Banana Bash! / Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

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tepples
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by tepples »

Yes, it's confusing, as I've written elsewhere. But the common meaning of "IP" in customer-facing parts of the video game industry, such as marketing and reviews, is what you defined as "Licensed by an author, eg with characters, titles, or storyline from a book or movie."
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work3
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by work3 »

It's been a while since I last did an update on the game.

I would say we are about 85% finished. graphics are pretty much done.

I ended up writing all the music myself, and am very happy with the result, it ranges from ska and sixties infused Shibuya-kei to jazzy drum and bass!

Each stage has its own unique music.

We also have beat synced and pitch matched sounds that dynamically change to match the chord structure of the song each time you hit a block!

Beat Sync / key sync FX demo
https://youtu.be/k6WmJ26UoBg

We recently added another worlds worth of stages recently bringing the world count to 8, with 10 levels in each world, and we have the start of a 2 player VS mode!

Gameplay WIP
https://youtu.be/T39TpRTvgvk

Some screenshots

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FC Standard edition box mockup
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Gilbert
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by Gilbert »

Hey! The screenshots look so good!
Superb use of colours makes it looks like a 16-bit game (or at least, 8-bit system with support for 4bpp graphics like the SMS and GG).

Backdrops for single screen action puzzle games for the Famicom usually either only had a single colour or very simplistic or repetitive (though some of these were just because they're ports of early Arcade titles, which did improve in later installments).

I haven't watched the gameplay videos yet, but one thing I wonder is whether the busy backdrops would affect gameplay.
Pokun
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by Pokun »

I agree with Gilbert. Both the in-game art and the box-art looks superb! None of that crap that some modern retro-style games do.
The backgrounds is one thing that makes it look kind of 16-bit and I guess they could interfere with gameplay. For example, in the video it looks like the tree stems could be confused for a wall. It might be different when actually playing though.
coto
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by coto »

Good work! The art style looks very polished.
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nesrocks
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by nesrocks »

As always, number 1 fan. Really amazing quality and it looks fun too :D
https://twitter.com/bitinkstudios <- Follow me on twitter! Thanks!
https://www.patreon.com/bitinkstudios <- Support me on Patreon!
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tokumaru
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by tokumaru »

The graphics look fantastic! I had to do a double take to make sure the graphics weren't actually from something more colorful than the NES.
nocash
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by nocash »

The first image is really colorful, it could perhaps have more contrast between background and foreground (unless that ends up with the overall appearance to get worse). The contrast in third image with the beach looks better.

The forest image, it might help to increase or decrease the width of the brighter brown half of the tree trunks, to avoid confusing them with 16pix foreground tiles. The cave/water image looks cool.

The second image can look a bit messy, maybe the contrast between too dark black cave and too bright horizon is distracting. And, the horizon does unintentionally look like a "cheap palette scanline trick". If you have 2-3 spare tiles, you could do something like this to avoid all horizontal lines:
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Erockbrox
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by Erockbrox »

yes the artwork is excellent here! Great job!
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Goose2k
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by Goose2k »

Can't wait. Gameplay was much more interesting than I expected, tbh! Looks like you have lots of ideas on how to mix up the formula!
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dink
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by dink »

I recognize the name from a 90s arcade game "Saru Kani Hamu Zou". A strangely-cute breakout-type game that uses hamsters as the ball :)
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Gilbert
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by Gilbert »

If not a homage, could be a coincidence though.
Saru Kani means Monkey Crab, and Hamu Zou means Ham(ster) Elephant.
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work3
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Re: Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by work3 »

dink wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:10 pm I recognize the name from a 90s arcade game "Saru Kani Hamu Zou". A strangely-cute breakout-type game that uses hamsters as the ball :)
さるかに合戦, saru kani gassen is a well known Japanese Legend from the 1800s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crab_and_the_Monkey
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work3
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Re: Banana Bash! / Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by work3 »

The NES version will be called Banana Bash!
We hope this is an easier to read and understand title for English speaking countries.

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vnsbr
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Re: Banana Bash! / Saru Kani Panic - An action puzzle game for NES and FC

Post by vnsbr »

This game looks amazing, been following it for some time on twitter. Looking forward to it!
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