Domo Arigato Mr. RUBATO.
We recently had the chance to head to London ExCeL for MCM Comic Con x EGX, where we witnessed many cosplays, attended panels, purchased autographs and played various games. Having shortlisted several upcoming titles worth keeping an eye out for, we’ve since been catching up with the development teams behind said games and it is our pleasure to share these interviews with you.
In today’s interview, we are speaking with Dylan Connolly of dconn, discussing all things RUBATO:
Dylan Connolly | From Inspiration to Improvisation with RUBATO:
Miketendo64: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
Dylan Connolly: Hi, I’m Dylan Connolly (dconn). I’m a 20 year old musician and game developer, based in London! I’m primarily an electronic musician first and in the past have written music for a small handful of indie games in the past including “Teabat!” and “Kumitantei: Old-School Slaughter”.
Miketendo64: In what capacity are you involved with RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: It’s easier to explain what I don’t do. I don’t do most of the game’s art and I’m not the one who’s porting and publishing the game to console. Other than that, I do all the programming, writing, music, game design, some of the art still, planning, marketing… The list goes on and on!
In short: RUBATO is my debut game as a developer!
Miketendo64: As you just pointed out, the majority of RUBATO is developed by yourself, but you’ve also had some help from a small art team. Can you tell us how you met your art team, and what impact did some of their ideas have on RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: Mmost of the artists on the game were just people I met through small projects or are just friends I knew that make cool art! So I met all of them in lots of different ways.
Taking this much responsibility as a developer can really narrow your perspective, so it’s good to have a little group of people to talk to about the game and gather feedback, thoughts and ideas. The game wouldn’t be the way it is today without any of them.
Miketendo64: What first led you to game development?
Dylan Connolly: I always wanted to make video games growing up, but always found myself butting heads with having to learn how to program – it’s really hard when you start out!
One of the artists working on RUBATO, Michael (Tiniest Turtles), was working on his own currently unreleased shmup as a little hobby project around the time I started to learn programming. I really wanted to help him, but was completely stumped on how to program or even make games. So I picked up a copy of GameMaker and went from there!
Miketendo64: When did the development of RUBATO first begin and what inspired its creation?
Dylan Connolly: The game has been in full-production since 2022, though development started as a small hobby project back in 2019. When I first worked on the game, the only goal I had was to make a frog game. It was vaguely inspired by a game called “Ikachan”, a game by the sole creator of “Cave Story” – if you’ve played Ikachan, you’ll know it’s nothing like RUBATO! I experimented more and more to figure out what this frog game could be and slowly, but surely stumbled into the RUBATO we have today.
Lockdown gave me a lot more time to further develop the concept further, but when development started there wasn’t a clear cut vision or a game that RUBATO was iterating on at the time.
Miketendo64: Can you give us a brief overview of RUBATO? What kind of game is it, and what is its story?
Dylan Connolly: RUBATO is a physics-based collect-a-thon platformer. It takes the collect-a-thon, a platformer subgenre only really seen in 3D, and tries to make it work in a 2D environment. To facilitate that, it’s designed as a mid-point between classic, point A to point B, linear platformers and open, explorative metroidvania games. So, it has some of the exploration elements of metroidvania games and mixes them with the cool, one-shot ideas that more linear platformers like Super Mario Wonder tend to have.
In RUBATO, you play as a frog who has to recollect parts of the solar system after they mysteriously explode during a game of pool. These pieces of the solar system, “Planet Bits”, are the main collectible of the game and are used to restore the planets (almost) back to how they are. That’s what it seems like anyway, but is that really the whole story..? Something fishy is going on…
Miketendo64: Being the physics-based 2D title that it is, what first prompted you to have the frog be able to drag large boxes, throw smaller ones and use its tongue to swing?
Dylan Connolly: Licking wasn’t something that I had even considered including at first, but it’d be weird if I made a frog game where you couldn’t use your tongue, right? The licking mechanic is something that’s definitely been constantly refined and tweaked over the course of the game’s development – the licking and the player character physics are two things that I’ve worked hard to get feeling just right.
Miketendo64: Can you give us an example of any other physics-based gameplay elements that appear in RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: There’s lots of examples, but the unlockable items in the game might be my favourite. One of the key features of RUBATO’s progression is that bosses drop equippable items that let you backtrack and find more “Planet Bits”. These items also help re-contextualise the world and allow for interesting exploration of the game’s physics mechanics. My favourite is the “SpongeGun”, a t-shirt cannon that shoots out balls of sponge. They stick to things allowing you to create platforms, but you can also use it to make heavy items float underwater and to make boats.
Miketendo64: How did you come up with the name RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: This was a name that Shiima came up with, one of the game’s sprite artists. Rubato refers to improvisation in music performance when the performer doesn’t really stick to the rhythm and tempo. It also means stolen in Italian.
