Absolum: An Interview With The Founders of Guard Crush Games

Guard Crush Games has quickly ascended into a place of beat 'em up royalty. Their specialty with the genre has allowed them to innovate and build upon the beloved arcadey action that we're familiar with, and usher in a new era of brawlers with uniquely deep, satisfying mechanics. They were so kind as to allow me to interview them about their new game Absolum. We briefly touch on Streets of Rage 4 as well. Please enjoy.

 

I don't think your team necessarily needs any introduction, as you've certainly already made a name for yourselves, but if someone somehow hasn't heard of your work, would you mind introducing yourselves and what games you've worked on?

Jordi: I’m Jordi Asensio, co-founder of Guard Crush Games. I’ve been obsessed with video games and especially beat ‘em ups since I was a kid. Games like Guardian Heroes and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara completely blew my mind and shaped the way I think about action, adventure, and game design.

Before founding the studio, I spent years working in the industry as a game designer and cinematic director while also experimenting with side projects, always trying to understand what makes combat feel good and what makes an adventure memorable. 

I’ve worked in the industry for almost 20 years, on many titles such as Game of Thrones RPG, Styx 1 & 2, Windjammers 2,  Streets of Fury EX, Streets of Rage 4, and now Absolum, our first original IP, a project that really brings together everything I love about the genre.

Cyrille: I’m Cyrille Lagarigue, the other co-founder of Guard Crush Games. I’ve played video games since I was a kid, the first games I played are Tetris and Super Mario Land. I have been in the industry for 20 years, I worked on Assassin’s Creed 2 and 3, and several R&D projects. I like designing game engines, programming character movements, and game design in general!

 

 

Guard Crush Games now has three critically acclaimed titles under its belt, between newer titles Streets of Rage 4 and Absolum, as well your first title, Streets of Fury EX. Your team has garnered considerable prestige with these games, with many people citing Streets of Rage 4 and Absolum as the greatest beat 'em ups ever made. What made your team fall in love with the genre and how did you decide that your focus in game design would be centered around these games?

Jordi: Cyrille and I have been friends since childhood, and one of the games that shaped us the most while growing up was Guardian Heroes on the Sega Saturn. We were also obsessed with Hong Kong action films, and I started practicing kung-fu around the age of fifteen while making small amateur action movies with friends. At the same time, Cyrille was already diving into programming and would make the video-game versions of those films. So his first projects naturally became combat-focused games—not always beat’em ups, but always revolving around action. At one point we even built a kind of Punch-Out!!-style versus game.

Years later, after we had both started our careers in the video game industry, we wanted to create a project on the side using Microsoft’s XNA framework and enter the first Dream.Build.Play contest in 2007. Once again, choosing a beat’em up felt completely natural. And since neither of us were artists, we ended up with this digitized visual style reminiscent of Mortal Kombat. That became Streets of Fury, a gameplay blend halfway between Streets of Rage and Fatal Fury, with multi-lane shifting.

The result exceeded all our expectations: we became finalists in the contest, we were able to sell our first game under the name Guard Crush Games on the Xbox Live Indie Games platform, and—most importantly—we had built the foundations of a dedicated beat’em-up engine. Years later we decided to expand the game and release it on PC as Streets of Fury EX. It was a chance to improve both the engine and our tools, and we ended up with something extremely solid.

From that point on, focusing on beat’em ups simply made sense. It was our favorite genre, we had the right technology, and we genuinely wanted to bring something new to a style of game that had been neglected for years.

 

 

Guard Crush has a really cool approach to designing brawlers. Whether this was a conscious decision or not, it seems like the team is dedicated to evolving the genre. Streets of Rage 4 added new mechanics and combo systems that made the game feel incredibly polished and more complex than some of the button mashing we've seen in legacy titles in the genre. Then Absolum goes even further, innovating the genre in many ways like adding a roguelike system, upgrade trees, etc. How did your team come to these design decisions and have you toyed around with any other ways that you could expand on brawler mechanics? 

Jordi: I’ve always been obsessed with Guardian Heroes and Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara. Those games were way ahead of their time: they mixed RPG mechanics long before it was trendy, they offered branching paths, and they made you feel like you were going on an adventure, not just clearing screens. I always felt they never got the recognition they deserved.

So a big part of our philosophy has been to bring those ideas back with a modern lens. Today’s trends, especially roguelites, actually align perfectly with what made old arcade games tick. If you think about it, classic roguelike structure is basically the logic of the arcade: you die, you restart, you learn, you push a little further.

On the combat side, we draw a lot from fighting games. We love giving players as many tools as possible so they can express themselves. Our rule of thumb has always been: find the fun first, balance second.

 

 

Absolum is a wholly original IP, set in a fantasy universe. This isn’t uncharted territory for the genre, as we’ve seen classics like Gauntlet and Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara, but this is your own fantasy setting. As a diehard fantasy fiction fan, it was very exciting to see a new fantasy brawler. Can you go into the inspirations behind this universe and what it was like creating your own setting? And given that you’ve created a universe, can we expect to see more of this world? Either in the form of DLC or hopefully expanded further into sequels and spin-offs? Maybe even expanded media, like novels? (I’m begging you!)

