Coming from the same development team behind Slain: Back From Hell, Valfaris is a run and gun game in the same mould as Contra. However, whilst Slain was considered as being a bit of a letdown, many are heralding Valfaris as being a marked improvement, with the game getting stellar reviews across the board. With retro inspired visuals, and a soundtrack provided by former Celtic Frost guitarist, Curt Victor Bryant, Valfaris has certainly been getting plenty of attention from 2D fans. With this in mind, I spoke to Thomas Jenns (programmer and designer at Steel Mantis Games) and got to ask him as to how his game was able to secure a physical release. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=758YGA4Rp3Y
What inspired the game?
Well, it’s a side-scrolling platformer / shooter. The gameplay is heavily inspired by some of those older, classic games like Contra and Turrican. And yeah, I used to love those kind of games as a kid, so you’ll probably see bits of that shining through everywhere. But the visionary of the game, Andrew Gilmour, his inspirations come from games like Diablo and Heretic and things like that. And a lot of Heavy Metal influences, yeah, and also stuff like Giger-type are, where you can see that kind of style all over ...