XYDONIA / ザイドニア Hori On Kickstarter

[Shingo]

From a fellow dev to another, NICE WORK!

This gave me nerdgasms. Really. I have to find tissues

Haha, Thanks!

So I'm about to buy the physical edition and shipping is $100. Can someone please explain this. I can ship a boxed Mega CD 1 unit along with another piece of hardware halfway around the world EMS for less than that.

What's your country? I can check the rates and modify them accordingly, that's the cost for countries we didn't assign a custom rate to, so they're considered as "rest of the world" (85€).

My country is United Arab Emirates.

Checked different alternatives and unfortunately the less expensive is 85€, must be because we're shipping from Italy. Might consider digital rewards if that's too high for your liking. :/

[Bar81]

Checked different alternatives and unfortunately the less expensive is 85€, must be because we're shipping from Italy. Might consider digital rewards if that's too high for your liking. :/

That's ridiculous - there is no possible way that EMS costs 85 euros for a game. Even the US is 60 euros. Sorry, can't support you in any way if you're going to be charging ridiculous amounts for shipping.

[Shingo]

Checked different alternatives and unfortunately the less expensive is 85€, must be because we're shipping from Italy. Might consider digital rewards if that's too high for your liking. :/

That's ridiculous - there is no possible way that EMS costs 85 euros for a game. Even the US is 60 euros. Sorry, can't support you in any way if you're going to be charging ridiculous amounts for shipping.

Okay, EMS does in fact charge less, I didn't check there yet.

Had to check from our local posts service which uses EMS for international shipping and that's around 50 euros depending on weight.

[Shingo]

Custom rates added for United Arab Emirates.

Sorry for the slip-up, it's almost 1 AM over here and it's been a hard day.

[Fudoh]

Just sent you a PM with a good idea to simplify international shipping....

[Shingo]

Just sent you a PM with a good idea to simplify international shipping....

Got it.

[Bar81]

Just sent you a PM with a good idea to simplify international shipping....

Got it.

I'll wait to hear. While 50 is better than 85 that's still too high for what is a kilogram worth of stuff if I'm being generous (CD, outer box and small arcade flyer).

[Shingo]

Just sent you a PM with a good idea to simplify international shipping....

Got it.

I'll wait to hear. While 50 is better than 85 that's still too high for what is a kilogram worth of stuff if I'm being generous (CD, outer box and small arcade flyer).

I'll let you know if anything changes.

[FRO]

Is it really $100 for a physical copy? Yowza!

Just based on the little bit in the video, this looks like Andro Dunos and Last Resort had a love child that plays much faster and more frenetically than its parents did. I dig the visual style, the extreme 90's arcade shmup nod of the intro, character names (Harrison Blade is a fantastic name for a Solid Snake-esque character), the echo-y voice on the title screen, etc. I just wish a physical version wasn't quite so expensive. Still, my interest is piqued.

[Shingo]

Is it really $100 for a physical copy? Yowza!

Just based on the little bit in the video, this looks like Andro Dunos and Last Resort had a love child that plays much faster and more frenetically than its parents did. I dig the visual style, the extreme 90's arcade shmup nod of the intro, character names (Harrison Blade is a fantastic name for a Solid Snake-esque character), the echo-y voice on the title screen, etc. I just wish a physical version wasn't quite so expensive. Still, my interest is piqued.

Thanks!

Well, you gotta take into account that we're not *selling* the physical copy for $100, but giving it as a reward for a $100 pledge, which is slightly different.

Part of that sum must go to development, it's also a pretty standard amount for physical copies in Kickstarter campaigns, based on budget, team size, etc.

Feel free to try the demo too, we really appreciate every kind of feedback!

