Split Screen Nostaligia with Digital Cybercherries
Last year, in the 2020 GWB Game Awards, we saw a lot of multiplayer games. HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed was, according to our partners at Tencent Cloud, the best one — and we would be hard pressed to disagree.
Guest judge Markus Kuhlo strongly praised the gameplay for its “fun and fast action” before adding that it made him feel like he was “thrown back [his] childhood adventures”.
A labour of love from the small team at Digital Cybercherries, HYPERCHARGE: Unboxed sees players exploring, fighting and defending as an action figure. For anyone who grew up before the turn of the millennium, it’s a clear love letter to the toys and media of that age, full of vibrant colour and wonderful details. It’s a game that, we believe, deserves to be played by as many people as possible and, while fun solo, it shines when playing with friends.
We were lucky enough to talk to Joe Henson and Dec Doyle of the team about the game, their team, and their design philosophy. We’d like to thank them, and everyone at Digital Cybercherries, for their time.
You can follow all news and updates about the game by following on Twitter or by joining the Discord. The game is also available to buy right now on Steam and is also available for the Nintendo Switch.
Background
GWB: Firstly, for those who may not be so familiar with Digital Cybercherries, can you tell us a little about the studio? What is the work ethic and philosophy of the studio?
Public Relations and Marketing Manager Joe Henson: We are a very small team consisting of 5 indie developers. We base our philosophy on one prime value; players are more than just numbers. It’s something we strongly believe in. It’s important to us we develop and maintain a sincere relationship with our community. And that’s exactly what we have been doing since we founded DCC back in 2015.
GWB: Secondly, congratulations on the multiple awards (and grants) that Hypercharge has won. Does getting these kinds of accolades bring any boost to the team?
Henson: Thank you, and definitely! It shows our hard work and commitment is paying off and that we’re heading into the right direction. But more to the point, winning an award is a team effort. If it wasn’t for the wonderful feedback of our community, Hypercharge wouldn’t be the game it is today.
The Game
GWB: What’s your pitch for the game? As in, how do you describe it to people who have no idea what it is?
Henson: If you grew up in the 80s/90s, prepare for mass nostalgia. Hypercharge is a classic style first and third-person wave-based shooter where you get to play as a pint-sized Action figure. The environments you play in are of course much larger than your plastic-self, making certain mechanics like jumping and running more of a challenge. In terms of objectives, you must explore, defend, and survive, whilst your priority is to protect the HYPER-CORE.
GWB: For players of a certain age, I think one of the things that most clearly comes to mind when looking at Hypercharge for the first time is movies such as Small Soldiers. For players just getting to know your game for the first time, what other games or media would you describe as good reference points / inspirations for this title?
Henson: Oh, there’s quite a lot! There are classic movies such as Small Soldiers, Toy Story, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and The Borrowers. I would say, however, Small Soldiers and Toy Story mixed together best resembles Hypercharge. Toy Story has that Pixar, vibrant look, whereas Small Soldiers absolutely nails the whole joint articulation of their Action Figures. And this is how most players describe Hypercharge, Toy Story meets Small Soldiers!
GWB: A lot of multiplayer shooters seem to focus primarily on PvP. With Hypercharge though, you have base defense 4-player co-op, there’s a single-player which is being improved upon. What was your thinking behind this? Why not just go PvP?
Henson: PvP has a heavy reliance on multiplayer and developing and maintaining a healthy player base is difficult, especially for a small indie team like us. If we were to launch Hypercharge with only PvP, much of its success would depend on how active the player base is.
If players don’t have the option to play offline, locally or in spilt screen, then their only focus is on “can I find a server full of players? If not, I’m not interested”. Don’t get me wrong, if you have a solid PvP game with a large(ish) marketing budget, it’s possible to create an active community. I’m simply stating, for smaller sized teams, it’s no effortless task.
For us, it’s important to give players a choice. Hypercharge offers PvP, Co-op, full Split-screen support and can be played Offline and Locally. There’s a wide selection to choose from, which is not only good from a consumer’s point of view, but it’s also been beneficial for our marketing.
GWB: What would you say are the benefits to the use setting and visual design that you chose? Any drawbacks?
Henson: From a marketing point of view, Hypercharge has a lot of vibrancy. The environments stand out, oozing with color and character, making GIFs and screenshots visually striking. The only drawback is we can’t miss out on the little details you might normally get away with. Every object in the environment must look believable, because if we’re not meticulous with how we approach the visual design, the whole concept of being an Action figure quickly falls apart. It takes a lot of time to get it right.
Development
GWB: How did you first start working on the game? What was your original concept?
Lead Programmer and Game Designer Dec Doyle: The original concept actually came from our love of “RAT” maps in the Counter-Strike modding scene. People made custom maps in which you were the size of an Action figure in regular environments that felt familiar. We always wanted to see this style of level design in games “done right” and designed with it in mind from the start. Later, this blossomed to merge with the toy theme as a natural progression that fit the rat-map scale.
