Anouncement

Press Release: Announcing the Completion of Level Upstate Accelerator Program

Quote | | Taro Omiya

Download: docx | pdf

Omiya Games announces today it has completed the Level Upstate Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on August 2nd, 2019. The Level Upstate Final Pitch Showcase has provide insight and opportunities from a collective of local independent game studios for business investors and entrepreneurs alike.

The Upstate New York indie game studio operated by a single developer, Omiya Games, will announce their completion of a seven-week accelerator program on August 2nd, 2019.  All teams from the Level Upstate accelerator presented their project and pitch at the Troy Innovation Garage for business investors, professionals, and entrepreneurs on August 1st, 2019.  The networking opportunity provided the audience an insight on the growing indie game movement in the Troy, NY region, as well as make business connections with the budding studios. During this showcase, Omiya Games revealed their latest project: a fast-paced, competitive arcade game titled, Air Flip Drive.

For the competitive speed demon in you, Air Flip Drive provides a fast-paced, score-based arcade game for everyone, 10 and up.  Imagine a world where speed is the name of the game, and gravity is just a suggestion.  In this reckless universe, players compete by driving as far as possible on a high-velocity, anti-gravity vehicle.  But there’s a catch: the vehicle has limited fuel, and it’s always draining! Players must steal fuel from other rivals by attacking them.  Race through an ever-changing, infinitely long track; dodge obstacles, soar through the skies, collect power-ups and destroy other vehicles.  How far can YOU go before running out of fuel?

I want the player to experience the thrill of going fast, and discover something new every time they play.

Taro Omiya, Solo Indie Game Developer

Get ready to hit the pedal when Air Flip Drive releases on PC and mobile on 2020.  For a sneak preview, click on the link to download and play the demo: airflipdrive.com

Link to Omiya Game’s press kit: omiyagames.com/presskit

New Ludum Dare game: The Recursive Dollhouse

| Taro Omiya

Like a swift ninja skittering across a frozen lake, Ludum Dare 37 have come and went swiftly…

Hello, everyone! Sorry for the silent treatment, but we have a new game out! Inspired by an episode of Tales of the Unusual (Japanese version of Twilight Zone), we went full-on surreal: The Recursive Dollhouse is a very strange game about a very strange dollhouse. Created by Taro Omiya, Petey Pezzulo, and Graham Lerch, this open-source first-person puzzle game involves going in deep. Very, very deep.

Full Description:

​A very strange game about a very strange dollhouse. A surreal first-person puzzle game created in 72-hours for Ludum Dare 37.

This game is funded through Patreon. Many thanks to the following:

* Adam R. Vierra
* Joshua Jennings
* XanderHD
* Tommy Pedersen
* Jacob Clark
* David Lin

Made in Tech Valley Game Space!

If you can, please rate the game, and let us know what you think!

Link to Itch.io: https://omiyagames.itch.io/artifacts-of-the-ancients

Link to GameJolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/the-recursive-dollhouse/217729

Link to Ludum Dare voting page: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-37/?action=preview&uid=20557

Some screenshots!

Not a Clone Update: New Demo, Future Plans!

| Taro Omiya

Those keen-eyed followers of Not a Clone may have noticed that a new build has been released for both the iOS and Android full-releases, as well as the demo releases on various web portals. What’s new in these builds? Let’s start with the changes in the full release.

Due to many requests, Not a Clone now supports iOS 9. We confess that the only reason iOS 10 was the only supported OS on release of the game was due to the fact that we haven’t tested the game thoroughly on older devices. It would be really embarrassing for us to release a game that hardly runs on your device, so we took the cautious route. Fortunately, we have recently confirmed that the game runs smoothly on iPad 2 and iPhone 4S, so we marked the game to support iOS 9!

For Android, the animated start screen is back! That’s right, this goofy title animation can be experienced in its full glory:

startscreen4

For both platforms, we updated the description of the Extra Life upgrade to have two possible entries. Here’s the original, which is still in the game:

extralifedescription2

And here’s the new description:

extralifedescription

Why have two descriptions for a single upgrade? As it turns out, Not a Clone has some adoptive difficulty modifications: the first upgrade you earn from the tutorial actually changes depending on your score. For most people, they’ll earn the Extra Life upgrade for free; for better skilled people, however, their first upgrade will be Blinged-Out Case. For the latter crowd, Extra Life does make an appearance on the shop later…but not as a free upgrade. Thus, the original description wouldn’t work for these audience.

Incidentally, support the charity movement this weekend!

For the demo, we’ve basically updated the code base to match the release version of Not a Clone. Additionally, the Coming Soon dialog has now changed to Available Now, since the game is obviously released.

As mentioned in the Post-Mortem this week, we do have a ton of free updates planned for this game. For the first major update, which we estimate to be released during the holiday seasons, are more achievements. Some of them will reward prizes for achieving them, too! We’re also planning on adding more microgames, including a few that will be unlocked by default. There will be more upgrades, of course, and a few convenience options will be added in, such as low-power mode. So we hope you look forward to those new changes.

If you haven’t seen it already, here’s the past recording available on Twitch:

Watch live video from on www.twitch.tv

Not a Clone is Released!!!

| Taro Omiya

Well, let’s get right to it.

