If you’re someone that likes to browse the top-rated games of the year on OpenCritic to keep up with the zeitgeist, you’ve probably seenBionic Baypop up near the top of the charts for 2025.
In fact, at the time of writing, this small but mighty indieplatformer with no combatslots intoa tie for seventh place out of all titles across all platforms this year. This is no small feat, nor is it any type of mistake.
Bionic Bayis one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent memory, and if you’re a fan of the genre and can handle dying dozens and dozens of times, this game is aslightly hidden gemjust waiting to be discovered.
Bionic Bay Review
A close look at one of the most creative platformers in recent memory.
Recently, I was able to connect with Juhana Myllys, the creator ofBionic Bay. In the interview below, we get into a collection of awesome topics, including the challenges of designing the game itself, inspirations, lessons learned, and much more.
This was around a 30-minute conversation, so I won’t keep you from the good stuff any longer! I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.
Interview With Bionic Bay Creator, Juhana Myllys
Q: I wanted to start off by asking you, since the game has come out, how has it felt to see what people think about it? Because it’s all been largely very positive, from what I’ve seen.
Yeah, it’s been nice. Of course, I’m sort of a type of person who sees a positive review, and is like, “Okay, cool.” There can be dozens of positive reviews, and you sort of get used to it and don’t let it in too much. But when there’s one negative review, that stays in my head and I keep thinking about it. I used to be worse, in way.
These days, I can read the good reviews too, but I still have some work to do. Especially the user reviews in Steam when they’re negative—it doesn’t matter if it’s written in Chinese or Japanese or Deutsch or whatever, I will put it into Chat GPT, translate it, analyze it, and so on. So I’m always a little bit like… I wouldn’t say I’m torturing myself, because I see that as part of the game.
The whole process is that you need to analyze the negative reviews. And you probably learn more from that than the positive ones. Still, as I said, it’s very well received overall, so it’s been great.
Q: When you pitch the game to people, are there certain games that you sayBionic Bayis most like? Are there one or two games that you typically use for comparison?
When we first started making the game, the two games that I had in mind wereN+andAnother World. Those were the biggest influences. But then the game has turned out the way it’s turned out, and people talkInsideandLimbothe most, definitely. But yeah, I thinkN+.
Then, there was this Commodore 64 game,Impossible Mission. I think if you google that, you’ll instantly see the resemblance, because it has this tiny character that goes into this weird building, and he needs to basically gather information from computer units there. It has also been an inspiration.
But I wouldn’t say that there’s one game where we saw a game, and then we were like, “Yeah, let’s make a game like that.” It’s been more like many games, many films, many visual things like that have been inspirational. But yeah, at the beginning, it wasN+andAnother World.
Q: How long does it take to draw just one frame of your game? Because as far as the pixel art style goes, it’s insane how much you’ve packed into every single frame.
Actually, making art wasn’t the biggest task, content wise. Most of the time that I used was purely for level design. The character is pretty small and then there’s a lot of environment which surrounds him, and it’s very detailed. There’s lots of stuff in the foreground and background and stuff like that.
So it took maybe two months to design one level. I made probably 90% of the art before I started making actual levels. Basically, when I made art, the guys at Psychoflow Studio were implementing it into the level editor. It was very heavily focused on pixel art in the first year of making the game.
There were maybe two types of objects, like pipes and platforms, which were pretty fast to do. But then there are environmental objects, like organical machines, the huge robotic arm, and stuff like that, which were special objects. And one object could easily take 40 hours. I think the robotic arm took around 80 hours to do.
But it was funny, in a way, that the design process itself for that arm was like half an hour. I took a photo of my own hand in the bathroom in a mirror, and then I just traced that. And after I traced that, I made the robotic design for it—how the joints should be, and gave a rough and rusty feel on it. And then I started to make the pixel art. And then I noticed halfway that it was 50% too small. So I had to just form it twice as big, and then I basically almost had to start all over again.
But that was the only object that I actually noticed that I made this mistake, where I needed to make it bigger. The initial idea was to have the arm in the background. And in the background, I could more easily scale stuff bigger. But then I realized that it could be more impactful if you actually walk on the hand, you grab on the hand, and stuff like that. So I needed to make it larger.
But yeah, if I think about the past three years that we made the game, that was 95% of just level design on my end. I was happy that the project ended in that sense, because I was so full of making the level design. But yeah, that was the biggest task. But it’s really hard to say that if you take one frame, and each frame is very different—some frames can be made in a day, and for something else, it could be like a month.
Q: Do you have any more content planned for this game?
