We Indians are deeply rooted to cricket, movies with a strong belief in mythology. May be that is the reason why our game developers usually focus on Bollywood, cricket, or mythology as themes for their titles though with good reason. No wonder then that Vague Pixels’ Alter Army is an exception to the rule.
The game is an upcoming 2D fast-paced action-adventure and in a style reminiscent to retro-games of yore. It’s in line with what one would expect from the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System and just as tough.
Vague Pixels is a creation of two 15-year-old students from Jaipur Mridul Pancholi and Mridul Bansal who have been working on Alter Army for over a year.
Earlier, Pancholi was already a game developer, or that matter he used to make small games for fun and used to upload it on Game Jolt and Edge. And Bansal was a tech geek interested in game development. He started to learn Unreal. But then when he changed schools he met Pancholi.
Whenever they met in private, they used to talk about these things a lot. After a year or two, Pancholi came out with the idea of working together on a project as practice. We thought of a one month target when they have to complete this project. Obviously this expanded a lot, according to Bansal.
While playing Alter Army, the two noticed a resemblance to the likes of a host of indie rogue likes that pepper Steam such as Dead Cells and Nuclear Throne.
Admiting Bansal said that their first inspiration was Broforce [a 2D run-and-gun video game] when they started the project but then the game turned around a lot as they added more systems and features.
While redoing several changes, they took inspiration from other titles like Nuclear Throne as well. The game feel in Alter Army has been inspired by Nuclear Throne and Risk of Rain with some bits from Broforce and Dead Cells too.
Besides from playing the aforementioned games, they drew inspiration from the likes of popular game design YouTube channel Extra Credits and Game Developer Conference (GDC) Talks to hone their skills.
With a significantly expanded scope came derision from all corners. The duo faced skepticism from those at home and in school.
Since they were too small, their parents didn’t support them a lot at the beginning. They used to think that the two were wasting time for nothing.
As a matter of fact, they were asked to focus on school where their teachers used to mock them categorically stating that if they couldn’t do their homework properly, how could they make a game.
Days passed till it was a year they were on to the game. Everyone saw the game’s potential and the attention it was getting and they stopped teasing them.
Referring to Vague Pixels showing the game off at the Nasscom Game Developer Conference, India’s only game developer event. It was met with critical acclaim and was nominated for Upcoming Game of the Year.
Now it was time when the teachers stopped mocking at them. Their friends patted their back saying that we’re doing a good a job and as a matter of fact doing something special. Parents saw the potential. After his father went with them to NGDC, the first time they were there, he saw a lot of potential. Calming down a bit, he advised them to do what they were doing as a half time work and to school the other half time.
This kind of adulation tempted the two to drop out of school and focus solely on game development.
Shifting the conversation to Alter Army, Bansal said that theu=y would ship the game with four characters to choose from, each with different abilities.
While the game was being lauded for its aggression Bansal is of the feel that it’s not been implemented perfectly yet. He admits that this was not going to be a cake walk either.
Bansal avers that the more one plays aggressively, the more the energy bar of the player will charge and the more one can play efficiently.
For now, Alter Army is due to hit Steam Early Access around January 25, though Bansal cautions that the date isn’t set yet. He thinks it should be priced at between $5 to $7.
