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Today we’re talking with indie developer Marcel Rosado. Something of a one-man show, his upcoming game Fright Knight Legend is described as “. . . an action packed beat ’em up where you embark on a journey to save the cursed Kingdom of Brightmore”. Published by LunarEx Games, the title will be available on Steam on November 23, 2022, but in the meantime here’s a quick interview with Marcel:
Tell us a little about your background and how you got started in game development.
“I’ve always been a video gamer – from the early days of the NES and playing games in DOS to now so it’s been something that’s been a big part of my life. I’ve dabbled in some development programs through the years, but I really started to get seriously into game development in 2013 when I found out about GameMaker and how it made game development easier. That you could have basic logic for your games using certain tools to help program it for you. Once I switched over to Unity around 2015, that was a game changer as I saw how you could build Augmented Reality on there fairly quickly, and made a few apps using that. After making a few apps and casual games with Unity, I decided to take the plunge around 2 years ago to make a full fledged game.”
Which games would you say served as direct inspiration for Fright Knight Legend?
“I’m a huge fan of the Beat ’em Ups of the 90s, so games like the TMNT Arcade game, the Simpsons, Final Fight, Sega’s Spiderman and similar beat ’em ups that served as an inspiration. I’m really into retro style games too, so they all had a role to play with me wanting to make something along those lines. And while I am a fan of most genres of games, I’ve spent countless hours playing RPGs and first person shooters, but the beat ’em up genre in particular had a fun factor that you could do that would be a good time to play with friends.”
How would you describe the development cycle? What were the biggest challenges?
“The development cycle is something of a challenge once you get going. At first, you’re really excited about the idea of making a game and you think it won’t take too long to do, but once you get started you find that it’s a lot harder than you think. One (of many) of the challenges I would say is staying within scope. When you first start thinking of a game and you have an idea in your head, it seems simple – but then something happens…scope creep. Anything that you want to put in your game, like powerups, detailed levels, special abilities, more characters, etc. – whatever you want to make the game do, we often overlook that it has to be created and programmed in there. As the game moves along, we think “wouldn’t it be cool if we added XXXXX”, and that’s when the challenge intensifies. Because you really want to add something to the game but it will cost you time and money to continually add more features. Eventually, you have to make a hard decision and just cut off what the game will have and will not have – period. I found some great information that Miyamoto wanted to put Yoshi in the NES versions of the Super Mario games but technology would limit that ability he had to scrap it for a while, so Yoshi didn’t debut until the Super NES until technology allowed him to do so. Similarly, I wanted to add more features to this game, but have put a couple of them on hold to prevent any further scope creep, and have now made a list that I would apply to any sequels that may come out in the future. I also think this will help differentiate any sequels from the previous games so it can grow compared to having the exact same gameplay, so in the long run I think it can work in your favor when you think about the future development of that IP.”
Multiplayer appears to be a key component in this game. Would you say this is a game best played with friends?
“Absolutely! That was one of the things I loved about the Beat ’em Ups of the 90s. Getting some friends together in the same room and playing the game at the same time – compared to taking turns or just attacking each other. I think it’s a lot of fun when you have friends playing together, and one of the reasons I wanted this to be a co-op where you work as a team compared to much of the multiplayer nowadays are vs each other. I wanted to take a more cooperative approach with this game, though you can turn on friendly fire and damage your teammate to up the stakes. The game currently has a local co-op available, and I’m working on putting an online aspect where you can play with friends (or strangers) remotely. My goal is to have that online feature ready to use by the launch on Nov 23rd, 2022.”
Which character is your personal favorite to play as?
“I like playing as Merlin since he has a really cool special attack that I like to use. But each player has some unique playable attributes, like Bella has fast combos, Simon has strength, and Merlin has extra stamina for special attacks, so you can change up how you want to play the game. I usually switch between them when testing since it gives variety on how you play.”
Are there any upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?
“Right now the focus has been mainly focused on Fright Knight Legend. I used to think about developing other games during the development cycle, and I have so many ideas for games while making this one, that I would often get distracted. But there are several game concepts I have in a list that once this game has taken off, I’ll reach out to the community to see what they would like to see next and work on that. There’s so many ideas for games that I’ve come up with through the years that there’s going to be plenty to work with in the future. But there could be a Fright Knight Legend 2 that would have some new abilities and gameplay features that didn’t get put in the first game, and it could improve upon what we have placed in this one.”
