The Retro Challenges of Runner3

Well hello there! I’m Jason Cirillo. I work on video games here at Choice Provisions, and everyday that I come to work, there’s always some kind of wacky new task to jump on, as well as some kind of bizarre foreign snack that we’re all daring each other to eat.

This time around, I’m absolutely thrilled to be hard at work on Runner3. The last time I worked on a Runner game with a numeral in it, it was Runner2. There, a big part of my job was designing the look and feel of the Retro Challenges. Well, I guess my work wasn’t a total disaster, because I’ve been asked to design the Retro Challenges yet again.

For those of you who don’t know, (which is approximately 99.99% of you) I am a huge fan of not just old video games, but also old cartoons and animation. I have always really enjoyed the stylings of Friz Freleng (Pink Panther, Ant and Aardvark) and Hanna-Barbera, particularly works from the 1960s and 70s. We thought this time around, it might be a lot of fun to explore those styles and see what we could do with those as inspiration.

Here's a preview of the style we're going for in the Retro Challenges of Runner3. Although this art isn't technically final, it's fair to say that it's very close:

CommanderVideo has explored worlds reminiscent of the Atari 2600 days as well as the 1980’s 8-Bit NES style era, and we wondered what it would be like if he found himself transported to a world unlike any he’s ever visited before.

So far, all I can tell you is that we are having some gigantic belly laughs at the world we’re putting together for CV to romp around in. The terrain and creatures and enemies that lurk here are absolutely unlike anything you’ve ever seen before in CommanderVideo’s worlds. I am genuinely very, very excited about what we’re doing with these special “Retro” Challenges this time around, and I think you’re really going to love it.

I’d love to answer whatever questions I can (at this point) as well as hear your thoughts on Retro Challenges! Have at it in the comments.

Till next time!

- Jason

Let's Talk Characters!

Believe it or not we truly had no idea what people would think when we announced Runner3. We suspected the reception would be positive, but it turns out we underestimated the amount of trailer views, site visits, comments, and tweets we were going to receive. It’s motivated us even further to create the best game we possibly can.

This is all my way of saying:

With that addressed, I’d also like to reiterate our plan to offer user polls and allow everyone a chance to weigh in on certain aspects of the game. In fact, why don’t we hit the ground running and start talking about playable characters? Our hope for Runner3 is to offer a roster of characters both old and new, and while we have a list that we’re super excited about internally, we’d like to hear what you all think! Which characters are you hoping return for Runner3? And who, in your wildest dreams, would you like to see added to the game? It can be a character from another property, or it can be a character you made up in your head!

Full disclosure: The character roster of Runner3 is pretty locked down by this point, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t open to suggestions. If there seems to be strong demand for a character we weren’t planning on including, then we will seriously consider it! Obviously we’re going to encounter licensing issues if everyone requests Darth Vader or Shrek or something like that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t dream big!

Let’s talk about it in the comments!

- Dant

Joy

One of the most important ideas Mike and I pushed on Runner2 was that it should be, and could be, a game for anyone. If you were a hardcore BIT.TRIP fan, you could have a tough-as-nails, controller-throwingly difficult experience by pushing the game to its hardest setting. But if you wanted to simply enjoy yourself without getting sweaty, you could play on the easiest setting. There were no perks or penalties associated with the difficulty chosen. 

Runner2 was a game you could play on your own terms.

Too often, games focus on rewarding hardcore players and perpetuating the idea that if you play on easy, you're somehow less of a gamer. What if games don't bring you as much joy if they're ultra-challenging? Maybe that doesn't make you "less". Maybe that just makes you "you".

So in Runner3, we're focusing on bringing our notions of difficulty and what makes a game rewarding front and center. The focus in Runner3 is on giving the player a joyous experience. In fact, one of our development pillars for the game is:

"Runner3 needs to be a joyous experience in every moment--both in the game, and during its creation."

If you like being challenged relentlessly, will you get that? Yes. (It is us, after all.) But if you prefer being able to experience the entire game without being ultra-challenged, you'll be able to do that as well--without penalty. We have some very interesting tricks up our sleeve as to how we're going to accomplish this, and we'll be revealing them here over the course of development, so keep checking back.

A fan of Runner2 recently contacted us and asked why we chose to make the final two levels of Runner2 so easy once the player was past the checkpoint. The answer is: because it felt joyous to end the game the way we did.

And our players deserve a little joy in their lives.

- Alex

The Things to Come

The Internet, as we all know, is a graveyard filled with abandoned blogs and Geocities pages. It’s sad at first, but then you remember that the website for Space Jam is somehow still up and you feel a little bit better. It may also cheer you up to know that we have every intention of regularly updating Runner3 over the course of the game’s development (as well as after its release!). In fact, we’re going to commit to a minimum of one post a week from here on out. 

As some of you may recall, our development blog for Runner2 was A) updated regularly and B) not afraid to delve into the nitty-gritty of game development. People seemed to really enjoy it, which is why we plan to do the same with our blog for Runner3. You’ll be hearing from the game’s artists, animators, programmers, designers, musicians and even its producer (me!). Whether you’re looking to get into game development yourself or are just simply interested in the process, we’re pretty sure you’ll be happy with what we have to share. 

Additionally, if you’d just simply like to stay in the loop about announcements for the game, you’ll be good to go there as well! Any announcements we make will be shared here, including new gameplay footage, character reveals, merchandise plans, and all the other sundries we hope to announce over the course of the game’s development.

If there’s anything in particular you’d like to hear about, please let us know in the comments! We want you to enjoy reading this blog as much as we love writing it, which is why we’re going to take your requests very seriously.

Stay tuned!

- Dant

A Teasing Teaser

This blog is going to be an experiment in some ways. In the time of Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and other social media outlets, are people going to want to visit a blog where a bunch of nerds go into detail about the creation of a game? Only time (and our paltry knowledge of SEO) will tell. 

What I do know, however, is that we want to make this the best possible one-stop shop for those of you looking forward to Runner3. As part of this commitment, I’d like to share with you the official teaser for the game:

Pretty cryptic, I know. The good news is that we have a plan in place to ensure you receive exciting news about Runner3 on a regular basis. We'll be getting into that more future post, but in the meantime, we would love to hear what you think about the teaser, and what your expectations are for Runner3! Is there a character you’d like to see return? Is there something you loved about the first two games that you hope to see in the third one? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

- Mike