Super Meat Boy has been a herald, a figurehead, and an instance of what indie dev groups can obtain. It confirmed that small, bizarre video games may make a big effect. The sport was punk rock – quick, tough, with odd humor and unusual characters.
What began as a Flash recreation in 2008 became a narrative of indie success in 2010 that paved the approach for – and impressed – many recreation devs who now inform success tales of their very own. That’s why it feels solely proper that Sluggerfly, our small indie crew of seven, took on this subsequent installment in the franchise, Super Meat Boy 3D.
Having developed the well-received 3D platformer Hell Pie, in addition to the Ben and Ed sequence – video games praised for his or her tight controls, quirky, exaggerated humor and “indie-spirit” – Super Meat Boy 3D is being developed by our crew of very excited, very honored builders in shut collaboration with Group Meat’s Tommy Refenes.
“A couple of years in the past I performed Hell Pie. I actually preferred it, and I hoped Sluggerfly would have an interest in doing a 3D model of Super Meat Boy,” Refenes mentioned. “To my shock, they had been followers of Meat Boy and had been enthusiastic about the risk of engaged on Super Meat Boy 3D. Their pleasure actually shines by with the work they’ve achieved. They’ve pulled off a conversion from 2D to 3D that’s on par with the emotions I had the first time I performed Metroid Prime. They’ve nailed it.”
Being chosen to work on one in all indie gaming’s extra legendary IPs wasn’t simply extremely humbling and thrilling for us – but additionally fairly intimidating. How can we do justice to the model whereas providing innovation?
Our recreation began as a prototype that explored whether or not Super Meat Boy may work as a 3D platformer in the first place. With such a giant change to a franchise that had been completely 2D to date, it was important for us to not lose the core facets that make a Meat Boy recreation a Meat Boy recreation. The principle areas the place this translation into one other dimension was most noticeable had been the digicam motion, depth notion, and controls. Can you actually seize that pace and motion in 3D with out making sacrifices on both entrance?
Including a 3rd dimension naturally will increase the complexity of no matter you’re engaged on. There’s a digicam to handle, which ideally shouldn’t get in the approach of the controls. In 3D video games, gamers typically management the digicam themselves – however with Meat Boy’s fast-paced motion, the crew shortly realized that wouldn’t work. A dynamic or player-controlled digicam simply couldn’t sustain with the tempo Meat Boy requires. It created extra issues than it solved, so after testing completely different choices, we determined to maintain the digicam static, permitting for a larger concentrate on pace and motion.
Talking of added complexity attributable to the third dimension – there’s a further perceptual problem for gamers – every little thing tends to really feel much less crisp and extra floaty. The prototype gave the crew time to deal with the implementation of horizontal motion – particularly with the great amount of wall-running proven in the trailer – and, on a extra common degree, methods to translate motion in a approach that makes gamers really feel fully in management of the place they’re and how they transfer.
Super Meat Boy 3D is a recreation that wants tight and responsive controls if it needs to seize and characterize the coronary heart of the franchise. So, going hand in hand with a participant’s notion of their character’s motion are, in fact, the controls themselves. Each participant motion now occurs not solely vertically but additionally horizontally. With the added spatial depth, the feeling of precision and consciousness can get misplaced. To assist forestall this, we’ve carried out methods to stability the freedom of gamers with constructions that assist them in feeling in management. In 3D, precision turns into a lot more durable to take care of, so placing in small guidelines—like mounted angles or restricted motion instructions—helps lots.
One in all these is eight-directional motion on the stick, which Tommy recommended at one level throughout manufacturing. It provides useful construction—actions are a bit extra predictable and constant, which is beneficial when gamers are flinging themselves by ranges at excessive pace. And on the subject of ranges: one thing the crew discovered actually vital was utilizing 45-degree angles all through degree design as a substitute of the preliminary, extra natural format. It helps gamers anticipate and plan their strikes, particularly at excessive pace. One other approach to make sure gamers comprehend it’s their very own fault after they mess up—and not the recreation’s—is the small however useful addition of a “floor circle” to mark your present place on the floor. This actually helps with spatial consciousness, particularly when Meat Boy is up excessive in the air or removed from geometry.
We at Sluggerfly, Headup, and Group Meat actually hope you take pleasure in this new model of what you’ve come to know and love from earlier Meat Boy video games. With Super Meat Boy 3D, we’ve poured our hearts into honoring the legacy of the franchise whereas pushing it into daring new territory—we are able to’t wait so that you can play it and see the place Meat Boy lands subsequent.
Wishlist Super Meat Boy 3D now on the Xbox Store and get able to die once more, and once more, and once more when Super Meat Boy 3D launches for Xbox Sequence X|S and Xbox on PC early 2026. You may also play it day one by way of Recreation Go.