• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Buck and Miles - Golden Era platformer - Kickstarter is live, NOW

R

real_slime

Banned
neogaf_header.png
268x268.resizedimage


BUCK AND MILES

Indie developer Astrojone has just launched their kickstarter campaign for their in-development game Buck and Miles, which is a platformer game inspired by games from the NES/SNES/Genesis era of platformers. It's Astrojone's first game as a studio, previously the lead designer worked on Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden and they have enlisted the help of the likes of Alexander Brandon, virt, and brentalfloss to compose music.

I'm friends with the lead developer, and he hasn't asked me to do this, but I thought I'd spread the word about his game here on neogaf, cos he's really putting his all into it and the game is looking good. I checked with a mod beforehand to make sure it'd be all right to post.

SCREENS:

qQzKIN2.png
e3WVPhh.png

XzcP3sK.png
AMYmAR9.png

duht2kZ.png
eYtwOwD.png


TRAILER:

http://youtu.be/o2VuVQsCa54

Here's some of the copy from the kickstarter page describing the game:

A love letter to the platformer games that we all grew up with, and an attempt to bring back the essence of what made them so fun.
Click to expand...

The game follows Buck the Trucker and Miles the Pilot, as they make their way through a mysterious and magical desert, spanning over ten different worlds and biomes, as they track down the evil Baron in an attempt to get their stolen cargo back. Along the way they come across many magical and quirky secrets, people, power-ups, games and bonuses to aid them on the way.

Run, jump, bop and bounce your way through this retro-styled 2D platformer, set for release on most desktop and handheld systems and devices!


  • A side-scrolling platformer game that is based on the design principles of some of the most beloved platforming franchises of the 80s and 90s. It's a completely new experience in a format you know and love.
  • You play as Buck (a dedicated and heroic trucker) or Miles (a reckless but charismatic pilot) as they journey through a magical desert and its 10 wildly unique and novel worlds, hoping to retrieve their stolen cargo from the evil Baron.
  • Soundtrack by the amazing brentalfloss (Video Games "WITH LYRICS"), virt (Shovel Knight), Eric "cboyardee" Shumaker (Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden) and Alexander Brandon (Deus Ex, Jazz Jackrabbit).
  • Set for release on PC and Mac, with Linux, Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Steam, Wii U and Ouya being high priorities depending on how much funding we can get (though they will likely see a release regardless, it just might take a little longer). We are even considering ChromeOS, FirefoxOS, Blackberry and Pandora/Pyra.
Click to expand...

GAMEPLAY FEATURES:

  • Combine different powerups and experiment with your favorite setups.
  • Transform into animals by eating magic falafel.
  • Discover secret games, bonuses, collectibles and hidden levels and worlds.
  • Play singleplayer or with a friend where you both play together as Buck and Miles in simultaneous multiplayer.
  • Navigate the boardgame-like overworld map and stumble upon secrets and bonuses.
Click to expand...


The Kickstarter was launched last night and is running up until 6AM on December 21st Central European Time, so around midnight for those in North America.

KICKSTARTER :https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/taqutor/buck-and-miles-a-cross-platform-2d-platformer
PRESS KIT: http://astrojone.com/press/


They're including a variety of game based/novelty/funny rewards as well like you can see in this image:

fbff04bed6d3bdb8dc59eafbbe6981be_large.png






And that's what I've got to say about that!
 
T

Tregard

Soothsayer
FirefoxOS and BlackBerry but not PS4 or X1?

Love the idea of combining power-ups, and the style is really nice, will consider backing.

Although that villain creature really looks like a cat goomba.
 
D

Dali

Member
Tregard said:
FirefoxOS and BlackBerry but not PS4 or X1?

Love the idea of combining power-ups, and the style is really nice, will consider backing.

Although that villain creature really looks like a cat goomba.
Click to expand...
I wonder if it's intentional. The overworld looks straight jacked from smb3, the zombie is similar to ghosts and goblins, and the levels have elements that look like they were taken from a mish mash of games. Maybe an "homage" to the era the game draws its inspiration from.
 
D

deleted

Member
I hope we will get some 16bit platformer nostalgia going soon - I love the 16bit era more than the 8bit one, but up to now, 8bit sucked up all the nostalgia kickstarter.

Looks fun, might back into this.
 
R

real_slime

Banned
OrbitalBeard said:
I LOVE the look of this! If a Wii U version was guaranteed, I would probably back it.
Click to expand...

