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[Kisguri]

       Hello again wonderful peoples of the Tigsource. Earlier, last month I had shown a little bit of Incursion. Today I wanted to share with you our work on Okinawa Rush, done by the same guys whom worked on Robotopia, It's a good ole Side scrolling beat up the evil ninjas game. being developed in MMF2, we would love to get any comments on the look and feel of the game so far, We hope to have a Demo soon for Tigsourcers to try but in the mean time we have new Youtube footage for you to see. One question I wanted to ask, is if I was to seek a distributor for this title, obviously its not a causal game, where should I shop it?

Youtube Video is Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujRYWJ1_sPk

The Story

This is the legend of Hattori Yashima, a Karate Grand-Master born in the fishing town of Tomari in 1805. He was the last in a long line of gifted individuals who could summon a vast amount of energy and project it in the form of supernatural strength or even spontaneous fire. This knowledge was coveted by many factions through out the land... In 2008 join Hattori San as he must defend his honor and his family from the vile assault of the Black Mantis Clan

http://gamesare.com/games/oki/oki.htm

The Game

Okinawa Rush Aims to be a 2d Side Scrolling Action fighting fest, with tons of moves and unlockables, set over various areas of Okinawa.
Screenies

Thanks for taking the time to read and look forward to your comments...

[Melly]

From the video it seems that it might be pretty fun, though the platforming seems jerky.

[Kisguri]

I think most people will be pleased with the gameplay, the last build we demo'd at Momocon here in Atlanta, in March got a very well recieved reaction, of course most of them aren't Game designers, so it will be nice to see what the indie pros say!

[MekanikDestructiwKommando]

Looks sweet (but I saw a suspiciously familiar hadoken).
It seemed like you were doing seperate moves, you might want to consider combos (chain move a > move b with timing, so really skillful players can show off badass moves, which are required to beat the harder levels).
When can we play a demo?

[AuthenticKaizen]

From the video it seems that it might be pretty fun, though the platforming seems jerky.

thats the same i thought...the movement of the screen when he jumps and the jump itself looks a bit strange.
but beside this it seems to be a good game.

[JimmySH]

The graphics look very awesomely nice. So nice that you don't need the blood (personally I think it'd be better without it, but I understand many think it's a visual bonus).

Those who who did the animations must be really skillful, because the animations look very detailed and smooth.

Running, fighting and jumping looks immediately fun. (I think it's only those jumps down through platforms that look instant).

The only difficulty I might have with a game like this are the button combos (if there are any), as it resembles of a fighting game in the video, because I rarely use combos longer than 3 button presses.

[moi]

Wow ,I just now viewed the video and it's great, I love it.
I'm a big fan of old school arcadey 2D and this is totally it.
I am also very impressed by the moves that gives a real karate-y feeling, those look like typical karate moves, especially the blocks.
My only gripe is that the items (and parts of the scenery too) look way too generic: strawberry, diamonds, coins, WTF? this is too much like super mario.
You should design some more japanese-y stuff, take inspiration from the shinobi games for example. There's a lot of opportunities for great art in japanese culture.

For example I think you should really replace those blocks with something else, more appropriate for the scenario 

[Kisguri]

Hello again everyone, Thought you might be interested in a new video of Gameplay in Okinawa Rush...

Progress Video #3

In this video Steve is showing off his new awesome Kata System! Inputting moves in a certain sequence unlock Hattori's Inner powers, No wonder the enemy wants his Secret Manual!

[Kyuu]

Hello! Like others already said, the artwork and animations on the characters look really great. The close-combat seems real solid as well, from the videos... However, there are some things that really sting my eyes:

1. The pickup items, as already mentioned, seem very bland. I also think that the growing animation thingy when you pick things up look hideous. I'd go for something much more discrete.
2. The platforming. First of all, again, it looks jerky. He jumps oddly high compared to how natural the rest of his movements seem, and the accelration seems very high. It looks iffy. About the game design as such, I'd go for less platform-y stages as a whole, or at least try and tone it down. (IE: Make him jump less hysterically and design the stages accordingly)
3. The Inner Powers. It's a fun idea, and can probably be done real neatly, but work on the art here as well, and on how his animations correspond with the powerups. I'm saying this because the base fighting of the game looks real polished, and it'd be sad to see it lost in a lot of hastily produced gimmicks.

That's it for my somewhat prissy and idealistic opinion. I'd love to get my hands on your game for the fighting elements in it, but I'd rather see less or none of the flashy pickup items; more realistic jumping; and a better design on the Inner Power system.

[Kisguri]

I and Steve appreciate comments immensely, The single fact of polish is what makes it a tough sell for me to get Steve to post a Play test in a public forums such as we have here. I think you have many a valid point concerning the Items collected and making sure the polish is consistent through out the title. As far as the Jumping, All I can say that it feels right and once I can get him to feel confident enough to post a demo you will I hope agree..!

[Levin]

Looking at the videos it seems really interesting and fun to play I love the fighting (hope to know more about the combat system) and the animations. Anyway, as many other I'm a little baffled about the platforming and the game itself seems too fast (though, it's just an opinion based on a pair of videos. Hope I can play a demo version asap).

