{"id":102071,"date":"2019-10-18T19:52:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/352516"},"modified":"2019-10-18T19:52:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18T19:52:00","slug":"dont-miss-my-friend-pedros-journey-from-flash-cult-hit-to-indie-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/10\/18\/dont-miss-my-friend-pedros-journey-from-flash-cult-hit-to-indie-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t Miss: My Friend Pedro’s journey from Flash cult hit to indie success"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little over five years ago, an acrobatic Flash shooter called My Friend Pedro<\/em><\/a> launched on Newgrounds.<\/p>\n

Developed by one-man studio DeadToast, this Matrix-esque amalgamation of bullets and bedlam quickly cemented itself as a cult classic, but was unfortunately lost in the bygone era of browser games. <\/p>\n

Recently, however, My Friend Pedro<\/em> received a massive overhaul, to the extent that an entirely new set of systems and mechanics were assimilated into its makeup. Now, Pedro <\/em>exists as a violent rendition of Tchaikovsky\u2019s Swan Lake, teeming with spent ammunition and devastatingly lethal frying pans. Also, it stars a sentient banana. <\/p>\n

Building a Flash cult hit into a full-fledged indie success<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cA lot of the original inspiration for My Friend Pedro<\/em> came from Flash games released around the year 2007,\u201d DeadToast developer Victor \u00c5gren tells me. \u201cThat’s when the original Flash version of My Friend Pedro<\/em> first started taking shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFlash games like Madness Interactive <\/em>definitely had an influence, but also Half-Life mods like The Specialists<\/em>,\u201d he continues. \u201cThe most influential game, though, must have been Rag Doll Kung Fu<\/em>. Sprinkle in a fair share of Max Payne<\/em>, The Matrix, and Equilibrium and you’ve got the core of the seed that later grew in to My Friend Pedro<\/em>.\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although the sources that inspired the original Pedro <\/em>span far and wide, the modern remake sought to build on its predecessor more so than to incorporate new influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost things in the game grew very organically and it was all about discovering as I went along,\u201d \u00c5gren explains. \u201cThe ‘secret spice’ of My Friend Pedro<\/em> was discovered in the Flash version of the game, which is the flipping-through-the-air-in-slow-motion-mechanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

This mechanic may seem ostensibly and exclusively aesthetic, but its primary purpose is to serve a performative function. According to \u00c5gren, \u201cThe idea was to make the player feel like a puppeteer in control of the movement of the playable character, rather than having the player just press a button to watch a cool looking animation.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the original Pedro <\/em>launched, this mechanic was what made it stand out from the saturated market of Flash shooters. It\u2019s no wonder, then, that when \u00c5gren began work on the contemporary Pedro <\/em>remake, this was the first detail he implemented into the game. \u201cFrom there I kept experimenting with various levels, guns and enemies,\u201d he explains. \u201cThe enemies ended up feeling a bit overpowered so it felt like some sort of dodge-maneuver was needed, and that’s where the little pirouette was born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pedro <\/em>has been widely celebrated for its ballet-like mobility style, with the pirouette becoming a core mechanic designed to dodge incoming fire. However, because Pedro<\/em>\u2019s movement mechanics are hyper-stylistic, implementing the pirouette necessitated more work on the mobility system as a whole. <\/p>\n

