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Nintendo Wii Ware und VC News
- Thread-Ersteller ankeingo
- Erstellungsdatum
Mr. Driller WiiWare - more screens
Crystal Defenders R2 - more screens
Neues von Icarian: Kindred Spirits
Freunde herunterladbarer Spiele-Software bekommen heute zwei neue Titel für WiiWare geboten.
Ab sofort erhältlich ist das Wintersportspiel Snowboard Riot (1.000 Wii Points), inklusive Online-Modus sowie Balance Board-Unterstützung.
Ferner ist das Geschicklichkeitsspiel Frat Party Games: Pong Toss (800 Wii Points) erhältlich.
Quelle: GamingMedia.de
Ab sofort erhältlich ist das Wintersportspiel Snowboard Riot (1.000 Wii Points), inklusive Online-Modus sowie Balance Board-Unterstützung.
Ferner ist das Geschicklichkeitsspiel Frat Party Games: Pong Toss (800 Wii Points) erhältlich.
Quelle: GamingMedia.de
Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (25th Feb)
Here is the list for the 25th of February:
1 (1) - Tetris Party
2 (2) - My Aquarium
3 (3) - World of Goo
4 (4) - Cue Sports - Pool Revolution
5 (5) - Dr Mario Online Rx
6 (12) - My Pokémon Ranch
7 (10) - Brain Challenge
8 (8) - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
9 (7) - Midnight Bowling
10 (11) - Target Toss Pro: Bags
11 (6) - LIT
12 (13) - Sandy Beach
13 (9) - Snowboard Riot
14 (14) - Defend your Castle
15 (16) - TV Show King
16 (15) - Wild West Guns
17 (N) - Onslaught
18 (19) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
19 (20) - Tiki Towers
20 (18) - Bomberman Blast
Quelle
Here is the list for the 25th of February:
1 (1) - Tetris Party
2 (2) - My Aquarium
3 (3) - World of Goo
4 (4) - Cue Sports - Pool Revolution
5 (5) - Dr Mario Online Rx
6 (12) - My Pokémon Ranch
7 (10) - Brain Challenge
8 (8) - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
9 (7) - Midnight Bowling
10 (11) - Target Toss Pro: Bags
11 (6) - LIT
12 (13) - Sandy Beach
13 (9) - Snowboard Riot
14 (14) - Defend your Castle
15 (16) - TV Show King
16 (15) - Wild West Guns
17 (N) - Onslaught
18 (19) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
19 (20) - Tiki Towers
20 (18) - Bomberman Blast
Quelle
Night Game - New Game Play Video
Having only recently announced their newest WiiWare title Night Game, Nicalis took us by surprise this week with the unexpected release of the game's official game play trailer.
As you can see in the trailer below, the game looks like a bedtime version of Loco Roco with its soothing colors and hypnotic musical score. Let's hope gamers can stay awake long enough to finish the levels as this is shaping up to be a very interesting WiiWare title.
We'll have more information on Night Game as it becomes available, as well as a full review once the game hits the WiiWare service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEj4NtAlVE&eurl=http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2009/03/night_game_new_game_play_video
Having only recently announced their newest WiiWare title Night Game, Nicalis took us by surprise this week with the unexpected release of the game's official game play trailer.
As you can see in the trailer below, the game looks like a bedtime version of Loco Roco with its soothing colors and hypnotic musical score. Let's hope gamers can stay awake long enough to finish the levels as this is shaping up to be a very interesting WiiWare title.
We'll have more information on Night Game as it becomes available, as well as a full review once the game hits the WiiWare service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQEj4NtAlVE&eurl=http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2009/03/night_game_new_game_play_video
Night Game - New WiiWare Release From Nicalis
A recently released lineup of forthcoming games for Nintendo systems has thrown up a brand new WiiWare release called Night Game. Produced by the same team behind the upcoming Cave Story WiiWare port, this title is apparently ‘part action, part puzzler’.
