Tiny Avengers a playable proof of concept with which two collaborating artists hope to enamor both fans of the beat’em up genre and Marvel alike. However there is a catch. Tiny Avengers needs your support to prove to Marvel that there is a viable market for this game and that Tiny Avengers is worthy of IP holders’ stamp of approval.

Tiny Avengers Arcade “just a playable mini demo”

Social media can be a wonderful place of discovery. Today I strolled upon* a fan made proof of concept. When I saw de trailer for Tiny Avengers I immediately thought “Veni Vidi Vita, this game would be great on the Vita”. Knowing that the people who frequent this site love their Vita even more than I do mine I didn’t hesitate to share this story with you. Credit where credit is due: many thanks to @syngamer for bringing this story to my attention.

The web demo which you can play for yourself is basically a beat’em up where the player fights off endless waves of Ultron sentries. The move set in this proof of concept is limited, but even with just the few options available; dash, punch and a shield throw Tiny Captain America proves his metal as a Tiny Avenger.

currently this is in the game

What’s in:

• Playable captain America
• Autonomous Ultron sentries
• Wave of enemies
• Love we have for the Marvel Universe

What’s not in (but we’d love to do if we’re allowed to):

• Tons of Marvel characters
• Real level design (level progression + boss)
• Several levels
• Local multiplayer
• Sounds and Music
• Grab and throw
• Complex AI
• Special attack 2
• Run and attack
• Gamepad support

It seems like the past few years and some more to come can be summarized by: all that’s old is new again. I for one am very happy that the game industry is in a state where all sorts of game genres can exist side by side. Variety is the spice of life they say, and revitalizing an old genre can definitely be done is an original way proven by games like; Guacemelee, Shovel Knight, and more recently King’s Quest.

I can only hope Tiny Avengers becomes a full game, and if so a Vita version might be an possibility

@italkgame @SynGamer @frwololo @HackInformer And I would LOVE to port it on PSVita.

— Laurent Victorino (@on_code) 9 augustus 2015

The creators behind fans

As you might have realized by now the developers don’t have the license to make Tiny Avengers a reality yet. Just like me, many of you are probably wondering if this fan project has the legs to ever become a reality. Here are a few facts which might help you make up your mind.

One of the craziest aspects of this story is that this playable mini demo has been created within a mere 37 hours! The video below shows the programming part of the demo. To use the words of the creators:  “imagine what could happen if we are allowed to work on it full time”

The pedigree of the developers behind the Tiny Avengers fan game is nothing to sniff at. As I understand the art direction of the game is in the capable hands of Raymond Teo who, among other things, is the creator of Devil’s Dare a 2D side scrolling Beat’em up supporting up to four players locally. My guess is that Tiny Avengers would support the same amount since there are three aditional insert coin markers on screen.

The programmer Laurent Victorino also has a nice portfolio of past work: between being a gameplay programmer on The Crew and his work as a tool programmer on Topspin 3 every second I spend researching my confidence in this project grew.

The fans behind the creators

Sure, there are still many unknowns, and I’ve reached out to the team in the hope they’ll awnser my questions. Meanwhile without the support of fans just like us Marvel might never even pay attention to their work. For the time being all that the creators of this fan project ask of us is: “Help us to make this real by spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook or any other media and tell how much you would love to play the full game”

Be sure to test the demo for yourself and let Marvel and the developers Laurent Victorino and Raymond Teo know what you think about this project. If you think you can beat my high score don’t hesitate to rub it in screenshot me your best score @italkgame