Category: Nintendo News

Mega Cat Studios might not be a household name at present, but the company has been doing some incredible work in the realm of homebrew games development and has produced multiple physical NES carts over the past few years. 

We say down with Zack Manko, Mega Cat co-founder, to chat about the challenges of creating homebrew games for vintage systems, and the company’s plans for the future.

Nintendo Life: What inspired you to establish the studio, and what are you core goals?

Zack Manko: We’ve all been doing contract development for most of our professional lives. Some of us were in enterprise development, some with games, and others just hopping freelance gig to gig. If we’re going to take chances, we may as well do it now rather than later.

What many people are involved with Mega Cat Studios?

Zack Manko: Contract game development still takes up half of our bandwidth, and we’re incredibly lucky that we can work on bringing some of our own projects to life with the other half. Split across all teams, we have  around 20 full time team members, and about double that with subcontractors and freelancers!

Talk us through the typical process for creating a game, from conception to physical production – how long does it take and how many steps are involved?

Zack Manko: This definitely varies game by game, and it’s an ever-evolving process for us. We have some great standardized processes now that would have removed months of pain otherwise. The game design process is the most important, just like any current generation game. With retro platforms, you have to budget additionally for graphical optimization, scan line limitations, organizing art into different banks strategically for development later, and physical production. People always ask us at events how we can possibly sustain ourselves making new games for old consoles, and I always tell them the truth: Anyone who’s made a game for old consoles after the original commercial life cycle came to an end did it because they genuinely love the platforms. The look and feel, the limitations and challenges, and all of the nostalgia that’s at the base of retro gaming. As long as we’re around, we’re always going to be working on these platforms, but to make it a scalable company with some forecastable stability, we will be making modern platform ports.  

You’ve produced titles for the NES and Genesis so far – do you have plans for any other classic systems?

Zack Manko: We have two SNES games that have been going through testing and development to be released in 2018!

What would you say are the biggest challenges when it comes to creating homebrew software?

Zack Manko: You can’t patch a physical cartridge after it’s shipped! The modern conveniences of hot fixes, regional updates, and game improvements aren’t on the table when you’re shipping a physical good.

What has been your proudest Mega Cat moment so far?

Zack Manko: My proudest Mega Cat moment so far has been at one of our volunteering events. We’ve set up locally at some Carnegie Science Center/Carnegie Museum, and use it as a fun opportunity to share our projects with the community, non-gamers, casual gamers, and anyone in between. I like to think that 8-year-old Zack would high-five 30-year-old Zack. Giving 30-year-old Zack a chance to talk to actual 8-year-olds about working an and independent game development studio is genuinely fulfilling.  

Coffee Crisis is one of your most notable projects; what was the process for creating this game?

Zack Manko: We’re incredibly lucky, and thankful, that we have some great supporters that share our vision for awesome games with a retro aesthetic. Coffee Crisis was the first game we released for the Sega Genesis. The original plan was to do something we loved (making a new game for one of our favourite consoles) for a good cause (raising money for a small, local business, with a awesome niche: A metal-themed artisan coffee shop). We offered to do it for free, and dove right in!  

A few months down the pipeline, the game scope continued to increase in scope, along with costs. Donating $10,000 of labor, as well as any other opportunity costs for a small team was a huge amount for us. On the other side of it, we didn’t want to leave this huge amount of effort as a sunk cost. We put up our first Kickstarter, crossed our fingers, and inched over our goal. The Kickstarter support was awesome! A game about a small, local coffee shop where aliens come down to steal three of Earth’s most precious resources: coffee, metal music, and WiFi, made for a 25-year-old console, from a brand new company name got funded. We owed it to everyone to circle back around, and redo the art level by level, the animations, and improve what we were going to deliver.

We took to it with all hands on deck, and with less than a week before the Kickstarter closed, the developer for this project incurred some serious personal issues that would make him unavailable for at least weeks, if not months.  

The challenges continued as we had two other developers without any experience in this code base, or access to the custom optimisation tools used for the rest of development. All of the things that could go wrong, did, as we continued to burn capital trying to make this game work, respond to messages as to why the game is late, and ask for mercy. Pro tip: There’s a reason any game company has a buffer for fulfilment time, and it’s even more necessary for cartridge based platforms. Our fulfilment timeline was less than a month after the end of the Kickstarter campaign, and going back to square one with new assets meant an incredible amount of new work that had to be done.

Without a timeline in sight for when the original developer would be well enough to resume, we shipped the best version the second, back up developer for that project could assemble, using only a fraction of the new assets.  The retro community is really pretty incredible, and with few exceptions, enjoyed the game.  

