Independent Amico Discussion Thread

[+sixersfan105]

1 minute ago, MrBeefy said:

You and a bunch of others! Hopefully you have other video games at the ready you can play?

Haha oh yes, plenty, as evidenced by my signature! Cheers.

[+Tommy Tallarico]

1 hour ago, sixersfan105 said:

Just ordered the Limited Edition Woodgrain through the VIP pre-order. If only they could speed up the release to the next week or two, that would be much appreciated while we're all stuck in our homes!!!

 

Thank you for your support.

 

I'm on it!

 

brb.

 

 

 

[SoloZolo]

11 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I completely disagree.  Tons of endless runners, match 3's, card games, casual that look like crap but are super fun to play and are very successful.

Also... in every single video I put a HUGE disclaimer saying these are unfinished works in progress demos.

Those games are usually free-to-play and available on devices people already own. The proposition is different once you're asking people to pay upfront and require them to buy specialized hardware. The most successful mobile games don't have low production values either. Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans/Clash Royale and the truckload of Japanese gacha games (Puzzles & Dragons, Fate/Grand Order, etc.) are all well crafted. They might not be what The Last of Us crowd wants, but they're polished experiences nonetheless.

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I think you may be missing the point and are approaching it too much like a hardcore gamer.  My mom won't be playing Monster Boy anytime soon so what difference does it make. 

 

People love comparing our "graphics" and "gameplay" to mobile games.  Ok... so what.  You mean the style of games that 93% of the entire population of the world is playing? 

 

Astrosmash is literally maybe 25% completed.  And quite frankly... art is subjective.  If you don't like the colors or whatever that is totally fine.  Clearly not for you.  But you should realize that you are in the minority on this one.  Maybe not among hardcore elitists... but among the people we are targeting... they LOVE the graphics and visual style.  Just take a look on the Astrosmash video.  18,000 views yet only 43 dislikes.  I'll take that ratio every single day of the week.  I bet Google wishes they had those kinds of percentages and ratios on any of their Stadia videos. 

I think you're undervaluing the importance of presentation, but whatever. It's your company. Good to hear there is plenty of room for Astrosmash to improve. From my first post I acknowledged that everything we've seen was WIP. I've always expected improvement.

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

That's fine.  I respect that.  But when you specifically call out a team that has 600 years of video game experience and has worked on the biggest selling games and consoles of all time... it does come across as being spiteful (from the guy you were critiquing).

 

Tell me if you trust the folks who worked on creating these products.

 

You were insinuating that a bunch of industry veterans were trying to pull the wool over the public's eye by doing ripoffs of games.  And you don't think that is insulting in any way?

Honestly? 

 

Look at it from the other perspective.  If you didn't mean it like that... then you certainly chose the wrong phrasing of words to express yourself.

I know the experience your team has, which is why my expectations seem to be not be met. This Bomberman stuff in particular ...

12 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

You are splitting hairs here.  It's NOT a discarded regional name.  You just think it is because you clearly don't live in Europe or Germany.  The franchise has been around for years and has been successful for most of them.

The internet seems to have failed to document that because I've struggled to turn up any indication that Dynablaster existed as a brand independent to Bomberman until recently. A handful of games bore that name in Europe in the early '90s, all of which were regional releases of Hudson Soft produced Bomberman titles. Some seem to believe that name change was done to distance the franchise from then recent terrorist attacks. Whatever the case, the franchise went back to being known as Bomberman there shortly after.

 

As far as I can tell, no one professionally used the Dynablaster name through the next 20+ years. It's possible some extremely obscure PC or mobile games have slipped through the cracks, but that would strongly indicate no one really cared. In 2014, a group of German homebrew developers released an unofficial free remake of Dynablaster, describing it as being a re-do of Hudson's 1991 work. The year prior, a German company called BBG Entertainment were granted the European and U.S. trademarks for "Dynablaster." In 2016, they released a free-to-play iOS and Android title by the same name. This is the only example I've found of that name being used commercially for something that wasn't a literal Bomberman game. However, BBG likes to pretend it's tied to Bomberman. In their promotional pieces for the mobile release, they claim "the legendary classic bomber is back" and directly link it to Hudson's games ("Having been a blockbuster on ...") despite not having any relation to Hudson Soft (or parent company Konami) at all. That's not misleading ... Whatever attachment people had to that name doesn't seem high. In the four years since its launch, the Android version only has ~5000 downloads. 

