MythForce, an 80’s cartoon video game, has landed on Steam and is gearing up for a console release.

but it will have to wait. Launching in Early Access on the Epic Games Store in April 2022, the roguelite adventure (with a cool theme) is now set to release in full for Nintendo Switch, with a demo spotlighted at Steam Next Fest. PlayStation, PC, and Xbox launch later this fall.

Still, Oster miss force, an homage to the syndicated latchkey children’s afternoon cartoon, could actually be made into one. “We saw people literally making fun of us. Hey, this has to be real. It needs to happen,” Oster told Polygon.

“We have discussed with the companies involved. miss force It’s becoming a full-fledged cartoon,” said Oster. “It’s something I want to see because I think there’s a lot of fun here.”

miss Force, The first original work for Beamdog (now mostly known as a port shop for RPGs) began with an external premise that the studio wasn’t sure it would work. Fortunately, they’ve found that procedurally generated, first-person dungeon crawlers are dressed like 80’s cartoons and work really well in terms of streaming and watchability. miss force Not only has it developed a cult following worthy of a console release, but it also has a merchandise store.

Oster says the game’s latest release today will have more of an impact on character and player progression (thus miss force fall into the category of “roguelites” rather than “roguelikes”). “A lot of the feedback was, ‘Hey, we love the game, but we wish there was more progress or a way to develop the character and in some cases, personalize it and make it the style we want. play,” he said.

That means tuning the “outer loop”. miss force‘s gameplay includes a “constellation system”, allowing players to place the perks they’ve earned into trees that fit their playstyle: Rico (Rogue), Victoria (Knight), or Maggie. (Wizard), Hawkins (Hunter). Players earn gems through continued gameplay. These gems grant perks somewhere within the horoscope for a specific character. “Depending on where you put your gems and what kind of gems you place, you can increase your attack damage, you can increase your energy, you can increase your mobility,” Oster explained.

Oster himself is the main as Rico. “My Rico has all the attack speed, all the power, all the hits, and the moment I blow it all up, I have to run and hide in a corner,” laughs Oster. “I optimize the recharge speed on Rico’s ultimate, Backslash. It is a gift from God to me.”

Wizard Maggie, one of four playable characters miss forceCast powerful spells on some villains.

Image: Beamdog/Aspyr Media

Players can reassign a character’s zodiac sign at any time. “The goal is to have an agency that will figure out what kind of character you want to play,” said Oster. “If it breaks, you can roll back and try something else.”

A hub world (“The Citadel”) that further supports player customization with things like a constellation system and weapon upgrades and emotes (including other customizable items in the future) is currently a state-of-the-art feature. miss force The Beastlord’s Fortress is still one “chapter” — a procedurally generated level for players to run through, whether single or multiplayer. The roadmap sketched out last year called for two more chapters (Crypt of the Necromancer and Cauldron of Bats) by this spring. Beamdog pushed back other ambitions “because they initially underestimated the cost of creating content,” Oster said.

“unrealistic [Engine 5] Making art is expensive. Especially for creating level art,” Oster meant by the time cost of these assets. “When we were making a lot of level art and literally hammering it to look like a 1980s cartoon, we completely underestimated the cost. It’s difficult to make these environments interesting and at a volume that will keep players entertained.”

thus, miss force There won’t be much in-game narrative for the time being. “There was a point in the project where we seemed like 40 pounds of ideas to fit in a 10-pound bag,” he said. “So which ideas are alive and which ones are waiting?” One idea I couldn’t wait any longer, however, was gamepad support, which was absolutely essential for console launches of all kinds, which came with last fall’s update.

“Let’s say there’s a significant difference between the projected budget and the actual budget,” Oster said. He’s one of the co-founders of BioWare, so no matter how cool or creative something looks in the beginning, you have to think in terms of the end. “Aspyr has been incredibly supportive,” Oster said of Beamdog’s parent company. “They understand that and they understand what we’re trying to do here. They’re really excited about its potential. […] They understand the potential of the product.”

miss force Oster is currently available on Steam as a playable demo that is “essentially the same version as the one at Epic Games”. “We’ve patched it now. This is probably the closest we’ll get to version 1.0 coming out later this year.”

Console releases for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X follow in the fall. The 1.0 release has two additional chapters. Also includes two unlockable difficulty modes (beyond the current version’s easy-medium-hard) and drop-in/drop-out online co-op play.

miss force There are currently 4 playable heroes. A fifth is planned, but this and a few other features have been taken a backseat to polishing the base game in Early Access.

But it’s clear that the truly cartoonish odds tease Oster and his co-workers in Beamdog. Fourth episode of the streaming series this spring I woke up a vampire (Amazon Prime, but only in Canada) miss force This is because the game’s characters were playing in an episode set in a game tournament. “They loved the way the game looked,” said Oster. Edmonton-based Beamdog completed the scene and miss force It looks more like a pop culture phenomenon than a video game.

“One of the downsides of creating something new is that you never know if saying ‘this is awesome’ is some kind of madness inside, or enough to let other people know that it’s actually a viable product. ” Auster said. “So this was a bit of validation. It’s like, ‘Yeah, we’re after something potentially viable here.’”

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