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

RAAR Alpha Demo Coming 21.12.2012

Watch the trail! It explains and shows it all. On doomsday you all will be able to play the alpha demo of Retro Arcade Adventure Remade for free! I can say I really look forward to it.

Designer Update #5 - New Footage, a bunch of screens, playerskins

The updates are back and at full force!
It's been a while since the last update about Retro Arcade Adventure Remade and I am really sorry for that.
There was a lot to do for me and not everything was about my game. However now I got some free time again and will continue the games development at full force.

To celebrate this I got a shitton of stuff for you. First I got a bunch of random screenshots that show some of the power ups in action. Next is a new feature I want to talk about and at last but certainly not least is some new footage of the game in form of a short little clip with a glimpse of the new and revamped soundtrack of the game in its 16 bitish glory. Again done by the wonderfull Dave.

So first things first, some screenshots for you:

Next I want to talk about a new feature: Changeable playerskins.
After looking at the same playersprites for a few months now, I came to the conclusion that some people may prefer some other look for his or her hero. Since one of my hobbies is creating little pixelated characters I decided to implement some of them as changeable skins so the player can choose what kind of hero he likes to play with.

At last, the most interesting thing, the short clip with new footage and some music. Without further a due, enjoy the new footage:

That is all for now, I hope I could interest some of you into my game once again. I try to not let you wait for too long till the next update.

sincerely,
Marcus

0h GameJam entry - Ultimate Evil King

Finally something to blog about again! It may not be news about RAAR but it still is about something awesome!

Last night between 2am and 2am(You know that time-set-back thingy) there was the 0hGameJam. It is a really funny concept and I did a little game for it.

My Game is called "Ultimate Evil King" and you play as exactly that, the ultimate evil king. All you have to do is to decide if your citizens will be killed or sold as slaves.

Sounds like fun? Well check it out: UltimateEvilKing.
(if you want music, just wait about a year until it finished loading...)

Also check the other amazing games here: 0hgames.

Designer Update #4 - Underground level, New enemies and a first cutscene

So, it is time for a new update.
The game is really evolving great at the moment and I have more ideas than time to include them in the game.

The first thing I want to show you, this time is a bunch of completely new leveltiles. They will be for the third level in the game, the vulcano. But this time it is inactive and the inside look more like a cave.

 Up next I have some new enemiesprites for you. However that is not all, I actually made a complete new type of enemy, some big and heavy ones who walk really slow. Up to this point, there a three different types of enemies. This time they really behave different and not just look different like in the original XBLIG version.

At last I want to show you a first screenshot of the first cutscene. Of course it does make more sense if I would show you some footage but let us wait with that till it is completely done.

That´s it for this time. About that alphdemo... All I can say at the moment is that I am really getting closer to a playable build that I would like to share with you all, just give me a little bit more time.



Marcus

Designer Update #3 - New transformation, confusing tiles and grandpa`s gameover style

After a weekend of pure holiday goodness, I had some quite interesting ideas for RAAR.
Today I tried to convert some of these ideas into real gameplay.

First, there is a new transformation for Kamui. This one is different than the other two because Kamui is not getting big and slow. Instead he is becoming really fast and invincible in his new form.
You may compare it to Super Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog 2 if you want to.
This new power up is becoming real fun if you battle big hordes of enemies.

After that, I drew some tiles for the second level, the graveyard. Unfortunately, they look really confusing and not good at all because they won`t work together as I wanted them to do. I will redraw/recolor most of them sometime to see if my graveyard will be able to look a little bit more scary.

The last one is another power up. Nothing new here if you remember the "slimearmy" from the original version. An army of slimes ran down the screen from top to bottom. I did not changed the way this power up works, however I  did change the way it looks. It is now a little bit more...up to date, I think.

Well, that`s it for this time. Maybe next time I will be able to say a little bit more about that alpha demo.

sincerely,
Marcus

Designer Update #2 - Official Name, Logo and an Alphademo?

So, after another successful night of work I can say that the gameplay is getting more and more enjoyable.
I have now implemented the first boss and also one new power up.

While the power up is nothing really special, just a normale HP restorer, the Boss is in fact something new and interesting in the RAA series. Some of you may remember that there was in fact one boss in but it was more or less just a enemyspawner without anything special to itself.
This time there will be a few more bosses and they will have some special abilities. This first one e.g. is able to perform a fireattack that shoots fireprojectiles in all four directions and is really deadly to the player`s hero. Also he is able to teleport himself all around the map to annoy you.
At last he can summon some enemies by himself, just like the final boss in the original version did.
Some of you XBLIG Gamers may remember him:

This time, however he has a different role to play. More infos on the plot are coming at a later date.

On another note, I finally decided what name this remake will get. Since it would be really confusing to simply call it Retro Arcade Adventure I decided to add something that shows it`s remake status.
So the finalname for the Remake is:

Yep, Retro Arcade Adventure Remade or simply RAAR. Sounds fancy doesn`t it? As you can see we also got a first(and probably final) logo design.

One last thing to talk about is the fact that I realized how hard it is to show you the new gameplay of RAAR, since gameplay is not really a thing you can transfer to the player by screenshots or footage. I am currently thinking about releasing an Alphademo with the first level and boss just to show you guys how the new version plays and feels. On the other hand, it would be a good way to alphatest and maybe change some things easily since it is all still in the very early alphastate.

This is not yet a final decision but it would help if you let me know if you would be interested in testing the game at this early state?

Well, that`s all for this time, I hope you enjoy this look behind the scenes and will enjoy the final game.

