itch.io

Mazestalker is a retro-inspired Action-RPG that is meant to bring back some simplicity.
It aims to impress with classic handcrafted level design and a well paced story full of mysteries and action!

You will be exploring a Zelda-like overworld, a Mrtroidvania-like subterranean labyrinth and finally dungeons.

The game aims to combine Action Combat with platforming and puzzle solving.

Lately the game is starting to feel a lot like I wanted it to feel like from the start!

I am very very picky, so aftzer a very long search I hired a musician I am super happy with.

Get people to play.

You need to understand that this is something you have to do. Noone will find your game by themselves, given how loud the world is we live in.

Promote it, write to influencers, do everything you can.

The best thing to do is leave things that stay behind for a long time and basically bring in people even long after you have forgotten about it.

Think of it as planting 1000 baits in various places that at some point add up.

Hey, I haven't done much promotion on itch.io yet, but I'd be super happy if someone wanted to check out my game:
https://mazestalker.itch.io/

https://mazestalker.itch.io/

Well the way I see it is this:

I didn't want to go for an authentic 16-Bit Pixel look. What I'm aiming for is the style that you have in your memory. What you remember games looked like, not what they actually look like.

I consider the game Retro because the gameplay is as simple as back in the day. No crazy combos, no skilltrees, none of the things that turn modern games into busywork (imo anyway).

On the other hand however, I do have authentic 16-Bit sound design, because I truly believe that the limitations from those sound chips created some of the greatest art. The same logic would apply to Pixel art, but from a pratical perspective I just can't afford production of that style as a solo dev.

Oh yeah I recently attended my first event and watched a lot of people playing!
Check out my video on it:

Creating a demo, or a vertical slice as game dev bros like to call it, has been a humbling experience. To provide you a tiny part of the game I had to finish almost everything. The menus need to work, the inventory needs to work, the shop has to work... I've been stuck in this never ending demo nightmare for over a year. Now that it's done I feel liberated and I am returning to working on the fun stuff. The crazy horror stuff, the isometric perspective shenanigans... 

All the things that don't belong in the opening hours of a videogame. And the best part for you: I don't care about spoilers. I like to share everything. None of this makes any sense to you without the context of the full game.  I haven't wrapped my head around the question of why Game developers like to disappear into the radio silence, for years at a time. I intend to share everything and will hopefully remember to keep this post updated in the future!

My apologies, for now the demo requires a gamepad!

Thank you! It's been a lot of work to get this slice into a somewhat polished state! A full game would contain credits and so on, I generally hire artists where it helps me the most! Some art I did myself, other stuff is by an artist