Five (more) questions with the makers of Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe

A little over a week ago, I published an interview with Simon Larsen and Lukas Erritsø Hansen, the two guys who, along with musical artist potato-tan, made the homebrew GameBoy gem known as Tobu Tobu Girl.

If you read through that interview, you know that I conducted it over a year ago. I conducted this one, which focuses on the GameBoy Color-compatible Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, far more recently--just a couple of days ago, in fact.

Speaking of which, you can learn more about--and back a boxed release of--this colorized and otherwise enhanced version of Tangram Games' flagship title via the Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe Kickstarter that ends on May 4.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe title screen

The Gay Gamer: What prompted you to make a deluxe version of Tobu Tobu Girl? Also, when did you make the decision to go this route and when did you get started on it?

Simon: We had been toying around with this idea all the way back when the game was early in development but never went beyond some some colored mock-ups. Tobu Tobu Girl was our first GameBoy project, so we already had our hands full making it work on the DMG.

It wasn't until First Press Games approached us in late 2018 suggesting a "deluxe" version to go with the physical release that we actually started working on it. The (non-GameBoy) game we were working on at the time was not really working out, so this seemed like a nice distraction. As much as we like the original grayscale version, the DMG screen is not very suited for the fast gameplay of Tobu Tobu Girl, so we always felt like the game was best played on a GameBoy Color or Advance anyway. That seemed like a good reason to make a proper colored version.

Early Tobu Tobu Girl color mock-up

The Gay Gamer: Is Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe simply a colorized version of the original game, or is there more to this project than that?

Simon: Besides the obvious addition of colors, a lot of the in-game graphics have been overhauled, both in the grayscale and color versions.

We are also working on some larger additions to the game that we unfortunately can’t reveal too much about yet since some of it is tied to the Kickstarter stretch goals. But we promise there will be some really cool new features regardless of whether any of the stretch goals are met.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe "Clouds" stage

The Gay Gamer: Have you encountered any problems or issues while turning the original game into Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe? If so, can you talk about a few of them and how you overcame them?

Lukas: While at first glance it might have seemed pretty straightforward colorizing the four-shade graphics of the original game, it did come with its share of challenges. Since no (eight-by-eight-pixel) tile can consist of more than four different colors, and no more than eight unique four-color palettes can be present at any time, I had to rework a lot of the tile-based assets from the original.

Especially the score tally screen illustrations were heavily altered to fit the color restrictions, as you would have a tile consisting of the background color, outline, skin, skin shade, jacket, and the shading on the jacket. In the grayscale version, these are just four colors, whereas in the color version I would often end up having tiles like these with five or six different colors.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe "Space" stage

Another problem was the issue of choosing colors that would present well on the GameBoy Color screen. The RGB colors do not translate to the GameBoy Color screen like they would on a standard monitor and generally look more washed-out. Although most emulators have ways of emulating this effect, none of them really seemed to emulate it that closely, so this led to a lot of trial and error.

Simon: On the programming side, this process has mostly been fairly simple. Most of the effort went into writing and rewriting tools for getting the assets into the game. All the new assets increased the amount of data in the game quite a bit, so we had to restructure the ROM’s layout to make everything fit nicely. This hasn’t been a major issue though, since cartridges for the physical release--and any decent flash carts--have way more memory available than we’d ever need.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe "Dream" stage

The Gay Gamer: Tobu Tobu Girl was made to the original GameBoy's specifications. Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe is being made to the GameBoy Color's specifications. Surely this means your next project will be Tobu Tobu Girl Advance, made to the specifications of the GameBoy Advance? Seriously, though, do you ever see yourselves making a proper sequel to Tobu Tobu Girl?

Simon: For now, I doubt we will ever make a sequel. We have already put more time and energy into Tobu Tobu Girl than we ever planned to, and I think I speak for both of us when I say we’re ready to do something else. Overall, we are also pretty happy with the final design: each enemy serves a specific purpose and I think the game allows a decent amount of player expression with only a few core mechanics. If we would ever decide to make a sequel, it would be because we wanted to make a fundamentally different game.

Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe menu screen

The Gay Gamer: Can we ever expect to see Tobu Tobu Girl or Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe for sale on the Nintendo Switch (or even the 3DS) eShop? If so, when? And if not, why?

