Love Letter To The Eighties
Tobias Bjarneby on blending genres and pixel art in 198X
Tobias Bjarneby explains how his love of arcades inspired a brand-new game
If you’ve been following its Kickstarter campaign since its reveal in May 2018, you’ll already be well aware of Hi-bit Studios’ brand-new game. Designed as a love letter to the Eighties and the pleasure of visiting your local arcade, 198X is an interesting-looking project which features a variety of different genres (including shoot-’em-up, racing and scrolling fighter) some truly beautiful pixel art and a rather stylish soundtrack from legendary games composer Yuzo Koshiro. With a release imminent, we felt it was the perfect time to sit down with Hi-bit Studios’ Tobias Bjarneby to find out a little more about his ambitious nod to classic gaming.
Where did the overall concept for 198X originate?
Before all this, I’d been working as a videogame journalist and editor for 25 years, producing hundreds of magazines and several books. The core of our development team also founded Stockholm Museum Of Video Games in 2016, so you could say that 198X is an extension of our previous work with regards to preserving and celebrating videogame history.
What challenges are presented through creating five distinctly different games?
The big challenge was defining the essence of these games and their distinct era. Why do I love Out Run so dearly when I couldn’t care less about modern racing games? How come the opening stage in Final Fight, the first deadly slash in Strider and the initial boss encounter in R-type had such a huge impact on me?
We found the answers not merely in graphics, sounds and core mechanics, but in the context, presentation and gameplay variation. Visiting an arcade in the Eighties was all about finding new experiences, swiftly moving from one world to another. Driving your Ferrari under the blue sky, then cleaning up the streets of Metro City, or suddenly soaring over the rooftops of 2048 Moscow and flying further out to space to face Dobkeratops.
This is what 198X is all about. We are not making just another ninja game or beat-’em-up game – we are using these games to tell a bigger story.
So how big are these games?
In part one, releasing now, there are five full-blown stages, one for each arcade game. These stages are bigger and more varied compared to any single stage in the Eighties games we draw inspiration from. I’d say the game we’re releasing now is the same size as any
Final Fight or R-type or Strider – the typical late Eighties arcade game, with more storytelling and less frustration!
Have you drawn inspiration from any other games?
There are so many! Each game in 198X is full of references to the history of that
specific genre. Take Shadowplay – our ninja game – as an example: you can find Shinobi, Strider, Ninja Gaiden and
Ninja Spirit in there, but we are also mixing these influences with the bigger, overarching story we’re trying to tell.
Has it been difficult creating 198X’s distinctive pixel art?
It’s been extremely time-consuming. Most modern ‘neo-retro’ games use a much more zoomed-out camera with smaller sprites and more open level design. And while I understand and respect that choice, we really wanted to have spectacular visuals with huge sprites in our games. The late Eighties were all about who could project the biggest sprites on the most detailed backdrops – while the catchiest chiptunes were playing – and we just love that!
So how did the collaboration with Yuzo Koshiro for 198X’s soundtrack come about?
His music was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra a few years back, and I know the producer of that concert. So when we were looking for composers for our arcade games, I just thought we should give it a shot. So we asked [him], and he said yes! I believe that Yuzo Koshiro really shaped the sound of this era of gaming, so it’s been a huge honour to have him on board for 198X. We were also fortunate enough to guide him through our hometown of Stockholm late last year, cementing our deep appreciation and love for this humble musical legend.
Is it hard to manage backers’ expectations on Kickstarter?
Our amazing backers have been very supportive. When we told them we needed to split the game in two parts, to be able to deliver on the promise we made to them and to ourselves, they were very encouraging. They really understand what we want to achieve and how much it takes to get there. We might be a pretty small studio in terms of people, but our ambitions are indeed huge! And we are so excited to finally be able to invite all of you to experience 198X.
Why do you think that is there much nostalgia out there for arcade games?
Arcades used to be these magical places. There you’d find the coolest and most impressive videogames, with futuristic qualities far beyond what you could play at home. These towering machines were more than just games – they were portals to other worlds. To me, this is the perfect setting for a Eighties coming-of-age story. Of course, 198X is hardly the first game to be heavily influenced by Eighties arcade games – but what we’re doing is to put those games into context, capturing the atmosphere surrounding them. We tell a story about discovering an arcade and finding new worlds in its games. 198X is a videogame about falling in love with videogames.
the late eighties were all about who could project the biggest sprites on the most detailed backdrops