EXCLUSIVE - CAGE Studios on Gunstoppable’s unhinged customisation, relentless pacing, and narrative context
A flash and a blur.
By Jonathan Garrett
05/08/26
Interview with Salaar Kohari (CEO, CAGE Studios)
Gunstoppable revels in its addiction to momentum, offering a veritable feast for the eyes at a blistering pace. You’re encouraged to mix and match equipment to generate wacky combinations, and despite being a solo developed effort, it boasts a feature set that reaches well beyond the scope of what one would expect. With a fully voiced campaign and secrets aplenty, we had the pleasure of speaking with solo dev Salaar Kohari of CAGE Studios to unpack his two year journey bringing it to life.
The mix and match dual wield mechanic is a fascinating and slightly unhinged approach to weapon design. Did this create issues with balance, or was it more important to give players agency over these unique combinations?
I wanted to give players numerous options to "break the game" by finding the right combination of weapons and attachments that suit your playstyle. The possibility space is vast with 10 weapons, each with 1 of 3 elements, and dozens of weapon attachments and character augments. Plus, dual-wielding any 2 weapons is quite uncommon, and multiplies the build possibilities with weapon synergies.
Of course, this introduced balance issues over the 1 year of having a public demo. I tuned the upgrades based on community feedback to allow all of them to be viable choices under the right circumstances without sacrificing the overpowered feeling you get when your build finally clicks into place.
The most important piece is to give players the choice of their playstyle for a given run, and empower them to find their own flavor of success.
Clear visuals are vital in a game where speed and momentum is such a core mechanic. Have you faced any issues during development in relation to clarity or players not being able to follow the action?
Yes, early builds of the game left players confused as to what was happening on screen, from shiny reflective environments to sparks and lasers flying everywhere. Improving visual clarity was one of my biggest challenges after announcing the game last summer. I drastically reduced visual clutter for less important gameplay information, and intentionally used colors, silhouettes, and sounds to subconsciously draw player attention to where it's needed.
I never sacrificed the speed and chaos, which still stands at the heart of Gunstoppable's fast-paced action. Thankfully, I no longer see playtesters get confused about what's happening on screen, and instead watch them enter a sort of flow state amongst the chaos.
Giant enemy crabs!
It's really cool to see voice acting in a roguelite of this type. What was your casting process? Did you have specific accents or tones in mind or were you open to being surprised by the actors?
I knew pretty early that I wanted to take the narrative of Gunstoppable to the next level by telling a meaningful story with important themes reflecting today's world. I designed the characters and plot to fit themes of anti-capitalism, family dynamics, and solidarity.
I then worked with a writer, Mayura, to build out the script and create detailed casting sheets. These sheets outline each character's personality, age, gender, and audition lines that reflected a variety of emotions.
The voice casting started with a Reddit casting call, which got over 500 auditions. I also contacted a couple of big names, including Gianni Matragrano and NeekoLul. When reviewing auditions, I kept an open mind and left room for interpretation, focusing more on personality than a specific sound, but eventually narrowed it down to the voices that best matched the characters in my head.
You've built such an interesting world. Are there plans to expand post launch?
I absolutely have plans to expand the world post-launch! My head is always flooded with ideas. I'll decide how much content to commit to upon seeing the interest after launch. But I already have voice lines recorded and localized for characters that are not yet included at launch. I'm even considering tying in future titles to the world created in Gunstoppable.
Is Gunstoppable really just a prototype Holodeck programme made by Tom Paris from Star Trek: Voyager?
Wait, how did you...? That wasn't supposed to be revealed until Phase 2 of the Simulation! Looks like I'll have to wipe your memory (again).
A huge thank you to Salaar Kohari for his time and perspective.
Gunstoppable is available now for PC. You can see it on Steam right here.
You had me at gun.
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
