Cyber Shadow Update: The growth of independent developers has resulted in a slew of throwbacks to the days of 8-bit games, the most recent of which is Cyber Shadow. Cyber Shadow, a 2D action-platformer influenced by ninja-themed NES games like Ninja Gaiden, is scheduled to release next week on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Aarne Hunziker designed the game, which will be released by boat club Games, the same company that gave you Shovel Knight. Hunziker spoke with ComicBook.com about the forthcoming game, its growth, and what the future will hold for Cyber Shadow beyond the sport itself.
Hunziker, Aarne: Thank you so much! It’s a weird feeling. I’ve been doing this sport for so long that it’s become entrenched in my everyday routine, and I’m beginning to feel like my life has lost its meaning [laughs]. To pass the time, I’ve disassembled a coffeemaker and, as a result, the washer for minimal maintenance. The most difficult obstacle to overcome was allocating enough time to each part of the sport.
Similarly, any difficulty would totally stall the sport’s progress, as it was primarily a single-thread mechanism in terms of labor-power. On the other side, I learned that my pipeline was surprisingly smooth and that a substitute enemy or level gimmick could often be applied in a matter of hours.
The most satisfying part of the whole project was that. The restrictions compel you to come up with imaginative art and gaming ideas while still creating a canvas where everything is essentially consistent.
The restrictions compel you to come up with imaginative art and gaming ideas while still creating a canvas where everything is essentially consistent. The majority of NES games are instantly identifiable as NES games, but a few have their own distinct look within the same parameters. The low-resolution art leaves a lot to the imagination, and it has the power to take you to a distant universe with only a hint.
Moving to 8-bit would, on the top, seem to be a straightforward matter of making it simpler. Instead, there are certain things that are simpler and others that are more complicated. The aesthetic illusion is quickly shattered, and preserving it all at once becomes more impossible as the sport increases in scale. It can be difficult to create the atmosphere you want when you don’t have access to those colors or visual effects, but once you figure it out, you’ll feel like you’ve solved a fun puzzle.
