So lets jump into it. Boom Tag X is a comic, an animated series and also a game being created by the very stylish Artist/Animator Shawna Mills aka Lazymills. Currently, Lazy mills and her team have a kickstarter to hell them get a sizzle pilot out to possibly get the series funded, check out her work and if possible support this project. I have supported 16 kickstarter projects thus far one of them was her book project and she delivered on that book. On another note by no means is Ms Mills a lazy artist even though her online tag is LAzymills she has shown some amazing skill with the pen and has proven herself numerous times with her output and dedication to the craft. She has worked for numerous studios loaning her amazing visual finesse. Like a hawk I have observed her skill blossom into something beyond amazing her body of work is so consistent and being a fellow artist I have to always give her a shout out when I see her working on her own creator-owned merchandise.
So if you can give her project a look and some love.
CLICK THE LINK BELOW TO GO TO THE KICKSTARTER PAGE. BOOMTAGX
Rick Henderson a game by an indy Dev that goes by the name Fat Pug Studios based in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia. I came across this game like how I come across many by simply scourging the internet for awesome content to digest. This is by far one of the many things I am glad I was suggested, sadly I have not played the game as yet but the trailer seems inviting enough to a player like myself.
So let me jump into it with my limited knowledge of the game. From a surface level, the game is a space shoot-em-up with several layers of flairs. So allow me to break down the trailer which starts with the space ship doing a warp or faster than light jump. The design is similar to Gradius or r-type in that nostalgia 16bit era style pixel art which we all love. One of the many things I noticed is the use of background layering, allow me to point out what I am referring to, the debris and other none interactive ships in the background adds a certain level of visual depth which you may not notice a lot in many 2d games of this genre. In a market place where there are many games that are similar the one thing that will bring in more players is visuals and gameplay mechanics. If it feels broken you have lost any word of mouth or any method of traction. Speaking about visuals while looking deeper into the makings of this game I noticed the dev testing CRT mode, for all the younger generations CRT was the technology used in televisions of yesteryears it created an interesting scanline mode of games back in the day.
Now let’s get to the meat of a shoot them up, weapons. There seem to be several weapon systems in play for this game which include the tradition forward cannon, the spread shot cannon, the dare you try to attack me from behind cannon, the super vegitta big bang attack blast, wait did I just see that hmmm. The game has those and some other interesting ones at play. I will link the trailer below but do check out Fat Pug Studio’s page for way more details I will link it all below.
One thing to add is music and sound effects which is another layer for gameplay, well that’s if music drives your game but most certainly sfx. Again without playing teh game I can’t really comment on sfx but the dev has some of the music for the game on his youtube page so check it out as well.
I may have to pester the dev for a beta so that I can play the game and get a feel for the controls. If you are interested and want to keep an eye on this game it is stated to release Q3 2019. As per the steam page check the link For more details check https://store.steampowered.com/app/1023790/Rick_Henderson/
Since I have not played the game I can’t say much for the controls but I hope it is solid as that can make or break a game as it falls into the who gameplay mechanics. As an added bonus the developer also has a great write up on being a dev in Serbia if you want to give a lengthy read check it out on his page. http://www.fatpugstudio.com/ That’s all for my take on what is about to drop from Fat Pug Studio this year.
