So, please tell us a bit about your game

Hey. Tiny Thor is a 2D pixel art platform dedicated to the greats from the 16-Bit area. The player’s main weapon is Mjölnir – a magic hammer – that bounces off enemies and walls. So the player has to carefully aim and use the environment to do bouncy trick shots to defeat enemies or solve physic-based puzzles. This leads to all kinds of crazy and funny situations – think breakout meets 2D platforming.

And who are you? Tell us about your studio

I wanted to do to an Amiga-esque platform game since I was a child. At this time two of my idols were Chris Hülsbeck, who did the music to Turrican, and Henk Nieborg, who did the art for games like Lionheart, Ambermoon and Flink.

Back then my child-fantasy has been always to do a game together with them. When Tiny Thor started as a small 48-hour game jam project, it was really just a small, at best average platform game. I really liked the basic premise of the game, but really haven’t pushed it further.

One day Henk did a mockup of the game which just blew me away. I tried to get him on-board together with Chris and when they agreed I knew this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime chance to fulfill my child’s fantasy – so I basically started the game from scratch and since then it really became a labour of love.

Fabian Del Priore also joined the team, helping Chris with the music. Nauris Amatnieks and Andrew Bodo are doing art for the game. They are amazing – and we get tons and tons of positive feedback their work.

Last but not least there is Steffen. I met Steffen when I was an employee at Gameforge and we became friends. So I asked him if he wants to join the project and it’s just astonishing how much love he puts into the game design. I really think once the game is released and the player are having fun with it it’s mainly his merit.

So in the end, we’re a bunch of gamers and industry veterans that want to create games to reassemble the fun of the good old days and adding a modern flavor to it.

What inspired you to create a game such as yours?

The game that inspired me to even become a game developer was Turrican on the Amiga. I still play through it once a year or so. In discussions Steffen and myself also reference games like Super Metroid, Super Mario Bors and Mega Man a lot – so we definitely take inspiration from them as well. From more recent games Celeste comes to mind: Probably the best controls ever in a platformer. And Shovel Knight – a gem on so many levels.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us! Please tell everyone when and where the game will be available

We hope to release the game by the end of this year on Steam and shortly after for Nintendo Switch, XBOX One and PS4.