Several weeks later, the original developer returned, unencumbered and eager to help. Despite losing our pants on the project with all of the new hurdles that appeared, we wanted to offer our fans something better, and give them the option to have new copies of the updated, redone, re-optimised, and improved game. We sent emails, Kickstarter messages, and went to work changing out version 1 cartridges. We had some really funny conversations with a lot of our backers, and only half of them even wanted the upgrade. If it was up to us, we’d have a scrap pile of destroyed Version 1 PCB boards melted down into bullets that I can shoot ‘2016 me’ in the leg with.  

At its onset, Coffee Crisis was meant to be all about community. Things that we love:  

• Retro gaming isn’t just how we grew up, it’s something we love dearly. It takes 2 to 3 times more effort to make a game for something that has 100x less commercial potential. It has a higher cost of goods, higher margin of error, and greater costs for quality control. It’s something you do because you love it: pure, gaming for fun’s sake.  
• Black Forge Coffeehouse espouses community in the truest way. There’s never a month that their calendar isn’t packed. Their first location was funded by their own IndieGo campaign, and as any small business team member, or owner can relate, it’s a 24/7 job. The food is locally sourced, the art is all independent, and the music is awesome.  
• Graywalker, an awesome local metal band, seemed like a perfect fit to collaborate with. There’s a reason that there weren’t many awesome metal tracks on the Genesis, and it’s a real challenge to make a cover like that translate to that medium.

After getting to the other side with this game, and refilling any orders for any players/backers/supporters along the way, we can hold our head high that we saw the project through despite so many unforeseen road blocks.  We created and improved internal processes with standardisation for source control, improved how we approach retro game design, and promised to make sure that we never again allow a game we’re doing for free to expand its boundaries past some type of planned, communicated limitations.  

It’s been much smoother sailing since then, and none of us will ever, ever, forget it. Challenges help teams come together, and we definitely did in every sense of the way. We decided that for the rest of the year, we’d give two copies of Coffee Crisis away for every one that was purchased. There are no words that can possibly express how elated and grateful we all are that this is mostly behind us, and that we’ve managed to move forward, learn, and improve.

We live in a world which is becoming increasingly digital and consumers often choose to rebel against such trends. Do you see the market for physical games growing in the same way that vinyl is booming in the music industry?

Zack Manko: The collector side of me says: “I sure hope so!” There are some incredible projects out there, now more than ever. Aftermarket consoles are widely available and affordable. The art and gameplay is timeless, and no house should go without a cartridge-based console. There are SO many amazing projects and teams surfacing the last few years, it’s incredible. Watermelon Co. is shipping Paprium soon, something I personally backed about four years ago, and would wait another four without hesitation to have it. The game looks amazing, and with the quality being so high in Pier Solar five years ago, I’m greatly looking forward to it. Retrotainment Kickstarted another beautiful looking NES game with Full Quiet, and the NES is just such a beauty. Analogue will be shipping their SNES console soon, and provide fans around the world another reason to have at least one console connected to every TV, in every room. We’re really, really excited to be part of this retro renaissance!

What plans do you have for the future? Will you be sticking to retro consoles or could we see Mega Cat Studios branch out into other realms?

Zack Manko: After the Coffee Crisis was over, we picked ourselves up, dusted off and got to work on our PC games. We definitely have the capabilities, and are genuinely excited to bring some of our own games to market this January. It’s amazing to live in a time where the barrier to entry is so low, games are plentiful and affordable, and Independent developers and studios can bring their ideas to life, and distribute them to the masses. Customer expectations are higher now than ever, and these elements combined make for a great time to love video games in all of their shapes and forms.  

Finally, do you have any message for the readers of Nintendo Life, and Nintendo fans in general?

Zack Manko: From the depths of my being, thank you for an awesome year! The generosity, enthusiasm, and emails are even more impactful when you’re going through what seems like Hell. Every picture of one of our followers sharing one of our games with your son/daughter/boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife, every note or mention thanks and happiness is what any Indie Developer wishes they had on tap.  

The community has been amazing to interact with, and we have some great projects under way that will be released in 2018. Spoiler: None of them involve the name Crisis, but one has a pretty cute Gorgon.

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We’d like to thank Zack for his time. You can check out Mega Cat’s site here.

We’re big fans of Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, Ubisoft’s impressive strategy title that blends intelligent design with a whole lot of whimsy and humour. Pleasingly the development team continues to make adjustments alongside expansion pass content and free goodies, with a fresh update making some welcome changes.

The patch notes explain the addition of hints on the loading screen, tips in the event of a game over in addition to the simple but welcome ability to jump to Battle HQ before a battle. A couple of levels have also had their difficulty adjusted due to the spikes they represented. 

The changelog is below.

