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[Temathael]

MindSeize will launch on Switch eShop September 30!

Here's new Switch Launch Trailer:




The old post below:

Our 2D story-driven action-adventure game (basically metroidvania) MindSeize was successfully partially funded by Kickstarter in September 2019. The game's on development for PC and Switch. There's a stretch goal for physical release. The gameplay takes influences from a variety of places, like Super Metroid (or I guess Metroid Fusion in a way), Mega Man Zero and games like Strider, just with more story added to the mix. I could write a lot of stuff here, but the KS page explains most of the basics pretty well. I'm of course happy to tell more, if any of you are interested!

I'm the lead programmer and a jack-of-all-trades-other-than-art of the project, basically handling stuff like general gameplay and half of the level design. I'm very happy that we've managed to get to this point and the reception has been great so far^^

Heres the trailer and a Kickstarter link for anyone who might want to check the game out.






EDIT:
Nintendo Switch version is now included in the base goal!

 

[Thurible]

Looks good! May I ask what led up to this project?

A few other questions:
How many worlds are there in the game? The kickstarter page made it look like there are four. So the game is for pc with switch as a stretch goal? Are you considering other platforms as well?

 

[Fuz]

Looks pretty cool.

 

[synchronicity]

Wow, I really like the look, vibe and snappy-appearing controls. Will definitely wishlist on Steam.

How long 'til Epic exclusive?

 

[Fuz]

Any GOG/DRM free release?

How long 'til Epic exclusive?

 

[Temathael]

Looks good! May I ask what led up to this project?

A few other questions:
How many worlds are there in the game? The kickstarter page made it look like there are four. So the game is for pc with switch as a stretch goal? Are you considering other platforms as well?

Thanks!
This is very much a passion project and why we started an indie studio with 3 friends back in 2016. First made a couple of smaller games and then started to work on the game all of us wanted to create(with the original idea based on a small puzzle game from our past)

There's 4 planets indeed. They are not super huge per se, 2,5 to 5 hours of playtime for each individual. All the stuff on the trailer is from the first 2 planets and we have third one mostly ready. I wrote an Kickstarter update on the topic yesterday: Link

PC and Switch are indeed the current plans. Would love to port to other consoles as well eventually, but the devkits and the devtime take some resources we are currently lacking. PS4 would probably be the next most probable platform.

 

[LegendOfKage]

Game looks good, and I love the genre, so I'll have to keep an eye on this.

 

[Temathael]

Wow, I really like the look, vibe and snappy-appearing controls. Will definitely wishlist on Steam.

How long 'til Epic exclusive?

Any GOG/DRM free release?

Thanks for the wishlist, much appreciated!

The plan is to have it for as many platforms as we can and would love to have drm free release as well. GOG is up to them, they are known to be bit fickle when it comes to Indies. About Epic: it's something we wouldn't want to do, but I'm not going to lie. If they somehow came and offered us a ton of money for exclusivity, would be a very interesting dilemma. Probably no such fear, though.

 

[McCheese]

The background art really stands out, something about the colour palette reminds me of the Amiga 500. Will def chip in if you can promise a DRM free copy somehow.

 

[Temathael]

The background art really stands out, something about the colour palette reminds me of the Amiga 500. Will def chip in if you can promise a DRM free copy somehow.

Thanks! Yea, some of the influences come from pretty retro stuff, glad you like the background art. It's basically a collaboration between our artists, but one of them makes sure the whole look is unified.

Would love to promise a DRM free release and I'll fight for it, but I guess it's best if I don't make such promises yet and by myself.

 

[Tenaciousmo]

Just kicked in 20 of your dollars, Always gonna back cool metroidvania.
I'm the cause there's so many of them.

 

[Ozrimandias]

It looks absolute gorgeous, keep up the good work man, a sincere wish from a wannabe game dev.
Ill keep an eye on it.

 

[Temathael]

Just kicked in 20 of your dollars, Always gonna back cool metroidvania.
I'm the cause there's so many of them.

Thanks, you are awesome! And tbh, there's not that many, at least compared to many other types of games.

It looks absolute gorgeous, keep up the good work man, a sincere wish from a wannabe game dev.
Ill keep an eye on it.

Feels very nice to read comments like this, thanks!

We have a demo in the works, should be ready by the end of next week. If everything works as planned^^

 

[Portugeezer]

Looks really cool. I'll keep an eye on it during the next few weeks, hopefully Switch version can happen.

 

[pramod]

Holy shit that looks amazing.

 

[Yuricloud3]

Awesome , you're pretty talented. Loved it

 

[bronk]

Looks awesome!

 

[Saber]

Not a fan of fast paced "Metroidvanias", but it looks like a very interesting effort. All the luck for you, maybe I get interested on the way.

 

[Temathael]

Thanks to all of you above! It's awesome to wake up and read such nice text on something you've worked very hard on.

