A Homebrew Draws Near!

A blog series by @Scrobins

Episode 48: Steel Legion

Introduction:

As homebrew continues to grow, reaching out for modern gaming tastes with its feet firmly planted in retro technology, the bar is raised repeatedly. And in so doing, we mark meaningful benchmarks in the community’s growth which reflect the talent and creativity of developers, while also addressing what players have wanted from some of their homebrew games. With the explosion of the library of games at their disposal, fans crave deeper, more immersive experiences with games that cannot be beaten quickly, where exploration offers many adventures and a host of secrets & in-game collectibles, something for the obsessive content completionists.

For this entry, I’m covering the metroidvania Steel Legion for the NES by Aeon & Star Interactive. As of the time of this writing, initial backers have received their pledges, and the game is available digitally here, and available physically here.

The total CIB package!

 

Development Team:

François Brodeur: Developer

 

Game Evolution:

Aeon & Star Interactive emerged from the nebula with an October 1, 2023 tweet announcing its existence and teasing work on upcoming retro games. The demo for Steel Legion was shared two days later. Work continued on the game, leading up to its launch on Kickstarter on June 17, 2024. By the campaign’s end, 702 backers pledged nearly €42,000 toward the game, and three months later were already receiving their copies. The campaign kept its tiers simple: a digital tier with game rom, manual, and soundtrack; a regular edition CIB (with an early bird option); and a special edition Steel Pack CIB, with silver cart, numbered box, certificate of authenticity, posters, stickers, and coasters.

 

Gameplay:

Steel Legion describes itself as a metroidvania. You play as a reconstructed cyborg commando in a dystopian 2004, where an evil A.I. central command leads an army of androids against the last vestiges of humanity. Between the technology available to you & your brothers and whatever can be scrounged from the streets, you must bring the fight to the machines with the heart they don’t possess.

Controls are easy enough to learn: press left or right on the D-pad to move accordingly, press up to enter doors and talk to others, press the A button to jump, press the B button to shoot, press Select to toggle between weapons, and press Start to pause. Additional moves include combining down & A to drop through a platform, down & B to fire your grenade launcher, up & B to fire your shoulder cannon, and up & Select (while the game is paused) to warp to the starting train location.

Screenshot from Steel Legion

 

Review:

Steel Legion is a very challenging action game that includes a wide variety of enemies and environments. Its urban, apocalyptic labyrinth is never dull, offering a metroidvania cousin to the Battle Kid games. I wish you could crouch or shoot in multiple directions, but then again this is where the variety of weapons comes into play, thus making the scarcity of resources and desperation for options part of the story. Steel Legion promised an “NES hard” game to its Kickstarter backers, and delivered. Like any good die & retry, the challenges rarely feel cheap, merely action puzzles to be deciphered, with progress measured in inches, or in pixels.

The game looks like a 70s comic book come to life, and the setting might be comfortable (if any dystopia can be said to be comfortable) as a neighborhood in Mega-City One in Judge Dredd’s jurisdiction. The color palette uses careful splashes of color to illustrate a once vibrant community, now a burnt husk, telling a story without needing a word of exposition. And the sprites have a functional, yet amalgamated look, like an army assembling itself with whatever scrap it can find, in whatever shape it is in. Meanwhile the music has a 90s rock jam vibe, reminiscent of Comix Zone if it were adapted for the NES. Grungy, but satisfied, the music offers less of a soundtrack for defending the last of mankind, than of a happy warrior fighting the power, content with their place in the universe.

 

Interviews:

Steel Legion may take place in an apocalyptic hellscape, but I didn’t have to seek out an underground bunker to talk to its developer. Read on for our fun and illuminating conversation…

 

François Brodeur

@AeonAndStar

-Before we dive into Steel Legion, I would love to talk about you and your background. What first inspired you to become a homebrew game developer? What is your origin story? What is the story behind Aeon & Star Interactive?

Becoming a homebrew game developer was not a choice, I am just a creative person that loves the NES and I always was interested in making games. For me, it's just a hobby that is becoming more serious as I am getting better.

 

-Who are your influences? And whose work are you watching closely now?

I am influenced by the games I like. I kind of mix together my favorite aspects of different games. The first Dark Souls and CRPG are a big influence.

 

-How would you describe your design aesthetic, and what to you are hallmarks of a game designed by you?

