The rhythm shooter turned action-roguelite otherwise known as Killbeat came to my attention just a few days ago, when I got notice of a competition called Beat the Boss. The creative chief at new studio Kalma Games was challenging the roguelite community to better his time in order to win a copy of Killbeat when it’s finished. To beat him at his own game, basically.
I’ve played the newly released demo and it wasn’t long before my toe was tapping in time to the music. The gameplay is intuitive and once I’d got to grips with the control system, I was happily trying to line up my shots without missing a beat. It’s the sort of game that might well appeal to fans of Crypt of the Necrodancer.
As I’m not averse to a fun stunt like this, I figured that with a bit of insight from Kalma’s founder Atte-Petteri Ronkanen, we might end up with an interesting read on our hands. Thus, here are the questions I put to the boss to beat, and the answers I received back, along with the dates and links you’ll need to get started.
MH: What was the inspiration behind Killbeat; why did you want to make this game in particular?
APR: Metal: Hellsinger was a real eye opener for me. Before playing it, I was skeptical about the idea that I am forced to only shoot to the beat but it didn’t take long before my head was bobbing to the beat and I was having a great time. It combined my two passions, music and games, it was very memorable for me.
Sometime after, I got laid off from a mobile game company, and that was my chance to go after my dreams to build my own game company. The day the news came in, is the day I started working on the first Killbeat prototype.
Rhythm shooting is a very juicy and engaging core mechanic and because of that it needs a game loop around it that offers a reason to play it again and again. It felt very natural to combine roguelike to the concept and so I started pitching Killbeat as Metal: Hellsinger meets Enter the Gungeon.
What experience do you want your players to take away from Killbeat?
I want players to experience the satisfaction of getting into the flow state of killing enemies to the beat. Whenever I see a playtester’s head bob or foot tapping the floor, I know that we are heading in the right direction.
If I’m going to beat your time, what are your top tips for getting good at the game?
The competition is played on Hard Mode which will be challenging on its own to even get through. Just completing all 3 levels will give you a small chance for the win, since I like to take some risks and under pressure it’s possible that I die during the run.
Here are a few tips for maximizing your score if you already can get through the levels:
– Focus on the beat: Try to get 8x multiplier and to get more “Good”, “Excellent” or “Perfect” clears from combat rooms.
– Plan: Since the run during the competition is identical each time, you should start memorizing where you get the most impactful loot for your build and go to those rooms first!
– Keep moving: Time bonus scales exponentially up to 4x level score if you can beat the level under 3min.
You’ve got a new studio there in Kalma Games. Tell us about what you’re building and what your hopes are for the future.
Killbeat was originally my solo project but through some demo events I found one by one a full team of like-minded developers who are as excited about this game as I am. We established Kalma Games first and foremost to create Killbeat, and we are still very early with the development of it, so all of our focus is creating the best game we can.
Hopefully Killbeat finds its audience and sells enough that we can continue making new content updates after release, while we start prototyping our next game!
Beat the Boss will take place on August 4, when Atte-Petteri will stream his own run at the game and thus set the score to beat. Speaking of which, you can download the demo right here on Steam, and you’ll find everything you need in-game if you’d like to register for the challenge. Good luck!
