Agent 64: Spies Never Die - Goldeneye and Perfect Dark inspired boomer shooter

[toughasnails]

This came out of nowhere and it actually looks p promising, there is a demo avaiable.

A retro FPS inspired by classic 90s console shooters. Explore new locales, accomplish varied objectives and fight against state-of-the-art 1997 enemy AI. Enter a world of espionage and action.

John Walter, ex-agent codename 64, is called back into action to save the world once more. Protect the future against the phantoms of the past.

Each story mission is a self contained environment where you have to accomplish varied objectives, such as hacking terminals, steal secret plans, free civilian hostages and much more. All the while fighting armed guards in epic shootouts.

Be the most elite operative the world has ever seen!

 

[Falksi]

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

Does it have a BIGHEAD mode?

 

[toughasnails]

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

Like this is the first new FPS opting for low poly aesthetics lol...

Anyway I think the game's visuals look clean & pleasing.

 

[Tacgnol]

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

There are some things that Goldeneye and Perfect Dark did really well that I've not really seen in other games.

Goldeneye had really good pain reactions and death animations with the way enemies reacted to being hit and then the extremely over the top death animations.

Perfect Dark took all that a step further, the locational damage was pretty advanced. Leg shots made enemies limp and move slower, arm shots could disarm them or fuck their accuracy.

Not really seen many other FPS copy those features, at least to the level that GE/PD did.

 

[Lemming42]

The intentional recreation of shit visuals in a lot of these throwback games is baffling. The game looks ok but I'm just talking about the visuals. It's never charming and always just ends up with the game lacking its own identity - even the likes of DUSK, which has a fairly unique range of original content, ends up aping the Quake engine's appearance so hard and recreating exact setpieces from existing stuff for no reason (why the fuck is the twisty corridor from "The Sword" in that one level????) that it winds up feeling like a crap nostalgia piece.

I get that it's quicker and easier to make games with these visuals, and that there are a ton of gameplay advantages over modern graphics - for example, it's easy to show the player what they can and can't interact with, versus modern games that need to highlight interactive shit because there's so much visual clutter on the screen - but copying the animations, models and art style from two existing games so thoroughly just means that the game will never stand on its own merits or have its own identity, and will only ever exist in relation to two mediocre games from twenty-odd years ago.

 

[randir14]

The intentional recreation of shit visuals in a lot of these throwback games is baffling. The game looks ok but I'm just talking about the visuals. It's never charming and always just ends up with the game lacking its own identity - even the likes of DUSK, which has a fairly unique range of original content, ends up aping the Quake engine's appearance so hard and recreating exact setpieces from existing stuff for no reason (why the fuck is the twisty corridor from "The Sword" in that one level????) that it winds up feeling like a crap nostalgia piece.

I get that it's quicker and easier to make games with these visuals, and that there are a ton of gameplay advantages over modern graphics - for example, it's easy to show the player what they can and can't interact with, versus modern games that need to highlight interactive shit because there's so much visual clutter on the screen - but the copying the animations, models and art style from two existing games so thoroughly just means that the game will never stand on its own merits or have its own identity, and will only ever exist in relation to two mediocre games from twenty-odd years ago.

A really bad example of this is Cultic. It's trying to look like Blood, but it has an awful color palette and dithering that makes it look worse than Blood ever did.

 

[Butter]

Wishlisted. Perfect Dark was great.

 

[orcinator]

I guess a godleneye throwback was inevitable.
Now how long until everyone remembers that a shooter where you don't aim and don't move very fast is actually fucking awful?

 

[Avonaeon]

Tried the demo and it seems very simplistic. It somewhat achieves the art style it tries to imitate, but the quality of the assets and textures are very hit and miss.

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

I'm disappointed this isn't going to be like NOLF, but otherwise having a throwback to the objective and side objective based era of shooters is a good idea.

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

Outside of the capabilities of the developers, which I think was the case for DUSK, games back then generally had to get the absolute most out of their animations and textures, since they couldn't just motion capture or buy a 4K texture file off the internet. The problem is that then, the people back then had limitations, whereas the people now just aren't as good an artist as those people.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Stop it with the polygon-hater cope guise. Pickles are just ass bad.



Game still looks worse than the originals of course, but.

 

[Jaedar]

I played perfect dark on a 64 emulator a year back. It held up pretty well (although mouselook, smooth frame rate and quicksaves made it very easy compared to what I remember as a kid).

I guess I should check out the demo and see if they managed to recapture it.

 

[Tacgnol]

I played perfect dark on a 64 emulator a year back. It held up pretty well (although mouselook, smooth frame rate and quicksaves made it very easy compared to what I remember as a kid).

