Local developers Broadside Games were on hand at PAX Australia 2023, to show off their unique first person title, Bears in Space. John and Garth were the folks I had the opportunity to chat with about their game and there is a lot to understand about this title. But of course, the most important questions is, why are bears in space?

Maxi-Geek: So why are Bears in Space?

John: We knew that question was coming and I wish we had an answer. But yeah, I'm not sure where it really came from. Back in the day John and I used to film things together like on the weekends, we would get together, just write something silly. I think there's this Bears was gonna start off as like a TV show that we're gonna produce. But yeah not sure how it how it pivoted, with it being a dumb gag. But we then thought we will just make it a first person shooter and just stuck around and then transform into sort of what it is.

Maxi-Geek: So kind of like Untitled Goose Game started as a joke and became its own thing. You've just sort of grown it naturally, as you've progressed.

John: Yeah, it's like a jokey game, but it's not a joke of a game.

Maxi-Geek: So there is humour in it.

John: Yeah, but there is also a lot of hard work, its not a meme, it’s a real game.

Maxi-Geek: I saw the trailer the other day and obviously there's a big thing about like you're merging with the bear. How did that mechanic come about?

Garth: So story wise there's a scientific accident that happens on your prison spaceship in it. You merge with the bear. Because you play with Maxwell Adams and then whenever you come across the pot of honey, the primal rage takes over. The bare form emerges and you start swiping and stuff. But that mechanic I think is just, probably came from us playing Altered Beast on Sega Mega Drive. I think this sort of probably stem from that and then as we made the shooter aspect, I think it just sort of stuck, and then because I think you know we had early on we had the like the DOOM rage mode and stuff.

John: Yeah, sort of akin to the berserk mode from DOOM, with our sort of more unique spin on it.

Garth: Because it's cool, but like quad damage is fun, but like turned into a beast form and yeah because as you progress, you get sort of upgrades. You start out with basic attacks like a butt slam, but then eventually you get moves like a flaming uppercut. You end up like doing fireballs and stuff and. It just gets, you know, a bit silly as it continues on so.

Maxi-Geek: You have said that it’s a first person shooter, how does it feel playing as the bear and first person? Cause sometimes Melee based combat in a first person perspective doesn't really land the way it does in a third person. Like is it smooth or is there a bit of a disconnected search on the weapon?

Garth: I think it feels pretty good and we've got like a combo system, which is something I haven't really seen before in a game. So it's sort of like fighting game combos, but in a first person perspective as well, which you know may not seem like it works at a glance, but I think it does. It's more of a power trip as well. When you're in bear mode, you are really powerful. So the game sort of becomes a bit easier because you are so powerful. We have a pretty generous hit detection, so can just be rolling through the robots. Like the power fantasy element of it.

Maxi-Geek: Sort of like, you have had a good hard slog for a bit, here you go, enjoy the carnage

Garth: Yeah, it’s a bit cathartic

John: Lore wise, across the story, the bear form is called Beartana, who is in your ear talking to you and stuff, pretty much like Cortana. But she likes to appear when there's weaker robots around, yeah, like this big tough bed. But like it revealed later on that maybe she was bullied by a robot. That's why she hates robots so much. But. yeah, story wise she loves to power through the weakest robots and then anytime there's a big boss, she's like gotta tag out Max and then the human form comes back in.

Maxi-Geek: When players are in bear form, is there a way for players who are not so combo-inclined, to gear through those sections?

John: We're not talking like juggling combos, I suppose from like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. It's more of a like, in quick succession kill bots and it fills up a meter and then that meter unlocks your abilities. It's pretty forgiving. Like you don't need to learn things.

Garth: If the player just wants to hold down left mouse and like swipe away, they can easily clear it like an arena. But for those players who want to play tactically, there are options.

Maxi-Geek: Ok, so you mentioned just in like arenas, is this sort of one of those games where it's like very linear in nature until you get to an arena room and then back to linear or is it? Sort of a combination like a big mix of?

John: Yeah, so it's a linear-ish room. So in every level is about 6 to 10 sidequests, and then each sidequests will branch off into its own little thing. But then you come back to that linear level, but we really went out of our way to make sure that the players will be guessing what's happening next because like I really like Shadow Warrior. Yeah, really good, but it was very much formulaic. It's like run here platform around and you could sort of judge when that was happening, but for us, you just, you just don't know.

The demo we have now is a bit of a condensed thing, but you know, you start out and do a bit of run and gun fight in the midway. You'll fight like a crazy boss and then a little bit further you become. Beargira, where you're stopping through a micro city in human form, destroying a robot city, and then after that it ends in like a Big Bear combat arena. So it's sort of like keeping the player guessing in the type of gameplay and on top of that, I mean we've got a section where it's like a top down shooter like Galaga, and that's sort of how you progressed certain levels.

We have Point Blank in the game, they've got like a Time Crisis, a boxing level. Where they're fighting a robot. Like more like much more that we just sort of, yeah, we really wanted to just vary up the game, play as much as the game without sort of becoming like a mini game.

Garth: Yeah, its not web warrior or something, but we are trying to keep the player surprised.

Maxi-Geek: So it’s even though it's like the first person perspective title. It's not just a first person traditional gameplay?

