How Enter The Gungeon Was Made by Waiting in a Parking Lot For 6 Hours
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Published 2022-08-14
This Enter The Gungeon documentary details the development of indie 2D bullet hell roguelike Enter The Gungeon and goes behind the scenes of its creation. Discover more about development studio Dodge Roll and its small team of creators. Brent Sodman, David Rubel and Dave Crooks were all working at Mythic Entertainment, until EA sold the whole company. Instead of going to another EA studio, the developers decided to start their own video game company and began working on Enter The Gungeon. The documentary also explores all the design decisions that Dodge Roll made and shows how the basic premise and gameplay was born in a single afternoon.
It also takes a close look at all the hurdles the team had to go through. The team only had a few weeks to create a first prototype and pitch it to publishers at E3. Additionally, the members of Dodge Roll took a huge risk and poured all their life savings into the game and decided against using Kickstarter. Furthermore, the developers had trouble implementing the right bullet hell mechanics and ended up creating their own version of BulletML, which is an open source bullet scripting system. Lastly, Dave Crooks shares some advice for aspiring indie developers and talks about what’s next for Dodge Roll.
0:00 Part 1
3:42 Ad
4:57 Part 2
References:
thatguyglen.fun/video/how-enter-the-gungeon-was-ma…
Script written by Anine Van de Ryck.
Outro song: Thank You R.G.E. - Joe Bagale
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All Comments (21)
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Use GLEN to get 55% off your first month at Scentbird sbird.co/3r9UDSi
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Devolver is absolutely the kind of publisher that would skip E3 to have their event in a Hooters parking lot.
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The fact that they waited 6 hours to just go "Ok, Hear me out" is insane
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Honestly it blows my mind that this is Joe's first work using pixel art because for a first time pixel artist this is stellar
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I had no idea what a staggering and personal journey this game has been for the team of dedicated creators that brought it into being. Thank you for sharing their story and broadening my horizons. You are forgiven for the clickbait title :D
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Really amazing to hear their story! I've got 100+ hours on Enter The Gungeon, it's just one of my all time favorites now. And there really are thousands and thousands of intricate details in everything in that game, so no wonder it took so long to develop! I think the game turned out absolutely perfect though <3
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This just reminded me to play this game because I haven’t played it much but I want to
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9:28 this mechanic was actually also used for the "rad gun" wherein the gun would sort of level up with each successful reload. the reload bar would also get faster each time, making it more difficult the higher level it was.
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Because of the crazy amount of stuff in this game, when my husband played, he would ask me to look up the items to see if it was worth getting/buying. We ended up joking that I was his Oracle, since I would often be vague about what the items did, as to avoid spoilers lol The endless charm of this game always made it a joy to play and watch. Whenever my husband asks me to look up something, he still refers to me as his Oracle :)
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The hard work of the team definitely paid off, EtG is one of my fave games of all time. I also gotta say that Advanced Gungeons and Draguns might just be the best free update to a game ever. The whole synergy system and all the extra content and balance updates were amazing
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There are so many damn fun facts about this game. I wish I was as enthralled by this game as I used to be, because it's absolutely AMAZING.
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This continues to be one of my favorite channels on youtube. Keep it up, Glen!
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That was a welcome surprise, sir. Companies like Dodge Roll, Team Cherry, Super Giant, etc. -are examples to learn from as a developer. (And ... my wife's checking out Scentbird.) Suggestions: Ori and the Blind Forrest / Will of the Wisps: from runner to amazing game. Divinity Original Sin I and II: the game Larian studios wanted to make for decades. Hyper Light Drifter: the legacy of an ill developer and a love letter to old school games. Or: Darksiders, Crawl, Overcooked, Castle Crashers, Kingdom, Lovers in a Dangerous spacetime, Mark of the Ninja, Moonlighter, Rainworld, Super Time Force Ultra, Unravel...
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This story was a blast to hear about! As someone who's played Gungeon since release day over 6 years ago, with 420 hours combined across PS4 and PC, I adore it. From the mechanics to the music (did I mention the theme song kicks ass?), the gunplay to the Gungeoneers, everything just goes so well together and it really shows. While tough for new players at first, once you get used to dodge rolling and weapons (and their rarities), you'll be blasting Bullet Kin like a pro (pun intended). Beating pasts is no easy feat (The Pilot's past was the hardest for me), and unlocking the secret characters (Bullet, Robot, Gunslinger and Paradox) takes time, but once you do it, the feeling of accomplishment washes over you and it's so good. It took me 3 years to get the Platinum trophy but damn it was worth it. I even have a t-shirt of the Advanced Gungeons and Dragon art, it's incredible. The community is amazing too, from the fanart to the animations. Thank you Dodge Roll Games for making one (bullet) hell of an experience for myself and others to dodge roll into. If you haven't bought this game, from the bottom of my heart, GET IT. Couch co-op with a buddy is great too. It's a perfect game in my eyes. Thank you so much for sharing the team's story with a wider audience, it means so much to everyone.
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Enter the Gungeon is one of my favorites roguelikes of all time. Like dead cells, the game just feels good to play and keep playing again and again even after unlocking everything. The gun puns are also new and very well done.
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I remember playing the game in 2015, I do game dev as a hobby (it's what got me into programming in the first place). It was an awesome roguelike bullet hell game that was balanced for beginners and pros to the genre.
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One of my all time favorite games! I'm surprised you didn't mention Exit the Gungeon as that's probably the game they were talking about that was in the Gungeon universe. It's a sidescroller Gungeon game released in 2020. So amazing a scrappy and dedicated team can create such a masterpiece!
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I'm so glad you covered my favorite rogue like game of all time. Hearing you talk about its crazy development story has made me appreciate it even more, and it's such a joy to hear that the developers are working on new projects. Keep up the great vids :D
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A game made from love, sweat, tears, hard work, and a legendary level of dedication. Respect.
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Easily my favorite roguelike game. The passion and creativity just oozes from ETG. I've put over 300 hours into it, and it is still exciting to play.
