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LUNARK - A 2D Cinematic Platformer by Johan Vinet (think Flashback or PoP) - PC/Mac (for now) Kickstarter - $53k goal

XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,900
UPDATE: GAME WAS SUCCESFULLY FUNDED AND IT RELEASES IN A FEW DAYS!

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RELEASE INFO

March 30, 2023! Releases on Switch, Steam (PC and Mac), Xbox and PS4/5. $19.99

STEAM STORE PAGE

Original OP below
KICKSTARTER PAGE



Lunark is a 2D cinematic platformer in the vein of '80s and '90s classics such as Prince of Persia and Flashback. Run, jump, hang, climb, roll, and shoot your way through mysterious alien ruins, a flying penitentiary, a high-tech megalopolis, and a majestic forest.
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Minimal pledge to get a digital copy of the game is $13 American

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STORY

As Earth became inhospitable, Noah, an AI whose sole purpose was to preserve humanity, was created. Noah chose the Moon as humanity's Ark - renamed Lunark - using it as a ship to evacuate a handful of chosen ones to the nearest superhabitable planet. Unfortunately, whether the planet was inhabited or not was not part of Noah's programming.
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Centuries later, you play as Leo, an orphan rejected for being… different. You'll retrace your origins in the midst of a rebellion against the totalitarian regime of Lunark, and meet a wide cast of colorful characters, stuck on either side of the escalating conflict.
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ABOUT

I've been a fan of Johan Vinet for a long time, one of the best 2D pixel artists working today and incredibly talented in a multitude of ways. Its always risky to be on Kickstarter games, but this guy quit his dream job in order to make this game from scratch and I have total faith that he will deliver.

My name is Johan Vinet, husband and father of two. I'm originally from France, but now live in Montreal, Canada. Although I've worked for several years as a graphic designer, you may know me as a pixel artist and animator in the independent video game industry or even have seen that little red-haired guy running on twitter. I've contributed to a dozen games such as Flinthook, Shovel Knight Showdown, Adventure Time, Mercenary Kings Reloaded and Rivals of Aether.
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Prince of Persia, Another World (aka Out of This World) and particularly Flashback have made a significant impact on me as a kid. Seeking to recreate the special feeling conveyed by these games, I started working on Lunark in my spare time. Given the enthusiasm around the project and how my passion grew about it, it became obvious to me that this game had to see the light. In September 2018, I took the leap and decided to quit my job to start my own independent studio: Canari Games Inc.
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He's also composing the music himself!



RISKS

Lunark is already at an advanced stage of its design and is being developed with GameMaker Studio 2, a long-proven engine behind some well-known titles such as Undertale, Hyper Light Drifter and Nuclear Throne. As for me, I've been a successful freelancer since 2005, participated in the production of a dozen video games and worked for 4 years at Tribute Games where I was closely involved in several aspects of Flinthook and Mercenary Kings Reloaded's release. Whether on Twitter or Patreon, I've always been committed to sharing my work, which is why I'm gonna be totally transparent about the progress and any challenges I'll be facing. After all, Lunark won't be real without your help.
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Newsletter // Discord // Twitter // Facebook
 
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vestan

vestan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Dec 28, 2017
24,612
Oh man, this is looking clean.

Probably going to back it.
 
OP
OP
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,900
mikehaggar

mikehaggar

Developer at Pixel Arc Studios
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
1,379
Harrisburg, Pa
I've been following this one for a while on Twitter. Instantly backed! Johan is super talented and, based on the few online interactions I've had with him, a really nice guy. I'm pretty sure this will hit its goal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need some help spreading the word!
 

Deleted member 5596

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
7,747
I understand that creating a big detailed sprite game is hard... But that looks like a Game Gear game. Games like Crosscode and Iconoclasts (and a few others) looks much better.
 
Doc Holliday

Doc Holliday

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,809
Relaxed Muscle said:
I understand that creating a big detailed sprite game is hard... But that looks like a Game Gear game. Games like Crosscode and Iconoclasts (and a few others) looks much better.
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Inconoclasts took 10 years to make, I think.
Cross Code had a full team.

Downwell is my favorite mobile game and the thing has sub NES sprites lol

I think the game looks awesome. If anything, I wish he would have departed a bit more from the original Flashback designs.
 
Phabh

Phabh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,701
Looks good and the animations are top-notch. The pixels are a bit too big though but I understand why.
 
jimboton

jimboton

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,421
Raging Spaniard said:
Yikes, not with that attitude :|
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Dude, 'attitude' is gratuitously treating someone as ignorant of a simple concept because you don't happen to like what he says.

Sorry you don't appreciate folks telling you your super talented friend's project is perhaps a tiny little bit lo res for their tastes, but please go rage somewhere else ;)
 
OP
OP
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,900
jimboton said:
Dude, 'attitude' is gratuitously treating someone as ignorant of a simple concept because you don't happen to like what he says.

Sorry you don't appreciate folks telling you your super talented friend's project is perhaps a tiny little bit lo res for their tastes, but please go rage somewhere else ;)
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I thought I was being obviously playful and then you threw my job title at my face, no need to be so aggressive.
 
vestan

vestan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Dec 28, 2017
24,612
jimboton said:
less than 256x224 ie the most commonly used resolution for snes games?

Also this game wishes it looked half as good (and detailed) as Celeste

But please do enlighten us further with your superior EA Star Wars artist wisdom.
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jimboton said:
Dude, 'attitude' is gratuitously treating someone as ignorant of a simple concept because you don't happen to like what he says.

