CODAME Featured Game: Retrobooster
With the CODAME GAMES showdown only days away, we thought we’d give you preview of the indie games that will be duking it out on August 21 for top bragging rights and a trip to the ARTS+TECH Festival.
Today, we show you Retrobooster on Windows and Linux.
I’m a former Star Fox addict, so I will need minimal convincing to pick up Retrobooster. But how would you convince a regular ol’ gamer to drop everything they’re doing and give it a try?
Terry Welsh (Lead Developer): Retrobooster is an old-school survival shooter and cave-flyer. Most cave-flyers go to a lot of trouble to slow you down and help you stay in control. However, Retrobooster gives you an extremely fast and nimble ship, which makes it as much about flying skill as it is about enemy blasting.
The level design takes advantage of the flying mechanics by confronting you with speed-flying challenges and puzzles. Of course, there is also an impressive set of weapons, plenty of juicy monsters, and some ludicrous bullet-hell action.
All in all, this game requires pure skill and plenty of brains if you want to survive to the end.
What’s the single most memorable part of your game that you want people to never forget?
Retrobooster is all about the feel of controlling its quick-thrust ship. A great deal of effort went into achieving the right interplay of flight dynamics, detailed physics, and responsive controls to give the player a challenging, skill-based experience.
Players are often surprised that I had the nerve to make the ship so difficult to control. They tell me they keep playing for the overall feel of the game and, before they know it, become competent pilots.
What was the biggest challenge you had in creating your game?
How did you overcome it?
That’s easy — finding enough time to work on it!
This game started as a hobby project years ago, but with a full-time job it was inching along with no end in sight. Eventually, I got tired of that situation and had enough positive feedback from testers to take it to the next level. So, I quit my job programming simulations at NASA’s Ames Research Center and dove intoRetrobooster full-time, and now the finish line is fast approaching…
We’ll be there when you fly across it.
Thanks for talking to us, Terry!
Join CODAME GAMES on August 21st to be inspired, learn, play and vote for your favorite Indie Game!
