Moonbound, my Nintendo 3DS game, will be released in America on December 16th 2021!

Akira_Tekagi

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Sep 28, 2004
Posts
295
Hello everyone!

I would like to announce that Moonbound, a Nintendo 3DS game that I've designed and developed, will be released in America on December 16th 2021! Moonbound will be available ONLY for the Nintendo 3DS console as a downloadable game in the Nintendo eShop. The game will work on all models of the Nintendo 3DS console (Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL and New Nintendo 2DS XL).

Moonbound_Nintendo_eShop_banner.png


- Moonbound's Nintendo eShop information :

Moonbound is a challenging 2D arcade action game that forces the player to make quick decisions under pressure. The player controls an astronaut who is returning to Earth after completing a geological survey mission in the Beta Iridian solar system. The astronaut's ship is suddenly damaged by an explosion! The energy crystals that are used as the ship's main power source are ejected out of the ship and land on six different moons. The player must return all of the remaining crystals to the ship to be able to return to Earth.

Game features :
* Survive through over 30 levels of challenging 2D arcade action!
* Encounter different enemies and environmental hazards on six moons
* Two game modes - Story Mode and Arcade Mode
* Four difficulty levels - Easy, Normal, Hard and Hardcore
* Level selection - Start a new game at any level
* Music player - Listen to all of the game's music tracks

Number of players : 1 player
Supported languages : English
Age rating (USA & Canada, ESRB) : E - Everyone, Mild Language


- Moonbound's American version on Nintendo.com : https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/moonbound-3ds/

- Public Dropbox link to the game's marketing assets (SPOILERS in the Spoiler_materials directory!) : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7thyv5ff6k5wsjn/AAASLJ9bjCe0tFwzWkMS3q9wa?dl=0

- Moonbound Official Website : http://www.moonbound-game.com/

- Moonbound's YouTube channel (Moonbound-game) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_dUZlWz0ZeP6whqkNgzvA

- Release countries in America : USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil

- Moonbound's European version is finished and it's currently being tested by NOE (Nintendo of Europe). The game's European version will most likely be released in January 2022.

I started developing Moonbound on September 1st 2016 after Nintendo had made possible for private individuals to develop games for the Nintendo 3DS console during the summer of 2016. The game's American version was finally finished on September 2nd 2021 so the game's development took almost exactly five years. Finishing the game's American version required 3196 work hours. I had several setbacks in my personal life during these years which delayed the game's development by almost 18 months. The worst of these setbacks was when my father passed away on May 21st 2020.

The release of Moonbound's American version was confirmed last week when the game's marketing assets were approved by NOA (Nintendo of America). The game appeared in the American Nintendo eShop only a couple of days ago. Search with the keyword "Moonbound" to find its eShop page. You can't purchase the game at the moment but it can be added to your wish list.

I hope that you can support my work by buying Moonbound in the Nintendo eShop!

I'll tell you more about the game later. Please reply to this thread if you have any questions or comments about my game.

Edit - Added Moonbound's YouTube channel information.
 
Last edited:

smokey

massive ding dong
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Posts
1,764
For five bucks I'm in. Can we get a video maybe?
 

Akira_Tekagi

Kula's Candy
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Posts
295
Congratulations on releasing your game.
I'll pick it up.
Thanks! I really appreciate your support.

I would like to recommend to all who decide to buy my game to :
1. Read the Gameplay Instructions section in the game's e-manual before playing the game. It has three pages that explain the game's controls, gameplay and difficulty levels. Moonbound does not have a tutorial. Remember that you can always access the e-manual during the game by pressing the console's HOME Button.
2. Select the Story Mode when you start playing Moonbound to avoid spoiling the game's story!
3. Try the game's Normal difficulty at first. Easy difficulty allows you to make many mistakes during the game.
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
295
For five bucks I'm in. Can we get a video maybe?
Thank you for your support!