Here’s the press release:
Night Game, developed and published by Nicalis: Exclusively for WiiWare, Night Game (working title) is part action game and part puzzler. It invites players into a beautifully atmospheric world, where they must use real physics to maneuver a mysterious, glowing sphere through vastly different locales. Night Game pushes the boundaries of design with its unique art style, and professionally produced music score. This title is a 2009 Independent Games Festival Seumas McNally Award nominee and from the same developers responsible for Cave Story on Wii.
Sounds pretty interesting to us, and it’s encouraging to see Nintendo singling out titles like this. The company clearly has high expectations of this particular WiiWare release – let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint!
If the same press release, Nintendo also mentioned the following WiiWare releases:
BIT.TRIP BEAT, developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games: BIT.TRIP BEAT is what you get when you mix classic video gaming with modern gaming sensibilities. What may seem like a simple “paddle” game turns into a psychedelic trip down memory lane which has you hitting “beats” in rhythm to Chiptune style music. While the game can be difficult, if you crank up the tunes and get in the zone, you’ll have a great time. Performing perfectly isn’t required to experience all the game’s content, but the extra challenge will keep score-hunters coming back in search of each level’s elusive “PERFECT” score.
Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, developed and published by Semnat Studios LLC: Fight your way through 13 diverse locations on your own or with up to three friends in this frenetic and stylish side-scrolling action game. Play as Eduardo and his fellow toaster buddies as you fire an assortment of pastries at all kinds of dastardly food products. Hop onto laser-mounted scooters and fly across the screen in rocket packs, and learn to cooperate with your teammates or simply annoy each other in an awesomely fun way by throwing each other around the screen. The choice is up to you.
Swords & Soldiers, developed and published by Ronimo Games: Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling real-time strategy game, in which three distinct factions battle for the powers of the gods. The goal is to destroy the enemies’ castle on the other end of the level, while protecting your own. This can be done by training powerful units or casting devastating spells. The game will feature a single-player campaign and a competitive split-screen multiplayer mode as well as several other game modes.
Quelle
A recently released lineup of forthcoming games for Nintendo systems has thrown up a brand new WiiWare release called Night Game. Produced by the same team behind the upcoming Cave Story WiiWare port, this title is apparently ‘part action, part puzzler’.
Here’s the press release:
Night Game, developed and published by Nicalis: Exclusively for WiiWare, Night Game (working title) is part action game and part puzzler. It invites players into a beautifully atmospheric world, where they must use real physics to maneuver a mysterious, glowing sphere through vastly different locales. Night Game pushes the boundaries of design with its unique art style, and professionally produced music score. This title is a 2009 Independent Games Festival Seumas McNally Award nominee and from the same developers responsible for Cave Story on Wii.
Sounds pretty interesting to us, and it’s encouraging to see Nintendo singling out titles like this. The company clearly has high expectations of this particular WiiWare release – let’s hope it doesn’t disappoint!
If the same press release, Nintendo also mentioned the following WiiWare releases:
BIT.TRIP BEAT, developed by Gaijin Games and published by Aksys Games: BIT.TRIP BEAT is what you get when you mix classic video gaming with modern gaming sensibilities. What may seem like a simple “paddle” game turns into a psychedelic trip down memory lane which has you hitting “beats” in rhythm to Chiptune style music. While the game can be difficult, if you crank up the tunes and get in the zone, you’ll have a great time. Performing perfectly isn’t required to experience all the game’s content, but the extra challenge will keep score-hunters coming back in search of each level’s elusive “PERFECT” score.
Eduardo the Samurai Toaster, developed and published by Semnat Studios LLC: Fight your way through 13 diverse locations on your own or with up to three friends in this frenetic and stylish side-scrolling action game. Play as Eduardo and his fellow toaster buddies as you fire an assortment of pastries at all kinds of dastardly food products. Hop onto laser-mounted scooters and fly across the screen in rocket packs, and learn to cooperate with your teammates or simply annoy each other in an awesomely fun way by throwing each other around the screen. The choice is up to you.
