Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Mega Cat Studios’ Andrew Marsh, who discusses the development process behind their new NES adventure on Kickstarter, The Meating.
Check the game out on Kickstarter, Here.
About The Meating:
Become a ghost minotaur on the quest to put his meat back together in this puzzle platformer. Use pyrokinesis, possession, and an array of other ghost skills to solve puzzles—and the mystery of who butchered you.
Platforming, puzzle-solving, combat—The Meating has it all! You’ll have to jump, headbutt, and possess your way through over 40+ stages. Use all your ghostly powers and wiles to gather all your missing meat to reveal Kon’s fate!
Features: Traverse through various dungeons and landscapes as you try to uncover the mystery of Kon’s death. The game features minimal controls, which makes it easy to learn and hard to put down! Kon also comes with an array of ghostly abilities and powers, which he can use to defeat enemies and solve puzzles!
Old School Gamer Magazine: How was this game born?
Andrew Marsh: We had been racking our brains to do a game with a minotaur for a while, and then someone made the Meating pun and it all came together
Old School Gamer Magazine: What is your role in the game?
Marsh: I was the design lead.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What has development been like?
Marsh: Developing for retro hardware is always a challenge, but when you get that end result it is always so satisfying.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game special?
Marsh: The unique abilities that the player unlocks throughout the game are pretty fun and lead to some nice surprises.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How is this Kickstarter different and unique?
Marsh: I think any time there’s a Kickstarter for a project on retro hardware it’s pretty special, Physical releases of these kinds of games don’t happen nearly enough.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What games influenced this one the most?
Marsh: We always try to draw inspiration for all kinds of different games, because they all bring something to the table. We used a trick in the cinematics that was pulled off really well in Batman for the NES, but at the same time we have the ability to mimic the enemies which drew a lot of inspiration from Kirby’s Adventure. I think it’s better to draw inspiration from your experiences than something in particular. Try to think about what you loved when you were a kid and build off of that.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?
Marsh: I think coming up with the idea for the hidden world and designing how it was going to look was a lot of fun.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What were the major lessons learned?
Marsh: Nailing game feel is important, especially on a retro project where you don’t have a lot of room to work with. You really need to think creatively about how to make the game feel right for players.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?
Marsh: I don’t actually think it’s about preserving older mechanics as much as those mechanics are the base DNA of all games. In modern titles they may have their own takes on the concepts, but there’s a reason why so many retro games are considered timeless.
Old School Gamer Magazine: The marketplace is crowded. How do you think you stand out?
Marsh: I really don’t personally like to see the retro market as something that’s really competitive. There aren’t very many of us out there actually making releases, so instead of thinking about how I can outdo someone else, I’m more appreciative that they are around.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How have your previous experiences in industry helped this game?
Marsh: We’ve been doing games for NES for a while now, I think that one of the biggest things we’ve learned along the way that helps in this and other future projects is just having a good amount of player feedback. If the character falls from a high distance we need to make it feel like it happened to the player. That’s especially important with retro titles where you really need to leave a lot up to the imagination.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you want this game to ultimately be remembered?
Marsh: If as many people as possible get to play it and they have a good time, then that’s all I want. I’m making this for other people to enjoy, I don’t factor into it at all.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?
Marsh: Keep making the best games I can with the rest of the crew, and hopefully entertain some people along the way
Old School Gamer Magazine: Anything else you’d like to add?
Marsh: I hope people really enjoy the game, we put a lot of work into it to make it a really fun retro experience.
Patrick Hickey, Jr., is the founder and editor-in-chief of ReviewFix.com and a lecturer of English and journalism at Kingsborough Community College, in Brooklyn, New York. Over the past decade, his video game coverage has been featured in national ad campaigns by top publishers the likes of Nintendo, Deep Silver, Disney and EA Sports. His book series, "The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult and Classic Game Developers," from McFarland and Company, has earned praise from Forbes, Huffington Post, The New York Daily News and MSG Networks. He is also a former editor at NBC and National Video Games Writer at the late-Examiner.com
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