‘Bomb Rush Cyberfunk’ Interview – Team Reptile’s Dion Koster on His Career, Game UI, the New Physical Release, Soundtrack, & More
A number of months in the past, Workforce Reptile finally released Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on consoles and PC platforms. Many take into account it a non secular successor to Jet Set Radio, and it does loads to feel and look superb and contemporary all through. I’ve performed it on a number of platforms, and it’s a very good expertise for portables that shines on the Steam Deck. Whereas Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was a digital launch at launch, it screamed for a superb bodily version. That finally happened with iam8bit and Skybound Games. Following that launch, I bought to speak with Workforce Reptile’s Dion Koster about his profession, the sport, music, his dancing, the longer term, and extra.
TouchArcade (TA): For these unaware, inform us a bit of bit about your self and what you do at Workforce Reptile.
Dion Koster (DK): Hiya, I’m Dion Koster, recreation director and co-founder of Workforce Reptile. I’m hands-on with many sides like character design and modeling, gameplay design and programming and writing the story. For the remaining, I present path to the crew and choose the music for the soundtrack and such.
TA: How has the Dion Koster who labored on Awesomenauts again in 2012 modified from the one who directed Bomb Rush Cyberfunk?
DK: Now that may be a query I didn’t anticipate! It’s true, I labored on Awesomenauts as a recreation design intern. Though it was in mid-development in 2009, earlier than Workforce Reptile began in 2011. One of the simplest ways to explain it’s that at the moment I stored my private model and life principally separated from work, it solely subconsciously seeped in. From a younger age, I’ve been dancing, skating and writing graffiti, over time it turned a theme in my work earlier than lastly turning into the topic with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk.
TA: As Recreation Director, what was your core philosophy through the undertaking’s growth?
DK: Formulated into an interview reply there may be not sufficient room for nuance, however I strongly imagine we should always make issues which are loudly private. The uncomfortability of loudness solely must be restricted by the purpose of frustration. So long as it then truly comes from life and self expression it is going to have a excessive influence.
TA: Whereas the aesthetic and graffiti artwork is all superb, the one space I need to spotlight is the consumer interface. That is one space a whole lot of video games falter on, however Bomb Rush Cyberfunk completely nails it. Inform us a bit of bit about how the interface developed over the course of the sport’s growth.
DK: Thanks for the type phrases! Sem Graham is a tremendous artist who does the graphic design. Assume billboards, props, all of the mascots. He had designed a preliminary model of the UI, however nicely, it turned out too ‘videogamey’. Wanting on the first illustrations I did of the sport, I remembered my obsession with fluid dynamics. These marbling patterns took the model away from merely retro and added a dreamy, mind fluid-like layer that spoke of the themes within the story. Realizing this I had Sem and programmer Niels Vriezen make it a recurring motif all through the sport.
— Workforce Reptile (@ReptileGames) June 28, 2023
TA: I’ve seen clips of your dancing used in-game. Was that mo-capped throughout growth?
DK: That’s appropriate. I simply danced by myself after I was younger, however began entering into it across the finish of 2003. So by now, I’ve been dancing for 20 years. It’s breaking and locking that I do most and principally my entire circle is concerned in avenue tradition. Downstairs in our Workforce Reptile workplace ‘De Bass’ there’s a studio the place there are dance classes each week and we do some recording. All people is pleased to supply mocap in fact and I needed to leap in myself too.
TA: Whereas clearly these are necessary for all video games, I really feel like artwork, music, and gameplay really feel much more necessary for a recreation like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. How did you method curating the soundtrack for the sport?
DK: I needed the music to have some technologic or cyber parts combined with funk or laborious beats and ideally actually danceable. So I let my dance ear information me loads. Just some tracks have been made particularly for the sport, most of them have been already on the market. Which is one other factor I went for, music that claims one thing extra than simply ‘it is a videogame’. It has its personal voice. Folks typically got here to me with music impressed by the sport and I needed to reject them sadly. As a result of then the layer of additional that means is eliminated and the entire thing is flat.
TA: Clearly the sport is in a tremendous place proper now, however do you need to do extra with it?
DK: Earlier than Bomb Rush Cyberfunk we made Deadly League and Deadly League Blaze. Each these titles have been on-line and aggressive. In fact, this required a whole lot of consideration always. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk stands in stark distinction being a singleplayer recreation with an ending – a rarer factor today. I imagine that its story has been concluded and there’s no creative motive to reanimate it. There are various extra experiences to be expressed, however they’d shine solely in a very new recreation.
TA: How have you ever felt in regards to the response and suggestions from gamers and the media?
DK: I’m very pleased to obtain a lot optimistic suggestions. However there may be one factor that goes above and past. It’s when folks inform me they’ve picked up skating, dancing or going out due to the sport.
TA: We at the moment are getting two Bomb Rush Cyberfunk physical releases by means of iam8bit and Skybound. Did you at all times plan to have a bodily launch?
DK: I believe we presumed it, however if you find yourself working laborious to complete a recreation, it’s generally troublesome to step again and really make strikes to get it sorted.
TA: How did you determine what to incorporate within the bodily launch and within the vinyl soundtrack?
DK: Including stickers was one of many quickest selections to make. It simply suits according to the concept of the sport. I felt just like the graffiti booklet within the iam8bit Unique Version was additionally actually good to indicate that there are voices behind all of the kinds we’re that includes. They stand on their very own too, you recognize. And the vinyl, in fact vinyls are literally represented within the recreation. Each in and out of doors the sport I needed the information to appear to be correct club-spun information. Enjoyable reality: on the quilt is a photograph of an enormous fungus we discovered.
TA: Digital Foundry mentioned nice keyboard and mouse controls in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (on Steam). This isn’t a recreation I’d anticipate to have good keyboard and mouse help in any respect, so I needed to know the way a lot work went into optimizing it for a number of management choices.
DK: Within the early days of Workforce Reptile it was approach simpler to launch on PC than consoles, although we preferred making motion arcade-like experiences. So we turned used to coping with keyboard and mouse for our sort of video games. Nonetheless, throughout wholesome growth the enter format switches round so we had a bunch of that too. My choice to take away all necessary actions from the face buttons on gamepads and substitute all of them with simply methods and leaping was an enormous one. Similar for the mouse buttons. Nevertheless it labored trigger even when they weren’t crucial, it’s the stuff you’re doing more often than not.
TA: What have been your main gaming influences for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk outdoors of the plain Jet Set Radio.
DK: Truthfully I might fill the web page with influences outdoors of gaming! But when you’ll restrict it like that… I seemed loads on the Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater collection, SSX and plenty of different trick video games. Grand Theft Auto too. If I stretch the definition, I can point out the graffiti minigame is impressed by a cellphone unlock display. Story-wise, Ghost Trick is the best of all time, it won’t be obvious, however I believe it has influenced my work too.
TA: What have you ever been enjoying this yr?
DK: I really feel like there have been a whole lot of mid releases this yr for me personally. I’ve extra so been having fun with myself watching my girlfriend do inside design in Sims 4.
TA: What’s subsequent for Workforce Reptile after the bodily launch of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk?
DK: We’re already creating the following recreation to be sincere! Making Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was actually enjoyable so we’re doing extra in the identical vein. Leveled up and wilder. At this second it’s principally pre-production. There are such a lot of issues to indicate and tales to inform in relation to the assembly of futurism and avenue tradition, I’m excited!
I’d prefer to thank Dion Koster from Workforce Reptile and Jordan Boyd from fortyseven communications for his or her time and assist with this interview.
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