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UFO 50 announced (PC, 2018) from creators of Spelunky, Downwell, and more

CamHostage

Member
I didn't realize there were screenshots in the site, I'll have to check them out too! Also since I typed the second half of the 16 panel bit, I'd love to get your input on those too.

Heh, I was responding to an unrefreshed webpage, thank you for completing the list! Hopefully by the end the UFO 50 webpage will have screenshots and/or intros for all 50 games, but for now, it's a good tease...

And I'll assume since you called it "Crude Buster" and not "2 Crude Dudes" that you're from Europe? You may recognize some Amiga tributes better than I would (or not), whereas even the deep-cut NES titles are ringing bells for me. There's certainly a ton in UFO 50, never the less.
 
Thanks for starting a checklist, Weltall Zero!

I checked through the screenshots on the UFO 50 site and the games shown all match up to a segment in the video trailer except this one. This could be the overworld of the one of them, or the out-of-the-car view of the GTA-type game (which you'll notice has aliens for some reason?) In general, though, I'm not seeing a clear match, I think it's new to the list.

I agree, it seems new. Looks very Mad Max-like!

Also, if it helps to finish the list:[snip]

Aww man, so unfortunate we both posted at the same time. If there's anything in particular that you feel I should touch up in my version, please let me know, but I think we've both come to similar assumptions. The one exception is 3-2a), which seemed like a Bomberman-like to me and a Mysterious Dungeon / Roguelike to you. There's very little to go on with that one, so for the time being I'm leaving it as Bomberman.

I think it's actually meant to be more like the Capcom classic SonSon. Forced-scrolling, enemies on patterns... it's not really SonSon either since the concentration and size of enemies on field is different, so maybe a mix of both.

Completely right, it's more Son Son, changed it. I never played or even saw Son Son in the arcades back then so it doesn't jump to my mind immediatelly.

That calls back Metal Storm, the NES game that influenced a bunch of gravity-reversal games.

Yep, seems a perfect fit, updating. Another game I never played.

I'm trying to think what this game is? (Sort of like Tower Fall, but with Abuse-style 360 aiming.) It's definitely a multiplayer game, so that's worth noting.

Also, I do believe 14 and 15 are actually the same game, with different characters/powers. (It's helpful to look at the stats bars of each game to get bearings, as I'm sure you noticed.) So maybe it's UFO50's version of Smash, with lots of classic character clones facing off against each other in 2P arena combat? The screenshots show a different-haired version of the girl fighting the horse, so there are certainly options in that game, and if 14 and 15 are the same, this could be rather deep for a minigame game...

Excellent catch. Unfortunately (goddamn windows) for some reason the task bar covers the lower part of videos unless I fullscreen them, click on the taskbar, and click on the video, so I wasn't even aware that there was an UI there. It's definitely the same game, and indeed seems like a two player game (I originally assumed the clip was boss battles). Merged and updated them (and renumbered the list accordingly).

Jackal, uh, Lucky & Wild in arcades, kind of ... Halo 3? Yeah, not many games come to mind that do drive+shoot like this, that clip stuck out in my mind too.

Silkworm seems a better fit here, especially when playing as the jeep, because of the automatic sidescrolling. Jackal seems to be more multidirectional (reminds me of Xenon) and Lucky and Wild (didn't even know about that one!) seems more 3D / Out Run like.

Again, thanks a lot for the contributions!
 
The Dungeon Crawler with real-time combat reminds me Crossed Swords from the NeoGeo.

Wow, I didn't even know about that one! Pretty great visuals, but then again it IS a Neo Geo game. The 50 games version seems to lean heavily on the 3D dungeons and exploration, though, so I think the RPGs are a better fit. Thanks for letting me learn about it though, I always appreciate it!

Just learning about this. Wow, this is now one of my most anticipated releases.

