The sophomore title from Argentinian developer Robi Studios,Solar Raiders, is as much a progression from its inaugural titleBlue Fireas it is charting a radically different direction. While the transition from platformer to bullet hell felt natural for the studio,Solar Raiderstakes players on a far more casual, gameplay-first co-op romp than its predecessor, akin tosocial sensations likeLethal Company.
The lighthearted team-based experience sees 1-4 conscripted Raiders storming cosmic locations for their space pirate abductors in search of the Solar Core. Robi Studios’ CEO Gabriel Rosa recently spoke with Game Rant ahead ofSolar Raiders' announcement to highlight the fun, frenetic nature of the game and the lessons the studio learned.The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Playing the Reluctant Space Pirate
Q: Can you start by introducing yourself?
Rosa:My name is Gabriel Rosa. I’m the CEO of Robi Studios, a small company in Córdoba, Argentina. We’ve been around for almost five years. We releasedour first game,Blue Fire, a couple of years ago and are now super excited to be announcingSolar Raiders.
Q: What inspiredSolar Raiders?
Rosa:After we finished our first game, we experimented for a while on what we wanted to do next. We felt at that time that we really wanted to have a multiplayer experience. At the same time, we wanted to have a gameplay-first game. As we were feeling around, we felt thatthe roguelike genreas well as shooting was something that we wanted to do. I guess, after a while, it just felt really natural. What inspiredSolar Raiderswas what we wanted to do internally, just because it felt right and fun for us. At the same time, we also felt there was a place in the market.
Q: Can you tell us about who we’ll be playing as?
Rosa:The game is, like I said, a very gameplay-first title, but there is a narrative around the game. You are kidnapped by the Big Boss, which is this space pirate, who has new information on where the Solar Core is. That is the most powerful energy source in the universe. Of course, he doesn’t want to take the risk himself, so he’s pretty much kidnapping beings from other planets. Then, you’ll see them go and find this miracle power source.
So that’s pretty much the plot: you’re basically a person in space who is forced to do the work of somebody else. We were really excited about having this play out and having some sort of fun, plot twist at the end of the game.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the cast of supporting characters and the humor behind them?
Rosa:The Big Boss has also opened up the ship to merchants and other creatures who might be able to assist the person in their quest. Inside the ship, you’ll find a whole other bunch of characters that actually have nothing to do with the quest themselves. They’re just trading and doing commerce, and all these characters have funny twists around them. We’re also excited to even bring more characters than the ones that we have right now in the demo. And we’re also going to be having characters that you have to rescue first in runs and then, of course, they’re going to be appearing in the ship as well.
All of these characters have funny traits and quirks. For example, we have this costume maker, who is like this very, very dark being and spirit who’s obsessed with looking good. We also want to bring gameplay to these NPCs in the future as well. For example, buying and purchasing all the cosmetics could be a fun way to gain a battle with the NPC who makes the tunics, so we’re looking forward to all that.
You don’t want to overpromise at this point, but I like all these interactions, these NPCs, and giving them gameplay twists as well, as a reward for players who invest time with these NPCs and things that they give you.
Q: Let’s dive in a little more on customization, because I’ve seen the costume vendor, but can you tell me a little bit about what customization options are available to players?
Rosa:This is actually a point in which we’ve had a lot of fun. I think where we originally were, early on in development, we had classes with different characters. We just felt that, even though we liked the idea on paper, it wasn’t generating what we wanted to have in terms of multiplayer gameplay. Originally, we had fixed weapons per class, and it just didn’t completely work. And then when we tried it out with a generic canvas-like character with customization with just a whole bunch of crazy abilities, it just clicked.
We found that it was so fast for us to produce different skins, so we’re just super excited about all that we’re going to be able to do moving forward. It’s just a lot faster than working with the specific classes that, in the end, wound up looking pretty generic. We’ve seen a lot of classes that just get repeated game after game, and I think with customization, it just helps break that a bit.
When you create your Raider, you can choose between different body parts, you can choose heads, and you can choose hair, torsos, lower body parts, and shoes. At the same time, you can change the hue, the colors of the parts. You can also choose a tag, graffiti that you leave on the floor. You can also purchase different emotes with in-game currency. We actually have a specific NPC who you purchase these emotes off that we still haven’t integrated into the demo, and he’s actually a really funny guy. Just creating a Raider is super fun. We’ve noticed that people. when they’re playing multiplayer, they’ll change body parts in between each run at the hub. I’s just a lot of fun.