GWB: What is the development process like?
Henson: The process can only be described as an emotional rollercoaster! Game development has many ups and downs, and it requires a ton of patience. Launching a game doesn’t just happen overnight. There’s a lot of planning involved, and you can’t expect to make the right decisions all the time. But as developers and individuals, it’s how we learn from those decisions that matters the most. That’s exactly what the development process of Hypercharge is; an on-going process that we keep adjusting and improving.
GWB: Can you describe a problem you have encountered during development?
Doyle: The biggest problem we’ve had during development would be staying within the scope of our original plan, and not accidentally building and planning something that is beyond the scope of our small team. We’re all passionate people and sometimes this can cause us to stray from the plan, but we’re getting better at it.
GWB: Did you receive help from others? Was there anyone who gave you advice on development or helped you overcome a problem?
Doyle: While nobody specifically from the outside had any direct help, it’s hard not to stand on the backs of giants when working in this industry. We give thanks to so many in the game development community who share resources and tutorials to help developers improve their skills.
GWB: Did any previous development experience help at all with the development of the game?
Doyle: We have worked on a few other first-person shooters in the past, and the experience was a big help in ensuring we could pull off the weapon feel in Hypercharge. Other experiences working on multiplayer titles really helped make the game work in online and split-screen multiplayer, too.
GWB: Obviously, a lot of teams are working from home right now, and multiplayer games are notorious for their constant upkeep. Is this effecting your team at all? If so, how do you manage these issues?
Doyle: We’ve been working remotely from home for years now, and some of us have been lucky enough to keep our heads down and throw ourselves into our work. We made sure to plan time for our updates and managed to stay on top of running our own servers and it’s all thankfully gone smooth so far for the multiplayer aspect of the game.
GWB: Hypercharge uses Bots. What are the challenges of implementing them? In a lot of shooters, bots have something of a negative reputation among players. Do you think the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?
Doyle: Much of the team grew up playing against bots in games like Quake, UT and Counter-Strike! We might be biased here, but bots are a fantastic addition to any game and our community has been very vocal about it.
We’re a small game now, still building our player base and so having bots really gives a vast amount of extra content to the game for players who don’t have the ability to play online with friends.
Players who don’t have a Nintendo Online account can now play the Deathmatch mode against bots, which is very fun. Overall, we feel the bots in HYPERCHARGE are an enormous benefit to the game in every way.
GWB: In terms of player habits, do you know which content and features are used most by the playerbase? For example, does a large proportion of the playerbase take advantage of splitscreen?
Doyle: We have found that more people on Switch seem to play Singleplayer/Split screen through the community, but the numbers on Steam show that while most people prefer to play online, there are plenty of users doing both. Taking their split-screen player and then playing online with others. Even if the numbers didn’t show the largest proportion, we believe it was worth the extra work to make the game offer as many play modes as possible to make it accessible for more people. We wish more games offered split-screen on PC.
GWB: There’s a roadmap up on the steam page, of course, but could you describe a little about your future plans for the title and team?
Henson: We’re currently working very hard on our next major update, Survival, and are implementing more of a story into the main PvE mode. Our goal here is to give players a better understanding of why they must defend the HYPER-CORE. And as for the mode itself, it takes away much of the building aspect and instead focuses on Wave-based mechanics. We still have big plans for Hypercharge and will carry on updating it based on player feedback. For us as a team, our plans are to keep improving our skill set and stay positive during these uncertain times.
Lessons Learnt
GWB: What, if anything, have you learnt from developing this game?
Henson: If you’re not laughing or smiling during playtests, then something is wrong. I know this may sound obvious, but you must enjoy developing your game. It’s okay to make a game with the community in-mind, but you should still design it based on a core idea that you like. If you’re not mindful of this, you could find yourself 3–6 months down the line thinking; “I don’t enjoy making this”. It’s important each developer is on the same page and can apply the same amount of creativity and passion. That’s what we’ve learnt, anyways.
GWB: Is it difficult to demo and promote a game like this?
Henson: Hypercharge favors itself in that it’s bursting with nostalgia. There’s a certain charm to playing as an Action figure that really connects with people.
And again, it comes from nostalgia; most people have an emotional connection with their once forgotten toys. Hypercharge seems to rekindle happy memories of our childhood, so in a way, the whole concept helps to sell itself.
GWB: What advice would you give to other indie developers approaching a similar type of game?
Henson: You must find your unique selling point that focuses on being an Action figure. This could be an art style or amazing game mechanic. It’s crucial that the player truly feels as if they’re in the plastic boots of a toy soldier. If it’s not believable or accurate, players will struggle to build a genuine and personal connection with the game.
Final Thoughts
GWB:Before we finish, is there anything else you would like to add?
Henson: We’d like to thank Tencent GWB for this opportunity. And to all game developers out there, we hope you’re staying healthy and strong. Times are hard right now, but we will get through it!
If any of your readers would like to follow our progress, they can do so by joining us on Twitter or Discord.
