Alright, we're in Barcelona for the IndieDevDays and we're taking a look at the game by iStudio
which looks like it has something to do with Gamereactor but they don't
and it's looking really really nice which is Retro Reactor
and they are presenting this very interesting, very nice looking hand-drawn fighting game
which is Two Strikes, so thank you so much for joining us Danilo
What can you tell us about the main concept of the game other than its beautiful art style?
Well, the idea came from watching samurai movies and especially Seven Samurai from Akira Kurosawa
and in this movie there's a scene where there's a duel between two Ronin, like two wondrous samurais
and like in the beginning they fight with wooden swords and then they attack at the same time
and one of them say oh yeah well it was a tie and the other said no
actually if it were like real swords you'd be dead by now
and the other guy oh no let's do it again let's draw real swords and they draw the swords
and the whole situation changes, everybody tenses up, everybody's like sweating
like the crowd gathers, nobody can breathe
and just like that, just in a flash, like in one strike the fight is over
and that's what was the idea that I got for my first game, this is my second game
my first game is One Strike and now I'm with the sequel
I'm working on this one for almost five years now and it's almost ready to be released
Are you a solo developer or do you have a team with you working on the art and the gameplay design and everything?
I have a lot of people working with me, not anymore but as freelancers
but it's a solo project like I'm the programmer and game designer of the game
and I hire people to work with me, artists and sound designers, QA historian now working with me as well
I'm not acquainted with the prequel, with the original game
so what can you tell us, I don't know the differences between the first game and this one
so what can you tell us about what you're trying to achieve here
in terms of I don't know graphics and gameplay differences compared to the first game
They are very very different, the first game was my first commercial game
I used to do educational games before and that was my first shot with outdoor games
and I did everything by myself because it was really hard to find people to get in the band with me
to try to do something together, so I did everything by myself
in eight months I finished pixel art, it has the same simple premise but it's a lot simpler than this one
on this one what I wanted to do was to get everything that I learned from the first game
make it more interesting in any way possible
so the art is such a huge leap that it's even hard to explain
because one game is my, I started pixel artist working on it
and this game is made by really really good talented skilled artists
and the gameplay is also another thing that is very different from the first one
because the first one didn't have a lot of testing and didn't have a lot of community
I didn't have a lot of touch with the community
so with the first game I gather like a community, a lot of people like the game
because it was released on the Nintendo Switch, it did quite well there
so I actually have now like a kind of a supportive community that's behind me now
and this game had all of that, so it's better in every single way from the first one
now that you mentioned the art, what can you tell us about the work that went into making this beautiful artwork
work frame by frame, hand-drawn in a fighting game which always you know
for example we were talking with Mario developers the other day
and they were like if we go too complex with the animations
then what about the response and then how both characters collide, right?
so how do you work on balancing beautiful art hand-drawn with frame-based fighting game?
It's a difficult situation, it's a very difficult situation
because I decided to go with 2D again because I already had experience
so I decided to keep on something that I was comfortable with
and at the same time it was difficult to work with such great artists
because balancing a fighting game means changing the animations, changing the velocity that they play
so I mean I had a lot of drama to deal with
It was almost like a fighting game with your artist
It was basically, yeah, at some point he even said that I was ruining his art
so yeah, now you have like an understanding
we're all Brazilians so imagine it's a big drama
And how does that gameplay work?
What are you guys, what are players going to do here?
Is it very complex in terms of combos or is it simple input but you have to be very fast and very skilled
so how does it work in terms of you know the different characters and how the fighting works?
Well, I have to say that this is a very unique fighting game
because it's not, I don't think you're going to play anything like it
and I'm not saying that because I'm trying to boost anything
it's just because I've been participating in a lot of events like this
and I've seen like, and I love fighting games as well
so what goes into this game is a mixture of beautiful art, strategy and very casual gameplay
but not ultra casual
so it's not as simple as like dive kick or footsies
it doesn't have any combos
I decided to remove that because it was something that I never enjoyed that much about fighting games
I think it's beautiful to watch but as a fighting game player I never was really into it
but I always loved the other aspects of it
so like the footsies, the mind games
so this game is completely focused on that
on moving your character around
like creating plays that trigger defenses on your opponent
or like an attack that is not going to hit
and you can like capitalize on that
so it's about, I would say that the strong point on it is mind games
even though it's a really fast paced game it's also quite strategic
because there's a lot of, like the game loop is quite short
because it's one or two strikes that finishes the match
exactly, there's no energy bar, there's no life bar
and this is on purpose because since the game is actually inspired by movies
I wanted to give completely UI free gameplay
so the only things that the players they have to look, they have to pay attention is the characters
and it's a life or death duel, you have to be serious
but at the same time between rounds I put like a round counter
so the game stops a little bit so you can think on your strategy for the next match
so at the same time it's super fast paced
the matches can last 5 seconds or 20, 30 seconds
but you stop a little bit and you think okay so I did this this round
what can I do to get my opponent on the next round you know
and any sort of specials that you can pull off
and what can you tell us about the characters themselves, the differences between them
no there's no specials, each character has weak attacks and a strong attack
the strong attack finishes in one strike and the weak attacks finishes in two strikes
but of course the strong attacks they have a long animation
and they are really easy to defend
and besides that you have mechanics that for example the parry mechanic
even though you cannot hold the button and defend, it's a parry mechanic
if you do it properly it's very strong
so attacking is very dangerous in this game
so that's why you have to think a lot, you have to trick your opponent to use the parry
because the parry at the same time is quite strong
if you fail it can open you to counter attacks
and it looks fantastic, it looks like Star Wars Visions the first episode
it looks like this with the black and white it looks really really good
and you mentioned the Switch before, so which platforms are you aiming to release on
and I've heard that you have a publisher so when can we expect to be playing Two Strikes?
Well we just recently signed with Intel 2 Studios
and we're working on it, so far we don't have the exact dates
but it will be early 2024
and the idea is to release in most platforms
so Switch, PlayStation and Xbox
Where did you get the name of the studio from?
Oh good question, it's quite old
I've been doing games for 8 years now
and at that time I always imagined that I would do more retro style games
but with this game it didn't work out that way
So now, I don't know
In a way, fighting is retro
Yeah, so the Reactor came because I'm an electronic engineer
I'm not like an IT guy
So I used to work with solar panels
So I wanted to bring this to my gaming career
So that's the reason
And we love Reactors, I game Reactors
So that's very nice
Thank you so much for your time
Enjoy the show and good luck with the game
Thank you and thanks for having me