Freedom Planet: coming to a Wii U near you! Indie Assault starring Spade is also a thing!

[Conando]

I imagine games would kind of suck if no one looked at something and decided to build onto that in order to make a new experience. Who the hell knows what a bunch of truly original games would be like.

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Much of the history of gaming has been a very iterative process. Many, many games have taken concepts from others and built on them in various ways that they could call their own. To say otherwise is to embrace madness.

Correction: Much of the history of ANYTHING has been based on a very iterative process.

 

It's not like the first person or thing to make use of an idea, mechanic, or process claims ownership or monopoly and therefore is the only one allowed to do it. That's like saying that if humans were meant to fly, we should have been born with wings. You can already see how stupid that belief is.

Edited January 22, 2013 by ChaosSupremeSonic

[Komodin]

Frankly, I'm not all that concerned about its Sonic influences, so much as its overall execution as a work in its own right. Luckily for me, from what I've seen, it does accomplish that quite well.

[Coral]

Regarding the general criticism of the characters looking as if they were taken from a Sonic fan character library, I don't see that myself. The characters here are in a completely different, anime-influenced style. They have different body proportions going into anthro territory. I just think it's silly how some people on the Greenlight page are equating anything furry-looking to be a Sonic fan anything. Very naive and very biased. If anything, I find the fuzzy look to be a perfect fit with the overall theme of the game. It's very much a 90's throwback, which spawned a million furry mascot to sell anything ranging from video games to cigarettes. The intentional cheesiness of the VA work also gives me an early 90's vibe, though hopefully they don't go too far down that line to where it becomes somewhat annoying.

 

As for the game, I wonder how many levels this game plans to have. Looking at the stage select from the demo it seems as if there could be 5 stages.

 

 

The stages you can play on the demo so far are Dragon Valley and Shang Mu Academy. Technically Shang Mu isn't a stage. More like a challenge mode. Which must mean there will probably be 4 playable worlds, a challenge mode and a mahjong game? Seeing as the first takes a little over 6 minutes if you know what you're doing, it feels like the game will be bite-sized, short and sweet. If the first level is anything to go by, I have no doubts the other stages will be a treat though I wouldn't mind an extra level or 2 if they're getting such a nice influx of support money.

 

It also seems as if Strife is changing some things around lately. He has mentioned that he has completely gotten rid of the rolling mechanic and is now working on refining the hub. I kinda liked the old hub from the demo better but eh.

 

Edit: Okay. So voluntary rolling has been taken out of the game. There will still be rolling sections which will probably be scripted, but you can't actually make the characters roll anymore.

Edited January 22, 2013 by Coral

[Blacklightning]

Rolling was practically mandatory in certain parts of Dragon Valley, especially as far as those trees you had to knock over were concerned. Really hope this doesn't mean I have to grind up a Comet Dash every time I see one because that was the most flow-breaking shit ever.

 

Are they at least replacing it with a running attack of some sort?

[Coral]

Rolling was practically mandatory in certain parts of Dragon Valley, especially as far as those trees you had to knock over were concerned. Really hope this doesn't mean I have to grind up a Comet Dash every time I see one because that was the most flow-breaking shit ever.

 

Are they at least replacing it with a running attack of some sort?

 

Seems more like he just made it to where Lilac can get super speed if you use her boost on the ground instead of rebounding everywhere. That's a good point though. I haven't actually seen anything that answers that. Here's what he said on his topic at Retro.

 

 

Anyway, back to the game. (Voluntary) rolling has officially been removed, and after a while, I honestly don't notice the change. That's pretty much the only Sonic thing left that I was genuinely worried about aside from loops, so it feels good to put it on the wayside at last.

I have received a couple of suggestions to implement some kind of quick speed boost in order to make up for the loss of the roll. That being case, I've tweaked Lilac's Dragon Boost so that, if you use it while running along the ground, the boost carries her along the surface instead of bouncing against it. From my tests, it feels great and makes the boost more ideal for picking up speed.

 

 

http://forums.sonicretro.org/index.php?showtopic=28425&view=findpost&p=727839

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Right, so I've played the demo. Which, for those of you who think this game is copying Sonic should at the very least try before you start making assumptions.

 

This game is more than just similar to Sonic, and they clearly set out to differ themselves. It essentially takes cues from three different platformers in some of their mechanics: Mario for basic jumping and platforming (which every platformer does, so meh), Sonic when it comes to rolling, and Megaman when it comes to the combat and health bar.

