Iron Meat News

In hopes of contacting the rest of the Earth Counter Invasion Force of the Meat's assault on his Forest sector, Vadim attempts to climb the Meat-infested broadcasting Tower!

In this level, you'll face monsters growing from within vents and infected humans running across walkways!


As soon as you enter this level, you'll quickly get a sense of Tower's verticality. With turrets and enemies positioned on the left and right walls, you'll have to be extra careful as you make your ascent!


You'll also see tons of Meat Chains slowly making their way through vents from one side to the other. Destroying these will allow you to continue on--and destroying a certain number of Meat Chains might even reward you with an achievement!

Be wary around rotating turrets, since they can track your position and shoot projectiles as you get closer to them. Not to worry though--you'll find plenty of weapon upgrades and passive abilities to help you clean up the mess inside this Meat haven!


In addition to the Meat Chains appearing from left to right, you'll also encounter malfunctioning plasma lasers that'll activate then deactivate after a set interval. Time your jumps right to avoid getting blasted by these, too!


And arriving at the midpoint of the level, you'll face off against three Meat Bulbs--each in control of a unique security system! Avoid more plasma lasers, shoot at Meat spores appearing through vents, and evade red lasers coming down at you to proceed!

Overcoming the three Meat Bulbs and continuing further up will get you to the top of the broadcasting tower, where you'll meet a certain mad scientist seeking to enhance his powers...



Check back here for even more updates! Iron Meat is available now!

Be sure to follow Retroware's developer page to stay up-to-date on all our games, news, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/retroware

This week, we're bringing you an interview featuring a member of Iron Meat's development team! Today, we'll be sitting down with Ryan Rasing, a game designer and writer.

[h3]Please introduce yourself and describe your role in Iron Meat's development.[/h3]
Ryan: My name's Ryan Rasing, I'm a game designer and writer here at Retroware. I worked on roughing out some of the UI elements, level ideas, and I wrote out all the achievements in the game. That goes along with helping out with QA testing whenever the need arises. I've also done backend work writing for the game, both in terms of supporting Ivan, the lead developer, and for marketing, storefront copy, and Steam posts...like this one!

[h3]Wait, so you're the guy writing all the Steam posts?[/h3]
Ryan: I am.

[h3]So...you're interviewing yourself right now?[/h3]
Ryan: ...Is there a problem?

[h3]Anyway, what do you think makes Iron Meat unique compared to other titles of the run and gun genre?[/h3]
Ryan: Iron Meat takes a classic style of gaming and mashes it together with a gory aesthetic and premise, coupled with your typical modern features like in-game achievements, remote play capabilities, unlocking and customizing skins, and, well, you could also say that enabling local 2-player co-op is kind of a redux of a classic feature. For that, I'd just hope people can enjoy playing games with their friends and family in-person like many of us did years ago.



[h3]How would you describe Iron Meat's development from the perspective of its mechanical design?[/h3]
Ryan: I think the game's evolution can speak for itself. The mechanics are simple: You run to the right and shoot at anything and everything that looks like it wants to devour you. You can also stand still and aim--a mechanic I noticed a lot of players missing out on at some conventions we attended. Admittedly, I enjoyed watching people think they could literally only RUN and GUN and not possibly stand still and aim/shoot. It's obviously a core mechanic, so I wonder if there could've been a world where a short tutorial sequence was made (or maybe a visual button prompt?)--but I'm much happier with what we ended up with. It's simple enough to learn.



[h3]Were you there since the start of the game's development?[/h3]
Ryan: No, I joined the team after the preliminary work was mostly done and the game was like 30% of what it was now. I wasn't aware of just how many past iterations there were before this current build, so it's pretty cool to see how the project went from Point A to Point B in its visual and mechanical evolution. I started out doing only QA testing, but I was moved up to design several elements of the game and support its work and eventual release with my writing.



