PC Engine/TG-16 game Kickstarter with stretch goals for ports to Genesis/Sega-CD/DC

I'm working on a new PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16 Super CD game called Henshin Engine. It's based on the manga by Sarumaru, who has started a Kickstarter campaign for ports to various platforms.

I'd really like to be able to do a version for Genesis and/or Sega-CD, hopefully with exclusive stages.

It stars a girl named Yuki, who winds up inside some of the games for her favorite console. Each stage is inspired by game series which appeared on PC Engine. Should stretch goals be reached for Genesis/Sega-CD ports, I'm hoping to swap out stages based on games which did not appear on Genesis/Sega-CD with ones which did and have the Mega Drive based character as the main playable character. So far the first few stages all have Genesis games: Wonderboy/Monsterworld, Cotton and Castlevania.

Even if you're just a fan of "retro" game music, you may be interested in the professional soundtrack alone.


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...tg-16-pc-steam


http://www.henshinengine.com/













Here's a preview of the Castlevania-inspired stage:



http://superpcenginegrafx.net/misc/h...rez_promo1.png

Looks awesome!. I love the "stages inspired on classic games" theme. You even have a Lucretia inspired stage... so cool!

And the act/plat is a genre were the PCE needs more games, so this fits like a glove.

Black Tiger, you know the PCE is dying for a Contra type of game... any chance you will include a level with run and gun gameplay?

No hucard version?

Some lovely parallax type effects going on, congrats, its looking sweet so far!

yeah, too broke to support right now but this does look dope, best of luck to em!

Nice, I didn't know you were working with Saru and Rove on this Black_Tiger! I have backed and am happy it's so close to the 20K mark, maybe that Dreamcast release is pretty close to happening!

Needs more parallax :p

Oh man I really want to back this... But I'd only be able to play it if the Genesis port gets made as I don't own a TG-16 and probably won't for a while...

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Originally Posted by AggroSky

Oh man I really want to back this... But I'd only be able to play it if the Genesis port gets made as I don't own a TG-16 and probably won't for a while...

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You love old school shooters but don't have a PCE/CD? But I hear collecting for it is getting pretty crazy if it's US released games anyway...

We need a 32X version. I will have to support this as I just bought a PCECD last year.

...what would you use a 32X for?

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Originally Posted by Sik

...what would you use a 32X for?

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To get my Genesis laid. What else.

http://gangeekstyle.com/wp-content/u...ega-cd-32x.jpg

I always wanted a 32x just for a few select games (like MK2, VR). Too bad I never ended up with one. Especially when they went on crazy discount, so I really had no excuse not to own one.

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Originally Posted by AggroSky

Oh man I really want to back this... But I'd only be able to play it if the Genesis port gets made as I don't own a TG-16 and probably won't for a while...

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If you have a Dreamcast then you should be fine. They are like a hair away from getting the funding for a Dreamcast version done.

The Dreamcast version has been unlocked. It will feature all-new 'Dreamcast quality' visuals and I assume that the Windows version will look the same. You can make any pledge which comes with the PC Engine version and choose to have a Dreamcast copy instead. Development of the Dreamcast version will not begin until the PC Engine version is complete.

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Originally Posted by saturndual32

Looks awesome!. I love the "stages inspired on classic games" theme. You even have a Lucretia inspired stage... so cool!

And the act/plat is a genre were the PCE needs more games, so this fits like a glove.

Black Tiger, you know the PCE is dying for a Contra type of game... any chance you will include a level with run and gun gameplay?

No hucard version?

Some lovely parallax type effects going on, congrats, its looking sweet so far!

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The stages are inspired by series which already have games for PC Engine, so I don't expect a Contra clone. I do have a few game projects I'm working on slowly on my own and one is a Contra style run 'n gun, but like the others, I'm waiting until all of the assets and design are complete before talking to people about making an actual game.

HuCard roms need to be programmed differently than CD games, so it's not as simple as just slapping the same game on HuCard alternative. Chiptunes are also still difficult to make for PC Engine and few people are doing them at all. Although there is now a good custom HuCard which can be mass-produced, it would be very expensive and it's unlikely that most people wouhuard version.ld want to spend $70 - $100 for a downgraded version of the CD game. One of the selling points of Henshin Engine is the CD soundtrack, which would be completely lost in a HuCard version. I wouldn't be surprised if a version or off-shoot eventually gets on HuCard, but it would be a long time from now as the PC and Dreamcast versions will be worked on next.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Needs more parallax :p

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If the Castlevania inspired stage turns out as planned, the entire stage will feature "impossible-on-PC Engine" dual layer overlapping parallax, including sections which scroll horizontally, diagonally and vertically.







Here's a video of an early and rough version of the Cotton style stage using the new assets:





Not everything is in place yet and some of the effects aren't complete.




The stretch goal for ports to other consoles is not too far off and I'm still holding out hope for a Genesis or Sega-CD version.

What do people think of this opinion from DreamcastJunkyard?

http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.u...in-engine.html

I am undecided.

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Originally Posted by Genesis Knight

What do people think of this opinion from DreamcastJunkyard?

http://www.thedreamcastjunkyard.co.u...in-engine.html

I am undecided.

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Seems a bit sensationalist to me personally.


