How my Cybernoid-inspired game became Drakoko
I was making a shoot'em up inspired by Cybernoid, my favourite Spectrum game. I wanted an exploration shooter, not just pure action. A game about searching for things and bringing them to safety. Of course I needed obstacles and enemies. You had to shoot the bad guys. I took that for granted, until my seven-year-old son came along and questioned it. "Why do you always have to kill in games? Why can't the enemies just be friends?" He also told me he didn't like the spaceship, that it didn't feel friendly, that it should be a cute flying creature instead. I said: "go on." He told me a story about a dragon searching for its family, lost somewhere in the universe, and that you had to help it. I loved the idea, and it fit perfectly with my concept of exploration.
I kept listening to him. He is incredibly creative. When I told him the dragon could breathe fire to defend itself against enemies, he said it didn't have to kill them: "Why can't they be friends?" Kids have a clear, unfiltered mind and question everything, without prejudice or convention. He got me thinking, and I decided to take his advice. There were already enough games about spaceships and explosions...
Instead of shooting fire or bullets, we would shoot hearts of love. Instead of killing enemies, we would help them. That's how the idea came about that the enemies were actually dragons of the same race as the protagonist, but a curse had turned them into dark, unhappy beings. They could only be freed by true love. Love was going to be the core of the entire game.
I tied this to the idea of motherhood and decided the protagonist would be a mother dragon who had to search for her lost hatchlings and, at the same time, free her entire race. We came up with the name Drakoko (daughter of the dragon). Her hatchlings would be the Kokkos. The dragon race would be called Kokori. Drakoko would have to save them all.
Drakoko is coming to Kickstarter on September 9th as a Game Boy Color game, available as a physical cartridge and digital ROM. Follow mama dragon's journey and help bring her hatchlings home.