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Four years of development change everything

Posted by FDG Entertainment on
Dear Friends, Fans and Followers, Happy New Year 2018!

What a journey..when Monster Boy development started over 4 years ago, we had no idea that we would end up with a project spanning over 4 years, stretching into 2018! It started as a small idea. We wanted to bring back the excitement of colorful side scrolling action adventures and ended working on our biggest project ever. When Wonder Boy creator Ryuichi Nishizawa came on board, it was clear that we have a very special and rare opportunity. It would allow us to continue one of the best game series ever created. While we designed Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, we had more and more ideas which ultimately formed an incredible overall experience which we can't wait to share with you. We're lucky that we could do it as the long development is very expensive and a lot of blood, sweat and tears went into this project. It was only possible because the whole team at Game Atelier and FDG Entertainment is fully dedicated to this project with a big heart for the beautiful, straightforward fun of 16-Bit classic games. With the years, our skills improved and our expectations matured so we kept updating the graphics, too.
Ultimately we ended up with a style that we believe is timeless just as the classic games. For now, please enjoy 6 of our Gamescom 2017 screenshots, updated with the new graphics. Our latest change was a big one: All of Monster Boys transformations are getting hand-drawn animations and it adds a lot of detail and character to the game. A very unique look for all generations of players:

Jin just got his fire magic and he's about to burn away some plants that block his way.

Jin has transformed into a frog. He can use the tongue to snatch away bombs and throw them back!

Sniff sniff - there's something in the air. Sewers are a stinky place, but Pig-Jin thinks it smells really good!

EEK! Go away monster tentacle! This is not how Jin imagined his day.

Huff Huff, this XXL body isn't easy to move but it's so much fun to stomp on enemies when there's a chance.

This is a magic chest and you need fire magic to open it. Lion form won't help here - LT/RT buttons come to good use now :-)

What's left now is a lot of 'crunching' towards a completed and bug free game - please hang on a little while longer until we can make the announcement you're all waiting for. Thank you for your patience and support during all the time. Much love to you from the whole team!
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Comments

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Matthew Evans on :

This all look great! Can't wait.
Do those of us who originally supported the Flying Hamster campaign still get a free version of Monster Boy?
I ask because I now I'll buy it on the Switch and if I get a free PC version then I can get it sooner :-)

FDG,Thomas on :

Of course! If you did all that from the Kickstarter Update in 2014 you're getting a free PC version.

Spidey981 on :

Un grand merci à FDG et Game Atelier d'avoir partagé avec nous ces nouvelles captures d'écran. Les nouveaux designs des personnages s'intègrent à la perfection dans les décors, c'est absolument somptueux. Le style dessin animé et tellement plus joli que le style marionnette, au début je n'étais vraiment pas convaincu mais là je dois avoué que je suis bluffé. J'en demande peut être beaucoup mais serait il possible d'avoir une petite vidéo d'une minute ou deux pour voir tout ça en mouvement. Après 4 ans de travail acharné vous avez dépassé mes rêves les plus fous. Je n'aurai jamais imaginé que vous puissiez atteindre un tel niveaux lorsque l'on compare avec les premiers screenshot. Je le prendrai sur Switch pour y jouer n'importe où et sur PS4 pour les trophées. Je suis l'un de vos plus grand fan, et m'incline devant autant de talent.

FDG,Thomas on :

Thank you Spidey! We're happy that you like the visuals. I'm sure Fabien from Game Atelier will have a few words in French for you soon. ;-)

Fabien - Game Atelier on :

Bonjour Spidey981,
Merci beaucoup pour ce long commentaire plein d'éloges, on est vraiment ravis de voir que ces nouveaux screenshots vous plaisent!
On sait que Monster Boy se fait un peu attendre mais on voulait vous montrer au travers de ces quelques images que les derniers mois de production ont été nécessaires pour être à la hauteur de la grande saga Monster World.
Bien entendu vous pourrez voir tout ça animé quand le moment sera venu, mais pour l'instant on va continuer de tester, ajuster, polir l'ensemble pour que chaque minute passée sur le jeu final vous soit mémorable.
Encore merci pour votre bonne énergie!

Spidey981 on :

J'avais quelques questions purement technique. Combien d'espace le jeu prendra sur le disque dur PS4 ? Et combien y' aura t'il de slot pour sauvegarder les parties ? Dernière question. Sur Twitter, Phillip Döschl à posté un superbe artwork du nouveau Jin. Est ce qu'il y en aura pour les formes animale de façon régulière pour nous faire patienter ? Et pouvez-vous les poster sur ce blog, je pense que tout le monde n'a pas Twitter ou Facebook. Merci pour tout.

Junior lima on :

Great job guys! I was and still am excited since this game was announced. Just by having the guts to get one of the best games ever made and make the dream go on already makes me respect you all from the bottom of my heart. As always, keep the good job up!

