Hinedere Beat
Update – Version 1.9.6
- Minor changes to most of the tilesets/backgrounds
- Minors changes to two of the CGs
- Minor grammatical corrections to a few lines of script
- Access to previous builds (instructions further below)
Since the messy release of this game, I’ve given it some fairly large updates and am intensely sorry about the mess that it has been. So without trying to get too ridiculous about it (like I have in a few of my previous posts), I’m going to give a brief rundown on how this game stands as this current version is everything I originally envisioned.
These recent changes I made to the tilesets/backgrounds are actually more similar to a rollback of them, since they look and feel more similar to how they were at release. The deliberate discoloring of this game’s backgrounds was always part of my original vision for this game.
Regarding access to this game’s previous builds, they can be accessed by right-clicking on the game in your library, clicking on the “Properties” option, clicking on the “BETAS” tab within the “Properties” window, and then bringing down a menu by clicking on “NONE - Opt out of all beta programs” to choose the version you’d like to install and play.
I've also created a guide with images!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1884794330
Most of the updates to this game resulted in quite noticeable differences between some of the versions and there may be some curiosity or preference towards earlier versions. My reason for the delay in offering the option to play older versions of this game was due to the difficulty I experienced in trying to make them available as free downloadable content. The difficulty mainly consisted of issues with the achievements, save files, as well as the additional hard drive space required for installing downloadable content.
In conclusion, I want to apologize for how much of a mess the release of this game was and thank everyone for their support and patience. I’m finally done with this game and never again do I want to deal with the insane amounts of anxiety that have always found some crazy way to haunt me over this game and my original vision for it (if that makes any sense). Lastly, if you have a little more curiosity towards this game, please do take a look at this game’s home page through my website from this link.
Update - Version 1.9.2.6
I updated the game with a few subtle changes. While the changes do just amount to being a few touch ups, they are implemented to improve the overall experience.
This is just a small update to supplement the last update that went live a few days ago. That update made this game a bit more like a visual novel than it previously was, so the changes applied in this update were made to reflect that. Below is a list of some of those changes applied to this update.
- Addition of CG Gallery
- Changes to a few of the CG's
- Added a simplified log function for the kinetic novel portions
- A few changes to some of the dialogue
I'm seriously very sorry that these touch ups weren't originally included until now.
Update - Version 1.9
- Major changes to nearly all of the plot, dialogue, story-related material, etc.
- Tweaks to all flamethrower and bullet-based patrol drones’ AI
- Minor tweaks to player character’s platfoming abilities
- Minor tweaks to most of the supernatural enemies’ AI
- Tweaks to some of the background tilesets
- A few changes to the soundtrack
- Minor changes to a few sprites
Since I really feel like I should try to leave some kind of explanation in this post for some of the changes that I made in this update, such as the mature content resulting from the changes to the story, I tried to make it as easy of a read as I could because I don’t want to get more incredibly ridiculous about it than I already did.
As a result of all of the changes I made to this game in this update, I made this game into a yuri-themed, side-scrolling platformer and visual novel mixture. One of my goals with this sort of game is to tell an openly-sexual, abstract love story between two girls where the focus of its sexual aspects is directed towards expressing the game’s cynical and abstract themes, as portrayed by the game’s main characters, rather than just purely taking up the challenge of sexually exciting the player with my game. Portraying Fumika’s perspective during the course of the game as she experiences its events and Ayumi’s eccentric behavior that drives them also became important aspects of it.
Furthermore, one of my most important reasons for wanting to make it like a cinematic platformer was that I originally wanted to try to simulate a date event, similar to those of romance visual novels, as a side-scrolling platformer to try to tell an abstract love story. Because of how most of the visual novels I’ve played featured a protagonist without any super-human abilities, the player character only has the slightly over-exaggerated abilities of a traceur and martial artist, essentially making it out to play more like a cinematic platformer.
While this update does follow the aforementioned date event concept, the previously released builds dropped the concept because the difficulty I had with writing it the way I wanted to. A lot of progress was already made before those previous builds dropped the date event concept, though, so those builds ended up with stories that the game wasn't originally built around. For this update, I brought back the romance story, but reworked it into something that I had less difficulty with while sticking to what this game was originally built around.
