, and both consoles had official
up at all. Both being broken (as you can component cables available for them –
see from the photo of the PS2 on this that’s all very modern.
page – oh crikey, it’s in horrid condition), They’re also both two decades old,
it would be a pleasant distraction to with the PS2 marking its 20th birthday
rip them apart and not really mind too in Europe in November this year, and
much if I am indeed unable to bring the GameCube hitting the milestone
them back to life, given they cost me a in 2021. That’s the time between the PS2
tenner each. and Mattel’s nationwide US release of
The more I thought about it, the the Intellivision, or the Game & Watch’s
more I considered that maybe this little initial releases. It is, in layperson’s terms,
‘a long time’. Jet Set Radio came out 20
years ago. Two decades ago, Deus Ex
was being overlooked, misunderstood,
or ignored – today, onescore years later,
Deus Ex is… overlooked, misunderstood,
and ignored. Hmph.
Time continues its surprisingly
aggressive march ever onward, and with
it the defined boundaries of what can
be considered ‘retro’ begin to warp and
buckle. My initial pang of ‘Nah, they’re
not retro’ soon gave way to doubts

When I said battered, I meant it.



106 / wfmag.cc
 Retro
Backwards Compatible

Total 3D-NESs
After around five years in development, the plan is for the profile development
3dSen has released in full on Steam. tool, required to get each individual
What’s that? Why, it’s an emulator that game up and running, released publicly
converts certain NES games from a 2D at some point. And once we have all (or
plane to a fully swishy-about rotatable most, or just some) NES games, Geod
3D world. This is no gimmicky hack will rest, right? Nope, the plan is to follow
– it’s an in-depth process crafted by up with another 8-bit machine, likely the
developer Geod Studio across four main Game Boy or Master System. The 16-bit
steps. First, each 2D frame is sampled devices might be too complex, but that
into an 8×8 tile; next, a collection of doesn’t stop this from being a genuinely
2D shapes is produced from the grid; impressive bit of software. Rough
about what the very fabric of reality is, third, the 2D shapes are mapped onto around some edges and, frankly, liable
sure, but at the end of it I came to a 3D ones with proper positioning in the to get Nintendo a bit mad about things,
grander realisation: you can personally game space; then, additional animations, sure. But impressive, nonetheless.
define what constitutes a retro game or rotations, size changes, and so on can You can check out 3dSen at the
console or whatever however you like, it be implemented using script execution. following link (the VR version is listed
doesn’t change the fact that I managed This is all done on the fly, as the game separately): wfmag.cc/freedee.
to get a couple of legendary consoles for plays – like a live conversion, basically
hardly any money apiece. – and it looks absolutely fantastic
So what, pray, should we take in action.
away from this particular endeavour? The first step can be handled
Well, two things. First: don’t worry about automatically, but the rest of it requires
it, the march of time is inevitable, so the human touch to, say, figure out the
just go along for the ride and have fun ideal placement of a platform in the 3D
along the way. Second: no, I haven’t fixed space. As such, 3dSen supports around
either of the consoles yet. And honestly, 70 NES games at launch, with more
I doubt I will – who has the time? coming as conversions are completed –

Discrot-me-not
Elsewhere in meditations on time and its impact on
stuff, I came across the news (via RetroRGB) that three
French gaming preservation groups were combining
efforts to create a floppy drive emulator. See, the
thing about floppy disks is they are soon going to
crumble into literal dust (not literally), so we need a
way to save the ones that haven’t been backed up on
more robust storage formats. MO5, La Ludothèque
Française, and the Game Preservation Society thus
announced the open-source Pauline: a bit of kit that
can detect, attempt to repair, and back up any kind
of floppy disk – as well as acting as a straightforward
floppy drive emulator. You can find the code for the
device here: wfmag.cc/Paulinecode.

wfmag.cc \ 107
 Now playing
Vive la révolution: playing Pikuniku

Vive la révolution:
playing Pikuniku
Ryan takes a belated trip to Sectordub’s
delightful island dystopia

