projecty

I’m always excited to see updates for WaterMelon Team‘s upcoming Sega Genesis / Mega Drive game code name: Project Y

What kind of video game is ProjectY? So far, this is all we know about this new Beat’em up:

ProjectY takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, set in an Asian high-tech metropolis. The last survivors of the nuclear war are divided into several classes, where the most powerful have the others by the balls. This has divided the governing bodies into several fractions, where ethnic mafias and a corrupt corporation are just a few of them! As you can see, this story is filled with many possible scenarios. It will demand lots of exploring and several playthroughs to get everything out of it.

The original intended release date has been missed but the game is still in steady development and will soon enter beta-testing phase. A new release date will be communicated soon, along with opening pre-orders. (08/21/2014)
–Source

The biggest piece of news for this update is that WaterMelon Team is currently testing the game on actual Sega Genesis consoles. For a time testing was delayed because of a bug related to running the software from their development cartridge.

They’ve been back on track for some time now and I can’t help but hope that the game is close to completion. 😀

Look at the size of the characters! Especially the green Dude with the I-Beam!!

I love games like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage and I’m getting very excited about ProjectY. It looks like it’s going to be tons of fun. And these graphics look a heck of a lot better than what I’m use to seeing on the Genesis / Mega Drive. I can’t wait to see this game in motion.

ProjectY Flying Robots! And I think I see a bowl of soup too.

I’m getting the impression that Tug, Dice and Alex are three of the four playable characters in ProjectY. I’m also going to assume that the game supports at least two-players at once.

The following two screen shots I’ve displayed in a previous post but I thought it would be cool to bring them together for easy comparison.

Previously released development screen shot. There’s that soup again!

This screen shot is very similar to the first image above. I think I’m noticing that those motorcycle are getting trashed. The bikes seem to have health bars. Have another look at this screen shot and the first one above. Maybe there are destructible elements in the game or maybe we can ride those bikes (before they got wrecked)?

Alex is still kicking people.

The above screen shot shows who I believe is Alex and it looks like she has gone through some changes from this early release compared to the newer screen shot in the robot factory depicted three images up.

I believe this is an old screen shot that I previously missed. Tug and Alex look like their getting the game faces on!

Update: Below are two more screen shots that I recently discovered at Sega-16.com.

Dice is ready for action!

The two Baddies have beat sticks… is that even fair?

The game is looking really gorgeous and there is a reason for that: Luis Martins; also know as XGoldenboyX.
Luis is the concept Artist behind ProjectY and he’s doing an amazing job. I think he’s killing it! I love both the visuals and the mood that I see from these few screen shots.
Of course Watermelon Team also has pixel artists, developers and others working hard and injecting there own talent into this game but they’ve been hidden from me and it’s hard to sing their praises as well (as much as I would like to).

I recently read an interview with Luis Martins and his work on ProjectY and it was a good read. If you’re as keen for ProjectY as I am I think you’ll enjoy it. You might also want to check Luis on DevientArt.

Thugs, Punks, Mutants and Robots! What’s not to love about Project Y?!! 🙂

ProjectY is the code name of the Beat’em Up video game currently being created by Watermelon Team for play on the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive.

There haven’t been many recent updates for ProjectY and this post ain’t much of an update but it is proof of life!

I recently received an email from Watermelon and in this email they included the following tiny glimpses into the upcoming ProjectY.

The screenshots below shows a few still frames of animation for one of the baddies for ProjectY. The pixel art is excellent. In fact it’s beyond excellent. I feel very confident about the quality of this game and I’m very excited to get my hands on it!

Wha… What’s he going to do with that I-Beam?…

The intent of Watermelon’s email was to verify details of early investors to ensure that a cool little treat would be correctly included in the game.

As early investors Watermelon Team is doing two things as a ‘thank you’.
One: early investors will get their name in the Credits of the game.
Two: as if that wasn’t sweet enough, early investors also get to name a bad guy from this beat’em up!

I would have loved to name my bad guy SEGADUDE but for (I assume) technical reasons the name length of bad guys in the game is limited to six characters. SEGADU just doesn’t have the same impatct so I went with HEIN (Another nickname of mine).

Showing Investors which characters are valid for naming a bad guy.

The screenshot above was used to show investors what characters they can use in the six character name they pick to be applied to a bad guy in the game.
But beyond this we get a small glimpse into the game. There’s not enough to really be sure what we’re looking at but again the pixel art is really well done. The image has depth and shading as well as some elements looking worn or used; like the dirt and marks on the platform and the grease coming from the small vent on the bottom right.
What are we looking at in the picture? My guess is this is some kind of platform. Maybe a moving elevator or tram. “MIND THE GAP !!!” written on the very bottom is a good clue to suggest something like that.

No investor actually chooses which character gets their chosen name. Watermelon explained that the names will be applied randomly and these investor names will only been shown in game if you enable the feature before playing.

Not really sure what this is…

The screen shot above is much more of a mystery… Clearly it’s a rough draft of something. I can see the Japanese Mega Drive logo as well as Watermelon’s logo. And what looks like graffiti in a few places. All of the elements appear to be in some kind of image editor.
My guess? These are early drafts of elements to be put into the game or on the packaging or maybe stickers or something to be packaged in the game box.

So someday when we’re finally playing ProjectY and you see HEIN com’in at ya with a beat stick, chain, nun-chucks, or even an I-Beam make sure you give him heck!! 😀