Vengeance Hunters (Beat 'em Up) for the Neo Geo

[Neo Alec]

I think the thing about the NeoSD was just a troll post.

 

[amerika]

Perhaps. But I've been it said/asked about a million times. So better to go with it and get info out there.

 

[promking]

I think the thing about the NeoSD was just a troll post.

Nah, I just didn't know if the Pro had a special chip or something. I don't remember the differences between the two, other than I think you can save up to 5 games with the pro, rather than flash everytime?

I would love to buy a rom when available, I'm just burnt out on preordering.
Just got delivery of stuff I ordered from Limited Run almost 2.5 years ago.

 

[amerika]

Nah, I just didn't know if the Pro had a special chip or something. I don't remember the differences between the two, other than I think you can save up to 5 games with the pro, rather than flash everytime?

I would love to buy a rom when available, I'm just burnt out on preordering.
Just got delivery of stuff I ordered from Limited Run almost 2.5 years ago.

There are no special chips running VH. It is entirely Neo-Geo hardware for better or worse! However, we do have chips protecting the ROM data for VH so you can't just dump the cart. If you have a NeoSD or a Pro, more than likely within a year or sooner you'll be able to buy a copy to play on those devices. But that could absolutely change (either sooner or later) so no promises.

I hear you on the LRG waiting forever to get a game thing. And, on that note, we are also going to have a delay. I've never fully committed to shipping the game in May and have been careful with my words in saying that we're targeting May but YOU NEVER KNOW****. But it does officially look like we're going to miss that date. The game itself will be done on time, but the physical components and manufacturing lead time is going to take another few months. We also have a decent amount of porting work to do for modern platforms to add in achievements and get them through certification which takes longer than we thought. This is the first game a lot of us have produced, and figuring out all this stuff is pretty rough.

I'll be announcing this on Twitter, Discord and sending out emails to pre-order people soon. I figured I'd mention it here since the subject of waiting came up.

On the plus side, this gives us more time for some extra features, polish and we have a freaking awesome thing that might happen that I can't talk about yet, but I think many of you will be jazzed about if it happens. We are also working towards having the game being featured at the Tokyo Game Show.

 

[Neo Alec]

Hardware logistics seem to often cause the most delays for new Neo Geo games.

 

[amerika]

Being new to all this definitely sucks and despite me being a planner who likes to hit dates that are set, sometimes you don't know what you don't know.

Working out hardware logistics and factory schedules and then shipping schedules definitely sucks. Having to do ports to modern platforms that require quite a bit more time than anticipated. We have the modern ports all working great. But no hooks for achievements yet (we do have the images in to swap out buttons per platform though) and doing the certification testing is a bit more time consuming than anticipated for consoles.

But, at least it isn't a game development issue. My part on that is right on time even if it's barely coming in under the wire. And everyone is going to get an even better game so hopefully we can get a pass from most.

 

[amerika]

We updated our previous trailer with some newer game play so that we could submit an application for the Tokyo Game Show Selected Indie 80 event. We won't find out if we got selected until a bit past mid May I believe. Last year there were 800 entrants and 80 are chosen. Basically, it would let us have a great spot there for free. I figured I'd pass along the info here.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1785129942339977468

 

[promking]

I gave up on the website trying to order, between the time outs, and the fact my bank keeps rejecting it... I gave up.

 

[bloodfire3]

I had the same problem when I tried to order the game, then I gave my bank a call and they relaxed the fraud protection for an hour and I was able to make the charge successfully.

 

[Neo Alec]

I had the same problem when I tried to order the game, then I gave my bank a call and they relaxed the fraud protection for an hour and I was able to make the charge successfully.

Yeah, I think my card sent me a text. I replied okay and retried the transaction. No big deal.

 

[promking]

I had the same problem when I tried to order the game, then I gave my bank a call and they relaxed the fraud protection for an hour and I was able to make the charge successfully.

I called Capital one, and they said something about the security encryption they don't accept. Only other card I have is AX and they don't accept.

 

[NeoSeeD]

What's the grappling system like in this game? I see that the robot has a toss, but what about the other characters? Can you grab and swap sides like in SOA? Grab and drag enemies into position like Paprium? Combo into grabs like Final Fight? Head smash 2 enemies together like in Batman Returns? Toss enemies at the screen like Turtles in Time?

A good grappling system really helps add variety to the gameplay in these types of games.

 

[kernow]

Goobeance hunters

 

[kernow]

The goobling system

 

[amerika]

I gave up on the website trying to order, between the time outs, and the fact my bank keeps rejecting it... I gave up.

I ran into this on both my CC's when I was testing purchasing the game for $1. I never got a text or notification saying fraud protection was preventing the purchase, it just did nothing.

I had to call both and find out what was wrong and tell them to let the charge go through. One CC was more difficult than the other to get to the right people. Only US customers (to my knowledge) have this issue as everyone from outside the US hasn't had a reported issue. It was supposed to clear up over time but apparently that is not the case. I can look into this as best I can and try to see what we can do to resolve it. My guess is that we've lost a decent number of sales over the whole dumb thing

So my apologies to you and anybody else who ran into issues.

