Hello everyone,
This is Robert Boyd of Zeboyd. I’m one of the creators of This Way Madness Lies, a Shakespeare-themed magical girl JRPG comedy. It’s a fast-paced JRPG (HLTB has it at 7-8 hours) with turn-based combat.
It’s currently one of the best rated Switch games of the year, with an 89% on Metacritic. The game is also available on Steam and is scheduled to come out on PS5 on September 12th.
Here’s the Switch page: [https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/this-way-madness-lies-switch/](https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/this-way-madness-lies-switch/)
Additional credits for This Way Madness Lies include Joshua Queen (music & sfx), Bill Stiernberg (graphics), Willow Boyd (writing & editing), Sarah Queen (song vocals & voices), Riley Queen (voices), and Shannon Boyd (story, editing, and more).
I’ve been making games since the Xbox Live Indie Game service on the Xbox 360, starting in 2009. Previous games include Breath of Death VII: The Beginning, Cthulhu Saves the World, Cthulhu Saves Christmas, Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 & 4, and Cosmic Star Heroine. All of those can be found on Steam. This Way Madness Lies, Cosmic Star Heroine, and Cthulhu Saves Christmas can be found on Switch.
Here’s a linktree with my various social media accounts: [https://t.co/uAAO1CWnTm](https://t.co/uAAO1CWnTm)
Ask me anything! 🙂
EDIT: Thank you for all the comments & questions! 🙂
by Werezompire
15 Comments
Where’s the rub?
I know it’s still on the new side, but I still gotta ask: Do you think you’ll return to the setting for another story someday? You crafted this neat world with colourful characters, it’d be shame if they never had another adventure. 🤔đźŽ
Do you believe this is the best game you created to date? If so why? If not what is?
Any hope for another Cosmic Star Heroine or Cthulhu Saves… game?
What gave you the idea to blend Sailor Moon and Shakespeare? (Love the game, by the way! Just beat it on Switch)
First off, gotta say your header art on Dekudeals does nothing to sell this fantastic Shining Force 2 esque pixel art you are rocking in the screenshots. Criminal!
Secondly, like others, I love the Switch but also achievements. Without a system UI solution I rely on devs having them in game through a menu or some such to satisfy my cravings.
Would I find the 16 Steam/Console achievements located somewhere in game? Or failing that, any thoughts towards adding them in via an update down the line?
Either way, best of luck!
Do you have any interesting information on the development of your game for Playstation? Any weird quirks or certifications to go through?
Listened to an audio-only let’s play of this and was totally sold. Really enjoyed CSH, and quite enjoyed the Cthulhu games so was pretty much there anyway, but hearing the script out loud has bumped it right up the list (just finishing up KOTOR).
Not much to add really, just keep doing what you are doing.
Hey Robert, I had an RPG mechanics question.
One awesome aspect of CSH was the large cast of wildly different party members and their battle styles. I was always curious about where the initial inspiration/workshoping for Clarke’s mechanics came from. The wacky “blow myself up”, self-destruct loadout for an RPG character is very different (I’ve never seen that battle style replicated in other RPGs) Thanks again!
Ah! I thought of a question I’ve been meaning to ask: Were there any ideas that you considered or planned that didn’t make it into This Way Madness Lies? Like boss ideas, or maybe some slice-of-life events, that sorta thing?
Not a question, but I’m glad y’all are still making crazy RPGs. I’ve been a fan since Cthulhu Saves the World, and I think we might’ve met at a booth for one of the Penny Arcade games. I’ve always loved that your games encourage you to go all out in every fight.
Thanks for the AMA, and I hope you get to keep developing great stuff!
Hi Robert! Been a big fan of the games since the XBLIG days, every Zeboyd title is an auto-buy here.
What’s it like for small indie outfits these days? How has it changed since the days of BoDVII? Is it hard to get games in front of players, and are the publishers of any help with that?
Thanks!
As a big Moonie, any Sailor Moon easter eggs?
I’m only 8 hours late! Are there still plans for a new game+ mode?
Hi Robert! Question from a legally blind, formerly very active gamer here. In the past year or two I’ve been hearing a lot about how the industry is embracing accessibility in gaming, unfortunately there are still only a handful of games that really embrace this with visual impairment accessibility features like menu narration, useful audio cues and text to speech. I know there is a sizeable community of visually impaired gamers out there who are constantly searching for more VI-accessible games, as this is something that is asked about very regularly in r//blind and other VI forums.
The question is, have you considered adding any accessibility features like the above to your games or building them into upcoming games, either on Steam or the Switch? What are the obstacles to making this happen? Is it just a question of budget or development time, or are there particular technical barriers that you can talk about?
I do understand that for a lot of people this is just not on their radar,as I’ve encountered gamers who simply didn’t think blind people would be interested in video games. That’s legit, and to be honest I personally never thought about blind gamers very much before I went blind myself. But I can tell you that one of the most frequently asked questions in online VI communities is “are there any video games I can play?” And I really think this is a significant and largely untapped market there for the taking. And that if any genre was especially suited for blind and VI gamers, it’s gotta be turn-based, pixel art JRPGs…
Thanks for doing the AMA and taking the time to read this, and I hope you don’t feel like I’ve ambushed you – or, dare I say, blindsided you with this question. I have been hunting for VI-suitable games for over a year now and plan to ask similar questions of every dev I meet in the wild, so it’s not just you!