By the way Pavero, are you involved in the project yourself? ;)
Really not, I swear :). I only forward this information further. Paradoxically I have recieved this info from the author of the orginal game - Ladislav Balara.
I remember first seeing this game and thinking WOW!... The graphics are outstanding for a Speccy... but thats also the catch: The remake will have to come up with a new outstanding feature to make it different from the crowd... We already have Dizzy game engines floating around and there are already plenty of other games out there that play very much like this... Towdie was outstanding because of it showed off what ZX graphics could look like and because the characters were charming and imaginative... Most PC gamers are already used to seeing well designed graphics and take that for granted...
To make Towdie outstanding again, it would not be enough to simply remake it, or even to make it "bigger" - one would have to make it "different"...
Now, it is not inconceivable that this could be done with "animation"... Towdie is, if you think about it, a good choice for a computer character and all-round masgot, with much potential... However, the animation would have to be exceptional, funny, and imaginative... Perhaps, if enough humour, zany features and other forms of attention to detail were introduced, one could create the next Earth-Worm-Jim affair, but certainly, it would require more than just the average collect-em-up-dizzy-type effort of a game to achieve that... Unpaid amaters are and have already turned out dizzy-type games, so if this project is pledging for money, they'll have to turn out something quite special, and that is going to require some major thought and design planning...
If you were going to keep the same basic format of game and wow me, I would at least expect to see the following:
- Exceptional cartoon animation (lots of frames to make it smooth),
- Easter egg surprises that aren't activated each game, giving the player that feeling that he hasn't seen it all yet.
- Some alternative endings/multiple narratives to give the game lasting appeal
- Some Zany/Wacky, over the top side missions that offer something outside the main mission...
- Some action - yes, I know its a Dizzy-like game, but current game users are less forgiving of slow paced "arcade adventure" puzzle games of yesteryear... We don't have to cater to those with the ADHD attention span of a gold-fish, but we could at least give the player something more to do than just walk from one side of the map to the other to try all his objects out for "puzzle" solving...
- Interactive backgrounds... With decent graphics, one should expect more from our backgrounds to make them more alive, more dynamic than yesteryear...
These are just a couple of things off top of my head...
Comments
I'd love to see it released but I'm very hesitant abut the Kickstarter project success :(
You remember people the Kickstarter project about Dizzy and its epic failure? Of 350 000$ there was 20000$ collected or so.
If the famous great Dizzy, known to every retrofan failed, how can a remake of a Slovak game, know only to most diehard Spectrum fans succeed???
Or a I missing something ?
That must be us lot then. Sadly, I won't be pledging anything. But I wish them luck with it.
Really not, I swear :). I only forward this information further. Paradoxically I have recieved this info from the author of the orginal game - Ladislav Balara.
But he has nothing to do with this project also.
http://www.zx-spectrum.cz
To make Towdie outstanding again, it would not be enough to simply remake it, or even to make it "bigger" - one would have to make it "different"...
Now, it is not inconceivable that this could be done with "animation"... Towdie is, if you think about it, a good choice for a computer character and all-round masgot, with much potential... However, the animation would have to be exceptional, funny, and imaginative... Perhaps, if enough humour, zany features and other forms of attention to detail were introduced, one could create the next Earth-Worm-Jim affair, but certainly, it would require more than just the average collect-em-up-dizzy-type effort of a game to achieve that... Unpaid amaters are and have already turned out dizzy-type games, so if this project is pledging for money, they'll have to turn out something quite special, and that is going to require some major thought and design planning...
If you were going to keep the same basic format of game and wow me, I would at least expect to see the following:
- Exceptional cartoon animation (lots of frames to make it smooth),
- Easter egg surprises that aren't activated each game, giving the player that feeling that he hasn't seen it all yet.
- Some alternative endings/multiple narratives to give the game lasting appeal
- Some Zany/Wacky, over the top side missions that offer something outside the main mission...
- Some action - yes, I know its a Dizzy-like game, but current game users are less forgiving of slow paced "arcade adventure" puzzle games of yesteryear... We don't have to cater to those with the ADHD attention span of a gold-fish, but we could at least give the player something more to do than just walk from one side of the map to the other to try all his objects out for "puzzle" solving...
- Interactive backgrounds... With decent graphics, one should expect more from our backgrounds to make them more alive, more dynamic than yesteryear...
These are just a couple of things off top of my head...
But most of all... ...surprise me!
:)
http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Toadwart
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
Er... given they're Slovak, I'd rather say that it's a clone, right? ;)