I think one of ourinspirations for this wasLittleBigPlanet. I remember around 10 years ago, playingLittleBigPlanetwith friends on the couch. It was just super fun to hop around in crazy costumes. It was just really fun, and it clicked right in withSolar Raiders. It’s something that I think we’re going to dig a lot deeper into, because it just feels great.
I can see a lot of room for collaboration with other studios or even bringing some iconic looks fromBlue Fireinto Solar Raiders in that system.
Rosa:No, yeah, for sure. I think that’s something that we’re definitely going to be doing. It just works.
Blasting the Way to the Solar Core Together
Q: What’s an average raid like?
Rosa:When you start a raid, you’ll start off with your character and the base gun, which has unlimited ammo, and you’ll very, very quickly collect new equipment; in the next two or three rooms, there’s a really good chance that you’ll already have one or two weapons or a skill and a weapon. A successful run probably takes around 60 minutes. That’s five stages of around 10 minutes each. Between stages, you also have this mission map, which gives you options.
We’re actually super excited to implement these special events. We want to have, for example, where you’ll finish the first stage and between the first and the second stage, you’ll have an option: one path where you collect just currency and an upgrade or a path where you’ll have the option of a mini game or mini arena which is a time based challenge. If you beat that course, you’ll have a better prize, but you run the risk of actually dying, which will end your run. We actually have a lot of ideas about these special events that you can opt into or choose another path. Like most developers, we’re super excited to add more content for endgame players, as well.
Q: I noticed the demo that combat has elements of 3D bullet hell? Why did you choose that sort of combat?
Rosa:I would say in terms of shooting, there are probably three types of gameplay from a certain perspective. There are games that are a lot more tactical and strategic, where gameplay consists of a lot more of taking cover and knowing when to come out and shoot.
There are games that consist a lot more of strategy and just having the right build;for example,Risk of Rain 2,which is a game that we’ve been compared to, is a game where there’s a lot more focus on the build. While you move around the map, you usually target an enemy or two, but at the same time, there’s a lot of the heavy lifting with combat that is being taken care of by the build itself. You might just walk around, and your build is going to be attacking, electrifying and shocking enemies, and shooting auto missiles and stuff all around you.
The other type of game is a lot more action-based. By action, I don’t mean like general action, but rather specific actions. I think that’s where the bullet hell genre sort of falls into, because you’re out really thinking about each specific attack that the enemies launch at you and the specific bullets. You’re just choosing deliberately to jump over a bullet or dodging between another bullet or choosing to dodge right in front of an attack to make use of the I-frames that the dash has. Coming from our first game being a platformer, a bullet hell just felt very natural, because dodging bullets is a very platformer sort of challenge. It just felt super fun and natural for us.
At the same time, I also think therearen’t too many 3D bullet hellgames out there on the market, and it’s a super, super fun experience that I feel players really enjoyed.
Another vibe I got from the demo was the feeling of playing on a couch with friends.
Rosa:I totally get that, and I think you’re on point. I mean, when you develop games, you sort of focus a lot on your game, but at the same time, you look at other games. I think a title that feels similar to what you’re saying isCastle Crashers, for example. Yes, it’s a game that you can just go in with friends. It’s about having fun, it’s not about reaching the highest rank, and it’s just about having a really fun time. It’s the sweet spot for us between a party game and a serious, challenging experience. That’s what we’re aiming for, so I’m super glad that you are getting that vibe.
One of the things that we want to do for this project as well, compared to our previous game, is actually get a lot of people to play demos, and we may release more demos during the development. We’re even thinking about doing Early Access later on, because we want to have feedback from players and make sure that we’re supporting this gameplay experience, making sure people are enjoying a good time with their friends, and making sure that the content that we have allows them to jump back in the game and play it for as long as they want. That’s a really big focus for us with this project.
Q: I think the music and art style do a lot to establish that more casual tone. What went into designing the art style and musical choices?
