#ive been thinking of projects to maybe attempt learning game development

[sapphanimates]

yay :>

[anundyingfidelity]

I'M A RUIN — Soldier Boy (Part II)

Series summary: After the events of the Seven Tower, you present Grace Mallory a new secret project you're working on already to develop a cure to Compound V. The only problem? You need Soldier Boy for that.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader.

Word count: 2.5k.

Warnings for series: set after S3 (spoilers), some OOC!Ben, some depressed!Ben, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, slow-burn, language, PTSD, reader has Compound V (she's no Vought supe tho), Soldier Boy being an usual asshole, reader is a fucking liar.

Warnings on this chapter: Ben being a misogynist, talks about masturbation and porn, killing threats, Ben's POV in general is a red flag, death.

☕ if you like my writing, support me with a ko-fi !

get yourself in the taglist!

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII

tags: @k-slla

GEN MASTERLIST! — SERIES MASTERLIST!

Part II: Silence is Peace

The next day arrived fast, and again, you found yourself walking ready to have a conversation with the supe locked in the facility. A part of you was surprised he didn't try to escape yet, but Ben, on the other hand, was just letting things flow at the moment.

The heavy, metal door opened to let you in. The supe caught by surprise seeing you coming inside full of confidence at this time in the morning. A couple of armed men in black uniforms followed behind as they settled down some furniture in the empty area of the room: two small sofas and a coffee table.

His arrogant self knew those guns wouldn't tear a single hair off of him, but hey, he understood you needed to feel safe. So meanwhile, he decided to play along. He remained still by the bathroom door as you came closer.

"I didn't request that," he said once you stood face to face.

"Oh, I know. I did, it's for your therapy," you smiled, tugging the bag on your shoulder. The armed men finished decorating the cell, and they left with a loud thud of the door being closed behind their backs. "There's been a small change of plans. I will come by every day for one hour. Anything you want you will ask me first and if I approve, then I will bring it to you."

He smirked. Like if he needed to be bossed around by a fucking woman, he thought. "You sure have the balls to stand up on me like that."

"Like I said, I want to help you," you replied, making your way and sitting down on a sofa. "Please," you requested him with a hand to do the same and he followed with curiosity. You put the bag on the coffee table, taking out a notebook, pens, a folder, and a small zip bag containing the only thing he asked from you the day before. You left his reefer on the coffee table, putting the folder in your lap as you waited for him with a smile on your face he found unsettling.

Ben still didn't buy you or your intentions, but he sat down on the opposite sofa nonetheless. You had brought him something he asked from you, something he wanted and would calm him down for a little. Hopefully it wasn't going to be that bad. He only had to put up with the game of doctor-patient. In the back of his mind, he was also grateful you dropped the stupid white coat at the same time he found your attempt to fix him ridiculous. He didn't need to get fixed.

"Your guards ain't hurting me with those guns, you know that," Ben started.

"We have to try," you shrugged. "And you're still here, that has to mean something."

He rolled his eyes. Of fucking course he had to stay. There were a lot of questions in his head. He had to settle down for a moment. Things were different in the world, he needed to learn about today's tech and get a fucking good plan to get away with his shit. Who would he get to kill first? Still thinking about it. How would he escape? Probably could use some help to keep a low profile. Could you be that help, being the only human contact he figured would have from now on? Maybe.

"So how are you feeling? Did you have some sleep?" you asked.

"I slept enough, spent the whole fucking night jerking off," he spat. "That TV of yours now does have good porn some hours in the day."

With wide eyes, you wrote down after his answer.

"Alright. But tell me, how are you feeling?" you pushed, your smile long gone and replaced with a serious face locking your gaze to his own.

"Great, never been fucking better" he smirked and you shifted on your seat.

His green eyes started checking you all over for a second. The pencil skirt hugged your legs perfectly and the blouse was tight enough to show off the size of your breasts. The clothes yelling that you were expensive and valuable for the CIA, and most important, to Mallory. Soon he sensed the discomfort emanating from you as his gaze returned to your face. God, he loved doing that, but you sure were daring to get locked inside a room with him alone.

"You can tell me the truth, you know," you said.

"I can easily break your neck and explode this shithole if I want to," he spat back.

"You won't do that. You had the chance yesterday, today even, and yet here you are."

He thought you sounded so sure about that. Ben held your gaze. Neither of you dare to break eye contact. It was like you were challenging him to something he wasn't aware of just yet. He didn't like that, but he remained there, breathing deeply with a strong look on his face. You were right though, and he realised could find you a good usage besides the obvious fucking use for pretty girls like you. He might have missed a good fuck for 40 years but the little common sense on the back of his mind told him the porn channel was enough for now.

"Listen, I know you're not a bad guy," the words fell softly from your lips. "I know you didn't mean to harm those people in Midtown... And in order to help you I could use some information on how you feel every time the blast comes-"

He stood up abruptly, strong enough to move the sofa he was sitting some feet away behind his back and yelled aggressively.

"Fuck off, bitch. What the fuck do you know about me? I don't trust your kind and you're making my threat sound like a great plan now.

You held his gaze as he made his way towards you. You were a prey in his cage, but even if you were scared, he didn't sense any sign of it. Ben's big frame towered you, standing just inches away from the couch you sat on. The space was enough for him to kill you with only one hand but you never moved or flinched a second.

"If you touch me, just a single hair on my scalp, you're fucked."

"C'mon sweetheart, you're no match for me," he mocked with a smirk on his face.

"Novichok definitely is."

He tightened his fists with his lips on a straight line, and his heartbeat increased at the mention of that fucking poison. Meanwhile, you just sat down looking at him with a blank face and innocent eyes. For a moment, he was tempted to just kill you but he forced himself to calm the fuck down. He didn't want to black out again, he certainly did not want to become a fugitive. If he was going to do something, it had to be done well.

"Soldier Boy, it's okay," you got on your feet. His eyes followed your moves. "It's fine if you don't want to talk to me. I can't force you to."

He saw a strange sparkle in your eyes. Were you pitying him? He didn't need that. And when he said nothing, then you continued.

"You accepted the deal, and that includes therapy to help you get out of your trauma. And sooner or later, you have to talk to me," you explained, he felt like a fucking child being scolded.

"You want to fucking help me and spray me with Novichok at the same time," he groaned.

"We have to take our precautions. But trust me. I’d rather not use that on you, I prefer other ways."

"This is fucking crap," he mumbled through his teeth.

He watched you making your way towards the book shelf, leaning down to grab a couple of books. He took in the curve of your ass as you knelt, and he wondered if you were doing all that little show on purpose to test him. His jaw clenched once again at the thought of being played with false promises and a cure to his memories.

"I can leave, but I will come tomorrow," you tossed two books on the coffee table: one about PTSD, the other one about new technology for him to start educating himself on that. "Start reading those and write down in the notebook anything you have to say. It can be about the books, your thoughts, your feelings... Anything you want. I don't have to know unless you want me to."

If looks could kill, you were already dead. He still didn't trust you. He didn't understand completely why a stupid psychiatrist of the CIA wanted him to go through rehab. You were a woman, for fucks sake. Psychiatrists were old, wise, rich men back in his days, not expensive sluts.

He scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You're lucky I'm trying hard not to crush your bones right now, pretty thing."

"At least you're trying, that's improvement," you smiled cockily, pointing at his chest with a finger and you took your bag and belongings together, as if he didn't threaten to kill you like three times in the same conversation. "I will leave you now. Have a good lunch, Soldier Boy."

"Time of death 9:41 a.m."

The sound of the monitor disturbed your senses as the voice announced all over the place the death of yet another supe. You watched through the windows as two lab assistants ran inside the chamber to take out the lifeless body of the woman who had given her life to volunteer and assist the program. Anything for the cure, you remember her voice saying, even after she was warned about the possible effects. The worst of them being death. The contract stipulated it clearly and you told her to think twice before agreeing to take the third version of the Anti-V, although she hesitated a lot before joining.

You breathed out. The formula needed improvement, quickly. How many corpses had they taken out of there? You lost count already. You ordered Bianca, your young assistant, to note down all the details one day after the second death of a supe you witnessed, and for her to count them as necessary and at all cost. Arms folded on your chest, your jaw clenched, losing hope and feeling despair running through your spine. The discomfort of what had to be done to find a cure sometimes was too much of a burden. But sacrifices had to be done.

And speaking about sacrifices, you knew you had to get into Soldier Boy's head as soon as possible. The few other sessions you tried to talk to him were useless. The sixth one being today before lunch. A part of you was growing tired of faking it and pretending to be a psychiatrist, it really wasn't your field but you knew how to be one after many sessions, research, and medication on your own. Grace had taken care of your training years ago and this was just another mission with a huge impact and objective in mind: destroy Vought and Homelander, and then provide the cure to supes who didn't want their powers and give them the chance to live a normal life. People like you needed the cure, but first things first.

"Doc, the analysis of Blaze is updated," Bianca said, giving you the tablet to check the information on the supe that was collected.

"Thanks."

Blaze, or Electra Richards was her real name, was a low-profile supe for some time, and you had a secret track of those like her with some help. These kinds of supes didn't really represent a threat to Vought, so it was kind of easy to contact them and give them a possible solution with a warning written all over the place. When Electra was contacted, she had to think about it but eventually said yes. She was young and brave, but she never wanted powers. She had superhuman strength and healed in minutes, seconds even, her bones were indestructible, and when your people ran the proper tests on her she was healthy as hell. Pity that her body wasn't enough to take in the injection of the new Anti-V prototype.

You read the last notes your assistant typed on the supe's profile.

Cause of death: sudden cardiac arrest caused by ventricular fibrillation; failure in electrical signaling within the heart.

You couldn't continue like this, not anymore. Nine months and nothing seemed to work out. Some supes died, some of them quit the program, and you didn't really blame them for it. The failures were growing bigger than the small steps close to creating the final antidote. The process was becoming an endless trial and error. With a tired face and a sigh, you left the tablet on a desk and walked out making your way to your office.

You took out your cell phone and dialed Grace, walking around the room worriedly. You needed to vent or talk. Anything. And gladly, she picked up by the third ring.

"Is everything okay?" she asked on the other line. She knew you too well.

