Articles - Iron Meat

As it gets closer to completion, the team at Retroware is excited to announce that Iron Meat is the winner of "BEST IN SHOW" at this year's MAGFest Indie Videogame Showcase.

Better known simply as MIVS, this aspect of MAGFest, the yearly Music and Gaming Festival that takes place in National Harbor, Maryland USA, (right outside of Washington, D.C.) and is dedicated to all things indie developer and game creation. MIVS features teams selected from across the globe to showcase their latest work to enable a broader audience for their titles at no cost. These indie games are not limited to console, as much of the selection available at this year's showcase included tabletop and arcade titles as well.



We personally wanted to take this time to thank the MIVS team and the following indie videogame developers for their hard work and creativity in making this year's MAGFest as much fun as it was rewarding:

• Aliens After Ava - Alejandro Hervella
• Atama - Team Zutsuu
• Battle Gem Ponies - YotesMark
• Battle Royale: For Your Heart! - LegendEx Games
• Big Boss - Hamra Digital
• Check x Mate - Sliced Kiwi Studios
• Crashword - What's a Mook? Games
• Don't Fraud my Heart! - Dogwood Gaming
• EMIMLIVE: Chroma Quest - GAME JOY
• Fault & Fragment - One Million Machine
• Fire and Rescue - Skyboy Games
• FORKLIFT FLOWERPOT - Too Much Tomato
• Geo Mythica - Guin Entertainment, LLC
• Growing My Grandpa! - Yames
• Gunhawk - Skyboy Games
• HALT - Bunkbed Fantasy
• Hazuki Dies: She Has No Name - LAME Dimension
• Heart is Muscle - Heiden
• In Controller - Children Driving Robots
• Infernax - Berzerk Studio
• It's a Wrap! - Chanko Studios
• Kids of Karendow - Phat Games
• KISS U - Thurman Studios
• Little Nemo & the Nightmare Fiends - Team Nemo, Inc
• Loop Thesis - Latinforimagination
• MerFight - Mattrified Games, LLC
• My Familiar - Chintzy Ink
• NOISZ STARLIVHT - Anarch Entertainment
• Party Crashers - SynthLabs
• Pin City - Studio217, LLC
• Praecantor Lila ~ Bell Spell - Lunacy Indeterminate
• Project Anomaly: Urban Supernatural Investigator - DARK SCIENCE
• Pundle Time Machine - Pacdude Games
• Quartet - Something Classic
• Rabbit & Steel - mino_dev
• Rising Tide - MochiByte
• Scarlet City of Devils - Shademare LLC
• Scrap Seas - Fun Freighter Games
• Shrine's Legacy - Positive Concept Games
• Skate Story - by Sam Eng
• Sneaky Ninja - Starfall Studios
• Solar Ash - Heart Machine LLC
• Strato Breaker - Noetic Nightjar
• Super Marxist Twins - Type 3 Studios
• Telocation: Gemini (N64) - Team Ultra Rare
• TENDY: Robot Gardener - Too Much Tomato
• The Day the World Stopped - The Day the World Stopped
• The Newton Mystery - In The Snow Studios
• The Sand Knight - LAN Line Games
• Typhoon Unit ~ Butterfly Requiem - Ghostly Feline Games
• UNBEATABLE - D-CELL GAMES
• Unwound - Wirescribe Games
• Way of Rhea - Anthropic Studios
• Wildmender - Muse Games
• WrestleQuest - Mega Cat Studios
• Zaag - Casey Labrack

As always, thank you for your support! We are looking forward to the Fall 2023 release of IRON MEAT!

- Retroware/Razz

In speaking with developer Razz, or @IvanMeat, about progress on forthcoming run-and-gun Iron Meat, he mentioned much of his recent work consisted of game balance. This includes enemy variation throughout certain levels (YES, there is a level on a high-speed Meat-infested train) and projectile deployment. In comparison to adding new features like character skins or making more blood and body parts explode on screen, game balance seems a very tedious and elusive way to provide hungry fans with an update.

However, if you believe this... you are sorely mistaken.

🥩

You see, success behind a game can be measured in the way it is balanced. If your title has even a moderate sense of imbalance, less than positive results will arise. But first it is important to understand what game balance is and is not to create it.

Balance makes games, whether board, video, or even tic-tac-toe, fair and enjoyable to all players. The more balanced your game, the better replay value it undoubtedly has, making it a memorable experience beyond its shelf life. If players feel the gameplay is even, if the constructs are fair and the chance to win is possible for all involved, it will be a better experience, thus causing players to return time and time again. How long has Monopoly been around for? What about chess?!

