IndieCade 2013 Preview: Nathan Vella Interview Super Time Force

 Nathan Vella Co-founder & President of Capybara Games took time, heh, to answer questions about Super Time Force, due on Xbox Live Arcade. The game will be playable at IndieCade this weekend.

Wow, wow, wow... wow, what's with this time travel side-scrolling shooter? It looks crazy and very much inspired by 90's cartoons; Blade Runner meets The Jetsons. Please explain the game to the readers.

Super Time Force is an action-packed run-n-gun platformer in the vein of Contra, that puts the player in control of the most powerful force in the universe: Time! At any point during gameplay (or whenever the player dies), they can rewind time like a VHS tape of yore, and decide when to jump back in alongside all the past versions of themselves, creating something we like to call Single Player Co-op. 

Throughout the game, players will be able to create an army of "past selves" with the goal of righting many of history's wrong, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs or the fact that you have to download plugins to see cat videos on the internet.

Also, there are a lot of explosions.

How did you come up and name your characters? There's one made of poo, yes?

The characters all have different origins - some from the original prototype, others based on their strategic impact or providing variety in gameplay. However, most of them were just hilarious ideas that we wanted to see in the game. From Zackasaurus to Lou Don Jim to Jef Leppard, most of the characters our design crew came up with began as jokes, and became awesome gameplay. 

And yes, there is a playable piece of feces named Squirt, who's special attack is to lay fart clouds which you explode with his magnum.  

Where did you come up with this. How many references have you snuck in relating to time travel movies and shows?

Super Time Force was originally conceived as a part of TOJAM - a really big Toronto-based game jam. In 3 days lead programmer Kenneth Yeung and artists Mike & Vic Nguyen hammered out the main idea that defines the game to this day - single player coop. 

As for references, lets just say that cramming them into the game in sneaky (or blatantly obvious) ways has been a huge source of fun during development. Capy, as a studio, loves our references... so I would expect to find nods to everything from all across the 80's and 90's map. If I had to estimate the number of references in the game, I would say somewhere between "50" and "Tons".

You already have a platform the games headed to and a network to get the game out to the public, why go to IndieCade? Is it more than trying to sell your game there? Are you in it to show off? (I'm better than you PlayStation Move Forest based on a novel, that is a real thing at IndieCade this year, I think.)

Going to IndieCade is about exposing the game to fans and peers alike. It's about giving everyone we can a chance to play the game, watching them play, and listening to their feedback. Even though we know how/where the game is going to be released, we still need to focus on making it the most fun we can. IndieCade provides an amazing opportunity to have the best indie devs, and the general public, give it a shot.

We've been huge fans of IndieCade for years, and we're always so happy to be a part of it. Especially when our game will be along side a game based on dangling PS Move controllers!

That being said we will probably spend most of our time at IndieCade losing in 4-player matches of Towerfall.

Ha, interviewed TowerFall creator here.

I read the game was at iam8bit gallery over E3, did you go? Jump into that Uncle Scrooge Bin of plush coins? What's the difference from attending E3 to IndieCade?

Artists Mike & Vic Nguyen had a piece selected for the Into The Pixel Gallery (which isn't related to iam8bit), so no jumping bins of plush coins!

E3 is pomp and grandeur. IndieCade is experimentation and exploration. Comparing the two is difficult since the goals are so completely different. For us, E3 is about promoting our titles to a specific set of people; while IndieCade is about spending time in the presence of great independent developers - talking with them, learning from them, and enjoying the camaraderie. 

Anything special for the IndieCade 2013 demo?

You mean other than time travel, a boss monster made of sewer sludge, exploding robots and the ability to create an army made up entire of your past selves? Maybe... 

I'm sure it's been asked, but are we going to kill Hitler in this?

I can't comment on if, or how, you will be able to kill Hitler. That might be a little cliché for us (please note, that was meant to be read with tons of sarcasm)!