I actually mentioned it in the "retro or modern" thread as a strong argument to pick Modern. :D

Heh, I was responding to an unrefreshed webpage, thank you for completing the list! Hopefully by the end the UFO 50 webpage will have screenshots and/or intros for all 50 games, but for now, it's a good tease...

And I'll assume since you called it "Crude Buster" and not "2 Crude Dudes" that you're from Europe? You may recognize some Amiga tributes better than I would (or not), whereas even the deep-cut NES titles are ringing bells for me. There's certainly a ton in UFO 50, never the less.

Correct, I'm from Europe (Spain specifically), but I never had an Amiga (I have a friend who is quite the Amiga fan, though). Funnily, I was aware that Crude Buster was also called Two Crude Dudes somewhere else, but the Wikipedia page (which appears when you google the latter) names it as the former, so I went with that.
 

CamHostage

Member
The one exception is 3-2a), which seemed like a Bomberman-like to me and a Mysterious Dungeon / Roguelike to you. There's very little to go on with that one, so for the time being I'm leaving it as Bomberman.

The way the fire blows up in a straight line is very Bomberman, saw that as well. That said, the fire isn't stopped by any obstacle as it blows up vertical. It's actually a rocket going off (and then a purple something lands on the character in a black hat, or maybe it comes down on the purple launch pad below him?)

...Either way, we both missed that there's a green hand cursor controlling the game, so I think we're both wrong!

(Oh, and yeah, totally Silkworm is the inspirating in the UFO 50 game, I was just trying to think of driving shooters.)

24) Blaster Master (side view sections; interestingly, the main character comes out of the UFO from 9, so maybe 9, 11 and 25 are the same game).

I'm going to guess not? 9 has the hud top-left, 11 has it all on the right, and then 25 has no HUD at all, in or out of the vehicle.

There's another floaty-ship game (1-2), and that's a different game again based on the HUD. (Look again and you'll see that it's a racing game, like Super Sprint but with spaceships. And BTW, it shows 6 racers, surely it's built for multiplayer although I assume some of those are NPCs.)

And 2-1 is again its own thing, I believe a Smash TVish 8-way shooter. There's no way out of the arena, there's a lifebar and scorebar and enemy counter, and the player has independent shooting/moving. He seems to lock in one direction while moving around, though, so it may not be fully dual-stick shooting, it may play more like Binding of Isaac or Ikari Warriors ... It's one of those games that instantly looks familiar yet takes cues from too many games to pin down.

The Dungeon Crawler with real-time combat reminds me Crossed Swords from the NeoGeo.

Totally forgot about Crosses Swords! The dungeon crawler has dungeon crawling, which the NeoGeo game didn't, it was more like Operation Wolf with swords, but the combat looks the part. Weird that I can't think of any PC dungeon crawlers that 'crossed these swords' of RPG and real-time battles before, I assumed it had been tried but nothing feels familiar.
 
The way the fire blows up in a straight line is very Bomberman, saw that as well. That said, the fire isn't stopped by any obstacle as it blows up vertical. It's actually a rocket going off (and then a purple something lands on the character in a black hat, or maybe it comes down on the purple launch pad below him?)

...Either way, we both missed that there's a green hand cursor controlling the game, so I think we're both wrong!

Oooh, it's a strategy game! The two obvious NES inspirations would be Fire Emblem or Famicon Wars, I'll put the former for the time being!

I'm going to guess not? 9 has the hud top-left, 11 has it all on the right, and then 25 has no HUD at all, in or out of the vehicle.

Good catch, I should compare HUDs more closely. At this point it seems obvious that the UFO is kind of the mascot of the compilation (as per the game's name), and it appears in at least four different games. This means there are no repeated games in the video! Edit: Correction, 12 and 2-3b) are almost certainly the same game.

There's another floaty-ship game (1-2), and that's a different game again based on the HUD. (Look again and you'll see that it's a racing game, like Super Sprint but with spaceships. And BTW, it shows 6 racers, surely it's built for multiplayer although I assume some of those are NPCs.)

I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but good catch! It's definitely a racing game!