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While players are getting ready for their next Battle during a Loading Screen, they will now be able to scroll between different Tips providing advice and details about the game based on its current progression. 

Players will now have direct access to Battle HQ during the preparation phase. Of course, players can still jump directly to the heat of the Battle. But why not take some time upgrading their heroes to try out some of the Tips read during the Loading?

Every time a Battle is lost, the game will now provide Pro Tips to help Players succeed on the next try. Tips are tailored for battles to offer the most relevant advice when needed. 

Two battles are now easier as they represented a difficulty spike in the overall difficulty curve:

• World 2-2 Battle 1: UNDERGARMENT GULCH
• World 2-4 Battle 1: SQUARE ONE

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Have you been enjoying Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle this year?

Though the eShop has been bombarded with new titles in December, one that has stood out is Gorogoa, earning praise for its elegance and smart design. It takes a unique approach to puzzle-solving along with a beautiful aesthetic and artful storytelling – we loved it in our Gorogoa review.

Eager to learn more about its development and design we caught up with its creator, Jason Roberts, to talk about its long and varied road to release. 

First of all, congratulations on bringing Gorogoa to the Nintendo Switch.

Jason Roberts: Thanks!

The critical reception has been overwhelmingly positive, even since its first demo in 2012. As this is your first game, did you seek much advice regarding dealing with conventions, public or the media?

Hmm. Not specifically, no. I’ve been to many shows over the years since 2012 and have interacted with the public and press at sort of a low simmer for most of that time. Maybe this gives me a false sense of security regarding my ability to deal with it, I don’t know. Of course now I’m also very fortunate to work with a publisher that handles a lot of PR duties.

Gorogoa is a perfect advocate for video games as an art form, but as a game, how difficult was it to implement the story you wanted to tell and the type of puzzles you designed?

It was very difficult, and took a huge amount of trial and error. Because the pieces that make up the puzzles are also scenes within a story, gameplay and narrative are entangled in such a way that pulling on one thread would always dislodge something else. Balancing those constraints was really the overarching challenge of the whole project, and it took me the first year or two before I even understood that.

Were there any games that influenced you  artistically or technically during development?

Let’s see. This is going way back, but one game that ended up changing the course of the design early on was a game called Continuity, a clever 2D platformer with levels divided up into sliding tiles. When I saw that game I was still designing Gorogoa, mostly in my head. I had imagined sequences for Gorogoa where the character traverses a 2D maze from tile to tile, but since Continuity was already doing that successfully, I decided to try and explore in a different direction. Gorogoa came to play more like a first-person game within each tile; scenes were designed to emphasize z-axis “depth”; tile stacking became a big part of gameplay; and puzzles involving elaborate character traversal were toned down in favor of more “first person” object-based puzzles.

After that big swerve in the design I tried to worry less about other games. Once the 2012 demo was made the design took on its own momentum and it was basically too late to fundamentally change direction again. And I’m glad I didn’t!

Did any other core ideas change dramatically during development?

I don’t know about dramatic changes, but there were points where I decided to break rules that I had previously set for myself, for example by including timing-based puzzles that involve some degree of dexterity, or a scene where two tiles interact in a way unrelated to visual connection between pictures. I broke those rules because surprise and variety felt more important than consistency.

There’s a wonderful ‘old fashioned’ process and methodology to your work – you’ve produced pages and pages of hand drawn sprites, backgrounds etc. how did you balance designing the game (literally) on paper and building it digitally?

I drew the art on paper (and then colored it digitally) but most of the design was done in the game engine itself (using highly simplified art), because the shifting perspectives that make up the puzzles are really hard to sketch on paper!

Any plans to document it all, either commercially or just as a personal momento?

I’ll probably write some articles about the development process at some point. I’m looking forward to that.

How did you balance the time frame of publicly showing the game and its eventual release?

There really wasn’t much planning involved initially. I submitted the original demo to IndieCade in 2012, and then spontaneously decided to make that demo available online to everyone for free. Because the game is hard to describe but easy to pick up once you have your hands on it, I felt the demo would be the best advertisement for the game. From that point on I always underestimated the time it would take me to finish, so it’s hard to say that I consciously planned out the timing between each wave of publicity and final release. Only once I started working with Annapurna was there a plan for PR timing.

Were you excited by the interest being generated or did you feel more pressure from the public’s expectations?

Both. The pressure of expectations created by the original demo was always a concern, especially when I started taking the game in a somewhat different direction. I just had to trust that the sensibilities that made the first version work would ultimately be there in the final version and people would feel that. I don’t know. 

Looking back to 2016, what was your knowledge and interest regarding the rumours surrounding the NX?

