Posted by BMcC
Thu, 08 Nov 2007 12:52:00 GMT
In the past Pixel has alluded to the earlier iterations of Cave Story (even a near-finished build that got scrapped along the way), but he’s never released anything playable. Well, as of just yesterday… he still hasn’t released anything playable!
But he did release something almost as cool—a collection of screens and concepts from early in the game’s development. (You might remember him doing something similar with Guxt.) I love this sort of thing. It’s like a little window into the mind of a developer I admire.
Definitely check it out if you’re a Pixel fan. (Who isn’t?)
Derek’s Edit: I put all the images on a page here! Enjoy!
Posted in Nerd Love, Developers | Tags Pixel | 37 comments
Posted by BMcC
Mon, 22 Oct 2007 09:28:00 GMT
This has been in the works for a while, but Pixel has, according to RavenWorks, “finally relented in his Japanese politeness and is letting us buy him a DS!” Yeah!
I think it’s a wonderful gesture of appreciation to the man who single-handedly created the most ripped-off game in indie history. A man who asks for so little.
You can donate here (via PayPal), if you’re so inclined.
NOTE: All donations go toward getting Pixel a homebrew-ready DS.
Beyond that, any extra funds will be given to him in some thoughtful way.
Posted in Nerd Love | Tags Pixel | 55 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Mon, 08 Oct 2007 02:33:00 GMT
In the year 3089, humanity receives a weak distress signal from beyond the Outer Rim… alien contact! The space station BALROG-1 is deployed to investigate, with Captain Meat “Meat Train” Sakamoto at the helm. Leading the science team is the famed biologist / paleoscientist Doctor Ezekial Nimbus.
Upon reaching the Outer Rim the crew discovers that the signal was from a wrecked alien vessel, empty save for a mysterious artifact – an ancient alien helmet with a strange “eye” design etched on the front. A malevolent power emanates from within the helmet… what could it mean? The Doctor, against the wishes of Captain Sakamoto, brings it aboard for “research purposes.”
That’s when all hell breaks loose.
American developer Voxel brings Cave Story to life in this balls-to-the-wall action-packed extravaganza of extremity and violence! You are Billy Bob “Quote” Johnson, the amnesiac space marine, imprisoned within BALROG-1 for disobeying your superiors. And now you’re the only thing standing between humanity and the terrible Mimiga Virus that has transformed your platoon into an army of bloodthirsty rabbit cyborgs!
Features:
- Hyper-realistic, cutting-edge 3D graphics. You’ll definitely be able to tell what these characters are supposed to be!
- Hardboiled story told lovingly through 200+ hours of dialogue. Featuring the voices of Catherine Zeta Jones as Lieutenant Fenix “Curly” Brace, and Samuel L. Jackson as “Meat Train” Sakamoto.
- Over 50 totally hardcore weapons, from King’s Vibro-Blade to the Nemesis Multi-Bazooka!
- Go online with your friends or play Deathmatch at home! Our unprecedented “BALL0S AI” crafts personalized insults by scanning your e-mails!
- State-of-the-art physics engine will molest your CPUs and PPUs as it accurately calculates the physics of EVERYTHING. Sweat has never been more realistically flicked off individual strands of hair!
- Soundtrack by Linkin Park.
Posted in Community, Physics, Action / Arcade | Tags Pixel | 60 comments
Posted by BMcC
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 03:34:00 GMT
Pixel recently posted a little “making of Guxt” feature on his website, which Shih Tzu was kind enough to translate to English for all us gaijin. Thanks, Shih Tzu—you rock!
The feature, er, features screen grabs of the game in development, with notes describing what was being worked on at each point. It’s a pretty cool window into the acclaimed game designer’s creative process and an interesting read for folks wondering what it’s like to make a game. (Man, I would love to see an afterword for Cave Story as well, or maybe a postmortem or two!)
View the translated Making of Guxt online here.
Download the zip (with bonus screen grabs!) here.
Thanks again, Shih Tzu! Excellent work, as always.
Posted in Features, Shoot-em-ups, Developers | Tags Pixel | 11 comments
Posted by BMcC
Fri, 27 Jul 2007 12:42:00 GMT
According to Shih Tzu (indie gaming’s ambassador to the East), Pixel has mentioned on his BBS that he’s interested in making an RPG. More than that—he’s already begun preliminary work on it!
“I’d always steered away from working on an RPG, but now that I think I’ve finally got the requisite know-how, I’ve decided to give it a shot,” the famously modest developer says. “But already it’s more of a challenge than anything I’ve done before...”