"I- No, it isn't. But you already know that," you breathed. "Another supe died on trial today. I don't know how many we have-" your voice cut off abruptly and you sighed, composing yourself after a moment. "We keep losing a lot of people..."

Grace exhaled. "It's part of the job. It's your project, you know it was coming when I approved to do this."

"That makes it even worse, you're not helping me," you replied with a playful tone. "I've been thinking- I would like to try the cure."

"No. We need you to focus on this."

"And when I get him, when I get Soldier Boy's blood? He already takes powers of supes with the blast. Should be easier."

"He's your safest option for now. You'll find a way to get it, I trust you. But don't make stupid and hurried decisions, just wait for the right moment," the lady scolded. You smiled a little, like if she was watching you. "About that, how's he doing? Is he cooperating?"

"Not at all, that's my other problem," you fell back on your chair ungracefully, your back hurting at the thought of seeing him again that day. "I am trying to get him to talk, even using my cards of dressing up like I'm a fucking slut with tight skirts and all, but he's really backing up. Besides he's a fucking dick," your words made Grace chuckle for a bit.

"All supes we have dealt with are dicks, especially Vought. But Y/N, you got this," her words attempted to make you feel better. "This is one of our best options to take them down for once. I know you've been working on this way long before you talked to me, and that's the reason I know it's gonna work, doing whatever it takes."

"Thank you, Grace," you mumbled from your heart. Disappointing her was not on your list, and you hoped it won't happen anytime soon. So you switched the topic of the conversation. "And how have you been?"

[foulfeast]

Deeply embarrassed to ask this, but I looked away about a month back and clearly missed something important; who is Pluto?

OH GOSH DONT WORRY! :] i havent added any info on them yet in my pinned either, i really need to. I actually just explained this to a friend on discord so ill just copy it w some small corrections. Heres the babygirl themself:

Tjey are a sorcerer in a world where like... magic is more treated as a science, just one that has for years been near impossible to control, replicate etc- incredibly unpredictable and ENDLESSLY complex. IT IS a collection of different energies that we dont have in our world, comparable to things like gravity, electricity, magnetism... idk what yet but i am working on it 🫡 ive been putting a bunch of finnshit in there so i think smth will at least be based on singing spells, so maybe some kind of a force similiar to vibrational energy? Vibration is smth that exists but a form of it that can change the physical aspects of smth or call to the physical elements/nature of smth- singing the ground into a swamp etc

And there is like a lot of lore starting to form about differemt eras of how people approached it - in short Pluto "grew up" on a version where people made an attempt to control it. They slid into a more modern thinking of "moving with it, communicating with it"- however, that is a bit surface level, and they still in actions do seek to control it.

They live in an old church like building- basically an old hospital, now a "town witches" home. Old people still come by to get help with things - so do some younger people who have exhausted other routes

(To be clear- it doesnt always work. Because of the whole unpredictability thing.)

However like... the last 30 yesrs people have moved more towards "modern scientific diciplines" like electricity, whixh is far easier to control

Magic is more powerful but only when successful

Modern sciences and old ones are NOT COMPLETELY SEPERATE! Magic could be ccompared to just electricity, igs just an exra energy in this world (there are different forms of it)

Like medicine & chemistry is closer to old sciences than the use of electricity

Pluto is a smooth charming motherfucker. Huge control freak and saviour complex, but they hide it well. Genuinely well meaning!!! A good person but deeply needy and it makes them capable of causing damage.

This is a lot of... me looking at nostalgia and how things were never fairytales, but there was still a sense of fancy to things when i was a kid - and in recent years it has made somewhat of a return, but i sometimes worry that that kind of nostalgia and openness can also be a way to regress. And then looping back to - how its also important to understand and parse past in a way that helps us learn from it, and take the good parts while mutilating the bad parts into a better shape, no matter how it hurts.

It is about time but "My Moon", a character whose design i need to fuck around with also brings an element of toxic codependency, where Pluto gets to act their chivalrous games and know things and guide someone and My Moon gets to stop growing and developing on their own as they get to always be saved.

So i guess thats still about time... two people who the time will pass by

Not as like, h8ing on tradition, on god, im someone who loves history and seeking answers in it. But like as an exploration of some of my experiences w wanting to regress to this state of helplessness and certainty of what has already passed. Maybe makes no sense :] ill work on explaining it better.

Allthough I wil say,if i ever do some full project w pluto, it will be more wholesome, at least on surface! There is a lot of love in their life.

[hotelbones]

Deconstructing New Games

There are a lot of misconceptions about The New Games Movement it seems. Everyone that talks or writes about the time knows that there is a history of the games being somehow formed to protest the Vietnam war and its military technologies, but really the specifics of the movement always seem to be changing with a new person’s story.

Here are some of the tellings of The New Games Movement:

From The New Games Book (1976)

“When Stewart investigated how and why people play together, he saw in games the potential for another such tool. ‘Changing games seemed to me to be a useful thing to do, a way to be, a set of meta-strategies to learn.’”

“I felt that American combat was being pushed as far away as the planet would allow, becoming abstract and remote. It suggested to me that there was something wrong with our conflict forms here.”

In 1966 the War Resisters League at San Francisco State College asked Stewart to stage a public event with them. Stewart created an activity that would let the players understand war and appreciate it by experiencing the source of it themselves. He called the event World War IV.

In 1966 pacifists and war protesters were opposed to warfare in any form and repressed their own feelings of anger. Stewart wanted to create a game that allowed them to express that aggression. Stewart created the game Slaughter to create an intense experience to release the aggression.

This is also where Stewart brought the Earthball from his experience in Army bootcamp training.

“There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want to push the Earth over the row of flags at that end of the field, and those who want to push it over the fence at the other end. Go to it.”

From these experiences Stewart conceived of “softwar”, the idea that people could design their conflicts to suit everyone’s needs. Stewart designed softwar as conflict which is regionalized, refereed, and cushioned. Which he made a point of making similar to sports.

George Leonard was interested in “creative play”: the experience of a player placed in an open environment and encouraged to use their imagination to devise new play forms.

George: “Sports represent a key joint in any society. How we play the game may be more important than we imagine, for it signifies nothing less than our way of being in the world.”

George and Stewart presented their new games and theories at the Esalen Sports Center in 1973

Around this time Pat Farrington joined the New Games movement and created the idea of the “soft touch” inspired by the “softwar”

“Games are not so much a way to compare our abilities as a way to celebrate them.” “I felt by reexamining the basic ideas of play, we could involve families, groups, and individuals in a joyous recreation experience that creates a sense of community and personal expression.”

The New Games tournament was to be held on two consecutive weekends on October 1973 in Gerbode Preserve. The New Games Tournament was the first public event held on the preserve.

The funds for the tournament came from POINT, a non-profit distributing the proceeds from The Whole Earth Catalog.

Anyone who challenged another to a weird event was encouraged.

What came from The New Games movement changed from something of a Vietnam protest into a therapeutic form of playing games that was deemed to therapeutically releasing the aggression from the players.

“The New Games is attempting to bring people into harmony with their environment once again.” As the preserve was left the way it was and people were free to explore the outdoor space.

While the thinking of New Games was not unique to the New Games Movement, it did begin to form as an event after the first New Games Tournament as Pat and Ray began to name themselves as New Games Staff

New Games started to be implemented in government parks as a way to modernize and bring more of the public out. The New Games staff also started going to low income areas to play such as Visitacion Valley in San francisco.

The first New Games Tournament was mostly white, middle aged, men. The second New Games Tournament was designed to bring people from many different backgrounds. The staff worked with various organizations to create more accessibility options such as free buses.

The second New Games Tournament left the New Games Foundation in a $25,000 deficit.

The third New Games tournament was inside of San Francisco and retracted the admission price. Now anyone could join and play without any restriction. From miscellaneous sources:

The New Games Movement wasn’t a collective of people, it was a line of thinking that came out of the 70s. A good example is looking at the Esalen Sports Center in 1973. This center had some people that are repeatedly referenced in relation to the New Games Movement, but it also had a lot of other people who were thinking about similar things such as Michael Murphy (Author of Golf in the Kingdom), football player David Meggyesy, sports coach Bob Kriegel and running coach Mike Spino. The program included a session of yoga-tennis, a demonstration of Murphy’s own version of Frisbee, tai chi and aikido workshops, a talk on the exploration of movement using hula hoops, and several of Stuart Brand’s games: Slaughter and boffing.  (Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970’s by Sam Binkley)

 “The Esalen revolution paralleled efforts in the Bay Area to come up with recreational forms that were aimed at the recovery of intimacy through games focused on ritual violations of social distance that called on trust, play, and bodily touching , often players who were not familiar with each other. These games infused the countercultural sense of play with a therapeutic project of self-development and learning.” (Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970’s by Sam Binkley)

“They’ve been called earth games, free games, and liberated games.” – NYT December 5

   “Some of them [the games] are brand new. Some of them have been played for hundreds of years. Many can be played competitively, with lots of opportunity for skill and strategy. Others have no object, really, besides getting people together and enjoying each other.”

“You can choose to compete because competition is fun, not because you’re concerned with who wins. If you’ve all played hard and enjoyed it, then you’ve all won. You can change the rules if you don’t like them. So long as you all agree on what’s fair, you can make the game into whatever you want it to be.” (Community valued over the game)

“New Games is for everyone who wants to play. You sex, age, or size doesn’t determine you ability to have fun. And if everyone keeps in mind that the people are the most important part of the game, then no one has to be afraid of being hurt.”

“All you need are a few of your friends and the desire to celebrate the day with play.“

Looking at some of the New Games:

Tweezli-Whop

In Tweezli-Whop two players pretty much just fill sacks and beat the heck out of each other (whopping) while balancing on a rail.  There is no winning condition with Tweezli-Whop, but maybe it’s easy to imagine a version of this game where people are trying to hit each other off of the rail. But, as with many New Games the rules are malleable and it suggests versions where there is no rail at all. It instead focuses on the whopping, and states that it is a terrific way to work out tensions. This is something that I am suspecting will show through many of the New Games, is ways for bodies to act out body movements and touch that are typically repressed from day to day.

Also its important to note that this game came from Wyoming, as many of the New Games came from a variety of different places. It’s interesting that the New Games took this game from Wyoming and made it one across the US that is now played in classrooms.

