Neon Chrome
[ developer interview/sneak preview + gameplay video ]
| Published April 25th 2016 |
Bobmanbob speaks to Crimsonland developer 10tons about their upcoming cyberpunk-themed shooter Neon Chrome and shares some sneak-peak screenshots and gameplay footage. Part 1 of 2.
BOB Is 10tons the amount of coffee consumed while making your first game, or how did the name come about? How did your company start off and how has it evolved over the last 13 years?
10t "10tons was founded in 2003 largely on Crimsonland. The founders had developed the game during their university studies, and as the game became really quite popular and even ended up on gaming magazine cover CDs, a company simply had to exist to do meaningful business with the title. Back in those days the casual PC games business was booming, so moving there seemed and indeed turned out to be a very sound and safe choice for a newcomer indie studio. As the company name 10tons was really coined to go along with the hardcore shooting of Crimsonland, we actually used a more friendly MythPeople brand for many of our casual titles. While we have always been a multi-platform developer and publisher, gaining access to Playstation Vita and soon after to PS4, and the simultaneous start of Steam Greenlight, really presented us with a realistic chance of not only bringing our hit casual games to these platforms - which had relatively little competition in these genres, like match-threes and other puzzles - but also to start creating more core gamer oriented titles."
BOB Did the success of Crimsonland play a role in your decision to do another top-down shooter and were you influenced or inspired by any movie, gaming or cyberpunk titles?
10t "We love Crimsonland, and that's what we're the most known for in the core gamer scene. So that played a big part for sure. We love top-down shooters in general too, and Hotline Miami was an inspiration, if not direct influence. And cyberpunk is just something we really dig. And there's surprisingly few cyberpunk themed titles out there, although a handful of really promising ones are on the way. Which is awesome!"
BOB What are the main differences between Neon Chrome and Crimsonland? Was there a basic formula you carried over and what new features were you most excited to implement this time around?
10t "We always aimed to bring aspects of Crimsonland to Neon Chrome, which is probably most evident in the cybernetic perks system, and to a lesser extent in the generous sprays of blood and body parts, and large amount of weapons. But Crimsonland was very much about the massive flood of monsters, which is really only feasible with 2D graphics. Crimsonland also has no terrain whatsoever, and Neon Chrome occurs fully indoors. So the games play very differently, but I must say we're very happy with how Neon Chrome turned out. The generated indoors environments work great, especially with the destructibility we have going on."
BOB Character classes and weapon choices play a big role in Neon Chrome. I personally love the techie with shielding capabilities and also found the ninja's cloaking ability combined with a shotgun to be really effective. What are the team's favourites?
10t "The classes are one of the things that turned out really great. Everyone seems to have one or two favourite classes, and every class seems to receive more or less an equal amount of love. I really like the energy shield too."