Marcus

Designer Update #1 - RAA Remake

Today, after working on RAA, I stumbled upon a video series on Youtube about someone who is developing his very own game, while watching episode after episode I realized that it can be really interesting to see the evolution of a game documented like this.
So I decided to start a little update series myself with regular WIP footage and some more or less interesting designdocument snippets.

To get Things starting, I have a picture for you guys:

What you see here is actually the complete paperwork for RAA in it`s original XBLIG version. Yep, that`s all, not much right?

With it`s remake, I thought it would be of more use to go a little bit more into detail. First of all I did a short compilation of key visuals regarding the plot of the game. They are of no use at all if you don`t know the plot for yourself, but still it is somewhat spoilerish so you may want to look away now:

 It actually helps me to not loose the focus of the game this time around.
As one last snippet, I have some WIP footage for you to see how the game looks at the moment. It was poorly recorder with a demo of fraps but at least it worked this time around:

 

 And now I will continue my work on that remake and hope to get you guys something new to show in the near future.

Marcus

First Retro Arcade Adventure Remake Screenshot

As promised, here it is, a first WIP screenshot of Retro Arcade Adventure`s remake for PC:

More screenshots and informations coming soon. : )

Back to work...

Retro Arcade Adventure(PC) - A complete remake!

Good evenig to you all,

As I am working on the PC Port of Retro Arcade Adventure at the moment, I thought it would be a good idea to clarify the fact that this version of the game will be a complete remake.

Don`t expect fancy HD graphics or anything like that, but there are a lot of changes since the XBLIG version. As you may remember, the XBLIG version had some nasty loading screens. That was basically because my code just sucked and did not managed the given resources that well. This, and the enourmes bytesize let me to the decision of remaking the game`s code completely.

I also wasn`t all that satisfied anymore with a lot of other things in the game. When a nice little idea how to slightly improve the swordfighting hit me, I decided to completely remake the entire game.

So what can you expect from the PC Port? A lot of new stuff! New Gameplay! New Graphics! New Power Ups! New Story!

It will still be the same basic concept, things like the king or the dragon are still in there, but they are all improved while others are completely changed.

If you are not sure what to think of all this at the moment, just wait till I post the first screenshot(tomorrow!), maybe then you will understand why I am so excited to change so much.

For now, let me show you the evolution of Kamui from XBLIG to PC:

 
I hope you will enjoy the final release as much as I enjoy making it. There is no set releasedate yet but my goal is still, to release it this year in december.


Greetings,
Marcus

Retro Arcade Adventure - PC Port

Hello there,
As you may know by now, if you follow me on Twitter, things didn't turn out to be all that great for "A Forest Life". As I made good progress in the original concept, I realized that it was simply not as fun as I first thought it would be.

Since I can`t release a game that is not as fun as I want it to be and still consider myself a Gamedesigner I decided to let it rest for a few months and redesign parts of the original concept until it is a game I would proudly call my own.

As you remember I couldn't work on anything the past few months because I was as busy as...well someone who is really busy. So I can't just sit there and doing nothing but think about the concept. If you also remember the first Trailer of Retro Arcade Adventure, I promised to deliver the PC port later this year. If I want to keep that promise, I think that this is the right time to work on the PC Port.

So, that's it. My current situation explained. I can't give a specific date yet for when the PC Port of Retro Arcade Adventure will be released but I set the time around christmas as my personal goal since there is a lot to do(A lot of things need improvements in the original RAA).

I hope you weren't to excited for "A Forest Life" and still are able to look forward for Retro Arcade Adventure on your PC.

Yours sincerely,
Marcus

I Am Back In Action!

After a very long time of unproductivity, I can finally say that I am completely back in action and will continue my work on "A forest life". Gone are the months in which I could only design some small little minigames in html5(however I will still make those because it is a lot of fun).

 This morning I went to my local supermarket and bought me some energy drinks, grabbed my design documents and copied all the important files to my laptop, so I can work everywhere I want.

It is all set up again and I am very excited to get back into development. My first task will likely be to rename the game since "A forest life" is not quite the interesting title I wanted it to be.

That's it for now, expect more updates soon. I am going to make me a coffee and afterwards, I will rev up!

Marcus

No progress but "something" to play...

Hey there, yeah it's been a while since I last updated this blog. The problem is that I still have not the time to work with full momentum on "A forest life". This will hopefully change in a few weeks. Yeah, real life can be a bitch sometimes.
Nontheless, I am creating minigames in html5 and javascript whenever I have the time, so I still have my training for the big one later on.
Since all of those games are more or less moodbased, and because I was in a really bad mood the last two days...well just play it, it is strange and creepy and was inspired by Marilyn Manson and Fatal Frame.
I just can't wait to continue work on "A forest life" with full momentum, but at the moment, all I can give you are these strange little games.
By the way, urban legend has it, that if you played this, you actually played it...just to let you know!

Just click on the picture to start "playing"...

Second Gamejam - Results!

Finally, here they are: The Results of our last gamejam.
This time I went even more retro and tried to build a short action adventure in the style of a famicom game.
It has no music but it is playable right here, right now in your browser! It is programmed in javascript because I thought it was a little much to download a whole SDK just to play a microgame(if you remember our last jam).

Wingman tried to make a little microgame about the one and only Leisure Suit Larry himself. He used java and eclipse but did not manage to get it done in the short amount of time. However, everyone interested in how a Leisure Suit Larry game in topdown view could work in eclipse, feel free to check it out.

As last time, here is the link for the recording if you want to see the stream:



Watch live video from LiveGamingabende mit Obi und Wing on TwitchTV
And here are the games for you, served in little mock up boxes for your enjoyment.