A little over two years into the ninth console generation, games are starting to abandon the older hardware of Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. But an indie French developer, Neofid Technology, is releasing a game in 2023 on something a little bit older than last-gen systems. Neofid’s upcoming roguelite Astebros is slated to release on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and perhaps most surprisingly, the Sega Genesis.
Astebros isn’t the first game Neofid has developed for the Sega Genesis, which Neofid’s father-son duo Cristophe and Simon Reboul spoke about in a recent interview with Game ZXC. Astebros is a prequel to the studio’s 2019 title Demons of Asteborg. Simon served as project director on both titles, while his father Cristophe is the founder of the studio.
Ultimately, developing for the system has been good for the Rebouls’ business. There’s less competition on such an old console and it allows the small studio, which doesn’t have a 3D modeler on staff, to find a way to turn their limitations into a unique experience for their players. Even so, the Rebouls spoke about how their development process isn’t easy.
Developing a modern game for a console 30 years older than the Switch, PS5, and Xbox Series X requires a lot of unique expertise. Coding is done in C on the command line, eschewing the sorts of engines and tools modern developers have at their disposal. Further, Neofid had to design an entirely new kind of cartridge in collaboration with RetroElektronik to take advantage of a technique called bank switching. According to 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. And we have switchable banks which can be used on each level of the game, and we just switch that up when we need it. RetroElektronik just orders components, I think most of them come from China, and then he assembles them in his workshops. And he's created a special PCB in our special cartridge for us, which is to enable bank switching properly. So it's really a work of art.”
Bank switching dramatically increases the amount of data old systems like the Genesis can handle by effectively tricking them into only seeing what they need to at any given time. That allows Astebros to not only draw upon more assets when designing environments but also lets players save their progress, a rarity on old consoles.
Another issue Neofid encountered while working on Demons of Asteborg was a fundamentally different approach older games needed to have to beta testing. Day-one patches are a common occurrence in modern video games, and continued patches can continue for years, even decades, after a game’s release. That just isn’t possible on a Sega Genesis cartridge, however. Learning to be more zealous with bug-hunting during the beta was an expensive lesson for Neofid. As Simon explained,
“We weren't sure that beta'ed [ Demons ] enough, but we sent one hundred cartridges with some bugs in it. 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.”
Even without the benefit of a day-one patch, working within the constraints of old hardware has been a thrilling challenge, Cristophe said. It forces Neofid to focus on its strengths as a studio – coders. “It's an advantage if you are a good developer or good coder because there is no mouse. Just the command line,” said Cristophe.
Astebros will release the week of May 15, 2023, on Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Sega Genesis.
