The Team
Pixel Boy has been designed so far and is being made by two people, myself (Dominic Obojkovits) and my partner David Nickerson. David lives in Vancouver Canada and was an artist for many games one of which includes Grand Theft Auto IV. With a passion for video games David decided that he wanted to work on his own ideas and began looking for a programmer to make games with. It is at this point in the story where I fit in haha! David and I met on the Unity forums where he posted looking for a programmer to work with. I was sixteen at the time, however I lied to David and told him I was twenty in order to be taken seriously. David saw potential in the prototypes of games that I had showed him and we've been working on games ever since (he did eventually figure out my real age). David and I have still never met in person but have been working remotely for almost three years now. We started working on Pixel Boy early in 2012 and it is going to be our first game as Giant Box Games and also our first game for PC. David does all of the art for Pixel Boy and I do all of the programming, we design the game together.
The Birth of Pixel Boy
The creation of Pixel Boy began like this. I was at the time obsessing over randomly generated games and started experimenting with some random generation algorithms. I subsequently made a completely abstract random dungeon generator which I showed to Dave and he said “Hell, we can make a cool game out of that!”. Once the dev wheels started turning David and I were still open to changing any and all of the games concept and design at a whim in order to create a game that we both wanted to play. It has been since February first of 2012 that Dave and I have been working on that abstract random generation algorithm that has now developed into Pixel Boy.
The prototype :)
image upload no registration
The Game
Pixel Boy is essentially an Action RPG. There was a lot we wanted to achieve with the game. The first and most visual thing we wanted to do was to create an Action RPG with a colorful vibrant world which occasionally strays into abstraction. I believe David did an exceptional job at bringing that particular vision to reality. David was primarily inspired by old Nintendo games and that feeling of childhood wonder which they give people and we decided that it would be awesome to translate that feeling into a game with more modern game play mechanics. The second thing we wanted to achieve was to create an environment which is difficult to beat, randomly generated and had many strategic ways which the player could use to beat the various levels. This allows players to get variety in game play out of just a couple of levels even if you struggled to beat them! We accomplished this by creating our special power up system that goes hand and hand with the character development. The primary ideas behind the power up combination system is that the player has attribute stats like damage speed and range which are permanent and which he can alter as he levels up and a secondary system in the form of power ups. Power ups greatly alter how the Player interacts with his environment but only for a temporary amount of time. The nice thing about this system is how combining different power ups create new unique net effects and how the player can essentially create weapons which work with strengths and weaknesses in specific situations.
The game now
green shot screen capture
WTF Is - Pixel Boy
Everything so far
Pixel Boy has been featured both in the NAG and on Total Halibuts “WTF is?” show when it was in early alpha stages of development. We have spoken to Gamersgate who offered us publishing and are currently on Steam Green-light battling for votes. Below is a link to a demo version of the game made specifically for Make GamesSA to enjoy, it even has a few inside jokes about Make GamesSA haha! The demo is 4 levels and 1 boss fight long, this consists of our first act, the entire game is to be 5 acts long. The difficulty has been adjusted to make a challenging experience for you guys despite the shortened length of the game. I would love for everyone to at least attempt the boss fight ;). Also the shops in the game have been set to level 5 (usually the player has to gather coins and upgrade the shops himself) we have done this so that everyone can enjoy the content Pixel Boy has to offer. If you guys come up with some crazy unique power ups please share them I would love to see what some people have combined :D (The game literally has thousands of possibilities for power ups). The link will only be available for a few days and after that you guys can PM me directly if you still haven’t got the game or want to keep up to date with it.
Last but important!
We have a planned media embargo and haven’t shown any of this new content to the public yet, on that note I would just like to ask the community to not share the game to any media sources and to not leak any information outside of this forum before this time.
PS if you find a game breaking bug please let us know!
Link to the game: (windows) - PM me for a link to the game :)
Link to the game: (mac) - PM me for a link to the game :)
Vote for us on greenlight: - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93144574
Link to our website: - http://pixelboygame.com
Link to Make GamesSA gameplay footage: (coming soon)
PPS An old gameplay video is available on the green-light, we will upload a new one.