And 2-1 is again its own thing, I believe a Smash TVish 8-way shooter. There's no way out of the arena, there's a lifebar and scorebar and enemy counter, and the player has independent shooting/moving. He seems to lock in one direction while moving around, though, so it may not be fully dual-stick shooting, it may play more like Binding of Isaac or Ikari Warriors ... It's one of those games that instantly looks familiar yet takes cues from too many games to pin down.

Again, excellent catch! I read the first line about being Smash TV and my first instinct was to check if it had independent shooting and moving, and yup, it does.

Totally forgot about Crosses Swords! The dungeon crawler has dungeon crawling, which the NeoGeo game didn't, it was more like Operation Wolf with swords, but the combat looks the part. Weird that I can't think of any PC dungeon crawlers that 'crossed these swords' of RPG and real-time battles before, I assumed it had been tried but nothing feels familiar.

Actually Eye of the Beholder has real time combat, it's just that it consists on right-clicking weapons as they become ready (although you can also move around). I believe Legend of Grimrock, being based on it, does too.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Here's what seems to be to be the inspirations for some of these games, in the chronological order that they appear in the trailer:

Edit: Completed the list and added timestamps. If my calculations are correct, the trailer shows 44 games; pretty close to the 50 in the collection, and virtually every single one of them looks great!
that's a quality post right there

I can't believe the scope of this thing
 
reminds of the old nes 100 game cartridge the retro vibes are real with this one

also the perfect game for anyoen with a custom arcade cabinet

thanks for posting this by the way <3
 

smurfx

get some go again
lol thought the thread title said ufc 50 and i was puzzled why the splunky studio would get that contract.
 
I wonder how many rpgs this will have...

Good question! We know of two at the bare minimum (the Final Fantasy-like and the Eye of the Beholder-like) but there are quite a few other games that might end up being RPGs too. Copypasting from my list, these are the most likely candidates to be RPGs:

4) ??? (Grid Knights).
8) Hero Academy?.
18) Mother / Earthbound?.

And from the 4x4 panel at the end.

1-3) Final Fantasy (!).
2-2) ??? (grid strategy game with castles)
2-3 a) ??? (Ball overhead game with dialogue)
3-2 a) Fire Emblem? (strategy game Blues Bros vs Beetles).
3-4) Rogue? (green grid)
4-2) ??? (two menus, races / loan, same game?)
4-3) Dungeon Master / Eye of the Beholder

Of those, I'm most curious of 18) and 2-3 a) (games with talkable to NPCs that we don't know much more about) and 3-4) (frankly I have no clue what this one could be). However, I'm most excited for the FF-like, the Eye ot the Beholder-like and the Fire Emblem (?) like.

Man, getting this game is going to be like the most crazy Christmas. :D
 

Teppic

Member
This looks interesting. Will most likely pick it up depending on price. Reminds me of Retro Game Crunch. If they have games of equal quality I'm in.

(Everyone should play Retro Game Crunch)
 
That tower defense game with the dinosaurs. Is there like anything aesthetically on NES? I know that sounds silly since lot s of NES games have similar looks. I've got memories of some tile based dinosaur game that looks like that, but I know it wasn't tower defense. I'm talking like when I really little since it was in the NES's heyday. I remember it was a game with dinosaurs and or cavemen. Not Joe & Mac!

EDIT: Maybe it was Trog, but I don't remember the game well enough to be sure. Any games that are similar?

On topic; excited for this! If it were any other developer I don't think I would care at all. But Spelunky, man!
 
This looks interesting. Will most likely pick it up depending on price. Reminds me of Retro Game Crunch. If they have games of equal quality I'm in.

(Everyone should play Retro Game Crunch)

Man! I actually have Retro Game Crunch but it got lost in my gigantic Steam backlog. I just saw a video of it and it looks great! It will hit the spot just perfectly while waiting for this so I'll get to play it right away. Thanks a lot for the heads up!