[h3]Do you think there's anything you wish you included in the game that isn't already there?[/h3]
Ryan: So there was an idea before about potentially having a "gallery" menu option available. It would've been great if we had something like this in the final version, so everybody can see the amount of conceptual work and past ideas we came up with, not to mention having convenient access to the opening 2D animation and maybe every animated cutscene in the game. That way, you wouldn't have to play certain levels all over again just to watch an in-game animation--but that's just my opinion. I just feel having a gallery would've been a cool ribbon to the already cool present we gave to players.



[h3]Based on some comments on previous Steam posts, I have to ask: Are we there yet?[/h3]
Ryan: Absurd question. We have always been there.

[h3]Uh, no, you guys haven't..?[/h3]
Ryan: Shh, shh...

[h3]Ugh. Final question, is there--[/h3]
Ryan: I decide when's the last question.

[h3]Now, hold on, you can't just--[/h3]
Ryan: --interrupt you?

[h3]Just answer me this: Will there be a sequel to Iron Meat? Maybe an Iron Meat 2?[/h3]
Ryan: ... ... ...

[h3]Is that a Yes?[/h3]
Ryan: I think we're done here. Thanks for the interview, me! Enjoy this gameplay gif:



[h3]Hey! Don't dodge the question! The people have to know! THINK OF THE PEOPLE![/h3]
Ryan: Of course, I do think of the people. That's why YOU can experience the Meat's invasion of Earth NOW in Iron Meat! Play through 9 levels of gore and--

[h3]Yeah, yeah, yeah, they know! EVERYBODY knows that already! Answer the damn question![/h3]
Ryan: ...Nu.

Iron Meat is available now!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1157740/Iron_Meat/

Be sure to follow Retroware's developer page to stay up-to-date on all our games, news, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/Retroware#:~:text=Retroware.%20Follow.%201,476.%20Followers.

We're back this week with another batch of 3 achievements you can earn in Iron Meat! This time, we're highlighting the Quickdraw, Lend Me Your Strength!, and the Destruction of Property achievements!

[h3]1. Quickdraw[/h3]
For this achievement, you'll wanna play on City, and you have to kill every Turretface Sniper--uh, these guys:


--before any of them fire a single shot at you! Not only that, but you'll have to kill every Turretface Sniper that shows up before and during the first infected Meat car midboss fight! That's this guy:



Remember, NONE of the Turretface Snipers should be allowed to fire even ONE shot at you, or you won't be able to earn the achievement!

[h3]2. Lend Me Your Strength![/h3]
For this one, you'll have to play on Forest. To get this achievement, you have to collect every single weapon upgrade dropped by both the floating ECIF drones and from friendly human soldiers atop any of the outposts you see!



And for those of you who don't yet know, there's actually a human soldier who will throw you a weapon upgrade at the very start of the level--right after you run out with all the other soldiers! This other soldier will appear on top of the outpost you just ran out of, so don't leave too early when you begin the Forest level!

[h3]3. Destruction of Property[/h3]
For the last achievement this week, we're focusing in on Destruction of Property. For this achievement, you'll have to go back to City and battle against the Monster House boss. When you get to its final phase, however, you MUST destroy all four Meat Generators that appear to the left and right of the center eye to get the achievement!



That's all for now! Check back here for even more updates soon!

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Iron Meat is available now! Take on the hordes of Meat in this modern retro run and gun, featuring 9 levels of gore and monsters. Unlock skins, earn achievements, and defend the Earth with a buddy in local 2-player couch co-op or with Steam Remote Play!

Be sure to follow Retroware's developer page to stay up-to-date on all our games, news, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/retroware

Now that the game's been out for 2 weeks, we just wanna say thanks for all the reviews, suggestions, and feedback! We've made sure to address (or we're in the process of addressing) any significant issues players have encountered, and we'll continue sending out posts as any issues get resolved. In short, we pay attention to what players have to say, so your reviews of the game help!

But, of course, we have to share some highlights...

