Topic: Moonbound, my Nintendo 3DS game, will be released in America on December 16th 2021!

Hello everyone!

I'm Jouni Mutanen, an indie game developer from Tampere, Finland. I would like to announce that Moonbound, a Nintendo 3DS game that I've designed and developed, will be released in America on December 16th 2021! Moonbound will be available ONLY for the Nintendo 3DS console as a downloadable game in the Nintendo eShop. The game will work on all models of the Nintendo 3DS console (Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo 3DS XL, Nintendo 2DS, New Nintendo 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS XL and New Nintendo 2DS XL).

• Moonbound's Nintendo eShop information :

Moonbound is a challenging 2D arcade action game that forces the player to make quick decisions under pressure. The player controls an astronaut who is returning to Earth after completing a geological survey mission in the Beta Iridian solar system. The astronaut's ship is suddenly damaged by an explosion! The energy crystals that are used as the ship's main power source are ejected out of the ship and land on six different moons. The player must return all of the remaining crystals to the ship to be able to return to Earth.

Game features :

• Survive through over 30 levels of challenging 2D arcade action!
• Encounter different enemies and environmental hazards on six moons
• Two game modes - Story Mode and Arcade Mode
• Four difficulty levels - Easy, Normal, Hard and Hardcore
• Level selection - Start a new game at any level
• Music player - Listen to all of the game's music tracks

Number of players : 1 player
Supported languages : English
Age rating (USA & Canada, ESRB) : E - Everyone, Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Language

• Moonbound's American version on Nintendo.com : https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/moonbound-3ds/
• Public Dropbox link to the game's marketing assets (SPOILERS in the Spoiler_materials directory!) : https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7thyv5ff6k5wsjn/AAASLJ9bjCe0tFwzWkMS3q9wa?dl=0
• Moonbound Official Website : http://www.moonbound-game.com/
• Moonbound's YouTube channel (Moonbound-game) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_dUZlWz0ZeP6whqkNgzvA
• Release countries in America : USA, Canada, Mexico and Brazil

Moonbound is one of my dream projects. I love arcade games (especially from the '90s) and I've always wanted to develop my own arcade game.

I started developing Moonbound on September 1st 2016 after Nintendo had made possible for private individuals to develop games for the Nintendo 3DS console during the summer of 2016. The game's American version was finally finished on September 2nd 2021 so the game's development took almost exactly five years. Finishing the game's American version required 3196 work hours. I had several setbacks in my personal life during these years which delayed the game's development by almost 18 months. The worst of these setbacks was when my father passed away on May 21st 2020.

Moonbound's website is currently under construction. I've just published Moonbound's first gameplay video on the game's YouTube channel. There's a lot more content coming to the channel including many gameplay videos and the game's full soundtrack. You can keep updated by subscribing to the Moonbound-game YouTube channel.

I'd be happy to answer any questions about my game. I hope that you can support my work by buying Moonbound in the Nintendo eShop!

Edit - Moonbound's ESRB age rating has changed to include Mild Fantasy Violence.

Moonbound's first gameplay video (Level 3-2 on Normal difficulty with captain James Aldrin) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VttaRZbNUHg

Second gameplay video (Level 4-2 on Hard difficulty with doctor Emily Sharpe) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CamnqDjMyw

just downloaded, gotta say the music is SO good, i appreciate that you put sound test in there so i could put on your soundtrack and just set my 3ds down and listen. anyway nice work mate! thanks for making this

@shamwow Thanks for buying Moonbound and your feedback! I'm glad that you really liked the game's music!

All of Moonbound's music was composed by my friend Juha Salinmäki. I think that he did an amazing job. I always intended to include a music player in the game so that you can really enjoy his work.

I will publish a high quality version of Moonbound's full soundtrack on the game's YouTube channel in the next few weeks. I need to finish the game's poster with my brother and get it approved by Nintendo before this. The full soundtrack will also include some unreleased extra tracks that unfortunately could not be included in the game.

I recommend that you subscribe to the game's YouTube channel to not miss it :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR_dUZlWz0ZeP6whqkNgzvA

This game is great! It's fun and challenging, and it definitely has that nostalgic feel. Jouni, you did an excellent job. And to echo what another commenter said - yes, the music is incredible. Looking forward to future games!

@lostnumber17 Thank you very much for your feedback! It's great to see such positive comments after working hard on my game for a long time.

Have you finished the game's Story Mode? What did you think about the game's story?

Could you please review Moonbound in the Nintendo eShop? It would only require about five minutes of your time, but it would be a great help for me. You must play the game for at least an hour to review it. Moonbound needs more reviews so that people would be more confident in buying it.

I have to announce that Moonbound will not have a sequel (or a prequel) on the Nintendo 3DS system because Nintendo will stop accepting new titles for it soon. There simply isn't enough time to develop a sequel for the Nintendo 3DS.