Sorry you don't appreciate folks telling you your super talented friend's project is perhaps a tiny little bit lo res for their tastes, but please go rage somewhere else ;)
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You seem weirdly confrontational.

Chill out?
 
jimboton

jimboton

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,421
Raging Spaniard said:
I thought I was being obviously playful and then you threw my job title at my face, no need to be so aggressive.
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Oh, so that's what 'haha' meant at the end. You were being playful. I see! Thanks for clarifying, for a moment there I thought you were simply being arrogant. My bad.

still looks sub-snes as fuck tho :P
 
QisTopTier

QisTopTier

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,716
Those character sprites are gonna get a no from me sadly, love the background work. Came in expecting sprites like this
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The character sprites in this atm don't pop enough from the backgrounds / take up enough screen real estate
 
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jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,653
I don't mind the super low resolution too much but it's a bit of a turn off, not gonna lie.
 
OP
OP
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,900
jett said:
I don't mind the super low resolution too much but it's a bit of a turn off, not gonna lie.
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While I do get the point that its not for everybody, I do appreciate having something that looks different from the norm, it gives it its own personality that sets it aside.

(plus, a style closer to actual flashback would be unreasonable for what is largely a one man team ... for everything)
 
Ombala

Ombala

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
2,241
Raging Spaniard said:
While I do get the point that its not for everybody, I do appreciate having something that looks different from the norm, it gives it its own personality that sets it aside.

(plus, a style closer to actual flashback would be unreasonable for what is largely a one man team ... for everything)
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But it not different from the norm anymore, a lot of indies have done this now and its not charming or original anymore.
 
tyfon

tyfon

Member
Nov 2, 2017
3,680
Norway
I'm in!

Edit: there.. backed! :)
It's not even a week since I asked for more Flashback in a thread here.
 

Wouwie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,458
I just saw a video on the Playstation blog about this game and it looked quite neat. It reminded me of games like Flashback, especially animation wise. I didn't know it was a Kickstarter project from 2019. The games comes out on March 30. Maybe the thread title can be updated to reflect the release date?
 
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Dogui

Dogui

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,787
Brazil
It's super disheartening to see people discount stuff for having low resolution. People really wants devs wasting 10 years to create great animated stuff, huh?

On an alternative timeline where more of these were made, they are totally called Flashpop games :p

Cool stuff btw.

Edit: Also wow, holy bump Batman.

I have to pay attention to the date of posts earlier. Could swear it just released the kickstarter.
 
SoneaB

SoneaB

Member
Oct 18, 2020
1,107
UK
ForgeForsaken said:
It looks neat and very Flashback inspired but graphically it's a bit more retro than PoP or Flashback, this is a lot more pixelated than those game were back on a Genesis or SNES.
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Flashback was made by around 20 people, this is a much smaller scale project. It makes sense to pick your battles when you have a lot of stuff to do. Honestly I think I'd find working at this scale harder in some regards even if it is technically quicker. There is a consistency and confidence to the design that you don't often see. Just hope it plays well.
 
KeRaSh

KeRaSh

I left my heart on Atropos
Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,249
Never played the OG PoP games or Flashback so this totally reminds me of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee and Exodus (in a very good way), which probably were inspired by those other games initially.
 
s_mirage

s_mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,770
Birmingham, UK
Sorry, but to me this is like Night Striker on the Mega CD: so low res that just watching videos of it makes my eyes go funny. It looks like it needs to be played on a 3 inch screen. The games that inspired it didn't suffer from that.

From my perspective it's a shame, because aside from that I think it looks cool.
 
Messofanego

Messofanego

Member
Oct 25, 2017
26,127
UK
Anyone who's a backer, how's the development been like? It's taken roughly 4+ years to make and is coming out soon, and this is just a one person project? That seems impressive.

I don't know why people can't set their expectations well as soon as they hear something is inspired by another thing that took a lot more people and money to make. I wonder if developers should even bother citing their inspirations from the jump rather than close to release or in interviews when asked like filmmakers do.
 
OP
OP
XaviConcept

XaviConcept

Art Director for Videogames
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
4,900
Wouwie said:
I just saw a video on the Playstation blog about this game and it looked quite neat. It reminded me of games like Flashback, especially animation wise. I didn't know it was a Kickstarter project from 2019. The games comes out on March 30. Maybe the thread title can be updated to reflect the release date?
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A mod would need to update it but I can update the OP with more relevant info tomorrow

Messofanego said:
Anyone who's a backer, how's the development been like? It's taken roughly 4+ years to make and is coming out soon, and this is just a one person project? That seems impressive.

I don't know why people can't set their expectations well as soon as they hear something is inspired by another thing that took a lot more people and money to make. I wonder if developers should even bother citing their inspirations from the jump rather than close to release or in interviews when asked like filmmakers do.
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Obviously time estimates for a one man game are LOL worthy but he stayed engaged and active both in KS updates and social media. Hes a beloved industry guy that definitely took a giant risk on this so he's easy to root for.
 
Ganepark32

Ganepark32

Member
Nov 21, 2021
1,658
Had forgotten this was coming out so soon until I saw it was up for pre-order on the Xbox Store.

Really like the look of it. Always find that rotoscoping process fascinating but the game just generally looks great. Hoping for good things from it. Great month for indies with so many great ones coming, this one included.

As for OT title, |OT| Flashback to the Future. Best I can think up this early in the morning.
 
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