Roto Force Developer Drew Inspiration From Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive Titles

gamerant.com:

Austrian student Anton Klinger joined the fifth annual GBJAM in October 2016. He had developed games under the name Accidently Awesome for a few years prior, mainly using Flash, and joining community efforts like game jams was one way to improve his programming. However, he didn't realize this project would take him several-year journey to complete the game Roto Force.

At GBJAM, Klinger and hundreds of others built a Game Boy-themed game in just 10 days. Restrictions were simple; participants had to create every asset of the game during the jam, it needed to have the original Game Boy screen resolution of 160 pixels by 144 pixels, and it had to use only four colors. With these rules in mind, Klinger had a clear vision, but he wanted to add one additional challenge: It needed to play like a Game Boy game, too. Game Rant spoke to Klinger about Accidently Awesome and the inspirations behind Roto Force for its game jam origins and beyond.

Better Call Saul Re-Imagined as Old-School Game Boy Game

As entries in the GBJAM were created to be played on different platforms, their control schemes would vary. Klinger wanted his game to be as close to a Game Boy title as possible, and thus decided to include just four directional buttons and two action buttons. Usually, this would mean movement in four directions, one action button for shooting and another one for jumping, but Accidently Awesome didn't want to play things too traditionally. Jumping had to make room for something faster-paced: dashing.

«Since it's a shoot 'em up, certainly one needs to shoot, and the second one [button] would usually jump, but I decided jumps are lame and dash is much better. So it became shooting and dashing.»

One game from Klinger's past that sparked the