Recently I had the chance to speak with the team at Reset Games about their upcoming series of games known as the Arcade Reset series, Robo50, House of Pain and Machine Gun Fury.
Have a read below
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What was the genesis of the Arcade Reset series?
Reset Games was set up a couple of years ago by the core team of my previous studio, Super Icon. My wife Claire and I own the business, with Claire working on business development and finance and me working on development – art, code, design and audio. We have several freelance artists we work with, some going back a few years, such as Piotr, who handles all sprite animation.
I started making games in 1998 and, over the years, have developed nearly 60 games, but the last few years have been slow. I had started a couple of games that I spent a lot of time developing, intending to find a publishing partner, which unfortunately didn’t happen. We did a few rounds (Claire and myself) of pitching to publishers, but ultimately, they were not interested in the games. The biggest of the games, Strange Days, was a three-year labour of love. It was ambitious, an action RPG with a different spin, where instead of dungeons, there were lots of sub-games (games within the game). I created 22 of these sub-games during the development period. There is a pitch deck here if your readers fancy a look (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t6hQXwIWwLV1R5QKNUHOzaxyxmFRV3PA/view?usp=sharing).
There are a few shots from the previous game, The Tower, here: https://richardhw.myportfolio.com/the-tower.
I decided that I couldn’t spend any more time working on Strange Days, as I wasn’t earning anything during the development. There were the studio costs, Claire and my time costs, and quite a few thousand spent on freelance artwork. It was unsustainable, and I was becoming more and more burnt out and disillusioned. I ended up taking a few months out of game development. During that time, I did some gardening jobs, a little teaching, and then a few months employed at a UK publishing company in Developer Relations. I hated that job, and more and more, I missed making games.
I also felt unhappy that I hadn’t released a game in ages, and the last two I did release, made no money. I realized it had been about six years since I made any money from games, and as I am fast approaching 50, I wanted to remedy that in some way.
Rather than completely waste all of the time and resources spent developing Strange Days, I decided to take three of the sub-games, massively expand them, and take them through to full releases on Steam. I chose my three favourites; Jimbo, House of Pain and Robo 50. Jimbo was renamed Machine Gun Fury, as it now includes a small team of mercs (Jimbo, Suzi Uzi and Mini-Gun Floyd).
I wanted to get back to the creative process, but this time, take it all the way to release and get some new games out there. I really enjoy creating arcade-style pixel graphics and am a massive B-Movie/horror fan, so these three games were the perfect choices to work on for me.
Your games are inspired by some truly beloved classics, how did you pick these games to create tributes to?
As they were initially conceived as part of the larger Strange Days project, I chose those games as they were easily recognizable homages to some classic games that I enjoyed playing, plus it allowed some nice little in-jokes to those familiar with the games. So the three Reset Arcade titles originally took influence from Robocop, Splatterhouse, Commando, Jackal, Green Beret and Ikari Warriors. I am now expanding upon this while also making them more their own games, rather than just homages.
Have you worried at any point that the games may run into legal issues over being too similar?
Yeah – and that is what I mentioned in point 2 above. I am now making them more unique rather than tongue-in-cheek homages. The plan is to loosely reference those classic games, much in the way something like Blazing Chrome references the Contra games, show the love for those seminal games but create something unique and enjoyable, modern and a whole lot of fun to play.
Are there any other games you wish to make tribute games to?
Oh yes! Several, and you can see I did quite a bit of it during the Strange Days development, also visiting classic movies. I remember painstakingly watching videos of Dawn of the Dead, The Shining, The Thing, trying to work out the layout of the hotel, the shopping mall, and Arctic base, etc. To get something close, but not too close; it was a lot of fun. The Shining was interesting as the hotel layout in the film is impossible, i.e. rooms were connected where they couldn’t actually have been, and it was really interesting to see how that was done. One game I’d love to be able to do justice to is Silent Hill, especially as I have always wanted to make a horror game, maybe one day, but it would be a big project! I also pitched a Monty Mole reboot recently, but there were publisher concerns that the IP was just not attractive enough and unlikely to earn enough revenue.
What were some games that influenced you all as developers?
Starting out on the early computers, like the C64 and Spectrum, games like Paradroid, Monty Mole, Jet Set Willy, H.E.R.O, Jetpac, KinghtLore, IK+ (Archer Maclean had an amazing eye for little details), Last Ninja, Skool Daze, Turrican, Trashman, Choplifter, Beach Head 2, Bruce Lee, Roller Coaster, Renegade, Boulder Dash, Ant Attack, Driller, Buggy Boy, Pyjamarama. The Amiga was a huge influence too; games such as Wizball, Flashback, SWIV, Syndicate, Lotus Turbo Challenge, Banshee, Monkey Island, Frontier, Alien Breed, Starglider 2, etc.