I guess I should check out the demo and see if they managed to recapture it.

Yeah the mouse mod trivialises both PD and Goldeneye. The enemies just aren't built around player reactions being that fast.

It's the same with the leaked cancelled xbox 360 remake of Goldeneye 64 which also has mouse support when emulated.

 

[toughasnails]

I played perfect dark on a 64 emulator a year back. It held up pretty well (although mouselook, smooth frame rate and quicksaves made it very easy compared to what I remember as a kid).

I guess I should check out the demo and see if they managed to recapture it.

I tried to play PD with a mouse at one point years ago, I think someone specifically packaged emulator bundle meant for that purpose, and it felt p floaty and off. I ended up just using the Xbox pad (admittedly the game still felt easier than before, likely due to me being older and not having to deal with N64's controller).

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The guns seem less detailed than the simple models of GoldenEye, and definitely less detailed than the Perfect Dark models.

Visually it's weird, because they seem to actually be playing up how bad some GoldenEye stuff looked, the snowy level is GoldenEye doesn't have hills as pointy as this game, but they're also making some textured look better than they would have on the 64. I get it's mostly a GoldenEye throwback, but visually I'm surprised they're skewing so closely to GoldenEye. I mean, for one thing Perfect Dark is a much better looking game, so even if you were trying to keep thing within the realm of what could've been done then you could still make it look better and keep it within that; there were also games with better looking character models and environments

Wonder how the aiming will be, because Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have this strange kind of on-rails light gun feeling aim system (guess its unsurprising the game started as a rail shooter) that's much different than when you normally aim in a FPS.

 

[grimace]

Planned Release Date: 2023​

https://youtu.be/QZrWUTgYRrQ?si=gucplcz00ch4juMe



https://twitter.com/Agent64game

​

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Golden Eye was bad and you only liked it because you weren't a based kid who had Mortal Kombat Trilogy instead

 

[grimace]

The guns seem less detailed than the simple models of GoldenEye, and definitely less detailed than the Perfect Dark models.

Visually it's weird, because they seem to actually be playing up how bad some GoldenEye stuff looked, the snowy level is GoldenEye doesn't have hills as pointy as this game, but they're also making some textured look better than they would have on the 64. I get it's mostly a GoldenEye throwback, but visually I'm surprised they're skewing so closely to GoldenEye. I mean, for one thing Perfect Dark is a much better looking game, so even if you were trying to keep thing within the realm of what could've been done then you could still make it look better and keep it within that; there were also games with better looking character models and environments

Wonder how the aiming will be, because Goldeneye and Perfect Dark have this strange kind of on-rails light gun feeling aim system (guess its unsurprising the game started as a rail shooter) that's much different than when you normally aim in a FPS.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1574480/discussions/1/3169946351453117295/

D6 [developer] Apr 24, 2021 @ 2:52am

Sorry, there will be only single player.
Being a solo indie, I have to pick my battles carefully if I want to release a quality game.

Agent 64 exists because a solo developer needs a game for his portfolio.

Dev Log from Steam Forum

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D6 [developer] Jun 10, 2021 @ 12:07am
The base engine is Unity. In the past I've been making my games on my own custom engine, not this time tho. It lets me focus better on the actual gameplay code.

On map making: I plan to look into it, but no hard promises. First I must make a good game to begin with.

Thanks for the kind words, I hope you'll enjoy the demo ^^
Last edited by D6; Jun 10, 2021 @ 12:09am


D6 [developer] Jun 15, 2021 @ 1:03pm
Originally posted by Polygonien:
Is the game designed with contoller in mind or mouse & keyboard?
Both!


D6 [developer] Jun 19, 2021 @ 8:32am
Thank you all so much for the feedback, the response has been overwhelmingly good. I'm very thankful for that, I wasn't sure if people would really care about this project. I'm very reassured.

Keep in mind I'm just the one dude making the game, so while I do read everything, I can't be answering to every post/thread. But be assured that I'm taking notes. The rest of my time is mostly taken for working on the game itself.
Last edited by D6; Jun 19, 2021 @ 8:33am

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D6 [developer] Nov 18, 2021 @ 12:06am

Originally posted by Be Very Afraid:
Hows development going? Can we still expect early access this year?

On the mapping front, the first half of the game has been shaping up those past months https://twitter.com/Agent64game/status/1455226139849510923 . It's not quite there yet, but following in the steps of the alpha demo it'll get there.

Right now I'm back into programming. Working on the last missing elements that the game needs (stuff like civilian AI, many details on gun handling, and UIs like proper option menus for graphics/audio, and many other small but important things).

So, yeah... the initial 2021 release date isn't looking likely. The end part of programming is looking good, but then finishing up the first few story missions will take up more time.