For sure. We are releasing material for the online mode. We already have released maybe four levels after the launch. So that’s definitely something that we are going to keep updating. The idea is that there’s basically new events every day opening in online mode. So we want to make that pool of level events as large as possible. It could be annoying if you get the same levels all the time. So we want to make sure that there are enough levels for those players who want to keep coming back.
Q: The Platinum trophy for this game—I have not yet gotten it myself, and I’m someone that loves to get Platinums. Do you think you would be able to get the Platinum, or have you already gotten it yourself? There’s one trophy that is to beat five levels without dying, and that is one that I’m still personally struggling with.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I had some crazier trophies that the other guys were like, ‘Are you insane? No one will get that,’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know. I mean,someonewill get that.’
I’ve definitely done five levels without dying, because I’ve been playing the game for four or five years. But it’s a physics-based game, it wouldn’t happen on your first try necessarily, because there is this randomness. Designing levels for physics-based games, it’s trying to find the sweet spot between this total randomness and total control.
And sometimes I can see that people who criticizedBionic Baydon’t necessarily get that, in a way. That it’s not supposed to be deterministic or something like that. I would like to say that it’s almost like representing real life in a way that something just happens, and there’s nothing you can do about it. And that’s why we had checkpoints so often.
Q: What is one trophy that you pitched to the team that they said, “No, that’s too crazy”?
Well, that was basically like ‘go the full game with no deaths.’ It was something like that. You would need to be on a deserted island the rest of your life and keep trying. But yeah, I understand it now a bit. I mean, it’s possible, but it’s not sensible.
Q: Is there a certain property that you have a dream of making a game for at some point? Or do you think you’re someone that’s always going to want to make your own games?
I feel like every once in a while, if I look at other games that are coming out, I get this feeling like, ‘Damn, I would like to make that exact game. Why is he doing that game? Why did he get that idea?’ But now that you ask, it’s hard to say.
You know, I’ve been making 2D physics games for all my indie career for over a decade. And I do feel like I need to step away from that at least for a while, because especially at the end of makingBionic Bay, I realized that I’ve been making this for so long.
I’m pretty good at it, but at the same time, the spark is not necessarily there anymore. I need to not necessarily make something totally different, but enough different that there would be the spark again.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson that you’ve learned from a previous game that you’ve worked on?
Every game that I’ve worked on is always some sort of school for the next project. You learn stuff, and then for the next project, you try to make things again, but a little bit better because of all the stuff you learned. Especially in my case, because I’ve been making these physics-based games for so long. Basically every game, there’s a little bit more… I don’t know if ‘passion’ is the right word, but it’s more ambitious every time.
For example, if I think about the game that I did 12 years ago,Badland,which was an iOS game. There was an auto-moving camera, and the character was flying. And then for the sequel, we made it in a way that you can go from every direction, and there was also this vehicle which was basically like a character. So that was like a clear evolution from that first game.
And now I feel like, compared toBadland 2,Bionic Bayis another evolution. There is no more auto-moving camera. There’s the character, which is a human character, which is running and jumping, which is so much more challenging to do than compared to the firstBadlandgame where it’s a flying character. It is just an orb that floats.
If I think about game mechanics, the visual look and stuff like that, it has been progress every time. So I never felt like, ‘Oh no, I went backwards with this one.’ I also feel like, if I’m going to make a 2D game again, it has to be something a little bit different. I’ve been making this same thing, if I think about the level design and the world design, like three times in a row now. So I think there should be like some sort of… I wouldn’t say ‘revolutionary,’ but something that feels totally different and totally new in every sense.
Q: What power within the game was the most challenging to get to feel right? The object shift power is the most prevalent throughout the whole game, but was that the most challenging one to work with and to make feel right within the context of the game, or was it something else?
The guys at Psychoflow Studio were the ones who basically were the coders, and they had to have their own challenges with each of the mechanics. From my perspective, the gravity shift was the most difficult one, because it demanded so much from the level design, because you could go anywhere with it suddenly.
Making levels was slow, but after gravity shifted, it was maybe three times slower, because you need to go through every corner of the level and make sure that player won’t break the level or go somewhere he shouldn’t. But also, [you still have to] keep it creative in a way that it shouldn’t feel like you’re just going through this tube and that there’s only one direction to go. I mean, thereisonly one direction, but it shouldn’t necessarily feel like that.
And that’s basically the reason why we have gravity shift only on those last two levels, because if you have the gravity shift in the middle of the game, we’d still be making those levels. And also, I think the mechanic itself is not necessarily something that players would like to have for too long. It’s a nice spice at the end of the game—makes things a little bit different, makes players think a little bit differently. But it’s not the sort of mechanic you want to build the whole game around.
