An Action-Packed Chat about Kidbash: Super Legend

What the report says


 
 I'm super-excited about Kidbash: Super Legend so I asked Ezra Garnida, co-founder of studio Authentic Remixes, all about this fun new indie.We here at Video Chums strive to offer the best experience and content so contact us if there is any way that we can improve. 🏆A.J. ▸ Kidbash: Super Legend is a very nifty blend of a 2D action platformer with a roguelike structure so what inspired you to work on this formula and did it evolve from other ideas? v1d30chumz xzyewyzteyzcEzra ▸ Personally I still replay so many retro games, and I can't help but wish that just something would change every time I play.

So we started Kidbash as a retro-inspired game that changes each time we play, and even at that point, that sounds very roguelite in structure right? Then other retro ideas lent very well to modern roguelite structures like Power-Ups being upgrades you build towards.A.J. ▸ The claymation visuals in Kidbash: Super Legend are excellent. Did you make everything with clay or is some of it computer graphics? How did it all come together in regards to animation, character designs, and such?Ezra ▸ It's all done in Blender, so yes it's all computer graphics.

We were aiming for less arts and crafty kind of clay and more for those really well-made clay magazine covers and box arts. Because we use sprite sheets, more animation frames meant larger sheets. So when limiting the frame count, we had to lean in to having different FPS for different animations while making it still feel good for gameplay.A.J. ▸ Speaking of characters, I love the cast already with chums like the nogoodnik Snatcher and the energetic Hanachan. Which characters were the most fun to write for and who do you think will click with players most?Ezra ▸ Oh man, some characters actually ended up being more fun to write than we thought when we initially made them.

Key details

I'm not the only writer on the project, but personally I really like writing Typemaster and Sir Bonnie, that's one of the bosses and the knight hero. There are 3 characters in particular I'd really like to see click with the players, we'll just have to see when players meet them!A.J. ▸ I also love the enemy designs. Did you have any inspirations for them and what went into making them stand out to the player?Ezra ▸ We take a lot of inspiration and tropes from retro enemies for the mob designs, but oddly enough we evolve the mobs through the biomes like Digimon or Pokemon, they kind of evolve as you progress through the run.A.J. ▸ With so many power-ups, enhancements, elemental effects, and weapon-mixing, how did you balance the level of difficulty so player skill is tested as well as the ability to make decisions?Ezra ▸ We had a lot of discussion on the overall difficulty of the game, a lot of trial and error where early demos would be too easy, then too hard, and all that.

I think our game designer and level designer did really good on balancing the overall difficulty. For hardcore players, they can literally play non stop after the intro level up through the ending, but for those who maybe want to have a more chill time, hanging out in the village can really help players on the run!A.J. ▸ Speaking of upgrades, weapons, and such, can you share any combinations that you're excited for players to experiment with so we can get a taste of what to expect?Ezra ▸ Ah there's a weapon I really really like using that our Game Director personally handled, but that one would be a spoiler.

So among the first four weapons, I personally love the Fist and the Bomb, mixing it into the Rocket Fist is a bit unwieldy but really rewarding if you can use it. As for the power-up upgrades, there's one that plays a lot like the holographic weapons from the Megaman X series, where X or Zero spawns a hologram of themselves that can attack too. So my favorite moment is when I dash punch an enemy really hard, then another me comes up from behind to do the same and that launches the enemy off screen.A.J. ▸ Finally, the silly question of the day: if you could invite any classic game character to join the cast of Kidbash: Super Legend, who would it be and why?Ezra ▸ Absolutely Captain Rainbow, I wasn't really thinking of him when first creating Kidbash, but I did know of him.