I'll create Moonbound's YouTube channel soon. I will at least publish raw captured videos of the game, but they will not have audio because of the restrictions of the Nintendo 3DS development hardware that I've used for programming the game. There is nothing I can do about this now, because you can't get 3DS development hardware from Nintendo any more. Capturing realistic gameplay videos is not easy on this hardware, because the video capture works very slowly. I basically have to play the game while it runs in slow motion while capturing videos.

I'm not sure if I'll produce a trailer for the game, because it would require a lot of video editing. I'm currently working on a release poster/wallpaper for the game with my brother who is the game's primary 2D artist. I'm also planning to publish the game's full soundtrack on YouTube.
 

Ajax

way more american than wyo, way more
15 Year Member
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Oct 9, 2005
Posts
5,092
Oh, nice, will cop. Congratulations on the release, that's really cool!
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Joined
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Posts
295
OK, I'm really going to start selling you my game now. :p

I'll start by giving you numeric information about Moonbound so that you can have a better idea of the amount of content in the game. I counted these numeric values of the game after its European version was finished :

2 game modes (Story Mode and Arcade Mode)
2 playable characters - Captain James Aldrin (a former space marine) and doctor Emily Sharpe (an exobiologist)
4 difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard and Hardcore)

6 moons
32 playable levels
4 level clear bonuses (level clear bonus, item clear bonus, perfect bonus and Hardcore bonus)
2 background animation modes (Static and Dynamic)
13 background animation types (for example acid bubbling)
3 items (energy crystal, green mineral sample and purple mineral sample)
26 enemies, including 6 boss enemies
3 enemy AIs (Brainless, Primal Aggression and Intelligent Aggression)
17 projectiles
9 player debuffs
19 effect animations

9 story sections (10, if you include the credits)
6 characters in the game's story
321 story slides in James' story
385 story slides in Emily's story
732 story slides ;)
7 pages in the American version's e-manual (in English)
6 pages in the European version's e-manual (in English and French)

14 music tracks (30 minutes of original music)
83 sound effects produced for the game, 81 used in the game

13 programmed game scenes (including main menu, high scores and ending) + initial loading screen
0 unlockable game content items, all content immediately available to the player
60 fps silky smooth gameplay

57,4 MB American version's file size
57,5 MB European version's file size

3282 work hours to finish both versions of the game
5 years of my life, about 3½ years used on the game's development
1 dream come true - Moonbound was one of my dream projects

What surprised me the most after I had counted these numeric values was the total number of story slides (732 lines of dialogue or other story texts). I always had a pretty clear idea of the story that I wanted to tell in Moonbound, but I added a few things to it during the game's development. The game has a surprisingly long and detailed story (especially for an arcade game).
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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I've created a YouTube channel for Moonbound and captured the first gameplay video of the game!

Moonbound's YouTube channel (Moonbound-game) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_dUZlWz0ZeP6whqkNgzvA

Moonbound's first gameplay video (Level 3-2 on Normal difficulty with captain James Aldrin) :


Please subscribe to Moonbound's YouTube channel! There's a lot more content coming!

Capturing the first gameplay video of the game was not quite as difficult as I thought but I got lucky because I was able to capture it on the first attempt. This first gameplay video can already give you a pretty good idea of Moonbound's gameplay. You can see many gameplay elements in this short video. The picture quality of the video's YouTube version is not as good as the original captured video.
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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Moonbound's American version has finally been released in the Nintendo eShop! You can find the game in the New Releases section.

I also got great news from Nintendo of Europe yesterday : Moonbound's European version's release has been confirmed! The game's European version will be released in all NOE region countries except for Russia (total of 33 countries, including most European countries but also Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). The game's European Nintendo eShop page will be published on December 23rd 2021. Moonbound's European version's release date will very likely be January 27th 2022!