Swords & Soldiers, developed and published by Ronimo Games: Swords & Soldiers is a side-scrolling real-time strategy game, in which three distinct factions battle for the powers of the gods. The goal is to destroy the enemies’ castle on the other end of the level, while protecting your own. This can be done by training powerful units or casting devastating spells. The game will feature a single-player campaign and a competitive split-screen multiplayer mode as well as several other game modes.
Quelle
Dyn4m1k3
L14: Freak
wo das spiel sieht interessanz aus! aber ist sicher auch sehr knifflig.
New Furry Legends Screenshots
Gamelion Studios Poland has just informed us that they've started a development blog for their upcoming WiiWare title Furry Legends. We were also able to get our hands on a bunch of new screenshots of the game in action as well. Below is a snippet from Gamelion Studio's new blog that gives a little insight into their rather unique upcoming WiiWare title.
Furry Legends is a platforming game, within its own world, with its own characters and unique feeling. We’ve been playing a lot of games, and result is something you can place between the likes of Sonic, LocoRoco, Mario and some LittleBigPlanet thrown in for good measure. The expectations of both the team and the community are pretty high, and we’re aiming to deliver quality rivalling the top tiers on WiiWare
Words, words, words, a picture is worth a thousand of words, so below you can find the first official screenshots from our game. It’s still an early development snapshot, but shows the direction we want to take the game in.
Gamelion Studios promises to update their Furry Legends development blog weekly with new game develoment news and information. They also state that gamers can expect a full game play trailer sometime around March 23rd.
We'll keep you posted on any new developments with Furry Legends and we'll have a full review of the game when it hits the WiiWare service. Until then you can take a look at the group of brand new screenshots we just put up on the Furry Legends game page below.
Quelle
Gamelion Studios Poland has just informed us that they've started a development blog for their upcoming WiiWare title Furry Legends. We were also able to get our hands on a bunch of new screenshots of the game in action as well. Below is a snippet from Gamelion Studio's new blog that gives a little insight into their rather unique upcoming WiiWare title.
Furry Legends is a platforming game, within its own world, with its own characters and unique feeling. We’ve been playing a lot of games, and result is something you can place between the likes of Sonic, LocoRoco, Mario and some LittleBigPlanet thrown in for good measure. The expectations of both the team and the community are pretty high, and we’re aiming to deliver quality rivalling the top tiers on WiiWare
Words, words, words, a picture is worth a thousand of words, so below you can find the first official screenshots from our game. It’s still an early development snapshot, but shows the direction we want to take the game in.
Gamelion Studios promises to update their Furry Legends development blog weekly with new game develoment news and information. They also state that gamers can expect a full game play trailer sometime around March 23rd.
We'll keep you posted on any new developments with Furry Legends and we'll have a full review of the game when it hits the WiiWare service. Until then you can take a look at the group of brand new screenshots we just put up on the Furry Legends game page below.
Quelle
daxterclank
L13: Maniac
Und ich vor allem wegen dem letzten Bild an Loco Roco
New Harvest Moon for Japanese WiiWare
The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly reveals a new WiiWare Harvest Moon title by the name of “Bokujou Monogatari Series: Makiba no Omise”, which roughly translates to Harvest Moon Series: Ranch Store.
As the name suggests, instead of managing a farm players will now manage a store instead. As a male or female character, players will be able to manage a variety of stores such as a juice shop, an ice cream parlor, or an Easter egg shop. Famous characters from past games will show up at the stores as customers.
Bokujou Monogatari Series: Makiba no Omise will be released on Japanese WiiWare on April 28th, with a price point of 1500 Wii Points.
Quelle
The latest issue of Famitsu Weekly reveals a new WiiWare Harvest Moon title by the name of “Bokujou Monogatari Series: Makiba no Omise”, which roughly translates to Harvest Moon Series: Ranch Store.
