ALL FORMATS LIFTING THE LID ON VIDEO GAMES DESTROYED PAPER BEAUTY PROTOTYPES THE ALLURE OF RUINS THE FASTER WAY TO IN VIDEO GAMES TEST GAME IDEAS Issue 11 £3 wfmag.cc 11 72000 16 7263 97 ROGUELIKE ACTION AND PROCEDURAL PUNKS IN BLACK FUTURE ‘88 11 Subscribe today 12 weeks for £12* Visit: wfmag.cc/12weeks to order UK Price. 6 issue introductory offer Google Stadia: the first ad-funded game platform n arch, oogle finally put to rest all that this will be the way y take on this centres on the the rumours about entering the console spectators aspect of the definition magine watching world by not announcing a console at a game being played and wanting to ust die into it O all, but rather a game streaming serice f the prospectie player has to first pass through a called tadia registration process and then supply credit card details, he names an interesting one, and gies us a clue BYRON then that presents a number of hurdles that could about their ambitions for the serice ronically, turned NN- cause the player to simply gie up on the process t ust to oogle to find a definition, and the first entry that JONES doesnt make sense to hae the spectators subscribe in comes up is an athletic or sports ground with tiers of Byron has been in order to watch seats for spectators oogle isnt ust taking on the the games industry hat, then, if tadia takes the ouube approach for over 21 years, so and console world with this serice ouube used to be making games is in o subscription needed, ust click on a link, watch the the enue for watching people play games before the his blood. Follow him game for a while, and then play it inimum barriers, crown passed to witch and now oogle wants it back on Twitter: @xiotex. less choke points for players to bail, but also no clear he presentation at the ame eelopers route to how deelopers make money r is there onference was slick and impressie s somebody oogle is really a ery largescale adertising platform whos powered up his to play a game, only to hae ny content they produce or enable has one true to wait up to an hour for the system to update, followed purpose to funnel people towards aderts ien that by another wait as the game itself updates, the whole stadia or stadiums are where people go to spectate, getting straight into the game concept has an appeal that the serice allows you to play games is secondary en more impressie is the ability to post a link to to its ability to allow you to watch them the current state of the game, either to pick up later eelopers are likely to see earnings coming from or share with others iscoery is tough enough with adertising impressions and clicks rather than from a games, but the ability to send players straight to an subscription gateway his is fine, ecept in order to awesome part of your game with a link is mindblowing see large enough earnings to make this a iable s impressie as the presentation was, though, it left business model, those impressions need to be in the rather a lot of questions unanswered, some of them #11 hundreds of thousands y ouube channel has ery surprising gien the location and timing or me, , minutes of iewing time which, to date, has the largest omission was how we as game deelopers earned a meagre ust enough for a small meal for benefit from this serice and by benefit, mean, how two at conalds if we stretch it or small deelopers do we make money from it like myself, tadia is unlikely to be somewhere we can s soon as the tadia announcement was oer, go to earn a liing with our games social media launched into speculation mode, and one espite this, tadia still feels like an impressie idea of the theories was that tadia would be gated with uestions may linger around the details of how itll all a subscription business model can see why some work, both technically and financially, but all the same, might ump to that conclusion, but m less coninced cant wait to see whether oogle can pull it off wfmag.cc \ 03 Contents Contents 6 Attract mode Interface 06. Black Future ‘88 18. Playing in ruins he top oors the limit in he allure of shattered architecture a dystopian platformer in games 10. SkateBIRD 24. Project Starship X ony awks ro kater gets manic comic book shooter a feathered homage from taly 12. Judgment 44. Eighties distribution ocalising egas shady nentie ways games were shared akuza spinoff way back when 16. Incoming 50. The Bitmap Brothers rains, plains, and cowboy he makers of peedball and 50 stealth games enon profiled 04 / wfmag.cc Contents WELCOME Predictably, the release of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice has sparked another debate about the leel o difiulty in FromSoftware's games. As was the case with the studio's earlier titles – including Dark Souls and Bloodborne – Sekiro demands persistence and 18 precision. Mastering its combat and defeating its bosses requires hours of practice, and for FromSoft's fans, that's what makes them special. All of which might explain why, when asked whether the developer ought to have included an easy mode in Sekiro – as writer Dave Thier recently did – those fans respond with a certain level of annoyance, to put it mildly. The argument goes that easy modes would ruin the games' design; that FromSoft's output isn't for 'casual gamers'; that players should simply practice more. None of these arguments really stands up to much scrutiny. Suggesting that a game shouldn't have an easy 10 34 mode because it's for hardcore gamers is like saying James Joyce's Ulysses shouldn't be available as an audiobook because it's meant to be a Toolbox Rated challenging read. The original novel still exists in print; all the existence of an audiobook means is that the visually 28. Design Principles 56. The Walking Dead impaired or the permanently efining the difference between he inal eason proides a sendoff busy have a means of enjoying theme and design with bite Ulysses, too. Simply put, when games provide more accessibility options to players, 30. CityCraft 61. Hypnospace Outlaw everybody wins. inding fantasy in medieal ir fahren, fahren, fahren auf towns and cities der infobahn Ryan Lambie Editor 32. Source Code 62. Sekiro ecreate the blocksmashing action e die a lot in romoftwares of Breakout hadows ie wice 34. Paper prototyping 64. Left Alive ow paper and card can help you surial stealthemup game thats make better games best left well alone wfmag.cc \ 05 Attract Mode Interview ART ATTACKATTACK The sky’s not worth bothering with: Black Future ’88 a to oor th t n the distant future – the year How did development of Black Future ‘88 1988, where the clock has stood come about? since the nuclear fire hit society All games start as prototypes, but this one I has crumbled. Naturally, it’s up was special to me because I was using it to you, and maybe a friend, to to irt with the idea of coming back into climb a tower, shoot or slice everything in the games industry after burning out a few your way, take out the wardens defending years prior. The people that work in games Shades are optional, but thumping great different zones en route, and stop the will always have a special place in my heart, weapons are a must. architect running the show. He’s called and despite some bad practices from Duncan. And if you don’t hurry up, your triple-A publishers, I think that the people heart will explode. How’s that for narrative? who make games their living are the most Black Future ’88 takes the best of the inspired and passionate people I’ve ever world of roguelikes, blends it with the worked with, and I wanted to return to that Contras and other scrolling shooters of after taking a break for a few years. gaming’s great history, then throws it all lso, had really ust played the shit out together in this procedurally generated of Nuclear Throne and Enter the Gungeon hellscape of a synth-punk retrofuture. It and I wanted to make a cool game with a is frenzied in the best sense, and mies lot of screenshake, but saw that the top- its visual and aural aesthetics with great down roguelike was already completely success, imbuing every failed attempt with saturated and that needed to find ways to a dynamism that keeps pushing you on to really stand out from a crowded field Don Bellenger in full try more, faster, harder, again. rock god mode. In case you can’t tell, we’re already big fans of the game. And so we caught up with Don Bellenger, Black Future ‘88’s creator, to find out ust how something so manic – and impressive – came to be. Oh, and to ask that battle royale question we keep on asking, even though it isn’t funny anymore. needed to find ways to really stand out from a crowded field Given the number of enemies lurking in the game, this isn’t bad advice. 06 / wfmag.cc Attract Mode Interview How much does the time you put in matter? You see devs making a game in months, but you see just as many taking years to come to fruition.