Pixelsocks: Can you describe your game for context?

Jordan Fehr

Jordan: It’s a 2D oldschool platformer. It’s about a cube of meat who is trying to save his girlfriend made of bandages from the clutches of the evil Dr. Fetus, who is a fetus in a jar wearing a tuxedo. It’s inspired by a lot of the old tough platformers. However, unlike games like Mario where there are enemies to kill along the way, your only obstacle is getting to the end while you avoid all the things trying to kill you. It also has a replay function that simultaneously replays all the attempts you took on any level once you finish. It was inspired by those hacked Mario World videos that were out on the internet a while ago.

Pixelsocks: Sort of a, “this is your shame,” reel.

Jordan: Yeah, it’s especially awesome if you kept getting killed in one spot. So there will be fifteen of Meat Boys, and suddenly there will be one left.

The game has hundreds of levels, with possibly more to come. Right now we have over 300 planned for the final release. They’ll be spread across five or six chapters, though we have three playable right now. There will be bonus chapters that aren’t part of the percent completion, and possibly platform-exclusive stuff as well—we’ll have more room on XBLA than on Wii. We plan to have leaderboards for time trials, and I think the plan right now is to implement downloadable ghosts so you can race against the fastest times.

Pixelsocks: Do you know if the Meat Boy replays will have a meaningful cap?

Jordan: I’d have to ask our programmer, Tommy, to be sure, but I imagine it’s something like fifty. It obviously needs an upper limit, or else you won’t know what you’re even seeing any more. Most people don’t take that many; you get better every time you play even the toughest levels. I’ve noticed from watching people play here at the expo that there’s an obsession when you keep losing at a level. So even the people who don’t have a lot of experience with twitch platformers get noticeably better.

Pixelsocks: That brings me to the game’s difficulty. Death and difficulty are unpopular in today’s culture of accessibility, so why make a hard platformer?

Jordan: It is true that the game is hard, but it was very important to Edmund’s design that the game be as easy to access as possible. The menus are extremely quick and they’re all skippable. You don’t have to watch anything you don’t want, look at the menu at the end of a level, and you respawn almost instantly. In fact, it’s quick enough to see your other Meat Boy still dying. Edmund wants nothing in the way of the gameplay.

The controls were designed from the beginning to be as tight as possible, so the only reason to lose is because you weren’t good enough at the game. There’s nothing worse than a game that’s hard for its own sake or because the controls aren’t good enough. Someone could theoretically play through Super Meat Boy on the normal difficulty without any problem. The difficulty increases as you train on the obstacles, one by one. The expert stuff is there for completionists and people who like punishment, and the bonus levels are the same way.

So yes it’s hard, but it’s not a punishing game. There are games that don’t give you checkpoints and want you to restart levels from the beginning, like Ikaruga. If you lose at Super Meat Boy, you lose ten seconds. Everyone is more than happy to just try it again. There are no rage quits.

Pixelsocks: I overheard you mentioning that level three is new for the GDC. Can you tell me about it?

Jordan: Ok, so chapter one is the forest, which was mostly saws, saw launchers, saws on turbines, and more saws. And pits. Chapter two is the haunted hospital, and introduces piles of needles, pools of waste blood, and air fan mechanics that let you float in wind tunnels.

Chapter three is the salt factory, so in lieu of saws—well, there are probably still saws in there—so in lieu of needles there are piles of salt. This is obviously the natural enemy for a guy made of meat. It also swaps the break-away stone blocks for metal ones, and introduces heat-seeking missiles. Unlike other games, our missles move very fast, and they corner well. So dodging isn’t enough: in an open space, I’ve seen eight swirling around before they murder you. It also adds a level based on Canabalt and Flywrench as a playable character. Edmund, the designer, says that chapter three is his best so far and they just keep getting better.

Pixelsocks: What are your plans for the remaining chapters?

Jordan: Chapter four is hell and chapter five is Armageddon, though they’re still under development and there isn’t much to say about them just yet. We have announced some unlockable characters, though. There’s Captain Video from the Bit.Trip series, Tim from Braid, and the Alien Hominid.

Pixelsocks: Game IP is usually guarded jealously. How did you get that to work?

Jordan: It’s not uncommon in the indie community for developers to just ask each other, and a lot of people are ok with it. Edmund actually knows just about everybody we’ve included in the game so far, and they were happy it happened.

Pixelsocks: Zooming out a bit, as a developer for challenging games, what do you think of new accessibility technology like the Super Guide?

Jordan: It’s really not for me at all. I’ve been a gamer all my life, and there’s nothing worse than having your hand held. At least it’s optional, but I don’t really see the point of a game playing itself. It’s just me, but I really don’t understand that.

Pixelsocks: So what’s your target release window?

Jordan: It’s summer, but we haven’t nailed down a price point or anything like that. The more buzz we get around the game, the more motivated we are to improve it. We were originally supposed to release in March, but then we decided to add 150 levels. So anyone who is frustrated by the delays should know that they happened because we’re adding more content.

Pixelsocks: One last question: can you tell me something about your game that nobody else knows?

Jordan: Oh man, I really don’t think that I know anything. I wish I could say, “I killed a drifter and took him apart to make all the meat sounds.” It just ultimately ends up being a lot less exciting that that.

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Tags:   excellence in audio nominee · GDC · gdc 2010 · IGF · IGF 2010 · jordan fehr · Seumas McNally Grand Prize Nominee · Super Meat Boy · team meatNo Comments

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