Interview: How Kidbash: Super Legend Adapts Retro-Style Graphics With a Modern Art Pipeline
We spoke with Kidbash: Super Legend's Creative Director about recreating the magic of retro-style visuals using a modern pipeline that transforms Blender models into carefully crafted sprite sheets through Aseprite before bringing everything into Unity.
Some of the most memorable games of the '90s didn't rely on pixel art alone, as they instead combined 3D models with pre-rendered sprites to create visuals that felt generations ahead of the hardware they ran on. Titles like Donkey Kong Country pioneered that approach, and decades later, Kidbash: Super Legend is bringing it back with an entirely modern production pipeline.
Rather than building a traditional 2.5D platformer, the team creates high-quality 3D assets in Blender, converts them into carefully processed sprite sheets in Aseprite, and assembles the final game inside Unity, recreating the handcrafted look of classic Super Nintendo graphics while taking advantage of today's tools.
Developed by Indonesian studio Authentic Remixes in collaboration with Fat Raccoon and published by the revived Acclaim, Kidbash: Super Legend is shaping up to be something really unique and interesting. We chatted with studio creative director and founder, Irfansyah Aryabima, to learn more about it.
Kidbash: Super Legend immediately stands out because of its colorful Saturday morning cartoon-inspired presentation and co-op action RPG gameplay. What were the core inspirations behind the project?
Irfansyah Aryabima, Creative Director: The claymation-inspired presentation is mainly inspired by two things. The clay art is inspired by retro Japanese box arts where they made the cover with professional-looking clay models. The technique to actually achieve this in-game was inspired by Donkey Kong Country, where we render the visuals in Blender and turn them into sprite sheets to use in Unity
The game blends beat ‘em up combat, platforming, and RPG progression into one experience. How did the team approach balancing those different gameplay systems?
Irfansyah Aryabima: The platforming and combat are mainly inspired by Meg Man X, with the main weapon mix mechanic inspired by Kirby 64 and Gunstar Heroes. We started with taking these retro inspirations and putting them in a modern structure, in this case, as a Roguelike. We found that the Roguelike works really well with the weapon mixing; say you have a fire sword and a spread gun, you mix them together to get a Fire Boomerang that fires in spreads!
From an art direction standpoint, Kidbash has a very bold, toy-like visual identity with exaggerated silhouettes and vibrant environments. How did the visual style evolve during development?
Irfansyah Aryabima: The evolution is a mix of both for clarity, and also from us learning more and more how to do stuff with the pipeline that we have. There was stuff that needed to be changed to make the levels much more readable, and there is some stuff that we discovered we could do more with as we learn more about Unity! What we made sure to keep strong was the initial "Box Art Clay/Toy" art direction!
The game’s presentation feels heavily inspired by classic 1990s animation and action figures. How much did nostalgia influence the world-building and character design process?
Irfansyah Aryabima: It was heavily influenced by Nostalgia, but also by the experience of growing up and what nostalgia meant to us as we grew up. The game is set in the world of the O.D.D, a world inhabited by forgotten video game characters. As we deal with leaving our childhood behind, we can't help but be influenced by it in many ways, right? That goes the same for the characters in the game: as they leave their original game behind, how much of their current lives in the O.D.D is informed by their original games, and what's their role now in the O.D.D.?
Character personality seems deeply tied to movement and combat style in Kidbash. How do animation, gameplay, and VFX teams collaborate to make each character feel distinct?
Irfansyah Aryabima: We get on our voice chat every week, and in between, we ping each other on any updates and what's needed! I think it helped that we had a solid identity for visuals and animations early on.
From a technical standpoint, what engine and core tools are powering the game, and what made them the right fit for this type of stylized action RPG?
Irfansyah Aryabima: So this game is made in Unity, and all the visuals are modeled, animated, and rendered purely in Blender, then turned into a sprite sheet in Aseprite. It was mostly a technical shortcut because for us at Authentic Remixes, this is the first time we ever worked in Unity, and with our studio being an animation studio, paired with my personal past experiences working on pixel art for fangames, we stuck to what we know as we took inspiration from Donkey Kong Country's workflow.
The game’s combat appears fast and effects-heavy while still remaining visually readable. What were some of the biggest technical or artistic challenges in achieving that balance?
Irfansyah Aryabima: It's constant trial and error. Even before we put it into a build to test out, we replay it over and over as we are putting in the visual assets to really make sure things look and play right. But even then, after testing out in a build, a lot of things still need more adjustments! Not to mention when testing it out with new players. So yes, a ton of back and forth, constantly adjusting things!
Indie games with strong stylized visuals have become increasingly popular over the last several years. Why do you think players are gravitating toward these kinds of expressive, highly authored art styles?
Irfansyah Aryabima: I think we hit a plateau when it comes to realism, right? I love realistic-looking games, but personally, I think stylized games are just more timeless. Some GBA games with beautiful artwork like Minish Cap, or really stylistic PS2 games like Auto-Modellista wouldn't look out of place if released now on Steam. I think it's just much more surprising for players when playing these stylized games, whereas nowadays you kind of know what to expect from realistic games.
Finally, are there any behind-the-scenes materials—such as animation blockouts, concept sheets, combat prototypes, or environment breakdowns—you can share to help developers better understand how Kidbash: Super Legend is being built?
Irfansyah Aryabima: I think the most useful thing we can share is our Blender-to-Unity workflow. I don't think it's anything too high tech, but since I didn't see many people doing this before, maybe it'll be useful for some devs! I really wanna see what people can do with this workflow!