I'd say we're looking at Q1 2022.
I'm sorry for the wait guys. Delays suck, but a rushed-out game sucks more.

I know this is early access, but I can't in good conscience release a game that doesn't feel polished enough. I want to try to make a good first impression, and build up the game on good foundations.
Last edited by D6; Nov 18, 2021 @ 12:17am


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D6 [developer] Jan 28, 2022 @ 7:02am
The game dev is still advancing at a steady pace.
My first release date estimations were a bit too impractical, but otherwise the dev is happening without any particular snag nor issue.

I even can confirm I'll be able to have a feature I wasn't yet sure of before: mod support.
The game will ship (on day one of Early Access) with an SDK that can let you create your own maps using Unity 3D.

I'm not posting a lot of updates on twitter nor elsewhere, but be reassured that it's because I'm busy with development.

--

D6 [developer] Jun 14, 2022 @ 7:02am
Thank you all so much for the warm reception!
I can't respond to every post or feedback thread, but be sure that I'm reading everything.
Last edited by D6; Jun 14, 2022 @ 7:05am

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D6 [developer] Jun 14, 2022 @ 1:50pm

Originally posted by Headbomb:
Actually, you can right-click aim, but only after you get to the lock. It's fine to have a tutorial there, but I don't see the need to hard-lock the aiming function until then.

It is needed to teach some players how to play with hip fire autoaim before they try to right click all over the place.
Last edited by D6; Jun 14, 2022 @ 1:51pm

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D6 [developer] Jul 17, 2022 @ 10:04pm
2

Thanks a lot for your kind words. It really helps me getting through development ^-^
Last edited by D6; Jul 17, 2022 @ 10:13pm

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D6 [developer] Aug 19, 2022 @ 6:10am

Originally posted by Starwind Amada:
Originally posted by Elate:
eta on release?

Probably never. Another one of those games that gets hyped up and then the dev just quits and moves on with life.

Making games is my life.

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D6 [developer] Nov 23, 2022 @ 5:55pm
Originally posted by SabreXT:
How long have you been working on this?
The project will be 2 years old in January.

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D6 [developer] Dec 16, 2022 @ 11:13am
Concerning other modes on top of the Story Campaign. For the moment I won't confirm nor deny if such things will be coming.

Simply because I don't yet know how much (or how little) I can do beyond the initial Single Player (which is already a pretty hefty job in itself).

--

 

[911 Jumper]

These indie rip offs have no shame. What's the point? That's the question I ask myself when I see these “inspired by...” clones. Who will be talking about “Agent 64” in five years' time?

 

[Ash]

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

The fuck is going on on the Codex? Late 90s was and still is peak gaming. Yeah Goldeneye and P.Dark are certainly not a representation of that as they're kind of mediocre, but it was everything else that was great.

 

[Falksi]

I have no idea why anyone would even consider making a game from the era of dross 3D transition. None of the pre-era pixel charm, none of the post-era 3D polish. That era is to games what porno plots are to movies.

The fuck is going on on the Codex? Late 90s was and still is peak gaming. Yeah Goldeneye and P.Dark are certainly not a representation of that as they're kind of mediocre, but it was everything else that was great.

Honestly, when it comes to sheer gameplay, '89 through to '95 was peak IMO. PC based FPS & RPG games the exception. But games such as the Shinobi series, Thunderforce series, Aleste series, Star Control, Link to the Past, Contra series, Streets of Rage series, Ghouls N' Ghost series etc. nothing in the late 90's touched them for me.

There was also the arcade factor. Arcades started dying out late 90's whereas they were packed in the early 90's. Playing socially and against strangers was something a bit special.

 

[Ash]

Those were indeed great years too, but sorry no, mid-late 90s was peak gameplay. We even saw the conception of tons of new genres: 3D Stealth, 3D platformers, Metroidvania, aRPG, Survival Horror, Vehicular Combat (unless you count Road Rash since you're an arcade fanboy...which I don't) and then some. Many pre-existing styles attained their peak here too, such as FPRPGs - System Shock and Ultima Underworld were cool, but significantly held back by early 90s tech. Furthermore the average number of inputs on consoles more than doubled in that time, which obviously equates to more gameplay depth generally-speaking. I suspect you just did not explore late 90s gaming as much as you should have.

Late 80s-early 90s was perhaps peak 2D gameplay, Mid-late 90s & early 2000s was peak 3D gameplay (with many, MANY great 2D games still produced in that time), and there are so many reasons to want to emulate that style. Too bad few of these indies do it right.

