The game has now made it to the world's largest game fair as one of the best of the last 12 months! We showed it to an enthusiastic audience on the Retro Stage of the Retro Area at Gamescom 2023 in Cologne. You can watch the video here starting at 00:12:47. English subtitles should be available here. 🙂
La curva de dificultad está bien medida, no llegando a ser demasiado difícil hasta bien entrada la segunda mitad de nuestro recorrido.
El manejo del personaje es sublime, con una sensacion de control bien conseguida que hace que jugarlo con un mando tipo pad sea una experiencia recomendable.
El apartado sonoro cumple a la perfección, disponiendo de nada mas y nada menos que de 11 pistas musicales que nos acompañan durante toda nuestra misión.
I really enjoyed this game. Very challenging towards the end - thank god for emulation and savestates!! Great graphics, sound, and gameplay, well worth that zzap sizzler, thanks for all the hard work knifegrinder
I really like your game very much. It's visually pleasing. I also like the music and background effects. It's really amazing what is still possible with the C64. It's fun to play, sometimes it is tricky. It really works best on real Commodore hardware; struggling more on the TheC64 (probably input lag of the system itself). Excellent work! I am recommending it to others.
I'd have two ideas for your game: Maybe have two or three different difficulty levels. And have checkpoints generate codes (letters and digits) which would enable the player to resume from that checkpoint even after power-cycling the computer. A similar feature is implemented for example by the game Grid Pix.
Maybe the code could also contain all of the upgrades that the player had by that point. I don't know whether that'd be easier to implement than a save to disk (and load again) feature.
Just wanted to say, thank you for bringing this to life. I'm just getting back to the C64 after too many years away and I am amazed at the games being released! Lester feels so new yet right at home on the C64. Thanks again.
Great game. I enjoyed a lot. Smooth movement, good jump, enough amount of rooms well designed, objects to collect, correct music...perhaps I would like more type of enemies but I said, very good game as it is
A great game, thank you so much Knifegrinder! It totally brings the spirit of the great old 8-bit games.
But now I'm lost in the game's many rooms, i.e. I think I visited all rooms which are reachable with the key-cards for level 2, but am stuck. Is there a map like some giant PNG picture containing all the rooms in detail?
Thanks! I don't want to spoil the game here but if you are stuck there's a great playthrough done by VIPER's Retrogame videos down in the comment section, at 20:30 in the video you'll find the answer.
Thanks for referencing the play-through video. I only watched the section which helped me to find the next level-pass.
What a nearly perfect 8 bit game you created. Well done! I played many 8 and 16 bit games (back then in the good old 1980'ies, as well as today).
Do you intend to publish a few more words about the "making of" your game, next to what you wrote in the very very short "dev log"? For example are you a professional programmer or graphic artist, or did you already collect experiences in the 8 bit days, did you use an assembler or a compiler or special software tools to pack all the code and data into the <64 KB RAM, or the like...
No private details needed, just some info to get an idea of what it takes a ~one-man-developer to create such a lovely and polished game.
In any case, all the best to you, and good luck with potential future games.
Regarding my experience this is my first game ever. Not for the C64 but for every platform. But I'm a good player and in all those years I developed a taste for a certain type of games and I tried to reproduce what I like about them. Or, at least, the things reproducible on an 8-bit machine.
What I like about the C64 is that despite its infinite library there are few games that explicitly try to mimic the japanese productions on consoles and home computers. The great majority feel so 64ish. But what I learned with much surprise in those last years is that it's more a design choice than an actual limitation of the machine. Despite the heavy limitations of its graphic modes the C64 has a palette that is more colorful and vibrant than what the average 80s game made us think. And Lester is not even the best demonstration of this because I choose to have a dominant color per section which made my life a lot easier but take a look at Sam's Journey. What they made is insane and a testament of the VIC-II real capabilities.
Regarding the next game I'd like to take again inspiration from productions on other machines like I did for Lester which was a love-letter to both MSX and NES platforming, but this time looking to the other side of Japan... late master system/early mega drive era.
Awesome game and for sure one of the best free C64 single player games in recent years! 😎👍 Our German-language review can be found in our recorded livestream starting at 01:09:13 and there is also a longplay starting at 04:29:54. Automatic subtitles should hopefully be available via YouTube soon (switch on, if necessary). Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome. 😊
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Best game I've played on my commie all year. Ready for Lester 2!
What do you think about to add second fire (POTX) as option to "Activate special power" ?
The game has now made it to the world's largest game fair as one of the best of the last 12 months! We showed it to an enthusiastic audience on the Retro Stage of the Retro Area at Gamescom 2023 in Cologne. You can watch the video here starting at 00:12:47. English subtitles should be available here. 🙂
AMAZING GAME!!! CONGRATS!!!
La curva de dificultad está bien medida, no llegando a ser demasiado difícil hasta bien entrada la segunda mitad de nuestro recorrido.
El manejo del personaje es sublime, con una sensacion de control bien conseguida que hace que jugarlo con un mando tipo pad sea una experiencia recomendable.
El apartado sonoro cumple a la perfección, disponiendo de nada mas y nada menos que de 11 pistas musicales que nos acompañan durante toda nuestra misión.
What about a cartridge version? I would buy it right away, it's such a great game
You can buy cartridge version at the Bobr Games shop.
https://bobr.games/index.php/shop/lester/
I bought it two weeks ago. Great game in a great box!
