Co-Optimus: Nice job, Monster Bath! Let’s focus on the game itself now. How did the overall idea come about?
Christopher: I was on yet another Clint Eastwood kick and had bought the full Dirty Harry set on Laserdisc (I love laserdiscs). In the middle of watching The Enforcer, a scene happened that I had totally forgotten about over the years. Harry is chasing a perp across the rooftops of San Francisco when they hit this amazing snag in the chase. The perp falls through a skylight and into a porn shoot. Pretty sure I spit my coffee all over myself when I started laughing – but the next thought was “why hasn’t anyone put this into a video game yet?!?” Next thing I knew, I was at my pc, drawing the first "Filthy Larry" (our parody of Dirty Harry) sprite set… Then a level happened.
Co-Optimus: Deathwish Enforcers features four playable characters who are parodies of movie stars from the 1970s. Larry and Chuck are clearly styled after Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson, but who are Diana and Cleo parodying?
Christopher: Diana started off as Emma Peel (Diana Rigg’s Character in the Avengers tv show), but I couldn’t handle her wearing a plain black catsuit. So I went back and watched the Austin Powers movies to get some clothing ideas and the Diana in the game was born. Cleo is a mashup of everything Pam Grier.
[The characters all play a little differently.] Larry is the slow, heavy gun [with the] best stopping power but a slower fire rate. Chuck and Cleo [deal] similar damage, but one has a better spread while the other one has better speed. Diana has two guns, so while her bullets do the least amount of damage, she fires the fastest. Powered up, she’s basically a submachine gun.
Co-Optimus: In addition to running, shooting, and jumping, Deathwish Enforcers features a slide move. Can you tell us about how sliding is used in the game?
Christopher: Sliding is your ticket to a perfect game. Regular enemy bullets can’t hit you, it gets you out of tight spots, and it makes you move at double speed.
Co-Optimus: Sliding aside, the heroes’ walking speed is a tad on the slow side. Did you try different speeds during development?
Christopher: The walking speed is slow for many reasons, but the main ones are that it forces you to use the slide, and it stops you from running straight into oncoming fire. Faster scrolling speeds also made it more annoying with more players on screen; the one at the back constantly stops the scroll from moving if someone is already rushing to the front… Sliding still makes this painful until everyone starts sliding at the same time, LOL!
But yeah, different speeds were tested. Faster speeds could sometimes cause the player to randomly vibrate, which I hate. [That’s] the downside of having pixel perfect scrolling. My playfield is 1:1 with the art then upscaled via another camera so [that] it doesn’t warp and look strange.
Co-Optimus: Speaking of speed, the game also features two exciting motorcycle levels. Can you tell us about the design and effort that went into those levels?
Christopher: Reese designed the enemy layout for all of that. The shooter AI is just the regular AI [that] I did for stationary enemies in the regular levels. The biggest thing here was all-new code for the players to move. So, the bike levels have completely different code for movement and shooting – and [unique] art.
Originally, the motorcycle levels didn’t exist in the game design, but I thought it was going to be too boring and samey if [we] just did all run and gun levels… I love the horse levels in Sunset Riders, so I came up with a plan to do the bikes and just did it… The art took much longer than the code did, but that’s [true about] the entire game, too.
Co-Optimus: An interrogation minigame also takes place between certain levels. Do you have any tips for succeeding at the minigame?
Christopher: Just alternate buttons as fast as you can. I find it all comes down to what controller you are using. Gotta have that strong forearm. Whoever wins (you have to fill the meter) gets a promotion. The first promotion [awards a] permanent silver badge (bullet speed and rapid-fire), and the second promotion [gives] the gold badge (stopping power).
Co-Optimus: One interesting aspect of the game is that while it starts out with players fighting crime on the streets, zombies and demonic enemies appear after a few levels, and then the final stage is a military-themed jaunt through the jungle. How do these wildly different themes fit together?
Christopher: Originally, I had a full story plotted out, but [we] scrapped it. Now [the game is] basically just my favorite bits of my favorite movies jammed into sections. When we changed the ending, it kind of lost the plot. I wanted to leave it open to new stages or a sequel, so I didn’t show the boss actually dying. Had we done the original ending, ol’ Big Boss X would have gone splat.