       Boffing

This is one that is mentioned most of the times Stewart Brand is mentioned in the New Games Movement. A boffer is a custom made object for Boffing. It looks kind of like a practice fencing tool, however it is custom for boffing. This activity also suggests that players have protective eye and ear guards as well. Then both people start to hit each other with the sword. I imagine this game becomes a bit more strategical as you play with each other; Dodging, parrying and more. After the rules have been described in the book, the original rules that were made for the game are given. This is so that the players understand that base of the game, but don’t feel pressed to follow the original, more strict rules.

In the original rules of Boffing, there are certain points of the body that give points to the players. This adds more built in strategy into the game.

Today, boffing has become the word associated with the physical weaponry battles of LARPing and soft-combat. This also seems to have created a culture of a lot of white dudes, interested in a sort of throw back to medieval historical appreciation. Here is a video that I think says a lot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyOk6dNuHY

        Schmerltz

Schmerltz is less of a game and more of an object. You take a sponge rubber softball, like one of the cheap ones you get with plastic baseball sets and put it inside of a tube sock. The game here is “Schmerltz Toss” which involves twirling the Schmerltz around underhand and then letting it go when it reaches a critical velocity. Then the person who it is being tossed to has to catch it by the tail. Unlike the normal game of catch, Schmerltz Toss asks the players to put a more intensive physical action into the throw, and with the irregular catching involving a sort of alligator snap it becomes more difficult.

There are two ways the Schmerltz continues to be used today. In camp extracurriculars, and as a continued legacy through Bernie De Koven. When schmerltz is searched on the internet, loads of summer camp websites come up, including missionary training camps as well. However, when finding websites where De Koven continues to keep the Schmerltz legacy going, he is referring to the object for games to continue being soft, instead of being possible hurtful.

Apparently, this was invented by a person named Peter Whitely who I can’t find anything about.

Stand-Off

This New Game does not require any equipment to be played and can be played anywhere. In this game two players stand on a surface the length of their arms and then put their hands together with the goal of pushing each other off. If someone moves their foot or changes their stance then the other player gets a point. If both people lose balance, then no one gets a point. The game is won when one player scores 2/3 points.

This game was said to be brought into form by a guy named Scott Beach and seems to be inspired by Aikido. The 70’s was a period where a lot of eastern culture was being appropriated into western life and thinking. Aikido was even written about by George Leonard who wrote one of the fundamental texts for The New Games Movement, “The Ultimate Athlete”.

           Flying Dutchman

Flying Dutchman is a game based on the ghost ship where two players hold hands and walk around a circle of other people holding hands. At one point, the pair will break through a pair of people. The broken pair will then join hands outside the circle, and the original pair will go inside. Then the two will race around the circle to reach the open spot as a replacement. Whoever is left outside has to break through and repeat again.

Flying Dutchman does what a lot of New Games do. It has the players using aggressive actions but with fun so that there is an understanding no one should be hurt. As players bust through the hands and run around they are getting out all of this pent up energy.

This one also shows up in a bunch of camping instructions. https://boyscouttrail.com/content/game/flying_dutchman-901.asp

     In all of this Bernie seems to fit in as someone theorizing and watching everything happening. Not as the origin of New Games, but simply the only person that kept the spirit and theory alive. In The New Games Book chapters are written that contain games, and the introduction discusses how the movement started, but Bernie has a section in the middle theorizing what he discovered from being a part of the movement.

In some ways, it feels like Bernie sees differently what other people saw in New Games. Where Brand saw a different alignment of thinking, Bernie seemed to believe that the games were pointlessly necessary. That none of it was for a purpose.

“Here we are together, to have fun. We’ve already dispersed with the sense of any other purpose. We have no need to prove anything in particular to anyone in general. We’re not looking to be therapized or taught or charged. We want to celebrate. We want to play.”

Bernie’s theory here, is that there is no goal in what everyone is doing. That everything is without meaning, for the sake of fun and without consequence. But really that feels short-sighted. These games were being played in order to allow the players to reframe their bodies and minds, and to understand parts of the world great. Some of those parts are just…other people. All of this comes through moving, thinking, and touching. Just because there is no commodity produced from play, doesn’t mean that it is pointless.

The other theory that Bernie writes here is about the play community, which he later takes into his book “The Well-Played Game”. This is the group of people that connect with each other through the reframing of the mind into the mindset of the game. This quote particularly recognizes this.

“When we find ourselves on one particular side, its not because we feel that one side is any better. We make separation so we can find a new union.”

   Something that is interesting to see in The New Games Book is instructions to help ease people into the mindset of new games. This is actually something I was a little worried about when designing my own games. How will people want to play them if they aren’t in the right emotional or thinking space?

These instructions give tips on the games from the book that aren’t too involved for the beginning, and how to interact with varying levels of people that may be interested in the games. For example, if someone is standing around watching, just invite them to play

This is cool, because this aligns with the thinking I have about making a game without rules. These new games are just descriptions of how one could play, and are not prescriptive.

 NEW New Games

 These were created by Robert Herbst as a way of creating utopias through the retro lens in order to reframe today.

 “means by which people could realize their own visions of living, shape their environment accordingly.”

 Interesting about New New Games, is that some of them are scores.

And just from having these scores on the same page as the New Games it becomes clear what a score does compared to a game. Scores points out parts of the world to its player directly, and then asks the player to act once they have considered what the score has informed them. Games create rules for the meaning to be completely derived from play, like an engine as Colleen puts it.

[i-just-like-commenting]

Star Wars rewatch,part 1: Episode IV, A New Hope

I’d planned to write this last week, but life got busy, so instead it’s my last little May the Fourth celebration! I’m also updating my project from my initial plan; I’ve heard the animated series The Clone Wars praised so much as connective tissue between episodes II and III that I’m going to try to watch as much of it as keeps my interest (it’s available on Netflix). My schedule is thus now:

IV (May) V (May) II (June) Clone Wars (June-September) III (October) VI (October) VII (November)

General Impressions, or the Movie on Its Own

Well, Star Wars: A New Hope holds up pretty well after all these years. I was first exposed to the franchise through Muppet Babies (no, really) and I can’t remember how old I was exactly when I saw all the movies; maybe 7 or 8? It’s an engaging and exciting adventure story with likable characters and a lot of world-building that manages to be immersive without being overwhelming.

That said, the technology hasn’t aged well – by which I mean the depiction of computers, not the special effects. They have big keys spaced far apart, with tiny screens. Oh, and at some point in the future we decided the best way to transmit files was manually? And copying files erases them? I suppose perhaps they were being jammed for the former, and trying to keep up the flimsy pretense of being neutral for the latter. Still, it’s all very seventies in terms of its computer technology.

There’s also no way this movie would be rated PG today, not with the charred corpses of Owen and Beru, or that severed arm in a pool of blood in the cantina.

The Special Edition Stuff

I definitely remember seeing the Special Editions when they came out in 1997 (I was 13 at the time). Seeing the films on the big screen, especially that opening as the Star Destroyer first appears, was amazing. But even then, I knew there were changes that did not work.

Twenty years later, it’s easy to see how much Lucas overestimated the quality of CGI at the time. Machines and things left blurry in the background tend to look pretty good, but living organisms, especially if they are close to the camera, do not blend well with the background at all and look horribly out of place. Comparing it to, say, Maz Kanata in Force Awakens and you can see how technology has come a long way. Besides, a lot of the additions are completely unnecessary. A few droids floating around with the Stormtroopers? A few aliens in the background? They work. But having things walk between the characters and the camera is disorienting and serves no purpose. Mos Eisley doesn’t look bustling, it looks like they set the shot up poorly.

Nothing is worse than the Jabba the Hutt scene, which left the audience I was back then completely cold. It is truly terrible, and you can tell that Jabba wasn’t initially supposed to look like what he did. (Side note: has anyone confirmed if the design of Hutts was completely ripped off from the Regul? Because I think they were.) It breaks up the flow of Luke and Ben’s transition to the Falcon, and having Han make a deal with Jabba rather than being on the run after murdering one of his minions (“We’re a little rushed”) meshes better with him being on bounty hunters’ hit lists in the sequel.

That said, I do like Biggs having a short scene with Luke to give a little more impact to his death, though I wish there was even more.

Continuity, Part 1: Relation to the Original Trilogy

I know Lucas made a lot of changes as the trilogy went on, but I can easily believe that he had two things planned from the start. The first is that Han and Leia were going to end up together. While Luke has an obvious crush on Leia, and she’s fond of him, the banter between her and Han is more typical “romantic interest” writing. It’s also obvious that, for all of their hostility (he resents her class status, she resents his feigned mercenary attitude) they take a liking to each other pretty quickly. Han’s “Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her” is absolutely real, as is Leia’s admiration of his courage (as he leads what could be a suicide charge, something he mocked Luke for earlier). Given that she isn’t as despondent over Han leaving as Luke is, and her remark that “I knew there was more to you than money,” it’s safe to say that her “I wonder if he really cares about anything. Or anybody,” was more an attempt at goading him into action than sincere dismissal of his character. Plus that wink. 😘

I played a little game of adding “married in the future” to a lot of their snarky lines, including Han telling Leia to “Get on top of it!” in the garbage chute. It made me giggle. I am so immature.

The other plot development that complements this film nicely is Darth Vader being Luke’s father. Alec Guinness’ acting, the way he won’t meet Luke’s eyes, gives a strong impression that he’s hiding details from him – which it turns out he was. And of course the conversation between Beru and Owen becomes all that more sinister in retrospect:

Aunt Beru: Luke's just not a farmer, Owen. He has too much of his father in him. Uncle Owen: That's what I'm afraid of.

The first time through, Owen comes across as simply a worrywart, concerned that Luke will die the way his father did if he ever sets foot off the farm. But if he knew that Anakin Skywalker had gone to the Dark Side, was one of the worst villains the galaxy, well yeah, he’d be very afraid that Luke resembled his father and want to shelter him from any chance of learning of the Force.

Continuity, Part 2: Relation to the Prequel Trilogy

That said, the relationship between Owen, Beru, Anakin, and Obi-Wan would make a lot more sense if Owen wasn’t Anakin’s step-sibling who he met only once. The convoluted connection between Luke and his aunt and uncle in the prequel undercuts everything in this film. How can Beru be an expert on Anakin’s character? Why is Owen resentful of Obi-Wan taking Anakin away if he only met him long after he became a Jedi?

