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How Rude Bear Revolutionises Difficulty
Super Rude Bear Resurrection is often compared to the Indie title “Super Meat Boy”. How does this make you feel?
The thing is you are always going to be compared to something, regardless of what you make. I 106% ‘Super Meat Boy’ the month it came out so I can’t say I wasn’t influenced by it in some ways. But, in the same way, I am influenced by ‘Sonic’, that’s why Rude Bear is so big on the screen and the levels have multiple routes through them, and I was influenced by many mechanics found in ‘Mega Man’. I haven’t actually played ‘Spelunky!’, but that game’s art style and tile system was also a big influence for Rude Bear.
I don’t take it as an insult or a compliment really. There are some clear similarities. Actually, when someone tells me they think Rude Bear is better than Meat Boy I take that as a huge compliment but when they say it is ‘like Meat Boy’ well it just is.
Super Rude Bear Resurrection’s most unique feature is the death mechanic. When you die, rather than the corpse disappearing it stays and can act as a platform or a block. How did you come up with that genius idea?
So, it was originally a game jam in 2013 and the theme was ‘you only get one’, which I know doesn’t quite fit in with the corpse mechanic, but there was a game a long time ago where every time the player died the game got more corrupted and every time they succeeded the game fixed itself a bit. Eventually, so many people died that the game is now forever corrupted and no one can ever play it again.
So I was trying to plan in advance what game I would make and I thought about corruption which led me to thinking about this game. I needed to do something different though and so I thought ‘What if every time a person dies they leave a corpse behind for the next player to use?’ I even considered leaving behind ‘Dark Souls’ like messages so players could help or trick people as they played.
The original Rude Bear Resurrection made in 2013
So the original game was multiplayer focused? How did it end up as a single-player experience then?
When people told me I should make this version a full game I found two issues with the way it was done. First is that the server costs were too high, it would need to always be online and as a small indie dev, I can’t afford that. Second, in the Game Jam, a friend of mine ended up being so good at the game that he could basically beat it all on his own which ended up making the game less enjoyable for everyone else.
Instead of punishing the player for mistakes, you give the player more options to overcome their committed mistakes. Was this a way to appeal to beginners, who have troubles with hard games?
That’s the reason I did it. The joy you feel when you see a 70-year-old man who has never played a video game beat your game is truly something. It’s also great for kids, although the visuals make it rated PEGI 12 (laughs). It’s a really good game for beginners but, at the top level it is way harder than Meat Boy. It’s only been platinumed by one person [at the time of this interview] and we also have the Rainbow Run challenge, if you know what that is?
No, I do not.
Basically, we are giving away $1000 to the first person who can beat the entire game in one run without dying.
Oh wow. I can’t see that happen (laughs).
Yeah, I want it to but there is a real chance it never will (laughs).
So at higher level play it is one of the most challenging games out there but at low-level play it can be one of the easiest. Not many games can do that. There are also other difficulty levels in the game for those people who want a challenge or for those who aren’t having as much fun with the game as they would like.
What do you think about very difficult games? Do they still have a place in our industry or should we look into making them more accessible to not so skilled people?
To be honest, I make games for hardcore players because I like hardcore games. I tried to make this game as accessible as possible but if lower level players aren’t enjoying it I don’t care that much. They are not my core audience.
I made a game that I liked. I have sunk hundreds of hours into this game. I love it. You go to conventions and you see other devs standing around trying to get people to play their games but if no one is playing my game then I am playing my game (laughs).
What do you believe are the right ways to make a hard game accessible for a large audience? What are the wrong ways?
So I don’t like the Dark Souls series. I think it’s too punishing to players. When you die it ends up respawning you miles away whereas in Rude Bear you are only ever put back a short distance.
I assume you can do every level with a Rainbow ranking. But, have you found any players out there who could be better than you?
I am ridiculously good at video games. A lot of people have been like ‘let’s try and beat Alex’ and they have but that’s only because I haven’t had the time to play recently. If I was playing it as much as they were then no one would beat me. There are people who have done some things that I haven’t yet (like Platinum the game) but no one is as consistently good as me (laughs).
#Humblebrag
Haha yeah. There are two things I haven’t done. There is one marathon I haven’t beaten and one stage I haven’t Rainbow’d.
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