As the name suggests, instead of managing a farm players will now manage a store instead. As a male or female character, players will be able to manage a variety of stores such as a juice shop, an ice cream parlor, or an Easter egg shop. Famous characters from past games will show up at the stores as customers.
Bokujou Monogatari Series: Makiba no Omise will be released on Japanese WiiWare on April 28th, with a price point of 1500 Wii Points.
Quelle
Capcom: Mega Man 9 is Best Selling WiiWare Title
As WiiWare games go, Mega Man 9 was pretty bloody special. It also sold a ton! But we would never have thought it would be the best selling WiiWare release thus far; a quick glance at the top 20 games shows it’s in the lower reaches of the chart right now, whereas other strong titles are still doing well.
Anyway, regardless of cold, hard facts, Capcom seems pretty pleased with the retail performance of the game and is even saying (in a roundabout way) that Mega Man 9 has shifted more digital downloads than any other WiiWare release.
Capcom’s VP of strategic planning Christian Svensson was the man doing the talking, and this is what he said:
It’s nice to see that the company is looking towards the future. Hopefully this will mean more Capcom games on WiiWare!
Quelle
As WiiWare games go, Mega Man 9 was pretty bloody special. It also sold a ton! But we would never have thought it would be the best selling WiiWare release thus far; a quick glance at the top 20 games shows it’s in the lower reaches of the chart right now, whereas other strong titles are still doing well.
Anyway, regardless of cold, hard facts, Capcom seems pretty pleased with the retail performance of the game and is even saying (in a roundabout way) that Mega Man 9 has shifted more digital downloads than any other WiiWare release.
Capcom’s VP of strategic planning Christian Svensson was the man doing the talking, and this is what he said:
It’s nice to see that the company is looking towards the future. Hopefully this will mean more Capcom games on WiiWare!
Quelle
Top 20 WiiWare Games in USA (4th Mar)
Here is the list for the 4th of March:
1 (1) - Tetris Party
2 (2) - My Aquarium
3 (17) - Onslaught
4 (3) - World of Goo
5 (4) - Cue Sports - Pool Revolution
6 (5) - Dr Mario Online Rx
7 (6) - My Pokémon Ranch
8 (9) - Midnight Bowling
9 (8) - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
10 (7) - Brain Challenge
11 (10) - Target Toss Pro: Bags
12 (15) - TV Show King
13 (14) - Defend your Castle
14 (12) - Sandy Beach
15 (15) - Wild West Guns
16 (13) - Snowboard Riot
17 (--) - Mega Man 9
18 (18) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
19 (19) - Tiki Towers
20 (11) - LIT
Quelle
Here is the list for the 4th of March:
1 (1) - Tetris Party
2 (2) - My Aquarium
3 (17) - Onslaught
4 (3) - World of Goo
5 (4) - Cue Sports - Pool Revolution
6 (5) - Dr Mario Online Rx
7 (6) - My Pokémon Ranch
8 (9) - Midnight Bowling
9 (8) - Fun! Fun! Minigolf
10 (7) - Brain Challenge
11 (10) - Target Toss Pro: Bags
12 (15) - TV Show King
13 (14) - Defend your Castle
14 (12) - Sandy Beach
15 (15) - Wild West Guns
16 (13) - Snowboard Riot
17 (--) - Mega Man 9
18 (18) - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King
19 (19) - Tiki Towers
20 (11) - LIT
Quelle
Gamelion Studios Interview - Furry Legends
With the recent release of new screenshots of Gamelion Studios' first WiiWare title Furry Legends, we felt like now might be a good time to get in touch with them in an effort to find out more information on their upcoming release.
Lukasz Szczepanski, producer of Furry Legends at Gamelion Studios in Poland, was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for WiiWare World. You can find out what he had to say to us in the interview below.
WiiWare World: Can you tell us a little bit about Gamelion Studios?
Lukasz Szczepanski: Certainly. Gamelion was founded in 2002 and currently employs around 100 people in total, across all departments and two main production studios in Poland. Although most of our work in the past was done for mobile devices (including iPhone), we always were working with a multi-platform approach and entering the Wii-market was a natural move for us. Begining this year, we’ve been also approved by Sony for PlayStation development and you can also expect later this year games from us on those platforms.
