The world of game development is a world filled with unique tales and personal stories. And we’re not just talking about the wide range of endlessly creative projects that see the light of day on a daily basis, but also the brilliant minds that will these titles into existence. Our series of game developer interviews began with a simple goal in mind: to introduce you to some of the most wonderfully creative people of the industry, and to learn a bit about their personal experiences and perspectives while working in this field.
It’s shaping up to be an exciting journey, and we’d love to have you along for the ride — so, without further ado, let’s dive right in.
We have a bit of a retro treat for you today, in the form of a genre you may not have heard about in a while – Firebat: Revolution brings back the classic brick breaker with creative new twists and original ideas, effortlessly proving that just because a genre is old, it can still very much be fun. Below is our brief chat with the game’s creator, László Eszik.
First things first: could you please introduce yourself for our readers?
Hello readers, my name is László Eszik, also known as Coyote. I am a 3D artist, a 2D pixel artist, and a hobby game developer. Right now, I am a tester associate at Experis / Manpower Hungary.
Having started all the way back in the 1970s with Breakout, the genre of brick breakers can be described as decidedly retro – Firebat Revolution, however, excellently modernizes this concept with countless creative ideas and unexpected twists. When developing the game, were you hoping it would reach younger audiences as well, or was it primarily targeted at oldschool gamers looking for a fresh take on the genre?
Thank you for the kind words! Well, the original idea was to publish the game on the Dreamcast and the Evercade. The former is an old-school console with 100 new / unofficial titles made since its discontinuation, while the latter is a fairly new retro-style console with licensed and indie titles alike. We even had some talks with both partners, but nothing came out of it, and then we decided to release on itch, then later on the Nintendo Switch with talks about a Steam release. So, to answer the question: it was made for retro enthusiasts originally. I do have to say that most of the smaller kids love the game. We were at some conventions like Regamex, N-Con, PlayIt, and Gamer Weekend and almost always there are some kids who play 20-30 or even 60 minutes in one sitting.
What inspired you to get into game development?
Since my first computer – a Commodore 64 – I have always been fascinated with this interactive art. I consider video games an art form when it has craftsmanship, thought and love put into it. I liked the simple but very expressive sprites, the square, triangle and noise-based sounds and the chip-tune music. Even the code was an art form: how to fit some of the very complex game mechanics into 64 kilobytes (!), on a machine that only has a sliver of the power of the lowliest smart phones of today (all this art still lives in the demoscene). This and later, on PC, meddling with some level editors made me think about making games.
What would you say has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to face while working on your game?
Besides making the design, the levels, the graphics, the sounds and 90% of the code? 🙂 (And thank god for Zoltán Végh, the composer for the great music) I think one of the biggest challenges was to optimize the game for the Nintendo Switch. Make no mistake, it’s an amazing hardware, but not the strongest one, to be fair. There were levels that had serious FPS drops because of the number of bricks. Some levels have easily 500-600, and some over a 1000. So, at the start of these levels, bricks that aren’t in view and not near the borders (I had to take into account the explosion ranges), some pre-placed boxes count up the bricks and all their attributes (type, color, etc). Then those bricks are destroyed and the boxes are moving down as the visible bricks do. When they reach a certain distance from the border, they spawn in all the bricks. This is interesting, as on the GUI, I do have a brick counter and this does not just count the existing bricks, but also the ones that are currently “hidden” in these boxes. For example, the Lost Arcade level has no fewer than 12 of these boxes. With these, the FPS drops were eliminated on the bigger levels. The only level that is changed compared to the PC version is the saw blade Sawblade level. Here, the PC version has rotating bricks, imitating a saw blade’s rotation, while on the Switch I had to remove the rotation, and the brick formation is just moving on the horizontal axis.
What is the one thing that you believe every game developer should be aware of?
IT! IS! NOT! EASY! 😀 What’s easy is starting to develop a game. There are countless out-of-the-box engines, tons of assets to work with, and everybody has dozens upon dozens of ideas for games. To make it great, you have to put in some extra work and time and also craftsmanship, thought and love. 😉
In your opinion, what is needed for a game to be recognized by the gaming public? What will make people pay attention to the project?
Many have tried to crack this, and I don’t know if anybody has so far. This is the Holy Grail of game developers. We’ve seen great projects that were developed for years fall into oblivion, and something that was made in an afternoon reach unfathomable fame on the internet. All that any experienced developer could give are pointers.
– Posts about your project from early on
– Send a playable demo to wherever you can: to the public for download, to streamers, to gaming news portals and to conventions for feedback and early recognition
– Do not stop, at least not for too long
– You will probably need a publisher and / or some marketing budget to spread the news
– Be prepared that your fist couple of projects may still not be recognized as much as you would’ve wanted
Do you have any words for aspiring game developers?
Sure! Even though it’s not easy, it is absolutely possible to turn this love for video games, this hobby, into something more. Like anything worthwhile, it needs time to become something great. Don’t get discouraged by failures: you have to crawl before you learn to walk, and what we imagine in our heads is not even running, it’s soaring in the sky. Learn. Try. Stumble. Repeat.
If you could go back in time, what would you tell your past self? Is there anything you’d do differently?
Tough question. Maybe get involved with the internet sooner. It’s the best source of knowledge and how-tos. And also: eat less cake, look at me! 😀
Finally, could you tell our readers where they can follow you and your work if they’d like to stay up to date with any future developments?
You can always find my new games at https://ltcoyote.itch.io/
I write some devlogs postmortem style (should you be interested in the story of a project) at https://pixelkrajcar.com/
I do have some socials but I am not that active (Facebook, X, Instagram, just search for Pixel Krajcár).
Thank you for reading, have a nice day! 🙂
Make sure to check out our previous indie dev interviews as well:
The Wild Gentlemen (Chicken Police)
Lucky Cat (The Silent Kingdom)
Leave a Reply