Who does not like a game with a little atmosphere? Deadeus (pronounced “deddyoos”) is an indie horror title for the original Game Boy – or emulators of it – and it has it in a shovel. The game has been available for a while as a name-your-own-price download, but it’s about to get a physical release on an appropriate jet black pattern, for which pre-orders close next Monday. If you are a fan of the retro games or the genre, you should definitely play it, and if you have the necessary hardware, it should fit into an amazing collection.
Do not be fooled by Deadeus‘Pokémon-like graphics and style of play. This game has dark undertones and is all the more fun for it. The contrast between the nineties Nintendo trees and picket fences with the themes of cult, ritual and murder may not be stronger, but it feels completely appropriate. You would not know it by playing it, but most of the game was made by one person and is an excellent showcase for Chris Maltby’s GB Studio development tool.
As most good horror stories do, Deadeus start with a nightmare. An angry god comes to our protagonist at night with a hunger for flesh. Satisfy the hunger, and he may spare the town, but there is a catch. You only have three days to figure out how, and with 11 endings being offered, every decision matters.
The idea for the game that mostly came from a comic book I wrote forever has this little piece that I could call a story and put in this Game Boy game. […] it’s all drawn from it, all the art is my own and everything is based on the story. Adam Birch, Deadeus‘s creator told Engadget.
It makes a lot more sense if you know that Birch is an artist. He works in UI design for British game developer Coatsink and does his own appropriate macabre designs on the side. One scan of his original pieces is all you need to know that every game he made would always have dark ticks – especially the cut lines pull you out of the cozy RPG atmosphere and into the stuffy underbelly of whatever weirdness go up to this godforsaken city where you live.
Adam Birch
About that town; this is where you will spend all your time. That is, it is not a vast landscape with warp stations and rival villages. You can navigate through the play area very quickly, but it does not feel too limited. Deadeus‘time mechanic means that every new day brings new things to find and discover and also neatly adds a strategy layer, depending on the story you follow. There is no pampering here, but there are definitely things you can miss on the first day that will help you find some of the 11 endings.
Birch acknowledges that while the time mechanic has expanded the relatively small world in other ways, it has also posed some challenges. GB Studio makes game development much simpler, with almost no code, but with a project like Deadeus, it also suggests the potential for many bugs – characters that appear on day two that should no longer be there, for example. It was all ironed out, of course, but added unexpected challenges.
Of course, there are much greater limitations when creating something for a decades-old platform. Especially if art is your thing. ‘With a Game Boy screen, there is a limit to the amount of unique eight-by-eight tiles you can place on the screen. You can not just draw a complete picture, whatever you want. So it was almost like a puzzle that put everything together, ‘Birch added. You can see below how some of his designs had to be cracked to work on the fun play.
Adam Birch
Birch’s decision to use GB Studio also helped him find a partner for the physical release. A few publishers contacted him about producing pattern versions of Deadeus, but it was Spacebot that he eventually went along with. The team has already made a name for itself with Dragonborne, an RPG also made with GB Studio.
But why do we bother to release a game on a pattern that requires special hardware to play? Especially if the same game is available for free? ‘I just wanted to put the thing I made out there for people to play, and with the smallest access limit. So it’s free. Said Birch. “I wanted someone to play it, and that was important to me.” But a physical release was always something he considered, ‘it was one of those things that always came to my mind, I just did not know how it would happen.’ Spacebot was the answer.
Indie game development, especially in the retro sphere, is easy to see as a strangeness. But its appeal is also easy to explain. The limitations of the platforms make it manageable for individuals and small teams to work with. On the other hand, the back catalog of titles to draw inspiration from is large and varied. And of course, there’s the tempting lure of nostalgia – even decades later, it’s still magical to see a game you play on a real Game Boy (or modern physical emulation hardware).
Adam Birch
Back in our town plagued by nightmares, things soon start to get weird. Townsfolk begin to signal that this is not the first time an angry god has threatened the city. People close to you trust that strange things happened and that they also had the same nightmare. As in the genre, unimportant statements often hide important clues. Sometimes, however, these are just insignificant statements. The pleasure is to observe.
However, do not expect endless hours of playing time. Even with 11 endings to discover, you can reach a full end in less than two hours. By that time, you should have enough clues to go back and find the other stories relatively easy. But you will enjoy doing it, and at least one storyline is sophisticated enough to really make you think of timing and strategy to avoid a very easy dead end. In particular, I have to complete this one.
From Birch’s side, he says he still feels a bit outsider about the whole thing as far as the indie game developer is concerned, but is already working on his sequel title, which sounds even more complicated. ‘Probably My Favorite Game Boy Game Super Mario Land 2. And it’s like, the biggest inspiration [for it], ”But of course Birch wants to add his own cadaveric ticks to it. “What if we do it, but much darker and a lot more story-based?” Super Mario Land 2 with Metroidvania aspects and bulbs of moody atmosphere? Sign me up.
You can download it Deadeus here or pre-order the physical release.