OUTBUDDIES - a 16bit style metroidvania (with alpha demo!)

[Julian82]

Dear Clickers,

I´m very excited to announce that after some weeks of crunch the first official Outbuddies alpha demo is out! I´ve been working on the game in my spare time since 2013 and I finally feel it´s going somewhere.

You can download the installer following the Dropbox link. The .exe is signed, but you may get warning messages anyway (which can be ignored), as I have not build a reputation as a software developer with Microsoft yet.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/dud51y7d7...lHxMYkAKa?dl=0

You will dig about 60-90 minutes into the game and beat the first boss Razoth.
Outbuddies supports most controllers now and can also be played with a keyboard, but I recommend the XBOX gamepad! I have not tested wireless gamepads. The game starts with a tutorial section, so you won´t have to read any instructions in advance.

For running the game in 60FPS you should at least have a dual core CPU 2GHz plus, but the game will auto adjust to 30FPS, if your machine can´t handle it. Windows 7 or higher only. The game uses windowed fullscreen and scales to your native desktop resolution. Please test on an UHD Monitor, if you have one:P

If you find time, please leave me some feedback and bug reports! A room ID is shown on the top right corner under the minimap, please attach it, if the bugs are related to a specific room or obstacle! Also I´m not a native speaker, so please correct my if something in the dialogues feels odd to you!

I made this trailer some months ago, a lot of things have improved. Will make a new one soon!

[Retrobolt]

Love it,it looks great.

[SirRandom]

Damn that gameplay looks slick! You've also got a great use of visual effects in your game according to this trailer

[Kisguri]

I went ahead and tweeted the news!

[Julian82]

Thanks for the kind words - really helps to stay on track!

@SirRandom: Glad you like the gameplay, I iterated it many times over the course of three years. It finally became a custom physics hybrid. If the player is in the air, the physics engine clicks in and controls only y-axis. All x-movements are under player control allowing tight platforming but realistic accelerations when jumping and dropping. If you fall from a high position you auto roll or will even crush your neck :P

@Kisguri: Thanks, means a lot!!

[zip2kx]

Looks great! I love that these games are coming back. really enjoyed Axiom Verge a while back and this looks familiar but different enough.

Will follow this!

[Julian82]

@zip2kx:Thank you! I tried to mix the formula up with some new mechanics like climbing and a lot of diving scenes. It´s heavily inspired by the first Metroid games and Gunstar Heroes , which was probably my favorite of all time The morphball mechanic which is shown in the trailer isn´t in the game anymore, somehow it didn´t really fit in (you can crouch now), and I also was afraid of getting my ass kicked by Ninentdo:P

[Flugurion]

Really impressive! Didn't have time to play through the whole thing yet but the gameplay feels smooth, haven't encountered any bugs at all.

Great atmosphere too.

[Volnaiskra]

This looks pretty cool. I don't have a 4K monitor, but I'm getting a 2560 x 1440 one delivered this week. So I'll test on that when it comes.

[Julian82]

@Flugurion: Thanks buddy Keep me updated if you discover anything weird and check back if you need help with QA for Mongrel. I run pretty excessive QA routines on my own to ensure I discover most things, but it can be exhausting and progress harming at times :P

@Volnaiskra: Cool! Thank you for testing on the 2560 x 1440. I´m really unsure how well Fusion games perform on these resolutions. Ultimate Fullscreen extension should handle it in theory, but I never was able to test. For Outbuddies I wrote a special pixel perfect scaling routine combining UF and Window control object, which allows resolution switches at runtime. The .mfa can be downloaded in this thread:

http://community.clickteam.com/threads/98094-Creating-a-fullscreen-low-resolution-game-(QUESTION)/page3?highlight=full+screen+low+resolution+game

By the way: I´m testing Spryke at the moment and I really like it, will check back to you with in depth feedback!