This is going to be at PAX West! In the Indie Mega Booth! Can't wait :-D

Great news! We should probably contact anyone who's attending, via the PAX thread, and ask them to play the games that are most mysterious (assuming all of them are playable, which is a big if).
 
This is going to eat Action 52 OWNS's lunch isn't it.

I didn't have a clue someone was remaking Action 52, but yeah... it doesn't look like it compares favorably to UFO 50. Not to mention it's been in development for over seven years and they're at 20 something games; UFO 50 is supposed to release next year and seems pretty far along already.
 

zeopower6

Member
This is going to be incredible....

I wonder if they'll be doing a limited physical release at some point when the console versions are a thing ;)
 

samred

Member
Hopefully we get some PAX impressions. I'm dying to learn more about this.

Did someone say PAX impressions?

Sam at Ars said:
I made the dubious decision to try and play all 35 games on offer—which appear in a giant menu, looking like a bunch of NES cartridges. Every game is designed to run within the constraints of NES hardware, too, and this doesn't just mean you have to use a two-button, NES-styled controller. While each game in UFO 50 runs on a PC in the GameMaker Studio engine, they also come with deliberate technical limits to things like color palettes and maximum on-screen sprites. (Meaning, an old-school "flickering" effect pops up pretty often.) While I didn't get to all 35 games on the PAX show floor, and a few of them were one-note gimmicks in their preview state, I found enough brilliant stuff in a 40-minute mad-dash sampling to get excited about the full package.

And, yes, Derek Yu confirmed that one game I played is a tribute to Cheetahmen, which I described as well.
 

dLMN8R

Member
Did someone say PAX impressions?



And, yes, Derek Yu confirmed that one game I played is a tribute to Cheetahmen, which I described as well.

Nice!

Your article popped up on my RSS feed this morning and I read though it. I checked out the game yesterday but didn't have much time. Can't wait to dive back in today!

The guy at the booth yesterday (not sure if it was Derek at the time) also mentioned there will definitely be some meta stuff tying the game together, not just the existence of the fake developer behind them :-D
 
Did someone say PAX impressions?
And, yes, Derek Yu confirmed that one game I played is a tribute to Cheetahmen, which I described as well.

I was coming here to post that article's link. So you're the author? That's awesome to have you here! :)

Edit: FInished reading it. Thanks a lot for the impressions!

I'm super excited about this game, and I have quite a ton of questions, but the most burning one is, besides these eight games that caught your attention (and I guess excluding Owlman, which you already mentioned is probably intentionally bad as a nod to Cheetahman), how's the general quality of the others? What I mean is, did these pique your interest because they were unique (but the rest are also similar in quality), or were they the best and the rest are less stellar (at least for now)?

In any case all of these sound super exciting and it makes the wait even more unbearable. This is currently my most anticipated game by far!
 
Looks awesome. Please come to console !

I'm not port begging to any specific system but I need to play this, it looks so damn good, and I only have consoles... and a Mac :/
 

zeopower6

Member
Thanks for the impressions :)

Chû Totoro;247722191 said:
Looks awesome. Please come to console !

I'm not port begging to any specific system but I need to play this, it looks so damn good, and I only have consoles... and a Mac :/

I believe their announcement was "PC and others in 2018".
 
Obsessively combing the net for more info and hopefully videos, but so far I'm finding absolutely nothing besides Sam's article and pics. :D

Eh, might as well post an updated version of the game list with the official names for the games in Sam's article. Names in bold are official ones.

Edit: Updated the list with game names from the Twitch video.