FDG,Thomas on :

Thank you Junior Lima! It's great to have you around - always finding some nice words for the team!

matthew barrett on :

thomas remember this Please stay tuned for more info during this winter.
We're going to announce the 2018 release season of Monster Boy and some additional news.

well we are in winter and we all have waited very patiently for the release date now you know we have so will it be announed sometime in february because you did say winter and that is the months of december january and february

and i wont deny it but there wont be another game like this this year

FDG,Thomas on :

Hi Matthew, I didn't forget! ;-)

João Carlos on :

It's really great to see how much the game evolved over the years. Each new update only makes me more and more hyped to play it! I'm hoping that you can finally release it in 2018. Keep up the good job!

FDG,Thomas on :

Thanks so much, João! We'll keep doing our best :-)

Christopher Lane on :

It looks pretty, and interesting to see how it looks updated.
good job all of you. Keep doing your best on your improvements to the game.

FDG,Thomas on :

Thanks for the kind words, Christopher!

Matthew barrett on :

There's no hoping fdg entertainment ARE releasing it VERY soon they just neee to look for bugs in the game

MilanP on :

Great to have some news from you guys ! Can't wait to play it ! Please take your time to test the game and fix everything before releasing it. This one has everything to become the best wonderboy ever.

FDG,Thomas on :

Thank you MilanP! We're already finding funny bugs like glitching through walls. Gonna test a lot, many many combinations as the total abilities with all transformations are crazy ;-)

Spidey981 on :

Hey, all the fans. Philipp Doschl @thetoastmachine posted a superb artwork of Jin on Twitter. Here is the link

https://twitter.com/thetoastmachine/status/953930707558109184

Streamer2k on :

Here a Wonderboy/Monsterboy fan! OMG What a beautiful game! I am going to buy the pc version. It will look gorgeurous with my 21:9 monitor :-D

FDG, Thomas on :

Hi Streamer2K, always happy to meet fellow Wonder Boy fans. Since you own a 21:9 Monitor I have a question: How do other games handle rooms/locations that are not wider than 16:9 - do they put black frames on the sides, do they zoom in with the camera or do they add a stylish frame to the left and right side to complete the 21:9 width of the image.? (e.g. Boss Rooms).

Streamer2k on :

Yes, they usually add black or stylish frames on the sides like a 16:9 cutscene. Not a problema at all :-)
I do not like the zoom solution because it would involve cutting the image up and down.

As a curiously, I know that Sonic the hedgehog ios port has expanded background boss rooms to support IPhone X ultrawide screen. Here is an screenshot comparison:
21:9 Ultrawide: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DQ-Oav1VwAAF4-j.jpg
16:9 widescreen: http://www.androidrundown.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Sonic1_Screenshot-7.png
4:3: https://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/sonic-the-hedgehog-image-5.jpg

But if expanding backgrounds is difficult, adding bars in 16:9 rooms will be fine of course! Thanks a lot for such beautiful game and for your interest in adapting your game to this new aspect ratio. It is going to be awesome!

FDG,Thomas on :

Awesome, thanks for sharing your thoughts and adding some reference links! ^^

ALFREDO on :

Wow this game looks better every time I see it My PS four and 4K TV is waiting for this game Congratulations Thomas and the team you guys doing a wonderful job I been following this game since 2016 and can't wait to play it.

FDG, Thomas on :

Thank you, Alfredo! Congrats on owning a 4K TV, it will look great on it! We'll not support native 4K but there's lots of detail in the image which upscales greatly. Also, the colors on 4K TV's are better than normal TV's.

Sadik on :

Thank you guys for creating another title of one of my favorite game series. I'm waiting for so long. After I playing the remake of dragons trap, I wanted to play your game more than before. Since I'm waiting for your game, I took my old Sega console and played the old titles. I hope, you will release the game very soon.
A little question: could you give us a short demo (for PS4 and the other consoles)? Because I really can't wait anymore for this nice game.

SuperJohnSmith on :

Really need to see these visuals in motion. Stills looks pretty good but I can imagine seeing it all in motion will really show what you guys have achieved.

FDG, Thomas on :

Thanks SuperJohnSmith! We'll put together new gameplay material when we come closer to the launch with all animations implemented. Please stay tuned! :-)

Shion on :

PlayStation Vita?!

Stardragon on :

Man, don't let us ever wait this long without any message. I already feared the cappy and poster I got at the Gamescom would be all I ever get from this game.

I like the new art style very much. The lion needs a little bit more fur everywhere, he looks so naked. And somehow the human form has tooo much hair. But I like the rest. Keep up the great work. I am looking forward to this game.

matthew barrett on :

no hes not a liar he said the release month and or date will be announced in winter which it is now so i believe thomas as he said he just has to check for bus or do you want a game with glitches theres still february to go dont forget

matthew barrett on :

no i believe thomas and the release date IS being announced next month

Spidey981 on :

I agree with Matthew, the date will be announced this winter. Thomas lier, can you cite your sources? You seem to be holding the truth. Do you work for Game Atelier or FDG? Anyway, I hope you're wrong.

Stardragon on :

Calm down everyone, is this the first time you are looking forward to the release of an indy title? They always take their time. And the worst thing, you can do, is putting the team under pressure. Or does anyone wants a early release of a buggy game, just to wait for the patches? In worst case nobody is speaking of the game anymore six month later, when everything is patched. I rather wait to 2019 Q4 and have a complete and cool game. On a physical media! ^^'

matthew barrett on :

stardragon, what does this say? Please stay tuned for more info during this winter.
We're going to announce the 2018 release season of Monster Boy and some additional news. so no youre wrong the game is being released this year weve waited FOUR years as it is. he said 2018 and thats what itll be he just said hold on a little longer not till 2019

Stardragon on :

I never said, it wouldn't be released this year. I only said, I rather wait longer then having a buggy game. You got the wrong guy ;-).

matthew barrett on :

okay i understand now but im sure the FDG team know what theyre doing or they wouldnt say release date coming very soon and i for one are looking forward to it. im sure theyve got most of the bugs sorted.sadly though there wont be hardly any other games like this one coming out this year which is sad

FDG, Thomas on :

That's right. Release season announcement coming up soon - please stay tuned ^_^

Jared on :

Awesome! I can't wait. I'm really hoping for a physical retail release of this game! :-)

FDG, Thomas on :

We're hoping, too! Please keep your fingers crossed :-)

Andreas on :

buy from the first day it is released!
a game I'm looking forward to in 2018 :-)

FDG, Thomas on :

Thank you, Andreas! ^_^

Locomotive on :

So is it time yet to buy a ps4 or ps3
For the physical release

Thank you

FDG, Thomas on :

We don't have any info about a physical release yet but it's definitely time to buy either a Switch, PS4 or Xbox One :-) Monster Boy will play fine on all those platforms. Not compatible to PS3, though.

Spidey981 on :

Hello everyone! On Twitter, FDG announced the physical release on Switch and PS4 this summer and that the digital version will be released the same day.

https://twitter.com/FDG_Games/status/961908140055941120

hugh on :

Glad you are making progress. Loois wonderful!

Christopher Lane on :

I want to say congratulations to your team for getting the game out both physically and digitally this summer with Sega's help. Enjoy the 30th anniversary of the series and keep on doing your best and more.
I can't wait to finally get a Nintendo Switch and play this game.

FDG,Thomas on :

Thanks so much, Christopher! We can't wait to deliver the game, too. It's been such a long time now :o

Julio on :

First of all, thanks to all members of the team, the game looks awesome!

Are you planning to release the physical copy of the game across Europe?

;-)

FDG,Thomas on :

Thank you very much Julio! We have an NPC with this name in the game! :-) Unfortunately the physical release is currently planned for USA/Canada only. The game is region free though, you may want to consider to import it.

Jeff on :

In the pic where Jin is a frog catching the bomb with his tongue I was wondering. Did you create a smoke trail on the bomb when thrown? Something to give it a more definitive look when in movement. I only ask because I don't see any smoke during the catch moment with his tongue.

FDG,Thomas on :

Hi Jeff, the bomb will burn and hop on the ground - it'll be well 'readable' when it's in motion.

Matthew barrett on :

Hey Thomas I looked on a website called GameStop and it said mobster boy won't be released until 26th august, 2018. Now I know you said its getting released this summer and I'm in Australia it'll be winter then. But why can't you release it the first month of winter which is June. Its just that does it really take that long to find the bugs and a distributor? I'll wait nonetheless I'm just wondering why its a few months away?

FDG,Thomas on :

The dates on Amazon and Gamestop are placeholders until we announced the exact release date. Right now it's just 'Summer 2018' and we don't mean summer in Australia. Thank you for your patience. We have a distributor but it takes a while to complete the game, translate to all languages, pass the quality checks, age ratings and produce the actual physical media.

LordKaiser on :

The Nintendo Switch pre- order is live on Amazon but the PS4 version is not available. Guys why din't you summited them at the same time? Unless this is Amazon's fault.

FDG, Thomas on :

Hi LordKaiser!
Sega is still working on setting up the store pages. You probably noticed that we didn't post any pre order links yet, we also didn't send out any press releases about the pre order. It's because we wait until Sega tells us the pre order pages are properly set up. More info including links coming soon! Thank you for your patience :-)

Spidey981 on :

Hey, Monster Boy fans. For those who have not seen the info, the game will be sold for 39.99 USD and I assume the same price in euros. Info on the website
http://press.fdg-entertainment.com/sheet.php?p=monster_boy

Sauldo on :

Ouch! That's a little steeper than what I was expecting for that kind of games. Guess that'll be just one copy for me then.

FDG,Thomas on :

That's correct, the price will be $39.99 / €39.99 .

It may look expensive first but you'll understand the price when you play the game. It's big and beautiful, a real adventure and full price worthy.

Zell on :

Please, any video clip coming soon?

I cannot share the game clips that are available on the youtube with my friends as it has the old backgrounds and character designs.

I did not even talk with my friends about this summer release until I can show them the video clip with the final designs.

hope to get one soon.

FDG,Thomas on :

Hi Zell,

sorry for not posting a new video clip yet, we're going to post a new clip sometime next month.

Thanks for your patience! ;-)

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