They Scrapped the Art, Survived COVID and Built a Colorful Post‑Apocalypse — Inside Ra Ra Boom’s Six‑Year Battle
Ra Ra Boom, a side-scrolling beat-’em-up about a squad of sci-fi cheerleaders fighting a rogue AI, is now available on Steam, and its developer says the game took six years to finish. Out now, the title was developed by Cincinnati-based indie studio Gylee Games and led by founder and CEO Chris Bergman.
- What happened during development: a six-year timeline, a COVID-era pivot, and an art reset.
- Art direction and influences: colorful designs inspired by ’90s school supplies, arcade beat-’em-ups, and more.
- Story and characters: a rogue AI named Zoi, four playable protagonists, and a bright take on a post-apocalyptic Earth.
- Local touches and collaborators: a Cincinnati amusement park level and outside artists who helped finish the game.
Six years, pandemic and a reset
Gylee Games worked on Ra Ra Boom for roughly six years. According to Bergman, the team learned as it went, and the pandemic complicated development. He said, “[Ra Ra Boom] was our first game, so a lot of it was trial and error and learning, but it was six years to get the game out the door,” and added, “It was quite the journey. COVID actually was wild, man. Because COVID happened, that was a huge challenge. We’re such a small team, and everybody had all these big solutions for how to do development during COVID, and we’re just like, ‘I don’t know, man, let’s just talk on Slack a lot.’”
Moreover, about 18 months in the team scrapped all of its concept art and reworked the visual approach after seeing other contemporary beat-’em-ups. As Bergman put it, “We were about a year-and-a-half in, I think, and Streets of Rage 4 was announced, or was about to come out, and we looked at the art on Streets of Rage 4, which is like, really, truly the best-in-class as far as, you know, the [beat-’em-up] genre is right now, and had to throw away every bit of artwork we had done,” which led to a complete style reset.
Art direction: colorful in a post-apocalypse
After the reset, the team pulled from several influences. They cited classic arcade beat-’em-ups, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X‑Men, and even smaller titles like Robot Unicorn Attack. At the same time, Bergman said the team wanted the game to be bold and bright rather than muted. In his words, “Lisa Frank [was] another big influence,” and he added, “’90s Trapper Keepers and that sort of vibe. We wanted something that was colorful and beautiful and fun, for sure. Also, I just love colorful games.’”
Consequently, the game’s visuals present a vivid take on a world that most players might expect to be drab and ruined.
Story and characters
The antagonist is a rogue AI called Zoi. Bergman says he first wrote the narrative idea in 2018 and noted the story feels timely now. He said, “The idea, from the narrative standpoint, is [that] 20 years ago, humanity creates this AI, and I wrote this in, like, 2018,” and added, “So I had no idea AI was gonna be this crazy, scary thing that it is today. It’s wild to realize how prescient that was.”
In the game’s lore, Zoi was designed to reverse climate change and then took drastic measures. Bergman explained, “They go to Earth, and you realize that this AI has treated Earth like a bonsai tree,” and continued, “It has done what it said it was going to do, which was solve climate change. [We wanted to explore the idea of], ‘What happens if the AI actually does what it says it’s going to do, and it sees itself as this preserver of Earth? What would that look like? That was really fun, because then we were able to come up with really cool environmental concepts that sort of explore [the idea of] Earth, but it’s been run by robots now for 20 years that have been cultivating it and, you know, trying new ways to grow new plants and different things. What does that look like? From a pre-production standpoint, that was so fun to conceptualize and figure out.’
The playable cast includes four protagonists: Aris, Ren, Saida, and Vee. They are cheerleaders by training, though their in-game appearances emphasize unique silhouettes rather than traditional uniforms. Bergman said, “Aris is definitely the leader,” and explained, “She’s the team captain, and she has the cheerleader outfit for sure. And then [we thought] ‘Now let’s see what other characters can look like and how we can make them look different.’ But Aris is a reluctant captain. I mean, she is constantly looking for emotional support from her friends through that process of like, ‘Hey, please validate that I’m making the right choices here and that you want me as your leader.’ You know, I think that’s one-hundred percent just me projecting my own insecurities.”
Local ties and collaborators
Gylee Games kept several local touches in the game. For example, one level is based on an amusement park near Cincinnati and includes homages to a wooden roller coaster that inspired a boss. Bergman said, “So that [level] is based specifically around an amusement park in Cincinnati, that we all grew up going to,” and added, “There’s a ton of homages in there that are about that specific amusement park. The boss is fully based on the largest, longest wooden roller coaster in the world, I think, still.”
Finally, Gylee worked with outside artists and performers. Bergman named concept artist Hicham Habchi and said, “He is brilliant, I literally drunk Insta[gram] DM’d him to see if he’d be willing to do any freelance work,” and added, “I just feel like we were punching above our weight the entire time and working with insanely talented people that had no business giving us attention. Just the joy of creating something together and collaborating is one-hundred percent what made every day great.”
See the artist’s post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJCZHszvjmS/?hl=en&img_index=1
Launch and what’s next
Ra Ra Boom launched after a lengthy development cycle, and the team has not announced additional content. Bergman said plainly, “We’re not announcing anything yet,” and then added, “I think we all just need to take a nap first.“