 

For one, enemies have to be in their attack animation in order to do any harm to you, because otherwise you can just walk right up and touch them and they won't do any harm to you unlike the other three platformers. You have a health bar, so you can take more hits than you would in a Mario or Sonic game where it is depending on whether you have mushrooms or rings to shield you: theres a flower gauge right at the top left of the screen and it's pedals are your health. Lose all your pedals, then, well...really that's just stating the obvious.

 

Lilac is very close to Sonic, but she can swim unlike him, and some of her abilties are closer to Tails with the addition of air-dashing. You can control the direction you dash forward, either in a straight line or at an angle, and if you hit a while in the air dash you bounce off of it in the opposite direction. Dash towards a wall at an angle, and you'll go bouncing off like laser on a mirror.

 

Carol is like a combination of Knuckles and Zero. She can wall-kick and cling to walls and slide down them, and she has a basic attack combo that you can use on enemies instead of just a single kick like Lilac. However, while Lilac can kill enemies in one hit with her attack, some enemies require more than one hit to kill if you're playing as Carol. She also has a motorbike, unlike Lilac, so she can get very speedy when you ride it. She can also ride up the walls and wall-kick while on the motorcycle, no different than you would if you were off of it.

 

Speaking of which, there's an energy gauge that allows you to use your special attack. For Lilac, it's her air-dash and her cyclone ability that are done pressing different inputs to activate. Her cyclone only uses part of the energy bar while her air-dash consumes all of it. But don't worry, your energy bar gradually refills, and it also refills faster when you get the crystals that are littered around the levels.

 

Carol does kicks like Chun-li if your bar is filled up, and the bar is also drained while on the motorcycle. The motorcycle stays with you even if the bar is empty, but if you get hit while on it afterwards it blows up.

 

All in all, I would encourage you guys to try the game out yourselves. It is REALLY fun.

[Autosaver]

 

$1000 = a new coder. So they're going to hire and pay someone $1000 over a period of how long? Because thats quite an epically poor salary for a coder if they're going to hire them for anything longer than a month.

I feel like this isn't the best example. $1000 could be a starter fund with profits from the game being added after.

 

[JoshJDubya]

https://twitter.com/JoshJDubya/status/294389769285292033 Please retweet this, let's get Jesse Cox to feature it on YouTube! Galaxy Trail (Strife) was excited about the idea of getting him to feature the game, so here we are. Apparently they like his style.

 

As it turns out, unfortunately the top 100 on Greenlight thing was a bug, so we got a lot of work to do in order to get it greenlit. Even if you can't pledge on Kickstarter, it costs nothing to vote yes on Greenlight if you have a Steam account.

 

Sorry I'm majorly pumped for this game, it is the most fun game I've played in years, and I've only played the first level.

[Cortez]

Whilst I do think this game looks fantastic to play my problem with it is not that it is heavily influenced by Sonic but that the game is gaining most of it's attention by way of controversy for being heavily influenced by Sonic. The characters Freedom Planet stars don't do much to stand out or be, well, interesting and if it weren't for the Sonic comparisons how many of you would be genuinely interested in the game's universe?

[Sean]

lolsonic

The game primarily caught my eye due to looking like a Treasure-developed Genesis game as well as the player characters being kind of adorable. I-It's not like I was interested in that baka harinezumi or anything

[Candescence]

I've been tracking this game's development for a considerable amount of time, and honestly, there's far more than appeals to me than just the Sonic-y bits. There's the appealing characters, the lovely art, the gameplay definitely is its own thing, and I can see Lord Brevon being a genuinely sinister antagonist. The part of the Kickstarter vid featuring him gave me a genuine chill down my spine in ways no villain has done in fucking ages.

[Coral]

Whilst I do think this game looks fantastic to play my problem with it is not that it is heavily influenced by Sonic but that the game is gaining most of it's attention by way of controversy for being heavily influenced by Sonic. The characters Freedom Planet stars don't do much to stand out or be, well, interesting and if it weren't for the Sonic comparisons how many of you would be genuinely interested in the game's universe?

 

Controversy can be a great way to gain an audience. It's not necessarily a bad thing and quite frankly if it weren't for the controversy, I wouldn't have found out about it in the first place. I can't speak for everyone but I know I am genuinely interested in learning more about these characters. They're very charming, they're designed with interesting and complementary color schemes and they have something of a ragtag bunch of heroes vibe to them. I can't even imagine what must have happened to them or their families that led a tomboy, a young child and a would-be hero to team up and fight against a lord. It's so strange a premise that I find it interesting.

[Coral]

It's been quite awhile since any news has hit the scene. Let's fix that right here and now!

