[Interview] Graeme Hawkins | Bullet Hell Gets Creative with ZOE Begone!

Bullet Heaven more like!

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 Graeme Hawkins of Retchy Games, discussing all things ZOE Begone!:

Graeme Hawkins | Bullet Hell Gets Creative with ZOE Begone!:

Miketendo64: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role with Retchy Games?

Graeme Hawkins: Hi, I’m Graeme, I’m an animator and solo game dev. Retchy Games is the company I set up to deal with all the business side of game dev a year or so ago, but it’s really just me doing everything.

Miketendo64: In what capacity are you involved with ZOE Begone!?

Graeme Hawkins: ZOE Begone! is my baby, I’ve been working on it for about 7 years, mostly in my spare time in between animation jobs, apart from the last year or so when I was able to work on it full time having signed a publishing deal. Apart from the music and some of the sound design, which was handled by my friend Tom Pegg, I’m responsible for everything else from programming to design and animation etc.

Miketendo64: How did Retchy Games first come about?

Graeme Hawkins: I was just working on the game as an idividual for about 5 years, but when it looked like I was about to get the publishing deal with PM Studios I set up the company to deal with the contract and other boring buisnessy stuff. My animation work was always done under the artist name Retchy, so it made sense to just keep that name going for my games.

Miketendo64: When did the development of ZOE Begone! first begin and what inspired its creation?

Graeme Hawkins: Before I started trying to make the game back in 2017, I was spending most of my spare time making weird animations and music videos exploring techniques like projection mapping and 3d Zoetropes. I kind of got bored of those eventually and started thinkig about learning how to make a game so I could push my skillset a bit. I always wanted the game to be a shmup, similar to Resogun or Fantasy Zone with their looping levels, but the visual style took a while to develop and is inspired by old drawn-on-film animations from the 30’s and 40’s by Norman McLaren.

I actually made a thread on bluesky about this recently where I go in to more detail:

https://bsky.app/profile/retchyyy.bsky.social/post/3lc3xrmvlds2a

Miketendo64: Can you give us a brief overview of ZOE Begone!? What kind of game is it and what is it about?

Graeme Hawkins: ZOE Begone! is a side scrolling 2d shoot ’em up set in the hand drawn world of a looping reel of 35mm film where the animator is drawing enemies and attacking the player with their paintbrush and other tools.

You can shoot, dash and pound your way through enemies, and the goal is to take out every enemy as quickly as you can to reach the boss of each level and maximise your score. There are some deeper scoring mechanics you can engage with if you want to compete in the online leaderboards, but it’s designed to be accessible for new or more casual players too.

Miketendo64: Can you tell us more about the protagonist Zoe and her relationship with the animator?

Graeme Hawkins: Zoe’s a super chill little triangle who just wants to have a snooze, but the animator loves movement so can’t just let her be. Zoe’s not cool with this obviously, so has to take matters into her own hands.

Miketendo64: Why does the animator wish to eliminate Zoe so badly?

Graeme Hawkins: He holds no ill will towards Zoe and just wants to get some action going, I think – he’s a misunderstood villain!

Miketendo64: Could you elaborate on the benefits of the power-ups Zoe can purchase via Apples?

Graeme Hawkins: The shop appears twice in each level in between reels, and you can spend the apples you collect from downed enemies on various upgrades. The base gun can be leveled up permanently up to three times, but there are also temporary special upgrades you can buy such as the Homing or Spread shots. These specials turn your energy into ammo, so if you don’t reload it’ll revert back to your normal gun. You can also upgrade your speed, apple suck range, or get a shield for more HP.

Miketendo64: How many levels does ZOE Begone! feature?

Graeme Hawkins: There are 5 levels with three difficulty settings, as well as three modes – the standard Arcade mode, a Time Attack mode where you have to dash-chain enemies to replenish your time, and Frame Trap mode which is sort of a boss rush that mixes all of the different boss attacks up into one big fight. There are also online leaderboards for each mode and difficulty.

Miketendo64: What have been some of the hardest ideas to implement when developing ZOE Begone!?