1) Fragile Platforms (Ice Climbers with a Samus-like main character).
2) Sub Hunt (multiscrolling fish shooter).
3) Dodgeball.
4) ??? (Grid Knights).
5) Adventures of Lolo / Sokoban.
6) Caramel Caramel (Gradius). It shows two sections but it's the same game.
7) Pocky and Rocky.
8) Attacktics.
9) ??? (UFO with boomerangs).
10) Fist Hell (Kunio Kun / Renegade / Double Dragon).
11) Blaster Master (overhead sections).
12) Son Son.
13) Pingolf (Space Golf).
14) Hyper Contender (Towerfall / Smash Bros).
15) Party King.
16) Onion Delivery (GTA / Retro City Rampage).
17) ??? (Ninja Volleyball).
18) Incremental (Mother / Earthbound?).
19) Spelunky? (Sausageman).
20) Seaside Drive (Silkworm, horizontal car shooter).
21) Kick Club (Bubble Bobble).
22) Dino Defense (prehistoric tower defense).
23) Karnov.
24) Blaster Master (side view sections; another UFO cameo).
25) Sacrifice II.

Two by two split screen:
1-1) ??? (Knight crushed by falling ceiling)
1-2) UFO Racers (Super Sprint with UFOs).
2-1) Overbold (Smash TV).
2-2) ??? (Walrus diver)

Four by four split screen:
1-1 a) Star Waspir (Xevious).
1-1 b) Metal Storm.
1-2) Afterburner / Fantasy Zone (again with the UFO :) ).
1-3) Final Fantasy (!).
1-4) DOTA? (seems to be a two player game where you spawn enemies to send against the other player).
2-1 a) Paint Racer (Splatoon, 2p versus, paint the tiles).
2-1 b) Orbient? (gravity / orbit game).
2-2) ??? (grid strategy game with castles).
2-3 a) Golfaria (Golf RPG).
2-3 b) 12) again.
2-4 a) ??? (Adventure game)
2-4 b) ??? (overhead game with water)
3-1) Train Robbery.
3-2 a) Fire Emblem? (strategy game Blues Bros vs Beetles).
3-2 b) Cyber Owls (Crude Buster).
3-3 a) Warptank (Teleporting tank running along floor and ceiling).
3-3 b) Sacrifice II again.
3-4) Rogue? (green grid).
4-1 a) Disc Lords (Tin Pin Slammer).
4-1 b) Super Mario Bros 2.
4-2) Quibble Race (two menus, races / loan, same game?)
4-3) Dungeon Master / Eye of the Beholder
4-4) ??? (no clue what's going on there :D).

I can't locate Camouflaged or Sacrifice I from Sam's writeup, nor Diabolika; also, the following are game names from the Twitch video that I can't conclusively pin on any game:
- Diabolika
- Bug Hunter
- Godsblood
- Ant War
- Campanella / Campanella 2 (these are the UFO games, but which one is which?)
- Dunslash
- Infinitesimal
- Elfazar's Hat
- UFO VR (this is probably 1-2 from the 4x4 split)
- Avianos

As an aside, I really love that each game's name is so descriptive and straightforward, that's going to be a huge help when trying to remember which game is which.
 
The sheer amount of original ideas is staggering.
Sacrifice's mechanic of committing suicide to provide assistance to future characters, Pingolf's titular mix of golf and pinball, Attactics' ability to move units up and down as they go forward, there's a staggering amount of variety.

As a fan of Derek Yu since his early days of I'm O.K. A Murder Simulator and Aquaria, I've been hyped for this game the moment I learned of it.
 
Don't know if any of you saw but the latest issue of EDGE magazine had an interview with the devs, and titles/descriptions for 35 of the games. Worth checking out if you're interested.

Some bits:

Three RPGs

Every sprite is allowed three colours from a set palette, plus black

The games are designed so that earlier ones are more crude, later ones more advanced. Just like NES

Hubans and Fumoto are directing a game each and helping out on others

Hubans seems to be directing a maniac mansion style game called Night Manor

Fumoto's game is called Seaside Drive - drifting/run and gun Outrun style game

Some games that stood out to me:

Sacrifice 1 (and it's sequel Sacrifice 2 - yes, some games have sequels): your dead characer act as platforms for your next run

Party King - party planner management simp

Attactics - match three meets Fire Emblem
 
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