I am Achromi, the developer of Master Key. Master Key is a cute 1-bit old school Zelda-like focused on exploration and liberty. It has tons of secrets, it is not linear and I’m sure it will surprise you.
Back in 2018 I played Minit and fell in love with the 1bit style. But the game was 2 hours long and I wanted more, and more Zelda-likes too. Since I was a kid, watching my grandma complete SNES games back to back, I dreamed of making my own Zelda-like. So I decided to try game development.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2022, I spent most of my free time developing Master Key. This is a project fueled entirely by pure passion, love, and Kickstarter money.
But I am not completely a solo dev, none of that would have been possible without Noé Guiton and his incredible musical talent! Listen to the full OST here (1 hour of slapping 8bit music): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25FT0gtg2fU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25FT0gtg2fU)
Beware, the game is “Nintendo hard” and lets you figure out most things! Don’t hesitate to lower the difficulty.
On the Steam version, the easy mode is on a slider in the main menu.
On the Switch version, the easy mode is in the palette menu, it is the blue palette on the right. It will be made like on the Steam version in a later patch.
Have fun and AMA!
Zandre2016 on
Hello. I’m also loving the art style. This looks really fun. How long is the game playing casually and looking for every secret?
finalbarline on
Hi! Will you be utilizing Kickstarter for your next game?
DevouredSource on
Fun question: why does your game have a picross section?
Dev question: what schedule did you use to develop the game? Did you have large bursts of coding or did you spread the work out in shorter sessions?
shjen3h on
Yo this looks awesome!! When will it come out?
boudybi14 on
Definitely a cool artstyle and I’m itching to try it but since I have no questions how was your day?
mido0o0o on
This looks like a load of fun.
RabbitFanboy on
Congrats on the release! Looks like a great game.
If you could develop any Nintendo IP, which one would you choose? What kind of game would you make?
finalbarline on
Making a game with no text dialogue was a very creative and interesting decision. Since you didn’t have to worry about a traditional “script” to convey the story, what was the most time-consuming part in the development process?
mlvisby on
Great looking little gem here! I’m curious, have you ever heard of the Playdate handheld system? It’s a little niche device that plays monochrome 1-bit games.
Loernn on
Love the game !
How challenging was it to try to convey ideas and gameplay hints through pictograms only ?
roboccs on
This is the first I’ve seen of this. It looks really intriguing!
My question is about the black and white art style. Was it for ease of development since it was a one-person development? Or is this what you always envisioned your game being?
Congratulations on this accomplishment!
finalbarline on
Are there any missables by utilizing the “easy mode” setting you’ve included? Or do you recommend to simply play the standard difficulty for the full experience?
alienrandom13 on
How much inspiration did you take from minit?
SleepingBeautyFumino on
Any particular reason you decided to go with black white?
I’m okay with pixelated graphics but black and white is a deal breaker for many people and makes it hard to enjoy the game honestly.
Puzzleheaded-Pick285 on
Only knock is the lack of color, black and white gets boring fast IMO
So while I applaud your work, it’s probably not for me
mvanvrancken on
I’m looking forward to playing this – thank you for your effort and time developing it!
adeepkick on
First off, this looks amazing! Wishlisted and will definitely pick it up soon!
As for questions:
What’s one game mechanic you wanted to add but didn’t work out?
One idea you didn’t plan on adding initially but worked perfectly?
And one you would have added if you had more time?
Don’t worry if you don’t have answers for any or all of these. Congrats!!
Betorange on
Looks awesome! Will definitely give it a try!
atatassault47 on
Other devs: Moar Grafix!
You: How about just 2 colors?
chelefr on
Really neat 👌
[deleted] on
[removed]
RumHam88 on
I’ll definitely be trying this out. Kudos to keeping it affordable! Congrats on the launch!
[deleted] on
[removed]
chef-nom-nom on
What a beautiful looking game and style! This is really sweet and I want to try it! No questions – just wanted to say nice work 🙂
The-Est on
What programming language or tools did you use to make this game?
Ubergazz on
What engine did you end up using to make this?
tango_telephone on
Thank you for making this game! I loved Minit and Link’s Awakening. Your game seems to take inspiration from both yet still has a fresh a style all its own. I’m very early in the game but very pleased with what I’ve seen so far.
