To learn more about what inspired the game and how its development went, along with the overall role and influence of retro games in modern culture, we caught up with lead developer Danilo Dias and producer Thaís Weiller of Joymasher for a quick chat about the latest study effort.
Nintendo Life: What were your influences on Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider?
Danilo Dias: Direct influences on this game are titles like Mega Man Zero, Strider and Shinobi. It’s definitely a ninja-centric game, so there’s a lot of Hagane from the Super Nintendo as well. In terms of style, there is a lot of influence from Japanese Tokusatsu, e.g Come Riders and Kamen Rider Black. That was a big thing in Brazil when I was a kid, so there’s a lot of that in Moonrider.
What challenges did you face during the development of the game?
Danilo: We changed the game quite a bit during development, originally it was supposed to be more linear, like Dracula X. We wanted to change the game to have a more open style like Mega Man Zero so you can choose the order of the stages you want to play. That was a challenge, because you have to rethink many aspects of the game.
Originally, it wasn’t supposed to include so many weapons, so during development we had to change everything and put new abilities and weapons in their place. That caused us quite a bit of stress!
Thais Weiller: Yes, the game worked in the first prototype and we thought “Hey, this could be cool with multiple stages”and then actually throw in more stages and think “hmm, maybe not that cool!”. When you already have the stages prepared, it’s incredibly stressful to change the main gameplay again. I forgot about that, thank you for reminding me of that nightmare!
Danilo: Yes, we had to change the layout of the levels a lot along with the mechanics, but we thought the original idea was just too simple, so we changed it to be more open.
How did you approach the design of the boss characters?
Danilo: Well the idea for the bosses was to try to create characters similar to Moonrider who are essentially guardians themselves. The idea was that each boss had different abilities like in Mega Man and then you would get those abilities when you beat them.
So far you have focused a lot on action games. Would you be open to expanding into other genres in the future, like RPGs for example?
Thai women: I don’t know about RPGs, but we’re definitely thinking about what we might work on next. We always want to experiment, and Danilo is currently experimenting with 3D visuals, like PlayStation and N64. We’re not just pixel artists, we’re just 20 years behind everything else!
What role do you think retro gaming will play in 2023? Why do you think they remain so popular?
Danilo: So I think it became more of an art style than anything else.
Thai women: Yes, it has become an art style and genre unto itself. Retro games had many limitations, so they had to be more precise and direct, which allows for a more immediate and direct experience.
We prefer to create short, replayable games rather than longer experiences. There isn’t much in our games that gets in the way of gameplay, like crafting systems or open worlds; nothing wrong with this, but we wanted to try something different.
Danilo: The idea is to try to simulate the arcade experience that the older games represented.
Are there any retro games you’re currently playing?
Danilo: Currently playing Armor core series because of the recent announcement Armored core VI. I think Armored Core was probably the first game I ever played on the PlayStation, so I’ll do it all over again. Maybe I will get inspiration for some future projects from it!
Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider is now available on the Switch eShop. Arcade Crew has confirmed that a physical release is also on the way, but no further details are currently available.