Juicing up the slo-mo acrobatic bullet ballet<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cSince I didn’t want the player to get stuck in a single animation while performing an action, I had to make sure all the moves could blend dynamically,\u201d \u00c5gren explains. \u201cThere isn’t really any smart system going on behind the animations. Most of the time it’s been a case of manually adjusting the bones of the character in LateUpdate to make them, for example, aim towards the cursor. It was a lot of tweaking a number, play to see the difference, go back to tweaking the number, play again, and so on. Today, with a bit more experience with Unity and 3D game development, I probably would have done things a bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On top of the mobility overhaul, Pedro<\/em> 2019 also implemented a whole new range of shooting features. \u201cThe split-aiming was something I always wanted to do,\u201d \u00c5gren tells me. \u201cAt first I wasn’t sure how to do it, but then I just tried the most obvious thing that came to mind, which ended up being what stuck in the game. I think coming from making games in Flash, I was just really excited about being able to use the right mouse button for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although fan reaction to split-aiming has been massively positive, incorporating the mechanic game came with its own set of trials and tribulations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile still figuring out the fundamentals of the game I remember having the bullets of the player and enemies travel a bit too slow to be pleasing,\u201d \u00c5gren tells me. The intent here was to make dodging easier for the player. \u201cAlso, I hadn’t figured out how to do reliable collision detection with objects that were moving too fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually I sped up the bullets and figured out the technical aspects and suddenly the game was a lot more fun,\u201d \u00c5gren continues. \u201cIn order to have faster bullets, but still giving the player time to react to incoming enemy fire, I had to spend some time tweaking the enemies\u2019 accuracy and reaction times.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pedro <\/em>remake also replaced the knife from the original game with a kicking action, which naturally begot a whole range of kickable objects. \u201cAdding objects to the world for the player to interact with was a fairly late discovery in making the game,\u201d \u00c5gren explains. \u201cIt started with the idea of being able to kick a gas canister into the air so that you could shoot it at just the right time for that classic action moment.\u201c<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter adding that I was just messing around with kicking other objects that I already had models for,\u201d he continues. \u201cOne of those objects was the frying pan. After playing with that a bit I wondered what would happen if you shot the frying pan in mid-air with the gas canister. It seemed like a fun idea to have the bullets ricochet to nearby enemies, so I tried that.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI recorded a GIF of that moment and put it up on Twitter,\u201d \u00c5gren adds. \u201cThe reaction to that GIF was the biggest reaction I’d seen so far. People loved it and it got me thinking about what other silly over-the-top objects I could add and how else I could use the kicking mechanic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding the right look<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On top of the fact that the Pedro <\/em>remake drastically improved on its predecessor in terms of its systemic makeup, it also implemented a radically different art style. In the original Flash game, the protagonist is dressed in full Matrix leather, whereas the new version features an aesthetic that combines parkour with some sort of sublime delinquency. <\/p>\n

\u201cFunnily enough there is pretty much no concept art for most parts of the game,\u201d \u00c5gren tells me. This is surprising, given the fact that Pedro<\/em>\u2019s aesthetic is unwaveringly confident in itself. \u201cSometimes there\u2019s a rough sketch, but usually, since I’ve been doing this as a solo developer. I never had to communicate my ideas to a team. So I just jumped straight into making the final thing.\u201c<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew this game would mainly be about the feeling of playing it, rather than how it looked,\u201d he continues. \u201cAnd again, since I was making this solo, I knew I had to choose how I spent my time and energy wisely. My main goal was to find a look that was easy to read and fast to make \u2014 but still stood out among other indie titles.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI decided to make all the environmental textures grayscale and tint everything with lights and post processing effects,\u201d \u00c5gren adds. \u201cThat way I could reuse a lot of assets and still make things feel fresh, but also ensure that the player and enemies always had a good contrast against the backdrop.\u201d
 
Amidst all the changes to Pedro<\/em>, there stands one feature which is almost entirely the same as it was in the original. \u201cAs I was wrapping up the development of the original Flash version of My Friend Pedro<\/em>, I needed some sort of tutorial helper to appear and help you progress through the game, and also provide some sort of weird, simple substitute for a story,\u201d \u00c5gren explains. \u201cI wasn’t very precious about how the game would turn out and thought \u2018bananas are easy to animate\u2019 \u2014 and so the banana was born.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt also turned out to be a good eye catcher when used in key art, and it signaled to players that the game doesn’t take itself too serious,\u201d he continues. And that\u2019s what seems to make My Friend Pedro<\/em> stand out: it’s more than just bullets and ballet. It\u2019s bullets, ballet, and sentient bananas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little over five years ago, an acrobatic Flash shooter called My Friend Pedro launched on Newgrounds. Developed by one-man studio DeadToast, this Matrix-esque amalgamation of bullets and bedlam quickly cemented itself as a cult classic, but was unfortunately lost in the bygone era of browser games.  Recently, however, My Friend Pedro received a massive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}