Rosa:We were really thinking about what we wanted to have, what sort of feel that games that you just lay back and enjoy with friends for a really long period of time have. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a long period of time over a short term, but a game that you want to keep jumping back into during a long term has to be a game that’s relatively light-hearted because it’s in the spirit of having fun with friends. In terms of art style, we knew we wanted to have something colorful, fresh, funny, and that guided us in the skins that we made in the weapons that we made.
We wanted to have the sort of punchy music and that’s something that is, of course, something we still have to work on because right now in terms of soundtrack, we just started working on that. Our composer, who we work with onBlue Fire, is an excellent composer. I think that, in the current demo, we only have two tracks during the run which we worked with him on, and then we have some other royalty-free tracks that are, of course, temporary tracks. They’re in the tone that we want to take the game in, but they’re stand-ins.I also feel that it’s something that we were going to push even a bit more in the direction that we want, right?
With the soundtrack and our art style, we wanted to make sure it fits an experience that you can have a lot of fun with friends, a lot of fun situations. We also address enemies.They fit in as well with that, and we have a lot of different weapons and skills, they’re just fun. We were also looking to have fun situations. There are cases where a specific weapon might protect all your party from attacks, and at the same time, you can team up and just destroy enemies if you find and learn how synergies between different weapons work.
I’ll give you an example of what we want players to find by themselves in the game: we have aweapon that is a guitar. When you attack, each node plays a musical note that is in sync with the soundtrack. We also have a skin that is sort of like a mariachi hat with a skull, and if you wear the mariachi hat and you use the guitar weapon, the notes will be the notes ofLa Cucarachawhen you attack. We want to have all these crazy funny experiences that people might find dozens of runs into the game
We were not taking things too seriously. But at the same time, we want to have the game be a challenging experience for everybody.
Kitted Out like a Space Pirate
Q: That’s a great seque. What other kinds of weapons can players look forward to?
Rosa:There’s a lot of variety in weapons. We didn’t just want to have players' weapons be ordinary guns. We have melee weapons, we have just overall weird weapons, and we have funny weapons.
There’s actually this clap, which you might feel does nothing, but if you get close enough to enemies and clap, it’ll do damage. We sort of did that as a joke. In our internal testing, one of the devs used a skill which gives you metal armor, which makes you immune for several seconds. He also had a perk that made the skill duration longer, and he used clap with another perk that increased damage close up to enemies. All of a sudden, he had this build that we never imagined. He uploaded a video to our internal discord, and we all just cracked up because we never thought somebody was going to make an actual, real use of that weapon. It’s great because a lot of things like that have happened.
Perks are passive items that are used to create synergy with skills and weapons, skills are more strategic items that have cooldowns, and weapons or just all sorts of weapons like melee weapons, mid range, long range–we have snipers. We have a banana with a scope taped to the top. It’s a banana sniper, we have a bubble thrower, and of course we have grenade launchers, missile launchers and a whole bunch of a lot more aggressive weapons. Honestly, I have a blast with weapons.
Q: What about some of the other skills?
Rosa:Skills, like I said, are a lot more strategic. When you start the game, you might lean more into weapons, but when you discover how you can create synergies between skills and perks, you start using those a lot more.
For example, there’s a skill which places a vertical beam that deals a lot of damage. There’s a skill that creates an energy shield that blocks weapons, and there’s also a skill that creates a cell which boosts damage. If you’re playing with three friends and you find those, if one of the players uses the defense skill and the other uses the boost skill, all three of them are in the same spot and shooting, it just works really well. That’s why I say that skills are a lot more strategic, because they will require a bit more knowledge about the game.
There’s a lot of variety. There are skills that clear up all the bullets on the screen, there are skills that build burn damage to enemies on screen, skills that make you go super fast, skills that reduce gravity. There a lot of things and we have a lot more ideas, so it’ll be really fun to see how crazy builds get.
Q: What’s Rage Mode?
Rosa:Rage Mode is basically our way of encouraging people to add an extra layer of fun to the experience and not take damage. As you shoot enemies, you’ll charge your rage bar. Once your rage bar is filled, you’ll get this boost and you’ll enter Rage Mode. You’ll go a bit faster, you’ll do more damage. But if you get hit, you’ll instantly lose Rage, and you’ll have to fill that meter up again. Once you get Raged for the first time, it just feels really good, so from then on, you’re trying to build it up and that means each bullet that hits you has a lot more impact.
