Twinsen Development

[.TakaM]

thanks guys, progress has been ridiculously slow for the last 6 months or so, but I'm still messing round...

 

[psycoblaster]

any new demos yet?? T^T

 

[Commander]

Really nice work .TakaM, can't wait to play it. I especially like the new colours when you kill something.

~ Commander

 

[.TakaM]

Further developments:

 

[lagman]

Further developments:

That's crazy, is it a mini game?

 

[.TakaM]

sorta, it'll just be something to do when bored.
You will score points depending on how far you shoot

 

[Hadrian]

I love shit like that in games!

 

[Ducky]

I love shit like that in my mouth!

Fixed.

 

[Endogene]

i was wondering, those gifs you posted here where 320x240 resolution, that a pretty small window on my 1200x800 desktop
Are you planning to scale it up so that its ful screem or will it be windowed?

 

[.TakaM]

i was wondering, those gifs you posted here where 320x240 resolution, that a pretty small window on my 1200x800 desktop
Are you planning to scale it up so that its ful screem or will it be windowed?

you can play in full screen or windowed

 

[Ducky]

Can you also adjust the size to the size of the DS Screen and import it to the DS?

 

[Endogene]

the ds screem's resoltion is about 15 percent smaller than the gif he posted (which i assume are from the working game)
so if ever they would consider porting it to the ds their only option is making the field ofvieuw smaller (cropping it down would male one hell of a mess)
i dont know if the level desing allows a smaller fielf of vieuw (yeah i accedentally desactivated spelling check...)

 

[Retal]

I really feel as though a full screen flash every time you hit something is not the way forward.

 

[psycoblaster]

isn't it time to release a new demo????

 

[.TakaM]

Did an interview at another forums, weekly thing, thought you guys might be interested:

Featured Project
This week Hoffy went platforming with .TakaM's unique and unbelievably stylistic game, Twinsen. When he wasn't slicing enemies with his blade, throwing his magic ball or navigating tricky platforms, Hoffy was interviewing .TakaM about the history and future of Twinsen, and what players can look forward to. Here's the scoop!

So tell us a little bit about Twinsen. What kind of game is it? How long have you worked on it? Who works on it?
Twinsen is both the main character and name of the game Cocopuffs and I are working on, it's a fairly traditional 2D platformer which is almost a dead genre these days, and the game has existed in some form for almost 2 years now.

What initially motivated you to start this project?
I'll go back way to the start for this question, back to when this game wasn't even Twinsen.

This whole project was originally going to be a Zelda platformer, a few friends and I were going to work on it together, and I was just going to handle tiles.

yes, Twinsen may have just made a cameo appearance - Pikachu too for some reason...

Almost immediately I kept coming up with ideas I wanted to be in the game, the guys I would have worked with weren't too fond of my ideas or changes, and to make a short story even shorter, we all just moved away from the game.

But obviously I kept the tiles, and talked to Dascu about making the game, except I knew by this point all my ideas would fit in with Twinsen and his world.

Eventually Dascu couldn't translate some of my ideas into code, the game just wasn't shaping up as I would have liked, and one day Dascu got a virus and could no longer run GameMaker.

So then in an act of desperation I went to the GameMaker forums and made a recruitment topic.
I got a PM from one "Cocopuffs" who said he was quite good with GM, I checked out a few of his other projects which were indeed quite good, we added each other on MSN, and he surpassed Dascus' build in about an hour

.

You don't see as many side-scrolling 2D platformers these days. Do you plan to bring some innovation to the genre with Twinsen?
You certainly don't see many 2D platformers these days, like I said earlier it's basically a dead genre.
My main concern with Twinsen isn't really to deliver on innovation, it's a very hard thing to promise.
All we're aiming for is to end up with a game the player can mess around in like I love to do with Super Metroid, Yoshi's Island, Super Mario 64, and a few others.

The art style and animation are fantastic, the game looks gorgeous. What inspires you to create worlds like this? How do you sprite?
When we first started on the graphics- when it was originally a Zelda game, we decided to keep the graphics simple so they'd be easy to work with and continue to work on.
The graphics have been almost completely redone since then, still in a similar style and with mostly the same pastel colours, but with just a bit more detail and polish.

I still sprite in MSpaint, and when I need to animate I use Imageready, it's not a process I'd recommend and I think it's inevitable that one day I'll move onto promotion or something else better geared for pixel art.