This is right up my alley.. Thanks for taking the time to create games for ancient consoles..! Much love!
I really enjoyed this game. Very challenging towards the end - thank god for emulation and savestates!! Great graphics, sound, and gameplay, well worth that zzap sizzler, thanks for all the hard work knifegrinder
Its a very good game, it feels nice, has a good soundtrack, the sprites are cute and the gameplay is great.
Love it, love it, love it!
A single thing would make it even better: savegames (codes / whatever).
Keep rocking.
I really like your game very much. It's visually pleasing. I also like the music and background effects. It's really amazing what is still possible with the C64. It's fun to play, sometimes it is tricky. It really works best on real Commodore hardware; struggling more on the TheC64 (probably input lag of the system itself). Excellent work! I am recommending it to others.
I'd have two ideas for your game: Maybe have two or three different difficulty levels. And have checkpoints generate codes (letters and digits) which would enable the player to resume from that checkpoint even after power-cycling the computer. A similar feature is implemented for example by the game Grid Pix.
Maybe the code could also contain all of the upgrades that the player had by that point. I don't know whether that'd be easier to implement than a save to disk (and load again) feature.
great game! Gets really tough at the end but it’s overall rewarding.
Brought the game to the most recent episode of New Game Old Flame podcast go have a listen!
Excellent game in every aspect! I loved it! Congratulations!
What a FANTASTIC game! This is a must have for all C64 fans!
Thanks!
Just wanted to say, thank you for bringing this to life. I'm just getting back to the C64 after too many years away and I am amazed at the games being released! Lester feels so new yet right at home on the C64. Thanks again.
Thanks for playing it!
Simple, addictive and charming. Excellent graphics, thumping soundtrack and solid gameplay.
Only one gripe though... I want more of it. Sequels, sequels and more sequels!
This will be in my top C64 releases for 2023 for sure.
Well done! Thanks for your efforts!
Adam (Commodore Chronicles Podcast)
Great game. I enjoyed a lot. Smooth movement, good jump, enough amount of rooms well designed, objects to collect, correct music...perhaps I would like more type of enemies but I said, very good game as it is
A great game, thank you so much Knifegrinder! It totally brings the spirit of the great old 8-bit games.
But now I'm lost in the game's many rooms, i.e. I think I visited all rooms which are reachable with the key-cards for level 2, but am stuck. Is there a map like some giant PNG picture containing all the rooms in detail?
Thanks! I don't want to spoil the game here but if you are stuck there's a great playthrough done by VIPER's Retrogame videos down in the comment section, at 20:30 in the video you'll find the answer.
Thanks for referencing the play-through video. I only watched the section which helped me to find the next level-pass.
What a nearly perfect 8 bit game you created. Well done! I played many 8 and 16 bit games (back then in the good old 1980'ies, as well as today).
Do you intend to publish a few more words about the "making of" your game, next to what you wrote in the very very short "dev log"? For example are you a professional programmer or graphic artist, or did you already collect experiences in the 8 bit days, did you use an assembler or a compiler or special software tools to pack all the code and data into the <64 KB RAM, or the like...
No private details needed, just some info to get an idea of what it takes a ~one-man-developer to create such a lovely and polished game.
In any case, all the best to you, and good luck with potential future games.
I really thought there was the list of the programs used to make Lester in the game description... but there isn't O_o
Anyway, Lester is made with...
Code: TRSE
https://lemonspawn.com/
Gfx: Charpad PRO and Spritepad PRO
https://subchristsoftware.itch.io/c64-pro-editions
Sound: GoatTracker
https://sourceforge.net/projects/goattracker2/
Regarding my experience this is my first game ever. Not for the C64 but for every platform. But I'm a good player and in all those years I developed a taste for a certain type of games and I tried to reproduce what I like about them. Or, at least, the things reproducible on an 8-bit machine.
What I like about the C64 is that despite its infinite library there are few games that explicitly try to mimic the japanese productions on consoles and home computers. The great majority feel so 64ish. But what I learned with much surprise in those last years is that it's more a design choice than an actual limitation of the machine. Despite the heavy limitations of its graphic modes the C64 has a palette that is more colorful and vibrant than what the average 80s game made us think. And Lester is not even the best demonstration of this because I choose to have a dominant color per section which made my life a lot easier but take a look at Sam's Journey. What they made is insane and a testament of the VIC-II real capabilities.
Regarding the next game I'd like to take again inspiration from productions on other machines like I did for Lester which was a love-letter to both MSX and NES platforming, but this time looking to the other side of Japan... late master system/early mega drive era.
Many thanks for your kind and very informative developer comment.
All the best to you writing another fine love-letter in the style of the beautiful Japanese video-games.
This is a good game to start 2023. I simply loved it even if I kept being killed before reaching the end.
I cannot imagine that you can do a better game than this one. Will be on my top 10 of C64 games for 2023.
Awesome game and for sure one of the best free C64 single player games in recent years! 😎👍 Our German-language review can be found in our recorded livestream starting at 01:09:13 and there is also a longplay starting at 04:29:54. Automatic subtitles should hopefully be available via YouTube soon (switch on, if necessary). Subscription to our YouTube or Twitch channel is welcome. 😊
Knifegrinder hat ein richtig tolles Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure herausgebracht mit über 60 Räumen und jeder Menge Extras. 🕹
Auf meinem YouTube Kanal habe ich es im Rahmen der C64 Spielzeit vorgestellt. Schaut doch mal vorbei: