Toejam and Earl is finally back! We're goin' indie, and old skool like GAME ONE, with a fun retro-comics style, and plenty of funk!
Latest Updates from Our Project:
Closed Beta Starts TODAY
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jul 06, 2018 at 02:07:57 AM
So today is the day! We’ll be rolling out steam codes for the closed beta, so if you are eligible make sure to check your email periodically throughout the day.
AS WE RELEASE THE CLOSED BETA…
Please don’t stream gameplay, or post reviews or screen shots!!
Use the F11 Key to log bugs and to make any feedback comments. When you log a bug, do your best to let us know what happened to cause it so we can reproduce it.
*note: Earthlings and elevators freeze while a player logs a bug using this F11 system. In online play, this in and of itself might look like a bug but it’s meant to keep the players safe while the bug report is logged*
The game may not run well if your system is old. If you are having frame rate issues let us know what your system specs are (with F11)
Some game content has been removed (eg secret location!) or kept locked (eg player characters) - so there will still be new things for you to see later!!
Games are saved automatically at the elevator, but you can also choose to save and continue or save and quit anytime.
New players can join a game anytime by pressing start, or leave any game by pressing “start” and using the leave game option from the menu.
Note: the network game is unstable! Especially in 3 and 4 player mode. That is why we need your help testing it!
We’d like you to test the following:
- All modes!! (Noobie Mode, Fixed Mode, Random Mode, Hard Mode)
- All Difficulty Levels (Try playing in easy farty, or in little kid mode)
- Power Hats: You need to finish the games to get these
- Network Play
Saving and loading games - joining and leaving games
- Different languages (we know there is still some untranslated text)
- The various options in the menu at the start of the game (in game manual for example)
Things we are especially interested in:
- How effective were the Tutorial signs in Noobie Mode? Were you ever confused?
- How is the general balance of the game? Too hard? Too easy?
- How do you find the balance of money and experience points?
- Did frame rate seem OK?
- How do you find the screen splitting in 3 and 4 player?
- Any problems in network play?
What did you think of the timing in the Rhythm Matching mini-game?
- How hard or easy was the Hyperfunk Zone?
Was there anything that made you want to throw your controller across the room and curse at us?
-Do you have any ideas that would be ultra super easy, fast and low risk for us to implement and yet would make the game way better?
A few notes for you about networked play:
1. To allow others to join your game online you must select this before the start of your game in the UI.
2. To select a networked game to join, advance to the UI screen that lets you select different networked games, if you don’t see games listed, use your shoulder button to select “Public Games”
3. When playing a networked game you can hit the spacebar and then type in whatever you want to chat with other players.
4. When playing a networked game you can leave it set to “split screen mode” to see all players all the time, ” or you can use the option in the start menu to just view local players on your screen.
We have chat threads there especially for people participating in the closed beta, where they can give us feedback and communicate with other closed beta participants.
*Note: in order to access these closed beta threads, you’ll need to be granted access. Please send a direct message to @nathanshorts in the discord including the email address associated with your backerkit order and he will upgrade you.
And as always, if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to send an email to [email protected]
*** It may take a few hours for the first codes to start arriving if your inboxes ***
Beta Upgrade Correction -- Whoops!
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jul 05, 2018 at 09:43:59 PM
Hey everyone!
So we sent out an update yesterday with important information for the closed beta we'll be launching tomorrow. If you qualify for the closed better (backers at Peanut tier or higher), please read through that update:
In the update yesterday, we provided information for how backers could upgrade their pledge with an add-on to gain access to the closed beta. Unfortunately, backers attempting to upgrade were met with an error. But good news! We've figured out a work around!
We'll be sending private messages through Kickstarter to all backers that don't currently have access for the beta. This message will include a link to the "new-comer" beta access buy-in. Add it to your cart and when prompted, enter the email address associated with the Kickstarter account you pledged under (the upgrade discount will only work with those email addresses). Once you get to the check-out screen, click the "Apply Coupon" button and the amount you've already pledged will get subtracted from the total charge. So keep an eye on your Kickstarter inbox!
