#FreakZone Games

[blazehedgehog]

If one decides to start a creative project about their favorite thing, be it fanart, fanfic, fangame etc. , which approach do you prefer, the creatives involved fully dedicating themselves to recreating and recapturing what made the original works...work, or make an active choice to be derivative (this doesn't mean artists are ignorant about the original material, not necessarily) How do you feel about either, and are there any other approach you can think of?

There's this guy who used to post at SFGHQ named Sam Beddoes who now runs Freakzone Games. He's made the official Manos: The Hands of Fate game, he did both AVGN Adventures, he's the project lead on that Toxic Crusaders beat'em'up, etc.

But he's an old guard Sonic head and I've heard him turn up on a couple of Sonic podcasts, specifically to talk fangames, and by his account he got really fed up with the Sonic fangaming scene when everybody became obsessed with perfectly replicating the Genesis games, because to him, all the creativity and magic went away.

I remember hearing that and both agreeing and disagreeing with him. And I have enough thoughts about it that I've actually considered doing a video about it, and about fangaming overall.

I think there is a stigma to replicating something perfectly that's very adjacent to people who are concerned about young artists who start out by tracing pictures other people have drawn. Plagiarism is a real, legitimate problem. But it's only a problem if you lie about tracing.

I'm of the mind that if you're starting out drawing, half the problem is just learning control. Tracing can be a valuable tool in helping you to understand hand motions and give you a perspective on the construction of an image. For the earliest beginners, I don't think there's any shame in starting out by tracing. It's building muscle memory. Just don't say you drew it.

Similarly, my game development skills went way, way, way up about the time I started to analyze and perfectly replicate existing games. Like, the long canceled Sonic Forever project used an early enough version of the Sonic Worlds codebase that I had to read the Sonic Retro Physics Guide and use their data on how to add Knuckles in from scratch. My code matched how he worked in the Genesis games almost 1:1, because it was largely me just interpreting the values into something Clickteam Fusion could understand.

Something similar happened when, in 2012, I started (and never finished) a remake of my famous Mario Blue Twilight DX fangame. That's when I started really paying attention to how the source games worked so I could get a better sense of how a Mario game needed to "feel" in order to be correct.

And that trend continued with every fangame project I worked on following that, like when I figured I could make my own version of Sonic 2's Hidden Palace Zone, since I wasn't happy with the Retro Engine version. The idea was to be accurate above all else. In some cases, I'd even watch recordings of official gameplay in slow motion just so I could see exactly how the game was created, and in some cases, count frame by frame the duration of certain actions.

And all of this just makes me think of when I showed a friend my game jam game, OverBite. He complimented me on how nice the controls felt, in that kind of backhanded way where he said "When did you learn to make games feel so nice?"

Because if you go back to those really early games of mine, they all feel like garbage to control. And I attribute it to putting in a lot of time pulling apart the nuts and bolts of real retro games and putting a microscope up to why they work the way they do. Deconstructing all of their little nuances and sub-states and then trying to put it all back together again in a different programming language.

You learn a lot when you're forced to stop and understand why a piece of code exists in the way it does. Why there are all these little edge cases that you never notice but still exist to make a game feel just a little better.

At the end of the day, yes, Sam was right. Games need to have creativity and seeking out the perfect replication of the Sega Genesis Sonic games can feel somewhat futile. Every SAGE for the last ten years, there will be at least three games that instantly vanish from my memory because they are basic, plain Sonic Worlds Delta fangames with no style of their own. They just want to make Sonic 4 and we've had a lot of different Sonic 4s by now.

But the thing about learning is, you gotta learn the rules before you learn why and where to break them, because breaking (or at least bending) all of those boring, standardized rules is where your personal style starts to emerge, and that personal style is ultimately what people are going to be interested in at the end of the day.

So I think it is vitally important to start at 1:1 exact recreation and once you've made a comfortable replica, only then should you start asking yourself what you'd change and why. Make sure you understand the material before venturing further. You gotta learn to do it right first.

[satoshi-mochida]

Spark the Electric Jester 3 releases today digitally in the Americas, and worldwide on August 1st, for Switch. It is also available on Steam.

[emotionalmultimediaride]

GOG releases 6 games from Retroware

Retroware joins DRM-free forces with GOG and delivers 6 classic gaming-inspired titles. The following indie titles weren’t released in the 80ies or 90ies heyday of arcade gaming, but they sure show their inspirations proudly in presentation and simple but addictive gameplay: FreakZone Games‘ YouTuber arcade adaptation Angry Video Game Nerd I & II DeluxeProgramancer‘s adventure-puzzler Dumpy and…

[comiccrusaders]

Klayton (Celldweller) and Joshua Viola Form Bit Bot Media and Announce Strategic Partnerships with Raven Banner Entertainment and FreakZone Games! @WeAreBitBot https://ow.ly/jI1K50SppTf

[murdercide626]

SPECTACULAR SPARKY

Steam | Epic Games | Nintendo | Twitter

[jezmmart]

Commission of Louise Lightfoot, from Jump'n'Shoot Attack of Freakzone Games! Such a lovely design, she was really fun to draw.

[Click/tap image to view best quality] [More: PinUp | FanArt] (Above links may not work correctly on tumblr app)  

[fancypantsrecords]

Sam Beddoes - The Angry Video Game Nerd I&II Deluxe | Ship To Shore PhonoCo. | 2021 | White + White with Brown Splatter + Brown

[niche-gamer]

Angry Video Game Nerd I and II are Coming to Consoles https://nichegamer.com/2019/01/18/angry-video-game-nerd-i-and-ii-are-coming-to-consoles/

[blazehedgehog]

Any thoughts on the AVGN games?

I’ve only played the first one.

It’s okay, for what it is. Which is a “masocore-lite” platformer with endless toilet humor and references to AVGN episodes. You’re either in to that or you aren’t.

I remember finishing most of the game, but it looks like my save didn’t transfer over or something. I think I played it before it even had achievements, too, so I don’t even have that. Don’t know if I feel like going back and replaying it.

That’s not to say I think it’s a bad game, or anything. I know it can seem like I get bent out of shape on hard games, but how I feel about difficulty balancing is more complex. It’s kind of about expectation sometimes, right.

Like, horror games don’t scare me, because I know they’re trying to scare me. So I become hyper vigilant about how they’re setting the mood. Or, like, in movies, right, where a bit character will suddenly get a snippet of backstory out of nowhere, because they’re trying to make you care about them for when they die in five minutes. I notice that stuff a lot, too.

AVGN Adventures is up front trying to be a hard game, so it’s the kind of thing where I know what I’m getting in to. Unexpected spikes in difficulty feel rude, but when a game is open about “hey, I’m gonna rough you up a little” then yeah, sure. Sometimes, I am in the mood for that.

AVGN Adventures was a little one-note, though, so I’m not too eager to go back through it again. But I get the feeling it wasn’t really trying to be anything too grandiose. It’s fine. If you’re a fan of AVGN, it’s worth playing.

Never seen anything from AVGN Adventures 2, so I can’t really speak to that. I’d assume it’s probably a lot like the first game, but with hopefully a little more variety in hazards and level themes.

[satoshi-mochida]

Spark the Electric Jester 3 coming to Switch

From Gematsu

Feperd Games and porting house FreakZone Games will release action platformer Spark the Electric Jester 3 for Switch, the companies announced. A release date was not announced.

Spark the Electric Jester 3 first launched for PC via Steam on August 15, 2022.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

Continuing directly from where Spark the Electric Jester 2 left off, join Spark on his mission to overthrow his rival once again. Blaze through fast action packed stages and experience a new and improved combat system. The gameplay is a mix of action and platforming in a clever way, taking elements from many games of both genres, you are able to find powers that change the way you play, enjoy great freedom of movement, discover many different ways to beat each stage, and ways to do it faster.

Watch the Switch announcement trailer below.

Switch Announce Trailer

(Screenshot via Sir. Rage.)

[jerkyspixels]

The character portrait on the title screen for FreakZone Games’ “Super Jump ‘n’ Shoot Attack!”.

