By Alec Meer on August 9th, 2011 at 2:12 pm.
These are difficult times, and difficult times can only be helped by a short, sharp burst of Owlboy. While we won’t get to sample this apparently rather beautiful tale of a quasi-avian lad and his platforming adventures until August 20th, when a demo is due to land, this does mark the first decent footage we’ve seen of the game since early last year.
I might be prone to grumbling about the apparently endless tide of retro-esque platformers in indie gaming (and especially commercial indie gaming), but the music and art in this one is pure delight. See below, and feel heroic.
I’m all about the robo-frog-thing boss there. But mostly the music. Makes me feel like the Rocketeer.
This comes from Norwegian team D-Pad Studios, who are also working on a game known as Vikings On Trampolines. No idea what that could be about. Perhaps this trailer will answer that most oblique of riddles?
Ah! Now I understand. The clue was in the name all along!
Thanks Pixel Prospector and Fuggles.
09/08/2011 at 14:13 Drake Sigar says:
Looks like a hoot.
09/08/2011 at 14:35 Raiyan 1.0 says:
That’s owl you have to say?
09/08/2011 at 14:35 p4warrior says:
I’m talon you for the last time, knock that off!
09/08/2011 at 14:57 Sleepymatt says:
Whit-do-you think you’re doing talking like that!
09/08/2011 at 15:17 Lambchops says:
Well done guys, a barn(owl)storming effort!
(I would like to add that I punned this without actually reading the title of the post, distracted as I was by the pretty pictures! So don’t go screeching at me)
09/08/2011 at 15:22 Protagoras says:
O RLY?
09/08/2011 at 16:51 tenseiga says:
Protagoras wins.
09/08/2011 at 17:25 CaptainHairy says:
It does look like a real head turner.
09/08/2011 at 18:40 westyfield says:
No ‘staring eyes’ tag?
09/08/2011 at 19:07 Inglourious Badger says:
Nice work guys. I literally owled with laughter
10/08/2011 at 02:27 Peter Radiator Full Pig says:
Im beakinning to see whats happening here…
09/08/2011 at 14:16 Anthile says:
This looks a lot like the Konjak games. Which is good.
09/08/2011 at 15:17 googoogjoob says:
konjak’s games are much more fluid than this, but it still looks pretty awesome
09/08/2011 at 14:22 Nemon says:
I am disappoint.
09/08/2011 at 14:24 Unaco says:
Pleased to meet you, I am Unaco.
09/08/2011 at 14:30 Kollega says:
ZING!
09/08/2011 at 16:21 Berzee says:
Unaco?
Edit: I’m more concerned about Savage.
09/08/2011 at 16:36 Jahkaivah says:
…quit screwing around.
09/08/2011 at 22:19 Berzee says:
…it’s cool.
09/08/2011 at 14:26 ChainsawCharlie says:
Finally, for faen!
09/08/2011 at 14:31 Theon says:
Du skal ikke selge skinnet før bjørnen er skutt.
It’s not out just yet…
09/08/2011 at 14:30 Tusque D'Ivoire says:
The site is white, suddenly.
09/08/2011 at 14:31 BathroomCitizen says:
Vikings on Trampolines seems pretty funny.
But I want Niddhogg.
09/08/2011 at 14:32 LionsPhil says:
I have to say the latter of these videos looks considerably more entertaining a game.
09/08/2011 at 14:32 noodlecake says:
Can’t wait for Owlboy. I’m a sucker for beautiful pixel art (and a good platformer!)
09/08/2011 at 14:33 ColOfNature says:
Vikings, trampolines and a blatant disregard for Newtonian dynamics: three of my favourite things, together at last!
09/08/2011 at 14:34 Kollega says:
As soon as i saw the giant robot frog boss, i had an idea. And here’s the result.
But harder soundtrack aside, this does look promising. The art style has this lovely painterly look, the design smacks of steampunk anime (the only kind of anime that i seem to fancy), the music is indeed rather heroic, and there’s going to be a demo too! Worth checking out at the very least. Can the RPS people run a story when the demo comes out for all us forgetful types?