Simon: While that would be pretty cool, it is highly unlikely. I don’t think Nintendo would ever allow any emulated games on the eShop. And even if that was the case, I hear getting games certified for consoles is also huge pain. We are making games for fun, not for profit, so we would rather put that energy into making something new.

See also: the Tobu Tobu Girl review I wrote for Hardcore Gaming 101

Check out the Tobu Tobu Girl review I wrote for Hardcore Gaming 101

To those of you who are sick of me writing, tweeting, or otherwise chatting about Tangram Games' Tobu Tobu Girl, I'm sorry.

Don't worry, I'll return to blogging and blathering on about other games soon enough.

In the meantime, please consider reading the Tobu Tobu Girl review I wrote for Hardcore Gaming 101. I think it'll help you understand why I adore the game so much.

Speaking of which, one of the reasons I love Tobu Tobu Girl is that it reminds me of Nintendo's Balloon Kid. As I say in my HG101 review of the former, "both [games] star plucky girls. Both begin with loved ones--a brother in Balloon Kid, a cat in Tobu Tobu Girl--carried away by balloons. Both feature gameplay that regularly makes you feel like you’re a pinball ricocheting around the screen."

That's where the similarities end, though. Again, from my review: "Whereas Balloon Kid is a unique spin on the side-scrolling platformer genre, Tobu Tobu Girl is an arcadey, twitchy, high-score-chasing affair that’s akin to Ferry Halim’s Winterbells. Much like that 2006 effort, the main objective in Tobu Tobu Girl is to quickly climb the screen by bouncing off anything and everything in your path. In Winterbells, that means bells and birds; in Tangram Games’ title, it means birds, bats, ghosts, and even aliens."

On a related, note, Tangram Games recently teamed up with First Press Games to launch a Kickstarter for Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, a GameBoy Color-enhanced reworking of the original.

Although a free, open-source ROM of Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe will be released in a few months, backers of this Kickstarter will receive physical (boxed) copies of the game.

See also: 'Ten questions with the guys behind the best GameBoy game you've probably never played, Tobu Tobu Girl'

Ten questions with the guys behind the best GameBoy game you've probably never played, Tobu Tobu Girl

Back in late 2017, a little two-man company called Tangram Games released a homebrew GameBoy title called Tobu Tobu Girl.

I became aware of Tobu Tobu Girl just before it hit the internet (digitally) and Tangram Games' shop page (physically), but ignored both iterations for some time after that because I assumed it wouldn't be very good.

In the immortal words of Vivian Ward, Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman, "Big mistake. Big. Huge!" You see, after I finally got around to trying Tobu Tobu Girl, I basically spent the next six or so months slapping myself silly for failing to nab a boxed copy of it.

If only I'd watched GameBoyle's BoyCurious Tobu Tobu Girl review earlier. In it, host Mat declares this to be one of the best titles he's played on Nintendo's first handheld game console. That sounds like a ridiculous claim, I know. But after putting more hours than I'd like to admit into it, I can say with some confidence that Tobu Tobu Girl actually is one of the finest GameBoy games around.

Tobu Tobu Girl both looks, feels, and sounds--this last bit is thanks to artist potato-tan--like something Nintendo or maybe HAL Laboratory would produce. Every single aspect of it is as clean and tight as can be. Even better, it's endlessly enjoyable and entertaining--quite a feat when you're talking about a title with just four stages, each of which can be finished in under a minute.

Now you know why I can't seem to shut up on Twitter about the recently launched Kickstarter for Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe, a GameBoy Color-enhanced reworking of the original.

In an effort to raise awareness about both Tobu Tobu Girl and the just-mentioned Kickstarter for its colorized follow-up, I'm finally publishing this interview I did with Tangram Games' Lukas Erritsø Hansen and Simon Larsen well over a year ago.

The Gay Gamer: You first started work on Tobu Tobu Girl back in 2014, as part of the third GBJAM game jam. Did you come up with the idea on the spot, specifically for that event? Or had you been thinking of it for a while beforehand?