J
une’s Bundle for Racial Justice when enough people get together in the name of
and Equality offered an incredible a good cause; certainly, it knocks the (admittedly
deal for gamers, no doubt – it welcome) donations of far more moneyed games
swept up well over 1700 indie industry entities into a cocked hat.
games into a single package Itch.io’s bundle also gave around 810,000
which could be purchased for as little as $5 – of us a chance to wade into a veritable sea of
but more importantly, it raised an astonishing corking indie games – some familiar, others
$8,175,430 in donations for funds related to the less so. One that immediately jumped out at
Black Lives Matter movement. With purchasers me, because I’d been meaning to download it
spending $10 for the bundle on average, Itch.io’s since its release last year but completely forgot
 rom the smallest to
F


the largest, the fundraiser is an example of what can be done to, was Sectordub’s utterly charming platform
characters in Pikuniku
are a beguiling bunch.
adventure, Pikuniku.
Set in a colourful storybook world of bold
shapes and primary colours, Pikuniku is the tale
of an unassuming creature – the wide-eyed,
bipedal Piku – who wakes up on a seemingly
idyllic island of free money, abundant resources,
and limitless leisure time. After convincing
the locals that he isn’t the terrifying mountain
monster written about in their legends, Piku
ventures further into the island, and discovers
that all isn’t quite as it first appears: top-hatted
entrepreneur Mr. Sunshine uses showers of
cash, nightclubs, and other distractions to keep
the populace amused while his robots strip the
island of its resources – they rob fields of corn,
lop down trees, and drain water from lakes.
A clumsy yet good-hearted character, Piku
eventually forges an unlikely alliance with an

108 / wfmag.cc
 Now playing
Vive la révolution: playing Pikuniku

Wireframe
Recommends

LocoRoco
PSP, PS4
Like Pikuniku, LocoRoco fuses
I ngeniously, Mr. Sunshine’s evil antics are a bold, vector-shape aesthetic


hidden beneath a veneer of altruism. with environmental puzzles.

There’s less of a narrative to
speak of, but pitch-perfect
underground resistance movement, and agrees
controls and an absolutely
to help overthrow the island’s bulbous dictator. infectious soundtrack make
What’s immediately striking about Pikuniku when it emerged in January 2019. The bigger this one of the best games on
is how cleanly it combines different styles and disappointment, I’d argue, is that its developers the PSP.
influences. Its aesthetic could be described as a don’t delve a little deeper into the themes
happy marriage of Eastern and Western whimsy: Pikuniku so economically sets out in its opening
there’s the colour and zaniness of Japan’s few minutes: digital surveillance, automation,
LocoRoco and Katamari, mixed with a distinctly wall-to-wall advertising, and the tantalising
European vein of humour that takes aim at the notion of a society entertained into extinction
gig economy and tech capitalism. are all established but barely addressed later in
Beginning in the darkened recesses of a the game. Mr. Sunshine emerges as an amusing
cave, Pikuniku might seem almost too slow and boo-hiss villain with a dastardly plan, but not Wattam
PS4, PC
laidback at first, as Piku gamely jumps and kicks much more than that.
Keita Takahashi is without
about the place, and the first physics-based Still, Pikuniku does find time to throw in the
doubt one of the most
puzzles hove into view. Piku can use a bandy odd delicious scene or exchange here and there. original and distinctive game
leg to kick and roll objects around the screen, Towards the end, one of Mr. Sunshine’s dastardly designers currently working,
which is handy for knocking, plans aren’t undone by the and Pikuniku ’s charm owes
say, an acorn onto a switch to “A happy marriage player’s ingenuity, but rather something of a debt to his
open a door. Gradually, though, a pair of robot workers, who games. Wattam, Takahashi’s
of Eastern and latest, is another flawed yet
the lock-and-key puzzles are suddenly realise they’ve long
joined by a pleasing array of Western whimsy” been asked to do dangerous likeable amalgam of puzzles
minigames, obstacle courses, jobs for a pittance. “But think and whimsy.