And if you have any issues or concerns, feel free to email Nathan at [email protected]
Important news about the Closed Beta!
almost 6 years ago
– Thu, Jul 05, 2018 at 01:53:12 AM
OK so… you know that Closed Beta we said we would let you play? Well… just kidding! Haha. No closed beta! Are you pleasantly amused?
What? No?
And I thought that was going to be so humorous. In that case… just kidding... again! We ARE going to do it… in fact the closed beta starts this Friday (July 6th) and it will last for 2 weeks. No lie! For reals!
----
TO UPGRADE YOUR PLEDGE
For any of you who backed the project but not at the Early Access level tier, perhaps you are thinking “What the #%& was I thinking!?” Well guess what! We have arranged through BackerKit for backers to be able to log in and upgrade to this level. (with some discount because you no longer get the physical rewards that also came at that tier). Be sure to login with the email you used during the Kickstarter so you aren't charged more than you should be. If you are interested, click through the link below:
For people who didn’t back at all (maybe you have friends? ...or maybe you don’t… so sad), but who now want into the closed beta, they can also back now via Backerkit. Warning, there may be some slight delay as we processes these new backers. These new-comers can use this link to purchase the add-on (comes with a pre-ordered copy of the final game):
If you’re still reading this… (are you?) please please please read the rest of it too…. Please!
************ You will be granted a HIGH SECURITY CLEARANCE !!!************
WE ARE TRUSTING YOU!!
The success or failure of this game, and in fact, the likelihood of finishing the console ports, DLC, and any additional TJ&E work depends on your ability to keep this game under wraps.
Some people said we should wait until all versions were done but we said NOOOO!!! So…..How well can you keep a secret?
We know it is tempting and exciting to share video and screenshots but if this game gets out onto YouTube or gets streamed etc… or screen shots get posted… it will be much harder to get press and social media people to cover it when we release. It’s no exaggeration to say that crashing and burning with this game could mean no more ToeJam and Earl games… ever.
So…. PLEASE help us take our best shot and take this very seriously. This version of the game is just for you, our backers, not for the internet! …and PLEASE don’t give your code away to anyone you don’t trust and haven’t sworn to complete secrecy.
Of course, it’s fine if you want to tweet about being a beta tester and express enthusiasm or whatevs after you play. That would actually be cool, and you can get some street cred that way.
PLEASE save any and all reviews and any streaming of the game until just before the official release. We will let you know when it’s OK to post reviews and stream. This closed beta is not a finished product! In fact that’s kinda the point. You are going to help us make the game better, and less buggy, so….again, it’s not time to review yet!
All that said, we DO want to hear from you – so be sure to check the next posting for how to give us feedback!!. Also feel free to hop onto the Hyperfunk.club forum and onto discord and tell us what you think about why the game is totally not as good as you were expecting, or whatever... or share ideas with other beta testers. Your feedback is what this is all about!
With great Spidey-power comes great Spidey-responsibility… we are counting on you! In fact, if you want to show your solidarity maybe you can say “On my honor!” or “Pinky Swear” in the comments of this post, or something equally inspiring. Use your imagination!
We're really looking forward to getting codes in your inboxes on Friday!
Oh for those of you in the U.S., Happy 4th of July!
-Ziquat out
Incoming Transmission from Funkotron!
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jun 29, 2018 at 12:58:35 AM
Greg here. Okay so, first off… thank you thank you to all of you for being so patient for so long. I’m happy to say I can finally share some news and answer some of your pressing questions. Woohoo!!
I’m going to jump right in ...
So...we ARE going to be releasing the game this year!, and we are also going to be opening a closed beta within the next couple weeks for our early-access backers, and we’ll be looking for your feedback! Also, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is just about ready to be submitted for certification by Nintendo, and the other console versions are not too far behind. I’ll give you more details about all of this before this update is done.
You may also find this interesting... going forward Adult Swim Games is no longer going to be our publisher. Instead we are going back to self-publishing, Indie-Style! Adult Swim Games has some other big titles they plan to launch this summer so when Back in the Groove pushed back, we both agreed that it made sense for them to hand us the reigns, rather than taking a chance on this getting pushed back any more. Also I’d like to say how deeply grateful I and all of us here at HNS are to Adult Swim Games. We wouldn’t have gotten this game to this point without them… seriously. Thank You Adult Swim!! (round of applause).
