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[Balrog]

So, I made my first game. After about two years of working on it in my spare time it's finally done. Well, I didn't do everything, the music (which is awesome) was done by a guy named Daniel Davis and the cover art and title screen were done by some homies. Anwyay, it's a lot like Super Mario Bros. 2 but it's got a lot of other elements in there to keep it fresh like drilling, gravity flipping, etc. I released this about a week and a half ago but I had to patch out some bugs and add a password system and such.

Anyway, info here:

The video:




Download it here:
http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Curse-of-the-Crescent-Isle/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550711

Download the soundtrack here:
http://dvgmusic.bandcamp.com/

Crummy jpg screenshots here:

[Tanner]

I downloaded it the other day. Great job! It's one of the best platformers I've played on XBLIG.

[Balrog]

I downloaded it the other day. Great job! It's one of the best platformers I've played on XBLIG.

Awesome, thanks! The patched version got released last night with several bug fixes and a password system. Might be worth checking out!

[Tanner]

I'll be sure to fire it up later tonight.

[sandcrab]

I'm really glad to hear you patched it!

I'm also really glad to see you here, I tried unsuccessfully to find your contact info online because I stopped playing the demo due to a bug. I was hopping around in the underground area after the tower, and at some point I managed to get pushed down and through the floor and got trapped outside the main level path.  I believe I was using the drill/bouncing enemy at the time, but I don't remember more specifically than that.  Did your patch happen to fix anything like that?

[Balrog]

I'm really glad to hear you patched it!

I'm also really glad to see you here, I tried unsuccessfully to find your contact info online because I stopped playing the demo due to a bug. I was hopping around in the underground area after the tower, and at some point I managed to get pushed down and through the floor and got trapped outside the main level path.  I believe I was using the drill/bouncing enemy at the time, but I don't remember more specifically than that.  Did your patch happen to fix anything like that?

Yeah, I fixed a few of the collision bugs, that may have been one of them...

Also, I think I playtested Astroman. I liked it!

[deathtotheweird]

This looks pretty cool. Sad that it's only available on xbox.

[Sir Raptor]

This looks pretty cool. Sad that it's only available on xbox.

This.
Any chance of a PC port?

[AuthenticKaizen]

great looking game!
i'm also looking forward to a pc port 

[Destral]

Nice video, unfortunately I'm another non-Xbox owner, so I too look forward to a PC port.

I'm interested in your influences for this, I think I recognise at least two of the characters in the screenshots and video as looking distinctly similar to two of the incarnations of Vishnu (specifically Matsya and Narsimha - numbers 1 and 4 in the slideshow linked).

[Balrog]

Nice video, unfortunately I'm another non-Xbox owner, so I too look forward to a PC port.

I'm interested in your influences for this, I think I recognise at least two of the characters in the screenshots and video as looking distinctly similar to two of the incarnations of Vishnu (specifically Matsya and Narsimha - numbers 1 and 4 in the slideshow linked).

Yeah, the Matsya, Kurma, Varaha, and Narasimha incarnations are in the game. I was originally an art major back in college and I was always fascinated by Indian artwork, particularly things pertaining to the Hindu religion. When I began work on the game I wanted to convey the sense of seeing something mystical or hidden and I kept coming back to sketching out stuff that was very Hindu looking so I just decided that instead of just putting something similar that doing an interpretation might be better. There's actually a few nods in the game outside of those: a Hindu priest in the opening cutscene and a lotus, mace, conch and chakra symbols are used in a puzzle and a boss late in the game is another. There's nothing overt in the game that explicitly says what everything is but someone who knows will recognize them.

I'm working on a PC port (the game was written using XNA) but it's really hit and miss on which PCs it'll actually run on. I also have no clue about distributing it on PC outside of the fact that I know I don't want to host it on my site and have do deal with any headaches regarding that. It's honestly been really nice writing for a fixed platform. There's been enough headaches without having to deal with funky graphics cards and the like.

[the_dannobot]

Nice video, unfortunately I'm another non-Xbox owner, so I too look forward to a PC port.

I'm interested in your influences for this, I think I recognise at least two of the characters in the screenshots and video as looking distinctly similar to two of the incarnations of Vishnu (specifically Matsya and Narsimha - numbers 1 and 4 in the slideshow linked).

I was gonna say either Super Mario 2 or Doki Doki Panic. 

[Balrog]

Nice video, unfortunately I'm another non-Xbox owner, so I too look forward to a PC port.

I'm interested in your influences for this, I think I recognise at least two of the characters in the screenshots and video as looking distinctly similar to two of the incarnations of Vishnu (specifically Matsya and Narsimha - numbers 1 and 4 in the slideshow linked).

I was gonna say either Super Mario 2 or Doki Doki Panic. 

Yeah, from a gameplay perspective Mario 2, Ducktales, Castlevania 3, Zelda 2, and Wendy Every Witch Way were big influences. It's basically a love letter to old 8-bit games for better or worse.

[floatstarpx]

had a go on your game... i didn't get very far, and i found it really tricky.. having to use the enemies as 'steps' to get further up the level got kinda frustrating.
was i doing the right thing? or is there some other way to jump higher?

[Balrog]

had a go on your game... i didn't get very far, and i found it really tricky.. having to use the enemies as 'steps' to get further up the level got kinda frustrating.
was i doing the right thing? or is there some other way to jump higher?

Yeah, using enemies as platforms is pretty central to the game.

[Dustin Smith]

great looking game!
i'm also looking forward to a pc port 

If my 360 didn't Red Ring of Death on me I would totally play this.

[Tanner]

Wendy Every Witch Way

Wow, major respect for that game. One of the best GB platformers, up there with Wayforward's other masterpiece, Shantae.

[Sir Raptor]

Wendy Every Witch Way

Wow, major respect for that game. One of the best GB platformers, up there with Wayforward's other masterpiece, Shantae.

You're forgetting Xtreme Sports. That game was fun.

[Balrog]

I like just about everything Wayforward does. Their homegrown stuff is great and most of their licensed stuff is awesome too. I just bought a DSi just to play Risky's Revenge.

[Balrog]

I made a demo version for the PC. You can download it here:
www.lastguygames.com/sekrit/CurseOfTheCrescentIslePC.zip

It's about half the game and it'll bomb out once you finish that half. The requirements are: you must have Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, a graphics card which supports DirectX 9.0c and at least Shader Model 1.1 and XNA Framework Redistributable 3.1 . I think the installer will also try to install xna if it's not already installed but I dunno.
 
Just extract the zip and run the setup.exe.

Controls:
F - pick up enemy / Run / Advance Text
D - Grab
Up - Jump/Open Door
Arrow Keys - Move Around
ESC - Menu
Enter - Select Menu Item

I'd highly recommend using Joy2Key because playing a platformer with the keyboard is kinda balls.

If the installer bombs, the game bombs or the game runs slow, post the error message and your PC info and I'll see if I can figure it out. If the game installs correctly and runs but it tanks it'll generate a errorlog.txt in the same directory as the .exe.

Anyway, I'm putting this out there to get a feel for how difficult it will be to get the game running on PC.