and even the odd boss battle. In each, Pikuniku’s of the free exposure and experience for your
designers bring their keen imaginations to resume!” Mr. Sunshine blusters. Needless to say,
familiar scenarios: one assault course of spinning the robots aren’t having any of it.
traps could have come from an early Super Meat Like Mr. Sunshine’s promises of free money
Boy stage, except the traps in question happen and everlasting entertainment, the internships
to be toasters that eject deadly slices of bread. and gig economy jobs of the real world could be
Elsewhere, there’s a curious take on basketball regarded as negatives dressed up as positives; Snipperclips
(where Piku’s lankiness again comes in handy) sadly, the issues that have led us to this moment SWITCH
and a rhythm-action dance-off against one of Mr. in history are far more complex to solve than Pikuniku ’s co-op mode, in
Sunshine’s robot underlings. From beginning to Pikuniku’s. The satirical bite in Pikuniku is a gentle which Piku solves puzzles and
challenges with orange friend
end, Pikuniku is studded with moments to make one, then, but its overriding sentiment – that the
Niku, is akin to a cut-down
you smile. powerless can group together and effect change
version of this amazing (and
Admittedly, Pikuniku isn’t a long game – you against the powerful – is an admirable one, and
at times infuriating) two-player
could probably blast through it in three hours curiously fitting for the times we find ourselves gem. “For god’s sake, just cut
if you aren’t fussed about finding the various in. I’m quietly hoping Sectordub has another off my head,” is something
hats and other trinkets hidden about the visit to its sunny island dystopia lined up for the I’ve actually yelled while
place – which was a fairly common criticism near future. playing Snipperclips.

wfmag.cc \ 109
 Now playing
30 years of play

 it of a porky here, in that I

B
30 years of play


never actually watch the

match highlights. Text all
the way, classic style.
It’s a day ending with ‘day’, so Ian’s
playing Football Manager 2020

I
thought myself immune to the lure; the nectar of the gods? That it is the ultimate
where others were reaching for time sink, yet also the ultimate in making you feel
those things of comfort from their like you’ve actually accomplished something?
lives to help through upended times, Why belabour the point?
I remained resolute. I shall not, I will Maybe I should, though – maybe I should
not fall into the comforting embrace of the old, stick with trying to hammer home the points
the nostalgic, the familiar. But even as those that this unknowable beast of a game, honed
thoughts left my brainlips, I knew them to and tweaked and perfected over nearly 30 years
be false. I’d already downloaded it. I was already of development, is actually worth the effort.
planning on what the new run would look like. It’s confusing. It’s seemingly unconquerable
I’d already researched which formation would at first glance. It’s a lot of numbers on
work. 120-hours’-play-across-three-weeks static backgrounds. And yes, it’s associated with
later, I wasn’t even bothering with the pretence football and that’s a whole other thing to moan
anymore. Football Manager 2020 had lured me in, and argue about. Football Manager is quite a lot
just as every single entry in the series previously like hard work.
had done. Why fight the inevitable? But with that hard work comes something
I’ve written these words so many times over literally no other game has ever managed to
the years that they come without thinking. pull out of me: real, honest, genuine emotional
 h, Rubén – in five years (20+
O It looks like a spreadsheet, but give it half a responses that resonate and persist over time.


real hours) you’ll be good

enough for the first team. chance and it’ll take over your life. Yes, even Yes, a game has shocked, surprised, or saddened
non-football fans can get into it, if they approach me; maybe even maddened me. I’ve been happy
with an open mind. It’s the best role-playing game at finishing off a tricky boss fight, I’ve fist-pumped
ever made. And so on, and so forth. None of it’s at beating someone in Street Fighter II, I’ve
stopped being true, it’s just that I’ve hammered cooed at the original The Last Of Us’s sudden,
out those sentences – or variations thereof – so ambiguous statement of an ending. But all of
much in the past decade and a half of doing those feelings were fleeting; temporary. Lost like
this professionally that I feel like I don’t need tears in the dying seconds of a cup final loss.
to say them again and again (and again). Isn’t it Football Manager gets under the skin, it makes
established fact now, that Football Manager is these base emotional responses matter – it

110 / wfmag.cc
 Now playing
30 years of play

Wireframe
Recommends

Street Fighter
II Turbo: Hyper
Fighting
SNES, ARCADE, MULTI
When you want something a
bit shallower – but still with a
level of depth – look no further
than Street Fighter II Turbo:
Hyper Fighting. Whether you’re
FM Touch does away with on your tod and a bit bored or

many of these stats, so is with a few friends around, the
a good place to start.
enquickened SFII is fantastic.