I've got no problem with the idea of devs promoting their games here if agreed with the site admin, but the fact that the two non-dev comments in this thread are both from new user accounts is kinda sus. While they could of course be perfectly genuine comments, I would have more confidence in their positive feedback if they weren't brand new accounts.

Both shamwow and lostnumber17 have only made these single comments since making their accounts.

First, I would like to thank Anthony Dickens for creating the Game Developers subforum and unlocking this thread.

Second, I did NOT create the user accounts that replied to this thread. This thread was locked for a while when I was writing emails with the admin so nobody could have replied to it. I wish that my game had received more feedback here. Moonbound currently has four five star reviews in the Nintendo eShop. I can also reveal that Moonbound's American version has already sold a decent amount of copies, so there should be more people playing it.

OK, here's some new material from my game :

Nintendo of America has just approved Moonbound's release poster/wallpaper, so I can finally post a link to it here :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/307324kb2f9jlzk/Moonbound_3DS_relea...

I was planning to release this poster on the game's American release date, but unfortunately it was delayed. You can use this poster as a desktop wallpaper on full HD resolution.

Edit - I changed the poster's Dropbox link to a direct link to the poster's picture. You can zoom the image to see it in 100% size.

Hope you do well buddy!

@gcunit NGL it is a little sus, I don't think the new user thing is as much of an issue, but the one post thing, is uh, a little odd.

The admins have determined there's no major reason to suspect the developer. These could very well be well-intentioned (if a little misguided) fans or friends.

It would be nice if we could move on from that for now.

@Tenzen1978 I'm not sure about that art. It's okay, but the human faces are a little uncanny. It's too pixelated to be realistic but not pixelated enough to be pixel art. I'm sorry if this is too harsh, but I'm just trying to give feedback.

@Tenzen1978 Congratulations on the release of the game! Good to see the 3DS still getting some support. Is it only available in North America though? I can't find it on Nintendo's UK website. If so, does that mean Nintendo of Europe has stopped accepting new 3DS eShop releases?

@Tenzen1978 I'm not sure if it's your game exactly, but whenever I try to check it on the new releases or I search for it, the eShop crashes.

However, if it is your game... How?

I accept your feedback.

I developed Moonbound basically on a zero budget, so I wasn't able to hire a professional 2D artist to draw the game's graphics and marketing assets. I designed Moonbound's poster by drawing it on paper during the spring of 2020. The poster was drawn by my brother, but we worked on it together. My brother had been very busy during December and we were in a hurry to finish the poster and get it approved by Nintendo before the game's European release (more about this in my next post). The poster had already missed the game's American release. This was also our first attempt to draw the game's player characters in higher resolution than the 3DS console's screens.

Fortunately, I think that we were more successful in drawing the in-game pixel art character artwork.

Thanks! I'm glad to tell you that Moonbound will be released in Europe (+ Australia, New Zealand and South Africa) on January 27th! Moonbound's European version will be available in 33 countries. I'll post a complete list of the game's European release countries tomorrow.

I've also been wondering why Moonbound can't currently be found in Nintendo UK's website. I've checked it a few times after the game's European version was approved for release. It might appear there on the game's European release date. I had to produce this promotional banner (2000 x 1000 px) for Nintendo of Europe to be used on their website (Warning - Minor spoilers of the game's ending!) :
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8tg3pxtsy1hisb/Moonbound_3DS_banne...

The Nintendo 3DS era is ending soon, because developers have only very little time left to submit 3DS games to Nintendo.

This is strange... You're the second person on this forum that has reported this.

I have two Nintendo 3DS consoles (American Nintendo 3DS XL and European Nintendo 3DS). I haven't had any problems accessing the game's eShop page or downloading it on both of them. I've checked the American Nintendo eShop several times to see the game's reviews.

I'm responsible only for Moonbound's development and its marketing assets. Both the game and the marketing assets had to be approved separately before it was approved for release. Nintendo is responsible for the game's distribution and sales in the Nintendo eShop. Nintendo has also created the game's eShop pages.

Can you be more specific what happens when the eShop crashes? Does an error message appear on the screen? Can you access other games on the eShop? What model of the Nintendo 3DS console are you using?

Could you contact Nintendo's customer support about this? I might have to contact Nintendo as well to report a possible problem in Moonbound's distribution.

@Tenzen1978 Ah good, I'll keep an eye out for it

Nintendo's online version of eshop

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/moonbound-3ds/

@Tenzen1978 Here you go, hope that helps:

I managed to view other games and even bought a Virtual Console title yesterday, so the eshop itself is working.

Perhaps the game's banner image or icon are too heavy, somehow? Or maybe it could be tied to the language? (spanish)