Simon: The idea was something we came up with during the jam. We wanted to make a game with a musical element, where everything in the game would be synced up to the music and parts of the music would be produced by player’s actions. Sort of like a 2D platformer meets Rez. Though what we ended up submitting for the jam was nothing like that. In the end we didn’t even manage to put in any sound at all.

The Gay Gamer: The version of Tobu Tobu Girl you produced for GBJAM 3 was pretty different from the one you made available to the masses in late 2017. Why did you change it so drastically? Were you unhappy with how the GBJAM 3 version looked or played?

Simon: I think the main reason was simply that the initial idea wasn’t very fun. We initially wanted everything to sync up to the music, but that quickly proved too restrictive so we moved in a more puzzle-like direction. After the jam, we still weren’t very happy with how the game played and kept tweaking the design until we at some point decided that a more arcadey and twitchy gameplay style was simply more fun and closer to something we’d enjoy ourselves.

Lukas: Regarding the look of the game, we did intend to keep the style and assets from the jam version. However, during the time that we were working on the game I was at a point of rapidly improving my drawing and spriting skills. About two years into the project, I just couldn’t stand looking at the game, and as such redrew just about every sprite.

The Gay Gamer: Can you explain some of the biggest changes you made to the game from its 2014 build to its 2017 one? For instance, the early version was kind of like a single-screen puzzler, while the latest version is more of a twitchy score-attack game. Also, the early version didn't have an HUD, while the latest one does--and you moved it from the bottom of the screen to the side during development. How did you settle on those alterations?

Lukas: We early on decided to change the core concept to something more akin to Winterbells. I think having some kind of scrolling was important to us at the time. In the early version you navigated the screen by simply bouncing on enemies, like in the jam version essentially. At some point we decided to add power-ups to the game, an include that on one hand added a lot of variation to the game but also muddied the concept a bit. In the end we took the power-ups we found added most to the game and incorporated them into the set of core mechanics, the dashes and “boosting.”

Simon: The HUD was added when we introduced power-ups. The player would collect orbs scattered throughout the level, and once they had gathered enough, they would be rewarded with a random power-up. The HUD was added in order to show the player how many orbs they had collected, as well as their progress through the stage. Problem was, the HUD covered more than 10 percent of the screen vertically, which made the game significantly harder, so we had to move it to the side instead. Luckily, this also made the progress tracker much better, as it would now move up vertically along with the player.

The Gay Gamer: Did you look to any existing games for inspiration while creating the first version of Tobu Tobu Girl? If so, which ones?

Simon: I think I’d been playing a lot of Rez and Electroplankton at the time and was in love with this idea of the gameplay influencing or possibly even creating the music as you play. However, in terms of the actual gameplay I don’t think we were really inspired by anything in particular.

The Gay Gamer: And how about the current version of Tobu Tobu Girl--did your sources of inspiration change at all when went to alter its gameplay?

Lukas: I was playing a lot of Ultra Street Fighter 4 at the time. There’s a character in that game that relies heavily on these sort of teleport-like dashes. I really wanted to try to imitate the snappiness that I felt playing that character. As strange as it may sound that ended up being a defining point in the design process. When it came to the actual implementation of that core mechanic, that took quite a few tries and approaches before arriving at what ended up in the game.

The Gay Gamer: The first thing that struck me when I saw footage of Tobu Tobu Girl was how much it reminded me of Nintendo's Balloon Kid. Specifically, your game almost seems like a sideways take on that GameBoy classic. Is that connection intentional or accidental?

Simon: Completely accidental. Neither of us actually knew about Balloon Kid when making the game, but I can definitely see where the comparison is coming from. I think Upwell--as in, Downwell but upwards--is more fitting, though that wasn’t something we were really aiming for either.

The Gay Gamer: What does the "tobu tobu" part of this game's name mean? A quick check of Jisho.org says "tobu" usually means to fly, soar, or jump. Did you have any particular translation or localization in mind when you came up with the title Tobu Tobu Girl?

Simon: We don't really have an “official” translation but it is supposed to mean something like “Jump Jump Girl.” The title is an homage to Japanese titles like Noby Noby Boy, Doki Doki Panic, ChuChu Rocket! We are obviously very inspired by Japanese games in general and we wanted the title to reflect that. Same goes for the box art--both for the jam version and the final release.

