Return of Fury II - Development

Latest update:

Milestone 1

28 May 2025

Collage of some of the things done for the first milestone in May 2025. It's looking pretty dark for our hero right now, but maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel. Strictly programmer's pixels here, except for the moon by Sparkler, originally from Return of Fury.

Phew! Finally reached the first milestone. After much work on everything: the game, the tools, concept, the first part of the game is finally playable all the way through! This first section will be an introduction to the backstory and the gameplay. After fixing numerous bugs, the Hero movements and platforming feels pretty solid, so I'll do my best to avoid touching that unless strictly required. Chris is going to rework the placeholder art into something way better looking.

Apart from the landing on the Pier, the game has completely derailed off the "design document" I wrote a few months ago. But it's good to keep such a document for ideas and references. But something important does remain:

There need not be any “logic” to the locations. We just add interesting stuff as we go along.

We have a decent idea about the next part, and ideas for single maps that we will fit into the story. I'm a big fan of platformers that has a good amount of strange, one-off mechanics, and not just the same old pick-up-this-then-jump-there-and-exit-rinse-repeat. Doing this on cartridge means that there is "unlimited" space for custom coding and art. We'll try make the best of that opportunity.

Follow Rebel Android and ROF2 on Bluesky

Previously:

The story so far

2020

The Secret Records reveal that as early as in April that year, I ‘felt a tingle of motivation’ to start this project, without any clear idea of what it would become. Only two things were for certain; It would be an adventure beat'em up platformer like the classic 1984 DataSoft game Bruce Lee (Author's article), and I wanted to do all the coding myself. My previous game Return of Fury had recently been released, programming primarily based on the reverse-engineered classic.

The working title was I Am Bruce, in the hope it would avoid trigger a legal crackdown by any Bruce Lee Estate legal pack of wolves.

Collage of I Am Bruce in 2020 and 2021. A familiar Green Yamo, two ninjas (!), fighting, most of the platforming mechanics, and some nice prototype art by FlowTnT. Obviously the upper left and sprites are programmer's pixels.

2021

The arrow of time darted along it's merry way, and the legacy of Bruce Lee actually started to become a burden, as some light anxiety about the reception of a “sequel” without the original glitchiness cracked the surface. I know I'd probably hate it myself. So in September, artist FlowTnT and I decided to repurpose what we got into a Ninja-themed game, affording us more liberty to deviate from the beloved classic Bruce Lee concept into our own remixed, but still vague, vision.

The game during it's Ninja phase in late 2021. Some beautiful island art by FlowTnT on the right, which I hope will make it's way into the final direction of the game.

2022

A short stint of visioning later, not much happened—again. I Hibernated into the autumn of 2022, until I was inexplicably reanimated and fired up to get the project moving once again. And, another change of heart: the game would now be repurposed into an official sequel to Return of Fury. It felt like a wiser choice, name recognition considering.

Not-Bruce of 2022 sported a Karate Gi, which is not exactly in the spirit of Gong Fu. Programmer's pixels make an impressive return.

2023

A perfect cicle later, what followed was yet another round of tinkering with the engine and tooling, apparently with nothing too substantial materialising. Because the next date in the Secret Record is rubber-stamped October of 2023.

Over three years into the project, I had finally made up my mind to actually start working on an actual game. A proper game with a beginning, middle and end.

Some of us know, uncomfortably well, that to procastinate on tooling, shuffling code around, and doing seemingly related, but insignificant willy-nillying is extremely alluring. Lulling safely tucked in our cocoon feels so safe, so harmless. The existential threat of actually knocking out something substantial is an intimidating prospect that we'd rather avoid for as long as possible.

But I digress.

Mind made up at last, I decided to try hammer out a backstory and some tangible scenarios to work towards. I watched several 70s martial arts movies (Enter the Dragon, evidently), played some great retro games, but didn't eat a lot of sushi.

An idea that goes all the way back to the beginnings is that the game would be set on an island. If there is an island, there has to be a pier. This would always be the starting point of the game, and that was also the first screen created.

The Pier. Left: 2023. Right: Early 2025. Programmer's pixels still going strong.

The Story

On an unnamed island far from Mainland, the thoroughly evil business-fantazillionaire, Mr. HAAN, has in great secrecy set up a nuclear weapons research facility somewhere beneath the island's volcano. It's rumoured that The Plan has now reached it's final stages of radioactive breakthrough. This is not ideal. Consequently, this evil plot must be foiled, lest Mainland—and possibly even the World—be obliterated into singularity.

There is a slight problem: the ominous island is riddled with traps, mean adversaries, and plenty of hazardous nuclear “research artifacts.” It goes without saying that The Powers that Be is far too bureaucratic, corrupt, inept, and ultimately powerless to face this imminent disaster.

Sigh, again? So what could we do about it?

Well, legend has it that there is apparently a lone wolf who has developed his own awesome flavour of Martial Arts called The Way of the Furious Fist™. Perhaps this adventurous hero may be persuaded to try to neutralise this existential threat?

It is, after all, our only hope!

2024

Mind made up at last, I wanted this new game to be at least twice the size of Return of Fury. However, even with somewhat lighter memory footprint than the original, I found myself struggling to lay out the memory usage efficiently. Obviously, I'm not a rockstar coder consuming Chippy-MOS® cereals for breakfast and dinner.

Curled up in a fetal position, I meditated until as late as February of 2024 A.D., but finally had the answer: Cartridge - It's all Cartridge. Shuffle stuff around - easy peasy. Virtually unlimited possiblities? Dangerous, but I'll handle it. Minimal headache? You're welcome. Heavy burden lifted off sore vintage organs? Thank you, madam. Got any change?

Phew. Finally, a decision that felt like going in the right direction.

Now, I realise that “purists” will huff and puff, as they always will. But the choice was clear as day: it's either the existential horror of an impure cartridge abomination, or no game at all.

I choose game.

2025

Game is in production, and the first milestone is near. But it'll take time ...

dmx, May 2025