I've talked with the dev and Saru plenty of times and they seem super devoted to making this come to life on the TG16/PCE. The fact that they have multiple levels already produced and playable demos shows me that they have a lot put into it already and they're able to see it through to the end. Saru is a REALLY good pixel artist and so is Black_Tiger, the music already sounds awesome to me, and what I've seen Nod has done coding wise makes me impressed with his ability to really push the limits on the PC Engine.

I can see their concern on the DC port since I don't think anyone on the team has really done DC work before, but it doesn't seem that far fetched for production to me since they're already working on a PC version as well which means it should be relatively easy to port given how high level DC coding is compared to that used for the TG16.

The thing that kind of gets me is their railing on the dev for missed dates on stuff. There is a lot of stuff going on with Lucretia and the other projects that it's easy to look at and say "they never hit dates!", but I think some slack needs to be given.

tl;dr - My opinion is TG16/PCE is going to happen for sure and maybe even ahead of schedule, DC is a bit more open ended but doesn't seem hard to port. Drama doesn't help.

I will never understand Dreamcast ports of 16 bit games, or why anyone would want that (including DC fans), but I suppose I'm not the target audience there. Porting this to the DC should only be slightly harder than porting it to windows.

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

I will never understand Dreamcast ports of 16 bit games, or why anyone would want that (including DC fans), but I suppose I'm not the target audience there. Porting this to the DC should only be slightly harder than porting it to windows.

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I feel the same about retro style ports to DC, but this is supposed to have new Dreamcast quality visuals, so it won't be like those NG Dev Team Neo Geo ports.

But I'd still rather have a straight port of a 16-bit game than a mechanical mix of 16-bit assets and DC quality assets.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

But I'd still rather have a straight port of a 16-bit game than a mechanical mix of 16-bit assets and DC quality assets.

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Yeah... that did not work well at all xD

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

Although there is now a good custom HuCard which can be mass-produced, it would be very expensive and it's unlikely that most people wouhuard version.ld want to spend $70 - $100 for a downgraded version of the CD game.

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This was true even back then, CDs were always much cheaper than ROMs (as well as much easier to print on demand) so the moment you could make the CD-based console reasonably accessible all devs would immediately jump on that. If Sega had gotten their act together on the Sega CD, we may have seen the same happen there.

The stretch goal for a port to consoles including Genesis and Sega-CD is just under $4300 away with 26 hours to go. At the pace it has gone the last few days, it might make it but it will be close.

80 minutes left and only $626 away from a potential Genesis or Sega-CD port.

19 minutes and $167 away.

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Originally Posted by Black_Tiger

19 minutes and $167 away.

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Looks like you guys just barely did it!

I saw the message about the lack of SNES port. Personally I think Genesis/SegaCD makes more sense anyway since the main antagonist is based off the Genesis/Mega Drive.

Thankfully, the poll was changed from potentially facebook to the official site. So there won't be a majority of votes from friends and family asking for "Nintendo".

Sega-CD makes the most sense. The Genesis can actually run the game, it can fit within a single 2 meg memory bank and just run essentially on the Genesis hardware aside from sound and the reduction in color will be straightforward since it's still 9-bit. It'll also cut down on publishing cost and piracy. I'm going to suggest that even if it doesn't win the vote, that a Sega-CD version (hopefully with Sega-tailored content) is worthwhile to do anyway.

Yeah, I just don't want you guys to stretch resources too thin. Focus on the PCE/PC versions and get em out to me ;)

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Originally Posted by xelement5x

Yeah, I just don't want you guys to stretch resources too thin. Focus on the PCE/PC versions and get em out to me ;)

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It's not going to be like Project Y, N and misc.

Only the PC Engine version is going to be worked on until it is complete. Then the Steam/PC/Dreamcast/misc version which is essentially one game which is then customized for each platform variant.

Depending on who is going do which parts of the other console port, work can be done on it at the same time by people not involved in the computer version(s). If it's going to be Genesis/Sega-CD, then I'd like to customize the assets and create as much original content as is needed. We'll see how things play out (so far I'm technically only committed to the PCE version), but what's been said all along, before the kickstarter even existed, is that the PC Engine version will be completed before work begins on the next version.

Regular updates will continue, although I don't know if any will be exclusive to kickstarter supporters.

Here's the first build of the Castlevania style stage.






Still very early, but coming together quickly.

[nitpick]Needs parallax[/nitpick]

Serious now, actually was thinking about it, only the mountains in the windows would need parallax, and that's like a 48×24 graphic or so? (thinking about rewriting tiles here) And then you could just slap the window as a sprite on top, seeing as it's not really a large area (and windows are spread apart too, they aren't close to each other). The rest of the window would just remain background as usual.

Needs parallax :sonic:

That background sure looks gorgeous though.

Nice! I'd seen the BG for the stage from Rove but seeing it in action it looks awesome. Nice work Black_Tiger! I can't wait to see what else is coming :D

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Originally Posted by Kamahl

Needs parallax :sonic:

That background sure looks gorgeous though.

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It's already impelented in the latest build.

I designed the outside to pop, as well as work for several methods of parallax. As long as the mountain strip moves, it will look the same as if the outside artwork is an independently scrolling tile layer.

It's looking like even the boss room will have parallax. :)

FYI here is the current vote results (9:56 PM EST) for the next Henshin Engine port:
http://i1054.photobucket.com/albums/...psrrkbyria.jpg

Polling ended just recently and it looks like they confirmed it's going to be a Genesis port, cool!