WW: How long has Furry Legends been in development?
LS: The game has been in development since fall 2008. We’re building everything from scratch, without using any third-party middleware, so it’s a complicated process, as we’re learning new things all the time.
WW: How did you come up with the idea for Furry Legends?
LS: We were doing some brainstorming for our first WiiWare game. We wanted something simple, something we could learn on. We had a lot of ideas, some were more complicated, some less. We have a lot of experienced players, and the genres people came up with often exceeded our project scope. We went with “Furry Legends” as we had some of the technology for it ready, and it looked the most promising out of all our ideas.
WW: Can you give us a brief explanation of the game play in Furry Legends?
LS: Gameplay in Furry Legends is pretty simple. It’s a platformer, but instead of walking around, you’re rolling. This creates some new gameplay mechanics, as well as a new twist on the genre. In addition to regular platforming, you will find environmental puzzles, which will make use of the physics engine we have in the game.
WW: Can you tell us a little more about the physics engine used in the game?
LS: The physics engine takes care of everything that is happening in the world. Objects can bounce from one another, we can create seesaw weights, bump and kick things around, stuff like mass, friction and speed plays a role in the game when interacting with the environment. There’s a lot of potential here, and we hope to surprise the players with some our inventions.
WW: What about Furry Legends makes it stand out from other WiiWare puzzlers?
LS: It’s not a puzzler per se, really. It has puzzles in the sense that you will need to figure out how to use some mechanism in order to open the door, or generally progress further in a level. Sometimes you’ll need to push some key element from another place in the level, or you’d need to figure out the order in which to press buttons.
WW: You've mentioned that Furry Legends contains lots of humor. Can you tell us a little bit more about that aspect of the game?
LS: Humor is a hard thing to grasp, many people view it differently, some things are appealing for one audience, but not for another. In general – we’ll make sure that all the characters in the game, the main character(s) as well as the enemies are fun. You can’t see that from the screenshots yet, but they will have their unique mimics, they’ll make faces and noises to give players that funky-wacky cartoon feeling. In addition, as everyone on the team is an avid gamer, you can expect quite a few easter eggs hidden here and there, all weaved into the world, so they won’t be obvious from the fist glance.
WW: What controllers are supported in Furry Legends?
LS: Currently we support Nunchuk and Wii Remote Controller, and I think it will stay this way
WW: What was it like developing a game that makes use of such a unique game controller as the Wii Remote?
LS: Interesting, very interesting. We spent like a month time trying to figure out the controls for the game. We were prototyping a lot of things to make the experience unique and fun. However, as much as Wii Remote Controller is unique, its uniqueness cannot be used everywhere. At some point you need to think about the user experience and ergonomics. For instance, one of our prototypes was to make circular movements in order to spin the ball in a chosen direction. However, after some tests we came to a conclusion that this is tiring for the player, and in the long run not very fun. In the end we went with the regular ‘arcade’ controls, where you control the character via Nunchuk, and perform special stuff with the Wii Remote Controller.
The other facet of this is the sensitivity of the controller. Sometimes the game would detect motions that weren’t intended, but were just parts of general human behavior. For instance, when you swing your hand it goes along with the inertia, which makes the controller detect a movement opposite to the one you have intended. Not to mention that people can attempt to do the same motion in many different ways, which doesn’t make it any easier. Generally, motion sensing is a very complex matter and requires effort and time we cannot afford at this time.
WW: Did you find the 40MB limit of the WiiWare service limiting as far as what you want to do with Furry Legends?
LS: Yes, it is limiting. At every point of the development we need to remember about the size limit. Whether it’s the levels, models, textures, sounds, anything, really. We create our technology and assets around these limitations, so we’re not caught in the cold while assembling everything together. Currently with the scope of the game and our internal deadlines, the size is not limiting us that much. However, in the original design it was a major concern for us.
