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Rigid Force Alpha
hen the mainstream turns
its back on a certain style of
game, it’s sometimes better
to roll your sleeves up and
make one yourself. That’s
what German developer Marcel Rebenstorf has
done with Rigid Force Alpha – his take on the kind
of side-scrolling shoot-‘em-up that was once a
video game mainstay, but has since dwindled
into relative obscurity.
Rigid Force Alpha immediately recalls such
genre-defining series as Gradius and R-Type.
For Rebenstorf, it’s a chance to revisit a style
of game that he was addicted to as a youth in
the C64 era. “There’s a whole range of games
that inspired me throughout the production –
including R-Type of course, which is obvious,”
Rebenstorf tells us. “Other classics such as
Gradius, Katakis, Darius, Ikaruga and even games
of other genres such as Turrican or the Metroid
Prime series have left their mark, too.”
What’s immediately striking about Rigid
Force Alpha is its level of polish: rather than the
retro pixel art of early shooters, Rebenstorf
has instead gone for a 2.5D approach akin to
R-Type Delta, with 3D models flying through a
starry battlefield of eye-searing laserfire and
explosions. Clearly, Rebenstorf has brought a
lot of industry experience to his first project asa developer; before he set up his indie studio,
com8com1, in 2017, he spent eleven years as
a level designer, working on the Anno series of
strategy titles and browser games such as Might
and Magic Online. Initial work on the shooter
began around 2012, and for the next five years,
Rebenstorf had to juggle his full-time role as a
level designer with his spare-time work on Rigid
Force Alpha.DISCIPLINE AND MOTIVATION
“It was a pretty tough time,” Rebenstorf says,
“due to also having a quite demanding full-time
job at the same time, but I was very determined
to get this project done and so I worked a
few hours before and after work every day,
and also throughout the weekends. You need
very supportive and understanding family and
friends, as well as a good level of discipline and
self-motivation to keep up this double burden
over such a long period of time. I think every
hobbyist developer knows what I mean and
will agree.”
For Rigid Force Alpha’s engine, Rebenstorf
turned to Gamestudio’s Acknex A8 – a
platform that, although somewhat outdated
(“Development ceased a few years ago, so I
can’t recommend it to anybody,” Rebenstorf
says), provided the flexibility and ease of use heW
Former Anno 1701 level designer Marcel Rebenstorf
tells us all about his solo shooter project