Self publishing….(a moment of contemplation…) ...exciting and a little scary. Thankfully I’ve been in this biz as an indie longer than many of you have been alive (ouch) which means I am fortunate to have ton of knowledgeable and experienced friends in this biz who have been helping with learning and connections. We totally got this! :) By the way you will be happy to know that we also plan on sharing a lot more information with you going forward as we did in the beginning of this project, and we would love to hear from you as well. Nathan (our lead artist) is also now officially our acting community manager.
KickStarter Updates: We will be doing regular updates once a month and mini-updates with fun tidbits and blasts from the past every week or two up until launch …. As well as special updates whenever there is news or announcements.
The Forum:www.hyperfunk.club We’ll be reading and responding to this more. If you’re not on here yet and want to be, drop me an email ([email protected]) and I can add you.
Discord: We have one now! Here is our invite link --https://discord.gg/x8xy67e-- come join us! We’ll be creating a special backer role for people who backed the KS too, so we’re excited for that :)
Social Media & Streaming: We're now on twitter in addition to our usual facebook activity. And hey! We're gearing up to do some regular streaming on twitch and maybe youtube too! Aaaand we've updated our official website. You can find those here...
We ARE releasing this year!! Right now we have our sights set on a fall release. We will be making a specific release plan announcements in regards to dates as soon as we have that nailed down. You’ve been waiting so long, we don’t want to give you wrong information until we’re 100% sure. We’ll know these details within the next month or two.
Swapping for Consoles: Many of you have asked about this from the beginning and a lot recently (yes, we do hear you!). It does cost us money to swap (we have to pay platform holders) and we need to make sure we can at least break even - that said we will revisit this question very soon and try to come up with something. I plan to send out a separate update about this. Closed Beta!!: We plan to have a 2-week long closed beta VERY soon. (July 5th to July 19th). We will send out Steam codes to everyone who pledged at the Early Access level and up… that’s the $60 tier, which is about 2500 of our backers). We’d love to give you a first look and also need your help with debugging and feedback for game balancing. Any and all comments will be welcome and appreciated. We will be sending another dedicated KS update with all the details on this. We will be asking you to not stream or Youtube playthroughs etc. just yet so we can make a bigger splash when we release. There will be an opportunity for our backers to stream the game before launch.
THANK YOU: Thank you again... to all of you, for your patience. We know how crazy late we are compared to what we naively said in the KickStarter campaign. Thanks especially to those heroes among you who have raised your voice with positivity and support, and kept the faith. Game development is a rough biz. I’ve been doing this for 34 years and I still am totally lame at predicting how long things will take. Well the good news is we’re almost out of the tunnel and into the light... and in the end I do think you will be happy with the results. I feel funny saying this, but this game has turned out to be everything I had hoped it would be and even more. It may not be the greatest single player game out there - but I can’t think of a multi-player game that makes people laugh and shout as much as this one. Of course the proof is in the pudding and you are the pudding eaters… so…. I’m looking forward to you getting your pudding and hearing from you. (I managed to say “pudding” 3 times in one sentence! Beat that!) I’m also looking forward to your help and support as we make this final pudding push.
As always...if you have any issues, problems, or requests, feel free to email us, our email door is always open. Nathan is our community manager so he will field email questions and comments in our other media channels. If you don’t hear back just email again…. And if that doesn’t work try my email and shout at me. :)
Digital Soundtrack now available in the store!
about 6 years ago
– Tue, Mar 27, 2018 at 11:58:51 PM
Yo Funkotronians!
Some of you have been asking about purchasing the digital download for the soundtrack. This became available just minutes ago at Thefunkotronshop.com !! It's $4.99 in the shop. 31 songs!! ...and of course it's immediate and no shipping costs.
Hope this keeps you going until we can get this game into your hands. Things are progressing well here in Game Developer land. The game developer conference (GDC) happened last week here in the SF Bay Area, and we made some good contacts. Turns out there are a few well known people that are major TJ&E fans, and I'm hopeful that they might help us get some visibility when the game releases.... more to come on that later! Hope you're enjoying the music!
