New game coming for the Amiga in the near future: "Aquabyss"

[mr_lou]

Today "Aquabyss" was announced; a new game for the Amiga to be released in the near future.

http://aquabyss.com/

The developer is very passionate about this project, and he has been working on it full time for over 3 years at this point. (He found the solution to the lack of time for these projects: Quit your job! - so he did).

I'm doing the music for the game, good old 4-channel Protracker MODs. Always wanted to try that, so I hope it'll all be a big success of course.    And I've actually learned new stuff about the MOD format I didn't know for all these years, despite having spent my youth tracking MODs on the Amiga. So it's been fun so far.

So far no info on any specifics, and I'm under a gentlemans NDA, so I can't say anything. (Not that I know a whole lot though).

Fingers crossed that this will be great!

[Targhan]

I guess the trailer looks nothing like the real game will be, right? I don't think an Amiga can display such 3D stuff .

[mr_lou]

True. 

It'll run on an Amiga 500 (but requires harddisk), so you know the graphics are somewhat retro.

He hired someone to do the trailer video, and I think there's a 2nd trailer on it way too. Just gives you an idea of how passionate he is about the project.

[robcfg]

I guess the trailer looks nothing like the real game will be, right? I don't think an Amiga can display such 3D stuff .

In good hands, an Amiga can accomplish quite decent 3D.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2CTSY6JbVY


And if you update it with much more ram and a 68060 processor, it can do this:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqnZH7Pa3vo

[Widukind]

It's always so exciting to see a new retro game. I totally enjoy this. What smart minds come up with for our old hard-ware. That's the power of soft-ware.

Also I'm glad that you, Mr. Lou, are a part of such a retro work.

I'm on edge for the release of Aquabyss. Good luck, Mr. Lou and your team.

[mr_lou]

And I love Amiga four channel soundtracker music. When a friend and I wrote our Coconizer soundtracker for the Acorn Archimedes which could do four and eight channel soundtracks, I wrote the ARM assembler music-player and we converted many of those great Amiga soundtracks to our Archimedes soundtracker format.

That sounds awesome! Had to find a
YouTube video showing Coconizer. Looks great! And nice with 8 channels.
Back in those days I only had 4 channels in Protracker, while my PC mates began using ScreamTracker with a lot more channels.
So it was great when 8-channel tracker DigiBooster, and later DigiBooster Pro came along for the Amiga. 

I'm on edge for the release of Aquabyss. Good luck, Mr. Lou and your team.

Thanks! Although it's not really my team as such. I've just been hired kinda to do the music. He's aiming for a commercial release. A free version for everyone who wants to just download (I think), (EDIT: no, there is no free version (at least not at first maybe some years after the commercial release though)) but also a boxed purchasable version as we've seen with many CPC releases in newer time. If successful, I'll then get a percentage of the sales for my work.

His vision with Aged Code Studio is to develop Amiga games full time. For this to work out there obviously has to be an interest in the commercial versions of his games. So we'll see how it goes. If it goes well I wouldn't mind doing music for his next game(s) too, and then I suppose we'd become a team. 

He definitely has a lot of faith in the project, but we've all seen that before haven't we? So I have advised him to find a lot of people willing to do lots and lots of betatesting, and then listen to everything these betatesters has to say, no matter how much he disagrees with them. It's so easy to become blind with one's own project.

Time will tell how it plays out.

[Widukind]

Thanks for your explanation, Mr. Lou. Very interesting to read background stories about your former retro work and this new Amiga game. I really hope that the main devoloper's vision comes true. Your precausion is wise ("we've all seen that before haven't we").

Now Indie Retro News also covers this upcoming Amiga game:
AQUABYSS - New Amiga game announced with a teaser

[mr_lou]

I really hope that the main devoloper's vision comes true.

Yea, me too. But as he says himself: It really depends on the community. His passion alone is not enough. The community also has to support the idea by actually buying his games.

I don't know what it's like in the Amiga community, but I feel we the CPC community are fairly good at supporting each other's projects. Though I admit I haven't personally bought a whole lot of the latest CPC game releases (because I'm not a collector as such), but I'm always ready to donate to the developers to show support. 

But if I'm completely honest, I also gotta admit that I tend to donate mostly to the developers who create games that I like. That's logical of course, because those are the devs I wanna see make more games. 
And I think that's how it is with most people.

So in order for his vision to come true, he has to create a game that most people in the Amiga community will like. 
Not an easy task, considering the diversity of us all.

I think the topic has been debated here before? Or something close to the topic, in regards of making a living out of making CPC games. Or at least somehow get payed for the development, to boost the enthusiasm of the devs. Lots of ideas were shared, but we never reached any brilliant epiphanies, as far as I remember.

[Gryzor]

No new trailer then... not even screens?