indiegraze.com

on March 5, 2019

In development by a single dev, 2d ARPG Senescent Link brings a pixel art feel to a cryogenic awakening, dropping gamers into a labyrinth-of-secrets scenario in which players sneak, hack, and fight their way out of an abandoned facility. With a Kickstarter campaign and a demo still to come, I chatted with Brave Ghost on the thought process behind the project.

Erik Meyer: Senescent Link revolves around the connection between Kei (a recently-awakened girl) and Rogue (a floating robot) in the giant Panacea Inc. facility. From a story standpoint, can you flesh out the world we’re entering a bit? Beyond the mystery of the cryogenic facility, what kinds of details define the universe we’re entering; as compared with a get-out-of-dodge storyline, what can we expect, in terms of world building?

Brave Ghost: Senescent Link takes place in an undisclosed amount of years after a devastating disease has plagued the earth; the last known date is December 25th, 2086. Panacea directly translates to “a solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases,” basically meaning “cure-all.” Panacea Inc. is a facility based in America that has, over the last 50 years, cured almost all known diseases that plague mankind, and humanity is in a near utopia state in that regard. But the world is far from the perfect sci-fi worlds we know and love. I wanted robots, and I wanted the ability to be cryogenically frozen, but I wanted limitations to those things. Making the world feel more real despite having such futuristic elements. As for story building, Senescent Link has a very deep narrative, both directly fed to the player, found in reading material, such as log-like diary entries on terminals, and even in secret hidden areas. The story is something I consider to be this game’s strongest point, and I’m hoping to deliver it in a way that isn’t just exposition after exposition, and in a more natural way so that you can slowly craft a real image of both the situation you are in as the main character and the greater world around you.

EM: The game’s pixel art creates a specific look and a retro mood; I note your background as a graphic artist with an ability to draw in many different styles. What draws you to the 8-bit feel, and how do you balance levels with onscreen events as you fill the world with interactions?

BG: I did a little traditional drawing back in 2012 before entering the university to study photography. In 2014, I decided to pick it up again but digitally, and I worked quite hard at it, drawing each and every day, then realizing it was this that I wanted to revolve my career around and not photography. In 2016, I tried my hand at pixel art with a little project called Pixel Chargers, a card game like Magic: The Gathering with pixel art; I never finished it, but it lead me to discover how much I loved pixel art, and 8-bit graphics in general.

I want my game to have many interactions to help it feel intractable and alive, despite being a game where you are primarily the only “living” thing. So balancing this in the game’s levels is essentially making the majority of interactions puzzles, items, or things that help feed story, meaning that no interaction can be seen as unnecessary to the main drive of the game.

EM: Minigames can have mixed results, in terms of implementation, so how do you see these kinds of challenges meshing with the larger flow of the project? As a developer, what kinds of expectations and criteria do you have for any specific event? How do you see them contributing to the narrative?

BG: I’ve played a lot of games; I love them, obviously. So I’ve seen a lot of minigames, both in big games and small indie games. They come in two forms, a fun little game, like your character sees an arcade machine and they can just walk up to it and play. These are just for fun and don’t add anything to the main story. It’s just an extra thing to deliver some fun, for example, the two arcade machines in the Stardrop Saloon of Stardew Valley. Then, on the other hand, you have the minigames that are necessary to the game’s progression; hacking minigames are often like this, which my game has plenty of. The main challenge is placing this in your game but having it be quick, non-frustrating, and hopefully fun while still posing some challenge. In Senescent Link, the way they work is like a bullet hell, avoiding the antivirus which ranges in difficulty from just moving randomly to being aware of your presence and actively attempting to stop you. While you put together what appears to be a jumble of symbols, of course these symbols pose a meaning later in the game and also help drive the narrative greatly, but unfortunately that’s a big spoiler that I can’t dive into!

EM: You list Ghost In The Shell and Akira as influences, so what kinds of things do these projects bring to your work? What do you see yourself building upon, and what do you see sci-fi evolving towards? Similarly, what challenges face indie games that seek to carve out their own territory in futuristic narratives?

BG: My main goal is to create three games, all acting as essentially love letters to my greatest inspirations; Ghost in the Shell is the first one. While this game has a few subtle nods to Akira, it is most certainly the influence of Ghost in the Shell that shines brightest here, both in aesthetic and the whole idea of a humans mind being treated like data almost, able to be hacked and placed in a machine.

I think cyberpunk is a wonderful thing, but I also fear for its future. A lot of people just take the visuals of cyberpunk and use that, which may end up damaging this genre as a whole; it’s a lot more than that. I think cyberpunk has a lot more story in it left to tell, while being more than a dark rainy night with a little neon. And I hope other developers can carve their own stories into this genre without falling into that nothing-but-an-aesthetic shell of a project.

