We’re working on a review for I Hate Running Backwards on PlayStation 4, so I got in touch with Binx Interactive to talk about the game’s development for Sony’s home console. Come check it out!
PS4B: Welcome to PS4Blog.net Could you please introduce yourself to our readers and tell them a bit about your work?
We are Binx Interactive, a five-man indie dev team from Zagreb, Croatia. I Hate Running Backwards is Binx Interactive’s second project, and it’s a modernized take on an arcade-style of action that’s near and dear to our hearts.
PS4B: I Hate Running Backwards is now available on PlayStation 4. How would you describe the game to someone who’s never heard about it?
It is a total destruction mayhem of a game, and it’s very challenging at that. Anyone who’s played classic arcade shmups like 1943 or Raiden should mostly feel at home with I Hate Running Backwards, although the action in our game is turned on its head. There are also some rogue-lite elements that players may have encountered in games like Nuclear Throne or Enter the Gungeon.
I Hate Running Backwards is a frantic, co-op friendly shoot-em-down with destructible environments, ridiculous weapons and procedurally generated stages, ensuring no two runs ever play out the same. It has a strong focus on tactics and melee attacks as well, with danger looming from above, not just from below. Each enemy needs to be approached differently when being dealt with, and your playstyle will need to change, depending on what random weapon you’ve acquired. You’re basically playing with the cards that you are dealt with and need to adapt to the situation on the spot. Every available character offers their own advantage, so trying out different playstyles is encouraged, and there’s also some fun Devolver cameos in there as well.
PS4B: How long did it take to develop the game to get it ready for its PS4 release? Where there any considerable changes to the game between its initial concept stage and the version we can now play on Sony’s console?
We’ve been working on I Hate Running Backwards for almost two years, experimenting with different features and the overall feel of the action. To make sure we were on the right track, we took in-progress builds to shows like Reboot, Gamescom and PAX East to see what average players thought of the gameplay and made revisions based on their feedback. Although the overall feel of the game stayed the same from the beginning, we iterated on the games’ mechanics, weapons system and character abilities a lot before settling for what we have now. We recently found a couple of older builds of the game, including the one that won us the award for best gameplay during the Reboot Infogamer 2016 expo, and were stunned by how differently the game looks now. So even though it may not seem like it at first, the game actually changed a lot, both visually and gameplay wise.
PS4B: Will there be any additional content made available either as free or paid DLC to expand on the game’s content?
We’re focusing on our launch across PS4, Xbox One and PC right now, but we’re listening to the community’s requests and ideas and will have more information on future updates down the road!
We already did a major update on PC that balanced out the difficulty and levels, added a baby mode for the players that want a more relaxed experience and tweaked ammo pickups so players get extra rounds when they pick them up. We will be rolling out that update soon on consoles as well.
PS4B: And that’s all the time we have for today. Would you like to add anything else before we go?
We just want to thank everyone who’s taken the time to check out I Hate Running Backwards. It’s a labor of love we’re extremely proud of and we can’t wait to see what the community does with it as they get even more comfortable clearing each stage.
