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[Alexios]

Official website.



In Anodyne, you explore and fight your way through nature, urban and abstract themed areas in the human Young's subconscious, evoked by a 16-bit-era visual style and a moody, dream-like soundtrack.



The player moves between rooms 160x160 pixels in size, an intended constraint that was used to create the monster-filled dungeons you will navigate and the set of nature-based (and sometimes stranger) places you will explore.



On sale for $8 until Feb 11th

Dev Store | Desura | GamersGate



Greenlight | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | IndieDB



You can also buy the soundtrack here.



Impressions on the TIGS forums seem pretty good so far, I'm interested, what about you?

 

[Log4Girlz]

Hate the colors.

 

[Mike M]

Reminds me a lot of FF6's aesthetics.

EDIT: OK, now I'm intrigued. I'm the furthest thing in the world from an artist, what aspects of color theory does this run afoul of?

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Hate the colors.

yeah, someone's gotta go back to color theory class.

on a positive note, some of the sprites are nice. i like the cliff

 

[Marlowe89]

In Anodyne, you explore and fight your way through nature, urban and abstract themed areas in the human Young's subconscious

Ugh, getting sick of this try-hard artsy shit in indie games.

 

[Alexios]

What's try hard artsy about that? The dream/mind worlds theme has been a constant through gaming history, not just indies.

 

[injurai]

Ugh, getting sick of this try-hard artsy shit in indie games.

This. Leave the supra-conscience design to Jonathan Blow and his licensed artists.

 

[MrKayle]

the trailer has incredible music

 

[CorySchmitz]

Love the colors.

 

[Always-honest]

Looks interesting. I like the music too.
Love the colours.

 

[popyea]

Love the colors.

Yeah, that 3rd gif really stood out to me.

 

[Tenrius]

I thought it would be a 3D Zelda-like when I saw the title (should we get a mod to change it, maybe?). That would be better, but this one also looks interesting, aside from the colours.

 

[Messofanego]

Ugh, getting sick of this try-hard artsy shit in indie games.

But it's ok in non-indie games? What's try-hard about it?

BTW, nice GIF use

 

[Drakken]

Was wondering if someone was gonna start a thread about this. I pre-ordered it based on the fact that it was supposed to be Link's Awakening-like, plus I really liked what I heard of the dreamy, nostalgic-sounding music. Haven't gotten to start it yet, but I've heard good things about the experience.

 

[TheBera]

Cool, glad they finished it, I'm gonna buy it sooner or later!

What's with the negativity about the story? Don't see anything too "artsy" about that.

 

[A Sentient Keyboard]

I think the colouring is great.

 

[PsySal]

[deleted]

 

[Lissar]

I think the colouring is great.

The first image is not so great, but I like it in the second, third, and final gif. I love seeing a game with pixel art and muted, naturalistic shades. I'm interested, I'll pick it up one of these days.

 

[Ravidrath]

Hate the colors.

Yeah, the colors are pretty bad.

It's like they thought of all the colors people might want to see in a game, and then tacked "off-" onto the front of their names and went with those instead.

 

[Shimesaba]

A dude from my class at College actually did the art. I saw the title and started to get excited about the chance to point him to a thread on GAF, but with all the hate on the coloring... Yeah, maybe not.

Haven't tried it myself yet but I personally like the look, especially the sprite work. (mad biased though of course)

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

Colours look good to me

 

[Freshmaker]

What's try hard artsy about that? The dream/mind worlds theme has been a constant through gaming history, not just indies.

Young's unconscious? That's about as awful a pun as that one game that starred Yu that Nintendo kept turning down because the creator was a freak.

 

[fallagin]

I like how it looks. :/

edit: why is he jumping into a doorway in the fourth gif?

 

[JLuke2600]

I love the colors. Very comfortable looking game.

 

[disappeared]

I'm going to guess that Chrono Trigger was also somewhat of an inspiration, at least based off some of those images.

Looks interesting.

 

[Marlowe89]

But it's ok in non-indie games? What's try-hard about it?

It's okay in non-indie titles because they're generally not trying to shove the "LOOK AT MY GAME GUISE SO AMBIENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ABSTRACT XD" thematic material down my throat for the millionth fucking time and actually have the skills and assets to pull off whatever they're trying to do. I know it can be difficult to independently develop something moderately successful, but I seriously don't get why these guys can't think of other ways to stand out.

YOU may not find it extremely tiring by this point, but hey, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Alexios]

Here's a thought, play less games that don't appeal to you (if you've even played all those) so that themes don't annoy you to the point you start bashing everything that may be even remotely related to such without knowing if they are or aren't bad.

Weird some of these people would probably find it less cliche or anyway better if it was just "hero, go defeat evil" etc.

Young's unconscious? That's about as awful a pun as that one game that starred Yu that Nintendo kept turning down because the creator was a freak.

Not really an answer to my question.

 

[Jucksalbe]

in the human Young's subconscious

Someone was very creative with the naming, I see...
Oh well, doesn't look very good, so I'll probably skip this anyway.

 

[Baleoce]

Colours look great.

 

[EdwardTivrusky]

The palette looks fine to me. It has an autumnal feel to it or fall feel for you americans
I'm not too sure about the subconcious/dream storyline but i'll probably give it a whirl regardless as it's only a couple of quid.

