Kritzelkratz 3000, the German studio behind the recent console and PC ports of Rainbow Cotton, is responsible for developing the project, which is entitled X-Out Resurfaced, while ININ Games is attached to publish. Ziggurat Interactive, meanwhile, also has its hands in the project, being the current owner of the rights to the Rainbow Arts original and one of the instigators behind its revival.
As of right now, all we pretty much know about the game is what was initially revealed alongside its debut trailer — namely, that it will feature "enhanced graphics", "updated gameplay", and "new features" like multiplayer. So we recently jumped at the opportunity to put some questions to Andreas Scholl, the head of development at Kritzelkratz 3000, to see what else we could potentially tease out about the exciting upcoming release. Scholl revealed how Kritzelkratz initially became involved with the project, gave us some insight into his own relationship with the game growing up, and discussed how it serves as a tribute to the late Rainbow Arts' artist Celâl Kandemiroğlu, who unfortunately passed away in 2022. You can read on to find out more...
Game Paradise: First off, we have to congratulate you on the announcement. It's great to see you involved with this project, especially after the stellar job you did with the recent remake of Rainbow Cotton with ININ Games. To start, we're wondering, how did you become involved with the remake of X-Out? Ziggurat first announced it had acquired the license in 2022. Did you reach out to them? Or vice versa?
Scholl: We were in talks with ININ on possible projects we could work on together for quite a while. X-Out popped up even before we were in talks about the Rainbow Cotton remake. At that point, ININ told us that they were in talks with Ziggurat for remaking Amiga games from Rainbow Arts. We were immediately interested in taking part as the Amiga is a big part of our development roots.
Scholl: We are one of the longest-existing game development studios in Germany. We started out making games for the PC in 1996. There is quite a big range of game types from RPGs to simulations. On the PC the game Railroad Pioneer (2002) may be the game that is most known outside of Germany and is also still available on Steam. We also developed quite a few games for the Nintendo Gameboy and Nintendo DS. My personal roots go back to the early arcade and console days. Working on retro game remakes is something that comes out of a deep passion. That's also why we came back to game development after nearly 10 years where we focused on industrial solutions for Volkswagen and the likes.
Scholl: To me, X-Out has a unique appeal that makes it stand out from other 2D shoot-em-ups from that time. The graphics and music have a unique style. There is also the shop system with the ability to configure different types of submarines in a fleet that gives a certain amount of depth to the gameplay.
Game Paradise: The original X-Out was obviously released across a few different machines (C64, Amiga, etc). Do you have a favourite version of the game? Or one that you personally experienced growing up?
Scholl: Personally, I have the closest connection to the Amiga version. I knew quite a few people from Rainbow Arts on the Amiga that were also involved in the development of X-Out like Holger Schmidt from Factor 5 (the developers of Turrican). I also admire the C64 version and the programming skills of Manfred Trenz and the C64 SID music from Chris which will also be selectable in the remake. I think I only played the Amiga Version back in the day, as my C64 was already catching dust in 1989.
Game Paradise: While working on this, have you been in touch with any of the original development teams who helped with prior versions of the game? Like the Amiga musician Chris Hülsbeck (whose name we noticed is referenced in the trailer)? Or is the team completely new this time around?
Scholl: Chris made remastered tracks of his fabulous original music. Also, Ogan Kandemiroğlu, the brother of the original graphics artist (Celâl Kandemiroğlu, who unfortunately passed away in 2022) contributed the box art image. The whole remake is a tribute to Celâl, may he rest in peace.
Game Paradise: It's great to hear that you're paying tribute to Celâl in this way and that Chris Hülsbeck is also involved. Beyond the involvement of former developers and others associated with Rainbow Arts, have you had any access to things like the original code? Or any other resources to help you with this project?
Scholl: Unfortunately, no source code or development assets exist from the original game. What we did is that we used the Amiga game data to extract the required data. Mainly the tile sets, sprites, and level data. From this extracted data we then build up the remake with newly written code.
Scholl: The shop and ship customization is a big feature of the game. It's also quite complex and especially in the original game it's not easy to fully understand the capabilities of the shop system and how to build a fleet with multiple submarines. We tried to enhance the shop by giving the players more information on the different weapon systems and configuration options. There is also a new feature that allows you to choose from three prefabricated submarines for each of the different submarine types if you want to enter the gameplay rather quickly.
Game Paradise: From what we've seen the art of the original game has undergone a pretty substantial upgrade. Could you go over some of the techniques you've been using to update the game's visuals?
Scholl: Actually the core pixel art is still what was used in the original game. What we did is enhance the graphics using modern rendering features like light sources and post effects that get applied on top of the original graphics. For example, the player ship has a light source at the tail and when firing shots there are also muzzle effects applied with additional light sources.
In addition to that we created parallax layers for the background graphics that also have an underwater shader effect applied to give it a dynamic appearance. In general, our goal was to preserve the original pixel art style but present it in an updated fashion. In my personal opinion applying HD assets to a pixel art game can look uncanny at times.
Game Paradise: The game also introduces 2-player co-op, as seen in the trailer. Could you talk a little about this mode? Are there any rebalances you've made to enemy placement and patterns? Or is it the same experience but just with a partner?
Scholl: We tried quite a few things with the co-op mode. As the original game already has a hit point and damage system, we came up with increasing the hit points of the enemies in the two-player mode which worked quite well.
Game Paradise: Finally, have there been any discussions about giving the same treatment to Z-Out? The game's sequel. Do you know if Ziggurat currently owns those rights too?
Scholl: I know that there are other Rainbow Arts licenses available for remakes and I think that Z-Out is one of them. I guess that's all I can say on that topic right now.
Game Paradise: Thanks again for taking the time to answer our questions. We're looking forward to checking out the release later this year.