80s and early 90s Arcade games, such as Ghosts’n Goblins, Commando, Bubble Bobble, Mikie, SlapFight, Flying Shark, Nemesis, Gauntlet, Bomb Jack, OutRun, R-Type, Chase HQ, Rastan, Alien Syndrome, Moon Patrol, 1942, Robotron, Final Fight, Contra, Spy Hunter, Arkanoid, Zaxxon, Marble Madness, Asteroids, Golden Axe, Battlezone, After Burner, Hang-On, Altered Beast, Kung-Fu Master, Choplifter, Space Harrier.
Then there would be another huge list of Console games; a few highlights include Silent Hill series, Resident Evil, Zombies Ate my Neighbours, Doom, Mega Man, GoldenEye, Mario Kart, Streets of Rage, GTA, EarthBound, Zelda, Metal Gear, BioShock, Castlevania, StarFox, Road Rash, The Witcher, Tetris.
When I look back and think about my influences, I remember all of the games I have made that were influenced by many of them, the process of taking a love of a particular game and working that into a new game. Researching those games, understanding the mechanics, the visuals, the sound design and so on.
I guess I kind of started my career in that vein, this is the first game I ever made (https://www.mobygames.com/game/xtreme-racing), and I am sure you can guess the main influence!
Can you describe the process of making these games? What planning goes into them? How did you get the music and action right? Etc.
It varies a little from game to game, but the process is usually something along the lines of:
Play and study reference games, which often includes a playthrough of several titles within a genre, to see what works, what doesn’t, how it all fits together and so on.
Create an initial design document/plan – sometimes I type this out; other times I just get stuck in and just make a few notes while developing. I must confess that often it is just in my head, which I know is bad form, but I tend to quite like a spontaneous, organic development process.
Research visual style; this can be quite time-consuming and includes studying the visuals of several games and other references such as movies, sourcing additional freelance art, and preparing a plan for the art content creation from start to completion. Often it includes studying architecture, building materials, graphics techniques, etc.
Source music, find tracks/artists that suit the project. In terms of sound effects, we have dozens of sound libraries that cover most requirements, then additional bespoke effects as required.
Once a few levels are created, and the gameplay takes shape, I usually go back to playing other games to keep looking for cool ideas and touches. Often you see something, and it inspires you to tweak or evolve an element of the gameplay.
Do you have plans to bring these games to consoles as well?
We have released quite a few games on consoles in the past, mostly when we had a slightly larger team, so right now, we are unsure of how best to achieve this. Possibly, if there is interest, we could partner up with someone specializing in console work. Much depends on if the Reset Arcade games are successful enough to create interest in console versions.
What do you think of the trend of making spiritual sequels to classic games in general?
I love it. I tend to feel strongly connected to older, classic games, the games I grew up with. I think a lot of people feel the same way – when something gives you great joy while growing up, it becomes a part of your life, it resonates with you, and you never forget those positive memories of playing the games, no matter how dated the games may now look.
Spiritual sequels allow exploration of classic games while creating something new, something special that audiences old and new can enjoy, even those who may not be familiar with the original games. Plus, it breathes new life into those original games when players go back to experience the origins.
What are some of your favourite spiritual sequels to classic games from other indie developers?
Blazing Chrome, Final Vendetta, River City Rampage, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Shovel Knight, The Evil Within, Road Redemption, Thimbleweed Park, Xeno Crisis, Jeff Minter’s games. There are several others too that are amazingly good.
What are some goals you have for your games to set them apart?
We’d like to make sure that there is a lot of OTT action, huge explosions, lots of pixel gore and non-stop, all-action gameplay. Games that would look good in a late 80s arcade. We would also like to have a huge amount of variety in there, from the locations, through to the enemies, the gameplay, and even different visual perspectives across levels – for example, Robo50 will have some first-person shooter sections in addition to the 2D platform gameplay.
Do you have anything you would like to say to the readers of Real Otaku Gamer?
A huge thank you for the opportunity to do the interview and thanks to the readers for taking the time to read about Reset and our upcoming games. Thanks guys 🙂
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You can find Reset Games on YouTube here, and on Twitter here
You can wishlist the games on Steam here
See trailers for the games below