Not a Clone is released!!! You can grab it on AppStore (iPhone and iPads) and Google Play (Androids) right now:

Download_on_the_App_Store_Badge_US-UK_135x40en_generic_rgb_wo_60

That’s right! After developing this game for almost 2 years since the #OneGameAMonth prototype, we’ve finally finished this incredibly ambitious project. We want to thank you all for following our development and supporting us to the very end.

Without further ado, let’s celebrate!

Angry Thieves

New Ludum Dare game: Artifact of the Ancients

| Taro Omiya

Now that Ludum Dare 36 is over, we have a new game! We’ve attended the Jam (team development challenge) to something a little more familiar: a puzzle-platformer that involves flipping the world upside-down! Our new game is Artifact of the Ancients, created by Taro Omiya, Robert Denner, and Jason Harlow. Oh yeah it’s open-source, too!

Full Description:

Join the archaeologist, Sam, on one heck of a ride as he searches for a mythical lost treasure with his faithful companion, Lucy. You’ll flip as you experience the world from different perspectives and Sam’s life goes topsy-turvy the further he goes down the rabbit hole

This game is funded through Patreon. Many thanks to the following:
* Adam R. Vierra
* Joshua Jennings
* XanderHD
* Tommy Pedersen
* Jacob Clark

Made in Tech Valley Game Space!

If you can, please rate the game, and let us know what you think!

Link to Itch.io: https://omiyagames.itch.io/artifacts-of-the-ancients

Link to GameJolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/artifact-of-the-ancients/184344

Link to Newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/680481?updated=1472773693

Link to Ludum Dare voting page: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-36/?action=preview&uid=20557

Some screenshots!

Through Oneself v1.1.1 update!

| Taro Omiya

Up until now, we’ve been silently updating our Ludum Dare 35 game, originally titled Hidden in Plain Sight, to Through Oneself. The title change was due to the discovery of an existing game that was also titled Hidden in Plain Sight. Along with the title change, though, we’ve made a couple of changes to address concerns that was reported to us. They are:

Brighter Graphics

BrighterGraphics

We’ve noticed that people found it difficult to recognize certain things in the game due to the dark graphics. So we’ve brightened it up significantly, making it a lot easier to find that one elusive block!

Easier Platforming

EasierPlatforming

Without a single question, the unfair platforming was the biggest complaint we’ve heard. We’ve listened, and made it much easier to see your own character when jumping from one platform to another. Additionally, the jump physics has been enhanced to allow a small margin of error, as well as make it clear where you jumped from, and where you’ve landed.

Visually Clear Tracks

BlocksHaveTracks

While the blocks always had limited movement, there hasn’t been an obvious visual that lets anyone know what was the range any single block could move. We’ve added a glowing fence around the block to make it clear the range of that block’s movement. This should, again, make it a lot easier to find that elusive block.

Slight Change in Level Design

UpdatedLevelDesign

We’ve also made a few changes to levels to create a more streamlined experience.

General Performance Improvements

All builds should now run a lot faster, thanks to better lighting optimization.

WebGL: Mouse-Locking

Mouse locking should now work on WebGL builds.

So check out the latest Through Oneself through any of the links below, and let us know what you think!

New Ludum Dare game: Hidden in Plain Sight

| Taro Omiya

Ludum Dare 35 has come and gone, but not without a new game! We’ve attended the Jam (team development challenge) to try something completely different: make a surreal puzzle-platformer where your character’s silhouette reveals a hidden world. The journey was full of treachery and danger (read: distractions), but we finished what we set off to do! Our new game is Hidden in Plain Sight, created solo by Taro Omiya. Oh yeah it’s open-source, too!

Full Description:

A lone woman finds herself stuck in-between two dimensions, and only you can help! Guide this person to salvation using environmental cues and your own smarts. Hidden in Plain Sight is a unique puzzle-platformer where your character itself reveals a new hidden world. Use the visual cues in both the real and hidden to navigate through this treacherous world!

Note: a 3-button mouse (mouses with scroll wheels) is necessary to play.

Controls:
* WASD to move
* Space to jump
* Left-Ctrl to crouch and crawl
* Move the mouse to look around
* Use mouse scroll-wheel to zoom in and out
* Esc to pause

Created in:
* Engine: Unity
* Graphics: a combination of Unity Standard Assets, Unity-chan (Candy Rock version) and Autodesk’s free Character Generator.
* Music: GarageBand, something I made a few days ago
* Sound Effects: Unity Standard Assets and BFXR
* Font: Fira-Sans by Mozilla

This game is funded through Patreon. Many thanks to the following:
* Adam R. Vierra
* Joshua Jennings
* XanderHD
* Tommy Pedersen
* Jacob Clark

Made in Tech Valley Game Space!

If you can, please rate the game, and let us know what you think!

Link to Itch.io: https://omiyagames.itch.io/hidden-in-plain-sight

Link to GameJolt: http://gamejolt.com/games/hidden-in-plain-sight/142011

Link to Ludum Dare voting page: http://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-35/?action=preview&uid=20557

Some screenshots!