Developers love to reference or imitate the games they played when they were kids. But rarely do we see that nostalgia pointed at specific moments in popular culture.
Developer RageSquid’s Action Henk and Moon Spider Studio’s Harold do just that. They’re speedy platforming games for PC with striking presentations. Action Henk’s tale recalls Pixar’s Toy Story films: A washed-up but beloved action figure is trying to prove to himself and others that he still has what it takes to race against the best. Harold is about a hapless dweeb caught up in a racing contest controlled by angels — and it looks like one of Disney’s classic 2D animated films.
Both do a great job of capturing that “just one more try” feeling. I reached out to the studios to find out more about how they channeled their nostalgia into such addicting games.
Above: In real life, fire and plastic don’t mix.
‘A G.I. Joe in a midlife crisis’
Action Henk’s titular hero is having a midlife crisis. In the game’s fictional version of the 1990s, Henk was in his prime — he looked more like an Olympian god than the Rambo reject he is today — and he was the fastest toy in the world. Nowadays, he’s out of shape and owes money to a well-dressed villain who challenges him to a race. With the help of his friends (who are also playable characters in the game), Henk is trying to live up to his once illustrious reputation.
“That’s how we described it: It’s a game about a G.I. Joe in a midlife crisis,” said RageSquid cofounder Roel Ezendam.
Action Henk (out on May 11 for PC, Mac, and Linux) is the first commercial game for the Utrecht, Netherlands-based RageSquid. The small team of developers (some of whom are still college students) worked together before on game jams. They had the idea for Action Henk since 2012, but at the time, they didn’t have the money to pursue it. After doing freelance work on other projects, they came back together to work on Action Henk full-time just over a year ago.
The toy theme came from art lead Gabrian van Houdt. Ezendam already had the running gameplay in mind (they originally thought of making a 3D platformer), but it was van Houdt’s job to come up with the premise. Van Houdt thought the game should be realistic and colorful but not as bright and cheery as a cartoon. Toys fit that description perfectly. Action Henk’s characters look like real toys, right down to their reflective sheen and the screws holding their joints together.
“If you’re thinking about toys, you go back to your childhood sort of naturally,” said Ezendam. “We were like, ‘How cool would it be if you could actually play with the toys, put down the blocks, and build your own levels?’ That’s how we ended up with the idea of having a level editor as well.”
Above: Henk even has his own theme park.
The inspiration for Henk came from a toy line the developers grew up with called Action Man. Action Man is like the European counterpart of Hasbro’s G.I. Joe toys, military action figures that come with various accessories. One day, van Houdt brought a huge box of toys to display in their office, including a bunch of Action Man figurines.
Rather than focus on gaming’s past, RageSquid is making an homage to their childhood.
“We were talking about this nostalgia stuff, and we’re like, ‘It’s not about nostalgia in terms of games, but nostalgia in terms of toys [and] childhood memories.’ I think we specifically said we don’t want to do 16-bit or 8-bit graphics and chiptune music,” said Ezendam.
[youtube https://youtu.be/WchXGpdDVc4]I couldn’t help but think of the Toy Story movies, which are also about old toys trying to find their place in the world. According to Ezendam, Toy Story may have had a subconscious influence on their design, but they tried to avoid making too many connections. But that didn’t stop them from leaving a few hints about the toys’ owner. The room Action Henk mostly takes place in looks like it belongs to someone who’s too old for toys but still keeps them around for nostalgia’s sake.
One ’90s flick they did use for reference was Small Soldiers, a somewhat violent tale about two sets of toys coming to life and waging war against each other. Action Henk isn’t that dark, but the events that unfold later on in the game reminded me of some of the characters from the film.
That’s not to say Action Henk is a story-heavy game (the story isn’t in the Steam Early Access version because the developers are saving it for launch). It’s just a neat dressing to the fast-paced gameplay. You’ll spend most of your time butt-sliding down Hot Wheels-esque orange tracks and jumping over wooden blocks to build your momentum.
Above: Smacking crocodiles is just one of many things you’ll do to keep Harold safe.
Making a 2D style that’s ‘actually a big trap’
On the other side of the world in Key Biscayne, Fla., another racing-focused platformer was gestating. Loris Malek founded Moon Spider Studio five years ago, yearning to create something that reminded him of his favorite skill-based games like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong. With the recently released Harold (out on PC), he paired modern graphics with the type of old-school challenge he felt was missing from games today.
“For us, we did a game that looks like a triple-A quality game with a Walt Disney style that looks like it’s for kids. But it’s actually a big trap,” he said. “When you start to play it, you’re starting to get hit everywhere.”
Harold stretches further back than Moon Spider’s history. It started as an idea for a Nintendo DS game when Malek worked at the now-defunct Kando Games in France. When the studio went under, he took the project with him and worked on it by himself in his spare time.
During those years, the DS market dried up, and Xbox Live and PlayStation Network were becoming a popular distribution choice for indie games. Moon Spider redesigned Harold to work with a controller instead of a stylus. (It eventually canceled the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions because of the lack of time and money.)