The independent game developer, Accidently Awesome, built its first commercial game over years of intermittent development. Roto Force started as a game jam entry in 2016 and grew gradually to become Anton Klinger's first-ever full-fledged game title. However, the development brought along troubles that the then-student couldn't have foreseen.
The game's origin as a ten-day stint to enter a game jam competition affected the entire years-long production thereafter. This also meant that Roto Force wouldn't outgrow its roots, for better or for worse. It started as a Game Boy jam entry and was awarded 12th place for Overall Gameplay under its initial name, Pixel Soldier. The game evolved drastically after the competition but had its ups and downs. The Best War Games talked to Klinger about Roto Force's genre-combining gameplay and issues in development.
Programming Roto Force and Platform Issues
Klinger went through a change of programming platforms before starting the development of his first commercial game. The choice to create Pixel Soldier with Java sprung from familiarity with the programming language and new tools. The tools, including game library libGDX, helped him achieve goals faster. After all, the initial product had to be finished in just over a week.
This made Accidently Awesome's one-man coding team more effective but resulted in other issues later in the development. Many of them weren't considered when entering a community competition with a tight deadline. While Java was a very versatile language and supported by many platforms, Klinger realized game consoles do not have Java runtime. This meant that the game couldn't be released for consoles unless ported to a different language as Minecraft has done.
Currently, the plan is to finish the game, then talk to a porting company, and get it to consoles. So consoles are not going to be part of the initial release, but it's going to happen a little later.
This, and some other issues, became evident to Klinger during the later stages of the development. He couldn't release a Game Boy-themed game on any console, at least not yet. After finishing Roto Force and releasing it, plans include getting a third party to port it for consoles. When asked about the release window, Klinger revealed that Roto Force would be available later this year.
Building Roto Force From the Ground Up
Roto Force is a genre-combining game with Game Boy-like controls and visuals, and exciting fast-paced gameplay. Klinger considers it everything from a bullet hell game to a run-and-gun or a twin-stick shooter. He has drawn inspiration from Game Boy games and old-school platformers like Alien Soldier and has even been influenced by the classic arcade hall game Tempest. However, Klinger says the game was never and will never be an arcade game.
The mastermind behind Roto Force doesn't hate or even dislike arcade games. It was merely a decision that was made early on in the development, which had to be followed through. Pixel Soldier or Roto Force never had a point system or leaderboards. Klinger recognizes that he could add combo multipliers and other things to create a point structure, but that is not the game he wanted to make. According to him, a point structure needs to be built into the game from the very first moment.
The thing is, it's not really an arcade game, even though people say it should be. Initially, it wasn't thought of as an arcade game so adding points after the fact isn't a good idea, in my opinion.
Roto Force still has some completion tracking mechanics, so the player isn't left without things to improve upon. Every stage ends with a closing screen showing time spent and lives lost. This makes it possible to have speedruns and no death runs. He's also added other features to create more replay value. After completing Roto Force, the player can choose a one-life Ironman mode, "no movement, only dashing" mode, or even a combination of modifiers.
Roto Force 2 or Arcade Spinoff?
Accidently Awesome is soon ready to release Roto Force, after which Klinger enters the post-release stage where he has to decide what to do next. He has plenty of ambitions and wants to make the most out of becoming a full-time independent game developer. Some ideas include free puzzle games for smartphones that would act as advertising for the commercial titles developed by Accidently Awesome. However, he has also considered sequels for Roto Force.
I already have so many ideas for sequels to Roto Force... I don't think I'm going to make a direct Roto Force sequel immediately, but maybe an arcade spinoff.
After developing Roto Force off and on for nearly six years, he's had a lot of ideas that were not fit for his first game. According to him, it's not likely that Roto Force 2 would be the next big thing, but there might be room for a different take on Roto Force. He mentions that a lot of people have wanted Roto Force to be an arcade game, and while that would never be the case, Klinger is considering it as a spin-off. It would be an arcade spin-off that would be built from the ground up with a point system in mind, but that is still very far on the horizon. Currently, Klinger is focusing on delivering his first commercial game to the public.
Roto Force will be available for Mobile and PC in 2022.