Coffee Crisis Interview with C# Developer Nick Mann

Check out our Coffee Crisis Interview with C# Developer Nick Mann

Coffee Crisis is a side scrolling beat’em up where players defend Earth’s most prized commodities: metal music, the best coffee, cat videos, and WiFi, from the Smurglian race. We were lucky enough to score an interview with Megacat Studios’ C# Developer Nick Mann. Find out how metal and coffee inspire and fuels the game, as well as dream casting for a Coffee Crisis film.

1. The main characters and their occupations seem universal though oddly kind of personal, are they inspired by real people?
   
   Indeed they are! Coffee Crisis actually started as a collaboration with Nick and Ashley from the Black Forge Coffee House, a metal themed-coffee shop in Pittsburgh.  
   1. Follow up: What events/situation from their lives were recreated/reimagined into the game?I can only imagine that the game’s plot, which they wrote, was based off real-life events.

       

2.  Why was side scrolling beat’em up chosen as the genre/medium of choice?
   
   Part of our focus at Mega Cat studios is to fuse the highlights with gaming’s past with the exciting and emerging trends from its future. Beat ‘em ups have long been a beloved genre, and the couch co-op fun they offer is a blast. So we decided to use that as a foundation and add a modern twist with procedurally generated content to keep the gameplay fresh. 
3. What side scrolling beat’em up games do you enjoy?Dragon’s Crown is one of my favorites. 

    

4. Who/what are the inspirations for the aliens, Skinny Chestknee, and Ma and Pa Kettlecorn?
   
   The possessed country singer is based on a to-remain-nameless country artist who regularly comes to Pittsburgh. It’s one of those things you tend to rely on, “So and So is here, summer must be halfway over.”Coffee Crisis’s savage seniors are based on the trope of elderly people hating the music of the youth, especially something like heavy metal. 
5. Since it is mentioned as one of Earth’s greatest treasures, and there’s a country musician themed alien overload, does the music play a larger role than simply being background music?
   
   Most definitely. Heavy metal and video games have a lot in common. Metal music can often empower listeners, much the same way that video games can make a player feel stronger or more accomplished. The soundtrack isn’t just background music – it’s part of the player’s arsenal.
   
   
6. With the setting being Pittsburgh, are there any friendly rivalry jokes that target at say Philadelphia or Baltimore?
   
   Not really, the Pittsburgh-centric stuff is more like something that locals could enjoy as an Easter egg. We focused on making the game fun, first and foremost. 
7. Being baristas who work with the best coffee, will their love and passion for coffee be tested by anyone who drinks swill coffee peddled to the masses?
   
   We don’t discriminate by brand, as long as they take it as black as their metal!
   
   
8. What makes Coffee Crisis fighting system unique compared to other side-scrolling beat’em up games?
   
   One of Coffee Crisis’s main features are the random modifiers. Everytime the player enters a locked screen zone where they must defeat all the opponents to continue, we apply a handful of procedurally generated modifiers. These are things that can help the player (like a weapon spawn), hurt the player (enemies have more health), or something METAL (like coffee and blood raining from the sky)! 
9. Is there a larger message fans should take away from Coffee Crisis?
   
   Drink your metal, guard your wifi, and don’t support alien sympathizers. 
10. Who would you cast to play the characters if a Coffee Crisis movie were made? 

    Nick: Nicholas Cage circa 1997
    Ashley: Wesley Snipes
    Skinny Chestknee: 2017’s Sexiest Man Alive Blake Shelton
    Yinzer: The Ghost of Christopher Lee
    Overlord: My ex-girlfriend 

11. I’m personally a fan of Aeropress and Cold Brew Coffee, what are your favorite ways to consume coffee?
    
    The same way I consume my women: in a cup. 
12. Is there an absolutely wrong way to have coffee? (please don’t say aeropress) 

    I shall hold it as a personal offense if you do not raise your mug to heavy metal the next time you quaff Valhalla’s dark brew!

For more information on Coffee Crisis check head over to Mega Cat Studios, and be sure to check back for our review.