DEV LOG 01 · WORK IN PROGRESS

How Piste Break started

I had been experimenting with pixel art and building sidescrollers, but I was still looking for the right mechanic. Then I remembered fencing, which I did as a teenager. Could I turn that feeling into a game?

I thought of Nidhogg, a game I had played where you fight your way toward a giant worm. I loved it, but its fantasy world was a long way from Olympic fencing. I started by trying to make fencing itself work, then realised the game needed a stronger setting.

After playing Buckshot Roulette, I considered an underground fencing club. I wasn't sure how to make that idea work, so I opened the world up instead: a small town around the club, with parallax layers behind it. I had tried that technique in an earlier game, and it felt right here.

Over the last few days, I've been working on the menus. I want fewer screens that pull you out of the game, and more choices you can make inside its world.