BOH, original retro-flavoured game

[saimo]

Hi all,

Nreive has kindly allowed me to present BOH, a commercial, 100% indie game I released for AmigaOS, AROS, Linux, MacOS and Windows.



BOH is a unique retro-flavoured puzzle-riddled maze game spiced up with thrilling action.
You move in claustrophobic, mysterious, dangerous battlefields searching for the Evil Masters, who throw countless enemies at you until you discover and face them in the final battle. Although your quests are made slightly less hard by the power-ups scattered all around, carrying out the missions demands lots of concentration and quick reflexes.
With BOH the fun never ends: new missions can be added anytime and you can even create your own! And, as if that was not enough, you can also customize entirely its audio-visual aspect!
BOH has been created with lots of passion and care to offer, with its oldschool style, a fascinatingly different videogaming experience.

The game features:
* immersive & thrilling gameplay;
* 44 missions + 11 secret missions to unlock;
* missions divided in 5 levels of difficulty;
* multi-phase missions;
* multi-floor battlefields of any size/shape;
* mind-blowing puzzles and deadly traps;
* many and varied power-ups;
* several different kinds of enemies;
* hand-pixelled 2D graphics;
* real-time field of vision and lighting;
* atmospheric audio and rich soundtrack;
* 7 themes;
* online world standings;
* possibility of creating missions and themes;
* Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish and Swedish translations.

BOH comes on a CD-ROM in a plastic DVD box along with a 24 pages, full-color printed manual or as a downloadable ISO image.

Website: http://www.bohthegame.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/BOH/99598418583
Twitter: http://twitter.com/bohthegame

I'll gladly answer any question.
Thanks for the attention and enjoy!

[triverse]

Awesome looking gamethere. Can't wait to see how this develops. Any chance of getting a higher quality video of the gameplay?
It looks great, extremely close up, stressful action based on the close quarters and lack of being able to see the whole level at once (looks like it creates some great atmospher for the game). Reminded me a lot of the first time I ever saw a video of Resident Evil in action.
Great job.

[saimo]

Awesome looking gamethere.

Wow, thanks!

Can't wait to see how this develops.

mmm... what do you exactly mean? The game is finished already*. I have released also a few updates and expansions, but, given the low sales, I guess that's it

*Yet, it's made to be expandible: users can create their own missions, themes and translations. On the DOWNLOADS page there is an almost finished developer's manual, which explains how to do it (I'm going to finish it in the next few days).

Any chance of getting a higher quality video of the gameplay?

The weakish equipment I have here makes it impossible. However, have you tried to download it from the DOWNLOADS page? - the streaming version is slightly worse.
Anyway, now that you've seen the video, I suggest you try the demo

It looks great, extremely close up, stressful action based on the close quarters and lack of being able to see the whole level at once (looks like it creates some great atmospher for the game).

I'm just very glad you caught these aspects. Not many do. Some even complain. But they are really the center of the game.

Reminded me a lot of the first time I ever saw a video of Resident Evil in action.

Really? This is first time I'm told such a thing. Normally people mention Alien Breed, Doom and a few others*. Oh, well, it could be. Even if I've never seen Resident Evil myself (I'm totally "retro")!

*Nreive, I've checked Laser Squad: the genre is totally different, but I do realize you were referring just to a particular aspect.

Great job.

Thanks a lot for the nice words

[Nreive]

Yep, it was the mission-based/field of vision that remined me of Laser Squad - full of gameplay elements that I'd expect from a classic. I've posted a short summary on the front page of our website here.

[saimo]

I've posted a short summary on the front page of our website here.

Oh, my! That's a great thing per se and certainly also a nice presentation! Thanks a bunch!

BTW, just a few notes:
* "While we're predominantly homebrew retro here[...]": well, BOH *is* homebrew, as I did it entirely myself at home... you know, the typical product of bedroom coding (and I do mean "bedroom")
* a space is missing between "of" and "indie" on the first line;
* "you only see what is in front of your character" is true and it's OK in that context, but let me add here that if the player picks up the 360° visor, the field of vision extends also to the back of the character

[saimo]

Nreive, I noticed you modified the piece of news accoding to my remarks... that's been very kind of you! Thank you so much!

[triverse]

My apologies for the comment about seeing how this develops. I meant with the expandability available, I am interested in seeing what fans of the game can come up with (look at what being expandable did for Doom and Quake).
I mentioned Resident Evil because of the scare factor you have in BOH, I love the top down genre and mistakenly forgot my roots after viewing your video there. It really is a cool looking game.
Hmmm, sales not going as well as they could? Need to get you some more exposure for the game then.

[saimo]

My apologies for the comment about seeing how this develops. I meant with the expandability available,

Oh, no problem! And, after all, what you said isn't wrong, it's just that I couldn't really understand

I am interested in seeing what fans of the game can come up with (look at what being expandable did for Doom and Quake).

Same here. In fact, I can never stress enough the game's "modability" - and it drove me nuts when a couple of editors didn't even mention themes in their review because "that was not an important point".

I mentioned Resident Evil because of the scare factor you have in BOH,

Then I'm really happy if BOH manages to compare to such a successful game in that department

I love the top down genre and mistakenly forgot my roots after viewing your video there. It really is a cool looking game.

Thanks again!
BTW: sorry for my ignorance, but does "forgot my roots" mean something of the kind "lost touch with reality / fell in a dreamy state" there?

Hmmm, sales not going as well as they could? Need to get you some more exposure for the game then.

Definitely. That's in first place the reason why I presented it here (I can't thank Nreive enough for allowing me to) and in many other places, and why I submitted the game for review to many (online) mags. I'm doing my best.
I'm not surprised, though: today's videogaming scene is culturally much different and I'm Mr. Nobody in an industry dominated by giants (I was aware of all this even before conceiving the game, of course; if you are interested, I talk a bit about these aspects - among many other interesting things - in this interview here).

[saimo]

Hi everybody,

in the hope that this may make somebody happy, I'm back to announce that the popular demand for a digitally delivered version of BOH has been met by making the ISO image of the CD-ROM available for download at the reduced price of just EUR 10.00. Customers will be entitled to buy, at any time, also the physical product by paying just the price difference (EUR 2.50) and the postage.
Moreover, the direct purchase of the boxed version, which continues to be available at the usual price of EUR 12.50, will give immediate access to the downloadable image.
The image contains the most up-to-date versions for AmigaOS, MacOS and Windows, as well as all the expansions released to date.
(Prices do not include VAT 20%.)

http://www.bohthegame.com

[triverse]

Hey Saimo, I posted your game info and such over on UnNamedGaming.com's forums and I have a staff member that is wanting to review BOH over there. Let me know if there is anything we can do to work with you in that effort.