USGamer.net Metroid Article

[James]

Jeremy Parish (who also did the IGN article on Chasm) interviewed me about why Nintendo is no longer making "proper" Metroid games, and how indies are filling the void. Check it out!

http://www.usgamer.net/articles/with-me ... nintendont

[Lunais]

Great article

It's really too bad that Nintendo has been failing so hard at making good Metroid-vanias. I'm kind of confused why they think it's a bad idea to continue making them. Take Konami for example. If Konami kept making sprite-based Castlevania-Metroidvania titles, I would keep buying them like the rabid fanboy that I am. Instead they choose to go 3d and make horrendously shitty games like Lord of Shadows and Mirror of Fate (Yes, I finished them. Yes, I hated every minute of them). I'm simply dumbfounded that they think that these new "cinematic gameplay" titles are the way to go.

And I think everyone can agree that Nintendo needs to make a good 2D Metroid. What do you think changed, so that they stopped making good ones? Fusion and Zero-Mission were mediocre, but I don't see why they would be worse than Super Metroid. Did something change along the way? Why did Nintendo lose the power to make great games like they did back on the SNES?

[James]

He asked me a bunch of questions that didn't get published (including topic you ask about). Here's the entire uncut interview for reference:

Q: First, what can you tell me about Metroid's influence on Chasm?

A: Metroid is, as far as I know, the first in-depth platformer exploration game. I think it’s influence on us comes in 2 parts: first, that the world is “open” in the sense you’re not locked into a left-to-right level structure and have the freedom to backtrack, and second that you obtain keys not only in a traditional key/lock format but also as improvements to your character. Beyond the mechanics, I think there’s also something to be said for Metroid’s dark atmosphere, lack of hand holding, and overall difficulty. The world feels like a place that’s indifferent to your presence, not one that’s built to cater to it , and that makes all the difference.

Q: What other works have helped shape the game's design and style?

A: A lot of other NES/SNES classics like the Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, and Mega Man came together to form Chasm. All of those series made an incredible transition from 8 to 16-bit, and became much deeper and more accessible without dumbing anything down. Back when those games were made, the designers were still breaking new ground and focusing on mechanics that made their games unique to competitors. I’m in the lucky position where I can look back, and pick and choose what I think are the best elements from each without concern. If I want the fantasy elements from Zelda, ladders and platforming from Mega Man, exploration from Metroid, and combat from Castlevania there’s no one stopping me.

Q: Why do you think Metroid-style games are so "in" with indie devs right now? Do you find it's been difficult to stand out amidst so many others working on games in a similar vein?

A: When I started Chasm last year, there weren’t many games at all that I saw as possible competition. More recently, Rogue Legacy has come out and several others are in production. Luckily, I think I started Chasm at just the right time where we won’t be seen as a “me too” type of game. Platformers have been a go-to genre for indies for years, but I think the Metroid-style is an even smaller niche, maybe one they’ve been scared to market to. Fortunately, I think our unique premise and art style has helped us get noticed. So while it’s still been a lot of work, it’s definitely been easier than my previous games.

Q: What special considerations are involved in creating a Metroid-style game? How have the roguelike design
elements factored in for you?

I found that it ended up being a puzzle balancing the areas you visit (and re-visit), bosses fought, new abilities gained, etc. They all have to tie in together, and balance where you don’t fall into strict routine, or have boss battles or powerups gained back to back. There needs to be breathing room, while keeping things interesting. It’s enlightening seeing how Super Metroid went with just a few large areas with upwards of 30-40 rooms you continually revisit, versus how Symphony of the Night has many smaller areas that are usually only around 10 rooms and more throwaway in nature.

Due to our limited resources, it made much more sense for us to focus on fewer unique areas, but making them more interesting by finding good reasons to bring the player back to them. We’re hand designing the individual rooms for consistency and high quality, which brings up the question how do the procedural elements tie in beyond the dungeon layouts? In the GDC demo we released for our Kickstarter, all the enemy spawning was completely random (albeit limited by some rules), where as the final game will use hand-crafted variations. So for instance, if you walk into a room you may come across three bats, two kobolds and a glow worm, or several other possible variations we will place by hand. We can also control the likelihood of seeing a certain variation based upon its difficulty and how far into the dungeon you are.

Q. Why do you think Nintendo has done so little to follow up on the legacy of the style it helped create? With so many small teams like yours creating compelling games in this style, the problem surely can't be one of resources.

It’s a question about returns more than anything I think. If you’re a big company it doesn’t make sense to have tons of smaller teams making games with smaller estimated returns. Instead, they focus on bigger blockbuster titles that have huge teams, budgets, and (hopefully) returns. With modern programming languages and powerful computers, the six of us are able to do what a team of fifteen could do 20 years ago at a much lower budget and quicker pace. Hopefully things will continue to evolve like that in the future opening up more possibilities for smaller teams.

Q: And y oh y can't metroid crawl?

I contend life should come with a tutorial, an arrow that tells you what direction to go, and nice little bubbles that pop up to tell you the appropriate action for the situation.

Q: Seriously though, on the topic of tutorials… why are so many tutorials so inelegant? Is there a better way?

I have a feeling most tutorials are shoe-horned in later after focus testing, and not part of the actual game design. The major thing working against developers these days is that games have become several times more complicated than they used to be. The NES had two buttons, the SNES had 6 buttons, the PSX had 8 buttons, etc. This allows for more options in games, but at the same time the person approaching the game needs to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of games to feel comfortable just jumping right in with no instruction. The best I think you can do is try to introducing the mechanics one at a time in a logical fashion - hopefully in such a way that you don’t have to interrupt their learning and tell them exactly how to do things. Teaching is never an easy task!

[Lunais]

Oh my god, I didn't know about the "y can't metroid crawl" meme. I can't believe I missed that! XD That's awful!

I never really thought of Super Metroid as a something particularly hard to learn, but I suppose I was spoiled by playing all of its predecessors...Do you think the current state of games actually needs blatant tutorials? Although User Research might say people need guidance, I think you can help players learn with subtle things. My favorite approach is a "blocker" that can only be passed by using the new ability/manuever. And if the players doesn't figure it out within a certain time period, fade in the needed button above them. Something similar to how Braid did their tutorials.

What are you guys planning to do for Chasm, in regards to tutorials?

[James]

At this point my plan is to hand design the first part of the mines to teach the player the basic mechanics before setting them loose. I haven't laid out exactly what that's going to be yet.. but yea, best laid plans

[ThaPlague]

Super Metroid was the pinnacle of Metroid games and I hate how underappreciated 2D games are. Most gamers want to see better graphics but they sacrifice gameplay in the process. Maybe they will remake Super Metroid like they did with Bionic Commando Rearmed. I doubt they would but it would be nice to see more Metroidvania games. The old style of Castlevania games sure have disappeared in favor of the new 3D. I still wish the idea behind Castlevania Harmony of Despair would have been developed a little more and seemed to be a shotgun approach. Maybe your next game will incorporate multiplayer components with 2D ARPG. Tutorials are nice if they are incorporated into the game so the players don't realize they are playing through the tutorial or like the process Lunais stated. I am just happy you got Kickstarted and Greenlit.