There aren’t any details on the game itself yet, except that Pixel “would like to avoid anything too large-scale, yet still make it fun to play… somehow.” He goes on to apologize in advance if he never finishes it. (Aw, we’d still love you, Pixel!)
Well, I’m pretty excited! How about you?
Also: Any updates, Shih Tzu?
(Source: Shih Tzu)
Posted in RPG, Developers, Previews | Tags Pixel | 13 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 10 Jul 2007 06:32:00 GMT
There are some known bugs as a result of the PSP’s wider screen, but otherwise… oh boy! For the back story and some yelling back and forth, read this post.
(Source: Timmy)
Posted in Mobile / Handheld, Platformers, Homebrew, Community, Freeware | Tags Pixel | 13 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Tue, 26 Jun 2007 02:05:00 GMT
Some of you may remember the hullabaloo surrounding the legality and morality surrounding Variant Interactive’s Cave Story PSP port (as well as the fatality of originality). It was never verified whether Variant got Pixel’s permission, or if they did, whether he would see any money, but something definitely stank up in there, and it was Variant that was whistling and looking in the other direction. Case in point:
“We want to be as faithful as possible. We are upgrading the graphics and the sound to more ‘modern’ levels, mostly for marketing concerns and platform requirements.” -Christopher Boyer, CEO of Variant Interactive
“Faithful,” “upgrading the graphics and sound,” and “marketing concerns…” which one of these does not belong with the others? So yeah, I find it really hard to believe that Pixel would go for anything like that, and even if he did, I still say fuck ‘em for doing it. “Upgrade the graphics and music?” Eat a shit sandwich, asshole.
Which is why it makes me really happy to announce that there’s a fan-made, homebrew PSP version in the works! Yay fans!
“Finally got Pixel’s approval and the source code. It looks doable, but at ~50000 lines of code it’s a little daunting.
This is the preview version that I sent to Pixel, so it’s mostly guesswork and buggy and certainly feels different from the original. Playable up to the first boss fight. Dual-language English and Japanese :) Tested on 3.10, should work unmodified with most custom firmware.”
Word. You can download a buggy, early version of the port from the link above. And while you’re at it, check out this DS port as well (different author).
(Source: selectbutton.net)
Posted in Mobile / Handheld, Platformers, Remakes, Homebrew, Previews, Doujin | Tags Pixel | 69 comments
Posted by Derek Yu
Wed, 30 May 2007 22:49:00 GMT
You know it
doesn’t really feel like Pixel, and I think that’s a good thing. The artwork’s rather nice, in my opinion!
(Source:
Tim W.)
Posted in Comics, Cartoons, and Illustration | Tags Pixel | 10 comments
Posted by BMcC
Sun, 29 Apr 2007 11:11:00 GMT
Hooray—Guxt has reached version 1.0! I’m just gonna borrow wholesale from Tim’s blog if ya don’t mind:
“Some noticeable differences:
- Trial Mode is now called Score Attack.
- The cleared.bin file from the previous version cannot be used to unlock this new mode, although all replays will work.
- Several sprites and enemy flight patterns changed.
- An additional bonus (like Ikachan) can be found by shooting one of the middle tiles halfway through Stage 3.
- There’s a proper ending sequence now, in which the entire cast (enemy ships and bosses) are properly introduced as the credits roll.
This should be the final version of Guxt released by Pixel for a long while.“
I also noticed: The game now has an icon, a manual, and those darn little lines on the side of the screen are finally gone! Very cool. I think I’m gonna try and actually beat this thing now.
Though, there’s a clear binary sitting right here if I just can’t cut it. (Simply unzip into the temp_guxt folder created when the game runs.)
Enough talk! Download Guxt here.
(Source: Indygamer)
Posted in Highly Recommended, Shoot-em-ups, Freeware | Tags Pixel | 17 comments
Posted by BMcC
Sat, 10 Mar 2007 11:15:00 GMT
Azarashi is a simple arcade-style game by Pixel, made way back in 2001.
In it you must throw darts (with 1, 2, and 3) at little living seal keychain things to catch them before they fall off the screen. But don’t throw too early, or else—well, look at the screenshot!
The game made me LOL, so why not post it here?
Download here, on Pixel’s storehouse page. (Click the wee dart.)
My high score (at time of writing) is 1446.
Posted in Windows, Action / Arcade, Freeware, Doujin | Tags Pixel | 3 comments
