Introduction

Hello, my name is Karel Matejka. I live in Prague and am mostly known under the pseudonym KO.DLL and my pixel art on social media. I was always fascinated by the old 8-bit games. As a kid, I was amazed by new and fresh forms of entertainment I had never seen before. It was the main reason why I started making games by myself.

After more than 30 years in the game industry, working on big titles, I decided to "time-travel" back to the eighties, become an indie developer, and see if I could make a game reflecting that nostalgic feeling without any old computers' limits. I wanted to pay tribute to games I grew up on but with fresh design approaches, perfectly tight controls, rainbow art, high-frequency animations, and supersonic-speed gameplay.

I started working on BZZZT, my latest game, out of pure nostalgia. I wanted to return virtually to the era of 8-bits, when it all started for me, and pay tribute to the games I played as a kid. Initially, the game was strongly affected by ZX Spectrum games such as Manic Miner, Arkanoid, Pssst, and others. However, as production continued, I started implementing more and more 16-bit game features and references to the '80s-'90s. BZZZT is mostly an old-school precision platformer but is also a nostalgic trip to the era of the first computer games - this time without hardware restrictions, with colorful graphics and super smooth gameplay.

I did not see the reason for creating "just another" retro game with loose controls, the platforming full of frustration, and stuttering camera movement - that's why I also searched for inspiration in modern games. Celeste has remarkably polished controls and a system of helping players. Super Meat Boy inspired me to make the gameplay more frenetic, and Cuphead was the inspiration for the ever-changing gameplay and boss stages. The list of games which influenced Bzzzt is almost endless: Manic Miner, Mario, Oddworld, Mega Man, VVVVVV, Shovel Knight, Geometry Dash, etc.

Prototyping and used tools

• 5 years of work.
• 10,000+ sprites.
• Hundreds of hand-made frame-by-frame animations.
• Thousands of hours of testing and tweaking.

Before the full production of BZZZT, I made many prototypes, mainly testing the fun aspects of the game and the complexity of possible development. I had a simple goal: to create something simpler but highly polished and something I would enjoy while creating. I believe that the creator's state of mind is directly visible in the game, and their feelings (in my case, joy) can be transferred to players. Because of that, I wanted to focus on as much effective development as possible to quickly implement every crazy idea I had during development without suffering too much. And as I had a lot of experience with UNITY while making previous games, I picked that engine without thinking too much.

In addition, I am using awesome ASEPRITE for creating tiles, characters, and pixel art animations and PHOTOSHOP for larger and more complex pixel art pieces.

Why BZZZT?

I know that the game title is a bit silly, but as everything inside the game has its inspiration evoking '80s/'90s, there are also a few ones behind the Bzzzt name. The first one is a game called PSSST!, which was released on ZX Spectrum in 1983. The second is Ruby Rhod's quote from The Fifth Element, directed by my favorite director, Luc Besson. And, the last inspiration is that the name reminds me of the sound of electricity, and it has a tight connection with the main character and the electric traps used inside the game.

I hope players will have fun playing the game like I did while creating it. It was a crazy long ride, but it was worth it. Bzzzt game is not only a trip to the past; it is a record of how I remember the evolution of precision platformers from its beginning till now. Oh yes! And there are leaderboards, trophies, and Steam achievements!!! :)

BZZZT on Itch.io - FREE standalone demo (PC, Mac, Linux)

You can also support my indie journey by buying the game on Steam, GoG, or Nintendo Switch (where the game was released a few days ago!)

BZZZT on Steam - full game (PC, Mac, Linux)

BZZZT on GoG - full game and FREE demo (PC, Mac, Linux)

Trailer on YT