If I’d been writing the prequels, I’d have made Beru be Anakin’s decade-older sister (allowing them to preserve his miraculous birth if they really wanted to go that way) and Owen her boyfriend who wants to buy her freedom and treats Ani like his little brother. Beru would be close to Anakin and Owen would have been around when Anakin left. It would raise the emotional stakes of them losing Anakin to the Dark Side a lot, too. Though maybe this is something Clone Wars tried to fix? I guess I’ll see.

After rewatching this film, I do actually buy that R2D2 secretly knew everything that was going on, while C3PO had his memory wiped. There are gaps in C3PO’s memories (he’s been in “several” battles, “I think”) and R2 obviously knows who Ben is, and again there’s a bit of an exchange between them like Obi-Wan suspects something is up.

There is one thing that the prequels do explain – why is Vader so hesitant when fighting Ben if he’s such a powerful Jedi? Well, he knows how it ended last time (with him having severed limbs at the edge of a pool of lava) and he’s being cautious.

Continuity, Part 3: Relation to the New Films

“If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical reading of this station, it is possible, however unlikely, they might find a weakness and exploit it.” And thus an entire movie was born. I don’t think I needed to have this “plot hole” filled in, but it worked out into a pretty good story, even if I desperately wanted more time to get to know the characters (who are pretty flat).

Obviously there are parallels between A New Hope and The Force Awakens, though not as much as people like to claim. TFA borrows from all the original films, and it’s impossible to draw direct parallels between the characters. Sure, Rey is an obvious fill-in for Luke, and Kylo Ren for Darth Vader, but Vader never captured and tortured Luke; they don’t even meet in this movie, which was probably according to Ben’s plan, separating himself from the group and luring Vader away from encountering his son. Beyond that, parallels start to break down. Person who sends off plans and gets caught by the villains? Leia and Poe. Only Leia wasn’t the one to destroy the Death Star…Duo who wind up stumbling on to the hero after being separated wandering in the desert? R2D2/C3PO and BB8/Finn, but C3PO didn’t defect from the enemy forces and free Leia at the start of the film, nor was he Luke’s love interest. Han is Han I suppose and Leia is General Dordana, and maybe Maz is Ben…? There’s a lot more originality to TFA than people want to give it credit for.

Conclusion: Bring on the Droid Revolution

DROIDS ARE SLAVES. That was the big gut-punch of watching it this time around. Like, how did I not see how horribly mistreated they are? They’re sold on market, wear restraining bolts, can have their memories wiped at their owner’s whim, or even “deactivated,” a fate C3PO clearly fears as much as a human would death. The cantina owner is bigoted against them, declaring that “We don’t serve their kind” and throwing them out of his establishment. Even C3PO’s attitude reflects a life of slavery: “We seem to be made to suffer, it’s our lot in life.”

Everything about droids is coded for them being an oppressed underclass, yet this has never come up in the films, ever. Are we supposed to be cool with it because they’re machines? They’re obviously sentient, though, and meant to be sympathetic. We spend a lot of time with R2 and C3PO before we even meet Luke, and them splitting up accomplished nothing other than character development.

They’re also obviously capable of emotion as well as intellect. I wasn’t joking when I said R2 and C3PO are the purest ship, they really are. C3PO is a classic tsundere character, claiming he doesn’t care about R2 right up until his counterpart is injured in battle, when he offers to sacrifice his own parts to save him. Seriously, I suspect “counterpart” is just droid for “life partner.” It may not be sexual (they’re gonadless robots for crying out loud) but it is true love, and I now ship it.

[aurelliocheek]

RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion

Richard Löwenstein about why releasing for Amiga almost makes sense.

What is the driving force behind someone who is developing games from an almost dead genre on a hardware platform which seems to have died about 25 years ago? Because that’s what I did! I released a horizontal scrolling shoot’ em-up called RESHOOT R on Amiga end of May 2019.

I invested roundabout 2,000 hours of a precious lifetime into developing. To understand the reasons behind this decision, let me rewind the calendar to the mid-1980s – a period where electronic gaming was, ­although in its infancy, already experiencing its first big transition. The first wave of consoles was being followed by more versatile programmable home computers, which lowered the entry-level for potential software architects massively. Everyone could now learn how to make games.

This is the time when my career in game development started. In 1985, at the age of 15, I finished developing Twinky goes ­hiking, the first of several successful ­commercial releases on the most classic of computer hardware platforms, the ­Commodore 64. Other titles like Persian Gulf Inferno followed. My career as a developer ended in 1991 when several loose contacts to magazine publishing houses strengthened and I was given the chance to become a member of the team of Amiga Joker, Germany’s leading games magazine by then.

Joining the editorial staff meant a great opportunity but also killed my game ­developer ambitions since both jobs are very time consuming, and I preferred to focus. Back then it was clear that I would not finish my most ambitious games project at that time: an elaborate shoot’ em-up for the Amiga-platform, an action game in the classic R-Type-style. It should have been a lighthouse project, a game more beautiful and faster than comparable products at the time.

RESHOOT R is designed to read map-files created with “Tiled“ and restart at the edited position immediately. That lowers turnaround times while designing and testing significantly.

A new market emerges Fast forward to the summer of 2015. When I cleared up my cellar, what emerged were several Amiga home computers I had ­retired by the end of the 90s. One of them contained the source code of my old shoot’ em-up-project, which I had buried in 1991. As fate would have it, at the same time I wrote some pieces about the flourishing market for new games releases on the ­8-bit-platform Commodore 64. Like vinyl and vintage cars, old games ­machines ­seemed to gain attention. Several indicators hinted for an emerging situation: mainly the growing number of retro related exhibitors at gamescom, and an increasing number of new games releases of professional quality not only on Commodore 64, but also on other platforms like Amstrad/Schneider CPC. My favourite vintage games platform – the Commodore Amiga – did not get its share of new releases though. That seemed strange because it used to be the most popular games platform in the very early 90s in Europe. It’s said to have sold about five million units in the EU-territory, still has loyal followers, and is very popular within the demo scene.

I assumed that it’s comparably elaborate to develop games for Amiga, so much so that a classic one man show – common constellation on ­older ­8-bit-systems – can hardly handle the job. The Amigas 16-bit-technology, though antique by modern standards, ­already ­enables quite sophisticated content. It takes trained specialists to take care of design, coding, pixels and music if the result was to be on par with the best games released in the heydays of the Amiga. Also, the Amiga was not very popular outside of ­Europe and therefore – unlike the Mega Drive – cannot confide on momentum from US- and Asia-based developers.

It felt like it was time to change that. I felt the fever for coding returning, decided to revive my old source code from 1991 and maybe develop it into the fully fleshed game I had envisioned about 25 years ago. Such a project is time consuming and not to be finished within a few hours. I ­calculated with an investment of three hours a day, four days a week, six months minimum. Such an enormous additional burden on the time account could not ­easily be ­reconciled with a regular job and a family. My approach: night shift. Get to bed at 10pm; wake myself at 2am; develop several hours undisturbed; return to bed and wake up with my family. Sounds crazy and it maybe is, but it works. But why, you may ask. The answer is simple. Passion. The implementation of a lifelong dream. I want to prove to myself that I can develop a high-quality Amiga game and maybe gain some attention and recognition. July 2015 marks the beginning of my project of heart.

RESHOOT R runs on the classic Amiga-models A1200, A4000 and CD32, as well as compatible emulators and recent Amiga-clones like Vampire V4.

Retro platform, modern tools Very quickly I realised that Amiga development no longer works like in 1991 for me. In recent years I managed a couple of ­iPhone developments and learned how to use modern software tools such as Xcode and Unity on Apple Mac. The Amiga can’t handle common features, like multiple monitor setup or version control. Therefore it was clear that I had to setup a cross-development system. My main tools:

iMac. The built-in Internet connection has to be mentioned, because in 1991 this was not yet available. Gathering and sharing information is so much simpler today!

Xcode. Mainly works a comfortable code editor with version control, code completion and text highlighting; features not yet invented in 1991

FS-UAE Amiga Emulator. Almost 100 percent compatible to the real hardware. Extraordinary built-in debugging capabilities

ASM Pro. Classic tool running on Amiga. Translates source code into pure and fast machine language. Switched to VASM-cross-development tool recently

Tiled: A very common map editor for all kinds of 2D-games. Allows comfortable placement of tiles and objects in separate layers. Code on Amiga read and interprets Tiles’ XML-data-exports for use in RESHOOT

Commodore Amiga 1200. Real retro hardware used to test code regularly. File transfer between iMac and Amiga works with SD card which both systems can read and write

Another integral part of the development environment is a virtual hard drive partition, which the iMac and Amiga both can access to share source code and data files. Some few self-written keyboard macros automate the interaction of Xcode on the Mac and the tools on the Amiga emulator. One press of the F1-key stores source code, activates FS-UAE, loads source code into ASM Pro, compiles and executes. This takes about one second. On the real retro hardware this would take approximately 30 seconds. Turnaround times of 1991 and 2019 cannot be compared.

RESHOOT R is available as digital download, in two CD-ROM-editions and even on classic 3.5 “disc shown here. Prices go from 29 to 54 Euros. Go to www.amigashop.org.

After establishing a working development environment, it took me some time to get back into thinking in Assembler ­language. To me, Assembler is still the ­purest form of coding because of it’s logical approach and direct access to the hardware. It’s fast, too. Much faster than anything if one knows how to handle it. The price for speed: Compared to C++ or C#, Assembler code looks rather abstract and unreadable, because it mainly consists of commands which provide memory access, logical operators and branches to control program flow. I should add that a dedicated game development environment comparable to Unity actually exists on Amiga, albeit much simpler. Also, like today’s ­modern operating systems, the Amiga OS provides libraries which handle visual, aural and input/output operations. But on classic hardware, processor cycles and memory are very precious. The ­Amiga libraries slow code down considerably, game development environments alike. Almost no reasonable games on the Amiga makes use of such features.

