Are you ready to travel in time to save your family and your home?
YesterMorrow just launched on Steam for PC, GOG, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch!
We hosted an interview with the team at Bitmap Galaxy, so they could answer all of your questions about the game and its development!
What provided the inspiration for YesterMorrow?
The original inspiration were mostly older Nintendo titles. Our aim was to combine enjoyable platforming mechanics (inspired by Super Mario) with a sense of exploration and character progression (inspired by the Legend of Zelda titles). Newer titles such as Hollow Knight and Celeste provided a lot of inspiration as well.
It has elements very similar to the Legend of Zelda games, was that an influence?
Definitely. Older Zelda titles are one of our most favorite and cherished games. Everyone on the team also played Breath of the Wild and loved it. Legend of Zelda influence is very notable throughout the game. You explore temples, collect heart pieces, use abilities like the ‘energy bomb’ etc.
Were there other influences?
Many games we love served as a source of inspiration. To name just some of them:
platforming was inspired by Super Mario and Celeste,
some level designs were influenced by Donkey Kong Country (most notably Tropical Freeze),
bosses were inspired by Towerfall and The Messenger
Other inspirations include Steamworld Dig, Hollow Knight, Timespinner etc.
Some games that inspired YesterMorrow are Super Mario, Celeste, Towerfall and Hollow Knight.
What’s the inspiration behind the main character, Yui?
Originally the main character was supposed to be a boy named Haro. He even had a fully animated character. However the main issue was the color of his clothes - when they were blue he looked like Megaman; when they were green he looked like Link.
We later decided that instead of eliminating animals players will be cleansing them. This peaceful and caring approach fit more with a female protagonist, thus we came up with a girl named Yui and former protagonist Haro became her brother. Yui’s long white hair also distinguished her from the rest of the characters (plus we liked the hair movement).
The bigger challenge was how to clearly differentiate young Yui from her older self. In the end we decided to give older Yui a bright red face mask, a sort of an improvised protection against the fumes of her destroyed homeland. Back then none of us had a clue that circa 18 months later we’d all be wearing face masks.
The devs wanted to make sure that there were identifiable differences between younger Yui and older Yui.
What was it like working on the game during COVID-19?
The first pandemic measures in our country (Slovakia) were taken in March and they effectively scrambled our working routines. We had to work from home (which was incomparably harder for those of us with kids) so we had to come up with a new system for daily meetings, discussions, reporting etc. Eventually we settled on a system of regular daily calls suitable for each member of our team and we’ve been using it since.
One of the hardest things while working from home was keeping a disciplined regime and learning to separate work, family time and free time. With deadlines pressing in, one has a tendency to work late into the night which is even more dangerous when you’re working from home.
Pandemic measures were milder in the summer, so we returned back to our office, which was a nice and welcome change. However with the rise of COVID numbers in October we’re back on home-office.
What was it like getting to have your demo featured in various online festivals?
It was a great experience! We haven’t attended an online festival before so we learned a lot of new things. The highlight for us was probably the Steam Summer Games Festival. We showed and played the game on a live stream and we were expecting some 50 - 80 people to join in. That estimate was quickly thrown out of the window as more than 900 people watched us play the game! We were very excited.
What are your favourite types of games to play?
I guess platformers are somehow popular in our team. Almost all of us played Celeste and Steamworld Dig 2, most also played Hollow Knight. Platformers aside, our taste in games differs wildly - some prefer online multiplayer games, others are into turn-based strategies, RPGs or couch co-op multiplayers. Speaking of couch co-op, we played Overcooked on our small Christmas party last year and we had a ton of fun!
Regarding my personal game preference, I really liked to play point and click adventures on my 8bit computer when I was young. Nowadays I have very little time to play games, but when I do I choose something that I can play in the company of my two little daughters. They love to watch and comment on the game.
The dev team has a diverse taste in games, but they all enjoy platformers a lot.
What was your favourite moment during the making of the game?
First exciting moment was when we received financial support from the Slovak Art Council. This was a strong moment which pushed us to become an official game studio with our own office.
The most exciting period of development was probably when we received our first publishing offers. The fact that someone else sees potential in your game and wishes to publish it is very motivating and empowering.
Did you face any challenges in creating YesterMorrow? What were they?
Of course, there were countless minor challenges popping up throughout the development. Just to name a few:
the gameworld we designed was oversized from the very beginning (the game was supposed to be more metroidvania-ish, we had to simplify the levels for the sake of the story, pacing and our capabilities)
some important gameplay decisions were made very late into the development
we designed and animated more enemies, than we had use for
we lacked some higher quality tools (for cutscenes and dialogues) which slowed us down
we redesigned the ‘tutorial’ prologue area multiple times as the game progressed
and many more
But aside from these small complications we didn’t encounter any major issue. There were no quarrels inside our team, we were responsible with our finances and every team member was efficient and reliable.
Some of the challenges of developing the game were cutscenes, trying to simplify levels and redesigning the tutorial/demo.
What’s the next project for Bitmap Galaxy?
For our next project we’d like to do something similar to Yestermorrow, but with much less story and much more replayability. We’re planning to dip our toes into a “balancing hell” that is the rogue-lite genre (smile).
Do you have any advice for aspiring game developers?
Just a few from me and the team:
Entering the industry unprepared and full of ideals is a good recipe for a quick burnout
Try pursuing a small project in your free time to hone your skills
If you can’t code, find a simple game-making tool to create and experiment
Don’t keep it to yourself, give it to others and observe them play (a.k.a. playtest a lot!)
There are many great books and talks on game dev and game design, keep on learning new stuff
Attend game-jams if possible
Attend game dev conferences if possible (even online ones in times of COVID)
Think about the games you play, why you like them and what makes them fun
If possible try working for a bigger game company to get to know the industry better (and meet other like-minded people) before moving on to smaller projects