Jordi: The guiding idea was to start with very classic fantasy, almost deliberately traditional. Goblins attacking villages, familiar archetypes… we wanted players to feel instantly at home in the world. And once that baseline was established, the fun part was twisting it. Pushing the universe toward something less black-and-white, more ambiguous, more layered.

We’re also big fans of Lovecraft, and the early spark behind Absolum came from The Shadow Out of Time: the idea of ancient, alien entities gathering all knowledge, past and future, to prepare for an inevitable, greater threat. The story evolved a lot during development, but that core feeling stayed with us.

As for expanding the universe… an animated series is already in development with Supamonks, written by Gautier Knittel, so yes, we definitely see potential beyond the game itself. In terms of content for the game, we do have an update coming soon. For anything beyond that… I can’t say more just yet.

 

On the topic of the fantasy setting, we’ve got a nice array of diverse races in the character selection: an elf, a dwarf, a human/automaton and a humanoid frog. What were the inspirations behind these character choices and their various playstyles? Did any characters get left on the cutting room floor? Are there any other cool races/classes that you’d like to see realized into player characters?

Jordi: The core inspiration was the classic D&D-style archetypes. We wanted each character to immediately evoke a familiar fantasy role while still having a strong identity in terms of gameplay. That’s why we ended up with an elf, a dwarf, a frog-folk mage and a human with automaton parts, they all sit right at the crossroads between recognizable fantasy tropes and our own twist on the genre.

We did explore more technological or mechanical concepts early on. Maxime Mary, our art director, even produced some really cool designs. But we decided to keep the roster grounded in a more “pure” fantasy tone for the first game. That said… nothing is ruled out for the future. :)

As for characters left on the cutting room floor: yes, a few ideas didn’t make it, mostly because the roster already covered a wide range of playstyles and we didn’t want to dilute that clarity. And of course, there are tons of races and classes we’d love to bring to life eventually, but we’ll keep those surprises for later.

 

 

Are there any plans to add co-op for up to four players?

Jordi: We feel that two-player co-op is the sweet spot for Absolum. It keeps the adventure more intimate, and it fits the tone of the game, you’re really sharing a journey rather than creating chaos on screen.

From a gameplay standpoint, the core mechanics like deflects, clashes and timing-based interactions also read much better with two players. With four, those systems would lose clarity and impact, and the experience would drift away from what makes Absolum work.

So for this game, two players felt like the right choice.

Cyrille: Keeping it 2 players also makes it very simple and easy to find someone to play online with Matchmaking ! And it allows for a good online experience regarding lag with our new rollback system.

 

I’ve got just a couple of fun, lighter questions left for you. What are your personal favorite beat ‘em ups? And if you ever decided to branch out from this genre, what genre do you feel like you’d want to explore? Do you ever see the team moving into the third dimension or are you guys happy remaining in 2D?

Jordi: I’ve talked a lot about Guardian Heroes already, so I’ll mention another favorite: Sengoku 3. I love its combo system that encourages you to link an entire stage into one long flow. I also enjoy the little “cheese” tricks you can pull on enemies and bosses, and the overall look and feel of the game. It’s far from perfect, but I still play it regularly on my New Astro City cab, and I’m this close to one-crediting it.

As for other genres… I have a slightly Machiavellian dream of making a game in the spirit of Altered Beast: a 2D beat ’em up where you transform into dragons or other flying creatures, which would conveniently let us slip in shoot ’em up sections. And then people would go, “Hey, shmups are actually cool, you should make a standalone one!”

About moving to 3D: never say never, but I really love the warmth of 2D art. And now that HD 2D lets us explore beyond pixel constraints, I still feel there’s a lot left to do in this space.

Cyrille: I think when you move in 3D it becomes another genre, there are so many things that change where for example enemies can not be on top of each other anymore without looking weird. Maybe we could pre render characters in 3D, or have 3D environments like Streets of Fury EX.
Beside Guardian Heroes I think I like the OG Final Fight, it laid the foundation for the genre, and hitting enemies is so satisfying ! Recently I played Jitsu Squad and it was very fun.

It requires to make 2 games in one, but I think you could imagine a JRPG where fight are a Beat em up instead of turn based haha

 

 

Guard Crush was instrumental in bringing Streets of Rage back from the dead (alongside Dotemu and Lizardcube obviously.) I know Absolum was an exercise in creating an original IP, but I’m curious if there are any existing IPs that your team wants to work on someday?

Jordi: Honestly, I’d love to make a Street Fighter beat ’em up someday. It feels like such an obvious idea that I’m still amazed it doesn’t exist already. The universe, the characters, the fighting styles… everything is already there, just waiting to be translated into a really fun brawler. If the opportunity ever came up, we’d jump on it in a second.

Cyrille: Maybe a Sponge Bob Beat’em Up ?

 

Lastly, this is a question I always ask in my interviews. What is the story behind the name of your studio? Guard Crush is a great name, by the way.

Jordi: We wanted a name connected to fighting games, and “Guard Crush” just felt right. It literally means breaking an opponent’s guard, a sensation I love in fighting games, and it perfectly reflects the unstoppable, straightforward nature of our games and the beat ’em up genre: you just go in and hit everything in your way. Simple, direct, no fuss.

 

A huge thank you to Guard Crush Games for taking the time to answer my questions. Absolum is now available on Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PC.