Oh and it sounds like “RIBBIT” if you get rid of the “O”.
Miketendo64: RUBATO is a game that is not afraid to ramp up the difficulties and craziness. Was there ever an idea that you weren’t able to use in RUBATO as you felt it was too much?
Dylan Connolly: I wanted an RPG party system, including AI-controlled party members (ala, FF7 Remake), but this was far too ambitious to include and would’ve been way too messy. I’d love to figure out how you even fit something like this in a 2D platformer one day, but that’ll have to wait.
Miketendo64: Do you have a favourite villain or boss that appears in RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: I have to tread lightly due to spoilers, but there’s a character called “Hugo” who I think will be many people’s favourite. He’s the closest thing I have to a self-insert..
Miketendo64: With a focus on collecting “Planet Bits,” to help “fix the solar system,” what are some other collectables players can expect to hunt down in RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: The Planet Bits are the only collectible in the game, unless you count the “Balls” and costumes. Outside of the Planet Bits, I wanted to add various collectible fruits. Thankfully, I was stopped before I could enact my evil master plan.
Miketendo64: Out of RUBATO’s five unique areas, what is your personal; favourite to playthrough?
Dylan Connolly: My favourite might actually be a big spoiler… But, my second favourite is the game’s third area, The City – it’s where the game just goes all in on being silly.
I will say that The Bakery, the first area featured in the demo, definitely pales in comparison to the areas that come after it!
Miketendo64: With SXSW Sydney and MCM Comic Con x EGX featuring an updated version of the RUBATO demo, what tweaks and new content did the newer version add?
Dylan Connolly: I’ve been periodically updating the game every now and again to make sure it matches up with how the game is currently shaping up. One major change was changing the licking functionality to be holding based, instead of toggle based (similar deal to how sprinting in games is approached). MCM Comic Con x EGX was the perfect environment to test this out, so if you played the game at the event then you were one of the first people to try this new control scheme out! Considering the game is now at 75-80% completion, this was a very risky change, but it seems to have paid off!
Miketendo64: Was there a themed area that didn’t make it into RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: I have a huge list of areas that didn’t make it in. I’d like to save and hold onto most of these for later, but one that did get cut was an area set purely in space, just like the game’s tutorial.
Miketendo64: Other than trapping the frog’s head in a bottle, does the Bottle Costume serve any other purpose in RUBATO?
Dylan Connolly: No – the bottle is just purely cosmetic.
Miketendo64: Does RUBATO feature any other costumes?
Dylan Connolly: Yes! This is something you can find after completing the demo. There’s currently 13 costumes, but I hope to add more as development finishes up.
Miketendo64: How was fan feedback to those who played the RUBATO demo at MCM London Comic Con x EGX?
Dylan Connolly: People seemed to gel with it really well! There was always someone playing it, to the point I had to occasionally shoo off those who had played on it for too long. Lots of people had actually finished the demo, which was surprising to me given the length.
Someone asked me “why can’t you just make a normal game?”. That was the best bit of feedback I got.
Miketendo64: If you had to compare RUBATO to any other game in terms of gameplay, overall theme or story, what would be its closest match?
Dylan Connolly: RUBATO’s collect-a-thon mechanics are inspired from recent 3D Mario titles like Super Mario Odyssey, but also with the humour of games like Mother 2. And the tongue mechanics definitely harken back to games like Yoshi’s Island. But, there’s so much more that inspires stuff outside the core gameplay: Metal Gear Solid, Chrono Trigger, Frog Fractions, Gitaroo Man… It just goes on and on and on!
It’s really hard to pinpoint it to one game, but I think this is what helps make the game unique. I just really like video games, man.
Miketendo64: Lastly, could you list all the platforms on which you hope to release RUBATO on?
Dylan Connolly: On PC, I’ll be self-publishing the game via Steam and itch.io. Headcannon, one of the key developers of “Sonic Mania” will be porting and publishing the game for Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series and PlayStation 5!
Deep down I wish it could have a Wii port. RUBATO is like a Wiiware game that’s 15 years late to the party. Imagine how it’d play with a Wiimote and Nunchuck!
For more MCM Comic Con x EGX (October 2024) content, click here.
About RUBATO:
RUBATO is an experimental, 2D physics-based take on the collect-a-thon genre — Use your tongue to lick enemies and objects to make your way through metroidvania-like areas, whilst collecting “Planet Bits” to help fix the solar system!
- A strange, funny plot with a deep focus on humour and character writing. It gets silly.
- Developed mostly by one person, with help from a small art team.
- 5 uniquely themed areas ranging from a huge sprawling bakery to the world’s most poorly planned city.
- Around 10 hours long. 12-15 hours long if you’re new to action games and platformers. Potentially 500,000+ hours if you take an hour break every time you blink.
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