Hotline Miami
Hotline Miami is a violent 2D top-down shooter indie video game developed by Dennaton Games and published by Devolver Digital. The game was inspired by the 2011 film Drive and the 2006 film Cocaine Cowboys.
Development
The developers said that they "wanted it to be disturbing and we wanted people to feel the violence". They made the graphics pixel art to make sure the game was not controversial. A developer, Jonatan Soderstrom started making a game called Super Carnage, which was very similar to Hotline Miami. The aim of the game was to kill as many people as possible. The game was left unfinished because of difficulties coding the AI.
Before starting development, the developers wanted inspiration, so they watched some movies like Kick-Ass, Drive and Cocaine Cowboys. They wanted to raise questions about what it meant to kill a virtual person in a video game. Mid-way through development, Soderstrom worried that he was running out of money, so he started Hotline Miami. They spent 9 months in an apartment coding the game. Dennis Wedin said this about the development of the game: It was fucking hard....
Soderstrom said that he created Hotline Miami with Games Maker, because it let him make the game fast. He also said that it doesn't need that much programming knowledge to use. He said it was a lot slower than other engines, and is quite limited. They had some problems with Games Maker, because they were using an old version. Weldin claimed he liked games that were just games, but Soderstrom wanted the player to think about the game's meaning.
The developers said that the AI was the hardest thing to create in the game.
Story and Gameplay
The player controls an un-named hero (who fans call Jacket), who's gradually losing his mind. The objective of each level is to kill all enemies in the room, and go to the next one. After every job, the player goes to the same store to order a pizza. The player then return to your safehouse.
Characters
Jacket - The game's first playable character
Biker - The game's second playable character
Richter
Richard
Rasmus
Don Juan
Hooker
Beard
Masks
There are unlockable masks in Hotline Miami, each have their own abilities.
Richard - Rooster
Rasmus - Owl
Tony - Tiger
Aubrey - Pig
Don Juan - Horse
Graham - Rabbit
Dennis - Wolf
Jones - Alligator
George - Giraffe
Ted - Dog
Rufus - Elephant
Carl - Grasshopper
Rami - Camel
Willem - Monkey
Jake - Snake
Peter - Unicorn
Zack - Frog
Richter - Rat
Oscar - Mole
Rick - Fox
Charlie - Octopus
Brandon - Panther
Phil - Fish
Louie - Chameleon
Nigel - Bat
Russell - Bull (PlayStation 3/Vita only)
Soundtrack
Sequel
A sequel to Hotline Miami, called Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was released on March 10, 2015. It was originally going to be DLC for the main game, but this was changed.
Reviews
The game got very good reviews, with IGN praising its "striking blend of fast ultraviolence, a dense, challenging story and brilliant presentation". They given the game a final score of 8.8/10.
References
2012 video games
Windows games
PlayStation 3 games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation Vita games