Here's to you, Mr. Iwata!

I am a game designer.

I am a player.

Most of all though, I am a Nintendo fan!

I started my Adventure into the world of gaming back in the 90s with my very first Gameboy and haven't left the Nintendo domain since then. Of course I took a look here and there and I will always be a Sonic fan first and a Mario fan second... But not one company grabbed my attention and love as much as Nintendo did by simply being Nintendo.

Nintendo surprised me over and over again with things like the Nintendo DS, the Wii or even the Wii U. I always knew that I am in for a joyful and fun time when buying a Nintendo product and this is thanks to the way people like Satoru Iwata used to look at things. Or to quote the man himself:

"Above all, video games are meant to be just one thing: fun. Fun for everyone." - Satoru Iwata GDC 2006

The way Nintendo approached game development and gaming in general left such a lasting impression on me that it was the main influence for me in designing my games.

Making a game fun and enjoyable. Giving the player a way to leave his or her everyday life for a moment to travel into the mushroom kingdom, hyrule or other fantastic places. Manage to bring out the inner child in even the most grumpiest ones out there. All these things I love and adore about Nintendo became my very own personal goals over the years for my own games.

In a way you could say that my biggest dream is to become a Nintendo Designer and I sure hope to make games that would make people like Satoru Iwata proud one day.

Here's to you, Mr. Iwata!

A bat never comes alone!

Well... I am back...yeay... Enough! Time to talk business! For those of you who followed me on twitter, youtube or facebook for the last two years you know that I left the XBLIG market behind me and focused on freeware games for a while. One of those games was "Kiwi 64" a hommage to Banjo Kazooie which I made after it seemed like the spiritual successor to BK wasn't going to happen(early 2014). People really liked it and wanted me to make more. However I didn't want to simply copy BK again so I developed a new concept that kind of combines the 3D Platformer with a classic Adventure game. As the main protagonist I developed a very british Bat called "Macbat". This game is meant to be a parody of the N64 era and is also heavily inspired by Steve Mayles Character artstyle and Steven Hurst's environment artstyle.

The big problem now is that Playtonic Games "YOOKA-LAYLEE" features a bat as one of the main characters. Now of course those two characters seem to have nothing in common but that probably won't stop some people from believing that I ripped Playtonic Games character off. Which, of course, I didn't do! I fuckin love those guys and I was stalking them ever since they came out into the daylight to show of there first teasers. Maybe this only shows how much I love there stuff because I designed the character Macbat with the goal to create a character that would be completely new in the universe of Rareware's games. To clarify this once and for all: Macbat was designed looong before I knew that Playtonic "Laylee" was going to be a bat. As proof(and a little bonus) I have a gameplayvideo for you guys from back in march feature music by the amazing Jay Moser(), who can hopefully forgive me for using his music again...
Maybe I am being a bit to paranoid with this whole thing. I doubt Playtonic Games will hate me for getting inspired by their work and who knows, maybe one day Macbat and Laylee will be joining each other on an adventure? I love you Steve and Steven! *kisses*

RAAR PC version's "amazing" start...sorry

Hey there,
Chances are if you are following me on some social network thingy you will know by now that the PC version that was released yesterday is a complete failure since it refused to work on any PC at all.

After countless hours of work it looks like I was able to make a version that IS working on some PCs.
the new version can simply be found here: http://www.siactro.com/

Since it completely ruined the "24 hours free game - thingy" I will let that new version be free for all of you guys at least till the weekend is over. That is three days instead of one... sounds good?

If the game is still not working for some of you, please let me know.

I am really sorry for that whole mess.

It does not look like the Xblig version caused any issues. Maybe that was the more stable version. However I don't got many infos about it just yet.

Again, I am really sorry for that aweful start,

Sincerely,

Marcus

Designer Update #8 - Release in April, Micro - Trailer, Xbox 360 - Screenshots

 We are getting closer to the month that matters. Sometime in april, Retro Arcade Adventure Remade will be released for PC and XBOX. I can't tell what day exactly, that depends on peer reviews and amount of time to get the game onto some services. I also can't tell on what services RAAR will be released except of course XBLIG. However you will get informations on this as soon as possible.

Now for some visual news. I made a little Micro - Trailer for RAAR. I absolutely enjoyed the idea of Vlambeer, so I stole it shamelessly and made my own! Enjoy...

For a little bonus I want to present you the four official XBLIG screenshots you will encounter on the market:

I hope I can give you some more specific informations about the releasedate soon.

Marcus

Designer Update #7 - RAAR coming to XBLIG, Official Cover, New Screenshots

It's been a while, but a lot happened on the RAAR front. The game's officla Cover Art is done and looks amazing! Just check it out :

Also check out how Caro, a good friend of mine made this beautiful artwork:

The next big thing I want to announce is, that Retro Arcade Adventure Remade will not only be released on PC but also on Xbox 360. I was thinking a lot about making a Xblig port later when the PC version is finished until I realized that there is not much to change for an actual Xblig release, in fact only a few more hours of work. That is why Retro Arcade Adventure Remade will be released for PC and Xblig nearly on the same day, depending on peer review and other things. 

That does not mean that the PC release is pushed back in any way, in fact 80% of the Xblig port are already done. After all it is not called Retro Arcade Adventure Legends right? 

At last I got a bunch of new screenshots for you, recently released for screenshot saturday:

As you can see the game is getting in shape and new stuff is being added nearly every weekend. It won't take to long now to finish the game.

Without getting anyones hopes high I would say that there is a good chance that the game will be released in april this year.

I good some more new stuff for you later this week but this has to be enough for now.

Keep on indie-gaming, guys and girls!

Designer Update #6 - Happy New Year, New Features, New Screenshots

First of all, happy New Year to all of you. This year will be amazing since Retro Arcade Adventure Remade will be released for PC! When exactly you ask? Well, I don't know... sorry... But it will be this year, I promise(and this time I mean it).


For the New Year update I have some Screenshots for you that only show new things you have not seen before, because let's be onest, nobody wants to see the first level anymore after all the screenshots and the alpha demo. So let me start this Post with a screen of another level:

If you remember this one, it is the remake of the graveyardlevel from the first game. However it no has a clear border with those dark green leafs around. I think it is a lot better now but may improve a little more in the near future. The next one is something you have not seen before at all:

Now that is something completely new, isn't it? Well let me explain this one for you:
If you remember the first game, there was an Adventure- and an Arcade-Mode. Basically the Arcade-Mode was the same like the adventure one but had a few more levels with one or two twists. However, after playing the Adventure-Mode, nobody seemed to feel the need for having more of the same, so for the remake I decided to get rid of the Arcade-Mode and have something different.

This time you will have the normal Adventure-Mode like in the first game but also a Minigame-Mode in which you will be able to play some little minigames that are completely different from the maingame.
I will talk more about it at a later date but let me tell you that you indeed look at a little microversion of a RPG in that screen above.

On this one you see a new boss. It is a big, fire breathing, pinkish worm inside the cave-level. He is a little bigger than the first one and arguably more interesting. He crawls from side to side and tries to burn you to ashes with his breath.

The last one shows another minigame. It plays in a completely dark cave. All you have is a torch while you need to find some spells to get out of that cave, but something is waiting for you in the dark. What you may ask? Well, wait a little longer and you will see.

That is all for this time, I hope I got you a little more excited for the game and wish you all a happy New Year again.

Marcus

Retro Arcade Adventure Remade - Alpha Demo Released!

ALPHA-DEMO-DOWNLOAD

Happy Doomsday to all of you. I hope you enjoy the Alpha Demo of Retro Arcade Adventure Remade.

Sincerely, 

Marcus