[eddietree]

Awesome engine, bro!!!  I'm diggin the youtube vid.

[dbest]

I liked the video. The artwork is very good. Looking forward to the demo.

[MidBoss]

Sweet Jesus this looks pretty awesome. DS worthy definitely.

[aschearer]

I want to echo a lot of the comments here by saying that the game looks really good. I would definitely adjust the jumping though as it seems a little bit too twitchy. I also agree w/ the person who said that you should tone down the platformer parts of the game as it seems to be a brawler not a platformer.

As far as being a brawler from the video it seemed like you had a couple really good things going. A number of different moves, a power up system which might be good (but as said careful that it doesn't overwhelm, in fact I imagine it would be impossible to control when you can jump/move so quickly), and some neat scenery. That said I would also invest in some more types of enemies, at one point in the first video there are literally dozens of the same enemy ninja on screen which is a little boring.

I think that this touches on a second problem which is that a lot of the enemies didn't seem to do much. Most of the time they would just stand around or move back and forth. I didn't get the sense that they were really a challenge. (Cheap maybe but challenging?)

I would look to some of the classic brawlers such as double dragon and see how they paced the introduction of new enemies and how they kept their enemies unique. You could also explore the whole weapon system idea, too, which could be fun; though honestly might be incongruous with the current setup.

Look forward to a playable version. Oh, and your site says "get ready for 2008" or some such, you might consider changing it now that the year has passed.

[Steve777]

Hello!  (creator of okinawa rush here)

Thanks so much for the positive feedback!  I wasnt expecting Kisguri to have put this up on sites for critique actually, as the game is not even in testing stages yet.  But I will address some of the issues you guys have had just from watching the clip:

*the blood effects are optional in the menu

*the jumping and moving all works perfectly when playing - maybe the youtube clip is misleading somehow and makes it look hard to play? But I am implementing a "look up/down" scrolling system also for players that don't want to make blind-jumps (although the level layouts are designed to not have any annoyances like that anyway)

*someone said the moves were "seperate" - there are two chain-combos in-game at present as well as seperate moves (and only one attack button.) The fireball attack is basically the "hadoken" with same movement, quarter rotation+attack.  I wasnt really intending to make a super-original or overly complex game.  Just wanted to try creating a Dragon Ninja/Double Dragon style project with platforming elements.

*generic items: the strawberry may be changed to something else, the other pickup is a roll of sushi, the rest are gold/money items - I am thinking of adding alot more variations

*the comment about the items stretching (pixelated) was useful and I reverted back to them simply floating up without that effect and agree it's best as the screen doesnt become so cluttered and overwhelmed.

*game too fast? - There are 3 speed options in menu.  But I am still experimenting with FPS and ninja movement speed etc too.

*Enemy variations; i've already implemented 3 other enemy since these clips and hopefully have a new video up soon.

*edit: forgot to mention the Kata system.  This has been a back-and-forth debate between my brother(the artist) and myself if the system should even be included at all.  I will briefly explain how the system works and what it does:

Firstly - to activate any kata, the player must tap Up then Down very fast (cannot be done by accident).  Hattori goes into Kata stance from this and 4 orbs appear around him.  Once in kata stance a series of directional pushes (without attack) will perform various blocks/attacks depending on which kata you are performing.  There are 4, each with different end status effects:
1. Movement speed+ 2. Jump strength+ 3. Invisibility 4. Attack Speed and strength++

If ALL kata are performed one-after-another then Thunder-God mode activates for 30 seconds... The main gripe my brother has is that he does not like learning long strings (whereas I am a Tekken fan and enjoy learning combos etc, as others do) The Kata are NOT essential to complete the game - but certain hidden areas will not be accessable without utilising them! For example high ledges or an impassable enemy - such as a dragon, that would require cloaking to sneak past.  Or a section of boulders dropping too fast that require move speed. 

Would appreciate your guys opinion on all this? Should I just scrap the Kata system completely or is it a good idea?


The game has taken alot longer to make than I expected due to lack of inspiration/problems in life etc but hoping to have a proper demo out within the next month or so.

Thank you all very much for taking the time to post comments, I appreciate it!

Cheers

Steve

[Kisguri]

Okinawa Rush Build 4 Beta Test (Dated: 03/19/2009)

http://www.Gamesare.com/games/oki/OKIbuild4.zip

We have posted our first public Beta on the net for Okinawa Rush and we would love for anyone here to delve into Okinawa Rush, this is the first level with into for you to explore, The Kata system has been removed and replaced more action orientated moves as the Kata system gave to much of a unnatural break in game play, Think Ryu from street Fighter to access some of Hattori's Moves! We demo'd it all weekend at Momocon in Atlanta, GA and got some great feedback and comments, We hope you enjoy it as much as they did!

-Kisguri

[Kisguri]

Okinawa Rush Build 5 Beta Test (Dated: 03/25/2009)

http://www.Gamesare.com/games/oki/OKIbuild5.zip

A new build is available for those whom are interested in playing and giving some feedback, This one fixes some bugs over the initial public testing a week ago. You shouldn't find boxes magically remain after being destroyed, etc. Enjoy!

[snake2020]

wow awsome
will it be freeware? the demo only one level?
http://www.vimeo.com/3861391