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[Hinchy]

Click here to get the demo!

Standard press-ish copypasta:







Screenshots: 1 2 3 4 5 6

You are Launchman, space explorer for hire! You've been commissioned to explore the mysterious Puzzle Planet, which is said to contain valuable treasure. With his robot assistant Sanford in tow, Launchman soars, ricochets, careens, and launches through obstacle courses filled with deadly traps and contraptions.

Features:

• Play with physics-based gameplay that puts a unique spin on the 2D sidescroller.
• Launch through the air at rocket speeds and stop on a dime with your signature air-brake.
• Use your telekinetic abilities to throw around objects, flip switches, and solve devious puzzles.
• Play through loads of levels filled with neat contraptions and gameplay mechanics.
• See its distinctive monochrome art style, and listen to its kickin' electronic soundtrack.
• It's for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux!

-------------------------------------------------


Hello, TIGForums! It's been a while.

This is where I'm going to provide updates on Here Comes Launchman, an upcoming game by us folks over at The Layabouts.

Right now we're putting the final bits of polish on the public alpha demo. We previously had a pre-alpha demo playable at Minecon (we were one of the featured indie devs there), but this will be our first general availability release. Assuming nothing goes horribly wrong the demo will be available for Windows on Sunday, February 12th. Within the next couple of days after that, there'll be a Linux version, and an OS X version will hopefully follow later in the month.

After the public demo, we'll be shifting development gears as we think we have the core gameplay fairly nailed down. Now we're going to focus on making lots of level objects and designing lots of levels (e.g. the fun part!). That's the explanation for the above "Contraption Log" video -- as we make new gameplay objects we want to show off, we'll make more of those videos.

Anyway, today (February 9) I'm making a small tweak to the behavior of the weight object, which is the generic pickuppable object in the demo (but certainly won't be the only one in the real thing) and putting better animations on your assistant NPC character, Sanford.

[Franklin's Ghost]

Just letting you know, your links aren't working.

[Hinchy]

Just letting you know, your links aren't working.

Thanks. I forgot SMF url tags don't use double-quotes. Fixed!

Anyway, the demo is out for Windows and Linux today! Go play it!

[eigenbom]

Hey I like the look of this. Let us know when it's released.

[Hinchy]

Hey I like the look of this. Let us know when it's released.

I will!

We just put out a second revision of the demo that fixes some pretty glaring issues. Unfortunately due to a compilation derp and the unavailability of our Linux technician, the Linux build is down until tomorrow.

However, if you're on Windows, go check it out!

[Franklin's Ghost]

Glad you fixed the links because that was worth watching  Game is looking really nice. Great aesthetics and the gameplay seems really interesting, like the movement.

[wuhu]

Hooray!.. you were mentioned on rockpapershotgun.
Gonna try the demo later.

[Hinchy]

We showed up on IndieGames.com and Destructoid too. Hmmm... maybe a certain indie games "source" could mention it? 

Anyway FYI revision 3 has been out since yesterday afternoon, fixing a few more issues. That also comes with a Linux version, with both 32-bot and 64-bit support.

[eigenbom]

Had a quick play, I think you've done a quality job with the visuals. The sound effects are nice too.

Some feedback:
- I found the first music track very annoying.
- I accidently had 'w' pressed at start, and so could't launch until I realised I had to turn it off..
- I hated not being able to skip the tutorial ... I tried to run off on the tv but he was all like ... "you can't go there yet!".
- Related to the above, I would like to skip the text faster. I suppose there's a pause in between displaying paragraphs that you aren't listening to skip events in -- you should.

Other than that, I'm really excited to play the finished product!

[Hinchy]

- I hated not being able to skip the tutorial ... I tried to run off on the tv but he was all like ... "you can't go there yet!".

Wish granted, it's in the latest revision of the demo.

I'm also happy to announce that the Mac OS X version of the demo is now available! Go ahead and check it out if you'd like.