Tijdens gamescom hebben we uitgebreid kennis gemaakt met de Chromatic van ModRetro. Niet alleen hebben we de console kunnen testen, maar ook één van de aankomende nieuwe titels. Nu denk je misschien waarom behandel je dit voor een Nintendo site? Nou dat komt aangezien de game ook gaat werken op je oude Game Boy (Color, Advance, SP). Binnenkort verschijnt er een uitgebreidere preview over de gameplay, maar we hebben ook de ontwikkelaar gesproken. In dit interview spreken we met K.C. Apostolakis de enige developer van de game Chantey.
DN: Could you give us a quick introduction about yourself and the company that makes Chantey?
Yes, absolutely. So my name is K.C. Apostolakis. I’m a solo developer of retro games from Greece on the island of Crete and Gortyn Code is my company which I started this year, 2024, with the purpose of reviving the nostalgic feeling of playing the games of your childhood on the original hardware.
DN: So you are making it’s on the original hardware, but also of course, the Chromatic, what’s is the reason that you chose for the Game Boy/Chromatic and not like virtual console or any modern day platform.
Yeah, so I’m a big Game Boy enthusiast myself. I used to own a Game Boy when I was a kid. My sister used to have one before me. So we used to argue a lot about who’s going to play it. I everything that laugh over all of those years, my Game Boy actually still functions, and I usually play it. So every once in a while, once a year usually, I will gety the urge to buy a new game for the Game Boy. I will then check on sites like eBay, for instance, to find some good deals and one time I stumbled upon games I had never heard of before.
Games like Dragonborne, which has now become Dragonyhm and Darius was another big inspiration. Also other games. Like Glory Hunters and really, really great community games, which I had never heard of before. And I started looking into it. And how did these people create games in this day and age for the Game Boy, and this is what basically got me started, and I then discovered the right tools, and just started working on this crazy idea that I had.
DN: Alright, and is it hard to find a place to manufacturethe physical cartridge?
I haven’t done this myself. I know that there are several places online that you can actually get your own hardware. There is a big community of modders who will actually put together modded Game Boys and also, they will publish their own cartridges. I know that there are several publishers of physical games throughout Europe and also across the globe, and I was lucky enough to be contacted by the people at ModRetro.
DN: So Chantey is described as a rhythm based game with metal pirate music. So, what was the inspiration behind the game? Why the pirate theme.
Yeah, so well, the game is actually inspired by several things that I personally enjoy, I personally love. It’s my own. Let’s say, love letter to all of the things that I believe define me as a person so I love listening to pirate metal, I’ve always loved the pirate mythology, I used to dress up as a pirate when I was a kid. So I always wanted to incorporate that into a game that I would make. The Game Boy, I already told you, that this was a console that’s very dear to me.
I also have really fond memories of playing games like Guitar Hero. I’ve always wished that my controller still worked so I could play. I would want to play some Halestorm or Running Wild songs on it. So, at some point I was like, maybe I put everything together and build my own version for the console that I grew up with, and this is basically how Chantey got to be.
DN: So was it hard to make the rhythm-based aspects of the game? Was it hard to get the mechanics right on such a small screen?
Yeah, well, the actual rhythm gameplay itself was quite challenging to figure out how to do it. Because in my knowledge at the time, I did not know of any other Game Boy games that actually had this kind of fast-paced rhythm segments. Eventually, I discovered that there were 2 games. There was a Dance Dance Revolution game, and then there was also another rhythm game that was in Japan only. But, when I set out to build Chantey, I did not know that these games existed so I did not have a template.
So basically, I started tinkering with the GB studio engine. Tried to see what would be the best way to implement all of this synchronization, and this really time sensitive gameplay. I eventually found something that worked, expanded upon it and stressed it out to see how many falling notes I could fit into the screen simultaneously. The result is the game that you just saw. We are really happy with it ourselves.
DN: Some of the music we just heard as well, but also in the prologue that’s available online, you hear pretty well-known shanties. Are there any new shanties specifically made for this game as well?
Yeah, so I am actually, I’ve composed an original soundtrack. I’m still in the process of composing the final songs for it, so every battle will have its own unique pirate metal tune, which is going to be an original composition made specifically for the game by myself. Although in the adventure segments of the game I still want to pay homage to the sea shanties of the 1700s. So you will definitely hear some recognizable tunes while you play the game.
DN: Another thing that the game is advertised with, is that it has mechanics that are never seen before. It also says they are never seen before on the Game Boy. Are there any other mechanics outside of the rhythm sequences? That are going to be used in the game.
Yeah, so basically the game, the main, let’s say selling point for the game would be that it incorporates top-down adventure in the style of The Legend of Zelda and the Pokémon games that came out on the Game Boy. But it infuses them with this rhythm fast-paced rhythm segment gameplay. Of this the visual style also incorporates some inspirations from much later games than the lifespan of the Game Boy. Other than that, I would say that, you know having a big open world with several towns that you can visit in any order that you want and also several optional side missions that you can take on.
And a mechanic, where you can actually recruit the members of your group and actually build their trust and loyalty throughout the game. These are things that I believe, have not been tried on the Game Boy or to the best of my knowledge as of yet. So I’m really, really happy to be contributing, how this could be done on the Game Boy through Chantey.
DN: You mentioned a lot of side quests and possibilities, so we have any idea how long the game will be.
Yes, so currently, I haven’t completed the complete content so, I can’t give you a precise answer. I am targeting for a duration of over 5 hours of total gameplay. Of course depending on how much the player would like to invest in the world it could go up to like a 10 hour range or so, this is what I am planning right now and hopefully, I will be able to deliver on this promises.
DN: Our last question is about the future. Do you have any other plans for Chantey? So for after the launch of the game are there any other plans for the IP?
Yeah, so I think that Chantey i quite a crazy idea, crazy IP, which I’ve very diligently thought about how this world works. Why it works this way. It would be very interesting to explore other facets of this world, explore other stories on this world and other things that share this gameplay. Gamescom this year is like a way to see how the people react to it and whether demand for something like Chantey could be created. And after that, who knows, we can always dream about something bigger.
DN: Well, thank you very much for your time, we are looking forward to the release.
Thank you, thank you so much for having us.
Chantey moet in Q1 van 2025 verschijnen voor de Chromatic van ModRetro en dus ook de Game Boy. Na een sessie op gamescom zijn wij in elk geval enthousiast geworden voor de game. Mocht je willen weten wat we nog meer op gamescom hebben gezien. Klik dan hier.