Graeme Hawkins: There have been quite a few challenges over the years, mostly deriving from my inexperience as a programmer. Seemingly simple stuff, like the looping nature of the levels, can throw up all sorts of headaches that I couldn’t have predicted. That issue in particular was a constant throughout development as it would cause problems with animations glitching at the ‘warping’ point, distance calculations being wrong in redistancelation to the players’ position, spawn timings etc. Visibility and readability was a problem as well, especially in the fourth level as there’s quite a lot going on visually with lots of smaller bits and pieces across the screen.

Oh, and the tutorial has been really hard to get right – there’s been quite a few iterations of it and I’m still not sure it gets everything across well enough…

Miketendo64: Since work began on ZOE Begone! how does the game in its current version compare to that you initially envisioned?

Graeme Hawkins: I think it’s actually quite similar and I was able to stay pretty close to the original idea – once I landed on the theme it just sort of flowed from there and of course I made lots of improvement along the way, but the core idea is pretty much the same.

Miketendo64: With ZOE Begone! being the hand-drawn bullet-hell title that it is, what are some of your favourite hand-drawn bullet-hell titles to play?

Graeme Hawkins: Cuphead’s obviously a great one, maybe not bullet hell as such but close enough. I’m not sure about the hand drawn aspect, but I love Cave’s games, especially EspGaluda and Mushihemesama, and Galactic Attack by Taito on the Saturn is an old favourite.

Miketendo64: How was fan feedback to those who played the Quantum Witch demo at MCM London Comic Con x EGX?

Graeme Hawkins: It was really positive, it’s always great to see people playing the game, and the occasional person really getting into and clicking with it.

Miketendo64: If you had to compare ZOE Begone! to any other game in terms of gameplay, overall theme or story, what would be its closest match?

Graeme Hawkins: I’d say it’s a cross between Cuphead in terms of art style, and Resogun and Contra in terms of gameplay.

Miketendo64: Lastly, could you list all the platforms on which you hope to release ZOE Begone! on?

Graeme Hawkins: We’re releasing on PC (Steam and Epic) as well as Switch, PS5 and Xbox. We don’t have a release date yet, but keep an eye out or wishlist the game on Steam, we should know quite soon now!

For more MCM Comic Con x EGX (October 2024) content, click here.

About ZOE Begone!:

Hand-drawn bullet-hell! ZOE Begone! is a frenetic arcade shooter combining the run-and-gun mechanics of Metal Slug with the looping arenas and shmup-ing of Resogun, wrapped up with 1930’s drawn-on-film style animation. Fight your own creator as the artist bears down on you with pen and paintbrush!

All Zoe wants is some peace and quiet, but she’s gonna have to deal with the pesky animator before she’ll be able to get some rest.

Destroy the animator’s tools, blast their creations to bits, collect Apples to spend on Power Ups, rack up your multiplier, and reclaim your serene surroundings to help Zoe get back to normality as fast as you can (and bag yourself a high score in the process)!

 

Features:

• Single Player shmup action!
• Online Leaderboards!
• Enemy chain scoring system
• 3 game modes
• 3 difficulty settings
• Lovely drawn on film art style!
• Loads of hand animated enemies!
• Unique art styles and enemy designs for each level
• Awesome Boogie soundtrack!
• Power ups and upgrades!
• Gamepad / Keyboard support

 

• TIME ATTACK Mode: Race against the clock to beat the Animator within the time limit!
  • Dash and pound through chains of enemies to spawn extra time tokens and top up the timer
  • Complete the mini boss challenges to gain extra seconds
  • There’s no time for the Shop – pop the power up bubbles instead to power up!
• FRAME TRAP Mode: Fight off everything the animator has to throw at you in an extended boss rush!
  • All the boss attacks mixed up into one epic fight!
  • Don’t worry, you can fill up on bananas in between rounds
• Scoring: Compete for the high scores on the online leaderboards!
  • Online and local leaderboards for each mode and difficulty
  • Build up your chain multiplier by taking out enemies in quick succession
  • Fly, dash and pound your way to the next enemy to keep your multiplier chain going
  • Be aggressive with your dash and pound attacks to gain higher scores
  • Reclaim as much territory as you can and take out the boss as quickly as possible for an end of level bonus
• Power Ups: Collect Apples and spend them in the power up shops that pop up between reels!
• Feats: 55 Steam achievements to unlock!