Try the Web Demo of Collateral Thinking

By Az Elias 06.08.2016

Try the Web Demo of Collateral Thinking on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

New indie Wii U platformer Collateral Thinking is releasing next week in North America on 11th August (and the following week in Europe), so to give players a chance to see what it's all about, developer Neil Armstrong of Astrosaurus Games has provided a web-based demo for free use.

Read what Neil has to say about the game below, along with the control options for this demo version, which can be found here.

Hi guys! My name is Neil Armstrong, a long-time Nintendo fan, a first-time Nintendo developer, and the owner (AKA only member) of Astrosaurus Games. In about two weeks time, I will be sending my first release onto the Wii U's eShop shelves: Collateral Thinking!

To celebrate, I wanted to give you lovely, discerning readers a chance to try before you buy with a brief demo for your browser! Believe me, I understand that when you see a game that looks like Collateral Thinking does, costs as little as Collateral Thinking does, and THEN you find out that it's a first-time effort from a one-man development team, people tend to pump the brakes (and bust out a few pitchforks). So if you're at all curious, you can take a risk-free whirl of the first 20 levels with a few later levels for good measure!

Collateral Thinking is a back-to-basics arcade platformer that's about a financially (and morally) bankrupt construction company trying to save their billionaire employer, who was kidnapped by alien ghosts. More to the point, the game is about beating each single-screen level in a 30-second time limit, and eventually learning the quickest (and most lucrative!) routes through each level to push a little further ahead and bump up those high scores.

While it may seem like a crass "8-Bit Retro Nostalgia" cash-in, the look and feel of the game were more a product of learning how to make my first full game by looking back to how Nintendo made their first games. Graphically, it certainly looks like it belongs in a preschool's MS Paint art gallery, which is partly due to my artistic ineptitude and partly due to the fact that I wanted a simple, consistent look that allows the player to quickly and easily identify the different elements on screen. The levels were designed with a deliberate, block-by-block mindset that accounts for the specific running speed and jumping ability of the Collateral Thinking heroes. I hope you will agree that it plays a little differently than those 80s arcade gems when you start zipping around the screen in your quest to beat the clock!

So, the controls! For this browser-demo, you navigate menus and guide your character around with the arrow keys, you can jump (and choose options) with the A key, and whack enemies with the S key once you've retrieved the toolbox. Remember that you can charge up a projectile "wrench toss" by holding down the S key and letting go once Grin starts to sparkle. You can also pause with the space bar. The full retail version will (obviously) let you use a GamePad, Wii Remote, or Pro Controller.

So if you're feeling brave then click away! Please shoot me an email at [email protected] if you have any feedback, or especially if you are a would-be developer interested in first-time game development!


 
Box art for Collateral Thinking
Developer

Astrosaurus

Publisher

Astrosaurus Games

Genre

2D Platformer

Players

1

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  5/10

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date Out now   North America release date Out now   Japan release date None   Australian release date Out now   

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