Can you give us any hints as to how the story begins?
Yeah sure, it'll be in the demo anyways.
Something has happened to disrupt the energy at the core of the planet- breathing life into everything and sorta going into defense mode.
Twinsen will talk to Baldino to find out what's happened and how he can fix it.

We've kept the story simple because planning a huge epic would just slow us down and frankly it doesn't need a deep story.

Does the story relate to Little Big Adventure in any way? What similarities will Twinsen share with Little Big Adventure?

I've already taken a lot of liberties such as Twinsens' wife Zoe having a full head of hair, whereas in the original LBA games all the Quetches (basically the humans) have just a ponytail, however I don't think it was ever made clear whether this was because of their culture or in their genetics.
The story will relate to the LBA games in some ways, lot's of references that LBA fans will recognize and appreciate, but the new comer will still not be lost.

There are some really unique characters and enemies in the game, including some doctor with an elephant head. What other creatures can players expect to see?
Ah yes, Baldino.

He'll play a fairly major role in the game, in the official series he's an inventor and that trait will continue through our game also.
There will be more Grobo characters (elephant like people) in the game and most of them will offer side quests.
I was also working on the Rabbibunny sprites the other night, so expect to see more of these guys:

Are you going to have any boss battles?
Yes, there will be at least one boss per world, we already have some good ideas we're looking forward to making a reality.

Twinsen can use a sword, jump and throw a magic ball. He can also combine these in such a way to perform combos. Will Twinsen gain any other abilities as the game progresses?

I Think Twinsen will have all his abilities from the start, some may end up enhanced depending on the player, and some won't come into play outside of specific scenarios.

I played the demo, and I found it to be difficult right off the bat. I really liked how the player had to perform Twinsen's button combos perfectly to reach high ledges and so forth. I think it gives the game a Metroid-type feel, in that you have to exploit your abilities to the highest extent. Do you think the finished product will end up a really tricky platform game?
We're aiming to allocate a variety of play styles, much like in Super Metroid- you didn't have to use the boost button to finish the game, you didn't have to wall jump to finish the game, but they were there for players who wanted some extra depth to the gameplay.
The gameplay is definitely not as complex as super Metroid, but moreso than the average platformer.

So far the only area we've seen is a peaceful green forest sitting beside a pristine lake. What kind of landscape variation can players expect to see in the future?
Much of what was in the LBA games, sewers, desert, mountains, mines, and a few others I won't spoil.

How many levels are you expecting to end up with? How long will the game be?
I think you can expect around 100 levels, I love the level making process and I think even when Twinsen is finished I'll still be making levels for myself.
As for how long... I'd hope the fastest possible speed run would be no less than 30 minutes, but it's tough to gauge.

I heard you contacted the designer of the original Little Big Adventure, and that he was quite happy to have you develop this game. Do you plan on publishing it in some way?
Frederick Raynal is an admirable man, I couldn't ask for more than him to not cease and desist this game.

As of now the game only exists as a free GM game, but as for the future.. who knows.

Has the ZFGC community been particularly supportive over the course of Twinsen's development, in your opinion? Can they do anything to help?
Interesting question, I think I'm just as motivated as when we first started.
Basically, I think even if no one cared about Twinsen I'd still be just as motivated as I am, I really love the game already and I doubt anything could change that.
Right now there isn't really anything we need help with, but in the future we might be asking for NPC/enemy/boss/level design ideas.

Finally, why should ZFGC's members, as well as Little Big fans, look forward to the final release of Twinsen?
Because this game will be finished, like I said, I'm just as motivated as when we first started and I'm still in love with this game.
Hopefully my own love for this game will be apparent when others are playing, when I play my favourite games I can see the love that's gone into every detail and how proud everyone behind the game must be.

 

[Diablo1123]

Aha, I knew your avatar looked familiar

This game looks pretty good, can't believe haven't seen it till now

 

[JPH]

Nice interview, man.
It had some really interesting content in it and I can't wait to see the final game!

Keep up the great work!

 

[lagman]

Baldino is pure wub

 

[Awdofgum]

This is coming along real well, I also can't wait for the final game.

 

[.TakaM]

Been updating Twinsen's sprite:

Just a bit more detail and better aa etc