Owlboy Preview

By: Derek Yu

On: December 22nd, 2008

A gameplay preview of Owlboy, from D-Pad Studio, which is coming to XBox Community Games in 2009.

  • Denny

    It is good to see another really promising big indie project. Graphics looks great, i like music, gameplay could be fun, nice idea with almost silent hero.

    Screen looks bit small, especialy when Owlboy is flying, hopefuly it will be sufficient for good orientation.

    Lots of luck D-Pad. Really, really looking forward for your game (or at least another video, hint, hint :) )

  • Zaratus

    Looks nice.

    For some reason, the music reminds me of Kid Icarus.

  • mots

    yeah, there’s the kid icarus vibe for sure… sounds a little lo-fi, which isn’t bad.. I Guess

  • godsavant

    The graphics are amazing, but the Superman 64 hoop-flying really pissed me off. If a game lets you fly, it should let you fly ANYWHERE YOU WANT.

  • FishyBoy

    I dunno, it kinda sounds like 8-bit Wind Waker music.

    Hopefully the hoops are there to teach you, or to offer some sort of bonus.

  • http://w-szawa.alterblog.pl Pomian

    Magnificent pixelart graphics. Kudos!

  • Tom

    Ohhh those graphics….. I think my pants just got moist. Looks like a great game, and with all the other great stuff on the live arcade, it’s time to buy a 360 methinks.

  • Willows

    Simon is something that supercedes pixel artist. Those graphics are ridiculous.

  • Dot

    According to dpadstudios’ website, it’s coming to PCs also so no reason to, Tom. :)

  • Tom

    Ahh that is good news indeed. I hope Braid is also coming to PC soon. :)

  • Sparky

    This looks really solid. It’s so great to see projects like this come out of tiny studios! Small team size is the only way to go.

    This deserves all kinds of mainstream recognition.

  • http://www.farbs.org Farbs

    The art’s fantastic. I think the music needs to step up from faux chiptunes to something more orchestral though.

  • http://www.farbs.org Farbs

    …not that the music is _bad_. I just don’t think it suits.

  • xerus

    I agree with Farbs. The music just doesn’t match the rich graphics.

  • Adamski

    Wow, I thought the music didn’t seem to match either. I thought something more orchestral would have made that so much more exciting.

  • Mark

    Braid fanboy ^^^^^^^^

  • http://0xdeadc0de.org/ Eclipse

    awesome work, i’m speechless!

    oh ps:
    it uses a mouse? what the hell? o.o

  • Hamoozi

    And who said indies don’t care above graphics uber alles!

  • Snow

    The style and graphics remind me a lot of rich fantasy stories from the early 80’s, which, is quite refreshing to see something like that. There are a lot of good games out there, however a lot of the fantasy games are either lacking good artwork or lacking good story. As a result, you don’t get that deeply involved or feel deeply involved. At least I don’t. This is a game I feel I would finish from beginning to end without hesitation.

    The background artist was definitely well trained as a master of color and light. The artist is also well versed in a lot of styles of fantasy art. I’d love to see the collection of reference material. I’m jealous. :P I’m still not at such a point yet.

    I’ll definitely be looking out for this title.

  • angersloth

    This gives me a big Kid Icarus vibe, and lots of warm fuzzy feelings.

  • Jest

    Aero the acrobat meets metroidevania?

  • Jad

    ahahaha, for all those who think NES/Chip, fyi, this is basically how stuff sounded on the N64 : D

  • null

    No it didn’t. The N64 was capable of playing 100 PCM channels at once, for MIDIs or tracked music and could even play MP3s. Go play an N64 again and hear for yourself. This is only using about 4 or 5 channels at most like a retro console song. And I agree, it doesn’t exactly fit. Something more orchestral would work much better.

  • null

    But the graphics look amazing, I’ll say that much.

  • Ichi

    Looks fantastic, but flying looks kinda stiff, it doesn’t look to have a sense of gravity. maybe making the animation speed dynamic could fix that?