Eric Merz’s platformer GB Rober lets you throw things at billionaires
The Queer Games Bundle is a collection of nearly 600 items by LGBTQ+ creators and teams, nearly 400 of which are independent video games, all sold for just $60. I’m talking with creators from the bundle about their games and their making habits. Visit the bundle and consider buying it.
In Eric’s four-color platformer, you shoot your way through a series of bosses and fight a mirror version of yourself at the end. It’s got charming art and an explicitly socialist message, with adjustable mechanics that are forgiving enough for even me to play. They say it’s not a “smart game,” but it’s smartly made for sure.
How long have you been making games?
I made a small Unity thing back in 2013, but I personally feel like I’ve really started making games in late Summer of 2015.
What tools do you like to use?
I use Game Maker Studio 2 as my engine, Aseprite for the pixelart, Bfxr for sound effects and I used Deflemask for GB Rober’s music.
What themes or genres do you like to explore?
I’ve mostly been making action games, either shooters, or platformers, though all my commercial games have been platformers so far. Genre isn’t really that much important for me though, because I feel like you can find ways in any kind of game to reinforce whatever story and theme you like to explore.
In regards to themes: I’m not very interested in making games where it’s either about just existing in an idealised status quo, or where it’s about restoring whatever ideal state the world was in, before the game started. Instead my games are often more about creating something new, while overcoming a status quo that is actively working against you.
“I enjoy working with the Super Game Boy palette, because the four colour limitation really helps me with not getting too obsessed over details.”
What are your favorite and least favorite aspects of making games?
My favourite part is probably a combination of just seeing something move on your screen and knowing what went into making it move and having these moments, where you realise how you can use a specific system in a way that reinforces the game’s theme you had in mind.
My least favorite part is probably, how in order to earn money with your own games, you have to turn yourself into a business and how this whole system kind of pushes you into becoming a boss, even though you really just want to make jumpy games for the rest of your life.
In regards to making games themselves: When you run into a weird bug and after hours of shouting at your monitor, you realise that it’s because you forgot to place a bracket somewhere.
Is there a game that has affected you recently?
Last Winter, I played through Blue Reflection: Second Light because a friend recommended it and though it’s not the kind of game I usually play, I was incredibly surprised how earnestly the game treated its characters and how well it played with its whole premise. Also I just like games that have a “it’s the end of Summer during your last year at school and who knows if you’re ever going to see your friends again” atmosphere to them.
GB Rober is an action platformer where you play a rogue robot factory worker. What inspired you to make the game?
First of all, it was the kind of game I felt pretty comfortable finishing. I had some very rough years mental health wise, but by the end of 2020, thanks to Therapy, and being diagnosed with ADHD at the young age of 36, I started to feel much better. I was still hesitant to try and make a larger game, so I turned to this small action platformer prototype I made in 2019.
As for the “Robot worker rebels against their bosses” part: I thought way too much about what Mega Man games very often are, which is games where one very powerful robot, goes out and forcefully restores the status quo, with the excuse that the robots that are rebelling are “malfunctioning”, or whatever, and wondered “what if Mega Man, but not with a Cop-robot as the protagonist?”
Aside from that, at some point during 2020, I decided that I didn’t want to be subtle about my own political leanings anymore and to just be very loud instead.
The art in this game is really beautiful. What was it like using the limited palette and chunky pixels?
First of all, thanks for the nice words. I still find it very, very strange that people compliment me on visual art, because for most of my life I thought I just had no talent when it came to drawing things.
I personally really enjoy working with the Super Game Boy palette, because the four colour limitation really helps me with not getting too obsessed over details. Before I switched to this palette, I very often made unnecessarily complicated sprites, which made my whole workflow take forever and rarely did it end up looking any good, to be honest.
So switching over to four colours really helped me with focusing on the important parts, and also with making sure that everything is visually coherent.
You offer players a ton of modifiers for difficulty and environmental hazards. How did you implement all of those?
Most of the modifiers weren’t that hard to do, because I took a lot of the code from my previous commercial game Splinter Zone [Editor’s note: you may own this from a different bundle, I do!], which also had a similar modifier system. The only real problem I got was when I tried to put the tourism mode in the game, because it basically had no idea how to track progression when there wasn’t a boss around.
Which is your favorite of the game’s bosses?
In terms of visual design and just sheer silliness, I have to go with Retro Schwan. I first wanted to make a robot that looked like a Swan, but had trouble drawing one. At one point it hit me that I could just do a Swan in a Fishbowl and it made me giggle so hard that I had to go with that idea.
In terms of Concept, it has to be PD Rober, because that’s the only real emotional beat that the game has.
I only later realised that the fight is kind of like those “fight an evil reflection of yourself”, but my main idea was “what if the players would have to fight Mega Man, but also he’s your brother who’s so much of a Cop, that he’s willing to kill you?” In the game’s lore — yeah, there’s lore — PD Rober just put down a different robot uprising, which means the weapons he uses are those he acquired from whoever was trying to rebel, before the players came along.
The game has an explicitly socialist message. What do you hope players take away from it?
I think my main thought here is that you don’t always have to be smart, when you want to put explicit political messaging into your games? GB Rober is not a smart game, but I wanted to make something that’s more similar to a very loud and superficial pamphlet, than a theoretical examination about why socialism is the only logical way forward for all of us.
In terms of messages for players? Swans are evil, Mega Man is a cop and I think we should all chuck apples at billionaires until they go away.