I grew up with the original Gameboy, and last night while I was playing, I was getting so deep into the game that several times I forgot what year it was and was surprised several times to realize that I was holding a Nintendo Switch in my hands!
You didn’t just create a game, you invented a time machine and a fountain of youth. You made me feel like a 8 year old boy again!
What was your experience like getting the game to Steam and the Nintendo Shop? What did you find challenging and how did that moment feel like when it was finally posted?
staticvoorhees on
I have no questions. Just admiring your work. As an elder gamer, I love to see indie developers continue the love of pixel art. Pixel games today are still bigger than ever. Having pixel games on modern hardware breathes a new life into the games we once played. This looks amazing! Great work!
NathanialJD on
Do you have palette swap options?
And if so, was the sprites and ground programed in such a way that would allow for customizable colours? By using hex codes for example, like #A8C64E & #3C412C
b_lett on
Music producer here, would love to know how Noé approached the soundtrack. Don’t hear a lot of modern game composers limiting themselves this much outside of some stuff like Jake Kaufman with Shovel Knight.
Is it done with a tracker like FamiTracker or LSDj, a hardware tracker like Dirtywave M8, or a more fully fledged modern DAW but with self imposed limitations to mimic the limitations of NES/Gameboy era, i.e. 4 channels, audio sources being sine/saw/triangle/square(pulse) waves and white noise.
Looks and sounds great by the way. Thanks for sharing details.
Kalad1nBrood on
Looks great. Buying the game now. Can you tell me some of the tools you used to create the game?
Falco98 on
Hi!
Looks great, and 11-year-old me is desperately jealous of those who successfully sat down and self-developed a game from-the-ground-up and actually landed something on a Nintendo system (i was sending the poor patient nintendo customer service reps snail-mailed paper copies of half-realized game concepts in the early 90s, back when such a thing as this was beyond conception). These days I’m too busy as a business software monkey to learn fancy things like unity (etc), but my actual weakness is I don’t really have a firm idea for a novel game (nor the art skills needed if i did). But alas.
Anyway, I’d love to check this out at some point – so my question is, is there any particular reason the demo isn’t up on the US eShop? And/or, will it be coming eventually?
34 Comments
Hello,
I am Achromi, the developer of Master Key. Master Key is a cute 1-bit old school Zelda-like focused on exploration and liberty. It has tons of secrets, it is not linear and I’m sure it will surprise you.
Back in 2018 I played Minit and fell in love with the 1bit style. But the game was 2 hours long and I wanted more, and more Zelda-likes too. Since I was a kid, watching my grandma complete SNES games back to back, I dreamed of making my own Zelda-like. So I decided to try game development.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2022, I spent most of my free time developing Master Key. This is a project fueled entirely by pure passion, love, and Kickstarter money.
But I am not completely a solo dev, none of that would have been possible without Noé Guiton and his incredible musical talent! Listen to the full OST here (1 hour of slapping 8bit music): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25FT0gtg2fU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25FT0gtg2fU)
The game is out on steam: [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1763030/Master_Key/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1763030/Master_Key/)
And Switch of course! [https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/master-key-switch/](https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/master-key-switch/)
Beware, the game is “Nintendo hard” and lets you figure out most things! Don’t hesitate to lower the difficulty.
On the Steam version, the easy mode is on a slider in the main menu.
On the Switch version, the easy mode is in the palette menu, it is the blue palette on the right. It will be made like on the Steam version in a later patch.
Have fun and AMA!
Hello. I’m also loving the art style. This looks really fun. How long is the game playing casually and looking for every secret?
Hi! Will you be utilizing Kickstarter for your next game?
Fun question: why does your game have a picross section?
Dev question: what schedule did you use to develop the game? Did you have large bursts of coding or did you spread the work out in shorter sessions?
Yo this looks awesome!! When will it come out?
Definitely a cool artstyle and I’m itching to try it but since I have no questions how was your day?
This looks like a load of fun.
Congrats on the release! Looks like a great game.
If you could develop any Nintendo IP, which one would you choose? What kind of game would you make?
