PAX East 2018 | Double Kick Heroes Interview Headbang Club

Now available on Steam Early Access, Double Kick Heroes is an innovative indie game that incorporates the rhythmic gameplay of a Guitar Hero, PaRappa The Rapper, Thumper or Amplitude, but then merges it with a rock metal, mad max zombie apocalypse aesthetic. So, as the game becomes more complex, not only are players paying attention to the music sounds that launch their different weapons, they also need to maneuver their car as the the game drives along, creating a Bullet Hell genre taste that is incorporated as well.

The game’s tracks are all original and classic metal rock inspired, which you can get a taste of from their bandcamp playlist here.

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=821456965 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]
You can play a demo yourself for PC, Mac and Linux to see if you dig it at doublekickheroes.rocks

Evan Griffin: Tell us about Head Bang Club and the development of Double Kick Heroes

Guillaume Breton, graphic designer: The game is all about killing zombies with heavy metal. It’s a rhythm game where you have two players and the batterie [French for “drum kit”] partition, and you have to kill zombies in rhythm [with music].

Griffin: You guys are using fighting game pads here…

Breton: Yeah, you can play with anything you want: Arcade sticks are pretty fun, but you can play with a controller, keyboard or even a “Guitar Hero” controller

Griffin: I was going to ask if you could potentially use a Guitar Hero controller

Breton: Yeah, and even the ‘Rock Band’ drum kit. Everything you can plug into the PC normally is recognized by it, and you can play. And if it’s not, we will make sure you can.

Griffin: Do you guys have designs and drafts of your own drum controller like that?

Breton: Not for now. The game is being released next week, April 11, on Steam, PC and Mac on early access. We already have 18 tracks with original tunes. We have a full story mode, arcade mode and we even have an editor mode where you can import your own tracks and be able to share it with your friends and other players. You just have to own the song and you can import it in the game. We also have a guest metal band that we know back in France, and some of our tracks will be playable in the game.
Another thing, we have five levels of difficulty. It’s important because we want to bring the game for the hardcore rhythm fan but also to the normal man like me who just wants to enjoy killing zombies in rhythm. Everyone can enjoy the game as they want.

Griffin: Nice, so you can go casual to DragonForce

Breton: Yes, exactly