The Gay Gamer: Did you encounter any particular problems or issues while making either version of Tobu Tobu Girl? If so, what were they--or what were the worst--and how did you overcome them?

Lukas: Graphics-wise the main challenge came partly from the limited sprite and tile count, and partly from the limited color palette. Making sure the sprites are easily readable from the background was a problem and something I don’t think we entirely succeeded at. In regards to the sprite count, I don’t think there’s any animation used in the actual game that has more than two frames. Due to the limited tile count, I probably spent more time reducing and keeping each background to the allowed amount of tiles than I spent drawing them.

Simon: Perhaps the biggest challenge was getting the physical edition ready. You obviously can’t just call some company and have GameBoy cartridges made in 2017, so figuring out how to do that in a feasible and affordable way was quite difficult, and at some point we were convinced it would never happen. Even something as simple as getting high-quality manuals and cardboard boxes manufactured in such a small quantity was not trivial. These challenges are ultimately the reason why the game was so long in the making. In the end it was definitely worth it, though.

The Gay Gamer: What are the main challenges of making a GameBoy game that plays on actual hardware? 

Simon: The main challenge was definitely to make sure the game ran at a nice and stable frame rate. Tobu Tobu Girl game is fairly fast-paced and even the slightest slowdown is very noticeable and is likely to throw you off and kill you. Often we would add some new feature only to have the game suddenly slow down. Then we would have to either optimize it, remove it, or get rid of something else. This can of course be quite frustrating, but it also helps you prioritize which elements are really necessary.

Another big challenge was the music and sound effects. The GameBoy does not really have any functionality for this--you can only tell it to play a certain frequency with a certain wave form at a certain volume. In order to add music, we had to implement a sequencer, which is basically a small program responsible for playing the right notes at the right time. potato-tan, the game’s composer, would write all the music in some weird music notation language we based on MML (Music Macro Language) that we could then convert into something the sequencer understands.

The Gay Gamer: Are you two GameBoy fans yourselves, or did something else spur you to develop a GameBoy game in 2017?

Simon: I used to be a pretty big GameBoy fan. I rarely play on it anymore, but I still adore it quite a lot. It was the first console I owned, so there is obviously a fair amount of nostalgia involved as well. However, I think the main reason is simply that it seemed like a fun challenge. I had played around with making GameBoy homebrew all the way back in 2010. Later in 2013, we wanted to participate in the second GBJAM game jam and decided it would be more fun to make an actual GameBoy game. We ended up making an (also unfinished) prototype of a GameBoy game called Super Catacombs. About a year later, we once again participated in GBJAM, this time working on what would become Tobu Tobu Girl.

Lukas: I’ve only very recently acquired a GameBoy, though I did own one as a kid. In that regard I’m not much of an actual GameBoy or even retro fan. The main draw was the challenge of making the game run decently on actual hardware. That meant seriously limiting frame count on animations and very laboriously reducing the count of unique tiles on each background.

See also: previous 'ten questions with...' posts featuring auntie pixelante, Peter Bartholow (of Indivisible fame), Dudedle Studio, the guys who created Wizorb, the guy chiefly responsible for the English fan translation of Ripened Tingle's Balloon Trip of Love, and the makers of THE 'DENPA' MEN 2

Don't miss your chance to own one of the best GameBoy games around: Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe

I haven’t said much (if anything?) about it here, on Twitter, or on Facebook, but I absolutely love Tobu Tobu Girl.

If this is the first you’re hearing of it, Tobu Tobu Girl a homebrew GameBoy title that was made by Tangram Games--though potato-tan produced its brilliant soundtrack--and released back in late 2017.

In a nutshell, Tobu Tobu Girl is an old-school arcade-action game. I like to think of it as Nintendo’s Balloon Kid turned on its side, although that description isn’t entirely accurate. Still, hopefully it puts a pleasant picture in your head.

Why am I bringing up all of this now? Because the guys at Tangram just launched, with the help of with First Press Games, a Kickstarter for Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe. Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe basically is a GameBoy Color-esque reworking of the original title--though like any GBC game, it’ll play on original GB hardware, too.