[null1024]

Damn, that trailer looks brilliant. All of the sound and style of a proper arcade game.
gonna fire up the demo and post my thoughts in a bit, but hot damn, that looks cool

[edit]
Plays pretty well from what I can tell. Nice little taster.
I've had a handful issues so far:
* the homing missiles on the police boss exploding with suicide bullets is a bit much, no? They're so damn fast and dense. The boss also doesn't really give a good indication that you're doing anything to it, either.
* at one point, the game didn't load the player or backgrounds, but the enemy patterns scrolled in
* weapon balance might need work -- starting out, you're way, way too weak [was shooting at shit and it'd run into me before it died], fully powered up, fucking nothing was in my way whatsoever
* swapped keys -- X was fire, Z was burst, the rest matched fine

[Shingo]

Damn, that trailer looks brilliant. All of the sound and style of a proper arcade game.
gonna fire up the demo and post my thoughts in a bit, but hot damn, that looks cool

[edit]
Plays pretty well from what I can tell. Nice little taster.
I've had a handful issues so far:
* the homing missiles on the police boss exploding with suicide bullets is a bit much, no? They're so damn fast and dense. The boss also doesn't really give a good indication that you're doing anything to it, either.
* at one point, the game didn't load the player or backgrounds, but the enemy patterns scrolled in
* weapon balance might need work -- starting out, you're way, way too weak [was shooting at shit and it'd run into me before it died], fully powered up, fucking nothing was in my way whatsoever
* swapped keys -- X was fire, Z was burst, the rest matched fine

Thanks for the feedback!

* Both the boss battles are WIP, the second in particular is missing some visual cues that are going to be added (eg. more noticeable effects for hitting the core/not doing damage by hitting the tires, etc). I think the missles might need some tweaking but also will be less of a threat when fired less frequently due to being better allocated among the boss' full movement and attack patterns (which are missing right now).
* If you remember exactly when or how it happened that would be very helpful and I'd report it back to our coder, thanks.
* Yeah, I personally believe this is the main issue with the alpha, there's a big reliance on power-ups and level 1 weapons (especially the A type) are too weak. Considering that we want to add so much variety to the game, with different ships, option systems, weapons and such, balancing and tweaking them will be a priority.
* Yep, sorry about that, will fix.

[null1024]

* If you remember exactly when or how it happened that would be very helpful and I'd report it back to our coder, thanks.

IIRC, it happened after I didn't continue on the second boss. Selected my character again and then... nothing.

[Shingo]

* If you remember exactly when or how it happened that would be very helpful and I'd report it back to our coder, thanks.

IIRC, it happened after I didn't continue on the second boss. Selected my character again and then... nothing.

We'll look into it, thanks!

[Stevens]

Great update guys.

[Shingo]

Great update guys.

Cheers! A bit silly but we're always trying to have fun like that.

BTW, for anyone who wants to know what I'm talking about...



I guess there's no need to point out the reference.

We also got a cool video message from SHINJI HOSOE himself, which will work on the soundtrack alongside KEISHI YONAO if we hit our goal on Kickstarter. (Just a reminder)

Click HERE to watch it!

[BulletMagnet]

Great mockup, though I think you shoulda gone with the fake beard/banjo combination instead.

[kid aphex]

Keishi Yonao? That's an awesome get. I'm in.

[Shingo]

Great mockup, though I think you shoulda gone with the fake beard/banjo combination instead.

Haha, maybe we'll use that for the official US game cover if we get on any Nintendo platform.

[Shingo]

XYDONIA X STARR MAZER CROSSOVER!

If you dig the shmup/point and click adventure game hybrid Starr Mazer, you may be interested in this.



We're happy to announce that Brick M. Stonewood, Starr Mazer's protagonist, will be part of XYDONIA's playable character roster along with his ship, the Starr Wolf!

He'll get his own custom gameplay mechanics, option system, story and ending, like any other character in the game!



This also means that Starr Mazer will get some funky XYDONIA stuff going on! Stay tuned for more info!

Update on Kickstarter: http://kck.st/2a740L9

[Fudoh]

Gratulations on reaching your funding goal!

[Shingo]

Gratulations on reaching your funding goal!

Thanks!

I hope we can hit some stretch goals at least before the campaign ends, I'd LOVE to work with both Ayako Saso and Yousuke Yasui too.

HERE's our update on Kickstarter.

[CStarFlare]

Congrats on hitting the goal!

Pity the way the stretch goals are arranged - would much rather see Arrange Mode get met than Mac/Linux ports (those people knew what they were getting into).

