MajiKana - Indie title with the Genesis' limitations

[stika]

While browsing YouTube I came across this video, apparently it's an indie videogame in the style of Wonderboy 2 for the Master System, being developed with the graphical limitations of the Sega Genesis




Looks good and outside of some small sprite rotation, they don't seem to be doing anything the Sega Genesis couldn't do.


UPDATE: IT'S RECEIVING A SEGA GENESIS CARTRIDGE RELEASE

[Vludi]

If they promote it as a Genesis-style game, why not develop it for the genesis? looks solid though

[SEGA.GENESIS1989]

Oooh! Nice find! Why didn't we get a game like this back in the day? It looks great!

In one of the comments, the developer wrote the following:

Ruko Michiharu 2 months ago
+MyLittleDiscolite If someone who actually programmed for the Genesis were interested, maybe I could put a demo with an exclusive stage (separate from the main game) in an actual Genesis ROM so that you could play it on a real Genesis (or Mega Drive) using a flash cart, but the whole game in a real cart for sale is a bit unlikely >w>

[EPSYLON EAGLE]

Brock Crocodile foward same way.



Perhaps Sega 16 community interaction, can make the games developers change their mind, and give any attention for original Genny fans.

[tryphon]

Oooh! Nice find! Why didn't we get a game like this back in the day? It looks great!

In one of the comments, the developer wrote the following:

Sik ?

[Sik]

lolno, I'd be making it on the real thing if it was me =P (you get this from me instead)

And yeah on the sales thing, if Piko's numbers are anything to go by, I'm not sure it's even really feasible to try to make cartridges for this for a profit, not to mention that on PC you can get things going much faster (although one could use a modified emulator that passes the full PC peripheral input if one insists to get both at the same time).

(EDIT: added link to Piko's post)

outside of some small sprite rotation

The tumbling crate? That's not rotation, the steps can be clearly seen. It's just that it splits the box into multiple 1×1 tile sprites to make a smoother transition, but the cheating is still rather obvious. (the obvious problem is that it's eating tons of sprites so not exactly something feasible to do all over the place =P then again says the guy who made Miniplanets...)

[Zebbe]

If you go by WaterMelon's or perhaps Super Fighter Team's numbers (I don't know the latter), then the cartridge sales thing might be worth it.

[stika]

The tumbling crate? That's not rotation, the steps can be clearly seen. It's just that it splits the box into multiple 1×1 tile sprites to make a smoother transition, but the cheating is still rather obvious. (the obvious problem is that it's eating tons of sprites so not exactly something feasible to do all over the place =P then again says the guy who made Miniplanets...)

Oh I see, thank you!

As for the sales debate. I think it's obvious you stand a great chance of attaining better sales by launching the game on PC rather than the Mega Drive. Obviously making it a Mega Drive game is a labour of love and one I'd buy in an instant, but unless the dev is willing to port it to the 16-bit console (which I'm guessing, it's not all that easy) and manages to find a distributor (Piko, anyone?) I doubt it will bring in big numbers.

It's sad that the average Piko game seems to sell around 100 units, but that's just how these things go. I only hope Piko won't stop publishing these titles.

[LinkueiBR]

Looks very fluid and fun to play but the background graphics looks simple and a bit ugly

[Sik]

Would be probably still better than a lot of the existing homebrew. But yeah that may hurt for the PC release...

[stika]

The backgrounds look about on-par with early MD releases imo.

Most likely the dev didn't want to push any 'limits' of the hardware was capable of

[pikointeractive]

Oh I see, thank you!

As for the sales debate. I think it's obvious you stand a great chance of attaining better sales by launching the game on PC rather than the Mega Drive. Obviously making it a Mega Drive game is a labour of love and one I'd buy in an instant, but unless the dev is willing to port it to the 16-bit console (which I'm guessing, it's not all that easy) and manages to find a distributor (Piko, anyone?) I doubt it will bring in big numbers.

It's sad that the average Piko game seems to sell around 100 units, but that's just how these things go. I only hope Piko won't stop publishing these titles.

One major thing that I think it has affected the sales is that we haven't really done a New game from scratch, just re-releasing games. For that, numbers are not bad; and I could easily sell several thousand copies wholesale if I decided to sell our games under 8 bucks. But I think it de-valuates the project (may be a couple of years after the life cycle of the game is done).

Water Melon has sold 6.5K so I've heard units for PS; I think we would be able to match that if we were to release a project of that scale.

Also remember, Water Margin is the very first game we have sold for Genesis; SFT sold 500 on their first project, when there wasn't any competition really. So our numbers I see it as a success (Water Margin has surpassed 200 copied btw).

But I always show that because a lot of people that reach us saying they want their game to be sold on carts have false expectations of becoming millionairs over night because Water Melon sold a ton of Pier Solar. You always have to have the lowest expectations to be able to be surprised; instead of highest to be disappointed.

Also, those numbers are a reason why I always offer to buyout the games outright which offers the homebrewer a larger upfront cash and less risk for a flop.

[stika]

One major thing that I think it has affected the sales is that we haven't really done a New game from scratch, just re-releasing games. For that, numbers are not bad; and I could easily sell several thousand copies wholesale if I decided to sell our games under 8 bucks. But I think it de-valuates the project (may be a couple of years after the life cycle of the game is done).

Water Melon has sold 6.5K so I've heard units for PS; I think we would be able to match that if we were to release a project of that scale.

Also remember, Water Margin is the very first game we have sold for Genesis; SFT sold 500 on their first project, when there wasn't any competition really. So our numbers I see it as a success (Water Margin has surpassed 200 copied btw).

But I always show that because a lot of people that reach us saying they want their game to be sold on carts have false expectations of becoming millionairs over night because Water Melon sold a ton of Pier Solar. You always have to have the lowest expectations to be able to be surprised; instead of highest to be disappointed.

Also, those numbers are a reason why I always offer to buyout the games outright which offers the homebrewer a larger upfront cash and less risk for a flop.

Completely understandable. I quite enjoyed both your Genesis games and hope to get whichever games coming (what games are coming btw?).

Keep up the excellent work.

[Zebbe]

One major thing that I think it has affected the sales is that we haven't really done a New game from scratch, just re-releasing games. For that, numbers are not bad; and I could easily sell several thousand copies wholesale if I decided to sell our games under 8 bucks. But I think it de-valuates the project (may be a couple of years after the life cycle of the game is done).

Water Melon has sold 6.5K so I've heard units for PS; I think we would be able to match that if we were to release a project of that scale.

Also remember, Water Margin is the very first game we have sold for Genesis; SFT sold 500 on their first project, when there wasn't any competition really. So our numbers I see it as a success (Water Margin has surpassed 200 copied btw).

But I always show that because a lot of people that reach us saying they want their game to be sold on carts have false expectations of becoming millionairs over night because Water Melon sold a ton of Pier Solar. You always have to have the lowest expectations to be able to be surprised; instead of highest to be disappointed.

Also, those numbers are a reason why I always offer to buyout the games outright which offers the homebrewer a larger upfront cash and less risk for a flop.

+1. Except Pier Solar has actually sold around 10k now. It was in development for over 6 years, was delayed several years and many people who pre-ordered rightfully got pissed about that. But it did pay off in the end.

Glad to hear Water Margin passed the 200 mark. I think your RPGs will sell even better.

I'm looking forward your coming games. Got any news?

[Sik]

The problem with Pier Solar though is that it had a huge hype machine behind it, so it really isn't a good comparison for other homebrew.