Developer Interview: CASTILLO Shattered Mirrors

There are Twitter bots that will retweet tweets under the #gamedev hashtag, and I think they helped many people find my game. I also am incredibly grateful to the E1M1 and Reload Magazines writers for helping promote my game on Twitter.

Super Mario 64 DS was one of the first games I played. I believed every false playground rumour of secret areas and characters and spent countless hours trying to get to them. I've wanted to include a similar hub since Flying Frags, but it never worked out. I finally decided to make a game with that level structure when starting Shattered Mirrors. Dracula's Castle was different when the game launched. It was a simple hub world with easily accessible portals. I redid it in June and designed a new hub that exemplifies what made Peach's Castle special to me. It's filled with secret rooms and twists and turns, which makes me feel the same way I did exploring Peach's Castle as a kid. When designing it, I wanted to hide secrets some players won't find. I think it adds to the mystique of the castle and keeps players on their toes.

I'm not the best artist, so I use low-poly and pixel art to convey what I want to the player. I also like using bold colour and lighting schemes; simplistic pixel art makes it easier for the player to adjust. If you're making a retro-style game, you need to stay consistent (even if it's consistently inconsistent); as long as the player doesn't think something's off, the number of pixels and polygons don't matter.

The biggest challenge was my restraint to lean into the design I wanted wholly. I started by designing the hubs and worlds like how I've done it for my other games. I had to go back and scrap or redo old content to make it match what I had envisioned.

The retro shooter development community is such a tight-knit group of lovely people. If you are ever stuck or need help, don't hesitate to reach out. I am in dozens of forums and Discords, but I would recommend joining the Reload Magazine discord. They have a developer chat filled with some fantastic people.

The game already has an endless horde mode! The game also has a "modifiers" menu for starting a new campaign, which allows you to try no-death, mirror mode, etc. I'm considering adding in a few more of them with custom modifier support.

I think that started with Mario 64 DS and Mario Kart Wii. They were the first games I remember playing, and the worlds enticed me with all the secrets and shortcuts. I've been developing games since I was nine years old. Before I knew how to spell "videogame," I wanted to be a game developer. Games take months, years, or decades to make, and it's always in the back of your head when you're working on them. I remember the things I did, the people I met, and the music I liked when making a game. Making a game is just such a large undertaking that it is very satisfying to finish and replay because it lets you look back on that part of your life.

The first CASTILLO game was a three-day endeavour that I had made directly after releasing Flying Frags World Tour as a COVID-19 project. The goal was to create a game entirely based on twitchy combat. Shattered Mirrors started development in March 2021. I spent a lot of time figuring out what to do with it until I landed on the open-ended hub structure. I had to take a break from working on it throughout the summer of 2021 to work on HYPERJUSTICE but went back into full swing in September to try to make a Halloween release. I released the game in 2021 on itch and GameJolt, but I wasn't delighted with the product. I regretted doing so and spent the next five months polishing the content to a much higher standard to lead to a Steam release in March of 2022.

I played Doom 2 in 2019, and it had me engrossed. Most of my recent games have been retro shooters because I love how the relatively simple design allows for a creative level and combat design. I think the FPS genre, in general, can be significantly expanded if the developers stop leaning so closely toward the current status and gameplay design structure.

New game ideas on the way? I'm currently working on a new expansion for Shattered Mirrors inspired by Banjo Kazooie, Symphony of the Night, and Dante's Inferno. It has nine levels with 100 shards to find (10 inside each level and 10 hidden in the hub). The gameplay is a lot twitchier and is for people who have already completed the first campaign. I don't want to spoil a lot about the game, but I'm delighted about how it turned out and hope to have it out in the next few months. After the expansion releases, I plan on taking a break to enjoy my fall [autumn] semester at college. I spent my entire sophomore year working on Shattered Mirrors. I may release an expansion for one of my other games (HYPERJUSTICE) on Christmas. I plan to move away from shooter games when I'm back working on games. I always have a few different games on the backburner, and I'll spend some time deciding which one I want to put into full production.