WW: Will any downloadable content be made available for Furry Legends at some point?
LS: We do not plan any downloadable content for this iteration of the series.
WW: Will Furry Legends feature any type of online gameplay or leaderboards?
LS: Unfortunately, not. Online is something we didn’t look into yet.
WW: What are some advantages/disadvantages to developing for the WiiWare service as opposed to a retail release?
LS: The biggest advantage is that we’re our own publisher. This means that we can make exactly the game we want to, and we do not need to give in to publisher’s pressure for a feature or setting, or deadline for that matter. The second thing is the lack of physical media, which makes the development cycle a bit easier, and we don’t need to code around DVD seek speeds and other things like that. Removing those limitations is very liberating for us as developers.
WW: How many Wii Points will Furry Legends retail for when it's released?
LS: That’s not something we’re at liberty to discuss. The final price is set by Nintendo, after the game passes all the necessary procedures.
WW: When we can expect a Furry Legends release in the US and Europe?
LS: It’s good to underline that we’re releasing in both US and EU markets. Additionally we are in talks with publishers to bring the game also to Japan. We’re aiming for second quarter of 2009 with the release.
WW: What do you think of the WiiWare service and the releases we've seen so far and do you have a personal favorite?
LS: I think WiiWare is great. There are however things that are limiting its expansion. The most known is the storage space of Wii, of course. The other thing is the percentage of consoles actually using WiiWare, which is sometimes discouraging for bigger players. I think WiiWare at its current state has something to offer for all players. There’s a lot puzzle games and action games. They come in all kinds of quality and prices. That’s a good thing in general, some people do not care for quality, but they like to have a new experience every so often, so low priced titles fill this area nicely. On the other hand, more ‘hardcore’ players love quality and immersion, this is where titles such as Final Fantasy come in. As for my favourite, well, I’m pretty afraid to say it, but I guess that would be Lost Winds
WW: Do you guys have any other WiiWare projects on the horizon?
LS: Yes, we have a couple ideas, a lot depends on the initial reception of Furry Legends, which is our pilot project. From there we’ll be thinking forward.
WW: Do you have anything you'd like to tell our readers in closing?
LS: I’d like to thank all and every single one of you for your feedback. It has been a hard, and eye opening dose of reality. We certainly hear your concerns, and we’re already hard at work to address these issues. The most common thing here is similarity to Lost Winds. While we were certainly inspired by Frontier’s work, it is not our intention to copy it in any way. A few things overlap here, we have pretty much the same graphical effects, which makes the two games very similar at a first glance, compared to other (more or less competitive) products, which are either 2D or do not use shading and lightning very well, if at all. The second thing is the environment; you can create a forest and caves only in so many ways. However, we do admit its scarily close to Lost Winds, because of the vibrant colors, setting, oversaturated lighting and so on.
Your comments were certainly an eye opener for us. We have stepped back and saw that while we’re doing a totally different game, the striking similarities took us by surprise. I hope to show you a totally different setting in our GDC trailer. Some common denominator elements will still be there, but you cannot make a 3D platformer, without it looking like a 3D platformer.
Keep the feedback coming, and visit our blog and twitter for weekly updates on the game. Hopefully I won’t be doing these interviews very often, as there won’t be any material left for the blog, judging by the size of this interview.
Take care!
We'd like to take a moment to thank Sebastian and Lukasz from Gamelion Studios for taking the time to do the interview with us. We look forward to seeing more of Furry Legends, as well as their other projects, in the future.
Be sure and keep an eye on the Gamelion Studios Blog for current updates on Furry Legends game development!
Quelle
With the recent release of new screenshots of Gamelion Studios' first WiiWare title Furry Legends, we felt like now might be a good time to get in touch with them in an effort to find out more information on their upcoming release.
Lukasz Szczepanski, producer of Furry Legends at Gamelion Studios in Poland, was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for WiiWare World. You can find out what he had to say to us in the interview below.