For my game it was ine­vitable to draw and move pixels as fast and memory-efficient as possible. I, therefore, did what most Amiga coders did in the heydays of the machine: switch off the OS and write custom code which fits the game like a glove. That’s what you need to do, if you want maximum performance on a 14 MHz machine with 2 MB of memory. These are the specs of the Amiga 1200, which is my favourite iteration of the Amiga-family and therefore became my target platform. I love this machine because of its elegant case containing considerably more processing power than the earlier Amiga models 500, 1000 and 2000. It was released just a few years prior to Commodore demise and therefore – like its console-cousin CD32 – did not manage to gain the same market share as the Amiga 500. Because of their versatility, the ­Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32 seem to be on the rise now though. Prices for used models currently go through the roof.

The 2019 release RESHOOT R shows its creators have learned their lesson. It sets its focus on smooth gameplay with just some minor modern modifications. This resulted in very favourable reviews from Youtubers and the specialist press.

Don’t innovate too much At this stage, it occurred to me that – while I grew back into the code – I could ­modernise the game design. Why not incorporate new elements not seen before on Amiga? One idea was to add twitch gameplay with an endless structure. I imagined a kind of endless reaction test, fast and fluid as the Amiga classic Silkworm, mixed with ­elements of Japanese bullet-hell-shooters. The player’s survival would not be divided into many short chapters. Instead, there should be only one level and even a ­single life. Once the player’s spaceship hits an invader or a bullet: Game Over, score billing and new attempt. Just like Flappy Bird. That would be an interesting new alternative to Apydia, R-Type, Thunderforce IV, Last ­Resort and other classic horizontal shooters from the 80s and 90s that I found so intense and exciting.

It took me one year to finish ­developing RESHOOT – a game which I had started to work in the early 90s and which got its release in August 2016. It was not the high-quality shoot’ em-up I had in my brain at first. But it was proof that I can finish such a project. That seemed sufficient, especially as so many comparable projects fail to reach the finish line. RESHOOT was released physically on CD-ROM, simply because I wanted to feel the satisfaction of being able to touch the fruits of my labour with my hands. Within one year of development I learned a lot. So much so that, even before sending the ISO-image to the ­CD-ROM duplication facility, I started to work on a follow-up project. This was going to be the lighthouse project I had originally envisioned. I already had given birth to its name: RESHOOT R. The intention of the “R “mainly was to ignite discussions within the community about its meaning. I decided to invite the community to become involved in the development. Let people join the process, that means a serious investment of time and energy, but it’s important to gain attention. Also, this way I gathered feedback from RESHOOT-beta-testers very early and therefore knew I’d better change the game design for RESHOOT R fundamentally.

With RESHOOT, the intention was to use the basic shoot ‘em formula as a frame for mainly modern game design elements. This worked only partially. The endless gameplay got no love from the retro community. Therefore RESHOOT R got a total redesign. I planned it as a classic horizontal shoot’ em-up with a just handful of modern details, and focus on visual effects never seen before Amiga. The plan: classic stage-based structure with rising difficulty level, power-up-weapons, lots of change of pace, and narrative elements leading to a dramatic climax.

The 2016 release Reshoot tried to marry classic shoot’ em-up gameplay with modern elements. It rather failed. Customers seem to prefer old-school elements in games on retro platforms.

No more one-man-show Collaboration with pixel artist Kevin Saunders from Australia was a given. He did great work on RESHOOT and proved that he is a reliable guy. This is not to be taken for granted in a development scenario which is mainly driven by passion, not money. One of the main challenges while developing RESHOOT and RESHOOT R was to find and lead people who can actually pull through, who do not flake away after a couple of weeks or at the slightest sight of any obstacles. Kevin and I discussed visual ideas and quickly decided to ditch the very abstract and clean design of RESHOOT and instead go for a comparably natural ­approach, combining the fluid animation of 3D-rendered objects with the distinctive look of hand-crafted pixels.

The simultaneous use of music and sound-fx was inevitable. One needs to know that it was not common practice in the Amigas early years and is still difficult to implement nowadays since the Amiga only has four sound channels and can mix sounds only with severe constraints in the visual and gameplay department. But our ears are so used to a modern hearing experience, that anything less would not sound acceptable in 2019. To keep the music pumping while player projectile whoosh over the screen and the boss warcries after taking another hit, took weeks of detailed work.

Project leader Richard ­Löwenstein uses modern tools to develop a game for a platform which essentially debuted in 1985.

Also, the switch to a different kind of music proved to be very important for the enhanced experience that RESHOOT R provides. I ditched the unconventional chiptune-music of RESHOOT for a ­modern, fast pulsed musical accompaniment of very high technical quality, comparable to what you would expect to hear on modern hardware platforms. A quarter of system memory was reserved just for audio use. This way the digital samples, which the Amigas Paula-customchip reads from memory and outputs through its four ­audio channels, would sound natural and not scratchy like is so often the case in Amiga games.

While talking about music, I need to mention gamescom 2016 and the importance of attending such gatherings. It was this visit that laid the groundwork for the audio experience. While showing RESHOOT to the public audience, I got into talks with Martin Ahman. Martin is a DJ and composer interested in electronic music. He told me how keen he is to, once in a lifetime, have one of his pieces in an Amiga game. He did not have any Amiga related releases on its curriculum vitae at that time. But he convinced me that he knows what it takes by sending a piece which was pretty close to what I had envisioned. It all resulted in audio tracks which not only drove the gameplay forward but which were so good on their own that prior to release, we decided to produce a separate Soundtrack-CD with remixes from the German Remix Group and others. Like Kevin Saunders, Martin Ahman is aware of the limitations of classic hardware and creative enough to work around them for the best possible performance.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion through visual layering and move dozens of objects at the same time, with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM under the hood.

Three years in the making It took me a while to enhance and modify the existing RESHOOT-Engine to cope with the many additional elements planned for RESHOOT R: I wanted narrative breaks, a diversified and sometimes surprising ­attack choreography, and parent-children-related objects which can be multiplied and combined to form bigger boss-like objects. One of my main goals was to add full screen perspective scrolling to enhance the illusion of visual depth. This has never been done in Amiga game before. The Amiga does not contain any 3D-capabilities, no scaling or texture mapping. Only a very simple GPU called “Copper“ can switch video characteristics at segments of each scan line. Therefore all perspective visual effects need clever coding since they must only use a minimum of CPU cycles while adding a maximum of visual impact to the experience. Doing this while drawing up to 100 moving objects on screen and keeping a steady 50 Hertz framerate proofed to be a very special challenge. Even down to optimising single bytes within data structures and counting CPU cycles for maximised performance within program loops.

One year after the initial development started, the engine was ready for its public debut at gamescom 2017. I showed one playable level and gathered a ton of feedback and ideas. It took another two years to implement the best proposals. One of the most important modifications concerns the collision system. It now mirrors the hitbox-based behaviour found in modern shoot’ em-up-games on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch. The added particle system not only looks nice, but it also helps distinguish cosmetic background graphics from collidable stuff. The extra weapon system now not only rewards persevering ­players, who remember and collect power-ups, with ­enhanced destruction ­capabilities; but it also incorporates an ­innovative shield ­function for the players ship: The hit of an enemy bullet only takes away one ­power-up, unless the ship returns to its ­basic configuration and a bullet hit is fatal. All these modifications add tremendously to the game-flow and playability ­experience.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion and move dozens of objects with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM.

Community and media seem to agree. Favourable comments from Youtubers, ­excited reviews in specialist magazines and a number of editorial pieces – one of which was aired on the German public TV-channel ZDF – prove that RESHOOT R is not only a great Amiga game – it’s a great game on any platform. So it paid off emotionally. But did it work financially?

The Retro community is very creative, loyal and willing to buy games at prices comparable to modern console releases. The market is still very, very niche, though. This restricts sales but increases the visibility of each games release, provided its creators invest sufficient time and knowledge into community work and marketing. RESHOOT R is essentially a bet on the assumption that the retro games community grows like the vintage car scene did in the past 20 years. If this becomes true, the market might become serious in the near future. Games like RESHOOT R help create such a market. Because if they are good-looking and entertaining, they may be considered a viable alternative to products on modern platforms – not only for people who actually owned an Amiga 30 years ago but also for new customers wanting to experience this special retro flavour in the most authentic way. Future projects like Intellivisions Amico-console help putting the market into the limelight.

RESHOOT R is a retro community effort, with contributions from several experienced freelance artists.

So, my newly founded retro specialist label “spieleschreiber” has a serious foot in the door and the business model is well and truly scalable. Conversions of RESHOOT R for Steam, Switch and Mega Drive-platforms are on the cards. The next AAA-release for Amiga is already in ­development: The fast-paced vertical shoot’ em-up RESHOOT PROXIMA III will bring Truxton-like space chaos onto Amiga. The game debuted at the Amiga34-­exhibition at the 12th October 2019 and will be released in 2020. Extrapolating from peoples interest at the show, this will be huge. Maybe it will even be the first Amiga game ever that gets successfully funded by a Kickstarter-­campaign. Tanglewood, Phantom Gear and several other recent projects for the Mega Drive-platform have proven it can be done.

Richard Löwenstein Journalist and Game Developer

Richard developed games since 1985. At the end of 1991, he started an editorial career, became editor of Amiga Joker and PC Joker Magazine, founded a number of games magazines and wrote about games and its industry for several leading media outlets. In 2015 Richard returned to game development, ­re­leased RESHOOT in 2016 and ­RESHOOT R in May 2019. More at www.spieleschreiber.de.

The post RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion appeared first on Making Games.

RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion published first on https://leolarsonblog.tumblr.com/

[bensopinionsonvariousthingsblr]

So what are my favorite games Part 1

So just to make things clear i haven been writing 1.because this is actually my second attempt at writing this i accidentally closed the tab the first time, uh and i only lost a few hours of work. and 2.because I’ve been working at my job a lot more frequently as of late. anyway, i could probably write an entire full length essay on all of these games but I’ll try to shorten things up, oh yeah uh some games on the list might not be that good, as I may include a game from my childhood that i have fond memories of, but maybe wasn’t as good as i remembered it, anyway its a top 10 so lets begin.

First of all id love to start with some outside looking in, all these games are incredible to me and i would love to put them in the top 10 but i couldn’t, if you want to hear my opinions on them (wow thanks, you actually care) you can ask me on twitter and ill do my best!