 

The Kickstarter has officially come to a close with over 1000 backers and raised a grand total of over 25k in funding. Strife has said recently that he'll now be working toward giving out pledge rewards to those who backed the project and also rounding up all the alpha testers to a certain dev forum. I reeeeeally wanted to get the game's soundtrack cd but at a cost of $80, I sadly had to let it slide. Hopefully he prints some more upon the game's release. D:

 

In the meantime, looking at various posts he's made at his Retro topic, looks like he's continuing to mess with the game's hub and some game physics work as well as outsourcing to other websites hoping to hire some pixel artists for help. Looks like he already found some candidates, which should mean that the stress of developing the game should ease a bit soonish. Hope it works out for him, though this'll prolly mean that the style is going to change a bit.

 

Oh hey, and Blistered Thumbs actually took a look at the game themselves recently. Article is here. Seems like a pretty positive first look and its good publicity too. Hafta wonder if Galaxytrail even sleeps with everything that's happening. I would say the status of the Steam Greenlight thing but uh, I kinda don't have a steam profile. :n

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csO8_NCaYFI

[Candescence]

New "box-art", courtesy of a Japanese artist. And it's so goddamn Japanese it's amazing.

 

[Chaos Warp]

New "box-art", courtesy of a Japanese artist. And it's so goddamn Japanese it's amazing.

 

 

Pretty cool. I do admit though, I prefer the previous artstyle they were using to draw characters, (like, the one they used for the pictures on the website) this style is a bit too....obnoxious for my tastes. Still cool though.

[Tara]

The characters look a lot better in the game than they do on the art.  But I do love the artistic style of that "box art."

[Autosaver]

This game would sell better if the characters were more slutty. I know, sex appeal can be bad but it works.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

This game would sell better if the characters were more slutty. I know, sex appeal can be bad but it works.

 

Hey man, it worked for Pikmin.

[Tani Coyote]

If Klonoa can market itself despite designs that look eerily similar to Mobian ones, I see no reason this can't. Sonic more or less popularised Mickey Mouse proportions for characters, or at least, furry ones.

 

The game itself looks somewhat interesting, but I admit I find it difficult to play games with an all-female cast. I need someone to relate to, and with no male lead I just can't get into it. It's the same reason I can't really enjoy MLP; there's no main character I can relate to.

 

Nonetheless I'm glad they managed to turn a fan game into something that actually has some acclaim. Congrats.

 

===

 

Interesting boxart to say the least. Villain looks really ominous there.

Edited March 15, 2013 by Ogilvie Maurice

[TheOcelot]

Woah a big *BUMP*

 

Some really good news for those who are looking forward to playing this fan game (inspired by Sonic 2d classic gameplay).

 

Freedom Planet has been Greenlit by Steam!!!

 

Update on Steam today:

 

"Steam gave developers everywhere a pleasant surprise when they Greenlit a massive number of games at once, and guess what? Freedom Planet was one of them! We must extend a massive Thank You to everyone who helped push us into the Top 100! We couldn't have done it without you."

 

"We must extend a big Thank You to everyone who helped pushed us onto Greenlight's top 100 list! Although we still have a long way to go before we make an impression on the higher-ups, this is a huge step forward in our Greenlight quest."

 

Release date: Early 2014

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmwPk38w_O4&feature=player_embedded

 

You can download the demo here

 

 

 

 

This could well be Sonic 4 as we truely imagined it. Seriously, it's an impressive looking platformer. 

Edited August 28, 2013 by -Bender- Wolverine

[Chaos Warp]

Sweet. It would have been okay if I just downloaded it from their website as well but this way this great game will get more exposure. 

[t0ms0nic]

Wow, this topic wasn't updated between that boxart being made and being Greenlit? Hoo boy, then for anyone that's missed out on the things between then...

 

First up, preview of one of the later boss battles, truly showing off the Gunstar Heroes inspiration.
 

Next, there was Demo v1.4 released that includes the -huge- graphical overhaul brought about by the new sprite artists that were brought on board following the Kickstarter funds, as well as bolstering Lilac's new rapidly regenerating energy bar that makes her Dragon Boost and Dragon Cyclone abilities better at keeping the flow going, and Carol's motorbike being able to boost and double jump. The bike could easily be the selling point of this game, seriously.

 

Finally, a progress update showing off a few screenshots of two other levels and the simple cutscenes that'll be used in place of animated ones (for now?).

 

2014 is gonna be an amazing year for games, especially if Freedom Planet gets completed as early as was said and is the leader for the year.

[TheOcelot]

New trailer for Freedom Planet:

 

The game will be released in Spring 2014.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zlMtd4zeI0&feature=player_embedded

 

Very tempted to get this game on Steam. Looks like fun.

Edited November 16, 2013 by -Bender-

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

ok, thats looking even more impressive and awesome