 

The Amico game doesn't seem based on BBG's mobile title. The biggest immediate visual difference between Bomberman and BBG's Dynblaster is that the latter uses humans for the player characters. The Amico release uses little robot dudes that sorta resemble some of the Bombers. It's certainly closer to them than BBG's earlier game at any rate.

13 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

In your methodology of thinking... there should only be one 2D shooter game?  Because every one ripped off the idea of the first ones.  They are all very similar.  Of course Nintendo and Indie developers can put a TON of constant clones on the e-shop... but it's okay for them to do it.  Just not us?

The first Bomberman game dates back to 1983. In the decades since, no similar game has rivaled its success. That doesn't mean no one ever will (multiple indies have tried to), but it does suggest this isn't a gameplay formula ripe enough to develop into a genre. People stopped calling every fighting game a Street Fighter II clone after enough successful competitors made it more. Same with Doom "clones." This is not specific to you. People gave Sony hell for making PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. People call every monster collection game a Pokemon rip-off. 

 

12 hours ago, Michael Garvey said:

Are you interested in getting Shantae and the seven sirens? [...]

I own most of the Shantae games, so I'm interested. Given the newest ones have gotten T ratings, we're probably not going to see the series on Amico, though.

[MrBeefy]

Updated first post some. Added links to preorder, updated some formatting and dates.

[MrBeefy]

1 hour ago, SoloZolo said:

Those games are usually free-to-play and available on devices people already own. The proposition is different once you're asking people to pay upfront and require them to buy specialized hardware. The most successful mobile games don't have low production values either. Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans/Clash Royale and the truckload of Japanese gacha games (Puzzles & Dragons, Fate/Grand Order, etc.) are all well crafted. They might not be what The Last of Us crowd wants, but they're polished experiences nonetheless.

I think you're undervaluing the importance of presentation, but whatever. It's your company. Good to hear there is plenty of room for Astrosmash to improve. From my first post I acknowledged that everything we've seen was WIP. I've always expected improvement.

I know the experience your team has, which is why my expectations seem to be not be met. This Bomberman stuff in particular ...

The internet seems to have failed to document that because I've struggled to turn up any indication that Dynablaster existed as a brand independent to Bomberman until recently. A handful of games bore that name in Europe in the early '90s, all of which were regional releases of Hudson Soft produced Bomberman titles. Some seem to believe that name change was done to distance the franchise from then recent terrorist attacks. Whatever the case, the franchise went back to being known as Bomberman there shortly after.

 

As far as I can tell, no one professionally used the Dynablaster name through the next 20+ years. It's possible some extremely obscure PC or mobile games have slipped through the cracks, but that would strongly indicate no one really cared. In 2014, a group of German homebrew developers released an unofficial free remake of Dynablaster, describing it as being a re-do of Hudson's 1991 work. The year prior, a German company called BBG Entertainment were granted the European and U.S. trademarks for "Dynablaster." In 2016, they released a free-to-play iOS and Android title by the same name. This is the only example I've found of that name being used commercially for something that wasn't a literal Bomberman game. However, BBG likes to pretend it's tied to Bomberman. In their promotional pieces for the mobile release, they claim "the legendary classic bomber is back" and directly link it to Hudson's games ("Having been a blockbuster on ...") despite not having any relation to Hudson Soft (or parent company Konami) at all. That's not misleading ... Whatever attachment people had to that name doesn't seem high. In the four years since its launch, the Android version only has ~5000 downloads. 

 

The Amico game doesn't seem based on BBG's mobile title. The biggest immediate visual difference between Bomberman and BBG's Dynblaster is that the latter uses humans for the player characters. The Amico release uses little robot dudes that sorta resemble some of the Bombers. It's certainly closer to them than BBG's earlier game at any rate.

The first Bomberman game dates back to 1983. In the decades since, no similar game has rivaled its success. That doesn't mean no one ever will (multiple indies have tried to), but it does suggest this isn't a gameplay formula ripe enough to develop into a genre. People stopped calling every fighting game a Street Fighter II clone after enough successful competitors made it more. Same with Doom "clones." This is not specific to you. People gave Sony hell for making PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. People call every monster collection game a Pokemon rip-off. 

 

I own most of the Shantae games, so I'm interested. Given the newest ones have gotten T ratings, we're probably not going to see the series on Amico, though.

Shantae got a T rating?

[SoloZolo]

3 minutes ago, MrBeefy said:

Shantae got a T rating?

The newer games have. The more detailed the visuals, the more detailed the belly dancing!