John: We like to think of it more like first person adventure. Because, like, there's plenty of shooting and Bullet hell like that is the core of it, but there's a lot of adventures. There is a side quest that we have, where there's a farmer and his chicken keeps getting out and then you know, you're gonna help him by killing all the chickens, so they can’t escape anymore. So when you kill those chickens, more appear and when you kill them, you summon Beelze-cluck a demonic chicken. When you fight and defeat that massive chicken, you are rewarded with a super shotgun.

So we want players to get out of the game what they want. If they just want to smash that linear path and do just the game straight they can. They will still get all the like different, varied gameplay and stuff, but if you want to go adventuring, you'll find much more.

Garth: Yeah, we're big fans of the Yakuza games and then they are just full of like just stupid, silly like side stories that you can sort of stumble upon. And we really wanted to have that sort of element in there.

Maxi-Geek: So one thing I have to ask is why space and not some sort of futuristic alien planet?

Garth: It takes place in both, like we've got some space levels some, an asteroid for example, but we also have a space carnival.

John: One of my favourite games is Crash Bandicoot and I love how in there you go to different zones, across different worlds, so we tried to approach each level like that. The first couple were like wasteland theme, then a nighttime industrial zone, then a dungeon and even a Robin of Locksley medieval zone, and then out to the space carnival.

Maxi-Geek: So really embracing that random aspect of sci-fi shows, with how they visit unique locations without warning?

John: Yeah, we sort of thought of it as a compulsive adventure, Beartana is the voice that drives you forward, like Cortana was to Master Chief. You get the option to go back to Earth, but at the same time you are given the option to go to a space carnival and when will that happen.

Maxi-Geek: Does that mean Beartana will speak to you, or does she growl as a bear and you begin to understand her as the game goes on?

John: When you first meet her she roars, but when she speaks she sounds like Harvey Fierstein, or Mrs Toad from Rocko’s Modern Life. It is a grating voice, but in a funny sort of way.

Garth: We wanted it to be funny, you always have the big macho voice or the sexy voice, so this is quite different. We always thought of it as Beartana working at the American DMV, there just helping you out, but not really that enthusiastic.

Maxi-Geek: I can see the appeal and the frustration there. Obviously development has been happening for a number of years now, do you see yourselves seeing the light at the end of the tunnel?

John: So at the moment what we are trying to do is get as many people playing and giving their feedback. The game is completed, but we are trying to trim the fat and fine tune everything. Early next year is pencilled in, but that is not 100% set yet.

Maxi-Geek: If its pencilled in, means you can erase and write it down somewhere else.

John: Exactly

Maxi-Geek: The trailer, which released recently, clearly has a fun vibe throughout it, is that what you hope players get as well, like it’s a game that isn’t taking itself too seriously.

Garth: Absolutely, we really want to drive home to the player that the game is very silly and they shouldn’t take it too seriously. I mean the games opening crawl starts off by saying ‘Stardate: Tuesday… Location: Space’, and its like from those words, the vibe should be don’t take this too seriously.

John: The opening cinematic is very much like a Scooby-Doo chase scene and when you get control the first thing you do is slip on bananas and hurt yourself. There are plenty of games out there doing the serious, gory game and we just wanted to be like the Looney Tunes style, just a silly fun adventure.

Maxi-Geek: That sounds great, good and silly. You mentioned PC, is that the only platform the game is aiming to release on at the moment?

Garth: Currently it is, it would be good to get it on consoles, but yeah on PC for now.

John: The game will be coming to Steam and Epic and we’d love to bring it to consoles, but we want to get a solid release on PC first and then go from there.

Maxi-Geek: Fantastic, that was all the questions I had.

John: Something that I wanted to bring up were the weapons.

Maxi-Geek: Oh yes, how do the weapons play in the game?

John: So we have a good variety of them and while some might look familiar, we are having fun with them, for example we have a gun that we called the Magicarp gun. It is kinda useless to begin with, but eventually, if you get enough kills with it, it then evolves into an awesome gun.

We also have a gun that is a ‘kill everyone on the map’ weapon, which you can’t use, as it’s a doomsday style gun and that means it kills everyone, even you. There is also the Holy Ham Grenade..

Maxi-Geek: Sorry, did you say Holy Ham?

John: Yeah, a Holy Ham Grenade, which when you throw it a little pig with a halo appears and will either kamikaze run into enemies or take out a gun and shoot them. We are trying to have fun with the games weapons.

Maxi-Geek: How did that one come about?

John: We are big fans of Worms and we started talking about how we needed a big weapon like the Holy Hand Grenade and the laziest option was to swap one word out and it just sort of became a thing on its own from there.

Maxi-Geek: It sounds like chaos, in the best way. What about accessibility options, for those players how may need some assistance?

John: Well we are super proud of what we have, there are sliders for difficulty, so if you are not great at shooters, you can lower the amount of damage enemies do and increase the amount you do. We also have a respawn mode, so you just pop back up and can keep going and as there are platforming elements in the game, we have put an option in that basically builds bridges over the platforming parts, so you can just walk across.

Maxi-Geek: They sound great for new comers and players with needs. What about things like colour blindness?

Garth: Yeah that is something we are still looking into.

John: It shouldn’t be an issue from a gameplay perspective, the way we do our projectiles is all based more on contrast than colour, but we are still looking at.

Maxi-Geek: Fantastic, that really does bring my questions to an end.

My thanks to John and Garth for taking the time to speak with me about Bears in Space. The game is available now to wishlist on both Steam and Epic Game Store, so if it intrigues you, be sure to do that.