Pixel Boy has been designed so far and is being made by two people, myself (Dominic Obojkovits) and my partner David Nickerson. David lives in Vancouver Canada and was an artist for many games one of which includes Grand Theft Auto IV. With a passion for video games David decided that he wanted to work on his own ideas and began looking for a programmer to make games with. It is at this point in the story where I fit in haha! David and I met on the Unity forums where he posted looking for a programmer to work with. I was sixteen at the time, however I lied to David and told him I was twenty in order to be taken seriously. David saw potential in the prototypes of games that I had showed him and we've been working on games ever since (he did eventually figure out my real age). David and I have still never met in person but have been working remotely for almost three years now. We started working on Pixel Boy early in 2012 and it is going to be our first game as Giant Box Games and also our first game for PC. David does all of the art for Pixel Boy and I do all of the programming, we design the game together.
The Birth of Pixel Boy
The creation of Pixel Boy began like this. I was at the time obsessing over randomly generated games and started experimenting with some random generation algorithms. I subsequently made a completely abstract random dungeon generator which I showed to Dave and he said “Hell, we can make a cool game out of that!”. Once the dev wheels started turning David and I were still open to changing any and all of the games concept and design at a whim in order to create a game that we both wanted to play. It has been since February first of 2012 that Dave and I have been working on that abstract random generation algorithm that has now developed into Pixel Boy.
The prototype :)
image upload no registration
The Game
Pixel Boy is essentially an Action RPG. There was a lot we wanted to achieve with the game. The first and most visual thing we wanted to do was to create an Action RPG with a colorful vibrant world which occasionally strays into abstraction. I believe David did an exceptional job at bringing that particular vision to reality. David was primarily inspired by old Nintendo games and that feeling of childhood wonder which they give people and we decided that it would be awesome to translate that feeling into a game with more modern game play mechanics. The second thing we wanted to achieve was to create an environment which is difficult to beat, randomly generated and had many strategic ways which the player could use to beat the various levels. This allows players to get variety in game play out of just a couple of levels even if you struggled to beat them! We accomplished this by creating our special power up system that goes hand and hand with the character development. The primary ideas behind the power up combination system is that the player has attribute stats like damage speed and range which are permanent and which he can alter as he levels up and a secondary system in the form of power ups. Power ups greatly alter how the Player interacts with his environment but only for a temporary amount of time. The nice thing about this system is how combining different power ups create new unique net effects and how the player can essentially create weapons which work with strengths and weaknesses in specific situations.
The game now
green shot screen capture
WTF Is - Pixel Boy
Everything so far
Pixel Boy has been featured both in the NAG and on Total Halibuts “WTF is?” show when it was in early alpha stages of development. We have spoken to Gamersgate who offered us publishing and are currently on Steam Green-light battling for votes. Below is a link to a demo version of the game made specifically for Make GamesSA to enjoy, it even has a few inside jokes about Make GamesSA haha! The demo is 4 levels and 1 boss fight long, this consists of our first act, the entire game is to be 5 acts long. The difficulty has been adjusted to make a challenging experience for you guys despite the shortened length of the game. I would love for everyone to at least attempt the boss fight ;). Also the shops in the game have been set to level 5 (usually the player has to gather coins and upgrade the shops himself) we have done this so that everyone can enjoy the content Pixel Boy has to offer. If you guys come up with some crazy unique power ups please share them I would love to see what some people have combined :D (The game literally has thousands of possibilities for power ups). The link will only be available for a few days and after that you guys can PM me directly if you still haven’t got the game or want to keep up to date with it.
Last but important!
We have a planned media embargo and haven’t shown any of this new content to the public yet, on that note I would just like to ask the community to not share the game to any media sources and to not leak any information outside of this forum before this time.
PS if you find a game breaking bug please let us know!
Link to the game: (windows) - PM me for a link to the game :)
Link to the game: (mac) - PM me for a link to the game :)
Vote for us on greenlight: - http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=93144574
Link to our website: - http://pixelboygame.com
Link to Make GamesSA gameplay footage: (coming soon)
PPS An old gameplay video is available on the green-light, we will upload a new one.
Comments
tl;dr - Play Pixel Boy!! :P
Here are some screen shots from the boss fight Dave and I have been working on lately.
image upload
screenshot software for windows
application screenshot
The boss fight is 3 stages, The first is a puzzle you have to solve while infinite enemies swarm you, the second is spent trying to electrocute Moby Richard in order to make his armour fall off and the third stage is the general fight where Moby gets an additional AOE attack.
