Side-scrolling Brawler Raging Justice Now Available on Xbox One
Hey guys, Anna here! One half of the husband & wife duo that is MakinGames. We’re a small team behind the development of the savage side-scrolling beat ’em up, Raging Justice, a nostalgia-inspired game that, with the help of Team17, has launched today on Xbox One!
Raging Justice is a classic beat ‘em up game of epic proportions, dragging the savage charm of the genre kicking and screaming into the 21st century! The city is in chaos! Crime and corruption is at an all-time high, with thugs wreaking havoc on every corner. It’s up to you to punch, kick and brawl your way through the deadly streets, to bring those punks to justice.
It’s been a long journey from seven years ago, when Raging Justice began life as Fists of Justice – a hobby project begun a group of friends who knew each other from their days developing games at Rare. Work on Raging Justice became more serious as we got even more positive feedback and we signed up to ID@Xbox. We spent time not only polishing the game, but also adding new features the fans have been asking for such as an extra character and game mode.
We’ve enjoyed looking back over the development. It’s been tough fitting it in around day jobs and family but there have been plenty of funny moments and real highlights along the way.
In the early days, Jay Howse, our artist, had modeled Raging Justice as a homage to the classic brawlers which tended to be based in North America. We thought it would be great to make it British, as it’s our home until we couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of the fire hydrant (it makes such a satisfying thud as you throw it into a crowd of thugs!). As a result, Big Smoke City is a cross-Atlantic city: a city with three-pin sockets and dollars!
Jay remembers a particularly funny incident when he was at his parent’s house briefly over Christmas and after dinner got his brother (who is a black belt in Karate) to do some moves for him as a reference for Ash to try to give him some ideas. After a few test kicks in the living room, he went for a fancy spin kick and sent a bottle flying, smashing it all over the floor!
Steve Burke, our sound guy, remembers developing the voices for Raging Justice, voicing Rick, Ash and a whole myriad of baddies. Oh, and also the little rats that hide under the bins. His bellowing into a microphone caused him to lose his voice a few times – and terrified the neighbors!
Nic Makin, our programmer and the other half of MakinGames, certainly gave me a laugh with some of the bugs he’s had to tackle! Some of the characters went into the game as double height characters. You got to play as a giant squishing the baddies like bugs underfoot! Then there was the time when too many baddies were generated. You didn’t stand a chance in the pile on! Luckily Team 17 have tested the game to make sure every issue has been fixed, and thanks to the feedback from the shows we’ve taken Raging Justice to we’ve got the gameplay spot on!
Taking Raging Justice to the shows has been a real highlight for me. Microsoft has given us heaps of support. It was an amazing feeling to be part of their stand at EGX Rezzed and Nic even went on stage with them! It’s been awesome to chat to fans passionate about side-scrolling brawlers and see so many people enjoying playing Raging Justice and coming back, again and again, to have ‘just one more go’! There was always plenty of shouting and laughter on the stand as we had left the option for friendly fire set to on for the show.
Now it’s time for you to unleash the rage within and battle through the streets of Big Smoke City! See you there!