makes a game of numbers and weird generated harder to cover the gap you’re leaving by calling
player faces and Manchester United probably up an untested, unproven, lower-skilled, and
not existing in future entries owing to ongoing potentially knackered reserve player…
legal action seem like so much more. Do you see what happened? Suddenly it
I don’t know exactly why, though I have becomes an involved decision-making process,
my theories. The main one rests on the time with the real chance of loss resting on the fate
factor: a single season in Football Manager is a of this one young kid who’s been forced into Danger Zone 2
slow-paced affair. Even if you’re rushing, it takes an impossible situation. For one match, for one PS4, XBOX ONE, PC
Or maybe you want something
a matter of hours to get through one footballing moment, this guy could well be the hero this
even shallower ? Step forward
year – at least in the major particular tale focuses on – or
Three Fields’ puddle-deep
world leagues (it’s quicker in “Football Manager he could be (more likely) an but utterly beguiling Danger
the smaller ones, naturally). gets under the irrelevance who fades into the Zone 2. Distilling the Burnout
For the most part, you’re background. But the potential’s experience down to just the
getting your good ship Football
skin, it makes these there. It’s matchday, and the
crashes has been the desired
into working order, sorting base emotional stress ratchets up. Things go outcome of plenty of fans of
out backroom staffing issues, responses matter” off without a hitch, your kid the series, and… well, here it is.
making sure you have the right plays a 6.7 rating – absolutely
players for the positions you want to play them fine, if thoroughly unspectacular – and you
in, looking at that team of 17-year-olds to see move on to the next week, the next batch of
whether any of them could be money-making preparation, the next upcoming match, and
superstars in a few years, looking at numbers. It’s potential for injuries and changes and surprises.
sedate, but involved. It is, in every sense of the This whole merry dance plays out – dozens
word, a slow build. of micro-stories with a beginning, middle, and
So you progress through things – not even end, all presenting themselves in an emergent eFootball PES 2020
PS4, XBOX ONE, PC,
a season, just through the course of a week – fashion and most coming to a close within a few
MOBILE
and you’ve already made half a dozen, 10, 20 minutes, and all together set across many hours’
Or, perhaps, you do want to
decisions about how things should be. A player’s play across a whole season. Football Manager
stick with the footballing
picked up an injury in training the day before tells countless stories in just one in-game year, world but want to dial back the
your next match. Pick a replacement. The and every one of them matters to you personally intensity of things a bit. Well,
replacement isn’t match-fit because he’s already more than it could ever possibly do in most other enter PES 2020 ’s management
played in a reserves game earlier that same day. games. I said I wouldn’t play it again but really, modes. Actually playing on
You have to risk it and play him anyway. Shore why would I deprive myself? I’ve been playing it the pitch gives it a more
up the area, make another senior player work nigh-on 30 years for a reason. immediate fun factor.

wfmag.cc \ 111
 Killer Feature
Pac-Man

Pac-Man
Some simple yet effective AI programming turned
a simple maze game into a global sensation