 

[MrBeefy]

6 minutes ago, SoloZolo said:

The newer games have. The more detailed the visuals, the more detailed the belly dancing!

 

Darn belly dancing.

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, SoloZolo said:

...

The Amico game doesn't seem based on BBG's mobile title. The biggest immediate visual difference between Bomberman and BBG's Dynblaster is that the latter uses humans for the player characters. The Amico release uses little robot dudes that sorta resemble some of the Bombers. It's certainly closer to them than BBG's earlier game at any rate.

...

The production value looks to low compared to what's in the Amico trailer.

 

Anyway the Amico bomberman game has to have some exclusive game features to distinguish it from the others.

[+Tommy Tallarico]

2 hours ago, SoloZolo said:

Those games are usually free-to-play and available on devices people already own. The proposition is different once you're asking people to pay upfront and require them to buy specialized hardware. The most successful mobile games don't have low production values either. Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans/Clash Royale and the truckload of Japanese gacha games (Puzzles & Dragons, Fate/Grand Order, etc.) are all well crafted. They might not be what The Last of Us crowd wants, but they're polished experiences nonetheless.

I think you're undervaluing the importance of presentation, but whatever. It's your company. Good to hear there is plenty of room for Astrosmash to improve. From my first post I acknowledged that everything we've seen was WIP. I've always expected improvement.

I know the experience your team has, which is why my expectations seem to be not be met. This Bomberman stuff in particular ...

The internet seems to have failed to document that because I've struggled to turn up any indication that Dynablaster existed as a brand independent to Bomberman until recently. A handful of games bore that name in Europe in the early '90s, all of which were regional releases of Hudson Soft produced Bomberman titles. Some seem to believe that name change was done to distance the franchise from then recent terrorist attacks. Whatever the case, the franchise went back to being known as Bomberman there shortly after.

 

As far as I can tell, no one professionally used the Dynablaster name through the next 20+ years. It's possible some extremely obscure PC or mobile games have slipped through the cracks, but that would strongly indicate no one really cared. In 2014, a group of German homebrew developers released an unofficial free remake of Dynablaster, describing it as being a re-do of Hudson's 1991 work. The year prior, a German company called BBG Entertainment were granted the European and U.S. trademarks for "Dynablaster." In 2016, they released a free-to-play iOS and Android title by the same name. This is the only example I've found of that name being used commercially for something that wasn't a literal Bomberman game. However, BBG likes to pretend it's tied to Bomberman. In their promotional pieces for the mobile release, they claim "the legendary classic bomber is back" and directly link it to Hudson's games ("Having been a blockbuster on ...") despite not having any relation to Hudson Soft (or parent company Konami) at all. That's not misleading ... Whatever attachment people had to that name doesn't seem high. In the four years since its launch, the Android version only has ~5000 downloads. 

 

The Amico game doesn't seem based on BBG's mobile title. The biggest immediate visual difference between Bomberman and BBG's Dynblaster is that the latter uses humans for the player characters. The Amico release uses little robot dudes that sorta resemble some of the Bombers. It's certainly closer to them than BBG's earlier game at any rate.

The first Bomberman game dates back to 1983. In the decades since, no similar game has rivaled its success. That doesn't mean no one ever will (multiple indies have tried to), but it does suggest this isn't a gameplay formula ripe enough to develop into a genre. People stopped calling every fighting game a Street Fighter II clone after enough successful competitors made it more. Same with Doom "clones." This is not specific to you. People gave Sony hell for making PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. People call every monster collection game a Pokemon rip-off. 

 

I own most of the Shantae games, so I'm interested. Given the newest ones have gotten T ratings, we're probably not going to see the series on Amico, though.

Not going to continue debating the importance of what we're doing and how different we are with mobile.

 

Lets just agree to disagree. 

 

Busy day... thousands of pre-order's coming in by the hour.

 

 

 

[+Tommy Tallarico]

40 minutes ago, mr_me said:

The production value looks to low compared to what's in the Amico trailer.

 

Anyway the Amico bomberman game has to have some exclusive game features to distinguish it from the others.

Why even bother at this point trying to convince folks that the version of our game is completely unique and different.  Same argument folks try to make about Evel Knievel and yet none of them have seen our game design documents, have seen a completed game, don't know who has been added to the development team, doesn't know the timeline or budgets.  Just that they are unhappy and disappointed by it. 

That's okay.  They don't need to buy that game.... or the console.

 

Problem solved!

