Contract Rush DX has reinvigorated me in my desire to design and develop a video game more than any I have played.

Since I pored over the digital artbook of Undertale Yellow, and seen Figburn’s concept art for that project, I have had a great admiration for his artwork. The way he deploys color I find enthralling, and in combination with the charming and bouncy animated characters throughout the game, I found myself with a smile beholding each stage. Every one, as I was glad to discover, insisting upon having its own identity.

How I feel about the quality of the unique characteristics of each contract varies, but I will always be drawn to a game that does not commit itself to following the same structure or sometimes genre, from start to finish. Further variety comes in the inclusion of the alternate characters, all of which I enjoyed playing as (in Bullet’s case only once I realized I could detonate her bombs manually), but their presence also leaves me wishing for more of them.

Obviously, it is due to the nature of Contract Rush’s size as a project that these alternate characters are relegated to their handfuls of individual sub-contracts, and only whatever extra time with them the developers managed to squeeze in. Still, for how this game in a crucial moment puts emphasis on the friendship of these other characters to Cynthia, I cannot say I was given enough to really feel that moment.

I did develop an attachment to Cynthia as protagonist though. Taking on a contract not as her did not feel right, so I never did. And I was invested at least in her relationships to Shopkeep and Renzo more so than the others. Enough to be touched by how those relationships contribute to the end of Cynthia’s story (and hurt by how they contribute to the other possible ending I looked up later). The script of Contract Rush isn’t shooting for the moon, but it was a pleasant accompaniment to the whole of the game, the dialogue and gags often entertaining.

Particularly, I can mark the moment the game filled me with such vigor, that being James Jimmy’s contract. A greatly amusing character in concept and as he is represented however briefly in his level, but I could pick up on a delight in his creation that extends beyond the boundaries of the game I was playing. As he rambles on with hints to his past life, and how he feels about his present, I imagined conversations I have had and observed many times. Myself and other creative friends, discussing and joking in Discord channels and calls about the characters and worlds we have imagined, fun conversation that wouldn’t fit in a final product.

To the developers there were surely inside jokes to James Jimmy. They thought up unnecessarily extensive detail to the life of James Jimmy. At best what’s left in the final game are untraceable reference to the fulfilling time spent between friends that led to the invention of James Jimmy. And I’m sure by the end of development the developers were absolutely exhausted by James Jimmy and Contract Rush DX as a whole. But as James Jimmy’s heart violently exploded, I felt sure in my own, that I want to develop games too.

I often find myself connecting most with these smaller scale indie projects, because that is when the hands of the authors are most identifiable. For this game in particular that left a larger impression, and I don’t know how much better to quantify that than to attribute it to heart, soul, and absolutely effort. All of which inspired me as a creative myself.

Amazing Game, really great bosses, amazing music. Easy recommend