The Underside, now with sword and saw

That’s right. NIGSource it not indie because it values things like “fun” and “good gameplay” over innovation and bold artistic statements.

EW CAVE STROY RIPOFF.
WHERE HAS THE ORIGINAL GAMES GOES?

If it were a REAL bonesaw ripoff, it would run at about 20fps most of the time.

I guess normally in game developer culture it is considered normal to clone another person’s game mechanics or gameplay ideas (within reason), but you are expected to come up with original graphics and music… mainly because it is much easier to come up with truly original artwork ideas than truly original gameplay ideas.

More importantly, I think that it is normal and reasonable for developers who spit the dummy over legitimate criticisms to be trashed for it by everyone: like Dyack or Smart. If everyone calls your game a rip-off, the right responses are either a) “I don’t care, this is a doujin game” or b) “Whoops, I’ll fix it”.

It’s a shame because this looks like a great wonderboy clone, which is something I would love to play, but now I want it to fail horribly because of the author’s reactions.

I do love The Underside, and it’s good to see it coming along so nicely.

Also, isn’t the Cave Story meme many years old yet? Honestly, it’s like yelling “ALL YOUR BASE”… and you can bet someone’s going to do that.

Random internet people, I weep for you.

The game looks pretty much the same to me as it did from the beginning, from watching all the trailers (and only that, I didn’t try the demo).
I liked the look of it from the start.

I really, really want to like this game. I mean, this is the kind of game I usually love. It looks like it could really stand on its own feet, and seems to have earnestly tried to seperate itself from cave story (in both mood and gameplay).

The graphical similarities are still really-really jarring, though, and this seems even more unnecessary than before. And, like been said, if they had been acknowledged as copies then it wouldn’t bother me as much. I would probably still wish it hadn’t been done that way since the game seems so promising.

Like Benzido, I’m also unfortunately bothered by the authors reactions. Now it seems the only way I can see this game is through a filter of internet drama, and that the only reason the elements decidedly similar to Cave Story persist is to prove an argument or point (which… it fails to do).

So, all in all, it’s really annoying. I want to like it, but can’t. And because of reasons that shouldn’t even be a concern.

Now, just to contradict myself here, I don’t even really mind rip-offs. Innovation isn’t so important to me personally. For me it’s style, and, as far as art is concerned, nothing is sacred. Rip what you want to achieve the effect you want. Cave Story has a very distinct style. If you want your game to breath ‘Cave Story’ then copy it. I even /want/ more Cave Story-esque games (it’s a damn awesome game).

Copying pixel for pixel is only going to echo Cave Story more-so, and only going to piss more people off if you then claim this is your own personal style (which, yes, is there too, behind it all, and only behind it all).

I guess what I’m getting at is: maybe this is failing because it seems indecisive. Either be a rip-off or don’t?

Criticism-out.

As long as he’s not making any money off of it he can rip whatever he wants off. Well, there are certain naming conventions companies have managed to patent (-tris), but unless he’s using another game’s popularity for financial gain, there’s no quantifiable reason to oppose it. Whether he values internet popularity and is ripping Cave Story’s visuals off to gain it is the real argument. Personally, I think he just isn’t a very creative artist, so he picked a style he liked and emulated it best he could.

Because it will be better than Super Mario and possibly better than Metroid.

Shinii16 sayeth:
_I was wondering if TIGSource would ever post this, as from what I can tell TIGSource and PIGScene are enemies of sorts…_

omfg, enemies? isn’t it all good fun? well it is, for me. I’m simple like that. (good to know that the indie scene is big enough for enemies now, btw.)

Pandapendent is the new term.

I think it’s funny that people are talking crap about some internet drama and then reflecting that upon the game. On the other hand that’s very natural, I don’t deny that.

But I see it this way: if an artist that i’ve had some sort of personal feud, or just came off as a dick to me puts out something that I could like – as for artform it’s more benifical for me to put my ego to the side and just digg it. I mean even here on TIGsource there’s people who have rubbed me the wrong way but it doesn’t close out the possibility they could put out a really enhoyable (spanglish) game to me. It would be harder for me to apreciate it but given the chance I still could.

After all, we’re suppose to create and not pat each others on the back just becouse we’re such a handosome and nice guys or girls. It’s not like Eurovision song contest.

I’m indie as FUCK

No, seriously – it looks good but it plays awful. Everyone who’s excited about this game should play the demo so they don’t get let down when the game sucks.

Yeah, it plays just fine, and that was even an early demo! C’mon, guys.

Seriously? I thought the difficulty was way out of whack, and I thought the level design was kinda bleh.

For the record, the first time I ever HEARD about this game was yesterday – so I don’t have any bias or anything.

I actually wanted to refresh my memory so I played trough the demo again. And was surpriced how different it looks to both what it has become and cave story as well. I although there’s tile based graphics and the colour scheme is similar, the art is more reminicent of games like Earthbound to me. Not to say anyone here said that Podunkian ripped Cave Story’s visuals, but I got the picture that the drama that I referred earlier had something to do with that.

I don’t kow guys – it could be that I’m sucking Podunkian’s cock, but I’m ready to buy it’s his own style with a lot of homage to Cave Story. (But like Kongming said, there’s no denying similarities)

Noticed that on some other forums people whined it looked too much like Cave Story, and when that has changed they whine about “not staying constant/true”… Is it just me or have some people already made their mind about the game?

Eclipse, I’m not gonna fall into that so I’ll just counter “stole gfxs is not an homage” with..

MWAHA! GOOD ONE!

“..Lol ur gay u liek stole graphics from jet set radio!” xD

..and totally not serious about that one.