by Ben Aprigliano, Evilized Games
It’s strange how my mind works sometimes, I could see a horror movie or just dream something one night, and cogs begin to whirr, wheels begin to spin and I get all these crazy ideas and it doesn’t take long before I have the whole thing in front of me. I never put anything on paper or keep track of things, my mind is a land of perpetual chaos – and it’s in chaos where I long to spend my developing time.
I was looking on Steam one day for a new game that I would like to download and play, and all I could see were a host of fantasy games with wizards and knights, usually with a loot system and what – to my mind – was always a variation on the same cliché.
Don’t get me wrong – I love fantasy games, but I am very much ‘old school’, so I love games like Eye of the Beholder or Barbarian, but over the last few years so many people have released these ‘spend cash and buy gear’ fantasy games that instead I thought about making a fantasy game that was supposed to be a completely over-the-top melodrama, but instead with laser guns, outrageous motion-muddling spells and time traveling – and utterly loony characters.
The Disposable Heroes. Well, it takes all sorts…
The thing I wanted to do with this game was to draw in an almost childish style, meaning that it that it would intentionally look rather silly the whole time you play the game. The story had to be a little different to those told elsewhere, but I am a total sucker for fairy tales and for books like the Brothers Grimm, so a story with dark undertones about an accursed kingdom, a king and his son’s head wasn’t too difficult to think of.
It was originally supposed to be a small game about a wandering village idiot and a lame horse, with only 20 rooms and a small selection of weapons. I got pretty excited about the gameplay and mechanics, but like most projects my bubble was burst somewhat by some negative responses on Greenlight. Still, among the many comments were enough positive ones to encourage me to push on with it, and as a result of those people who did want to support this game it has now become a rich world with full characters, a narrated story, mini-games including trebuchet assault and mine cart chase on top of the 70 main adventure levels, maps, marketplace, Steam achievements and more.
A scrolling map guides you on your journey through the accursed kingdom
In a nutshell, this game was intended to send up the whole fantasy genre from the past decade through the deliberately crafted medium of childish art and silly voices. That’s what it’s meant to be. I hope people will get the joke and will enjoy the game, and I am very grateful to those people on forums like Greenlight whose words of support encouraged me to continue with developing Disposable Heroes. I’m really looking forward to showing the whole game when it hits Early Access on 1 October, in the meantime you can head on over to our promo page at disposableheroesgame.com to meet the Heroes and play through six sample levels. Enjoy!
disposable heroes 
Crikey Ben, if this is what you dream about you need to stay away from the cheese!
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