15.Sonic Generations                                                                                              14.Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege                                                                      13.Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Platinum (Waterpark&Zoo DLC is amazing)                12.Splatoon 2 (specifically the Octo Expansion, that was really good)                    11.Hyrule Warriors Definitive Edition (Def. edition because its portable with good FPS and the extra 3DS content)

OK then Ill get started now :3 Thanks a TON (and I mean it I appreciate amy support i get or constructive criticism) for reading it!

Number 10: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess                                              Developer and Release year: Nintendo, 2006/2016 remaster                                What it can be played on: Gamecube/Wii/Wii U                                                                                                                                                                                              The Legend of Zelda is my favorite game series of all time, thats obvious if you know anything about me, and twilight princess is one I’ve played more recently, and from the start you notice Twilight Princess is definitely going for that early 2000′s edgy tone (is that a coincidence or an actual trend, i dunno i was really young in 06 so...) which works fine, and its a really long game, I mean I spent a week or two beating it, that being said i had work and other things going on at the time, but any way it has been said by many more before me, that it is basically an edgy, long,Ocarina of Time remake with motion controls....and they aren’t wrong, though i have called it edgy but i think its more...dark i guess? any way i actually like this better than Ocarina of Time, before you assault me i loved Ocarina of Time, i just tried to put as few Zelda games on the list as i could, and i just enjoyed the Twilight Princess story, characters, and length a bit more, but back to the remake opinion, i sort of agree yeah, but i thought the mystery around Midna and Zant and the Twilight realm, and the mirror, were all something that sets it apart, so in the end i enjoyed it a lot.                                                                                                                                                                    Favorite Part(s)? Arbiters Grounds. AW MAN, I love the Arbiters grounds, the sneaking, the spinner, the boss, the setting, all of it is on point, even the wolf part is unique with the poe chasing, and also the Final Ganon boss I liked all of it, though his appearance is a bit late i thought it was a fun, long, and intense fight

Number 9: Lego Universe                                                                                      Developer and Release Year: NetDevil and Lego, 2010-2012                                What it COULD ( :( ) be played on: PC                                                                                                                                                                                                              IM GONNA GO AHEAD AND SAY IT THIS IS A PICK COMPLETELY ON NOSTALGIA. Yes, this is one of my favorite games of my childhood and since i cant go back and re-evaluate the game because it’s closed unfortunately (except for some server projects that are happening) I’m talking about it completely based on my memories. One reason I love it is, the game’s story and lore at the time captivated me so much that i decided to write stories about stuff my character(s) did, which basically kick-started my interest in writing, as bad as those stories were, I loved the game, I had it’s official LEGO set (Still do it’s a nice little orange rocket ship that could be used in-game) and convinced my cousins to play it too, and we all enjoyed it, now of course i was an MLGPROBOI at the game so I had rare pets and the best weapons and a RED PARROT GUYS (I believe it was super rare and a big deal) so I loved being really cool n’ stuff, people would ask me to help them take out Butterscorch (that was the hardest boss in the game, a purple dragon, BUT SINCE I WAS AN MLGPROBOI I COULD DO IT MYSELF BUT I WAS NICE SO I HELPED) and even sell them secrets on how to do stuff, yeah i was a cool guy, cant relate now, I’ll never be as cool as my alter-alias Square Von Pancake :(                                                                                                                                                                Favorite Part(s): Me and my brother played i t together all the time and we loved the combat at crux prime the most, Crux Prime was the place with the hardest enemies and bosses and it was really fun to be challenged for a while. plus though it was out for only a year we still have countless memories of it, and they added Ninjago in it which I was SUPER into at the time and enjoyed having my character do Ninjago stuff...  

Number 8: Mount and Blade: Warband                                                                    Developer and Release Year: Taleworlds, 2010                                                      What it can be played on: PC, PS4, XB1                                                                                                                                                                                                      Mount and Blade Warband and its expansion Mount and Blade Napoleonic Wars, is one of my favorite multiplayer, and story games, the story mode is fun because you can do what you want, YOU choose the faction you fight with or not to at all, your class, your stats, and you can make some uh *beautiful* characters, the main story, i believe the objective is to become the emperor of Calradia, and rule the dang place and be rich and cool and have people like you, but I dont usually do that i just fight for factions, make money in the arena and at tournaments, and hire mercenaries and win against armies of 200 with like 30 people, its fun, now second talking point for me is the multiplayer, this is where Napoleonic Wars comes in, it is a fun shooter with muskets , or swords....or screw it you can play the bagpipes, that last one is totally not something me and my friends would do late at night. The Maps are super well designed as well and each look nice, and are usually not unbalanced. The third thing is the modding community, if you have this game, and don’t have the Anglo-Zulu war mod, that is just wrong, I mean it is so fun to get your friends and survive against large waves of zulu, or have some friends with the Zulu, it is just a unique experience for me, and other mods are cool to like the Civil War mod.                                                                                                                                                                    Favorite part(s): The Story mode is awesome in the way that it was a time in m life where i was without internet for a good month or two, but i had my laptop and the story mode kept me entertained for basically the whole time, also there are so many fun memories of the AZW mod and late night spent surviving waves.  

Number 7: Lego Battles                                                                                          Developer and Release Year: Warner Bros., Hellbent and Lego, 2009                  What it can be played on: DS                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Lego Battles is also a nostalgia pick, and also happens to be a Lego game, but the difference is it still holds up to me today, and i can still play it today...any way I love the gameplay, it’s a basic RTS but with fun themes like Wizards and Knights and Pirates and Aliens vs Humans, and each has a different play style, but not too different that it didn’t confuse me as a kid, I always liked the pirates and the aliens, I dont know why, but uh a drawback is that it can be too easy, at the time I wasnt fast or good enough to beat the AI with my first base, but i quickly learned if i just escaped after the destruction of the first one and just built a stronger second one, i would have more time because the AI couldnt find me and i would win pretty much every time, but despite that I enjoyed all the campaigns and loved the cutscenes and the extra characters like Santa and the Skeleton Guy (tm) and the Conquistador and the Alien Queen etc. and the way to unlock them was to find red bricks in the campaign levels, and/or collect studs which i thought was a fun challenge at the time, and today i sometimes like to go back to it for some casual RTS action                                                                                    ��                                                                                                                Favorite Part: The Gameplay, it’s simple, fun, and  doesn’t take too long, so if i just want to pick up a short game of the RTS genre I usually spring for this

Number 6: Star Wars Battlefront 2 Classic                                                              Developer and Release Year: Pandemic Studios, LucasArts , 2005                      What it can be played on: PC/PS2/XBOX                                                                                                                                                                                                      The fact that this comes in at number 6 on my list really doesn’t tell how much I love and appreciate this game, this is probably THE game I played the most in my childhood, and even still I play it online with the new servers (I disagree with you sometimes Disney, but thanks for those) This game is so replayable and I haven’t even played through the campaign yet, yeah, what I have done though is beaten all the Galactic Conquest stories, probably more than once. So for those of you that don’t know Galactic Conquest is a mode where each team starts with one ship and one type of troop and you fly around a map of the galaxy and take over enemy planets and defend yours and buy troops with the money you earn from the battles, and if the two ships run in to each others then they do a space battle, and Im gonna say it now i grew up playing the PS2 version with my cousins, but now I play the PC version and when we play with our cousins they play the XBOX version on Xbox One, any way the PC version is the best in terms of FPS and general gameplay smoothness, but the console versions have Galactic Conquest multiplayer which is something that we have spent countless hours playing, and in the end Battlefront 2 will be one of the best shooters of all time, and better than the new Battlefront 2 because that one is no where near good enough to share a name with the classic one, any way, i will always love Battlefront 2                                                                                                                                                                  Favorite part(s): Galactic Conquest and shout out to the maps Kashyyyk and Tantine IV, they’re the best

Hey thanks for reading through this whole thing, uh as you can tell this was super long, i planned to do all ten in this one but i figure it’s gettimg pretty long and I’ll just stop here and I’ll have 5 through 1 tomorrow, Thank you so much!                                                                                                                -Ben :3                                                                                                                       

[creatorkeystudio-blog]

Learn from your elders!

As you’e reading this, you are probably working on your first indie game. Or maybe you’ve released a couple, but you're still waiting on your big breakthrough. No doubt you are hoping for success. We all are. But did you know that even the most successful game companies have had massive setbacks throughout their history? I know you're thinking, “what does that have to do with me?? My game is going to be a hit, and besides, I'm not in the AAA space!” I know, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned from watching the big dogs occasionally getting roughed up a bit and turning tail to go home. Except they don't! They don't give up, they fight back. And they BOUNCE back, stronger than ever. And as you're starting your long journey into the world of a game developer, you can gather a lot from their lessons along the way. Let's take a look!

World of Warcraft is one of the most popular and well known games in history. At its peak, it has seen over 12 million concurrent players exploring its mystical world, but with creeping competition in the MMO space as well as a fan base that quite possibly grew tired of the same old same old, WoW’s player base shrank down to around 5.5 million players in November 2015. But in August 2016, the release of Wow’s newest expansion, Legion, created a surge in returning players and most likely some new players as well, leading Blizzard to claim that the game was experiencing its most healthy numbers in years. 

While most fans were probably not ready to bury their favorite MMO just yet, it's undeniable that in the ever-changing market, players come and go every day. The lesson we can learn here is true in any creative field. When times are looking bleak, you need to put your nose down and get to work, and don't lose hope. Every business will experience downturns, and that's okay. As long as you are playing for the long game, and planning for the upswing, you'll endure any setbacks thrown your way. 

Ahhh, GTA San Andreas. Very few gamers or developers would argue its success or popularity in the game industry. It has sold over 27.5 million copies, it is still widely considered the series’ highlight to many fans, and its impact on the world of video games can still be felt today. But then came Hot Coffee. I won't go into great detail here because most readers will be well aware of the history behind the Hot Coffee mod and its impact on the launch of the popular entry in the GTA series. But after having to reissue copies of the game for the PS2 and XBOX, and the ensuing legal battle and controversy, the developer was wounded. 

