As of October 5, 2017, all Kickstarter rewards have been shipped. The game in stock and can be purchased at https://www.spoonybard.ca/product/eskimo-bob-nes-game-boxed

Thanks to everyone for your support! I couldn't have done it without all the help I got from here.

ORIGINAL POST:
I have just launched a new Kickstarter for my homebrew project: Eskimo Bob for NES. It is a puzzle-platformer title that I have been working on for the past few months. Please check it out and consider backing a new NES homebrew title. I also have a demo ROM available below. Thanks!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/80534516/eskimo-bob-for...

http://www.eskimobob.com/eskimo-bob-nes-demo/

EDIT: As of July 21, this is also available on Steam!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/651360/Eskimo_Bob_Starrin...
 

The Spoony Bard reference is awesome.
Quickly played the demo and reached up to level 6.

I advice anyone to try out the demo, and spend few minutes to check it out.

I like it, it is a game worth to play, and inspiring to look at. The game concept is very nice, the characters different skills make sense, the puzzles are logic and challenging enough to be interesting, but easy enough to still a simple game to play distractedly. Game play and game concept are different from the stereotype of a NES platform game, and this is admirable. Physics work flawlessly. The game seems bug free and glitch free. It is fun to play.

Graphically wise, it is rather simple and minimal, but catchy and charismatic. The style is very unique. Both main sprites (24px tall, correct?) have personality. The animations are really basic, but effective. All graphical elements are easily recognizable, and look clean and well shaped. Few items could maybe be a bit more detailed (e.g. an igloo is made of blocks of ice, rather than a bell of snow), but the overall effect is interesting to look at, and appealing to the eye. Nice choice of colors: nothing breathtaking, but the colors are coherently put together. The music is ok, nothing breathtaking, but it does its job well enough. The font choice, uncommon for a NES game, fits the game perfectly. Ironically, the starting screen is kind of poorly formatted, and it is the screen that looks the less professional, but that's not a big deal at all.

Just my two cents opinion feedback on the game, take it for what it is worth.

Best luck (well deserved) with the Kickstarter campaign.

Cheers!

Thanks for the feedback. A lot of the simplistic design choices were meant to emulate the style of the original cartoon which this is based off of (eg: the solid white igloo). Great to hear such positive feedback though!
 

Nice! Looks fun! I would like to back, but don't have any of the accepted cards. I'll have to get a friend interested as well so I can use their card. So count on two more backers soon.  

I like it!

Please! Don't get me wrong. This is a game I wish that I designed: it is full of originality!

And I really do like minimalism, I mean the skill to communicate a concept relying on very simple resources. For the records, my first games published were graphically wise extremely minimal.

If the style is coherent, and what you display is clear and triggers interest, it looks great also if simple!

And, like you said, to care about preserving the style of the original cartoon or comic it is surely admirable.

I'll be checking this out later when I get a chance  

Thanks so much! I appreciate all the good feedback and I feel like I'm having a terrific first day - almost $1000 funded in the first six hours! It's like watching my childhood dreams come true before my eyes

Man, the gameplay feels really solid. Graphics are nice and consistent, and the music is catchy. Awesome work and good luck with the campaign!

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey hey toma

hey toma

sup

Do you have a mockup of the box art at all?

Game looks cool. Thanks for posting and good luck with your campaign.

I don't have a real mockup of box art yet, just threw some stock art on there to give an idea. Things are moving fast though, maybe I should do this soon.

My head is going to explode from nostalgia this year. Backed!
*edit* I'm now watching the original flash cartoon on eskimobob.com. Cute! I'm a chucklin'.

Thanks for the support. It's only day 2 and I'm already well past 50% backed. This is so encouraging!

And that is what it is all about. It is a great feeling, that is for sure! You're almost funded too, just a bit more to go  .

Up to 78% now! Getting a lot of support from you guys, and I really appreciate it!

Almost there !  

Yup, the excitement is very real here today!

Actually glutock, you can probably help me with this question. I have a fair amount of European backers now, but my game was only programmed with NTSC consoles in mind. I don't have any PAL hardware to test on. Making a PAL version with altered music and sound effects would be trivial, but I'm worried that adjusting the timing to try and make a 50hz version that runs at the same speed as what I have now may play havoc with the physics engine and introduce new glitches. Is it a big deal for European gamers if I use the same cartridge for worldwide release?

The idea of learning the know-how, to work on producing and commercializing media or goods for the benefit of others, without a fair and honest profit being the primary goal, it never occurred to me.

Lots of absolute admiration, maximum respect, but this is something completely alien to my logic and my mentality, and difficult to understand: I would never be motivated to do something like that.

All this is, of course, intended as a compliment, not a criticism.  

Sorry all for the quick OT.

You could test with an emulator (choose PAL region) and see if the difference is acceptable (for you) or not.
Adjusting the physics of your game to handle NTSC and PAL now that the game is developped might not be an easy task :/
Let me know if I can help you with that.
I guess that some players won't care, and some players will complain ...

I'm doing this now. To me, the game still feels like it controls feels pretty good when I choose PAL. I made a version of the game where I updated the music and sound effects so they sound basically the same in PAL mode with the only difference being the slightly slower movement. However, the game isn't particularly fast-paced as it is, so I think this might be good enough. If this were the only version I'd played then I don't think I'd know the difference, so I think I'll stick with it. Thanks for the advice!

I just tested, and indeed it's not that bad   It should be ok !

Quickly tested the demo ROM.
Emulator FcEux 2.2.3 on Win environment.
PAL settings.

It plays a little bit slower, as expected, but the game, for what my opinion is worth, is fully enjoyable.
Also the music, sounds different, but it is actually nice anyways.

Could finish up the demo without losing a single life, so maybe it is a bit easier since being a bit slower.

Just finished an entire playthrough of the game in PAL mode and I'm pretty happy with it as well. I've adjusted the music so that it sounds more like the NTSC version though, and I find it actually gives the illusion of the game being a bit quicker even without altering the physics. I did notice there were a few instances of slowdown/status bar scroll flicker in later levels when I had too many enemies on the screen. This doesn't happen in NTSC mode. I'm guessing it has to do with the PAL NES having a slightly slower CPU. Anyway, it only happened 4 or 5 times and the easy fix removing an easily-defeated enemy here and there. No big deal. The final boss had a fair amount of slowdown as well but I figured out an acceptable workaround for that as well that I'm happy with.

I do think the PAL version is slightly easier because of the speed, but in later levels it's still pretty tough. I actually have a death counter baked into the password system in the final game. It keeps track even if you get a game over and hit continue as well, but you never actually see it on screen until the ending. Adds a little replay value, especially to those tricky stages in the later half of the game!

No, frames are longer on PAL system so there shouldn't be slowdowns if everything run fine on NTSC.