We were also trying to add these interactions to make sure there’s fun everywhere, and Rage Mode is just a part of that. We also have, for example, reloading. When you’re reloading the weapon, there’s a sweet spot where if you hit it, you’ll save a few seconds from the reload. We added that because while players were reloading, we didn’t want them to just bewaiting on a reload animationor reload timer. We felt like we could inject fun in there as well, so we’re constantly looking at what we feel are dead moments so we make sure that players are engaged all the time during combat.
Of course, we have moments where gameplay goes a bit more chill so we’re balancing the pacing, but during combat, we want to make sure it’s super engaging.
Q: What’s your personal playstyle?
Rosa:Well, my favorite weaponSolar Raidersis definitely the sniper. Actually, I rush in with shooters. I typically rush and, even though it may sound weird, I rush with a sniper! I’m actually really quick at aiming. But at the same time, we were leaning a lot into forward-push combat inSolar Raiders. We emphasize this by having enemies drop a few different elements, which make a key difference.
We’ve seen a lot that when we have newcomers to the game, they might start off really slow. But in their second or third run, they start to really understand that they have to push forward during combat, and it gets a lot more entertaining because you close the distance on enemies. There’s this risk-reward thing with close-distance combat where you’re more exposed to bullets and attacks at a specific range, but at the same time, it’s a range in which you can collect the loot after you defeat the enemy before it falls or disappears. After the first two or three runs, we’ve seen that pretty much all players start to engage with enemies far more aggressively, even though it has that difficulty. It’s super fun, it’s what we wanted to achieve, and I think we’ve achieved it.
From Blue Flames to the Center of the Sun
Q: You can tell by playing the demo that it’s a multiplayer experience, but you can definitely play it single-player as well. What is the difference between those two experiences?
Rosa:Of course, we wanted to make sure that the game is playable in multiplayer and can be a very light single player experience at the same time, and I would say that both work. The multiplayer experience probably leans a bit more into fun, and when you’re playing single player, it leans more into a more regular, challenging roguelite experience. Of course, we have our internal balancing to make sure that this is aligned with what is happening in the game and is aligned with what we want players to to experience, but both experiences just worked really well.
It’s a case where we might not spawn a few elements which are a lot more fun in multiplayer, but don’t make too much sense in single player like perks or skills. But it’s something that I think is important that you pointed out, because we want to make sure that it’s a game that works perfectly both ways.
Q: What lessons fromBlue Firewent into makingSolar Raiders?
Rosa:Blue Firewas our first game, and it was a huge, huge learning experience for us. I can get into a lot of detail about production, timelines, technical aspects about the engine, and how we solve things, but I think that the most important thing to point out is that we learned a lot abouthuman interaction with a game. That’s probably going to be a lot more noticeable in our future titles, and we’ll probably get better as we move along, right? But just learning where we failed in how people would understand the game, where we went wrong with how people would interact with the system. It’s a super valuable lesson that will allow us to get it right this time.
Don’t get me wrong,Blue Firewas a success, and we did a lot of really great stuff. But at the same time, when we shipped our 1.0, we were able to see a lot of players dealing with situations in ways we either never imagined or in ways that were actually more entertaining than the ones that we had already planned out, and of course, also dealing with situations in ways which were not the best. All this information is just great for us to lean in and support the more entertaining ways to play a game. It’s also why for this next title we want to make sure we get a lot more data and an overall experience that players have by allowing them to play early versions of the game as we develop it.
Q: What does the road from this demo announcement to release look like?
Rosa:We have a lot of the infrastructure of the game in this demo already, and we have a lot of future content planned out. We have lockouts for future stages along with our early art concepts. But I guess at this time, we’re still deciding how we’re going to tackle the project. One of the biggest things that we have to decide on isif we’re going to do Early Access or not, because other than that, you know, we’re looking at around a year of development where we have to wrap up all the rest of the content that we have. That’s pretty straightforward, having learned a lot of lessons fromBlue Fire.
What I would say is a lot more important is how we’re going to handle our community, what the players want. Would they play this one early access? How adult would they want to go with the product? We want to make sure we will be into what the best sort of development and launch experience is for the end consumers for gamers. So we’re going to be putting a lot of analysis and thought into how people receive our game announcement and then tailor the rest of development to how we interpret what would be ideal.
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Solar Raiderswill release in 2025, with a demo available now on Steam.