I read about it on gaming sites before it was released. I was definitely intrigued because it looked like it would allow people to approach a game either like a touch-based tablet game, or a portable game with dedicated controls, or a living room couch console game. That resolves a lot of the pressure for players when choosing between platforms with wildly different modes of interaction.

While you were working on your game, when did the Switch become a platform of interest?

I think maybe the similarity between the tablet interface on the Switch and the mobile interface made it feel like a comfortable console to approach. From there we went on to develop a controller-based interface for the game, which turned out to be an enjoyable challenge.

When did development start on the Switch version?

About 4 or 5 months prior to release, I think?

What was the Switch like to develop for?

Apart from the challenges of designing the controller interface, which I was involved with, I’d have to defer to the port engineer Matt Whiting who did the actual coding for Switch.

Going forward, are you interested in utilizing the hardware or seeing a future project on the system?

Absolutely. As I said, I really like its versatility, which supports the many different ways people fit gaming into their lives.

What was your exposure to Nintendo growing up and do you have any favourite games/ franchises?

JR The truth is I wasn’t a console kid growing up, so missed all the early generations of Nintendo. My first Nintendo console was the GameCube. I really fell in love with the Metroid Prime games on that system, and those are among my favorite games to this day.

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We’d like to thank Jason for his time.

ARMS version 5.0 has just gone live today, the latest update in what has been a surprisingly active period for the game. 

However, Nintendo has confirmed that the flurry of new content is now at an end; just like Zelda: Breath of the Wild, ARMS is considered “finished” following this new update.

Here’s the Google translated statement:

As a big update, this time will be the last update. Of course, I will continue to adjust the game balance in the future, so I hope you will continue to enjoy “ARMS”, which has become more lively as more fighters participate.

The updates naturally had to stop at some point, but it’s a shame that ARMS won’t see its longevity increased with DLC in 2018. Perhaps Nintendo is already hard at work on the sequel? Let us know your thoughts by posting a comment.

Thanks to SLIGEACH_EIRE for the tip!

The superb Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap has just received an update which enables in-game video capture.

A remake of the equally brilliant Sega Master System original, Wonder Boy has also benefited from some other minor fixes as well, which are detailed below.

With so many amazing games arriving on Switch this year it’s easy to forget some of the earlier gems from 2017, so if you haven’t purchased Wonder Boy yet, now’s as good a time as any – especially as you’ll be able to record 30 second snippets of your quest for posterity.

Flying Tiger Entertainment has announced that it is bringing some of Data East’s most beloved arcade titles to the Switch.

Over 20 titles are coming to Switch, PS4, Xbox One and Steam, with the only confirmed game so far being the 1990 fantasy action release Gate of Doom (also known as Dark Seal). Games are expected to sell for $7.99 each on the eShop.

The really weird part of all of this is that Flying Tiger is using Turbo Technologies Inc. mascot Johnny Turbo to promote this range of games. If you need a reminder of this most embarrassing of company figureheads, check out this rather excellent video summary:

The apparent connection here is that Flying Tiger was founded by Johnny Brandstetter, the brand manager for the TurboGrafx-16 (PC Engine) in North America. The character of Johnny Turbo was based on Brandstetter, and we assume that since TTI’s collapse in the ’90s and Hudson Soft’s purchase by Konami in more recent years, he’s retained the rights to the character.

Which Data East classics would you like to see come to Switch? Bad Dudes? Midnight Resistance? BurgerTime? Sly Spy? Let us know with a comment.

A new stage from the eagerly-awaited Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been shown off, and it’s perhaps a little different from what fans of the Castlevania series might be expecting.

The level is set in a Japanese-style environment complete with subtle, chilled-out music and some particularly beautiful background detail. 

No enemies or items are in place at the moment so it looks a bit bare, but at least that gives you chance to appreciate its atmosphere.

Bloodstained is due for release some time next year.

In video games, there are high scores and then there are high scores. The long battle for Donkey Kong’s biggest score definitely falls into the latter category; it’s the holy grail of arcade scores and it’s played host to some of the most competitive rivalries in history.

Well, the arcade classic’s high score has been smashed yet again, with previous record holder (and former pro poker player) Robbie Lakeman surpassing the current record of 218,000 set by Wes Copeland in May, 2016. Lakeman, who’s been trading stewardship of the record with Copeland since he won it from Hank Chien in 2014, hit a whopping 1,230,100 last night while livestreaming the attempt on Facebook.

Lakeman admits on air that he could’ve reached an even higher score, but we imagine regaining his world record will be enough to satisfy the legendary player for tonight at least. And three and a half hours of DK? That’s some dedication right there.

What do you guys think of another classic record getting smashed? Will Copeland be able to win it back? Sound off below