Not a fan of fast paced "Metroidvanias", but it looks like a very interesting effort. All the luck for you, maybe I get interested on the way.

Thanks!
Maybe you will get interested indeed. The trailer focuses on the combat side of things, but that's not really the whole story. Plenty of exploration and puzzles to be found as well. The whole experience is definitely still on the faster side of the scale I would say, just because the greater mobility of the character.


Also, here's a miniboss design we posted on twitter a couple of days ago. Loving these big mechs, but they are kind of a nightmare for our animator as the animations in the game are traditional frame-by-frame and we use more frames than usual for the 16-bit style (that we are vaguely emulating).

 

[GymWolf]

It looks good.

 

[Temathael]

It looks good.

Thanks!^^

And here's also a groovy little gameplay clip to help me bump this up a bit:

 

[GymWolf]

Can i post your kickstart page in the italian forum where i usually go?
Some free publicity.

 

[DonF]

I don't back up games, I buy games. So if this ever gets released, ill might get it.
Added to wishlist in steam at least.
Good luck, dude. Looking forward to your updates.

edit: saw the demo listed, ill definitely check it out when its released.

 

[Temathael]

Can i post your kickstart page in the italian forum where i usually go?
Some free publicity.

That would be awesome, go ahead! Everyone else as well, would be great if you told anyone you thing might like this type of a game.

I don't back up games, I buy games. So if this ever gets released, ill might get it.
Added to wishlist in steam at least.
Good luck, dude. Looking forward to your updates.

Thanks! I totally understand, I'm personally very picky about backing Kickstarter games.
The wishilisting helps as well, thanks to how Steam's systems work.

 

[iconmaster]

Sees thread title, rolls eyes at what is probably a second-rate fan game

Watches trailer, is immediately blown away

That looks amazing. Love the snappy action and katana combat. Animation is great too!

If I could make one suggestion, the one visual weakness is the interior background art. The outdoor scenes look fantastic while the "dungeon" areas seem slightly bland. (Caverns look great, though.)

We're only getting glimpses, so maybe those are bad examples.

 

[Temathael]

Sees thread title, rolls eyes at what is probably a second-rate fan game

Watches trailer, is immediately blown away

That looks amazing. Love the snappy action and katana combat. Animation is great too!

If I could make one suggestion, the one visual weakness is the interior background art. The outdoor scenes look fantastic while the "dungeon" areas seem slightly bland. (Caverns look great, though.)

We're only getting glimpses, so maybe those are bad examples.

Thanks, I'm very happy you like what we've been doing! Glad to be able to surprise!

The background art for some of the areas is indeed bit weaker. Some are leftovers from quite long time ago, but right now we can't afford creating new ones for those areas - just try to polish them a little bit and do some smart choices in how they are presented. It's something to get back to eventually, in case we will have the time and resources.


We are now in the middle of the slow middle grind of a Kickstarter campaign, but it's going pretty well. Hoping to have a new update ready tomorrow or day after.

 

[Klart]

Looks great! I hope you can publish it one day on PS4 like you mentioned.

 

[Boss Key]

Looking good I’ll bite

 

[DGrayson]

The main character of this game looks like if the art of the NES US Megaman 1 was actually the artstyle of the game

But seriously I love me some metroidvanias! Looking forward to see how this progresses.

 

[Rhysser]

Love metroidvanias, and although I'm not usually a fan of the more "mechanical" settings something about that "fog" thing they have going on here make them seem so tantalizingly mysterious! Looking forward to it.

 

[mejin]

Looks awesome. Good luck, man.

PS4 users got rekt. :-(

 

[KingdomHeartsFan]

Wow this looks cool.

 

[iconmaster]

Good call having the game so far along before launching the campaign. I don't think you'll have any trouble meeting your goal.

PS4 users got rekt. :-(

Heh. This is such a Switch-y title and indie games do extremely well on the system. Monster Boy sold eight times as much as on PS4 and Xbox... combined.

It's the right choice.

 

[Kamina]

Kamina Dimension huh?

 

[Komatsu]

This looks amazing. The combat is snappy and I love the "flash-upon-contact" when you reach the enemy's hitbox. Best of luck in your efforts, will definitively chime in.

 

[Kamina]

Temathael
Tell you what: if the next two weeks go well and you get anywhere near 27k i will jump in.
If you get closer to 42k i will adapt my amount a few levels.
One thing though: maybe you could consider switching 2xDigital for 1xPhsical if you make the goal.

In any case: lycka till! (in case you prata Svenska också)

 

[Temathael]

The main character of this game looks like if the art of the NES US Megaman 1 was actually the artstyle of the game

But seriously I love me some metroidvanias! Looking forward to see how this progresses.

Haha, first time I hear that, but I see what you're after here

Looks awesome. Good luck, man.

