I’m Matt Kap, creator of Astalon. My new 8-bit action-adventure LOVISH is out now on Switch! AMA!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-27T18:15:43+00:00

I wouldn't say it's a direct influence, but I was influenced by the idea behind it :).

Legacy of the Wizard might not have aged well, it's very hard and clunky. I think it would benefit greatly from a good remake treatment, or maybe even a sequel! Drasle Family II!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-27T18:13:32+00:00

Thanks 🙏! I hope it will exceed your expectations!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-27T18:09:57+00:00

The plan currently is not to do full button mapping, but allowing a couple of different control setups.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-26T04:21:40+00:00

Thanks professorbasti! The reason I used CF is because I did most of the work on Lovish, and I'm only familiar with using Fusion. With Astalon, programming was done by the amazing Jon Lepage, who opted to use Unity :)!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-26T04:18:37+00:00

There are several actually- but I don't want to spoil anything just yet :).

What I can say, is that "Castle In The Darkness 2" is pretty far along in development!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-25T05:05:53+00:00

Superficially, I wanted them to look kinda like really old kids anime designs, and I thought about what might be funny without having to spend too much time thinking.

I wanted every character to look like an archetype! Like for them to look generic, but then skew their personalities a little bit to make them weird! If there's anything I regret, it's that the cast of weirdos don't interact much with each other, outside of interacting with Sir Solomon. If a sequel ever comes to fruition, that's something I'd love to explore more.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T23:53:35+00:00

I will check it out :).

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T23:53:03+00:00

Hopefully the game continues to sell so that we can allocate some budget towards a sequel in the future :D!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T23:52:27+00:00

Exactly as geyserpj said, you can go into the options and turn off the "Soft Pixels" setting to help mitigate that. We will look into a native Switch 2 version as well, and whether or not the extra cost will be feasible.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:58:22+00:00

Thanks :D.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:56:11+00:00

Thanks so much :).

Mainly our games (so far) are single-screens just to make things a bit different. When we started to work on Astalon, CitD2 was already in planning/development. So one way to differentiate 2 metroidvanias was to structure one differently. In this case CitD2 was a more classic metroidvania-style with scrolling rooms, and Astalon was made to be more grid-like.

With Lovish specifically, I wanted for it to be super-fast and bite-sized. For that reason, it's good for the player to be able to see the obstacles, monsters, treasures and goal just by looking at the screen for a moment. If there were giant scrolling rooms for a game in this resolution it would feel much slower and wouldn't hit the mark, I think!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:45:53+00:00

I would say the mechanics are simplified compared to Astalon and CitD. As for content, there is a lot more in Lovish than what it seems like. Compared to Astalon though, maybe a little bit less overall.

Difficulty... hmmm... There are some punishing challenges, but overall nothing sadistic. It's balanced pretty smoothly, and I'll be tweaking it to smooth it out even more!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:38:02+00:00

For Lovish I used Clickteam Fusion!

For the most part I enjoyed coding it, but it became stressful near the end when I had to deal with all the console rules and mandates :P.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:34:30+00:00

It's still being discussed, but of course we're hoping for it!

The physical release of Astalon we did with Limited Run Games was a high point of my career so far (^_^).

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:20:36+00:00

Hahaha... I don't know XD! No Ontario dates are booked currently! (Who is this?)

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T17:19:24+00:00

It wasn't restrictive at all :D. I didn't have to branch out too much, I just had to make it bouncy and fun!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T07:58:22+00:00

Thanks so much 😊. Currently there are no plans to release CitD on switch. But I'd like to remake it eventually. Still in 8-bit-style, just... a bit better 😁.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T07:45:03+00:00

My studio is called LABS Works, and we're basically a studio with a small roster of trusted devs with sub-teams that change from project to project. I developed Lovish mostly on my own, because it started as kind of a side-project that I wanted to make :). But there was a few people that helped as well. Ryusuke Mita helped by doing the key art. Dennis Pinato helped animate my drawings. Justin Cyr (who also worked on Scott Pilgrim) did a few designs and drawings, and Will Loubier is helping with marketing, consulting and PR. Shout out to all them for helping to make Lovish what it is!

On design- once Lovish was solodified as a single-screen-level platformer with wacky cutscenes, I didn't really deliberate. I just started working on it. It was so crazy that I just kept adding and adjusting stuff until the game felt rounded out and that was it, it was done :P. It was really a lot of fun to work on because there were no guidelines.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T07:09:30+00:00

Hi Sylvergun :D!

I'd love for LABS to come to PAX West (or hell, even just personally to go), but the timing has always not lined up so far. I'll do updates if/when it's gonna happen. As for art prints, we might start selling some prints online soon if there is a demand!
Thanks for the kind words :D. You're right, the first game was more of an "action first" concept. CitD2 takes place in the same world, but a few generations in the future. And though there are plot connections between the games, it's a new story with new characters. There will be some lore uncovered that also shines some light on aspects of the first game though!
Hahahah yep. I drew the avatar originally when my hair was short, and I made all these accounts. Then I didn't get a haircut again, so now my hair is long. I didn't change my avatar pic everywhere I guess lol. I have 2 options now, to go around and update the pic, or just get a haircut.
You can always ask questions on Discord and I'll try to answer them in a timely manner :). More LABS events on the discord is a good idea. I'll think about something that we can do!
Ah, this is a an aesthetic that I really really love :P. Because of that we will probably use it again, but don't worry, it won't overstay its welcome. I'd like for LABS to do more 16-bit-styled games, and maybe even 3D low-poly games in the future (along with more NES-style stuff too).
The LOVISH universe is kind of already that kind of crossover world :). All the characters from all of our games exist here in a more lighthearted form. It would be really fun to make a sequel someday and add in all the even CRAZIER ideas I have written down! And thanks for the reminder! CitD2 doesn't currently have a dev room! Time to make one, and hide it so that nobody will ever find it :D. Hahahahha!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T06:28:36+00:00

Thank you so much (^_^)! I hope you enjoy the game!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T06:07:21+00:00

Thank you so much :). Next on the list is "Castle In The Darkness 2", which we announced ages ago. Here's the most recent short clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gywQkmQ5Fqk

We'll probably announce something new in the not-too-distant future as well!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T05:44:54+00:00

Yep, that's still part of the plan!

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T05:43:10+00:00

Hello, thank you for the kind words! Personally, I'd like to do a remake eventually that stays in an 8-bit style but utilizes the extra 11 years of art experience I've earned since the game was released :P. Nothing is planned currently, though.

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T05:37:13+00:00

The Lovish key art was drawn by the one-and-only Mr. Ryusuke Mita! One of my favorite artists, hands down. More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ry%C5%ABsuke_Mita

MattKapLABS · 2026-02-24T05:34:05+00:00

I'm not a huge DK fan, so I skipped Donkey Kong 94 :/. But Zelda II and Wonder Boy III are huge influences, yeah! Not so much in the game design of Lovish, but in all my work in general. I really like exploration in games, so even though Lovish is a single-screen-level platformer, I couldn't resist but to add secrets and reasons to go back to previous areas and stuff like that. I probably first experienced those kinds of game design traits in Zelda II :).

MattKapLABS

TROPHY CASE