Some indie studios rise and fall as the tides of gaming shift. For 10tons Ltd., they've managed to stick around for over 13 years by going with the waves and shifting development to the platforms that are in demand. Their latest title, Neon Chrome, is a return to their twin-stick shooter roots and Sampo Töyssy, Vice CEO of 10tons and the lead designer, chatted with us not only about the game, but the lessons they've learned along the way.
Co-Optimus: Thanks for talking with us about Neon Chrome. I wanted to kick things off by asking about the progression of 10tons Ltd. games. From Crimsonland to mobile games, like Spellspire and Trouserheart, then back to Crimsonland, and finally to Neon Chrome. Could you walk me through how you all as a studio made that kind of a transition?
Sampo Töyssy: 10tons was born around Crimsonland in 2003 so Neon Chrome is in some sense a continuation of that lineage. Between 2003 and 2016 a couple of things happened.
Crimsonland was somewhat successful financially but the digital distribution was still limited at that time. After Crimsonland we discovered that casual puzzle games had a massive distribution network in the US so we started to cater to that market. We made games like Sparkle, Azkend and several others for mainly PCs. Later we created some Mac versions also.
When iPhone came out we brought our existing catalog of mouse-driven desktop games to iOS and other modern touch-based mobiles. The games were mainly designed for desktop and mobile and most were casual games.
The latest event is the opening up of console-space: Even indie developers can create games for PS4 and Xbox One. The digital distribution opportunities for twin-stick shooters became better than ever. First we remastered Crimsonland for Steam and consoles and then we started creating Neon Chrome which bring us here: Neon Chrome is completed and available on Steam and soon on consoles.
Co-Optimus: Focusing in a little more on the progression from Crimsonland to Neon Chrome, what did you learn from the development of Crimsonland that you wanted to bring forward into Neon Chrome? Was there any feedback that helped shape certain mechanics or ideas?
Sampo: Obviously the enhancement system is the most familiar part from Crimsonland. In Crimsonland those were called perks – in Neon Chrome they're enhancements or cybernetics. Other than that Neon Chrome and Crimsonland are very different experiences.
Crimsonland is an arena shooter and Neon Chrome is an indoor shooter with a roguelite style meta game and persistent character stat upgrades. Many Crimsonland fans enjoy Neon Chrome a lot but as games they're quite different.
Co-Optimus: The genre of cyberpunk encompasses a lot of different ideas and aesthetics, and Neon Chrome feels like it hones in on a few particular aspects (mega corporations ruling citizenry, computers/hacking). What did you draw inspiration from when designing the world and narrative?
Sampo: The team members have a long history with cyberpunk. We've played Cyberpunk 2020 and Shadowrun, read the classic cyberpunk lit and watched all the movies. We've always wanted to create a game with a cyberpunk theme so this was extremely enjoyable to do. That said, some of the gameplay stuff stretches the envelope of classic cyberpunk, like the abundance of energy weapons with slow projectiles which are exotic and rare in most cyberpunk fiction.
Co-Optimus: Shifting gears to the game’s mechanics, I’m curious about some of the decisions made around player movement and gun fire. There’s no way to roll or dash out of the way of enemy fire and you’re also fighting in narrow hallways or close quarters much of the time. Was the intent to have players use the environment as their shield and try to either sneak up on foes or attack when they’re reloading?
Sampo: The environment is your friend in Neon Chrome – you should use the walls as cover and make sure you have a plan when you attack a larger group of enemies. You can also surprise the enemies by going through the walls or simply walking up to them from behind if you find a nice route. You should also keep an eye on the reload indicator to time your attacks especially if facing an enemy with significantly higher power level.
You can actually dodge most of the enemy projectiles simply by lateral movement. Many projectiles are slow or the enemies have laser sights or aiming cones which you can dodge. There are some enemies though which have faster projectiles such as the Auto Turret, Elite Soldier with the assault rifle and some named enemies. If you're facing more than two enemies the dodging task becomes extremely hard so you're better of trying to lower their numbers quickly with a surprise attack or a barrage from your ability.
