By Jim Rossignol on January 25th, 2013 at 4:00 pm.
The guys over at IndieGames noticed that the previously available demo of side-scroller Owlboy has been pulled from their site, due to being “out of date”. The reason for this seems to be that the game has been radically overhauled, and is now looking fabulous. (The old demo is still here.)
It’s been a couple of years since we first reported on this, but it now looks as if developers D-Pad are closing in on something really special. We can’t wait. Take a look at the OST video below, it’s really something.
See what I mean?
25/01/2013 at 16:02 db1331 says:
Makes me think of Skyward Sword if it was released for the SNES. I like it.
25/01/2013 at 16:05 Trashcanman says:
That’s looking simply spectacular. Love that artstyle.
25/01/2013 at 16:21 dontnormally says:
It’s the magic floating area in Chrono Trigger!
25/01/2013 at 16:06 TΛPETRVE says:
The art style reminds me somewhat of Nanatsu Kaze No Shima Monogatari on the SEGA Saturn. Love it.
25/01/2013 at 19:18 Stellar Duck says:
How the hell do you people remember those weirdo Japanese names for anything?
I struggle to remember what Akira is called. Not that I’ve seen it.
25/01/2013 at 19:22 TCM says:
The same way I remember those weirdo English names for things, usually.
Though to be fair, anyone who insists on using THE ORIGINAL JAPANESE when a perfectly good localized title is available is silly. (I see some people who insist on using Shin Sangoku Musou instead of Dynasty Warriors, and I loathe them.)
25/01/2013 at 19:44 Stellar Duck says:
Naturally. I was mostly owning up to my own cultural blind spot to anything Japanese. I just don’t understand it. It might as well be an alien planet to me, for all that I know or understand of it.
I’m having a hard time remebering what the Paradox game Sengoku is called so that should show how my relationship to Japan is. So when people rattle out a title that to me, is several words of gibberish I get baffled and have no idea what game that is. In this case I haven’t the faintest clue what game he played on the Saturn.
25/01/2013 at 21:44 Kuraudo says:
Why do you loathe us? :(
We just like putting that otherwise useless Japanese we picked up to use. : \
25/01/2013 at 22:46 Baines says:
TCM, that can depend on things as well.
If I’m on a forum where several people live in (or previously lived in) Japan, it isn’t a surprise to see the Japanese names even if everyone posts in English. This can also be true for forums where a good number of posters simply aren’t from America or Europe.
It doesn’t matter as much anymore, but a couple of decades ago there could be enough differences between the English and Japanese versions of the game that using the Japanese name was carrying some extra meaning (beyond someone just using the Japanese name to sound cool.)
At times, the Japanese names can just be less confusing.
25/01/2013 at 16:07 GameCat says:
Oh my, I love good owl’ fashioned pixel art graphics.
Music is good too.
1:40 – DAT FIREFLIES
25/01/2013 at 16:15 elderman says:
Yeah, those are some head-turning visuals.
25/01/2013 at 16:21 FurryLippedSquid says:
If by head-turning you mean looking over your shoulder at 15 years ago, yep.
25/01/2013 at 16:29 Ansob says:
Find a game made 15 years ago with pixel art that detailed. Go on.
25/01/2013 at 16:52 Mario Figueiredo says:
erm, lotsa. The pinnacle of pixel art happened before that time even. I’m thinking arcade years even. Metal Slug, for instance.
27/01/2013 at 19:30 zeroskill says:
While some of the Neo-geo games and CPS2 Capcom games looked pretty damn good back then, better then most home consoles at any rate, there is no way you can compare the attention to detail and animations visible in this trailer to anything from the nineties.
25/01/2013 at 16:39 noom says:
This trailer really ruffled your feathers, eh?
25/01/2013 at 16:38 noom says:
A pun thread? This should be a hoot.
25/01/2013 at 16:41 Alec Meer says:
At least our nested comments system means we can keep track of all the owl gags.
