Gaming news site Dualshockers had an in-depth interview with the makers of Alienation regarding both the essence of old-school arcade shooters and their upcoming game Nex Machina.
Housemarque is well known for making games that are very simple but are heavily dependent on skill-based gameplay for enjoyment. That is part of the formula that made some of their past titles so addicting for hours and hours. Their next game is just their latest addition for those gamers wishing to develop lightning-quick reflexes. Dualshockers interviewed Mikael Haveri, the head of publishing at Housemarque specifically. The question about what sets Nex Machina apart from past titles is pretty interesting, as seen below:
"Well, let's look at Resogun and Alienation as counterpoints first. Resogun was simple; you get a ship, you fly, you shoot, and that's about it. While there's simplicity, you can kind of see the complexity designed in the background. People have different strategies while playing and can become better at the game as they play.
Alienation is more like Diablo where you shoot and get random loot. That gameplay has some complexity to it, but it's a lot more about optimizing your gear and things like that. So with Nex Machina we really wanted to cater to that simplistic "grab-a-controller-and-play" mindset that we thought we reached with Resogun.
Nex Machina has twin-sticks and it has two buttons. Currently, the only usable buttons in-game are L1 and L2. So with that simplistic control design, you can start adding a lot of other variations that are not due to the complexity of the game itself.
Other than that, it's our ode to arcade games of the past. Working on Nex Machina with Eugene Jarvis – who we are huge fans of – we wanted to set some ground rules for what we were getting into. We wanted to draw upon that Robotron: 2084 and Smash TV formula that we fell in love when we were younger. it's not a sequel to those games or anything like that, but we wanted to distill the formula that we felt like those games had."
We made a trailer that had some animations in it and I wanted to see if we could put some of those in between levels or something along those lines. The team essentially said, "No." Any kind of break in the pacing of the game will mess your mind up. The team is very focused on not taking you out of your state of zen while playing. They don't want anything to interrupt that flow.
A lot of the team on Nex Machina comes from the Resogun side of Housemarque. The level designers, the lead – those guys are all coming from Resogun. Some of the Alienation team helped out, but I'd say a lot more of the influence comes from the Resogun side of things."
The interview continues to have some more interesting bits of information as well. Follow the link below to learn more.
It looks like Nex Machina is set to build somewhat on what Resogun has done. The interview itself also reveals that Housemarque has at least two teams making games it at a time by distinguishing developers that made Resogun from those that made Alienation. That would explain why Housemarque is about to release it's third game this current generation in June, with Matterfall to follow as their fourth presumably later this year.
What do our readers make of this bit of news? Are you looking forward to Nex Machina's release soon? Let us know below!