Co-Optimus: What about the player’s gun fire? Not every bullet will hit its mark and it seems some weapons have a fairly big cone for where the bullets will go. I suppose what I’m getting at with both of these questions is what was your goal in the game’s difficulty? Was there some particular balance for which you were aiming so that making it to (and beating) Overseer 1.0 was as achievable on your first asset as it would be on your 85th?
Sampo: The first playthrough (1.0) is theoretically possible to do with the first asset (death) as it is not prevented with any hard limit. However, we have no knowledge that anyone would've done it. The assumption is that the player will upgrade his stats like health and damage after each death with the credits he collected. You also unlock more abilities, enhancements and weapons as you go, which make you more powerful. So, the player power will increase after each death and usually he gets more skilled at playing the game all the time. With the persistent stat upgrades you don't have to rely only on your skill to survive so a wider range of players can complete the game.
Advanced players can beat the game with less than 30 assets but on average you need 40-50 assets for the first playthrough. Basically you need to buy some stat upgrades in general to keep you alive in the later chapters and to beat the bosses but the more skill you have, the less upgrades you need and the faster you gain them. It takes 6-15 hours to complete the game the first time depending on your skill.
Co-Optimus: A few weeks in, have you all been able to track any data with the game that points to players preferring certain weapons/enhancements when they start out? Anything that you didn’t expect?
Sampo: The most surprising thing for us was how large percentage of players would complete the game at least once. I think we're already at over 10% completion ratio on Steam. After Overseer 1.0 a lot of the players continue to play more and players with at least four playthroughs are not rare at all. Because of this, we've already launched a couple of updates that improve balancing in general and especially on subsequent playthroughs after 1.0.
We've also listened to the player feedback in general and made numerous adjustments to improve the game experience.
Co-Optimus: Why couch co-op only? On the consoles this kind of decision makes sense as folks can gather around a big TV to play, but PC gaming typically lends itself more towards online play. Was it a matter of balancing making the game and getting functional net code? If so, what makes net coding so tough?
Sampo: The simple answer is resources. Our team is very small: a lead programmer, a lead artist, design lead/project manager/supporting programmer, tester/level designer and an engine programmer. A total of 4 people working on the game and 1 on the engine and tools. We'd love to have online multiplayer as well, but that would have added at least six months and probably a lot more to development time which we didn't have.
Some say that online multiplayer development for fast-paced realtime action games is one of the toughest challenges in game development. From what we've experimented, we know it is hard and takes time. Online in top-down shooters is probably even harder than first person since you see everything all the time and everything needs to look smooth and be in sync. In FPS games each player has their own view and you can concentrate on the few things each player sees and get away with lots more glitches and issues.
Hopefully in the future we get to make an online multiplayer game but it was not possible with the current projects.
Co-Optimus: What’s next for the game? Any DLC or other content plans?
Sampo: Our next game out will be Xenoraid – a vertically scrolling space shooter with some cool ship management systems. The game also has some interesting core gameplay twists like “bank-and-shoot” and ”dodge-roll ship changing”. The store page is online already on Steam.
There’s local co-op in Xenoraid, too, so click it on your wishlists to get a notification when it launches!
The Xbox One and PS4 versions of Neon Chrome will launch in a few weeks as well. Mobile versions will need to wait some time as the game might be at least somewhat different on mobile due to on-screen controls, screen size, power, and various other things.
Neon Chrome DLC depends on sales so that remains to be seen. We'll keep updating the game though as we want to react to player feedback. So far we've created a couple of bigger balance updates already which are already out on Steam.
Last but not least, level editor and some other cool modding tools should be out for Neon Chrome on Steam soon!
We'd like to thank Sampo for taking the time to speak with us about Neon Chrome and 10ton Ltd. Neon Chrome is currently available via Steam for $14.99. It supports four player couch co-op for the entirety of the game's campaign.