fyeahcking

Only one - the day Mighty No. 9's Kickstarter launched, we were only a bit into the project, and suddenly "let's make a spiritual successor to Megaman X" became a much rougher prospect.

We eventually convinced ourselves that we were offering something fundamentally different than they were, even if our inspirations were similar, and moved on. (EDIT: "different" -> "similar")

We've definitely had other rough times, but nowhere near packing-it-in levels of rough.

Yes, okay. During the summer sale, I'll even take 25% less of it! (Unless you buy two copies because it's on sale, in which case I'll take 50% more. Thank you.)

Yeah, it's my favorite series. I've been super into Megaman (and X) since I was very young - so much so, in fact, that my brother still calls me "Mega."

Early Access was full of challenges -- it's hard to pin down one, so I'll talk about one challenge per time I'm asked that question until I run out of stories.

When we were preparing to enter Beta in Sept. 2015, we'd just done a pretty major player character design overhaul (I think we did this six distinct times), hoping our shiny new visuals would be a step up for the game. They ended up being the single most negatively received thing we've ever done, which I learned while 3000 miles from home without a decent computer. Zach fixed the characters while I caught a redeye home to get access to my media-worthy computer, and we cut entirely new trailers/screenshots/etc overnight with remastered old versions of the characters. It was super stressful, but it worked out.

20XX's big roguelike elements are permanent death (one failure and it's back to HQ for you) and random level generation/boss order. As you play, you'll find Soul Chips, which you can then spend on new items to increase the item pool in-game, and a set of permanent upgrades that apply to the game's default modes. Think of it like Isaac or Necrodancer in the MMX style, and you've got the right idea.

Without a doubt, the biggest lesson a developer can take from MN9's struggles is how to communicate with your fans.

Our entire time in Early Access, our fans have treated us so, so well, and we've done our best to repay them in kind. 20XX would be a garbage fire without their feedback.

It's great! I can work whichever 10 hours a day I want.