Hello! I’ve just released an updated demo of Hyper Bun Buster: Rocket Hammer action here on itch.io! It’s a slightly updated version of the SAGE 2025 demo with a few small level layout tweaks and other improvements, but the big change is that you now have the option of playing the demo right there in the browser if you don’t want to download anything.

Play the Hyper Bun Buster demo here: https://ctmatthews.itch.io/hyper-bun-buster-demo

I hope you have fun with it!

Other than the small level layout changes, one of the things I added in this new demo is the ability to select your color. In addition to the blue, orange and green player color palettes that I made back when I first implemented co-op, you can also select some brand new white and black palettes I added as a nod to my game Chessplosion:

I was on vacation!

This newsletter was three weeks after the previous issue, instead of the usual two weeks. That’s because I was on vacation for most of that time, so I figured I’d wait an extra week and show off the new demo instead of just putting out a newsletter saying that I hadn’t done anything on my game.

Speaking of my vacation, check out these ducks I saw sleeping by a river:

And these shots of Brighton beach:

I had a wonderful vacation, although I did miss playing videogames by the end of it.

In a roundabout way, this break is the reason that the new demo exists. One of my goals for 2025 was to write a browser port of my engine so I could make web demos of my games, but I never got around to doing it because I was never in the mood to spend all that time porting my engine and dealing with all the annoying little platform-specific quirks that were bound to come up. But after two weeks away from a computer I was desperate to write as much code as I possibly could, so I dove headfirst into making a browser port of my engine (using SDL2/WebGL2/emscripten) and didn’t stop until it was finished.

Anything else?

I found out that the Wizard character in The King of Dragons had a reputation for being the easiest character to clear the game with, so after getting back from vacation I went back and cleared it with the Fighter, then cleared it with the Elf for good measure. I'm shocked at how close all the characters are in power level; I didn't notice much difference in difficulty between the three characters, which is extremely rare for this kind of arcade game. I can't believe they managed to make a sword and shield character with a parry, a mid-ranged wizard who can't block, and a long-ranged bow and arrow character with infinite ammo all feel balanced and all feel like they're playing the "real game". Anyway, if you're interested in The King of Dragons I totally recommend giving it a try, either via Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium or other means.

I really liked SpidersSTG's new video about the arcade game Front Line, and now I wish I had a dial controller so I could play the game myself with its original control scheme. The video also taught me all about SEGA's 1969 electromechanical game Gun Fight, which I had never heard of before. As a huge diorama lover I would absolutely love to design and build a physical electronic tabletop action game like Gun Fight one day!

PD_CGT just announced their new game LURRUNA - The Island of Towering Automatons and it looks fantastic! I'm a huge fan of games like Ghouls 'n Ghosts and classic Castlevania and I can't wait to give this one a try when it releases later this year. It's rare for new games to be made for huge arcade fans like myself so I'm super excited for this!

I only just found out about the game Bad Bitch Blasters but it looks cool as hell, especially the trailer. I gotta learn how to have at least 10% as much energy as this game does. It's so cool...

That’s all I’ve been up to recently. I can’t wait to see what people think of the demo and I’m looking forward to getting back to work on the game itself. I hope you all have a relaxing couple of weeks and I’ll see you next time!