Following a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2022 and a small delay in early 2023, Indie French developer Neofid is preparing to launch its latest Sega Genesis title: Astebros. Launching a game on a 30-year-old console comes with no small number of trials and tribulations, but thankfully, Neofid has some experience in this arena.
Having developed Demons of Asteborg on Genesis (also known as the MegaDrive) in 2019, Neofid came into this project with at least some experience under its belt, but that doesn't mean the development has been easy. As with all systems, development comes with its challenges but also its rewards. Neofid’s founder Cristophe Reboul, his son and game director Simon Reboul, and lead developer Cristopher Rolin recently sat down with Game ZXC to talk about their modern retro title. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: What are some of the inspirations behind Astebros and your previous title, Demons of Asteborg?
Simon: Well, for the first game, we wanted to start with something simple, like, you know, one action-packed summer. I think some inspirations were Castlevania, Ghosts and Goblins, maybe Demon’s Crest for certain parts of the game. We also have some minigames, which were inspired by Mickey Mania on the Sega Genesis. So I really like these general things, mainly Binding of Isaac, maybe a bit of Dead Cells.
Q: What made you want to develop for the Sega Genesis?
Simon: At first, we just wanted to create video games, but when you have a small team and you have no particular artists who can work on 3D models, you have to find a way to find the spot where you will not have that much competition like other games on Steam. We wanted to find a way to do something unique, and that way, it was like a challenge to develop for an old game console. So it's several factors.
Q: What are some of those challenges?
Simon: There are a lot of limitations. There is a clock count, the time count. There is a space; even if we find a way to improve that, we cannot put as many assets as we want into the game. The game is developed in C. It's not as easy as creating a game with Unity3D, so we had to learn a lot of things and learn about how the Sega Genesis works to properly be able to make the game.
Q: On your Kickstarter, you mention a tool called Bankswitching to help address the space issue. What is that?
Simon: Regular Sega systems give you access to 4 megabytes, and this is a technique used to extend this capacity. Basically, we have a common bank where anything that can appear anywhere, anywhere in the game is stored. We have switchable banks which can be used on each level of the game, and we just switch that up when we need it. So we have the common bank with all the common assets and this switchable one that we switch when we need to.
Q: Are there some advantages to developing for such an old system?
Simon: I think the main advantage is we have less concurrence. There’s less in that market. I also think the physical game is a great thing for us and everyone that loves video games. Apart from that, it's not really an advantage because it's costly. For the cartridge, we have to create special PCBs in order to implement Ubuntu. So yeah, it's not cheap.
Christophe: It's an advantage if you are a good developer or good coder because there is no mouse, just the command line, and Christopher and Simon are very good developers.
Q: Has Sega been supportive of this effort?
Simon: Honestly, we tried to contact them, but we had no answer.
Christophe: We are not officially supported by Sega. Definitely, definitely not. At first, we had on the cartridges that this game is not licensed by Sega. Recently, when we proposed the game in Japan, we removed all the mentions of MegaDrive and of Sega for legal reasons. So there is no mention of Sega MegaDrive on our games [in Japan] now. They just work on it.
There is no deal with Sega, and it's a pity. We would like that... Well, any game on the MegaDrive would, right? We know that. Some other person who creates other games on the MegaDrive asked for a license, but they refused.
Q: You partner with another company to make cartridges. What is making a cartridge for such an old system like?
Simon: Yeah, we work with RetroElektronik for the cartridge. It's a bit technical. It's a pity that he is not here. But yeah, Japan has been doing this for a lot of years, so basically, he just orders components, I think most of them come from China, and then he assembles them in his workshops. He's created a special PCB in our cartridge for us, which is to enable bankswitching properly, so it's really a work of art.
Christophe: Yes, and the PCB can save the game. 30 years ago, you couldn't save. Well, in almost every game, it was not possible to save, except maybe one or two games.
Simon: Yeah, thankfully, we have a save system with bankswitching.
Q: Astebros is also releasing on Switch and Steam. When you're developing something for such an old piece of hardware, but also modern hardware, what goes into that? Are there unique difficulties in developing for both eras as it were of gaming?
Simon: Right now, it’s just emulated reference. It's just like running a Sega Genesis on your Switch. So there is no particular difficulty with it, we just have to find the proper emulator and adapt it to make it work on the Nintendo Switch, so we worked hard on that. Now we can do it with all future games.
But we wanted maybe to do a different version for future games that does sound different from the modern systems. That could lead to ways to exploit the modern systems with like, I don't know, shading effects, you know, some fancy effects that we cannot add on the Sega Genesis.
Q: One of the most interesting systems in the game that I noticed from your Kickstarter is automatic difficulty rebalancing for multiplayer. How does that work?
Simon: Yeah, of course. Because you know if you are playing alone and suddenly a friend joins your game, you can't leave the game in the same state because it will be maybe too easy or too boring. We have to adapt to the cooperation of both players. We add some HP, make them a bit stronger, so it's a bit more balanced. It's simple, but I think it works well.
Q: Between the Knight, Ranger, and Mage, what are each of your favorites to play? And why?
Simon: Definitely, definitely, it's the Knight. I know my friends are another story. Christopher, what do you think?
Christopher: Yeah, my favorite character is the mage.
Christophe: I like the Ranger.
Simon: Yeah, so there’s a character for everyone.
Q: So you have one of each. What makes each of you like the character you like?
Simon: I like the attack power of Knight. You can kill enemies fast and rapidly in the dungeon. Plus, we can parry hits with good timing, and I think it's a great, great ability.
Christophe: I like the Ranger because I'm not too good. I don't have to be too near the enemy, and the Ranger can almost fly when he throws an arrow to the ground.
Simon: Yeah, when it shoots down in the air, you have a knockback on your character so you can, like, hover in the air. It's pretty satisfying.
Christopher: And to finish, what I liked the most about the mage is that he can collect some magical scrolls and you can shoot projectiles for a long time. You have infinite mana for a short delay.
Q: When are you expecting the release?
Simon: Well as the initial release date was set to March, but obviously, it was a bit tough to map. We are planning to leave the beta and finish the game, and the final version would be out, I think, in May.
Q: In an industry where we see a lot of games being patched after release, you obviously can't do that with the Genesis. So how does that change your thought process and development?
Simon: Well, you know, that's a problem that we had to overcome with the first game. We weren't sure that beta'd the game enough, but we sent one hundred cartridges with some bugs in it, so we had to fix that and ship them again. It was a big loss of time and money.
So for Astebros, we are really taking care of the bugs. That's why we didn't reserve cartridges as soon as the game was finished. We have seen many bugs from players in the beta, and we will find the rest before starting physical production.
Q: What draws you to Roguelikes as a genre?
Simon: That's a bit my fault because I know Christopher is not really fond of Roguelikes [Laughs].
I discovered Binding of Isaac, maybe like 10 years ago. That was a game I had a big crush on. It's an amazing game, like you can play over and over again, and it’s never the same game. It’s never boring. That's why we wanted to do something like that on the Sega Genesis because there is nothing on this console that does that kind of gameplay.
Q: Is there anything else about Astebros that you would like to share?
Christophe: We’re wondering about the response to the release of the beta version, which will be very soon. We're very impatient to see that and to have the feedback from users.
Simon: We are proud of what it has become. It was initially a little game that we decided to be ambitious with. It's very deep for a Sega MegaDrive game. It has a lot of secrets, things to do, and things to unlock. You can play the game solo or in cooperation. Honestly, that's a big game. It's a lot bigger than the first game, and we hope players will like it.
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Astebros will release the week of May 15, 2023, on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Sega Genesis.