EM: You’re working as – Brave Ghost – a lone developer, so I’m curious about how you see the solo experience helping or hindering your work. What kinds of things/toolsets do you allocate the most time for? While you don’t have to have studio meetings as a single indie dev, what kinds of benchmarks do you set for yourself, and what does your process look like?

BG: I am an artist first, then a storyteller. But I am in no way a coder or anything like that, so my greatest challenge was most certainly gathering an understanding of that world. That’s why I decided to go with RPG Maker MV. It’s unbelievably simple, but with a gigantic range of plugins that the community has created for it, I have been able to create a game that stands out from other RPG Maker games. Primarily, the ability to have on-screen combat, rather that the traditional turn-based battles like scenes from early Final Fantasy games.

I’m building the game one level at a time, completing each level’s look, then events, and then polishing it. I find it a lot easier to build the game this way, as it allows me to really see how the level will play out and feel. The only thing I’m leaving to the end is sound effects and music.

All in all, it’s a challenge working by myself, but I do have the support of my girlfriend, who assists me in spellchecking dialogue and being there to bounce ideas off of. It is difficult relying on mainly yourself. But I know that by the end of it all, it’s going to make me a lot more proud of the finished project.

EM: Enemies include Kurogane hounds, preservers, spider tanks, drones, mechs, and deadly bosses, so when it comes to the mechanics that drive in-game foes, what kinds of variety do you bring to each specific opponent, and what kinds of diverse play to do you hope to inspire? Do you see the look of a specific minion/boss driving the interaction, or do you start with movement mechanics and player resolution options (overheat, destroy, freeze, etc) to find the most satisfying challenges?

BG: When it came to coming up with enemies in the game, it was variety of design that I was most focused on, and I really didn’t want my enemies to just be different sizes or color variants of each other. I wanted them all to look different, move different, and even sound different. After that, I knew I would have to come up with different mechanics for each enemy, and different ways to combat them. For example, in the game, the first two you encounter are not that advanced; the Kurogane Hound and the Preservers do not have object permanence, so if they are chasing you and you duck behind a wall, they stop chasing you. Also, they can’t hear you. This makes sneaking past these enemies the best resolution, as if you are caught out in the open by them with nowhere to hide, there is little to no hope for you early on. This is not the case for the other enemies in the game; they will chase you to the ends of the earth and will kill you on the spot no matter how careful you are. So dealing with them may be turning off certain abilities they have as an in-game mission, or shooting specific parts to allow you to get in close, maybe taking control of a downed robot, giving you more health and firepower to deal with them; there are plenty of options to help players get through the game and the enemies that stand in your way!

EM: I note that you have a Kickstarter coming in 2019, so given the many campaigns that go up each month, what do you see as the major ongoing hurdles of the upcoming crowdfunding effort? How do you see indie funding changing now as opposed to a few years ago, and what must-do essentials are on your list?

BG: Just over a year back, I started a campaign to raise $1,300 for a series of Nintendo-themed pin badges. I spent a long time on them, had a logo, and everything and was really hopeful, but I only managed to raise $300, and the Kickstarter failed. It was a huge blow, but I learned much from it. Lessons that I’m hoping can assist me in creating a much better campaign this time around. I think crowdfunding needs to be seen as a call to arms; they need to see you as a human being they can trust, trust to deliver the product they are funding, and trust that you will use their money wisely and effectively. Creating good backer rewards and creating fun update videos and art is important, too, as it helps people share and view your project in a fun and exciting way.

I think it is harder now, but I think there are more and more fantastic indie projects being funded and completed each year that are helping to give crowdfunded games more legitimacy. All I can hope for is that I create a game that really catches the eye of those who share the same interests as me and that I can really deliver everything that I promise.

EM: With the advent of modern design tools and game engines, the implementation process for retro games has changed; certainly, many gamers have a soft spot for pixel art and 2d graphics, but how have the tools you’re using helped shape the process, and what options do you have now that help guide your creative work?

BG: When I look at other indie games, I often think to myself, “Wow, how can I hope to squeeze my way into this world and stand along side these masterpieces?” My game isn’t quick, you can’t jump and run up walls, can’t mine and craft, and you can’t create relationships with your neighbors. The combat is new; sure, you aren’t just using a gun – you’re hacking robots and sometimes taking control of them – but is that really so new? But then I remember that this is a narrative game, a game with a deep story that I’m hoping people can feel some emotion over and remember fondly long after completion. The tools I’m using are basic, and my education in creating a game is basic. But my passion for this world I’m putting to together is gigantic; it’s a story I’m very proud of, and I flesh it out a little more each and every day. I just really strongly believe that what I’m creating matters.

In case you missed it, here’s the trailer: