Right now, Reverse: 1999 is celebrating its third anniversary, which is a pretty big deal, as that's a milestone we've seen plenty of mobile games fall short of over the years. That's three years of regular content updates, plenty of new characters, and the development of a narrative that stretches across time and space. So yeah, as we said, it's a pretty big deal.
To celebrate the achievement, we asked Bluepoch, the team behind Reverse: 1999, a few questions about the anniversary content, the developer's approach to in-game freebies, and the recent Atomic Heart collaboration. Without any further ado, let's get into it.
Pocket Tactics: This anniversary has brought a series of new garments. Could you walk us through their design concepts and maybe share some fun stories from the process?
Bluepoch: This anniversary's garment series is named "Life and Loss." We recreated some of the most important turning points for our chosen characters, then tailored these moments using symbolic, image-driven design to create their garments. Through this theme, we wanted to capture each character's personal interrogation of fate and the cries and resolve born from what they've each endured.
Some are reborn from the flames, some break free of their shackles, and some walk toward their future still burdened by heavy memories. In the end, everyone has to face their own fate in this interrogation, and they each respond in their own way.
On top of that, we've also updated three of our beloved garment series! In the tarot-themed series, Charon's garment, Gift of the Dead, is built around 'Death,' the Tarot card that usually symbolizes the arrival of an emissary. Charon's name comes from the ferryman of the underworld in ancient Greek mythology, and in this Death card, he becomes the angel who announces death. He crosses the boundary between life and death to bring the dead redemption and release, guiding them toward eternal peace.
37's garment, A Gift of Nourishment, is an update to the holiday-themed Yearly Bookmarks series, inspired by World Milk Day. Drawing on 37's love of ice cream, we designed this garment around the idea of milk-based ice cream! Noire's supernatural Dushuo Festival film, Old Stories, New Perspectives, has also received an update. This time, Spathodea is cast as an illusionist. The card depicts her performing her signature illusion-conjuring a lotus out of fire-which is why the garment is named Fire Lotus.
Every version delivers so many garments, and they're all creative and varied, from themes to designs. How does the dev team keep making that happen?
For Reverse: 1999, character garments have never been just a simple change of outfit. We want them to feel like an extension of each character-a way to reveal more of who they could be, whether that's a glimpse into their everyday life, a costumed role in a friend's film, or even a character they play within the game world.
If you look at the garment series we've released, you'll see we're pretty open to all kinds of creative ideas. But when it comes to the actual design process for specific characters and their garments, our team goes back and forth a lot internally, discussing and reviewing things multiple times. We want to make sure every garment carries real cultural weight while nailing that balance between story and visuals. It takes inspiration, and it takes a team that has a strong communication environment. Sometimes the best ideas show up exactly when people disagree.
Reverse: 1999 has a very particular art style. Was there any challenge in adapting characters and locations from Atomic Heart for the recent crossover?
One of our biggest challenges was figuring out how to integrate Atomic Heart's hardcore gameplay into Reverse: 1999's 2D framework and how to have two completely different worldbuilding styles merge in this collab version without feeling out of place. We also wanted to bring players something new and different.
So for that story, we brought back the Stage in the Rain and put Vertin and her fellow arcanists into a world where "arcanum doesn't exist." There, they head to Facility 3826 for the International Polymer Summit as invited scientists, and that's how they cross paths with Atomic Heart's characters.
For character design, we dug into the Twins' original lore and chose to make them Reverse: 1999's first Duo-Afflatus, Duo-Psychube character. We also drew on atompunk and retrofuturistic elements to design brand-new garments for characters whose overall vibe fit this collab.
For gameplay, we worked on details echoing the collab into the UI, scene, and character design, as well as gameplay systems, including Atomic Heart-style puzzles and a series of constructivist posters. We did everything we could to merge Atomic Heart's original gameplay naturally into Reverse: 1999's framework.
Outside of Atomic Heart, what would be your dream crossover, if any were possible?
Our team is full of creative passion, and we're always keeping an eye on great work. Really, anything with its own distinct flavor in visuals, storytelling, or gameplay excites us. Someone we can keep pushing forward with and bounce ideas off to create meaningful experiences. Looking ahead, we want to keep breaking down walls and bringing players more collabs to enjoy.
Given the scope of time travel media, are there any films, books, or other games that have particularly inspired the world and lore of Reverse: 1999?
Our inspiration comes from all over the place, but mostly from the team's love of 20th-century trends, art, literature, and history. We pull from magazines, posters, films, and TV, plus great literature and multimedia art from the 20th century up until now. What we're always chasing is a world grounded in real history, where fantasy elements like arcanum could've existed: a world that feels real but with room for romantic imagination.
Do you think offering in-game rewards via codes is a big part of what keeps fans coming back for more?
Codes are our way of expressing our gratitude. But what keeps players in the world of Reverse: 1999 is our high-quality stories, unique art style, excellent sound and visuals, and a team that genuinely loves creating.
That was our chat with the team at Bluepoch following the recent Reverse: 1999 x Atomic Heart crossover event and the kick-off of the third anniversary festivities. To get your hands on some freebies while you're here, be sure to check out our regularly updated Reverse: 1999 codes guide, or see which characters we'd recommend picking up with our Reverse: 1999 tier list.