The easiest way to achieve balance in a video game is to develop a minimal, but necessary number of essential elements that compliment each other, which consequently minimizes cross-wiring of unagreeable mechanics. Logic is key here: The less factors there are, the less likely they will be at odds with one another. A well-balanced game should provide players with progression through acquired skills, a chance to recover from early mistakes, and enough control that errors are the player’s fault and not the game itself. Also, developers should always consider balance throughout the development of a game and how each new element presented will react to previously established elements. It may seem that you are simplifying the game, but within constraints, true complexity is born. Any writer, editor, or artist will agree.

In an era of AAA games trying to outdo each other based on how many mechanics can be crammed into one title, or how many patches, or in-game advertising, or pay-to-play rewards are needed to create a semblance of balance, suddenly a game becomes more complicated, and thus more time consuming than is really necessary for the audience’s enjoyment. Many times, as well, these elements are not tailored toward user experience but in the interest of capital or nefarious gain. An imbalanced game does not sacrifice anything to benefit the player’s enjoyment, fails to prepare the player when obstacles do appear, (or unfair difficulty spikes), and/or makes tasks impossible to achieve.

I feel a great example of a well-balanced game within these parameters is Mario Kart 8. Even during earlier iterations of the title, racers that fall behind early on are given numerous chances to redeem themselves and are generally not punished by the game. This is why you’ll receive crappy bananas when you are in first place, but be granted the loathed blue shell of death while trailing (or the star or Bullet Bill). I usually fall somewhere in the middle, so red shells are my besties. Equal parts chance, skill, and appropriate reward.
But will Iron Meat be a well-balanced game? The fact that Razz is working and perfecting the game’s balance as I type this is an extremely positive sign. Also, I’m in the mood for the Meat as I’m allergic to bananas anyway.

What are some other games that achieve near-perfect balance? Do you think game balance is as important as other aspects of video game design? Do good game balance and retro titles have something in common with a collective affinity for a bygone era?

Let me know what you think! 🥩
-Tara

Note: This is only an overview and many have explained this design technique better and in more detail. For more info about game balancing, check out these rad sources:

Youtube.com

Gamasutra.com

THE MEAT IS HUNGRY... for updates!

We've been in maximum overdrive here, as developer Razz continues to make Iron Meat even meatier since the demo dropped. To everyone that has sent us comments, or given the game a like, download, wishlist, or retweet: THANK YOU! We are hella pumped to release this onslaught of a run-and-gun straight to your face and the face of everyone you love, but as the saying goes, good things come to those who gestate.

For now, here are a few updates/modifications made on Iron Meat during the past two weeks:

CHARACTER SKINS

Did you know that you can change your character's skin in the demo from the menu? Once you select the number of players, simply hover down to your character and click the arrow next to a corresponding area of the body (head, arms, torso, or legs) and create your own custom Meat fighter. I personally love the combo of dinosaur head and camo legs.

Anyways, we've asked us ourselves, to exhaustion really, What would Santa Claus do if met with the Meat? It be really funny to play as a merman with skeleton legs and are working to develop a slew of additional character skins to maximize this feature, from the downright silly to serious. Shout out to Lucky @LuckySoftWorks for bringing the pixels to life!

Xander Arnot||Concept Art Only, NOT FINAL PRODUCT

Comment below and let us know who or what you want to defeat the Meat as!

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RETRO MUSIC MODE

There's been a ton of positive feedback on Darkman007's OST and, trust me, it only gets badass(ier?) as the game continues. But in the spirit of the retro-style Iron Meat is violently birthed from, we've integrated a "retro" music mode, featuring a more chip-tuned call back to titles of the past. This will be easily accessible and can be toggled through the pause screen as well as the main title. Never has a 1988-era, near-future apocalyptical setting been more inviting!

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What other feedback do ya'll have? Join the discussion on Discord or follow us on Twitter! Looking forward to bringing you even more MEAT soon!

New Iron Meat Demo Out NOW on STEAM!
IT’S TIME TO DEFEAT THE MEAT 🥩

Play as Vadim, a Sergeant Major in the Russian army, and battle the ravenous Meat across the planet and beyond in a visually and mechanically updated demo for Iron Meat.

The Meat is all — but will you be the one to stop it?

TRY OUT and be sure to WISHLIST on STEAM NOW!