Making a game with no text dialogue was a very creative and interesting decision. Since you didn’t have to worry about a traditional “script” to convey the story, what was the most time-consuming part in the development process?
Great looking little gem here! I’m curious, have you ever heard of the Playdate handheld system? It’s a little niche device that plays monochrome 1-bit games.
Love the game !
How challenging was it to try to convey ideas and gameplay hints through pictograms only ?
This is the first I’ve seen of this. It looks really intriguing!
My question is about the black and white art style. Was it for ease of development since it was a one-person development? Or is this what you always envisioned your game being?
Congratulations on this accomplishment!
Are there any missables by utilizing the “easy mode” setting you’ve included? Or do you recommend to simply play the standard difficulty for the full experience?
How much inspiration did you take from minit?
Any particular reason you decided to go with black white?
I’m okay with pixelated graphics but black and white is a deal breaker for many people and makes it hard to enjoy the game honestly.
Only knock is the lack of color, black and white gets boring fast IMO
So while I applaud your work, it’s probably not for me
I’m looking forward to playing this – thank you for your effort and time developing it!
First off, this looks amazing! Wishlisted and will definitely pick it up soon!
As for questions:
What’s one game mechanic you wanted to add but didn’t work out?
One idea you didn’t plan on adding initially but worked perfectly?
And one you would have added if you had more time?
Don’t worry if you don’t have answers for any or all of these. Congrats!!
Looks awesome! Will definitely give it a try!
Other devs: Moar Grafix!
You: How about just 2 colors?
Really neat 👌
[removed]
I’ll definitely be trying this out. Kudos to keeping it affordable! Congrats on the launch!
[removed]
What a beautiful looking game and style! This is really sweet and I want to try it! No questions – just wanted to say nice work 🙂
What programming language or tools did you use to make this game?
What engine did you end up using to make this?
Thank you for making this game! I loved Minit and Link’s Awakening. Your game seems to take inspiration from both yet still has a fresh a style all its own. I’m very early in the game but very pleased with what I’ve seen so far.
I grew up with the original Gameboy, and last night while I was playing, I was getting so deep into the game that several times I forgot what year it was and was surprised several times to realize that I was holding a Nintendo Switch in my hands!
You didn’t just create a game, you invented a time machine and a fountain of youth. You made me feel like a 8 year old boy again!
What was your experience like getting the game to Steam and the Nintendo Shop? What did you find challenging and how did that moment feel like when it was finally posted?
I have no questions. Just admiring your work. As an elder gamer, I love to see indie developers continue the love of pixel art. Pixel games today are still bigger than ever. Having pixel games on modern hardware breathes a new life into the games we once played. This looks amazing! Great work!
Do you have palette swap options?
And if so, was the sprites and ground programed in such a way that would allow for customizable colours? By using hex codes for example, like #A8C64E & #3C412C
Music producer here, would love to know how Noé approached the soundtrack. Don’t hear a lot of modern game composers limiting themselves this much outside of some stuff like Jake Kaufman with Shovel Knight.
Is it done with a tracker like FamiTracker or LSDj, a hardware tracker like Dirtywave M8, or a more fully fledged modern DAW but with self imposed limitations to mimic the limitations of NES/Gameboy era, i.e. 4 channels, audio sources being sine/saw/triangle/square(pulse) waves and white noise.
Looks and sounds great by the way. Thanks for sharing details.
Looks great. Buying the game now. Can you tell me some of the tools you used to create the game?
Hi!
Looks great, and 11-year-old me is desperately jealous of those who successfully sat down and self-developed a game from-the-ground-up and actually landed something on a Nintendo system (i was sending the poor patient nintendo customer service reps snail-mailed paper copies of half-realized game concepts in the early 90s, back when such a thing as this was beyond conception). These days I’m too busy as a business software monkey to learn fancy things like unity (etc), but my actual weakness is I don’t really have a firm idea for a novel game (nor the art skills needed if i did). But alas.
Anyway, I’d love to check this out at some point – so my question is, is there any particular reason the demo isn’t up on the US eShop? And/or, will it be coming eventually?
Thanks!
Will there be a physical release? Please!