Twinsen Pilot Episode Demo
Posted by BMcC Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:50:00 GMT
About a month ago 4cr made a post about an indie game demo called Twinsen, which I guess is based on the Little Big Adventure games. The screenshot looked wonderful and everyone seemed to be drooling over the game, so I eagerly downloaded it.
I was immediately impressed. The title and credits were sharp, and although the story was pretty weak, it quickly moved on to the game, which was beautiful. I mean, real excellent art direction and effects while still maintaining the whole hand-pixelated feel. I thought to myself, I’m in for a treat.
Well, all good things must come to an end, as they say. The gameplay… was pretty rough. Clunky movement that made platforming particularly painful along with vague combat and a general aimlessness smothered any enjoyment I might have had.
But I’ll say it again—the art and art direction is excellent. Which is good, as the game’s artist is up for hire.
Check the demo out for yourself if you’d like.
EDIT: An updated version of the demo, including an additional level, is due very soon. Check this thread for more info. (Thanks Ithamore!)
I must make this clear: This is just a demo.
I was displeased, but there’s still plenty of time for the game to shape up. I do think it shows a lot of potential.
I loved LBA and LBA 2. Awesome games. Actually the controls in LBA 1 were utter crap and that didn’t stop it being aces. Perhaps this can achieve the same thing.
I’ve started playing and given up on LBA 1 more times than I can count. LBA 2 is a revered childhood memory, though!
I know TakaM, and he just made the game to be beautiful, not fun.
Cute. It’s too bad the game is so short. After I got the hang of it, I could complete the level in less than a minute. I wish I had read the 4cr post first, though, so I wouldn’t have had to figure out the controls on my own.
Over, at MagicBall, .TakaM wrote that they will be releasing an update of the demo with a new level soon, but they haven’t been able to finish as soon as .TakaM had promised last week.
Does the stage actually end? I got to a place where it stopped scrolling, at least..
Hey guys. Thanks for taking the time to play the demo and to share your opinions, and remember all criticism is very welcome because we will be releasing these demos to see what people think of them. Once we have a demo that everyone is happy with, we can finally stop tweaking the engine and start designing more levels, enemies, bosses etc
thanks again everyone and I look forward to reading your responses to the next demo.
PS. Lorne Whiting, I have a number of things motivating me to make this game, the last concern of mine was to make a jaw dropping-ly beautiful game, just one that was easy to continue making graphics for and had a coherent art style that flowed with the game.
You can’t have him, he is mine >:|
Hey TakaM! Thanks for posting here.
Be sure to tell us when the new demo comes out! I’m quite curious to see how this develops.
Like I said, I think this first demo is technically very excellent, but lagging in the gameplay department. It just doesn’t feel as good as it looks, you know? Of course, that’s totally excusable for how early in development it is. I just hope that by the end you guys have put the same care into the gameplay as the presentation. (It would be a phenomenal game if you did!)
Best of luck!