#outofthebit

From Gematsu

Full Void developer OutOfTheBit has announced pixel art side-scrolling puzzle platformer Nanuka: Secret of the Shattering Moon. It will launch for PC via Steam in April 2025, followed shortly after by “all major consoles.”

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

From the indie studio that brought you Full Void, comes a new exciting 2D cinematic puzzle platformer, set in a colorful, cartoony land. A vibrant world in high-resolution, handcrafted and hand-animated pixel art, for a challenging adventure filled with mystery and fun.

Key Features

Clumsy Purple Belt Saves the World? – Nanuka finds herself thrown into the midst of a giant impending disaster! Albeit unprepared, our young martial artist will rise to the challenge!

Adventure Awaits – Travel through wondrous lands while uncovering the secret of the shattering moon in this colorful interactive puzzle platformer!

Finish Them Off With Style – Discover unique ways to defeat your opponents in this martial arts-inspired combat system. Fight formidable foes and put a stop to the evil mastermind’s plan!

A Handcrafted Immersive World – A gorgeous hand=drawn and animated cinematic pixel art game with vibrant colors, cartoony animations and dynamic audio!

“At OutOfTheBit, we strive to push the boundaries of storytelling and gameplay,” said OutOfTheBit director Ali Motisi in a press release. “With Nanuka, we’re taking players on an adventure that combines the charm of beautiful landscapes with original character design, all brought to life through thousands of meticulously hand animated frames.”

Motisi continued, “We believe in the power of storytelling through games. While Full Void explored the depths of isolation, with Nanuka: Secret of the Shattering Moon, we have another story to tell. A story that revolves around the themes of multiculturalism, the strength found in diversity and the beauty of mixing cultures.”

Watch the announcement trailer and a short gameplay video below. View the first screenshots at the gallery. Visit the official website here.

Teaser Trailer

Boss Fight Gameplay

Combat Skills Gameplay

Platforming Gameplay #1

Platforming Gameplay #2

Video Game Review: Super Arcade Football

Super Arcade Football Developer and Publisher: OutOfTheBit Genre: Sports Nintendo Switch During my teenage years and the early days of Android gaming, I spent a lot of time playing Soccer Superstars, an arcade soccer game with pixel style graphics and a lot of personality. Now a decade later, the game isn’t supported on any modern devices, and I’ve been left with a hole in my heart that can only…

Planet Quest by OutOfTheBit

One of the most delightful rhythm games I've ever played. Free, but with ads which can be removed by paying $1 or reaching #1 on the high score list.

This is the first time I've featured something that wasn't playable on a computer, so apologies to anybody without access to an iPhone, iPad or Android device.

Stork - Isometric Obstacles

Now that we can draw, import and export vector sprites with Stork we have finally started focusing on the game! One of the first problems we faced was handling collisions between players and foreground objects. Above is a video about how we use Stork to create isometric obstacles. The video is made of 3 steps:

Step 1 - Draw the obstacle

I draw a cube in front of the player and make it a new sprite. 

Step 2 - Draw the Collision Mask

I make use of the sprite hierarchy to draw the Collision Mask within the obstacle. This is needed as we want the player to stop only if the base of the cube is hit, not the top.

Step 3 - Draw the Transparency Mask

When the player is behind the obstacle the game engine should draw the player and then the collision object (in order). Since for our gameplay we do not want players to get lost behind objects, we’ve decided to show both the player and the collision object with 50% of transparency when a player is behind an obstacle.

I draw the Transparency Mask to let the game engine know when a player should be displayed behind an object (i.e. both objects will be drawn with 50% transparency for this game).

Conclusions

Any isometric world rendered with a 2D engine will pose problems on how to handle obstacles and collisions properly. So far, we’ve managed to solve those problems by using a Collision Mask and a Transparency Mask associated with any obstacle.

If you are facing those problems for the first time, this post might give you some idea. If you have already solved those using different techniques, I would love to hear them!