Yay!

The rub is obviously that he doesn't want another Bomberman type game out there that isn't called Bomberman.  Oh well. 

 

Ours is not even close or based on anything they've really done before.  Especially since adding some of our superstar programmers, art directors and some audio dude that says he's pretty good. 

 

[LordRayken]

3 hours ago, SoloZolo said:

Those games are usually free-to-play and available on devices people already own. The proposition is different once you're asking people to pay upfront and require them to buy specialized hardware. The most successful mobile games don't have low production values either. Angry Birds, Candy Crush, Clash of Clans/Clash Royale and the truckload of Japanese gacha games (Puzzles & Dragons, Fate/Grand Order, etc.) are all well crafted. They might not be what The Last of Us crowd wants, but they're polished experiences nonetheless.

yes... i tried to talk about this. the reason mobile games are successful is because they are part of a desired device. a phone. asking people to put down 250 dollars on a console for access to those mobile games, with nothing else no other features may prove tough. however if games are good enough someone may go out to buy dedicated hardware to play mobile games. its all about the software not hardware.

 

i told tommy that they needed to make an intellivision service and then perhaps later release controllers for it. asking people to put down money up front severely limits the market of people who may be ready to pay for games but not hardware. we will see how this pans out in the coming months.

 

i think tommy has enough good will and is trying his best with what he has and the team hes put together. i think it is a huge mistake he does not have earthworm jim or another big name for launch but i am not going to argue that. letting the man lead and do what he can with what hes given. not gonna judge.

 

i just preordered the vip for tommy but i doubt i will play a lot of it. ultimately i just want to support the underdog and tommy deserves support no matter what he puts out because he tries and he cares. care is rare today. ill pay for care.

[mr_me]

 

1 hour ago, LordRayken said:

i think it is a huge mistake he does not have earthworm jim or another big name for launch but i am not going to argue that.

How do you know what the launch lineup is.  If Earthworm Jim comes out a year later and drives console sales for that quarter, what's wrong with that.

 

If the games are designed for people that don't buy playstation/xbox/switch, how is releasing them on those systems a good idea.  You say people aren't willing to spend $200 to $250 on a game system that will be marketed directly to them; how do you know this?

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

I insist on it to all my folks!

 

 

Good! It's very nice to see hand-written stuff for a change, especially here in Japan where everything is always printed out. I don't remember the last time I got something hand-written.

 

So I noticed something interesting. So far we have only ever seen the woodgrain render from this angle

 

 

 

until today, and now we see it from another angle

 

 

It looks really different from this angle for some reason. Maybe it's the lighting. And I mean the lighting in the render, not the lights generated by the console.

 

Is it garish? Probably. Will this stop me from loving it? No. As I have said elsewhere, Intellivision = woodgrain and gold, and I would feel wrong if I got another color. Also, it will probably look a lot better in person than in the render. That does usually happen.

 

You know what? Is anyone good with Photoshop? I'd like to see what would happen if the position of the wood and the position of the gold were reversed. Might be super ugly, but I'm very curious!

Edited April 1, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[MarioMan88]

43 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Good! It's very nice to see hand-written stuff for a change, especially here in Japan where everything is always printed out. I don't remember the last time I got something hand-written.

 

So I noticed something interesting. So far we have only ever seen the woodgrain render from this angle

 

 

 

until today, and now we see it from another angle

 

 

It looks really different from this angle for some reason. Maybe it's the lighting. And I mean the lighting in the render, not the lights generated by the console.

 

Is it garish? Probably. Will this stop me from loving it? No. As I have said elsewhere, Intellivision = woodgrain and gold, and I would feel wrong if I got another color. Also, it will probably look a lot better in person than in the render. That does usually happen.

 

You know what? Is anyone good with Photoshop? I'd like to see what would happen if the position of the wood and the position of the gold were reversed. Might be super ugly, but I'm very curious!

It is gaudy and totally late 70’s, early 80’s for sure...but that is why I like it! Can’t wait to have it sitting beside my original Intellivision 😀

[Steven Pendleton]

1 minute ago, MarioMan88 said:

It is gaudy and totally late 70’s, early 80’s for sure...but that is why I like it! Can’t wait to have it sitting beside my original Intellivision 😀

Exactly! That's why I wanted the woodgrain, because it goes with the original Intellivision, which I have always associated with woodgrain + gold. Yes, the Intellivision II exists, but as I've never seen one of those in person and only ever had the original, my Amico ABSOLUTELY needs to be woodgrain.

