Graphics
Nowadays, game designers can jump into a full motion suit, roll around for 30 minutes and add those animations in to a game. Where's the fun in this, where's the imagination. During the 1980's game designers could create almost any idea they wanted and every sprite is created pixel by pixel, animation by animation.
Cicada goes old school, with classic retro graphics, dark atmosphere throughout and the level of detail that goes into every scene can't go unmissed.
Music
Any gamer, can remember their favourite game music; be the intro to Double Dragon, the boss battle from Final Fantasy 7 or the original NES Zelda theme music. We teamed up with Five'O'Five . who make Chipmusic out of their home town of Dresden, Germany. Also known as 505 in the demo scene. They still create their music with one or more original Atari ST machines.
Challenging
Somewhere down the line we as gamers lost our connection with the challenge of a game. Nowadays you can get more lives changes by inviting friends on Facebook or gain an unfair advantage by purchasing different types of DLC. We are going back to the roots of gaming where there's no tutorial and you as the gamer have to work out how to progress through the games challenges. Those that were around in the mid to late 80's will remember this genre as a point and click adventure.
Features
You can "Pause" your game by pressing "Space", Save and Load your progress using "F8" and you can go full screen using the "Home" key. By pressing "Capslock" will show your progress and achievements. Will you find all the hidden items and solve all the puzzles including the easter eggs?
The demo if you've played it yet, includes three scenes with a few hidden puzzles. Ideally we would like the game to be between 15 and 30 scenes. When dealing with such a unique design, the whole process could take at least six to nine months. Ideally we would like to launch before the end of 2016 at the latest.
Currently Cicada is aimed for PC users although who knows, if its popular enough we could look at different options. Although not fully tested, the website is responsive and would likely work on tablet. Due to the smaller graphics, it's highly unlikey this will be released for mobile.
Oliver Jon Cross - Product manager by day, retro collector by night. Once full time now part time gamer, a little lost and always busy. This is Oliver's personal project. Not one for giving up, Oliver sees life as a number of unlockable achievements with an associated gamerscore. Unfortunately for him, he's the only one that's keeping score or even cares. Follow Oliver on Twitter.
Will Alexander - Pixel Artist, Animator, Horror Movie Enthusiast, and Gamer. Will is an artist from the northeastern United States. He has schooling in Media Arts Animation, and Game Art and Design. In his free time he likes to spend time with his fiance and work on his own personal art projects like comics and games. Follow Will on Twitter.
Frank Walker - Operations Manager, former matelot and future corpse I spend my time consuming film's, podcast's, book's, game's and anything else I can fit into this life as I try to figure things out. Currently dining somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula watching the world go by. Follow Frank on Twitter.
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