Death Smashers is looking FLY as all hell :D! I left a build of PB on the comp you guys used, play it a bit and let me know what you think :)
Feeling like we new to rethink boss design as pointed out :) thanks guys
Some points I'm trying to remember from my play of PixelBoy:
1. The door opening is not visible cos obscured by the top of the door bit, we chatted about this already :)
2. The shiny light that changes colour... I completely missed the point of that, sometimes it shoots a light bolt up, and I assume that would be a good thing, but some of them lights don't change colour. Huh?
3. I *feel* like the player should be able to detect when an enemy was gonna shoot, especially because the enemy shots are so fast - right now it feels like the default state of play is to just strafe the enemy forever. If there was some kind of 'wind-up' from the enemy shooting, even if brief, the player could dodge by observation. Then variety could come in slower attacks that don't need wind-up which acts more like bullet-hell style dodge...
4. Picking up stuff needs more clarity - right now as I walk into coins and things I'm not sure if I'm picking them up or if they've disappeared because they've been around for too long. There seems to be nothing to distinguish the one case from the other.
Maybe the lack of sound (it was quite soft and the environment was loud) contributed to some of this, but I also think that audio/visual needs to both be part of the communication)
Keep up the good work! :D
The monsters were.. maybe not as polished as they should be? The small ant things that you first encounter gave me a lot of trouble throughout my playtest, but then the longer snake type ones which move faster and are clearly supposed to be harder werent much of a challenge at all.
I think the problem was the ant-type-things were a bit too relentless. They would fire quite fast and just inexorably move towards you. Maybe their firing speed should be slowed down, and maybe think about making them stand still to fire - a technique that a lot of old style games used to good effect.
@Tuism Haha i need to answer this in points as to address your awesome feedback :D (Thank you for taking the time to compile a list as this information is amazingly helpful!)
1. Yes I fully agree with you on this point, it was a complete no brainer once you brought it up and David and I are figuring out how we can make the distinction more clear :)
2. Yes all the lights change colour (in the build without bugs) the bolts which shoot up happen to certain beams and do so randomly, these beams unlock secret areas randomly within the game and are used to solve ambiguous environmental puzzles which give the player bonus treasure (most of these features were originally intended as secrets but with people liking the lights so much we have the tutorial explain them better)
3.YES! as it stand the enemy will play an animation when it shoots (the ants pincers close and open) however this isn't super visible, we are thinking maybe to have a sound effect (like a woosh sound) that plays when the enemy shoots or something like that, maybe have the enemy move backwards when they shoot, what do you think? :)
4. Hmm. as the build you had did have the sound mixing issues it could be that you didn't hear the Coin collect sound effect, also as it stands nothing disintegrates over time. Maybe we will add a particle which flys to the coin on the HUD as you pick up a coin :)
@Nitrogen, this is an interesting observation, I find the ants shoot much slower than the snakes (which are on level 2) or are you referring to the pincher monsters (they are longer and they have claws in front).
If you are talking about the pincher monsters (pinchtails) they were intended to be easier than the ants (as they do not agro the player directly and were put into the tutorial to showcase that some monsters behave similarly to environmental obstacles. On that note we are currently reworking their AI anyway (they are probably the least polished monster in the game)
If you are speaking about the actual snakes (level 2, not the level with any ants) these monsters have higher fire rate and faster movement speed than the ants and I can't imagine someone finding them easier than the ants >.< haha!
Thanks for your feedback guys!! :D
Made the blood effect and screen shake more visual, also added a level up Effect for players to be able know when they have available points after having levelled :) Amaze advice was awesome!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=c4-feed-u&v=ze6dpElORYU
Please share it like and comment as it helps a lot :)!
http://www.nag.co.za/2013/10/04/i-discovered-an-awesome-indie-at-rage-today/
http://pixelboygame.com/
@LexAquillia All thanks to humble bundle ;)
We are officially in the top 100 games on green light :P We are also negotiating with Nintendo at the moment :) We are ranked 74th
@Fengol Haha I want to put the game on as many devices as possible ;) So maybe an OR build will come soon haha!
@Warpenguin, you can pre-order the game on our website :) however we are looking at a Q1 2014 release date for the full game :)
Well done Pixel Boy! Very happy for you. I enjoyed your talk in Cape Town at the MGSA Microsoft venue in Mowbray and it is good to see your plans coming together!
But hoping you guys do well, and read to do some tweet spamming when you guys launch :3
Gratz again, it's been a long time coming :D