NAMCO / 1980 / ARCADE, NUMEROUS HOME SYSTEMS

I
n terms of its raw design, Pac-Man wasn’t exactly A less dedicated team of game designers might have
original. Some clever people at MIT had already made all the ghosts simply pursue the player relentlessly and
pioneered the first maze game as early as 1959; the called it a day; instead, Iwatani quickly realised that the game
idea of one character being pursued by another would be far more compelling if the ghosts attacked in waves.
emerged in Atari’s little-played (and thematically As Iwatani once said, “I wanted each ghostly enemy to have a
unsavoury) arcade game, Gotcha, released in 1973. Sega’s specific character and its own particular movements, so they
coin-op, Head On, which emerged one year before Pac-Man in weren’t all just chasing after Pac-Man in single file, which would
1979, asked the player to drive around a maze, collecting dots. have been tiresome and flat.”
But while Pac-Man’s concepts weren’t unique by themselves, Iwatani and his team devised individual movement routines
there was one aspect of its design that made it truly stand out for each of the four ghosts, which means that each behaves
in the smoky Japanese game centres of 1980: its personality. in a subtly different way; for example, Blinky, the red ghost,
With their bold colours, expressive eyes and directly targets the player, while Inky, the blue
unique names, the characters in Pac-Man – a “It creates the illusion ghost, is influenced by both the position of
yellow, lip-smacking hero and a quartet of Pac-Man and Blinky. With a few simple rules like
of hidden depth
hapless spooks – felt vibrant and alive rather these, Iwatani created the illusion of non-player
than flatly mechanical, like other games from and complexity” characters whose moves could be immediately
the era. Designer Toru Iwatani envisioned Pac- recognised if the player spent enough time with
Man as an antidote to the more boisterous games that sprang the game. Starmancer programmer Tyler Millershaski (see page
up in the wake of Taito’s Space Invaders, and so he came up 16) neatly summed it up this month when he told us: “Humans
with a maze game with a gentle, cartoon-like atmosphere: are so amazing at personifying inanimate objects and giving
there’s no shooting or destruction in Pac-Man, as such – just them intelligent agency that you’d almost never notice [how
the absorbing task of roaming a maze, and gobbling up simple Pac-Man’s AI is]. The mental model that the player
pellets while avoiding the ghosts that patrol its corridors. creates about your game is often wrong, and that’s a good
There’s undoubtedly tension, however: completing each maze thing. It creates the illusion of hidden depth and complexity.”
requires precision and a keen understanding of the ghosts’ For further proof that the ghosts were Pac-Man’s killer
movements – not to mention careful use of power pellets, feature, look at Rally-X. Also released by Namco in 1980, it
which briefly allow Pac-Man to gobble up ghosts and send was a top-down maze game where the player collected flags
them floating back to the centre of the maze. But there’s also and avoided enemy cars. It’s basically the same as Pac-
a whimsical sense of fun running through the game, which Man; indeed, Namco initially expected Rally-X to be the hit.
comes in no small part from the ingenious programming Instead, it’s Pac-Man we’re playing 40 years on – still munching
behind those tenacious ghosts. those pills, still trying to outwit those pesky, adorable ghosts.

112 / wfmag.cc
 Killer Feature
Pac-Man

Pinky and the Brain

Pac-Man’s AI programming was
ingenious, particularly for its time, but
it wasn’t without flaws. Expert players
will probably be familiar with a quirk
in Pinky’s movement: the pink ghost
is meant to target a tile a few spaces
ahead of the player’s location, but
when Pac-Man’s facing up, an error
causes Pinky to head to a completely
different position instead. It’s a glitch
that players have been exploiting
for the past four decades – even
if they don’t necessarily realise the
error that causes it. You can read a
more detailed exploration of Pinky’s
behaviour – and exactly why it goes
wrong – at wfmag.cc/pinky-brain.

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

Features Editor
Ian Dransfield
Email [email protected]

ON SALE 6 AUGUST
Sub-Editors
David Higgs & Vel Ilic

Design
criticalmedia.co.uk
Head of Design
Lee Allen

Don’t t!
Designer
Harriet Knight
ou
miss be Contributors
cri
Subs 76 Jon Bailes, Lottie Bevan, Vikki Blake,
PG Simon Brew, Anthony de Fault, Edwin
Evans-Thirlwell, Konstantinos Dimopoulos,
Dave Hurst, Paul Kilduff-Taylor, Andrew
King, Steve McNeil, James O’Connor, K.G.
Orphanides, Lewis Packwood, Aaron Potter,
Mark Vanstone, Richard Wakeling, Paul
Walker-Emig, Howard Scott Warshaw

Publishing
Publishing Director
Russell Barnes
Email [email protected]
Director of Communications
Liz Upton
CEO
Eben Upton

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Charlie Milligan
Email [email protected]
Tel +44 (0)7725 368887

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Also
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sustainable forests and the printer operates an
environmental management system which has been
assessed as conforming to ISO 14001.
Wireframe magazine is published by Raspberry Pi
 Platform games that create oppressive atmospheres (Trading) Ltd, Maurice Wilkes Building, St. John’s
Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0DS.
The publisher, editor, and contributors accept no
 Indie labels: what do they even mean anymore? responsibility in respect of any omissions or errors
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advertised in the magazine. Except where
The secrets of making a successful Kickstarter game otherwise noted, content in this magazine
 is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).
 Why video games are essentially toys with added rules ISSN: 2631-6722 (print), 2631-6730 (online).
 get
in the

4K
Ultra HD UltraWideColor Adaptive Sync