09/08/2011 at 14:40 Giaddon says:
As someone who loves retro-style platformers, I approve of this trend.
09/08/2011 at 14:58 TheGameSquid says:
I actually thought this had disappeared completely until 2 days ago when I saw that they had simply moved to a new website and Blog-thing etc. and that the game was still going strong. I couldn’t have been happier!
09/08/2011 at 15:19 Vagrant says:
As a product of the SNES, I can definitely say there is not enough (good/classical) 2d platformers in the indie space.
09/08/2011 at 16:41 Wulf says:
I’ve been looking forward to Owlboy for ages now. I’m an art person. I like art. That does not necessarily mean that I’m all about art games, but I do like games where the art direction is there, in which there are people who clearly know how to art. Owlboy is one such game. And it reminds me of the most beautifully rendered 2D games on the Saturn. (This is a cut above the 16-bit stuff.)
It’s nice that it has interesting mechanics and I’ll be all for that, but that doesn’t make for a compelling game in an of itself, for me. Art matters, so does setting, and a mild degree of absurdity just to invite those things we so easily forget, those things I spoke of elsewhere today – imagination and wonder. I’m big on both. Having both in a game matters to me.
And I like flying islands. I remember flying islands as a kid, seeing Laputa (the Redline translation) on ITV in its original airing. And all those airships. It just struck something in me that’s never gone away, a vision of a reality unbounded by Earth-like physics where the compellingly strange, and the encouragingly wondrous can happen. Essentially: The stuff of dreams for a youth of the time. I’ll be the first to admit that I probably never grew up, as I never lost my sense of wonder, so bring on the flying islands and the beautiful arts. My mind is ready for them! I am ready!
I’d honestly love to see more like this. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt. Sure, it’s not for the sort of people who have problems understanding why in another reality people may move faster through water than we do in our reality (GW2 complainants, I’m looking at you), but it was never meant for them.
I’m just glad that my particular demographic hasn’t been forgotten. I want this, too.
There are actually a number of games I’m looking forward to, now. What’s going on? I’m mildly scared and confused by this, because it seems like gaming is actually branching out from match-three games (that are match-three games and nothing else), hidden object games (which I admittedly do like), mainstream pseudo-RPGs, and manshoots.
We could be on the verge of interesting times. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
09/08/2011 at 17:37 Hatsworth says:
Was afraid it was dead. I’m glad there’s something like this coming out of Norway. Funcom’s adventure games are ok, but their endless stream of MMOs is wholly uninteresting to me. Between this and Jamestown (and Monster Tale on the DS for us heretics) there’s been some really nice spritework lately. Most of the 2d indie titles I see look lazy, or like they’re using very basic graphics to hide artistic deficiency. That’s clearly not the case here.
09/08/2011 at 18:18 Isometric says:
This is coming out in August too? Geez! I’ve been waiting for Owlboy since it was announced. Theres way too many games coming out aaaaaaaaaaarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Reassuringly, It looks even better than I thought it was
10/08/2011 at 05:54 gwathdring says:
Me too. I’ve been following this little project for AGES.
09/08/2011 at 18:33 shoptroll says:
Nice. Looks like something you’d see on the Nintendo systems.
What’s with all the SNES nostalgia chain yanking indie games today?
09/08/2011 at 19:39 Wulf says:
Being a fan of emulation I have to say that this is a huge step up over SNES and more analogous to the Sega Saturn in regards to graphical fidelity. Nostalgia does funny things.
Though yes, older 2D stuff is the in-thing lately. But I’m happy about it!
09/08/2011 at 19:57 ZIGS says:
The art style reminds me of Chrono Trigger
09/08/2011 at 20:33 gwathdring says:
Holy crap, I want to play Vikings on Trampolines.
09/08/2011 at 23:50 Navagon says:
That owl thing looks good. Sounds good too. But you can’t go wrong with a Viking on a trampoline. Well, you can. But that’s what’s fun about it.
10/08/2011 at 02:36 Wulf says:
Also, anyone notice the original Famicom in the first screenshot, there?