[Shingo]

Congrats on hitting the goal!

Pity the way the stretch goals are arranged - would much rather see Arrange Mode get met than Mac/Linux ports (those people knew what they were getting into).

Thanks!

Haha, true, but there's been a bit of demand from Mac/Linux users and it was cheaper than adding development time/costs for a full Arrange Mode, so we decided to place it first.

[CStarFlare]

Haha, fair enough. I'm very much looking forward to the main game, an Arrange would have just been icing.

[FunktionJCB]

Haha, true, but there's been a bit of demand from Mac/Linux users and it was cheaper than adding development time/costs for a full Arrange Mode, so we decided to place it first.

For what is worth, the impression I get from past campaigns is that this "demand" for Mac/Linux users is usually a very small vocal minority, which doesn't translate into actual use for the final game.
Many developers expressed some regret for wasting time/funds on doing those ports, because when they check the actual usage/sales those versions get, it's usually an extremely small percentage, usually not enough to recoup costs.

Anyway, congratulation for reaching the goal.
And for the game, I found the demo very impressive.

I wonder: is there any chance you can add "add-ons" to the campaign? I would be especially interested in getting the soundtrack. Since when I went to your campaign page the 20€ tier was already sold out, I went for the early bird 10€. I'm interested in the soundtrack, but as it sands it would be a 20€ increase in order to get it. If you could consider arranging having it as an add-on for a little less, I would certainly raise my pledge.

[Shingo]

Haha, true, but there's been a bit of demand from Mac/Linux users and it was cheaper than adding development time/costs for a full Arrange Mode, so we decided to place it first.

For what is worth, the impression I get from past campaigns is that this "demand" for Mac/Linux users is usually a very small vocal minority, which doesn't translate into actual use for the final game.
Many developers expressed some regret for wasting time/funds on doing those ports, because when they check the actual usage/sales those versions get, it's usually an extremely small percentage, usually not enough to recoup costs.

Anyway, congratulation for reaching the goal.
And for the game, I found the demo very impressive.

I wonder: is there any chance you can add "add-ons" to the campaign? I would be especially interested in getting the soundtrack. Since when I went to your campaign page the 20€ tier was already sold out, I went for the early bird 10€. I'm interested in the soundtrack, but as it sands it would be a 20€ increase in order to get it. If you could consider arranging having it as an add-on for a little less, I would certainly raise my pledge.

Yeah well, we don't expect to see big numbers with Mac/Linux sales, but considering that we won't have to rewrite the game's code from scratch thanks to GameMaker's export module, we thought it was doable after all.

Regarding the soundtrack, we're more inclined towards a physical copy add-on of it (been looking into it for a while), don't know if you're interested as well but we'll see if we'll manage to add it at this point.

By the way, we just reached the final 48 hours of the campaign, let's hope we can hit some stretch goals before it ends! (Ayako Saso & Yousuke Yasui as guest composers, Arrange Mode, PS4/Xbox One/Vita/3DS ports and more)

Click HERE to check out our Kickstarter page.

[Shingo]

New gameplay update with a couple of hours left on XYDONIA's Kickstarter campaign.

This time we're showing a sneak peek at Ruka's scrapyard, where you'll be able to spend scrap, the game's currency you get by defeating bosses and reaching an ending.



By spending scrap you'll unlock new weapons and ship modifications (think of selecting characters with different buttons in Raizing games), but everything will be balanced to be score-friendly, so no overpowered stuff, we just want to encourage different gameplay approaches.

Click HERE to read the full update on Kickstarter.

[cj iwakura]

I'm mixed on the concept art, but in-game, it looks like hot fire.

[Shingo]

I'm mixed on the concept art, but in-game, it looks like hot fire.

The first promotional flyer (the one with all the characters and stuff) was commissioned, while the pixel art in-game is personally made by me, that may be why you spotted a difference in style.

Anyway, thanks for the appreciation!

Big news, XYDONIA was successfully funded on Kickstarter!



A HUGE thank you to anyone who supported us and will continue doing so while we work hard on making this the best shmup we can!

Click HERE to read the full update on Kickstarter.