We are the development team creating River City Ransom: Underground, an official sequel to the classic. AUA!

Thanks for thr AMA guys. Just a few questions.

1. What did you guys think of the GBA remake of RCR? Do you plan on bringing any of the features that it introduced (e.g. character customization, recruiting characters) to this?

2. Somewhat related to above, the remake had a slightly altered story, referring to thr Titus sidequest. Is there a chance we're seeing any of that, because I still have no idea where they were going with that.

3. Do you have any plans for mod support?

Really excited and hoping this gets backed.

1. Most of us didn't get a chance to play RCRX as kids, Bannon played it but was still holding out for a sequel. But it holds up really well. We love the idea of AI NPC combatants to fight alongside you. We'll be playing this game alot over the course of development.

2. The story is still a work in progress, we'll have assistance from Yoshihisa Kishimoto for tying in the original canon, but we're also hoping to have our own space to add to the lore.

3. Yes, we will make the game highly moddable. If you missed our announcement on Kickstarter, we're planning to open source the game engine (rough bits and all) so others can make their own games, not just mod ours. But we won't be doing anything sneaky like checksums etc. to make the game unmoddable.

Will books and the secret shop be a core element to becoming "god-like."

Finding the secret shop was the best moment of my childhood.

And I love the feel of getting a new ability.

Thanks for sharing that, it WAS awesome. But, secret shop is secret. ;)

Will there be a spa? You gotta have the spa, dimples and all!

Since everything we do is subject to license approval, we can't say for sure in most cases, but we believe that the "Wanna Sauna" chain of healthy, energizing personal saunas has been bidding on an expansion in River City. They would be "asset" to the populace, in our opinion.

That's fantastic! :-)

One of my favorite aspects of that game is simply running around River City, touring the various different shops, buying different foods and watching them gobble the entire plates, getting smiles, little things like that. I loved running around the non-combat areas, it made the whole game experience feel a lot more alive.

I love that they ate the whole plate!

Same. It's a big part of what made the game what it is. A lot of small things that add up to an amazing whole.

Will there be any word balloons other than the classic 'BARF!' in the game?

Backer, can't wait for the game!!!

We have a balloon indicating surprise or alarm from enemies, but we're keeping the original style which had text written at the bottom of the screen. We'll do the same thing for our gangs and battle phrases.

Clearly, this indicates that I don't remember RCR as well as I thought. Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend. Thanks for the reply, guys! Good luck!

The word balloon is also used to indicate which enemy is speaking at the bottom (with a large variety of phrases). Your weekend sounds awesome! Thanks again.

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Thanks! We think. Yes? Yes!

Super pumped for this! I can tell you guys have a real passion for this project.

1. Is the humor shown in the announcement video indicative of the humor you will bring to the game?( the video was hilarious)
2. You should have the community vote on a gang to include.
3. Bring back "The Internationals"! They were my favorite gang to induce vomiting on.

Glad you liked the video, we tried not to take ourselves too seriously, it wasn't universally loved but we're happy with what we did, to show more personality than simply speaking on screen. We want the story to be fun, but accidentally so, much like the original. It's a tough balancing act, but we have good writers on the team.

Great ideas! We'll take a look at this.

Smiles are still free, yeah? :)

We're subsiding the cost of smiles.

Wow, a sequel to my favorite game of all time.

Will Slick be making a return?

Slick is locked up in prison, where he belongs. But oh man, could you imagine if he happened to escape? If he were to escape, it would cause all sorts of problems for River City. All. Sorts. Of. Problems.

Thanks for the reply.

I have one of the songs saved as one of my ringtones, and at random times I constantly find myself humming the music to it (be it regular walking theme, boss themes, etc). Will the songs be back?

We'll have an all new OST by Rich Vreeland (aka Disasterpeace), who scored the FEZ game and an awesome NES album, Neutralite. We love Kazuo Sawa's work on the original, though.

Looking forward to all NEW music to be stuck in my head.

Serious question though. Is there any way to get my name added as a random street thug in the game? As a lifelong fan of this game (now series), that would be awesome.