I was asked to take a piece of official character art and create an 8-bit/NES styled version of it. This could not be done by merely shrinking the image or by any sort of automated process. Instead I had to translate the key shapes down to a smaller resolution and simplify it manually. 

http://freakzonegames.com/post/172809457542/super-jumpnshoot-attack-will-be-available 

[tinycartridge]

Don’t sleep on Knight Terrors ⊟ 

Among the many, many Nicalis releases on Nintendo Switch -- seriously, the company has been busy with beautifully presented, top-notch content -- is a tiny eShop-only game called Knight Terrors, with a blocky old-computer aesthetic and a spooky theme appropriate to its pre-Halloween release. 

I’m a little worried it’s going to get ignored among all the very good, very big Switch games, including the other Nicalis games! It shouldn’t be, however, because it’s an excellent bite-sized action game, one which makes the most of its surprising Flappy Bird influence.

Here’s how it’ll go the first time. You, as a sturdy-looking knight with wings (for some reason) will jump over some spikes, sword a few monsters, then die. Then, the next time, you may live long enough to see the giant bats who look like they have glasses on, or the flaming skulls, or, maybe, after ten tries or so, the careening UFOs. You’ll learn to float through the Flappy Bird-esque vertical spike traps. You’ll feel thankful for the generous three-heart health bar, and... you’ll fail by letting three enemies pass you by instead. Then... hey, you got enough points to open a new mode!

Somehow, Knight Terrors is much nicer than other endless runners, by not bumping you back to the beginning immediately upon impact, but it’s still enough to be hectic. In my experience, missing one enemy disrupted my decision-making enough to lead immediately to more misses. Or running straight into a bat. Or getting overconfident about the throwing-axe item I just found and missing an arc. Even with the unusually cushioned lifespan, this game is tense as heck.

All right, so it’s November. We can enjoy monsters and scariness after Halloween. There’s nothing in the rulebook that says all the flaming skulls have to go away November 1. And we can cleanse our palates between the long, long Mario sessions with a challenging runner.

THE NEW CLUB TINY IS HERE  Support Tiny Cartridge!

[ryunumber]

What about my man torgo from manos

Torgo has a Ryu Number of 3/4.

(clarification and update below)

(UPDATE: With the addition of a Ryu skin in Minecraft, Torgo has a less ambiguous Ryu Number of 3.)

A video game adaptation of the legendarily bad 1966 B movie Manos: The Hands of Fate was developed by FreakZone Games in 2012, which included the giant monster from 1957 B movie The Giant Claw as a boss. One year later, FreakZone Games would go on to release Angry Video Game Nerd Adventures, which features the monster as a boss fight again.

As for the number discrepancy, the bosses of AVGN Adventures's Blizzard of Balls stage are the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, represented in-game as they were in the 2007 AVGN Christmas special by "Stuttering" Craig Skistimas, "Nervous" Nick Cramer (both formerly of ScrewAttack, the latter replacing "Handsome" Tom Hanley), and Dracula from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.

Does this count as Dracula? Debatable, but this one at least is indisputably Castlevania's Dracula.

[murdercide626]

Nightshade

by JamoART

[miketendo-64]

[Review] Knight Terrors (Nintendo Switch)

[Review] #KnightTerrors (#NintendoSwitch) @nicalis @FreakZoneGames

Platform Nintendo Switch

Release Date Oct 24, 2017

No. of Players 1 player

Category Action

Developer Freakzone Games / Nicalis Inc.

Do you remember those side-scroller games where you have to obliterate pretty much anything in your path whilst avoiding obstacles in order to get a high score that would rank you king of the arcades? Well if you were to take the format of Gradius for example and…

[nintendonext]

Switch news 25/10/2017: Nintendo, ληστείες και... μούμιες;

Switch news 25/10/2017: Nintendo, ληστείες και… μούμιες;

Άλλη μια μέρα και μαζί με τη βροχή, έρχεται και μια καταιγίδα από βίντεο για το Switch. Πάμε να δούμε τα νέα για τη ναυαρχίδα της Nintendo! (more…)