Team2Bit

Factsheet

Developer:
Team2Bit
Based in Santa Cruz, California, USA

Release date:
February 24, 2016

Platforms:
Xbox One
PC Steam
PC Humble Store

Website:
http://www.reagangorbachevgame.com

Regular Price:

Description

The year is 1986. Cold War leaders Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev have been kidnapped by militant extremists. Once rivals, now they must cooperate… or die. Armed only with their fists and samurai swords and poison darts and pistols and shotguns and fully automatic assault rifles and grenade launchers and miniguns and some other guns – sneak, slash or shoot your way through an army of mercenaries. Save the world from nuclear Armageddon. Reagan Gorbachev is a top-down action stealth game for one or two players (local co-op.)

History

Reagan Gorbachev is the second consecutive "couch co-op" game created by Team2Bit (Fist Puncher being the first). At it's core, Reagan Gorbachev is a game about cooperation. We wanted to make a game that required two unique and disparate characters to work together towards a common goal. In doing so, we're hoping to subtly reinforce a message that is absolutely critical in life: shared goals require teamwork. Whether it's a professional setting, a relationship, or a family, life often requires people to band together and use their unique skills and insights to tackle a problem. For this reason we chose Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev because, not only are they instantly recognizable, iconic historical figures, but because they were individuals who were forced to set aside differences, search for common ground, and ultimately work together to put an end to the decades long Cold War. Through gameplay, we're hoping to extend this same message to the player. Learn to work together. Learn the unique tools that each character possesses. Learn to overcome obstacles as a team rather than as an individual. We partnered with OUYA to fund and create Reagan Gorbachev. It's been shown at GDC, IndieCade, and E3. Reagan Gorbachev is available on Xbox One and PC as of February, 2016.

To me Reagan Gorbachev is not a political game. It’s a historical game to a degree, but it has nothing to do with modern politics. These two guys happened to symbolize cooperation between rivals more strongly than anyone else, and that story telling shorthand really stuck with us. If people want to look at this game politically they certainly can, it’s dripping with political themes. But we’re not taking sides. The game is a prism that can be viewed uniquely depending on your political bent.

Reagan Gorbachev originally had a 6 month development cycle! It ended up being closer to 8, but still really short, especially for two people. Once we committed to making it fast we had to maximize the limited resources. Adopting a top down view seemed like a good way to make the game more in depth and interesting while still keeping it doable for a lone artist in a few months. Once the idea of using Reagan and Gorbachev came up it all fell together. Gorbachev is possibly the most recognizable person on the planet from the top down perspective. Although the Pope is up there too.

Many levels have more than one solution. We didn’t want it to feel too “on the rails”, like it was a top down Time Crisis sequel. That’s the puzzle element we were looking for. It’s not always immediately clear which way to choose until you survive long enough to explore a little. We think it’s fun to have levels where you can grab a minigun and take out half of a platoon, or just sneak past everyone and make a run for it. Lots of levels were cut from Reagan Gorbachev, that’s what makes the level design work. We probably used about a third of the levels that were made. At one point I remember playing through dozens of levels and cutting everything I couldn’t beat in less than 90 seconds. Then later it become 60 seconds. Good way to trim the fat.

We like a little story in our games, but we’re making arcade style action games so we know story has to be window dressing essentially. Using Reagan and Gorbachev let us tell a little bit of a story because so many people already know the backstory. Whether you lived it or learned about it in school, those two names symbolize something to a lot of people. They’re rivals who cooperated. Two player local co-op is pure cooperative rivalry. You need the other player to survive to exit the level, but you want to beat her to the kills and weapon drops. Get too reckless pushing ahead and both players could be dead.

The current generation of consoles are really social machines. Xbox One Leaderboards are super easy to setup for developers, and that added an entirely new dimension to the game for us. I have a feeling there's going to be some big rivalries developing over the Xbox One Leaderboards. Let’s see if anyone can beat Jake’s times!

Reagan Gorbachev is a game asking for speedruns. I haven’t timed myself straight through the entire game in a while, but we love speed running levels, trying to shave off a hundredth of a second like an Olympic swimmer. Not Michael Phelps, a cool one like Mark Spitz maybe.

We’re trying to mash up elements of gameplay from Hotline Miami and Super Meatboy along with a bunch of our own different ideas. Short, difficult levels that kill you a lot. Some trial and error may be involved. There’s top down gunplay where you work angles and cover, but there’s also a chance to go stealth if you want to use it. Many levels have traps and moving parts, maybe turrets or sensors watching for you. One big ingredient we added to the mix was the concept of teamwork, both through two separate, distinct characters and through local coop.

ID@Xbox is exactly what this generation of consoles needs to be for indie developers. Solid curation, freedom to innovate, and a healthy dose of assistance from the ID@Xbox team. It’s easy to bitch about Microsoft, but the ID@Xbox program really works well. I personally loved Xbox Live Indie Games, but it feels like Microsoft listened to the complaints, then sat down and systematically fixed all the major flaws.

I have to keep explaining this to the kids at the dance studio across the street. They say, “In your game Ronald Reagan knows Iaido, right?” Kids are so dumb. No, Iaido starts with the open hand. Unsheathing your sword, striking and returning a clean sword to the scabbard are one fluid motion. That’s the bread and butter of an iaidoko. In the game Reagan has his sword out of the scabbard most of the time, he’s obviously not a student of Iaido. Fucking kids, get a clue!