 

[promking]

I ran into this on both my CC's when I was testing purchasing the game for $1. I never got a text or notification saying fraud protection was preventing the purchase, it just did nothing.

I had to call both and find out what was wrong and tell them to let the charge go through. One CC was more difficult than the other to get to the right people. Only US customers (to my knowledge) have this issue as everyone from outside the US hasn't had a reported issue. It was supposed to clear up over time but apparently that is not the case. I can look into this as best I can and try to see what we can do to resolve it. My guess is that we've lost a decent number of sales over the whole dumb thing

So my apologies to you and anybody else who ran into issues.

If they could potentially have some sort of other option or a paypal option I'd preorder.
But I've called my bank twice now :-/ Sorry.

 

[amerika]

What's the grappling system like in this game? I see that the robot has a toss, but what about the other characters? Can you grab and swap sides like in SOA? Grab and drag enemies into position like Paprium? Combo into grabs like Final Fight? Head smash 2 enemies together like in Batman Returns? Toss enemies at the screen like Turtles in Time?

A good grappling system really helps add variety to the gameplay in these types of games.

VH takes a slightly different route than other beat'em'ups. Instead of making a universal throwing system that every character has access to, we instead chose to make characters who specialize in what we call their Signature moves. The basic movement and combos are mostly identical between characters, but the signature moves drastically change how each plays and lets us go wild within their individual specials.

Golem (robot): He specializes in grappling and throws. He has a unique forward throw, backwards suplex, up throw (fun in co-op), down throw that OTG's the enemy for massive follow-ups, a pile driver (press down then up after hitting the throw button) and he also has a left and right air throw (you can choose which way to throw in the air) and an air pile driver. Since we didn't make throws universal, I wanted to make a character who really allowed people who enjoy grapplers to get creative.

I'll refrain from entirely explaining the mechanics of the other two to keep things more concise to your question. But Candy has an cartwheel with i-frames that lets her re-launch enemies and also do a ground&pound. Loony has a fist missile that lets you perform really long range air combos and extensions and OTGS (he's my favorite).

 

[amerika]

If they could potentially have some sort of other option or a paypal option I'd preorder.
But I've called my bank twice now :-/ Sorry.

No worries man. I appreciate it anyway! I'll see what I can do about it and update you either way.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Steam page is up:

Vengeance Hunters on Steam

Vengeance Hunters is an adrenaline fueled Neo-Geo hardware developed beat’em’up that lets you and a friend in local co-op fight mutants, zombies, punks, gangsters, lab techs with bombs (you read that correctly), suited mystery men, cyborgs and more across multiple stages, sublevels and secret areas.

store.steampowered.com

 

[NeoSneth]

I dig the new trailer. Shows a lot more interesting gameplay.

 

[amerika]

I dig the new trailer. Shows a lot more interesting gameplay.

Thanks! It definitely does a better job showing off what the game is, but it still does not quite show off what I would like. I plan on making a few short character expose videos that really shows people how the mechanics work for each of the playable characters and general mechanics.

Also, thanks for linking the Steam page!

 

[Neo Alec]

@amerika I'm genuinely curious why there's no Xbox version. A lot of small developers seem to be skipping Xbox these days.

 

[amerika]

@amerika I'm genuinely curious why there's no Xbox version. A lot of small developers seem to be skipping Xbox these days.

I was told that once we got Steam figured out (there were logistical issues there), then we'd setup Xbox. It's the easiest to dev on since any Xbox can be used as a dev kit/testing kit for our purposes and I own/like Xbox. Hell, I use a Series X controller most of the time to test with on the daily.

And yeah, the Xbox historically hasn't produced a ton of sales that wouldn't have been picked up elsewhere. So if one has to go because the dev doesn't have enough time/money, it's always Xbox.

 

[Neo Alec]

Thanks for the answer! Personally, as a long-time Xbox owner, the value is going down because at this point the platform is missing out on too many cross-platform releases.

I found this article from last month. I would guess that for technically less demaning 2D ports making the game Series S and Series X compliant isn't an issue?

Developers Reportedly Losing Interest In Xbox

A "major company" who released a big game last year reportedly said, "I don't know why we bothered supporting [Xbox]."

www.thegamer.com

 

[NeoSeeD]

Thanks for the answer! Personally, as a long-time Xbox owner, the value is going down because at this point the platform is missing out on too many cross-platform releases.

I found this article from last month. I would guess that for technically less demaning 2D ports making the game Series S and Series X compliant isn't an issue?

Developers Reportedly Losing Interest In Xbox

A "major company" who released a big game last year reportedly said, "I don't know why we bothered supporting [Xbox]."

www.thegamer.com

Microsoft is likely not particularly friendly to indie devs who would want to release limited physical releases. Also, whoever is in charge of naming their consoles needs to be fired.