Panic Porcupine takes the precision, timing, difficulty, and brutal nature of Super Meat Boy and joins it with the momentum-based physics of 2D Sonic games. Panic aims to test players with brutal environments that make sure one wrong move can lead to death, but it wants to make sure fans have fun dying over and over again. Game Rant spoke with the lead developers, who prefer to be known by their studio names Spicy Gyro and Shiny Dolphin, about what players can expect from the indie game’s level design.
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Panic Porcupine Melds Sonic’s Speed and Super Meat Boy’s Saws
The idea for Panic Porcupine came about as its developers bonded over their love for the physics in classic Sonic games on the Sega Genesis. These programmers felt there needed to be a game built for those who grew up on the original titles, using the “set of skills” they learned from them; especially with the impression that games from Sonic CD onward relied less on momentum, becoming overall more forgiving.
These thoughts helped them decide that the gameplay in Panic Porcupine would take notes from the original Sonic the Hedgehog, where dash panels weren’t as common and the famous Spin Dash move didn’t exist. Players will need to rely on built-up momentum to avoid dying to all sorts of hazardous obstacles. However, Shiny Dolphin thinks dying won’t be too inconvenient to players, as the game should be just fun to run through.
Panic Porcupine’s Approach to Difficulty
However, not all players will be happy about dying several times to the same stage hazard. Spicy Gyro and Shiny Dolphin are aware of this, as both developers are casual gamers and understand frustrations with harder titles. They’ve given some leeway to struggling players, with one example being the use of “Coyote Time,” a mechanic that other indie platformers like Celeste use to allow players a second chance to save themselves from wrong jumps. Spicy Gyro also said this is why some levels in Panic Porcupine can be played in different orders.
Another aspect of the game made to help players is Panic Porcupine features infinite lives so that fans can keep playing no matter how many times they kill Panic, and the game takes Super Meat Boy’s “quick restarts” to immediately try again after watching the porcupine die in a humorous manner. The developers hope the frustration Panic Porcupine makes players feel is off-set by laughter, at least a little.
As Shiny Dolphin and Spicy Gyro laid out, the list of things that can kill you in this game is rather long. One of the trailers for the game features statistics on how many spikes, chainsaws, and even gallons of lava are in Panic. While the developers have said these stats are completely made up for the trailer, players will be able to experience the stage hazards for themselves when the game launches later in October.
Panic Porcupine is set to launch on October 27 for PC.
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