Also, might I suggest this as a way to increase revenue through the Kickstarter campaign. Highest donators become street thugs?

We have rewards for NPCs and bosses, street thugs is interesting, thanks for the suggestion!

With RCR being on the NES, did you ever consider a 3DS or Wii U Version? I heard developing is incredibly cheap from them (free UNITY license and more!) and they are very helpful just like Sony. I want to give to this project so bad but I can not imagine this game NOT being on a Nintendo platform. I think the fanbase alone would make up the difference you need!

We hear you. For us, this Kickstarter is not a pre-sale, it's to make the game come to life at all. So, our actual plans are to get this on as many platforms as possible, and we've always said that Nintendo is a natural home for this game. However, being small, we have to make ports out of income from Windows sales, or stretch goals. We picked the largest install base we could, thinking about Steam. Stretch goals aren't the end of the story, though. Backing us means backing the game, we'll work to port it as long as their is time, resources, and licensing in place to do so.

Are their going to be co-op attacks

The co-op attacks are very important to us. They are in there specifically so people will want to play with other players. Some characters have moves that are specifically to set up other players to start or finish a combo.

So are There 3 and 4 player co-op attacks?

Will there be a dedicated jump button, or will it be a punch+kick press like the original? There have been a few attempts at bringing back RCR, most notable the GBA remake which added a weird delay to the controls that ruined the entire experience. How close is the team aiming to mimic the gameplay controls of the original?

Not strictly speaking 3/4 player specific co-op moves, that would be very difficult to choreograph, but, there is variety to which moves are performed based on who's involved in the combo. But you could keep combos alive by continously throwing an enemy in the air amongst you, as an example.

as a backer already. what are plans if the kickstarter falls short original goal? which of course will not happen but hypothetically

Kickstarter is for projects that couldn't happen any other way. We'd pound the pavement looking for alternate sources of funds, but a game like this won't attract a big publisher, which is why we're on Kickstarter. But we're not going to fail. There are too many awesome fans, and we've still have a few tricks up our sleeves.

Greetings Conatus! First off, I am a big River City Ransom fan and am thrilled that someone is finally reviving the series with a true licensed sequel. From what I can tell so far, it's shaping up rather nicely and I look forward to seeing more progress as time goes on!

I have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind.

1. Do you guys have any plans on adding any sort of homages to any of the other Technos/Millian games, such as Crash and the Boys, Super Dodge Ball and so on, or does the license you have only allow for strictly River City Ransom anything?

2. If the Kickstarter ends up not reaching it's funding goal (For the record, sincerely hope that doesn't become the case), is there a back-up plan for getting this game developed and released?

Best of luck to you guys, and thank you for your time. I am excited beyond belief for this!

1. We can't say for sure since everything is subject to approval, but we'd love to do things like place a dodgeball court somewhere in River City. Or an ice rink. And let physics and imaginations do what they will :)

2. We shall not fail. We have ideas, but Kickstarter was our best and brightest, it's where fans can decide the fate of a game that most publishers would ignore, or wouldn't "get". We're not sure how things would play out if we went a different route where backers and developers had less of a hand in the creation of the game.

Thank you fellas! It would be awesome to see some nods to the other games; even see the characters from those games appear in some way, all aged appropriately. Here's hoping they give you some creative freedom with that.

Bit of a follow-up to the second question: Would you all still accept donations and still honor any rewards (if possible) you have listed on Kickstarter in case it doesn't work out as planned?

Thanks! We can't offer physical rewards that we'd have to pay to create ahead of making the game, so we're not sure how it would play out. But we're not thinking about defeat at the moment.

Forgive me, I wasn't intending to sound like a doomsayer or anything like that. My apologies; I meant that more as hypothetical. I appreciate your responses, and here's to a successful campaign!

Not at all! We know the trajectory, we appreciate the feedback. We're gonna do our best. Thanks for your support.

Will there be online multiplayer? Sorry if this has been asked already.

