New release: 8-Bit Adventures: The Forgotten Journey
Hallaran says the game has over 7 hours of play time, with an additional New Game plus mode containing “Greater Difficulty, New Equipment, Rewritten Dialogue, Alternate Graphics for the first 5 Dungeons, and Two New Side-Quests.” So maybe it’ll be 15 hours total on a second playthrough? It’s hard to say, really.
Though the title of the game suggests 8-bit graphics, the feature list claims only to have “8-Bit Style Graphics,” which strikes me a little like selling American Cheese and then putting a notice on the packaging that actually, it’s cheese food. I haven’t counted the colors to confirm whether the game actually uses an 8-bit palette, though its use of partial opacity already seems to disqualify it from claiming true 8-bit graphics.
But that’s all just a bit of quibbling, isn’t it? What matters is whether the game is well-designed and enjoyable to play. I haven’t had time to try the game’s free demo yet, but you certainly can! While you wait for that to download, here is a trailer for you to watch:
The full game is Windows-only and sells for $7.50–if you like what you see, you can snag it direct from the developer.
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I look at it, and I find myself wondering why somebody would want to actually create a visual style based on crude 8-bit graphics. If they’re counting on nostalgia to sell their “less is more” efforts, good luck to them. They’ll need it. I’m certainly not a hi-fi graphics type; I still play Darklands. But that’s in spite of it’s graphics, and because of its distinctive gameplay. Offering standard jrpg fare with poorer visuals? I could be off on this, but I don’t think the world will be beating a path to their door.
Hi BarryB,
There are actually a few reasons why I decided to do this visual style. The first is that on the RPG Maker market, most games look very similar and generally base their designs upon the RM default graphics. My first game was among these, so I wanted to create something that stood out in that particular market.
The second was the fact that I find the style quite charming – and I know others do too. I’m a big fan of the 8-Bit graphics, and I wanted to create visuals that could (to some extent) fit on the NES. For the record, I did utilise the NES colour palette – I just didn’t stick to the limitations of using only x number of colours on-screen at once (hence ‘8-bit style’, haha). The term 8-bit is often used to reference the NES generation of games, so that’s more my aim in the use of the title.
Another reason was that I’m a Game Designer, not a sprite artist. Unfortunately, I lack the money to hire a skilled sprite-artist, so the simpler the art-style for me to work with, the better.
And yeah, I also think that nostalgia plays a bit of a role – if the style evokes some childhood memories of titles like Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior, that’s great. But as you say, I doubt that would really lead to a sale.
In the end, I wanted to create a tribute to 8-bit games. And as Craig says, what really matters is the game itself – the story, the dungeons, the battles. And the game’s already had some very high praise from Amanda Fitch (maker of the Aveyond games), who has played through it and said that it’s storyline “will make this one of the best indie RPGs of 2013.”
Hope this clears up my reasoning for you =)
Joshua, if it makes money for you, all to the good. For myself, nostalgia consists of older games I play in spite of their 8-bit graphics, not because of them.
Best of luck, and I mean that.
Thank you =)