Reagan Gorbachev is the second consecutive "couch co-op" game created by Team2Bit (Fist Puncher being the first). At it's core, Reagan Gorbachev is a game about cooperation. We wanted to make a game that required two unique and disparate characters to work together towards a common goal. In doing so, we're hoping to subtly reinforce a message that is absolutely critical in life: shared goals require teamwork. Whether it's a professional setting, a relationship, or a family, life often requires people to band together and use their unique skills and insights to tackle a problem. For this reason we chose Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev because, not only are they instantly recognizable, iconic historical figures, but because they were individuals who were forced to set aside differences, search for common ground, and ultimately work together to put an end to the decades long Cold War. Through gameplay, we're hoping to extend this same message to the player. Learn to work together. Learn the unique tools that each character possesses. Learn to overcome obstacles as a team rather than as an individual. We partnered with OUYA to fund and create Reagan Gorbachev. It's been shown at GDC, IndieCade, and E3. Reagan Gorbachev is available on Xbox One and PC as of February, 2016.

To me Reagan Gorbachev is not a political game. It’s a historical game to a degree, but it has nothing to do with modern politics. These two guys happened to symbolize cooperation between rivals more strongly than anyone else, and that story telling shorthand really stuck with us. If people want to look at this game politically they certainly can, it’s dripping with political themes. But we’re not taking sides. The game is a prism that can be viewed uniquely depending on your political bent.

Reagan Gorbachev originally had a 6 month development cycle! It ended up being closer to 8, but still really short, especially for two people. Once we committed to making it fast we had to maximize the limited resources. Adopting a top down view seemed like a good way to make the game more in depth and interesting while still keeping it doable for a lone artist in a few months. Once the idea of using Reagan and Gorbachev came up it all fell together. Gorbachev is possibly the most recognizable person on the planet from the top down perspective. Although the Pope is up there too.

Many levels have more than one solution. We didn’t want it to feel too “on the rails”, like it was a top down Time Crisis sequel. That’s the puzzle element we were looking for. It’s not always immediately clear which way to choose until you survive long enough to explore a little. We think it’s fun to have levels where you can grab a minigun and take out half of a platoon, or just sneak past everyone and make a run for it. Lots of levels were cut from Reagan Gorbachev, that’s what makes the level design work. We probably used about a third of the levels that were made. At one point I remember playing through dozens of levels and cutting everything I couldn’t beat in less than 90 seconds. Then later it become 60 seconds. Good way to trim the fat.

We like a little story in our games, but we’re making arcade style action games so we know story has to be window dressing essentially. Using Reagan and Gorbachev let us tell a little bit of a story because so many people already know the backstory. Whether you lived it or learned about it in school, those two names symbolize something to a lot of people. They’re rivals who cooperated. Two player local co-op is pure cooperative rivalry. You need the other player to survive to exit the level, but you want to beat her to the kills and weapon drops. Get too reckless pushing ahead and both players could be dead.

The current generation of consoles are really social machines. Xbox One Leaderboards are super easy to setup for developers, and that added an entirely new dimension to the game for us. I have a feeling there's going to be some big rivalries developing over the Xbox One Leaderboards. Let’s see if anyone can beat Jake’s times!

Reagan Gorbachev is a game asking for speedruns. I haven’t timed myself straight through the entire game in a while, but we love speed running levels, trying to shave off a hundredth of a second like an Olympic swimmer. Not Michael Phelps, a cool one like Mark Spitz maybe.

We’re trying to mash up elements of gameplay from Hotline Miami and Super Meatboy along with a bunch of our own different ideas. Short, difficult levels that kill you a lot. Some trial and error may be involved. There’s top down gunplay where you work angles and cover, but there’s also a chance to go stealth if you want to use it. Many levels have traps and moving parts, maybe turrets or sensors watching for you. One big ingredient we added to the mix was the concept of teamwork, both through two separate, distinct characters and through local coop.

ID@Xbox is exactly what this generation of consoles needs to be for indie developers. Solid curation, freedom to innovate, and a healthy dose of assistance from the ID@Xbox team. It’s easy to bitch about Microsoft, but the ID@Xbox program really works well. I personally loved Xbox Live Indie Games, but it feels like Microsoft listened to the complaints, then sat down and systematically fixed all the major flaws.

I have to keep explaining this to the kids at the dance studio across the street. They say, “In your game Ronald Reagan knows Iaido, right?” Kids are so dumb. No, Iaido starts with the open hand. Unsheathing your sword, striking and returning a clean sword to the scabbard are one fluid motion. That’s the bread and butter of an iaidoko. In the game Reagan has his sword out of the scabbard most of the time, he’s obviously not a student of Iaido. Fucking kids, get a clue!

Features

• Play as historical icons Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
• Stealth, fight, and puzzle your way through each level using a variety of skills including computer hacking, trap setting, and lock picking
• Use weapons ranging from Katanas and Poison Blowguns to Assault Rifles and Uzis
• 32 punishing "Meatline Miami" levels (high difficulty, short burst levels)
• 1P or 2P local co-op
• Unique "1 Player co-op" mode where a single player controls both characters
• Challenge your friends to Reagan Gorbachev trivia

Reagan Gorbachev Credits

Jake Lewandowski
Art, Sound, Music, Design and Coding

Matt Lewandowski
Art, Sound, Music, Design and Coding

Edouard Albert
Game Art

Fred Gago
Promotional Art

Contact

Inquiries
jake.lewandowski@team2bit.com

Twitter
https://twitter.com/Team2Bit

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/Team2Bit

Web
Team2Bit.com