ZeroRanger

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ZeroRanger is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up developed by System Erasure.

History[edit | edit source]

Development of the game started with a piece of concept art on February 11, 2008.[1] The game was named FINAL BOSS and was first announced on November 27, 2009.[2]

Late in development, the game's name was changed from FINAL BOSS to FINALBOSS, as an attempt at making the game easier to search on Google. After this, the subtitle of FINALBOSS -Raw Label- was added. On April 16, 2018, the game was renamed again from FINALBOSS to ZeroRanger.

ZeroRanger had an initial release date of 24 August 2018, but was delayed. The game released on September 28, 2018 on Steam and Itch. Several updates were released to fix bugs and add new features.

Development[edit | edit source]

The first idea during development was to create a shoot 'em up akin to Guxt by Studio Pixel, taking inspiration from its limited blue, white, and orange color scheme. The idea later evolved to become a mash-up of elements from many different shoot 'em up games. In 2011, the developers were particularly inspired by the "pure energy and spirit of adventure" from Eschatos. Other influences cited by the developer include Cho Ren Sha 68K, Ikaruga, Flame Zapper Kotsujin, and Undertale. From Cho Ren Sha 68K, the developers tried to incorporate its "feeling of intimidation before you're actually facing the danger". In Ikaruga, "every enemy pattern is distinct from one another"; feeling the impact of this, the ZeroRanger developers aimed to minimize repetition. The weapon collection system was at first taken from Guxt, where players can collect weapons during stages, and through trial and error evolved to the current system where two weapons are dropped by defeated bosses and players choose one of them.[1]

Accessibility was a focus during the last few years of development. The developers became concerned about how beginners would grasp the basic concepts of shoot 'em ups. The game's continue system was tailored to players who never play shoot 'em ups; a player new to shoot 'em ups might use excessive continues to get through a game, and then assume the game is of poor quality due to the total gameplay time being relatively short compared to video games from other genres. The continue system increases as the player accumulates points over several attempts, so that players must play for a sufficient amount of time to earn continues. Even when continuing, players must start at a checkpoint within the stage, which ensures that they are learning how to play that part of the game rather than skipping it. The developers believed this system caused players to feel more invested in the game and more serious about completing it. The aim was for ZeroRanger to be a very approachable "pick up and play" game, where players would not need to read guides to understand how to play the game.[1]

Scoring was a secondary goal during development. The developers did not want players to feel that they had to plan everything perfectly in order to maintain a high score multiplier, or that there is only one correct weapon to use in each situation. The developers intend to release balance patches if players discover any issues that "break" the scoring.[1]

ZeroRanger was developed using GameMaker Studio 1.4 as the game engine. Development started using GameMaker 6, then moved to GameMaker 8, and later to GameMaker Studio 1.4. GameMaker Studio introduced shaders that allowed colors to be easily changed during post-processing, allowing the developers to make several color palettes available in the game's settings menu.[1]

Sprites were created using MS Paint, and RotSprite was used for rotating sprites. Music was created using Anvil Studio and FL Studio. Sound effects were created using Sfxr and Bfxr. Audacity was used for audio editing.[3]

The developers intend on making console ports of ZeroRanger when all of the main features are completed.[1]

Reception[edit | edit source]

ZeroRanger received an overwhelmingly positive response from reviewers, with an average score of 90 on Metacritic[4], and an Overwhelmingly Positive rating on Steam.

Upon release, reviewers drew comparisons between ZeroRanger and the role-playing video game, Undertale. Outside of a direct reference to Undertale during one of the boss fights, the ZeroRanger developers stated that most similarity is coincidental as the tone of ZeroRanger was set in stone before the release of Undertale. While Undertale was a tribute to many role-playing games, ZeroRanger was a tribute to many shoot 'em up games, with both games still having their own personality that stands out from other games. Both games contain game design elements that some consider outdated. Like how Undertale was accessible to the point that it could be played by those not familiar with role-playing games, ZeroRanger was developed with accessibility in mind so that players new to shoot 'em ups could easily approach the game.[1]

References[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]

ZeroRanger on other wikis

Official ZeroRanger web pages