 

[Marlowe89]

Here's a thought, play less games that don't appeal to you (if you've even played all those) so that themes don't annoy you to the point you start bashing everything that may be even remotely related to such without knowing if they are or aren't bad.

Nice try, but when did I ever say anything about the game as a whole? Check your temperature.

 

[Alexios]

Nice try, but when did I ever say anything about the game as a whole? Check your temperature.

Nice try but when did I ever say you ever said anything about the game as a whole? Check your temperature (wut?).

 

[Marlowe89]

Telling me to "play less games that don't appeal to me" because I mentioned I wasn't personally crazy about one aspect of the game is hilariously indicative of how unreasonably defensive you are about it.

 

[Kokonoe]

I like the OG Pokemon graphics.

 

[Deleted member 57681]

Colors are very Secret of Evermoreish. Looks good imo.

 

[Twilight Princess]

in my opinion, this game looks like absolute horseshit.

 

[BlueSteel]

I know Sean and tested this for him. For his second game, first if you count very serious project, I think he did a great job.

One thing that stood out to me through my playthrough is the idea of exploration. The game gives you little hints here or there, but that's it - you're on your own from there on. I thought the puzzles were clever, and the combat was pretty decent. It's definitely not the highlight, but it's a good game nonetheless.

 

[SolsticeZero]

Looks cool, but I can see what people are saying about the colors. Reminds me of the Minecraft "Brown and Bloom" texture pack with that color scheme.

 

[Mr_Elysia]

This. Leave the supra-conscience design to Jonathan Blow and his licensed artists.

I hope I'm just not picking up the sarcasm in this. If there is none, then no...not at all. Jonathan Blow is great, I'm sure, and fully capable in his own right, I'm sure, but to say "Don't try deep!" is silly. Better put down that pen if your name isn't Dostoyevsky! C'mon innovators, leave the innovation to da Vinci. Maybe you're right though Tesla tried his luck and look where it got him!

 

[Confidence Man]

Tired of the "16-bit era" style. If you must use pixel art do something interesting with it like Sworcery.

 

[Pyrrhus]

Tired of the "16-bit era" style. If you must use pixel art do something interesting with it like Sworcery.

These sorts of games look more like Game Boy Color games with larger palettes than proper 16-bit console games.

 

[Shion]

"LOOK AT MY GAME GUISE SO AMBIENT AND PSYCHOLOGICAL AND ABSTRACT XD"

I'd rather have this, than generic looking games with nothing interesting to look at.

and actually have the skills and assets to pull off whatever they're trying to do.

It's exactly because the indie scene can't compete with the AAAAAAAAAAA scene when it comes to high-quality assets and technology that you see more "artsy" stuff.

 

[injurai]

I hope I'm just not picking up the sarcasm in this. If there is none, then no...not at all. Jonathan Blow is great, I'm sure, and fully capable in his own right, I'm sure, but to say "Don't try deep!" is silly. Better put down that pen if your name isn't Dostoyevsky! C'mon innovators, leave the innovation to da Vinci. Maybe you're right though Tesla tried his luck and look where it got him!

Perhaps the sarcasm was understated. But what you said, needed to be said anyways. I do think their is a lot of bad faux-intellectualism that is jammed into a lot of indie games these days, but that doesn't mean its not pulled off well. In fact it's probably one of the redeeming values of most of the indie games that I really enjoyed.

 

[Nillansan]

I've been keeping my eyes on this game for a while now, hopefully it will get Green lighted soon. I am going to get it at some point either way.

 

[MrKayle]

I'm a bit surprised to see all the backlash towards the design of the game.

I suspect people are more turned off by the characters than the 'scenes'. this shot's surroundings make me think Yoshi's Island:

but the black-outline bunny and player do look kinda bad

 

[Alexios]

Telling me to "play less games that don't appeal to me" because I mentioned I wasn't personally crazy about one aspect of the game is hilariously indicative of how unreasonably defensive you are about it.

You're right, such bad advice. Clearly you should play more games that make you "sick" enough to moan at the possibility of a similar element without even knowing the extent of it or how it's handled, because you're right, it is hilarious to see after all. But yeah, I'm totally defensive because I called out your irrational knee jerk reactions. I haven't even commented on the game's quality yet, or how those elements are handled. Because, much like you, I don't really know. Except I act like it.

 

[Mr_Elysia]

Perhaps the sarcasm was understated. But what you said, needed to be said anyways. I do think their is a lot of bad faux-intellectualism that is jammed into a lot of indie games these days, but that doesn't mean its not pulled off well. In fact it's probably one of the redeeming values of most of the indie games that I really enjoyed.

Almost the entire lot of it induces a palm to the face and a shake of the head, but to not try means we'll never see the few genius thinkers whose ideas are worth putting out there.

 

[Marlowe89]

I do think their is a lot of bad faux-intellectualism that is jammed into a lot of indie games these days, but that doesn't mean its not pulled off well.

What? "Bad faux-intellectualism", as a description, implies it isn't pulled off well.

 

[Haunted]

Checked it out on Greenlight, saw that I already voted "Yes".

feels good man

 

[smr00]

Ugh, getting sick of this try-hard artsy shit in indie games.

I have been over the 8 bit look.

Feels like a cheap way out of actually doing any kind of art for your game. It was novel years ago but now this stuff is just bloated in the indie scene.