[roots.genoa]

I really am on the fence about preordering:

- On one hand, if I wait for the release, I can preorder at Amazon and won't pay any shipping. But I probably won't be able to buy the woodgrain version. 😕

- On the other hand, not only do I have no idea how much I will have to pay with taxes and shipping, but I'm quite disappointed with this: "Amico will ship with a standard US plug, so you will need to purchase an adapter kit separately" 😢

 

I think I'll wait, then.

Edited April 1, 2020 by roots.genoa

[Steven Pendleton]

3 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I really am on the fence about preordering:

- On one hand, if I wait for the release, I can preorder at Amazon and won't pay any shipping. But I probably won't be able to buy the woodgrain version. 😕

- On the other hand, not only do I have no idea how much I will have to pay with taxes and shipping, but I'm quite disappointed with this: "Amico will ship with a standard US plug, so you will need to purchase an adapter kit separately" 😢

 

I think I'll wait, then.

Have you seen the Japanese box art for Sonic 1? Sonic has a message for you down at the bottom of the box art. Might need to zoom in to see it, but it's there!

 

[roots.genoa]

36 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Have you seen the Japanese box art for Sonic 1? Sonic has a message for you down at the bottom of the box art.

Well, except that whether I buy it right away or not, I'll have to wait for October to play it either way.

[S.R.Trautman]

4 hours ago, roots.genoa said:

I really am on the fence about preordering:

- On one hand, if I wait for the release, I can preorder at Amazon and won't pay any shipping. But I probably won't be able to buy the woodgrain version. 😕

- On the other hand, not only do I have no idea how much I will have to pay with taxes and shipping, but I'm quite disappointed with this: "Amico will ship with a standard US plug, so you will need to purchase an adapter kit separately" 😢

 

I think I'll wait, then.

I thought they replace the plug based on shipping adress. Maybe it was just for FE because they have to open those boxes for Tommys signature.

[Steven Pendleton]

38 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Well, except that whether I buy it right away or not, I'll have to wait for October to play it either way.

Fair enough! I wonder when they will be in our hands. Right now all we know is "before everyone else". It will be interesting to come here and see the impressions of the people who get it first. Those of us who live farther away from the distribution point will have to wait a while longer, unfortunately. Of course European systems will still be shipped from Germany after launch, but European Founders Edition people and myself will still have to wait a while, most likely.

 

I may stay away from Amico threads everywhere on the internet, including here, after FEs start shipping until after I get mine so I can experience it without anyone else's impressions.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[MrBeefy]

I don't think I've seen the plug mentioned other than what roots pointed out. Well there may have been a comment about testing.

[Steven Pendleton]

The same plug type is used in Japan and the USA. Voltage is different, though. Burned up the board inside my Japanese voltage Marshall amp when I brought it to the USA and plugged it in. Completely destroyed the board. It's all fixed now, though, with American voltage parts. I still use it every day! As a chair for my desk, anyway, since the height is perfect.

 

I did forget to mention that they don't typically use the ground-type plug here, though, so I do have a few converters for stuff just to get past the ground getting in the way of plugging stuff in.

Edited April 1, 2020 by Steven Pendleton

[roots.genoa]

Actually, I already have a converter that my elder brother bought for our first (Japanese) Dreamcast, and I now use it for my Super CD-ROM². But I hate this thing and always unplug it when I'm not using it because it gets hot. Which means that I lost my saves regularly and had to buy a tennokoe bank... -_-

[Steven Pendleton]

5 minutes ago, roots.genoa said:

Actually, I already have a converter that my elder brother bought for our first (Japanese) Dreamcast, and I now use it for my Super CD-ROM². But I hate this thing and always unplug it when I'm not using it because it gets hot. Which means that I lost my saves regularly and had to buy a tennokoe bank... -_-

Yeah, the saving ability in the IFU and Super CD ROM2 dies really quickly compared to every other system, it seems. I have an RGB modded IFU that I got from a guy in France and it was like that the moment I got it. Also the RGB signal stopped displaying red after the first time I used it, as well, so I only have G and B signals.

[N0mi]

15 hours ago, Tommy Tallarico said:

Not going to continue debating the importance of what we're doing and how different we are with mobile.

 

Lets just agree to disagree. 

 

Busy day... thousands of pre-order's coming in by the hour.

 

 

 

I do feel he is absolutely right about Dynablaster. Even I forgot about it... So it's about time to revive that game with a big blast!