Moonbound's release poster is unfortunately still unfinished. It also has to be approved separately for release by Nintendo because it includes Nintendo's logos. I'll post it here after it has been approved. I had time to capture the game's third gameplay video earlier today (Level 1-3 on Hard difficulty with captain James Aldrin) :


This has been a very emotional day for me. I decided that I wanted to become a game developer when I was only 14. I'm 43 now so the road to this moment has been extremely long for me. I had many setbacks in my life and some incredibly bad luck before I even had the chance to start developing this game. You would not believe what I've had to endure to reach this goal.
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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I would like to start spreading some holiday cheer around here! I received download codes for Moonbound's American version earlier this week from Nintendo. You can use these codes to download my game for free in the Nintendo eShop!

If you would like to have a download code for my game, reply to this thread and ask for one. I'll send you the download code as a private message. I could give you at the moment a total of 10 codes. I'll send the codes in the order of replies so be quick if you want to have one!
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
295
Moonbound's fifth gameplay video (Level 5-1 on Hardcore difficulty with captain James Aldrin) :

 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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The release of Moonbound's American version has gone better than I expected. The game currently has three five star reviews in the Nintendo eShop and it has already sold a decent amount of copies! It has sold copies steadily every day after its release. I was afraid that my game would not have any sales at all.

I have also received some really positive feedback about Moonbound. Here's a few quotes from random people that have played the game :

Jason Jones on YouTube : "... Then here's a new developer I havnt seen yet with "Moon bound" and I expected it to be terrible...Im happy to say I was wrong. It's not a lame action game like it seems at first glance, it's a clever puzzle game and a seriously challenging one at that. Im really enjoying it so far. It's absolutely worth checking out. I'm grateful that another dev has taken 3ds eShop development serious enough to TRY. Well done."

shamwow on Nintendo Life forums : "just downloaded, gotta say the music is SO good, i appreciate that you put sound test in there so i could put on your soundtrack and just set my 3ds down and listen. anyway nice work mate! thanks for making this"

lostnumber17 on Nintendo Life forums : "This game is great! It's fun and challenging, and it definitely has that nostalgic feel. Jouni, you did an excellent job. And to echo what another commenter said - yes, the music is incredible. Looking forward to future games!"

The most surprising thing about the release of the game's American version for me has been that I have not seen any negative feedback for it. There has not even been a single dislike (thumbs down) on the game's YouTube channel's videos.

What has been really annoying though that I have not gotten a single proper review for the game yet. Part of this is my fault for not trying to get them hard enough, but it seems that the mainstream Nintendo and gaming websites simply don't care about the Nintendo 3DS any more...

Do you know any websites or YouTubers who still cover Nintendo 3DS content?
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Moonbound's sixth gameplay video (Level 3-4 on Hard difficulty with doctor Emily Sharpe) :

 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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I wanted to show you what the game's Story Mode looks like so I captured two videos of the prologue of James' story :



These videos don't have spoilers of the game's story.

I would also like to tell you that the game's release poster/wallpaper was finally finished a couple of days ago! It was delayed because my brother has been very busy for the past few weeks. The poster must be approved by Nintendo of America before I can publish it. I'll post it here after it has been approved.
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Moonbound's release poster/wallpaper (772 x 1080 px) has been approved by Nintendo of America, so I can finally publish it :

Moonbound_3DS_release_poster_USA_version.png


I was planning to publish this poster on the game's American version's release date, but unfortunately it was delayed. You can use this poster as a desktop wallpaper on full HD resolution. The European version of this poster (with JAN 27TH 2022 as the release date) is available in Dropbox (link in the first post of this thread > Release_marketing_materials > Release_poster).

This poster is a graphical representation of what happens in the fourth chapter of the game's story. I designed this poster on paper only a week before my father passed away, so it was very important for me to finish it.

I can start publishing the game's soundtrack videos in YouTube now, because I wanted to use this poster in them. I'll also start working on the game's official website soon.
 

Akira_Tekagi

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IMPORTANT NEWS - Moonbound will be available for purchase in the Nintendo 3DS eShop only until March 27th 2023, because the sale of games in the shop is ending permanently!