So I just asked the lead developer about if he was planning on a release for consoles, and he said this:

Most open platforms don't require a license, so that's why we mentioned them by name. We don't want to over-promise and under-deliver, but off the record we're going to do everything in our power to get this game on every platform we can.

As of now we're still waiting for Nintendo to reply to our Wii U licensing request. After that we're going to try to acquire other licenses and fit our technology into those platforms
Click to expand...

So basically it sounds like he's taking steps to get on the Wii U already, and as for the other consoles, he'll be getting around to them at a later point.
 
Z

Zaku

Member
For those wondering, the kr500,000 they're asking for translates to a very reasonable $67,000 grand total.

I've backed at the kr70 ($10) level.
 
O

OrbitalBeard

Member
real_slime said:
So I just asked the lead developer about if he was planning on a release for consoles, and he said this:



So basically it sounds like he's taking steps to get on the Wii U already, and as for the other consoles, he'll be getting around to them at a later point.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks for asking him!
 
S

StingX2

Member
I hate to be THAT guy but isn't that the seashell sprite from Zelda Links Awakening?

Otherwise I love this, I'm a sucker for platformers. I'm a sucker for nostalgia fests but more so nostalgia fests that do it right and don't phone it in. Backed it happily.
 
M

McBradders

NeoGAF: my new HOME
Would benefit from scanlines or a better youtube video. It looked a little like there was one of those nasty Emu filters applied to it :(

Otherwise it looks absolutely wonderful. Very charming and great attention to detail.
 
ebullientprism

ebullientprism

Member
The fact that its coming to mobiles is a concern.

I dont see how you can make a "classic" platformer and have it play reasonably well on a touch interface. SMB3 plays like garbage on a touch screen.
 
R

real_slime

Banned
bede-x said:
A lot of the artwork looks like it's taken from other games with a few tweaks..
Click to expand...

Oh, nah that definitely isn't the case. They've got a graphics designer building all this stuff from scratch - it's obviously inspired by particular games but all the sprite and art work is original.
 
P

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
I think straight up ganking Tanooki Goombas is a bit much.
 
A

Alpha_eX

Member
There's a goomba on the box and the music sounds way too similar to Mario for my liking. It looks good but it rips hard.

Also, is it Youtube compression that makes the pixels look like they're run through a paint style filter? Would prefer pixels rather than blobs.
 
Q

quackgyver

Neo Member
Hey! I'm the guy who's making this game. Sorry for the late response, but it took some time for my NeoGAF account to validate.

Thanks a lot to jamie for posting this! And thanks for all the kind words and everyone who backed this. It means a lot to us!!!

I figured I'd answer some questions:

ebullientprism said:
The fact that its coming to mobiles is a concern.

I dont see how you can make a "classic" platformer and have it play reasonably well on a touch interface. SMB3 plays like garbage on a touch screen.
Click to expand...
I understand the concern, but I personally think it's possible to provide a more than adequate touch interface for an action-oriented game. I just think that it requires a bit of creative thinking while attempting to replace the all-too-common on-screen button interface with a more intuitive way to translate the players' intentions into actions.

We haven't ironed it out completely yet, but we've already got a decent prototype working which involves combining actions into a fewer set of triggers and utilizing a combination of broad and minor swipes to make it less clunky and more accessible.

Alpha_eX said:
Also, is it Youtube compression that makes the pixels look like they're run through a paint style filter? Would prefer pixels rather than blobs.
Click to expand...
McBradders said:
Would benefit from scanlines or a better youtube video. It looked a little like there was one of those nasty Emu filters applied to it :(
Click to expand...
Yeah that's actually the video recording software. We've been using XSplit so far, and I've done everything I can to make it display the source footage in crisp x2 scale but it's been very glitchy and their support unfortunately hasn't been very helpful. If anyone wants to suggest better screen-recording software I'd appreciate it.

Tregard said:
FirefoxOS and BlackBerry but not PS4 or X1?
Click to expand...
OrbitalBeard said:
I LOVE the look of this! If a Wii U version was guaranteed, I would probably back it.
Click to expand...
We're working on making the technology easy to port and our intention is to try to get it on most platforms. It's just that licensing takes time, and we don't want to publicly commit to any platforms we don't have an approved license and solid test build for yet.

Also, we don't really have the resources to distribute the game to all platforms simultaneously, so we wouldn't - as an example - want to announce a Sony release only to end up porting to easier platforms first, and effectively forcing all Sony backers to wait much longer than other users.

But yeah, off the record we're going to try for all platforms we can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom