Eurogamer’s Martin Robinson interviewed James Closs, developer of Jetboard Joust, a joyous fusion of classic arcade shoot-’em-ups and modern roguelikes from publisher Freedom! Games and developer BitBull, out now on Steam for PC and coming in 2021 for Nintendo Switch.
Jetboard Joust picks up from its predecessor, with its core idea lifted wholesale – but everything else around it is very different. “The key inspiration is those early 80s arcade games, and it’s about this feel that I got from them rather than trying to slavishly recreate them, which I don’t see the point in that really. I imagine being somewhere between the age of 11 and 15 playing Defender in the local swimming baths, you know, and it was really just a full-on sensory assault.”
Jetboard Joust is now available on Steam. For more information, follow developer Bitbull’s Twitter account and read Eurogamer’s interview here.