Also I own games in almost every one of those series you cite...I think you are vastly overrating most of them. Ghouls and Ghosts is cool...for an hour or two maybe once every couple of years. though saying that I haven't played it in like 8 years, it's basic and lacks replayability, though I am a fan and have played through it four or five times over the years, I would get bored when it was time for the extra hardcore new game plus mode. Streets of Rage is also great, timeless really, but again can only be enjoyed sparingly and is quite basic. Link to the Past is of course a classic and is at least a long game, not over in an hour like your arcade favs, though I prefer Link's Awakening. Anyway this game stands out in your list for its length - it is more to later gaming standards.

How can those games be peak gaming when they're painfully short and basic? You must not game very much to be satisfied, because they seriously lack longevity/content/playtime. Definitely solid games and I'll always return to Streets of Rage in particular (I played it couple weeks ago), but I game a LOT and my gaming career would have been over 10 years ago if my preference was in arcade gaming.

One last thing: I always thought Contra was MASSIVELY overrated. basic asf shooting and not a lot else. I feel like a braindead moron every time I attempt it. It's just so basic, even moreso than the other games in your list, that it just feels like playing Simon Says. Try https://store.steampowered.com/app/525510/Guns_Gore_and_Cannoli_2/ with a friend for how arcade/coop run n gun side-scrolling shooters should be, but pretty much never are. It does what Contra DONT. For example, 360 degree aiming, can carry huge arsenal of weapons, platforming is quite involved at times and the game is built around double jump + dodge input in its combat and obstacles, level design is great and almost every room introduces something new, there's multiple difficulty modes for replayability....

 

[Nutmeg]

Ghouls and Ghosts is cool...for an hour or two maybe once every couple of years.

You're either really good at these games or credit feeding through them and dusting your hands when you see the credits.

 

[Falksi]

Those were indeed great years too, but sorry no, mid-late 90s was peak gameplay. We even saw the conception of tons of new genres: 3D Stealth, 3D platformers, Metroidvania, aRPG, Survival Horror, Vehicular Combat (unless you count Road Rash since you're an arcade fanboy...which I don't) and then some. Many pre-existing styles attained their peak here too, such as FPRPGs - System Shock and Ultima Underworld were cool, but significantly held back by early 90s tech. Furthermore the average number of inputs on consoles more than doubled in that time, which obviously equates to more gameplay depth generally-speaking. I suspect you just did not explore late 90s gaming as much as you should have.

Late 80s-early 90s was perhaps peak 2D gameplay, Mid-late 90s & early 2000s was peak 3D gameplay (with many, MANY great 2D games still produced in that time), and there are so many reasons to want to emulate that style. Too bad few of these indies do it right.

Also I own games in almost every one of those series you cite...I think you are vastly overrating most of them. Ghouls and Ghosts is cool...for an hour or two maybe once every couple of years. though saying that I haven't played it in like 8 years, it's basic and lacks replayability, though I am a fan and have played through it four or five times over the years, I would get bored when it was time for the extra hardcore new game plus mode. Streets of Rage is also great, timeless really, but again can only be enjoyed sparingly and is quite basic. Link to the Past is of course a classic and is at least a long game, not over in an hour like your arcade favs, though I prefer Link's Awakening. Anyway this game stands out in your list for its length - it is more to later gaming standards.

How can those games be peak gaming when they're painfully short and basic? You must not game very much to be satisfied, because they seriously lack longevity/content/playtime. Definitely solid games and I'll always return to Streets of Rage in particular (I played it couple weeks ago), but I game a LOT and my gaming career would have been over 10 years ago if my preference was in arcade gaming.

One last thing: I always thought Contra was MASSIVELY overrated. basic asf shooting and not a lot else. I feel like a braindead moron every time I attempt it. It's just so basic, even moreso than the other games in your list, that it just feels like playing Simon Says. Try https://store.steampowered.com/app/525510/Guns_Gore_and_Cannoli_2/ with a friend for how arcade/coop run n gun side-scrolling shooters should be, but pretty much never are. It does what Contra DONT. For example, 360 degree aiming, can carry huge arsenal of weapons, platforming is quite involved at times and the game is built around double jump + dodge input in its combat and obstacles, level design is great and almost every room introduces something new, there's multiple difficulty modes for replayability....

See I find tons of replayability in those games.

Do you 1CC Hellfire on Hard difficulty? Do you ever play Ghouls N Ghosts competitively doing 1CC challenges on pro difficulty? etc. I mean, get a group of mates around with multiplayer Star Control and that's the evening gone. The games may be short in length, but they're deeper than loads of other games if you play them Arcade challenge style. Beating them initially on default settings is only scratching the surface. Folk such as Great Deceiver and Nutmeg know what I mean.

Surprised you think Hard Corps is simple too. Especially as it has variable boss patterns and branching paths?