#henk nieborg

[aardwolfpack]

Turrican fanart by Henk Nieborg.

[gamemories]

[retronator]

I’m guessing most everyone in the pixel art scene has heard of Battle Axe by now, at least those keeping tabs on the OGs of pixel art. Henk Nieborg is definitely one of the legends, being responsible for the beauty of plenty Amiga games in the 90s. Lucky for us he continues to use his love and skill for pixel art to these days and contributes to indie projects such as Tiny Thor and Xeno Crisis. It was exactly from working on the latter that the partnership to produce Battle Axe was born with Bitmap Bureau’s Mike Tucker who will now help bring Henk’s creation to life, as did Henk wonderfully for Xeno Crisis (I’m still to play and write a review for that one … one day).

Battle Axe is in its last days on Kickstarter, so head on over to see the classic arcade gameplay take place over Henk’s colorfully polished tilesets. Let’s hope he will keep giving us insights into his creative process during the development as it’s a real privilege to see someone with his amount of experience do their magic (below is the first timelapse from his new YouTube channel).

[retronator]

It’s about time I say something about Tiny Thor, as it’s been sitting on my to-do list since, oh, I don’t know, half a year ago when the game’s artist Henk Nieborg started posting cool tutorials on Patreon.

A lot has happened since then, among others also that Henk isn’t on Patreon anymore as he’s busy with all the cool projects he’s working on, such as Xeno Crisis, remember? And, of course, Tiny Thor!


The young, Mjölnir-wielding God of Thunder is designed and coded by Jochen Heizmann, who brings a bit of fresh air to the platforming genre by giving Thor a hammer worthy of a Breakout game.


“What the hell are you talking about, Retro?” I hear you cry. Well, dear reader, see for yourself.

I might think indie platformers are as overabundant as snow in Scandinavia, but I can’t say the same for good brick breaking (thankfully we have Wizorb … also, as we wait for today’s IGF awards, let’s shed a nostalgic tear for Seumas McNally’s psychadelic art in DX-Ball). Anyway … Mentioning Breakout is one way to get me excited for a platformer (like Henk’s art wouldn’t be enough)!

Jochen recently started posting weekly to the game’s devblog, which I sincerely hope he keeps up with since his previous posts were full of useful information, such as how to handle camera movement.

That’s another way to sell a platformer to me: gamedev science!

If you’re sold as well, you can pre-order the game on Itch.io for $20, which includes access to (future) betas and a Steam key on release. Or just give Jochen a follow on Twitter to keep up with the updates.

[retronator]

This is such a treat! I mostly write about games that—despite their retro visuals—run on modern hardware. Not today! Xeno Crisis is an upcoming title for Sega Genesis a.k.a. Mega Drive. Just look at this!

The project is up on Kickstarter, which is how you can get the cartridge at $54. There’s also a Dreamcast version at $40 (it comes on a CD so I’m guessing it’s cheaper to manufacture?) and a digital rom file for $20.

The Kickstarter is way over its goal already and currently working towards getting that Dreamcast version a reality as it’s the next stretch goal (co-op mode was already achieved).

You might be wondering how come the art is so good and true to the 16-bit-era. Well, besides that it’s ACTUALLY RUNNING on 16-bit hardware, it’s done by Henk Nieborg, an old-schooler that’s had his pixels in games since 1990 (Ghostbattle, Lionheart, The Misadventures of Flink etc.). Besides, he’s a nice guy and releases tutorials every now and then on Patreon.

Also on the art side, Catherine ‘@einsbern’ Menabde is doing character art for in-between screens.

Things that you can’t figure out from looking at the screenshots include: 9 weapons with limited ammo for strategic combat, 5 different areas, procedural generated levels and rooms.

On top of this, great authentic Mega Drive music by Savaged Regime, so if you like what you saw, go check out the trailer (and snag yourself a future copy) on Kickstarter.

[arcadebroke]

[arcadebroke]

[nintendonext]

Battle Axe – Ένα pixel-art arcade adventure έρχεται και στο Switch

Battle Axe – Ένα pixel-art arcade adventure έρχεται και στο Switch

Όσοι επιθυμήσατε ένα ηρωικό hack ‘n’ slash όπως το Gauntlet, το Golden Axe και το Knights of the Round τότε ετοιμαστείτε για το Battle Axe που αναμένεται και στο Switch!

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