25/01/2013 at 16:55 Hoaxfish says:
In twit the new, owlt with the old
25/01/2013 at 16:58 Beernut says:
I thought, that just this once we could lay owl with the puns for a change, but I can see now that it’s not gonna fly.
25/01/2013 at 16:59 Mario Figueiredo says:
Owl you are going to get rid of puns?
25/01/2013 at 19:12 One Pigeon says:
But in all seriousness, those graphics must have been made by some people with real talont
25/01/2013 at 19:43 jrod says:
Nested comments make my head spin all the way around!
25/01/2013 at 22:32 Hmm-Hmm. says:
I call fowl play!
25/01/2013 at 17:03 Gap Gen says:
Turns out owl puns in French aren’t that popular.
25/01/2013 at 17:12 Kemipso says:
Don’t worry, everything will be owlright.
25/01/2013 at 17:27 Hoaxfish says:
They just find it oeuf putting
26/01/2013 at 02:07 cawt says:
This reminds me of the first time I saw the Owlboy demo. I couldn’t stop thinking of Hibou-Wan for some reason…
26/01/2013 at 04:55 Muzman says:
Tend to bring things to screeching halt, yes.
25/01/2013 at 17:13 LionsPhil says:
Yeah, it’s great to see “pixel art” being something that’d actually stand up in the era, rather than an excuse to half-arse it. The shrub animations are a bit odd but otherwise that’s wonderfully lush.
25/01/2013 at 16:08 Lev Astov says:
Thanks for reminding me of that! I keep forgetting since it’s been in development so long. I can’t wait to give that gorgeous version a go.
25/01/2013 at 16:16 Gap Gen says:
Ah, bah ça a un air chouette.
25/01/2013 at 17:07 Kemipso says:
Shame this pun only works in French :’(
25/01/2013 at 17:41 li says:
J’étais passé à côté du jeu de mot, dis donc !
Ca a l’air complètement gorgeux, hululerai-je..
25/01/2013 at 16:26 pupsikaso says:
Oh look, parallax scrolling, so pretty…
I mean yes, yes it’s pretty… what else?
25/01/2013 at 16:34 faelnor says:
You don’t understand! It’s GORGEOUS!! FABULOUS!!! SPECTACULAR!!!!
25/01/2013 at 16:34 noerartnoe says:
You know, I went to school – studying game programming – with some of these guys. It’s a really weird feeling: Being happy for your old schoolmates and at the same time wanting to punch them in the gonads for getting there first :p
25/01/2013 at 16:40 Shazbut says:
Looks and sounds like a beauty
25/01/2013 at 16:56 Mario Figueiredo says:
Very nice looking indeed. Some of the snapshots on the official website leave me a bit worried though, that there seems to be a disconnect between the excellent game background detail we see on that video and the actual in-game characters which are still reminiscent of LucasArts old games. Here’s to hoping they are changing that too.
25/01/2013 at 16:57 Brosepholis says:
Wait, wait wait.
You’re telling me this is a PLATFORMER
made by INDIES
with a RETRO ART STYLE
This is genius! How come nobody’s ever thought of it before?!
25/01/2013 at 16:58 Mario Figueiredo says:
Yeah. You must be the kind who plays an FPS and has played them all. Who would ever thought making another one? Tsk.
25/01/2013 at 17:04 Brosepholis says:
I’m just reacting with the same fake ennui that most RPSers summon up for AAA game news.
OWLFACE
lol so brave
25/01/2013 at 17:10 Mario Figueiredo says:
Ah. Missed the sarcasm then. Well done.
25/01/2013 at 17:50 D3xter says:
I’m still open for more of them, especially if they look to be as interesting as this or Iconoclasts.
I just don’t wanna see more and more of the utterly “generic” looking ones.
Hope it’ll come to the usual Steam/GoG Distribution channels when it’s done or I might forget that it exists though. xD
25/01/2013 at 17:12 Didden says:
Its like the Amiga never left.
