Yars Rising Game Director James Montagna on Reviving and Respecting Atari’s Retro Roots
“I think Yars Rising is not just about Yars. I would go so far as to say it is a celebration of Atari as a whole.”
Posted 3 months ago
Before you even consider what Yars Rising is, you’ll probably be asking why Yars Rising is. Why has WayForward, the studio behind the flamboyant, hair-whipping Shantae and her popular platforming series, decided to revive a 1980s Atari game about an alien fly duking it out with a menacing presence called the Qotile? The last four decades haven’t exactly been rife with petitions for a franchise return. Yet the sheer improbability of metroidvania Yars Rising only makes it all the more intriguing.
Inspired by the expert espionage of the upcoming game’s protagonist, we infiltrated WayForward to wring the truth from game director James Montagna. To discover how Yars Rising will distinguish itself from the studio’s other platformers, and more importantly, to answer the question: why Yars?
“We're getting a lot of reactions like that, and I can't say it's unexpected,” says Montagna. “Part of our job as game designers is to present something to people that perhaps they didn't know they wanted…. And this was just where our imagination took it. We wanted to create something that was very much unexpected, but something that we feel is cool.”
The game’s reveal during a Nintendo Direct certainly caught viewers by surprise, but Yars Rising is the fruition of an idea that WayForward had been cultivating for quite some time. The original Yars’ Revenge is now over 40 years old; practically an ancient ruin in gaming years. But the breadth of vision that went into its wider world ensured its foundations retained a foothold in Montagna’s mind.
“There's something really special about the original Atari 2600 game,” Montagna says. “I would go as far as to say it was one of, if not the first game that had a major deep lore and story behind it – beyond what you see on-screen. So much so that inside [the game] box, they packed in a little comic book that told you [about] the Yar and the warring race of the Qotile. That was really special for its time. We kind of pay homage to that in certain ways in this game, through the use of comic storytelling scenes, or motion comics as we refer to them internally.”
The team reached out to Atari with the concept already formed: A cyberpunk setting, and a tale of corporate espionage. The original’s leading alien insect? Seemingly replaced by a young hacker-for-hire named Emi Kimura.
WayForward is beginning to establish itself as a capable studio for retro revivals. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp is already tucked neatly under its belt, and a remake of the classic survival horror game Clock Tower is also in the works. These are projects that Montagna and his team are extremely passionate about.
“We think of it almost as a form of preservation,” says Montagna. “We grew up playing these games, and so we want other people to know what's great about them. And hopefully in the future other people will see this game and we can plant the seeds for this IP going on and on into the future.”
But preserving the spirit of a game or series doesn’t necessarily mean things staying exactly as they were. Yars Rising is a 2.5D metroidvania – quite the change from the top-down and on-rails shooting of the original and its subsequent re-imaginings. But for WayForward, the classification was never a precisely defined consideration. Instead, the mechanics were born from Emi’s primary goal: infiltrating a high-security facility.
“There is an emphasis on stealth in this game that's different from some other games of the genre, and also different from some other games that approach stealth in their own way,” Montagna explains. “We refer to it as light stealth, and here's why: When you're playing through the game, Emi will occasionally need to sneak through different spaces like corridors and even crawl through tight spaces like air vents in the name of avoiding guards…and so the gameplay there is moving slowly, quietly, and staying out of their sight as they're pacing around.”
Those already groaning at the prospect of instant-fail stealth segments needn’t fear. The “light” part actually means hiding will be optional. Emi can choose to tackle her enemies head-on, but she’ll be in for a tougher time if she does so. Even those with a more delicate touch will still need to be prepared for action should plans go awry.
“We thought it's fun if you get caught sometimes and you have that ‘oh, crap’ moment,” says Montagna. “And now you have to deal with it and think on your feet to escape quickly, or else you'll get caught. That's almost as fun as sneaking and being stealthy in its own way.”
Amongst everything new, however, the format of the old-school Yars’ Revenge still plays a prominent role. Montagna – who notes that the genre-shifting Nier: Automata is a studio favorite – also believes Yars Rising will surprise players with how it remixes these retro elements. As she delves into the facility, Emi will need to hack into various terminals to bypass doors, traps, and tripwires. Here, the experience shifts, engaging the player in short, WarioWare-style stints of retro-themed minigames.
“That's strewn throughout the experience more than I think people realize based on the teasers that we've shown so far,” says Montagna. “Some players have described it as almost playing two simultaneous games at once, and they kind of feed into and influence each other in a certain way. So as you're progressing through this exploration experience, you're growing and advancing into this hacking experience even more.”
The core of these hacking segments is based on Yars’ Revenge, albeit updated and restyled by WayForward. A full recreation of the original game will even be available to access right from the main menu. But Montagna isn’t shy about the fact that there’s plenty more for retro-loving gamers to discover.
“Our game is full of fun Easter eggs,” Montagna says. “But not only that, on a more forefront level, I think Yars Rising is not just about Yars. I would go so far as to say it is a celebration of Atari as a whole. So there are instances throughout the game where other Atari brands are referenced in a big way, including major bosses and some of the hacking experiences as well.”
Even the game’s protagonist, Emi, is brimming with nods to the past – right down to the way the bangs of her hair replicate the curves of the Atari logo. It’s not the only reason she’s likely to draw attention, though. Like WayForward’s other notable leads, she’s vibrantly colored and packing plenty of character. But crucially, there’s also much more we don’t know about her.
“Essentially, she's a hacker for hire, right?” Montagna explains. “And so we thought if we had this kind of flawed character at the outset, it'd be really interesting to develop her story and see how she turns into a better person. And we see that throughout the game, where she starts to gradually make less selfish decisions and think outside of herself a bit.”
That personal development may come through her connection to the Yar species – a link about which Montagna is extremely tight-lipped. All we know is that Emi’s bond to these warrior insects seems to lie somewhere in her past.
“On Emi's wrist, she has a mysterious tattoo that looks like the original Yar sprite,” Montagna says. “It's something that she herself thinks is a bit mysterious. She feels like she's had it since her childhood, and the memory of when she got it is a little hazy. She refers to it herself as perhaps a birthmark and tells other people it's a tattoo, but even she's a little uncertain about the origin of it.”
As to whether Yars Rising is a sequel or prequel to the setting of the original game? Montagna only chuckles, saying that we’ll have to play it and find out.
Our thanks to James Montagna for taking the time to talk with us about the game.
Yars Rising
Release Date: September 10, 2024