Credit cards and gift cards can no longer be used to make purchases in the eShop, but you can still buy the game through Nintendo's websites :

American version - https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/moonbound-3ds/

European version (including Australia and New Zealand) - https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-3DS-download-software/Moonbound-2162203.html
 

Akira_Tekagi

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Posts
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The sale of Moonbound is ending on March 27th 2023 :


I've been a member here for almost 20 years (although an absent one for the past few years because I've been busy with game development). I would like to give you 50 download codes which you can use to get my game for FREE in the Nintendo eShop :

American version :
1 - B18RPTT04FF6G7RV
2 - B18RPTT12M4VBPXD
3 - B18RPTT20LFGF3RJ
4 - B18RPTT30V5B8C0T
5 - B18RPTT4415XQJ0R
6 - B18RPTT52YJYC6K2
7 - B18RPTT64N8L4SX2
8 - B18RPTT73G30X1SQ
9 - B18RPTT852DD5NTX
10 - B18RPTT94QC4L9BG
11 - B18RPTTV0LL2RHH5
12 - B18RPTTB2N0VBT17
13 - B18RPTTC04F5VHJ2
14 - B18RPTTD5V458JM6
15 - B18RPTTW077158W6
16 - B18RPTTF2FHF19XC
17 - B18RPTTG2J7BT7CN
18 - B18RPTTH1WS5N1N2
19 - B18RPTTX4H10KGMX
20 - B18RPTTJ33T7J055

European version, European countries ONLY :
1 - B18RQDB63010XYXH
2 - B18RQDB7346JQ1CP
3 - B18RQDB8170YXRKM
4 - B18RQDB92PBTCSBW
5 - B18RQDBV22VC8M0D
6 - B18RQDBB0L36GRPQ
7 - B18RQDBC0732TQ2S
8 - B18RQDBD1TLKP9Q1
9 - B18RQDBW2XB551PS
10 - B18RQDBF4YMHF7SJ
11 - B18RQDBG0H023GNY
12 - B18RQDBH0LP5M56X
13 - B18RQDBX1LK0J6LN
14 - B18RQDBJ3NGV5G09
15 - B18RQDBK5XH4VV12
16 - B18RQDBL0SXTYDPF
17 - B18RQDBM0044H093
18 - B18RQDBN5589GH88
19 - B18RQDBY3Y01HCYM
20 - B18RQDBP31QYW82K

European version, Australia & New Zealand ONLY :
1 - B18RQD8R3HQT4KDN
2 - B18RQD8S1X4LYDB4
3 - B18RQD8T1XDVF66C
4 - B18RQD900F0PLHW7
5 - B18RQD911WP61M6L
6 - B18RQD9209QRMTYY
7 - B18RQD93104QMHC0
8 - B18RQD941RRH0CMP
9 - B18RQD9544NCWYT0
10 - B18RQD962N1NTJYC

Please note that these download codes will work only until March 27th 2023, so you need to HURRY!

How to use a download code in the Nintendo eShop : Go to the left to Settings / Other -> Redeem Download Code.

Please use them and enjoy! :giggle: Share them with a friend if you don't own a Nintendo 3DS console. I would like that Moonbound could be experienced by as many gamers as possible.
 

dspoonrt

Genam's Azami Sharpener
10 Year Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2011
Posts
1,513
I used the "20 - B18RPTTJ33T7J055" code for the American version. Excited to check it out. Thanks!
 

HeavyMachineGoob

My poontang misses Lenn Yang's wang
10 Year Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Posts
5,813
I used "1 - B18RPTT04FF6G7RV" for a friend's 3DS, I bought a copy for myself. Thanks!
 

Yoshi

,
20 Year Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2001
Posts
1,444
I grabbed Hanzo's US counterpart: 17 - B18RPTTG2J7BT7CN. Thank you!
 
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