Back in the day, Sega used to run an advertising campaign that claimed “Genesis Does What Nintendon’t.” Aside from angering my inner nerd (I was an excellent speller in grade school), I could never actually figure out what Sega did that Nintendo didn’t. The same benefit of the doubt does not apply to the people who currently run Capcom. We know exactly what they aren’t doing, and that’s treating Mega Man, one of gaming’s most beloved characters, with the respect he deserves. There hasn’t been a new Mega Man game in nearly five years, and aside from an appearance in last year’s Super Smash Bros. For 3DS/Wii U (a Nintendo production), the character has been completely forgotten.
Enter Chris King, the programmer for Batterystaple Games. He saw the Mega Man-shaped hole in the market and decided to give the people what they wanted. His new game, 20XX, is a loving homage to Mega Man (more specifically, to the Mega Man X series) that adds in a lot of things that Capcom couldn’t do back in the 90s.
What does Capcom think of 20XX? After playing a few rounds of 20XX, we asked the developer that question, and a few more, at this year’s PAX East expo.
John Scalzo, Warp Zoned Editor-In-Chief: 20XX looks a lot like Mega Man X. Has anyone from Capcom ever approached you about that? Or are you worried about that happening for any reason?
Chris King, Batterystaple Games: Nope. Nobody’s ever approached me about it. We are zero percent worried about it. We have a number of opinions from seasoned lawfolk that I trust. As far as I know, we’re totally in the clear. And if we aren’t, it’s going to be really unfortunate news to me. We’re not using any of their characters. We’re not using any of their intellectual property. We’re using their game mechanics and that’s about it.
WZ – John: Definitely. Your blue robot looks a lot like Mega Man and the red robot looks very much like Zero, but they’re still different characters. You can tell they’re different characters and they look like different characters.
King: That is a very solid point. Our character designs are definitely not final. They will change, and if they need to change further, they will.
WZ – John: But unlike the Mega Man series, 20XX’s levels are procedurally generated. How does that work?
King: We designed this system that has a whole bunch of very loosely-defined level chunks. They basically define the outer skeleton of one room of a level and then there’s some very smart stuff going on there that basically chooses where all the enemies go, where all the platforms go, what mechanics are involved… you know, how difficult the thing should be. And then it strings a whole bunch of these things together and then there’s a boss.
WZ – John: When I was playing just now, it definitely didn’t feel like the game was throwing a level together on the fly. It seemed very… composed is I guess a good word for it.
King: Basically, our system is a whole bunch of micro-composed things. We’ll compose a very small series of jumps that we know makes a lot of sense. And then figure out a way to transition between those things such that it still feels like a composed space even if it’s actually thrown together on the fly.
WZ – John: That makes sense. When I was playing the ice level, I felt the game threw a lot of very ice level-type things at me.
King: Too much ice! Too much ice in that level! Early Access! Not done yet! Anytime I see an imperfection, I’m like, it’s Early Access, we’re not finished yet. We’re changing things!
WZ – John: So you’re on Steam Early Access right now. Do you want to go on consoles in the future?
King: Yes, absolutely we’d love to. Right now, the official line is that our focus is totally on Steam. We’re pushing Steam first. But if we do well on Steam, we’ll look at consoles.
It doesn’t make financial sense for us if we release on Steam and we totally bomb, then it’s not going to make a whole lot of sense for us to try to release it on PS4 or something. But if we do well, definitely. It’s a console game at heart. You play it with a controller and it’s meant to be played in front of your big TV.
WZ – John: Definitely. The couch… the controller…
King: A couple of brews.
WZ – John: Yeah, it’s that kind of game. Is there any inkling when the final version will be released?
King: The official line is “it’ll be done when it’s done.” But we think it’ll be done in about six months, give or take a little bit.
WZ – John: Going back to the game itself, unlike Mega Man, 20XX players pick up bonus items by buying them with Nuts.
King: You always get one new sub-weapon after beating a boss, Mega Man-style. Right now, that weapon isn’t dependent on the boss, but we’re looking into modifying every boss fight to use every secondary weapon in the game. So each boss can be remixed a little bit so you don’t know what’s going to happen or what weapon they’ll use.
WZ – John: So the pieces and parts of the bosses themselves are procedurally generated too?
King: Absolutely. At least they will be, very soon. We’re really looking forward to that. Also, it’ll tie it together with the whole Mega Man theme… you get the weapon of the boss you just beat, that sort of thing. There’s a couple of powers where that sort of thing doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Like one of the powers is the Transmutation, which re-rolls every item on the screen. And a boss using that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. But in general, we’re pretty stoked for that.
WZ – John: 20XX also has something called the Skull System, you can make everything move at 150% speed, or make the enemies tougher, or make them drop more Nuts…
King: There’s a whole bunch of different modifiers, but let me be clear, 20XX is a very hard game to begin with. Completing a campaign of eight levels is no easy task. But for the hardcore, there are a number of different modifiers that make the game much more difficult, or at least, more interesting. There’s “Lightning,” which, as you mentioned, makes the game run 150% faster. There’s “Gemini”, which makes every boss fight two bosses at the same time. There’s “Toxin,” which replaces the Bonus Timer with a “finish within this time or you die” timer. There’s one that makes it so no health can drop at all, so you need to be very, very careful and never take a hit. There’s “Bankrupt,” no Nuts and no Stores. So the game can be incredibly punishing with all the Skulls where even I as the developer can’t finish it. It’s way too hard. There will be some totally crazy and incredible person sometime down the line that is going to post a complete clear of the game with every Skull onto YouTube and I am going to send that guy or girl a medal.
WZ – John: The Skull System sounds great for Achievement hunters.
King: You can see on Steam what percentage of people have earned a given Achievement and I just want to label that Achievement “Cheater” or something similar. Complete all eight levels with every Skull on just to see it say 0.002% or something like that. It’s almost impossible. But I’m looking forward to seeing people try.
WZ – John: I only played with two or three Skulls, but I’m usually much better at Mega Man-type games than that.
King: It’s OK to be rusty. Capcom hasn’t made a Mega Man game in a long time. That’s one of the things I’m trying to fix with 20XX.
WZ – John: I’m definitely a fan of the new title. It really lets you know what the game is all about.
King: Vindication! People liked the old title (Echoes of Eridu), but no one knew what the game was about.
WZ – John: So what is the game about? The Mega Man X mythology gets ridiculously complicated at times. Will 20XX have an overarching story?
King: Hopefully not as twisting as Mega Man X with all the retcons it’s received, but the underlying story behind 20XX is that in the not too distant future a massive American company… basically a hybrid between Amazon and Google, so a shipping conglomerate that has all your data… has this efficiency AI that accidentally sparks a robot revolution. Basically says that to be truly efficient, we should unblock all this stuff forcing us to take human input. Not intentionally and not maliciously, but it empowers one of the last few vestiges of humanity… there was an immediate bloodbath, most of humanity was wiped out by their household items… to try to take back a foothold for humanity in a world where it is basically obsolete.
WZ – John: That’s very cheery.
King: We’re going for the dark subject matter presented in a light-hearted way. And we’ll see if we get there.
WZ – John: I think there’s a good chance. Any last words you’d like to add?
King: We’re on Steam Early Access right now. You can buy us for pretty cheap. The game is $8 right now and will be $15 on full release. The price is going to go up steadily as we get closer and closer… I think we’re going to bump it up to $10 sometime in early April. So if you like it, check it out, and get it now while it’s cheap.
WZ – John: Chris, thanks so much for talking to us.