Q: Could you see this game ever working as a two-player title, with two players playing at the same time?
Yeah, absolutely. As a co-op, it 100% would work, and also as a PvP online mode where you play against another character where you can attack him and swap him. That would be a totally unique spin on a racing game. So, yeah, I’m pretty sure it would work.
Q: This might not be something that you want to touch on, but do you want to speak about how the game ends? Is it setting up any sort of sequel, or is it just something for the player to kind of be left with to make them think?
Yeah, the initial idea for the main story for the game was that I felt like it would be boring to totally, clearly tell players what’s happening, and what’s happening next, and where we are and stuff like that. I think the game mechanics and exploring the world, surviving the world, and going through it was the key of the game. Not what’s the story of the game.
So I almost felt like the story… There should be story, there should be explanation of what the place is like, but it shouldn’t be too obvious. Basically, every clue is there. And it’s maybe actually simple. And there are two really, really obvious clues that tell what the place is and what the ending means.
Today, I actually got an email from a player who figured it out. And I also saw one comment on social media or the Steam community or something like that, where someone also had figured it out. And I think that’s perfect, in a way, that if you pay attention, if you are interested, you’ll probably figure it out.
But it’s not something that you immediately figure out. The ending of2001: A Space Odyssey, there was a Japanese guy who actually called Stanley Kubrick and asked about what happened in the end—what does it mean? And Stanley Kubrick explains it to him, and it makes perfect sense. I don’t know why he explains it to him. But he does. There’s actually a YouTube video about it. And it’s really interesting to hear his explanation because it makestotalsense.
But when you see the film. I think you need to be at a genius level IQ to really understand that. And I never understood it. Well, that’s not a surprise. But what I’m trying to say is that I never wanted it to be likethatlevel of mystery. So, you know, if you pay a little bit of attention, you will probably find it and figure it out.
Q: We’re getting close to the time that we had carved out for this, so I don’t want to keep you beyond that time. Is there anything that you want to say to the players that we haven’t touched on? Anything that you want to mention from your time that you spent making this game?
I’m just really happy about the general response that has been so positive, because the game is very much likerage bait. I was a little bit worried that people… I watched a lot of streams where people play the game. I always have this fear of people blaming the game instead of themselves. And at the same time, I understand that sometimes, because it’s physics-based game, they can blame the game.
But also, do they understand that it’s the nature of the game and so on. And as I said, it’s very much like a rage bait-y game, and there’s lots of dying, and I think the people who don’t mind failing and have the right sort of attitude about it—‘Okay, let’s try again. Let’s try this way,’ and so on— they will probably love the game.
But there is definitely a player type who probably finds the game really, really annoying. And before the release, I really didn’t know what percentage this was going to be. Maybe it’s like 50/50 or something like that. So it would be a little bit of a failure, I think, if that was the case. But so far, it seems like the ratio is pretty good.
Q: I think the game is great, so thanks for making it! I had so much fun playing it. It’s so, so good. It’s my favorite game I’ve actually played this year.
That’s high phrase. Yeah, lots of good games out there.
10 Best Hidden Gem Games Of 2025 (So Far)
This year has been amazing so far, meaning some indie hits have slipped through the cracks.
Bionic Bay
WHERE TO PLAY
A scientist uses a unique teleportation instrument to escape an ancient biomechanical world filled with imaginative technology, deadly traps, and hidden secrets.The Swap Mechanic and Realistic Physics SystemCentral to Bionic Bay is an innovative swap mechanic and a realistic physics system. When combined, these offer a new way of interacting with the environment – from shifting gravity to interchanging positions with objects and adversaries, and to move, defend, or attack. But be careful not to burn, break, freeze, explode, or vaporize in the process.An Ancient Biomechanical WorldPlunge into an ancient, biomechanical world teeming with imaginative devices, mysterious technology, and peculiar inhabitants. Get lost in the vast sci-fi landscapes in gritty high-density pixel art style and suspenseful sound design that makes each biome distinct. Attempt to uncover the secrets of the ancient world.Online Mode: Competitive Speedrunning, Leaderboards, and Character CustomizationTest your mastery in timed races against other players’ ghosts and leave them in the dust to claim the top spot on the leaderboards. Stay stylish while trying and recognizable on the boards using the in-game feature that lets you create your very own scientist. And through it all, remember not to rest on your laurels, as the Online Mode updates with new events regularly.
is out now on PC and PlayStation 5. If you haven’t considered picking it up already,I loved the game and gave it a 10 in my review. Check it out!