Rockstar president and founder Sam Houser described the period as the worst time of his life, and alluded to the impact it had on him personally. We all have to be aware that our games are an extension of ourselves, and that when we put our creations out in the world, we are putting ourselves out there as well, for all the scrutiny, praise, and everything in between. We hear all the time about the personal impact the development process has on us all, but we don't often see what it can do to us even after our games hit the market. But when Sam hit the ropes, he came back swinging. After the releases of GTA IV and V have cemented the developer’s place in history, Rockstar Games is standing taller than ever before. Hot Coffee could have burned the company to the ground, but it didn't. (Bad pun, don't care. Deal with it!)

Nintendo has been around a long LONG time, and has a storied history dating back all the way to 1889, when the company was created as a seller of playing cards in Kyoto, Japan. Despite a vocal crowd that seemingly would be happy to see the developer fall, Nintendo has earned its place in the history books as one of the biggest software and hardware manufacturers of all time, with over 670 million consoles sold and 4.2 billion games sold. Not shipped, SOLD. But even Nintendo has had its moments of failure. 

After the release of the Wii console in November 2006, Nintendo wanted to follow up their success with the Wii U, in 2012. Many still argue whether it was a  “failure” or not, but the console undoubtedly sold far less than its predecessor (13.5 million compared to the Wii’s 101 million). 

So we almost all know this, it is one of the most talked about issues in the world of gaming. Almost everyone has an opinion of the Wii U’s success (or lack thereof), so what can be learned from it? Well, I could mention again the prevailing advice to “always come back stronger, never give up, stay in the game”, blah blah blah, but there's more to take away from the legacy of the Wii and the Wii U. The biggest reason for the success of the Wii was its unique approach to opening up the gaming market to all ages, and even to bring new players into the fold that had never played a video game in their life. This led to a lot of first time gamers becoming Nintendo fans thanks to intuitive, simple controls, and games that were easy to learn, but that offered hours of replayability. 

The Wii U suffered a major identity crisis however. Many didn't understand what it even was, believing it was simply an addon to the original Wii console. The new gamepad, while a decent attempt at integrating touch screen mechanics into the games, was misunderstood and rarely used as effectively as it could have been. Then of course there is the lack of third party support, but that's a whole argument in and of itself. 

Where we can learn from Nintendo however, is not just in their ability to bounce back, but in the importance of always designing with the customer/player in mind. They have historically been very good at this, and the Wii U serves as a low point in the company’s success by forgetting HOW the player approaches the game. When you make your game, never forget to look at everything you do through the eyes of the consumer. 

Finally, I wanted to take a look at The Witness, the newest release from the mind of Jonathan Blow. After the release of the unique side scrolling platformer Braid in 2009, Blow could have done any number of things. He could have taken time off to explore the world. He could have cranked out a quick sequel reusing a lot of the original game’s assets for a quick cash grab. And he could have figured out ways to keep re-releasing the game with new mechanics and levels, until the world got absolutely sick of looking at the game. Instead, he took a huge gamble. He went to work on a new game, one totally unlike Braid in almost every way. 

The Witness released in 2016, nearly 7 years after Blow’s original hit. He invested every dime he had into the game’s development, and at times, it almost looked as if the game might slip into development hell. But he and his small team brought it to market after years of slaving away, unsure of what people would think ounce it was out in the wild. While sales figures for the game are a bit muddy and not confirmed, Blow himself has recently acknowledged that the game has been successful enough that he can continue to develop, and he has plans to move on to yet another unique project. 

I think the valuable lesson here is that sometimes, there is a lot to be said for taking the riskier path. Where Blow could have capitalized on the success of his first game, he chose instead to take a different route and create something entirely different. This could be seen as a setback, as he risked everything he had by taking a rather large gamble, putting his career on the line in hopes of another success. Sometimes balancing creativity and profitability is a juggling act, but it can pay off, not only monetarily. After all, we are developing first and foremost because we love to create, right? So don't be afraid to try something different. Don't feel the need to copy former successes, and be willing to go down un-traversed paths. 

At the end of the day, there are a lot of lessons we can take from the devs that have already found their success. And it's okay to realize that there will be highs and lows. What really matters most is that you stay in the game and never forget your passion. Find your inspiration everywhere, in the world around you as well as in the histories of developers that have paved the way for us. 

Do you have any favorite stories of devs that have had a major comeback after being dealt a blow that could have knocked them off track? If so, share them with me on Twitter, at CreatorKey Studio, @creatorkey. Thanks for reading everyone, and dev on! 

[aurelliocheek]

RESHOOT R: Driven by Passion

Richard Löwenstein about why releasing for Amiga almost makes sense.

What is the driving force behind someone who is developing games from an almost dead genre on a hardware platform which seems to have died about 25 years ago? Because that’s what I did! I released a horizontal scrolling shoot’ em-up called RESHOOT R on Amiga end of May 2019.

I invested roundabout 2,000 hours of a precious lifetime into developing. To understand the reasons behind this decision, let me rewind the calendar to the mid-1980s – a period where electronic gaming was, ­although in its infancy, already experiencing its first big transition. The first wave of consoles was being followed by more versatile programmable home computers, which lowered the entry-level for potential software architects massively. Everyone could now learn how to make games.

This is the time when my career in game development started. In 1985, at the age of 15, I finished developing Twinky goes ­hiking, the first of several successful ­commercial releases on the most classic of computer hardware platforms, the ­Commodore 64. Other titles like Persian Gulf Inferno followed. My career as a developer ended in 1991 when several loose contacts to magazine publishing houses strengthened and I was given the chance to become a member of the team of Amiga Joker, Germany’s leading games magazine by then.

Joining the editorial staff meant a great opportunity but also killed my game ­developer ambitions since both jobs are very time consuming, and I preferred to focus. Back then it was clear that I would not finish my most ambitious games project at that time: an elaborate shoot’ em-up for the Amiga-platform, an action game in the classic R-Type-style. It should have been a lighthouse project, a game more beautiful and faster than comparable products at the time.

RESHOOT R is designed to read map-files created with “Tiled“ and restart at the edited position immediately. That lowers turnaround times while designing and testing significantly.

A new market emerges Fast forward to the summer of 2015. When I cleared up my cellar, what emerged were several Amiga home computers I had ­retired by the end of the 90s. One of them contained the source code of my old shoot’ em-up-project, which I had buried in 1991. As fate would have it, at the same time I wrote some pieces about the flourishing market for new games releases on the ­8-bit-platform Commodore 64. Like vinyl and vintage cars, old games ­machines ­seemed to gain attention. Several indicators hinted for an emerging situation: mainly the growing number of retro related exhibitors at gamescom, and an increasing number of new games releases of professional quality not only on Commodore 64, but also on other platforms like Amstrad/Schneider CPC. My favourite vintage games platform – the Commodore Amiga – did not get its share of new releases though. That seemed strange because it used to be the most popular games platform in the very early 90s in Europe. It’s said to have sold about five million units in the EU-territory, still has loyal followers, and is very popular within the demo scene. I assumed that it’s comparably elaborate to develop games for Amiga, so much so that a classic one man show – common constellation on ­older ­8-bit-systems – can hardly handle the job. The Amigas 16-bit-technology, though antique by modern standards, ­already ­enables quite sophisticated content. It takes trained specialists to take care of design, coding, pixels and music if the result was to be on par with the best games released in the heydays of the Amiga. Also, the Amiga was not very popular outside of ­Europe and therefore – unlike the Mega Drive – cannot confide on momentum from US- and Asia-based developers.

It felt like it was time to change that. I felt the fever for coding returning, decided to revive my old source code from 1991 and maybe develop it into the fully fleshed game I had envisioned about 25 years ago. Such a project is time consuming and not to be finished within a few hours. I ­calculated with an investment of three hours a day, four days a week, six months minimum. Such an enormous additional burden on the time account could not ­easily be ­reconciled with a regular job and a family. My approach: night shift. Get to bed at 10pm; wake myself at 2am; develop several hours undisturbed; return to bed and wake up with my family. Sounds crazy and it maybe is, but it works. But why, you may ask. The answer is simple. Passion. The implementation of a lifelong dream. I want to prove to myself that I can develop a high-quality Amiga game and maybe gain some attention and recognition. July 2015 marks the beginning of my project of heart.

RESHOOT R runs on the classic Amiga-models A1200, A4000 and CD32, as well as compatible emulators and recent Amiga-clones like Vampire V4.

Retro platform, modern tools Very quickly I realised that Amiga development no longer works like in 1991 for me. In recent years I managed a couple of ­iPhone developments and learned how to use modern software tools such as Xcode and Unity on Apple Mac. The Amiga can’t handle common features, like multiple monitor setup or version control. Therefore it was clear that I had to setup a cross-development system. My main tools:

iMac. The built-in Internet connection has to be mentioned, because in 1991 this was not yet available. Gathering and sharing information is so much simpler today!

Xcode. Mainly works a comfortable code editor with version control, code completion and text highlighting; features not yet invented in 1991

FS-UAE Amiga Emulator. Almost 100 percent compatible to the real hardware. Extraordinary built-in debugging capabilities

ASM Pro. Classic tool running on Amiga. Translates source code into pure and fast machine language. Switched to VASM-cross-development tool recently

Tiled: A very common map editor for all kinds of 2D-games. Allows comfortable placement of tiles and objects in separate layers. Code on Amiga read and interprets Tiles’ XML-data-exports for use in RESHOOT

Commodore Amiga 1200. Real retro hardware used to test code regularly. File transfer between iMac and Amiga works with SD card which both systems can read and write

Another integral part of the development environment is a virtual hard drive partition, which the iMac and Amiga both can access to share source code and data files. Some few self-written keyboard macros automate the interaction of Xcode on the Mac and the tools on the Amiga emulator. One press of the F1-key stores source code, activates FS-UAE, loads source code into ASM Pro, compiles and executes. This takes about one second. On the real retro hardware this would take approximately 30 seconds. Turnaround times of 1991 and 2019 cannot be compared.

RESHOOT R is available as digital download, in two CD-ROM-editions and even on classic 3.5 “disc shown here. Prices go from 29 to 54 Euros. Go to www.amigashop.org.