Multiple choices of what to do and where to go with little to no hand holding. I hate games with lots of dialogues that are just filler or small talk between the characters and/or NPCs. No nonsense and straight to the point is my motto. Trim all the fat and focus on what is really important and engaging to the player, don't waste his time. I also absolutely loathe humour and parody in games, it's a complete turn off for me.

 

-Your Kickstarter page describes you as a “musician, pixel artist, level designer, game designer, and NES/arcade fanatic,” do any of those roles dominate over or inform the others?

Musician, no hesitation. I have been playing and composing music in bands since high school. All other aspects of game development is pretty new to me. I am even designing the game based on my music. Like the game I am working on right now, I made most of the music before even starting the game and some areas' aesthetics were dictated by the music. For example, I made a tune that makes me imagine going through a graveyard. Because of that, there is going to be a graveyard in my next game.

 

-What tools do you use to code, compose, and create?

I code with Notepad. I compose in FamiTracker with an electronic piano keyboard on the side, even though I am a guitar player, the piano is just better and more convenient to create melodies over the riff I make in FamiTracker. I am using NESmaker as the game engine.

 

-Your Kickstarter boasts its difficulty as “NES hard,” what about that famed difficulty resonates with you so much?

Personally, I never thought the game was hard and still believe the game is pretty fair. At first I was even afraid the game would be too easy. But most people that were playtesting it found it to be pretty difficult and some called it NES Hard. That is the reason why we described it as NES hard. But I never saw it that way, Steel Legion is nowhere near NES Hard for me.

 

-Ever since my first episode, artist M-Tee planted this idea in my mind that a game’s protagonist serves as the player's point of immersion in the game, informing how we understand the game's world. I also believe that the protagonist’s design serves as a reflection of its designer. What is the intention behind the cyborg commando’s design? Do you see yourself in him? Or is it more the opposition to the A.I. antagonist?

That’s overthinking it for me! I just wanted a cool looking character. Although David did the description text so he might have a different idea than me on this.

 

-One of the fun aspects of Steel Legion is the list of collectibles to be found throughout the game’s levels, which has that modern “achievement” gaming vibe. Was that your intent? Are there secret collectibles hidden as well?

It's a Metroid's structure inspired game. Collecting stuff that is hidden is the core of the experience. That is why I warn the player with a "spoiler alert" on the game map in the manual. Part of the game is to find everything on your own.

Some of the collectibles advertised in the Kickstarter

 

-What aspects of Steel Legion are you most proud of?

Having finished it. It is my first game and is also not the game I wanted to make. I did Steel Legion to learn NES development and get experience because it was a much more simple and easy game to make than the kind of games I really want to make. So having it finished and released is very gratifying because it is the first step in becoming a better developer.

 

-What new challenges or surprises surfaced in developing Steel Legion? What lessons did you learn that you would like to share with the people who aspire to follow in your footsteps?

Like the previous answer. It's my first game and was crucial to becoming better with all aspects of game development. Including everything that comes after the game is finished like the Kickstarter campaign, creating box and manuals, etc.. It is very important as a new developer to not start too big on a lengthy project. Start small and finish your game so that you can go through all aspects of development and then have a much better idea of what it involves before making your dream game.

 

-There has been a lot of support and enthusiasm for Steel Legion on Kickstarter. How does it feel to see so many people excited about the game?

I am not an emotional person. I am just glad that people love the game and it motivates me to do more.

 

-Are there any other projects you have lined up on the horizon, NES or otherwise? Any dream projects?

Many ideas for many games. I don't have any intention of moving away from the NES at the moment. I am also contributing pixel art for other projects with Aeon & Star interactive that are not NES games but for my own project, I am sticking with the NES. It’s clear we will try to port the game over to other platforms at some point.

 

-Are there any homebrew games in development that you are excited to play?

I am always excited when someone in the NESmaker community releases a game. We all help each other and share what we are working on so it's nice to see how those games develop.

 

-I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with me and share your experiences. Is there anything else you would like to tell readers and fans?

You are all awesome and thank you for supporting homebrew and independent developers.

 

 

Conclusion:

Thanks for tuning in to this latest episode of the series that shares the adventures of developing your favorite new homebrew games. What are your thoughts on Steel Legion and its developers? What homebrews are you eagerly looking forward to? Perhaps you’ll see it here soon when…A Homebrew Draws Near! Command?