27/01/2013 at 07:59 BlitzThose says:
it never did at least for me I still own 2 :)
25/01/2013 at 17:28 crinkles esq. says:
Art looks rather nice, but would be nicer to see an actual game. Scrolling looks pretty choppy, hope that’s just the way they captured the video. First part of the music sounds like a nod to the Zelda 2 title theme.
25/01/2013 at 17:34 CobraLad says:
Demo is somewhere in nets many months ago
25/01/2013 at 17:30 Strand says:
I’m not sure which is more impressive–the music or the parallaxing.
Parallax. That would be an awesome villain’s name, no? Or has that already been done?
25/01/2013 at 17:48 tobias says:
http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Parallax
25/01/2013 at 17:37 CobraLad says:
Youtube actually made it look nicer with smoothing. Actual demo got ugly pixelated scaling filtter. Because of that game really feels like good art savaged by unnecesary pixels. I wonder if they fixed it or at least enabled some smoothing options.
25/01/2013 at 18:35 GameCat says:
You’re aware that graphics made with pixel art style (small amount of contrasted colours) + graphic filter that is smoothing everything on the screen = graphical disaster?
25/01/2013 at 17:47 tobias says:
More like WOwlboy, amirite?
Guys?
26/01/2013 at 22:17 dmoe says:
Hello!
25/01/2013 at 17:50 pandiculator says:
I can’t help but be reminded of Legend of Mana, here.
25/01/2013 at 17:55 Shooop says:
So it’s something I played on my SNES 15 years ago?
25/01/2013 at 18:46 maximiZe says:
Exactly, just like you’ve played every new 3D game on your Playstation before.
25/01/2013 at 19:23 Shooop says:
What’s the point?
I watched the other trailer and it’s basically every side-scroller that ever existed before. There’s even a “falling down a shaft, dodge the stuff on the way down” section. There’s nothing new or better-refined.
So other than it being lo-fi pixels what’s the draw? Or is that the only thing? Nostalgia?
25/01/2013 at 21:19 The Random One says:
It must be hard to live with your uncanny ability to discover every single thing about a game’s mechanics from watching a trailer.
26/01/2013 at 04:14 Mario Figueiredo says:
It’s still a bit early to understand the game mechanics yet. The article states that the demo is no longer available for being out of date. We are now only seeing game art, which is a good indication they are also working on gameplay (otherwise they could have probably shown it).
I do understand the concern though. Not showing any actual gameplay isn’t particularly inviting. But it’s the new looks of the game that is on topic at this point.
27/01/2013 at 19:18 zeroskill says:
Nobody is forcing you to buy it, why do you complain?
Oh wait, you are one of those people who are under the impression that the entire world is there to cater to their personal taste and needs.
26/01/2013 at 04:07 pandiculator says:
Nothing on the SNES looks half as good as this does. This is the equivalent of a beautiful hand-painting.
25/01/2013 at 19:10 P4p3Rc1iP says:
Reminds me of Frogatto, with the detailed pixel art
http://www.frogatto.com/
25/01/2013 at 21:23 jlivius says:
That’s the most absolutely gorgeous game I’ve ever seen. Watching it again, it’s the little things that make it really special. Notice how the various “layers” of graphics move at a different speed, giving it a sense of depth. That’s simply brilliant.
25/01/2013 at 22:25 Spacewalk says:
So where’s the “staring eyes” tag then?
25/01/2013 at 23:34 Wedge says:
I actually thought of this game a few days ago, and how I hadn’t heard anything in forever and assumed it was dead. I guess that’s not the case.
26/01/2013 at 00:29 JohnD says:
What charming music and the game looks great too.
26/01/2013 at 21:51 niyagamu says:
Kayla. you think Rose`s st0rry is cool, last tuesday I got a brand new Bugatti Veyron from having made $9651 this past 5 weeks and also 10-k this past-month. it’s realy the nicest work Ive had. I began this 5 months ago and pretty much immediately startad bringin in more than $72.. per-hr. I work through this link, http://www.Cloud65.com