PS4 users got rekt. :-(

This is such a Switch-y title and indie games do extremely well on the system. Monster Boy sold eight times as much as on PS4 and Xbox... combined.

It's the right choice.

Yea, we thought it would be good to try to focus our resources on Switch first as it's a safer bet. PS4 is still in plans eventually, if we get the chance!

Kamina Dimension huh?

Haha, indeed! We are of course very aware of Gurren Lagann, but the name actually just comes from the Finnish word for a 'stove' (and happens to be obsolete Japanese word for a hermit crab, thus the logo)

This looks amazing. The combat is snappy and I love the "flash-upon-contact" when you reach the enemy's hitbox. Best of luck in your efforts, will definitively chime in.

Thank you so much! We are putting a lot of time and effort to the snappy combat. The actual enemy AI's and combat situations are still a bit work in progress, but player controls already very nicely. It will be my job to fine tune it even more.

Very happy to read all this amazing feedback on the game. Really makes me think we are doing something worthwhile here^^

 

[Temathael]

Temathael
Tell you what: if the next two weeks go well and you get anywhere near 27k i will jump in.
If you get closer to 42k i will adapt my amount a few levels.
One thing though: maybe you could consider switching 2xDigital for 1xPhsical if you make the goal.

In any case: lycka till! (in case you prata Svenska också)

Sure, sounds great. Tack så mycket (jag talar bara lite på Svenska)
We are actually just now in the middle of figuring how the Switch stuff should work like and what to do with the possible physical rewards, you can expect and update on that somewhat soon.

 

[Temathael]

Very excited about this!
First Press Games will help us with the digital Switch version, devkits and stuff, which means it's now part of the Kickstarter base goal^^

 

[Komatsu]

So Temathael , in light of this great piece of news, could you illuminate us about those coveted Switch dev kits: do you actually need them if you’re developing on Unity? Can’t you just target the Switch when using the engine’s platform-dependent compilation?

 

[Temathael]

So Temathael , in light of this great piece of news, could you illuminate us about those coveted Switch dev kits: do you actually need them if you’re developing on Unity? Can’t you just target the Switch when using the engine’s platform-dependent compilation?

We haven't yet gotten our hands on a Switch dev kit, as this is a very new turn of events. While I don't have any prior experience on working with Switch, I believe the dev kit is still required for testing and making sure everything runs as intended. The past ports I've worked on for other platforms have always had some seemingly random issues that need to be ironed out before the release.

 

[Temathael]

The middle part of the campaign is definitely slower, but I'm happy there's at least a handful of new backers every day. Hoping the pace will pick up again towards the end, tho that's what everyone has been telling.



Also, here's my personal favorite character. Or the one under the cape is anyways.

 

[kassj0peja]

If I can choose a GoG version I would consider supporting you. Will there be only a Steam version?

 

[Kamina]

The middle part of the campaign is definitely slower, but I'm happy there's at least a handful of new backers every day. Hoping the pace will pick up again towards the end, tho that's what everyone has been telling.

Definitely
Its a similar thing with ebay. People watch and jump in during the end phase.

What would you do if your goal was short of lets’s say 1.000 though?

Edit:
’Kamina Dimension: ”Thank you for backing, Kamina...”’

 

[Starhowl]

The game is looking nice, thank you for showing this to us!

 

[Ailynn]

Temathael : The game looks awesome! I'm so thankful to see the Switch version is now in the base goal - I am definitely going to support it. Good luck on everything! ❤

 

[Temathael]

If I can choose a GoG version I would consider supporting you. Will there be only a Steam version?

Would love to promise you GOG and it's something I will fight for (or other version without DRM). GOG is not entirely up to us, though, as they would need to approve the game to their store. I've been reading stories about even some high quality indie titles getting rejected. Hoping for the best!

What would you do if your goal was short of lets’s say 1.000 though?

Edit:
’Kamina Dimension: ”Thank you for backing, Kamina...”’

Thanks for backing!!
And if the goal was short by only 1K, we would probably just chime in by ourselves. Everyone working on the game could give it bit extra if possible, to reach the goal.

Temathael : The game looks awesome! I'm so thankful to see the Switch version is now in the base goal - I am definitely going to support it. Good luck on everything! ❤

Thank you so much Ailynn , you are awesome!!
The Switch version is something we were hoping to be able to do from the very beginning of the development, so this opportunity is very exciting!

We just released a small update for the weekend.
Update link

 

[amnesia]

Wow, the art style looks fantastic.

 

[Temathael]

Thanks amnesia !
We have a couple of artists working on this and there's been few helpers from outside the core team as well: It's always bit tricky to keep the style coherent. All character and enemy sprites and their animations are by the same guy at least, which helps keeping them unified. Just means it's a lot of work for him as everything is animated frame-by-frame.

 

[Kamina]

52% Come on!