Anyway, between now and May 4, people can pledge money toward physical copies of Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe via the Kickstarter in question.

For $55 or more, you can secure a “Regular Edition” copy of the game, which includes a cartridge, a cartridge case, an outer box, an inlay that holds the cartridge and case, an instruction manual, and a collector’s coin.

For $70 or more, you can secure a “Limited Edition” copy of Tobu Tobu Girl Deluxe. This version includes all of the above plus a double-sided poster and potato-tan’s marvelous soundtrack pressed onto a pair of mini-CDs.

Not quite ready to drop that kind of cash on a game you’ve yet to play? Go try the original release of Tobu Tobu Girl. The ROM is free and should be playable on any GameBoy emulator.

I think I'm going to back another Kickstarter (for a musical puzzler called Bit Band)

You may remember the post of mine from mid-October in which I declared my interest in a Kickstarter that, if successful, would bring the curious Order Land! (for Steam, Switch and Xbox One) to the West in early 2018.

Sadly, developer and publisher Poisoft pulled the plug on the campaign on Nov. 1. It's vowed to try again after retooling its appeal, but who knows when that'll happen or if it'll succeed during its second go-round.

Why am I bringing that up here? Because it was the first Kickstarter I actually attempted to back. Which means that if I back the one highlighted here, for a musical puzzler called Bit Band, it would be my second such attempt.

What's so great about this crowd-funding effort that I'm willing to throw some of my hard-earned money at it? I'm mostly into Bit Band's aesthetic, to be perfectly frank. I know some are over the whole "chunky sprite" retro look, but it's done so well here that I can't help but be impressed by it.



Don't get me wrong, I'm also pretty keen on Bit Band's gameplay. The developers describe it as being like "Tetris meets Rock Band," and I'd say that's pretty apt based on the gameplay displayed in the trailer above.

The only thing giving me pause at this point is that I'm not thrilled the project page mentions a "goal for the Nintendo Switch console," but then never explains it further. That bothers me because I'm not interested in backing the campaign, only to receive a Steam key in return.

Gavin Reed, who's handling Bit Band's art, animation, music, and game design, told me on Twitter the other day that a Switch version is this Kickstarter's first stretch goal. That makes me feel a bit better, but not entirely.

Anyway, despite my misgivings, I'll probably toss some money at this campaign before it ends on Dec. 8. If you'd like to do the same, or if you'd simply like to learn more about Bit Band, visit kickstarter.com.

Switch owners: if you're itching to play an interesting RPG on your systems, consider supporting Poisoft's Kickstarter for Order Land!

OK, so I'm a bit obsessed with the Nintendo Switch right now. The same happens to everybody after they get a new system, right?

Regardless, my Switch obsession currently has me looking left and right for both existing and upcoming games to play on the console.

Two examples of in-the-works titles I'm planning to buy for my Switch: The Longest Five Minutes and Penny-Punching Princess.



I'm also hoping to play the game discussed here--Order Land!--sometime next year. That'll only be possible if this just-launched Kickstarter ends in success, however.

Basically, developer and publisher Poisoft wants to release an English version of Order Land! for Steam, Switch and Xbox One in early 2018, but knows that doing so wouldn't be an easy endeavor. So, it launched a Kickstarter to help cover the costs of the localization.

The Order Land! campaign seems pretty modest as far as Kickstarters are concerned. Poisoft's goal is to raise just under $45,000 for the project, and a pledge of about $9 or more nets supporters a digital download code for the English version of the game. (Larger pledges offer rewards like posters, mugs, t-shirts and even 3DS and New 3DS systems.)



If you need to hear a little more about Order Land! before handing over hard-earned cash to aid its localization, the gist is it's a simulation RPG that offers players three intriguing modes.

One puts you on a throne and has you rule the game's world as its king. Another allows you to create and train heroes who protect the land.

The third option seems to be as close to a traditional role-playing experience as you're going to get in Order Land!, as it plops you into the boots and armor of a hero and sets you loose to explore your surroundings.



A few of the stretch goals associated with the Order Land! campaign would add even more modes to the game, which began life as a Japan-only 3DS eShop release.