[h3]"This is the modern Contra sequel we never got and needed so badly. Iron Meat is not just similar but after playing it, it is completely evident that it is a straight homage to the original classic."[/h3]

We appreciate that greatly! Yes, Contra was our inspiration to make this game. We just wanted to add more MEAT to our initial ideas! Hence, mad scientist. Hence, Meat invasion.

[h3]"My favorit Boss is the Train, absolut wonderful designed and fun to fight ^^"[/h3]

We like trains, too!



[h3]"This game is good but at the same time kinds hard ;(. But other than that this game is cool, but the one thing i think this game needs is a workshop. Idk if this is planned in the future but i just think it would be awesome if their is a workshop :)."[/h3]

A workshop, eh? We'd have to think about that a bit more, but sounds interesting.

[h3]"Game is far to focus'd on killing the player via random enemy spawning or worse, untested unpolished boss patterns that leave you with 1 second to shoot the boss, and 30 seconds of dodging. You'll be battling against your patience more then the boss for 2/3 the fight."[/h3]

Fair point, and that's true about battling against your patience. Our Lead Tester has also had the pleasure of dying hundreds upon hundreds of times to every boss in our earlier builds! He has become the Meat Prophet.



[h3]"...without an arcade mode it kills what makes Contra-like games fun for seasoned players and drastically reduces the time it takes to beat the game."[/h3]

Oh? An Arcade Mode, huh? Hmm...

[h3]"What a damn good game"[/h3]

Thank you!

[h3]"its good"[/h3]

You're too kind!

[h3]"As we all know, there are usually 3 options at the end of the stage: next stage, restart and back to menu, but in Iron Meat there's just an OK and you can only proceed to the next stage. Sometimes I just want to kill the time and play a single stage, and the lack of options makes me a bit annoyed."[/h3]

Sorry to hear that. Hmm, so more options other than OK at the end of every stage? So on the Results screen then. We'll talk about it internally.



[h3]"Definitely worth the price. While I've seen the common criticism of it being rather short, I'd say it focused more on packing a lot within that short time. I'm not too familiar with the games this was influenced by (Contra, Metal Slug, etc.), although this definitely feels right at home."[/h3]

We appreciate that! That has been a common critique of the game, and that's definitely fair. All we'll say to that is...stay tuned!

[h3]But what about YOU?[/h3]

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to leave the game a review on its official store page!

Tell us what you love (or don't love) about the game, and, who knows, we might just act on certain suggestions and ideas we like for the future!

We appreciate any and all feedback, and thanks again for playing Iron Meat!



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Be sure to follow Retroware's developer page to stay up-to-date on all our games, news, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/retroware

Today we'll be going over how to unlock three specific achievements in Iron Meat. In order, we have Lights OUT!, Questionable Allegiance, and Package is Secure.

[h3]1. Lights OUT![/h3]
To get this achievement, you'll want to shoot at all the letters of the "LEVEL CLEAR" sign at the end of any level. Don't try to get this at the end of Skyscraper, though--that's a cutscene!



[h3]2. Questionable Allegiance[/h3]
On Forest, you'll have to avoid destroying any of the Meat-ified turrets and complete the level on any difficulty. Earning this achievement will also get you the "Meat Soldier" skin!



[h3]3. Package is Secure[/h3]
On Train, you will find a pair of boxes sitting on the flatbed cars. If you manage to NOT destroy both boxes and complete the level, you'll get the achievement. Or, you know, just play on Easy, and at least one of those boxes will be indestructible! Simple enough!



Iron Meat is available now! Take on the hordes of Meat in this modern retro run and gun, featuring 9 levels of gore and monsters. Unlock skins, earn achievements, and defend the Earth with a buddy in local 2-player couch co-op or with Steam Remote Play!

Be sure to follow Retroware's developer page to stay up-to-date on all our games, news, and more!

https://store.steampowered.com/developer/retroware