a homage to the rivalry and battles between the previously mentioned Kamen Rider Black and his ‘equal but opposite’ brother, the brain-washed villain Shadow Moon. “We included a classic fight with ‘’your equal or twin


unit’’ in the game, just like in Kamen Rider Black,” explains Dias. “If you look closely, the capsule that Moonrider was sleeping in was marked ‘’02”. It’s set up early on.”


TO BE THIS GOOD TAKES AGES Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider was also developed in a different engine to previous JoyMasher titles, largely because Dias started work on the game as an endeavour to learn a new piece of development software. “We used Construct 2 to create Moonrider. At first, I was working on it alone as a project on the side while working on Blazing Chrome with Luri Nery, because I wanted to learn Construct 2.” explains Dias. “Later on, it became our next big thing, so André Chagas came on board to be the programmer. He suffered a lot, dealing with my code … Poor guy!”


Thanks to its somewhat nebulous origins and subsequent push into the studio spotlight, Moonrider went through a bumpy phase in its early development, the experience of which reaffirmed for Dias just how crucial planning your project and making sure things actually work before you get too far actually is. “The lesson I learned is to never try to change the core game design of the game in the middle of production,” winces Dias. “Moonrider was originally supposed to have a structure closer to Konami’s Castlevania: Dracula X in style. It was going to have alternate routes during some stages, and wouldn’t have had power chips or the same special weapons. About a third of the way into development we realised it wasn’t working, so we had to change things. I already knew that was not an ideal practice, but it was necessary to improve the experience for our players. Next time I’ll try harder to have everything planned from the beginning!” It didn’t help that a pandemic happened in the middle of development, either.


“One of the biggest issues we had was the pandemic,” explains Dias. “It affected our development work, because we couldn’t see people playing the game at events, or even see friends playing it. It was very problematic to the way we work, because you can’t judge the level design correctly all by yourself. You need to see people playing your game to be able to make everything smooth enough.” It might sound obvious when you think about it, but should you be a developer that aspires to making retro style games like JoyMasher, Dias believes that being very familiar with both the experiences, technology and history of classic video games is the best and most important place to start.


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With that foundation in place, it all comes down to insight and personal taste as you take your place on the shoulders of giants.


“I think it is to know and play lots of retro games, even the ones you don’t like. Having references is an amazing tool. With experience of playing a lot of those old games, you know what worked and what didn’t work. You also can see what type of graphics you want, and there are art references and everything.”


Otherwise, the best piece of advice Dias has for aspiring indie game developers, is to keep your eye on the scope, budget and development time of your game project, to recognise your constraints, and achieve the things that you know you can actually do.


“Never try to make something too big. Try to stick with things you’re sure you can do comfortably. Things that you know you are capable of. It’s better to have a humble, really well-made game than a giant mess.” As for what’s next for JoyMasher? They’re still working that part out. “This time I really don’t know. It’s so weird! I felt like that after Odallus,” remembers Dias. “I had no idea what we’re going to do. I’m studying 3D graphics now, so maybe something with low poly graphics?”


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