One would let you play as a devil, while another would shine a light on the "back side of this world"--whatever that's supposed to mean. Sadly, I don't understand what a third, called "Ikusa no Kuni," would offer.

Should all of the above sound interesting enough to you that you want to take part, keep in mind the Order Land! Kickstarter ends on Nov. 11.

(Via japanesenintendo.com)

Adorbs Hatoful Boyfriend plush, anyone?

Full disclosure: despite the interest I've shown in the Vita version of Hatoful Boyfriend both here and on The Nichiest Podcast Ever, I've yet to buy the damn game.

I'm going to do my best to buy it before the end of the year, though, so don't judge me too harshly, OK?

Anyway, despite the fact that I'm a horrible person for failing to jump aboard the Hatoful Boyfriend train (yet!), I'm still really interested in it.



Am I interested in it enough to support Erick Scarecrow's "Hatoful Boyfriend Official Plush Project!" on Kickstarter between now and when it wraps up on Dec. 5? I'm not sure.

I mean, the sample plushes that can be seen in the photos included in this post (and in the video featured on the project's Kickstarter page) are beyond adorable, but because I know next to nothing about the pigeons that inspired them, I'm having a hard time convincing myself to pull the trigger on a pledge of $16 or more.

How about you? Do any of you love this game's feathered cast of characters enough to hand over your hard-earned cash for a plush version of one or more of them?

Have you always wanted to play a visual novel featuring lesbian romances? Starlight Vega may be the game for you...

While recording the latest episode of The Nichiest Podcast Ever early last week, Anne (Lee, of the Chic Pixel blog) took the opportunity to educate shidoshi and I about an in-the-works visual novel (for PC) that will feature lesbian romances--an unfortunate oddity when it comes to this particular gaming genre.

That alone makes this game, called Starlight Vega, worth discussing, but what makes it doubly so--in my opinion, at least--is that it actually looks like it could wind up being pretty darn good.



I especially like its art style, which appealingly straddles the line between what's traditionally found in Japanese visual novels and what's usually created by your typical Western illustrator.

Starlight Vega's Kickstarter--which wraps up on May 22--surpassed its initial goal ages ago, but some of you may still want to invest in it given that its final stretch goal would allow for the creation of additional endings (including a "harem" one).

If you'd like to learn more about Starlight Vega, I'd suggest checking out its Kickstarter page, its official site, its Tumblr or its Twitter feed.

You had me at 'EarthBound box set,' Fangamer

A couple of days ago, the folks at Fangamer launched a Kickstarter campaign for "a box set of media celebrating EarthBound and the fans who have kept it alive."

Backers who pledge $64 or more will receive the following from the Tucson, Arizona-based site should the campaign reach its $100,000 goal between now and when it concludes on Nov. 21:

* an EarthBound handbook of at least 250 pages in length,

* a documentary about EarthBound fandom in the west,

* an album of music pulled from the entire Mother series and performed by some group calling itself The Bad Dudes (listen to a sampler of it here), and

* an 80-page 'zine filled with fan-made art and stories. (The piece on the right, inspired by the series' "Eight Melodies," is one of the many submissions that have been made so far. See more at pkzine.tumblr.com.)

For more information on this particular Kickstarter campaign, check out its official project page at your earliest convenience.

The Interactive Canvas

Sydney's Matt Sainsbury, who has been known to comment here from time to time (as "Matt S"), recently launched a Kickstarter campaign for a book, The Interactive Canvas, that will "champion the idea that games have artistic merit, and interview the people that make them."

I'm a big believer that "games are art," as folks like to say, and I'm guessing a lot of you are, too, so I thought I'd use this post to spread word about the project.



Sainsbury's goal is to raise $60,000 by Feb. 6, by the way, so if you've got cash to spare you might want to consider spending some of it on this project within the next 25 or so days.

To read more about Sainbury's vision for The Interactive Canvas--which hopefully will include interviews with Braid's Jonathan Blow and Deadly Premonition's Hidetaka Suehiro (aka SWERY65), among others--or to pledge a bit of money to the campaign, check out kickstarter.com.