Yes, there will be, through a client/server situation. One player hosts, others connect. We won't have the ability to build our own multiplayer server, but if we're on a service like Steam, we'd definitely use their services for online co-op.

will there be references to movies tv shows and other games?

We are hoping to add tonnes of references, mostly 80's and 90's related, since we're trying to make a game that should have come out in that era.

How much will a "smile" cost in this game?

In these hard economic times, we all have to do our part, and that includes paying more for smiles. But no seriously smiles are free.

I know that you have stated that there will be modern additions along with the old school gameplay, so is it possible that we will have the ability to create our own characters or at least fully customize the ones that we have?

A: Your characters are customizable in the sense that you can unlock moves you prefer, use inventory items to "craft" additional abilities, possibly palette variations, but we have so many playable characters with unique movesets that it would be very difficult to offer complete customization for them. We are deliberating on a "stock" character addition that is more agreeable to customization, but we're not able to commit to that right now. We love the idea though.

This is awesome! Are you Still including the absurd (and totally kick ass) super moves from the original? Will it be getting crazier at All?

Thanks for doing this!

Yes! We have Dragon Feet, Stone Hands, Javelin Man, Acro Circus, all making an appearance. They are reinvented in some ways, but you'll recognize them right away. We have some animation examples here: http://conatuscreative.com/post/61232481125/the-making-of-ryan

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Thanks! You're welcome.

Will one of the enhancements to update the series be in the replay value? different difficulty levels, replay game from start with all upgrade/cash and make enemies tougher/faster etc.

Absolutely. We want to take a JRPG angle on this so that replays will be fulfilling, and you can do more. Difficulty will scale based on the stats of the players involved. Definitely like the Mass Effect-style carrying over of stats.

Hi Conatus!

HUGE RCR fan right here, backed within the first hour of the KS going live. Got a couple of quick questions that are somewhat related:

Will there be a dedicated jump button, or will it be a punch+kick press like the original?

There have been a few attempts at bringing back RCR, most notable the GBA remake which added a weird delay to the controls that ruined the entire experience. How close is the team aiming to mimic the gameplay controls of the original?

Thanks, guys!

There is a dedicated jump button that can be mapped. Controls aim to be fluid, and no longer limited to one direction of travel. We're starting with the original game's walk,run, jump speeds, but may tweak them later. Our intention is that the controls for this game will appeal to a hardcore fighting game player, as well as casual players.

You mentioned additional playable characters. One of my favorite games in the Nekketsu series was Kunio-tachi no Banka -- will Misako and Kyoko be making an appearance?

You mentioned additional playable characters. One of my favorite games in the Nekketsu series was Kunio-tachi no Banka -- will Misako and Kyoko be making an appearance?

Our story isn't nailed down, so we can't confirm any characters beyond the ones we already have. But we want to add as much variety as we can and look at blending the storylines together.

No question here. Thank you for doing this. I wish you all success.

Thank you! We really appreciate it.

In the KS video you mention the ability to hit a rock with a bat and send it flying into an enemy's face. My favorite was always whipping a garbage can with a chain and sending it skating across the map. Can you mention any other/new interactions like this you have planned?

Part of the fun is unplanned interactions: things we never thought of, that you'll discover on your own. So, we'll be focused very intently on the sandbox environment so that these kind of things are possible. We want to have some interesting weapon interactions, and an inventory system that should allow for crafting new ones.

Will you release it on the playstation store please? I want to play it on my couch, not in an uncomfortable office chair.

Will you release it on the playstation store please? I want to play it on my couch, not in an uncomfortable office chair.

We intend on launching on all sorts of consoles. SteamOS is also something that caught us by surprise that we are really excited about, should we be able to launch on Steam in the future. We agree, this game deserves a couch to play it on.

Will you be including an absurdly long save code whereby all progress is ruined because your idiot friend jotted down the code in pencil and smudged one or two key letters, rendering it utterly useless?

Please say yes.

We wanted to put something like that in just for the lulz. Not sure if folks are ready for that in this day and age. We should at least have a sane save system in place first.