Sometime before this update, but after the previous update, I started to realize that I really did need to make changes to this game so that it stays consistent with my current project, additional to still just feeling like I needed to make some further changes to this game for a better experience. A lot of what I was coming up with for my current project influenced me to come up with the changes that I needed to make to this game so that it would be more consistent with my current project, on top of it essentially becoming the game that I originally designed this one to be.
From all of that, this update made this game become what it was originally designed to be before the changes that made it what it was when it was released (and through version 1.8 as well). Again, I really do apologize for not having this version being the released one, so I really am hoping that this update does make this game a genuinely better experience.
Update - Version 1.8
- Changes to most of the sprites
- Changes to most of the background tilesets
- Changes to most of the dialogue
- Tweaks to some of the enemies’ AI
- Replaced the entire soundtrack
For anyone curious about the details and such for my cheesy reasons for making these changes, I just really felt like I really needed to update the game to what it is in version 1.8. The writing from the prior version of the game was something that I’ve been regretting for reasons that I probably should assume are understandable (due to its criticism), having to modify the NES/Famicom color palette made it clear that I’m not good enough at using it to be using it, I wanted to take advantage of the graphical changes to switch the soundtrack to something that I've always wanted to make for a game (link to download and info), and there were some other things that I really wanted to clean up.
Lastly, thank you for the support and I do apologize again for initially releasing the game in a state that really needed changes.
Update – Version 1.4
- Additional screens/rooms added in most chapters
- New enemies in the additional screens/rooms
- Tweaks to the platforming mechanics that make wall-running and demanding platforming sections less demanding
- Added a more thorough explanation to the wall-running mechanics
- Changes to most of the sprites
- Changes to some of the background tilesets
- Changes to some of the dialogue
- Changes to some of the previously existing screens/rooms
- Achievements now require completing a chapter with less than 10 deaths (rather than less than 5 deaths due to the additional screens/rooms)
Thank you for all of your support and I do apologize for having to update the game to include these changes, rather than initially releasing the game in its updated state.
Upcoming Update and OST Steam Release
One thing that’s been brought to my attention is the difficulty some have had with the wall-running mechanic. I do plan on tweaking it so that it’s easier to trigger the wall-running cycle but I also did a terrible job at explaining how it’s triggered and such. I also plan on providing a better explanation on how it’s triggered on top of making it easier to trigger. For anyone curious on how it works, this is a bit of the unfinished artwork that’ll be used in the upcoming updated version of the game to help explain how wall-running is triggered (but it does apply to the current version of the game too):
- When jumping towards a wall, the wall-running cycle will initiate if you come into contact with the wall during the parts of the jump-arc that are colored in green. No further input is required until you decide to perform a wall-jump.
- Coming into contact with the wall during the parts colored in red will result in the player character tapping the wall with her feet without running up it. You can still wall-jump from this state, though.
- If you were to come into contact with the wall during the white parts, the jump cycle will just continue until the green area is reached.
- For the most part, you’ll just need to get as close to the wall as you can before jumping towards it.
I am hoping that this explanation helps alleviate frustration anyone may have experienced with the wall-running mechanic and I do apologize for not already having that explanation in the game. I also still plan on tweaking a few things that would make triggering it easier.
Among the additional content and other changes I plan on making are tweaks to make the pixel-perfect jumps less demanding and some changes to the dialogue.
Lastly, I made the soundtrack for the game available on Steam. If you do like it and want to download it, you can do so for free through here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/948440/Hinedere_Beat_OST/
Thank you for all of your support and I hope that this update will be a likable one.
Coming Soon!
As described in the description, Hinedere Beat is a pseudo 8-bit, quasi-cinematic platformer with minor stealth elements and visual novel-style storytelling. Much of the platforming is parkour-influenced, progression is linear, and its story is one of cynicism.
I created all of the artwork using the NES/Famicom color palette with the two changes I made to it. I composed a chiphop soundtrack for it as well. Also, new concepts I’ve never used before are used in this game and I’ve put focus into creating levels that make use of them. The difficulty level is also a bit lower than most of my previous games. Like all of my previous games, I developed it entirely by myself.
Gameplay itself is influenced by the original Prince of Persia, earlier Castlevania games, as well as other 8-bit platformers and to a lesser extent, older Metal Gear titles. For nearly everything outside of gameplay, I was influenced by anime such as the Monogatari series, The Tatami Galaxy, Penguindrum, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Oregairu. Just about every SHAFT-produced anime that I’ve seen had also influenced me in one way or another.
Please do check this game out when I release it if any that interests you!