'The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers'

A hearty thanks goes out to The Gay Gamer commenter and, far more importantly, developer (of Astroman and Tiny Barbarian DX, among other titles) Michael Stearns for pointing out the following Kickstarter, which is in support of British writer John Szczepaniak's ambitious quest to pen a book entitled "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers."

Szczepaniak's goal for this £50,000 project: to cram "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers" full of more interviews with Japanese developers than any previous gaming-centric tome.

"There are so many Japanese developers from over the decades who have fascinating stories, but they don't have the opportunity to communicate with English speaking audiences," Szczepaniak explains.



"This book will not be a nostalgia trip," he adds. "I am determined to have every page contain at least one previously unknown fact, anecdote or piece of trivia. My passion has always been the undocumented side of games, and regardless of who I speak with my intention will always be to ask them something no one else ever has."

To learn more about Szczepaniak's plan for "The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers," check out the video above or pay a visit to the project's Kickstarter page between now and 6 am EDT on June 30.

Not-So-Mega Man

Those of you who regularly troll (I mean that in a good way here, I swear) this blog's comments sections may have come across the username "gsilverfish" once in a while.

Well, it appears that gsilverfish is more than just your average blog commenter--he's also a really talented developer of games (including the XBLIG title, Astroman) who goes by the real-life name of Michael Stearns.

Speaking of Michael and his games, he's currently working on getting a rather awesome looking game called Tiny Barbarian DX off the ground via Kickstarter.

Rather than blather on about Tiny Barbarian DX and what it will offer gamers should they succeed in backing the project (which ends in 16 days), I thought I'd just point you to its Kickstarter page and also share this gameplay trailer:



Looks cool, right? I especially like the looks of the game's combo/juggling system, which for various reasons makes me think of a few of Treasure's classics (like Gunstar Heroes and Guardian Heroes). Oh, and of course I just like its looks, too.

Anyway, should you also like the looks (in all manners of speaking) of Tiny Barbarian DX, may I suggest heading over to the game's Kickstarter page sometime between now and 11:30 am EST on Dec. 19?

If you need to hear a bit more about Michael and his in-the-works game before deciding to financially back it, you may also want to check out this recent--and rather interesting, if I do say so myself--interview over at the Erratic Gamer blog.

I've fallen in love with a girl, and her name is Dove

Don't worry, folks, I haven't dumped my husband and gone over to the dark side. (I kid, non-gay readers.)

You see, the girl I've fallen in love with isn't real. Rather, she's the protagonist in an in-the-works "oceanic adventure game" called Sealark. Here's what Dove looks like:

As for who's working on this game: Chillicothe, Ohio-based programmer and pixel artist, Joshua Cross.

Sealark will be released for Windows, Mac and Linux sometime next year (July is the target, I believe) thanks to an enormously successful kickstarter campaign.

Said kickstarter doesn't end for 19 more days, by the way, so click on the link above if you'd like to join in (or if you'd just like to learn more about the project).

I pledged $10 myself over the weekend. I would have pledged enough to earn the "limited run physical copy of the game and OST" had it still been available, but it wasn't. Oh, well.

Anyway, to see even more of Cross' work, check out his deviantART page and/or his tumblr, Pigeon's Nest.

Metal Slug x Paul Robertson x Tribute Games = Mercenary Kings

Although I've long appreciated run-and-gunners like Contra, Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug, they don't often find their way into my busy, game-playing schedule.

Still, whenever a run-and-gun game with an interesting hook or look is announced, it tends to catch my attention.

Case in point: Tribute Games' in-the-works PC release, Mercenary Kings.

The crew at Tribute Games previously created both Ninja Senki and Wizorb, so you know Mercenary Kings is going to be boss, too--especially with artist and animator Paul Robertson (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game) on board.



As is so often the case these days, you and I and everyone else can help bring Mercenary Kings to market thanks to a rather well-supported Kickstarter campaign--which has raised about two-thirds of its $75,000 goal thus far, with 23 days to go.

I'd totally pledge $250 or more to the effort, by the way, if the folks at Tribute Games not only offered a physical copy of Mercenary Kings, but a physical copy of Wizorb, too. (I'm sure that sounds like a strange request, but they're already giving digital copies of the latter release to those who donate $15 or more.)

(Via tinycartridge.com)