After establishing a working development environment, it took me some time to get back into thinking in Assembler ­language. To me, Assembler is still the ­purest form of coding because of it’s logical approach and direct access to the hardware. It’s fast, too. Much faster than anything if one knows how to handle it. The price for speed: Compared to C++ or C#, Assembler code looks rather abstract and unreadable, because it mainly consists of commands which provide memory access, logical operators and branches to control program flow. I should add that a dedicated game development environment comparable to Unity actually exists on Amiga, albeit much simpler. Also, like today’s ­modern operating systems, the Amiga OS provides libraries which handle visual, aural and input/output operations. But on classic hardware, processor cycles and memory are very precious. The ­Amiga libraries slow code down considerably, game development environments alike. Almost no reasonable games on the Amiga makes use of such features.

For my game it was ine­vitable to draw and move pixels as fast and memory-efficient as possible. I, therefore, did what most Amiga coders did in the heydays of the machine: switch off the OS and write custom code which fits the game like a glove. That’s what you need to do, if you want maximum performance on a 14 MHz machine with 2 MB of memory. These are the specs of the Amiga 1200, which is my favourite iteration of the Amiga-family and therefore became my target platform. I love this machine because of its elegant case containing considerably more processing power than the earlier Amiga models 500, 1000 and 2000. It was released just a few years prior to Commodore demise and therefore – like its console-cousin CD32 – did not manage to gain the same market share as the Amiga 500. Because of their versatility, the ­Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32 seem to be on the rise now though. Prices for used models currently go through the roof.

The 2019 release RESHOOT R shows its creators have learned their lesson. It sets its focus on smooth gameplay with just some minor modern modifications. This resulted in very favourable reviews from Youtubers and the specialist press.

Don’t innovate too much At this stage, it occurred to me that – while I grew back into the code – I could ­modernise the game design. Why not incorporate new elements not seen before on Amiga? One idea was to add twitch gameplay with an endless structure. I imagined a kind of endless reaction test, fast and fluid as the Amiga classic Silkworm, mixed with ­elements of Japanese bullet-hell-shooters. The player’s survival would not be divided into many short chapters. Instead, there should be only one level and even a ­single life. Once the player’s spaceship hits an invader or a bullet: Game Over, score billing and new attempt. Just like Flappy Bird. That would be an interesting new alternative to Apydia, R-Type, Thunderforce IV, Last ­Resort and other classic horizontal shooters from the 80s and 90s that I found so intense and exciting.

It took me one year to finish ­developing RESHOOT – a game which I had started to work in the early 90s and which got its release in August 2016. It was not the high-quality shoot’ em-up I had in my brain at first. But it was proof that I can finish such a project. That seemed sufficient, especially as so many comparable projects fail to reach the finish line. RESHOOT was released physically on CD-ROM, simply because I wanted to feel the satisfaction of being able to touch the fruits of my labour with my hands. Within one year of development I learned a lot. So much so that, even before sending the ISO-image to the ­CD-ROM duplication facility, I started to work on a follow-up project. This was going to be the lighthouse project I had originally envisioned. I already had given birth to its name: RESHOOT R. The intention of the “R “mainly was to ignite discussions within the community about its meaning. I decided to invite the community to become involved in the development. Let people join the process, that means a serious investment of time and energy, but it’s important to gain attention. Also, this way I gathered feedback from RESHOOT-beta-testers very early and therefore knew I’d better change the game design for RESHOOT R fundamentally.

With RESHOOT, the intention was to use the basic shoot ‘em formula as a frame for mainly modern game design elements. This worked only partially. The endless gameplay got no love from the retro community. Therefore RESHOOT R got a total redesign. I planned it as a classic horizontal shoot’ em-up with a just handful of modern details, and focus on visual effects never seen before Amiga. The plan: classic stage-based structure with rising difficulty level, power-up-weapons, lots of change of pace, and narrative elements leading to a dramatic climax.

The 2016 release Reshoot tried to marry classic shoot’ em-up gameplay with modern elements. It rather failed. Customers seem to prefer old-school elements in games on retro platforms.

No more one-man-show Collaboration with pixel artist Kevin Saunders from Australia was a given. He did great work on RESHOOT and proved that he is a reliable guy. This is not to be taken for granted in a development scenario which is mainly driven by passion, not money. One of the main challenges while developing RESHOOT and RESHOOT R was to find and lead people who can actually pull through, who do not flake away after a couple of weeks or at the slightest sight of any obstacles. Kevin and I discussed visual ideas and quickly decided to ditch the very abstract and clean design of RESHOOT and instead go for a comparably natural ­approach, combining the fluid animation of 3D-rendered objects with the distinctive look of hand-crafted pixels.

The simultaneous use of music and sound-fx was inevitable. One needs to know that it was not common practice in the Amigas early years and is still difficult to implement nowadays since the Amiga only has four sound channels and can mix sounds only with severe constraints in the visual and gameplay department. But our ears are so used to a modern hearing experience, that anything less would not sound acceptable in 2019. To keep the music pumping while player projectile whoosh over the screen and the boss warcries after taking another hit, took weeks of detailed work.

Project leader Richard ­Löwenstein uses modern tools to develop a game for a platform which essentially debuted in 1985.

Also, the switch to a different kind of music proved to be very important for the enhanced experience that RESHOOT R provides. I ditched the unconventional chiptune-music of RESHOOT for a ­modern, fast pulsed musical accompaniment of very high technical quality, comparable to what you would expect to hear on modern hardware platforms. A quarter of system memory was reserved just for audio use. This way the digital samples, which the Amigas Paula-customchip reads from memory and outputs through its four ­audio channels, would sound natural and not scratchy like is so often the case in Amiga games.

While talking about music, I need to mention gamescom 2016 and the importance of attending such gatherings. It was this visit that laid the groundwork for the audio experience. While showing RESHOOT to the public audience, I got into talks with Martin Ahman. Martin is a DJ and composer interested in electronic music. He told me how keen he is to, once in a lifetime, have one of his pieces in an Amiga game. He did not have any Amiga related releases on its curriculum vitae at that time. But he convinced me that he knows what it takes by sending a piece which was pretty close to what I had envisioned. It all resulted in audio tracks which not only drove the gameplay forward but which were so good on their own that prior to release, we decided to produce a separate Soundtrack-CD with remixes from the German Remix Group and others. Like Kevin Saunders, Martin Ahman is aware of the limitations of classic hardware and creative enough to work around them for the best possible performance.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion and move dozens of objects with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM.

Three years in the making It took me a while to enhance and modify the existing RESHOOT-Engine to cope with the many additional elements planned for RESHOOT R: I wanted narrative breaks, a diversified and sometimes surprising ­attack choreography, and parent-children-related objects which can be multiplied and combined to form bigger boss-like objects. One of my main goals was to add full screen perspective scrolling to enhance the illusion of visual depth. This has never been done in Amiga game before. The Amiga does not contain any 3D-capabilities, no scaling or texture mapping. Only a very simple GPU called “Copper“ can switch video characteristics at segments of each scan line. Therefore all perspective visual effects need clever coding since they must only use a minimum of CPU cycles while adding a maximum of visual impact to the experience. Doing this while drawing up to 100 moving objects on screen and keeping a steady 50 Hertz framerate proofed to be a very special challenge. Even down to optimising single bytes within data structures and counting CPU cycles for maximised performance within program loops.

One year after the initial development started, the engine was ready for its public debut at gamescom 2017. I showed one playable level and gathered a ton of feedback and ideas. It took another two years to implement the best proposals. One of the most important modifications concerns the collision system. It now mirrors the hitbox-based behaviour found in modern shoot’ em-up-games on Xbox, PlayStation and Switch. The added particle system not only looks nice, but it also helps distinguish cosmetic background graphics from collidable stuff. The extra weapon system now not only rewards persevering ­players, who remember and collect power-ups, with ­enhanced destruction ­capabilities; but it also incorporates an ­innovative shield ­function for the players ship: The hit of an enemy bullet only takes away one ­power-up, unless the ship returns to its ­basic configuration and a bullet hit is fatal. All these modifications add tremendously to the game-flow and playability ­experience.

RESHOOT R is a retro community effort, with contributions from several experienced freelance artists.

Community and media seem to agree. Favourable comments from Youtubers, ­excited reviews in specialist magazines and a number of editorial pieces – one of which was aired on the German public TV-channel ZDF – prove that RESHOOT R is not only a great Amiga game – it’s a great game on any platform. So it paid off emotionally. But did it work financially?

The Retro community is very creative, loyal and willing to buy games at prices comparable to modern console releases. The market is still very, very niche, though. This restricts sales but increases the visibility of each games release, provided its creators invest sufficient time and knowledge into community work and marketing. RESHOOT R is essentially a bet on the assumption that the retro games community grows like the vintage car scene did in the past 20 years. If this becomes true, the market might become serious in the near future. Games like RESHOOT R help create such a market. Because if they are good-looking and entertaining, they may be considered a viable alternative to products on modern platforms – not only for people who actually owned an Amiga 30 years ago but also for new customers wanting to experience this special retro flavour in the most authentic way. Future projects like Intellivisions Amico-console help putting the market into the limelight.

The challenge is to create a 3D-illusion through visual layering and move dozens of objects at the same time, with only a 14-Mhz-CPU and 2 MB RAM under the hood.

So, my newly founded retro specialist label “spieleschreiber” has a serious foot in the door and the business model is well and truly scalable. Conversions of RESHOOT R for Steam, Switch and Mega Drive-platforms are on the cards. The next AAA-release for Amiga is already in ­development: The fast-paced vertical shoot’ em-up RESHOOT PROXIMA III will bring Truxton-like space chaos onto Amiga. The game debuted at the Amiga34-­exhibition at the 12th October 2019 and will be released in 2020. Extrapolating from peoples interest at the show, this will be huge. Maybe it will even be the first Amiga game ever that gets successfully funded by a Kickstarter-­campaign. Tanglewood, Phantom Gear and several other recent projects for the Mega Drive-platform have proven it can be done.

Richard Löwenstein Journalist and Game Developer

Richard developed games since 1985. At the end of 1991, he started an editorial career, became editor of Amiga Joker and PC Joker Magazine, founded a number of games magazines and wrote about games and its industry for several leading media outlets. In 2015 Richard returned to game development, ­re­leased RESHOOT in 2016 and RESHOOT R in May 2019. More at www.spieleschreiber.de

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