WiiWare World: Can you tell us a little bit about Gamelion Studios?
Lukasz Szczepanski: Certainly. Gamelion was founded in 2002 and currently employs around 100 people in total, across all departments and two main production studios in Poland. Although most of our work in the past was done for mobile devices (including iPhone), we always were working with a multi-platform approach and entering the Wii-market was a natural move for us. Begining this year, we’ve been also approved by Sony for PlayStation development and you can also expect later this year games from us on those platforms.
WW: How long has Furry Legends been in development?
LS: The game has been in development since fall 2008. We’re building everything from scratch, without using any third-party middleware, so it’s a complicated process, as we’re learning new things all the time.
WW: How did you come up with the idea for Furry Legends?
LS: We were doing some brainstorming for our first WiiWare game. We wanted something simple, something we could learn on. We had a lot of ideas, some were more complicated, some less. We have a lot of experienced players, and the genres people came up with often exceeded our project scope. We went with “Furry Legends” as we had some of the technology for it ready, and it looked the most promising out of all our ideas.
WW: Can you give us a brief explanation of the game play in Furry Legends?
LS: Gameplay in Furry Legends is pretty simple. It’s a platformer, but instead of walking around, you’re rolling. This creates some new gameplay mechanics, as well as a new twist on the genre. In addition to regular platforming, you will find environmental puzzles, which will make use of the physics engine we have in the game.
WW: Can you tell us a little more about the physics engine used in the game?
LS: The physics engine takes care of everything that is happening in the world. Objects can bounce from one another, we can create seesaw weights, bump and kick things around, stuff like mass, friction and speed plays a role in the game when interacting with the environment. There’s a lot of potential here, and we hope to surprise the players with some our inventions.
WW: What about Furry Legends makes it stand out from other WiiWare puzzlers?
LS: It’s not a puzzler per se, really. It has puzzles in the sense that you will need to figure out how to use some mechanism in order to open the door, or generally progress further in a level. Sometimes you’ll need to push some key element from another place in the level, or you’d need to figure out the order in which to press buttons.
WW: You've mentioned that Furry Legends contains lots of humor. Can you tell us a little bit more about that aspect of the game?
LS: Humor is a hard thing to grasp, many people view it differently, some things are appealing for one audience, but not for another. In general – we’ll make sure that all the characters in the game, the main character(s) as well as the enemies are fun. You can’t see that from the screenshots yet, but they will have their unique mimics, they’ll make faces and noises to give players that funky-wacky cartoon feeling. In addition, as everyone on the team is an avid gamer, you can expect quite a few easter eggs hidden here and there, all weaved into the world, so they won’t be obvious from the fist glance.
WW: What controllers are supported in Furry Legends?
LS: Currently we support Nunchuk and Wii Remote Controller, and I think it will stay this way
WW: What was it like developing a game that makes use of such a unique game controller as the Wii Remote?
LS: Interesting, very interesting. We spent like a month time trying to figure out the controls for the game. We were prototyping a lot of things to make the experience unique and fun. However, as much as Wii Remote Controller is unique, its uniqueness cannot be used everywhere. At some point you need to think about the user experience and ergonomics. For instance, one of our prototypes was to make circular movements in order to spin the ball in a chosen direction. However, after some tests we came to a conclusion that this is tiring for the player, and in the long run not very fun. In the end we went with the regular ‘arcade’ controls, where you control the character via Nunchuk, and perform special stuff with the Wii Remote Controller.
The other facet of this is the sensitivity of the controller. Sometimes the game would detect motions that weren’t intended, but were just parts of general human behavior. For instance, when you swing your hand it goes along with the inertia, which makes the controller detect a movement opposite to the one you have intended. Not to mention that people can attempt to do the same motion in many different ways, which doesn’t make it any easier. Generally, motion sensing is a very complex matter and requires effort and time we cannot afford at this time.
WW: Did you find the 40MB limit of the WiiWare service limiting as far as what you want to do with Furry Legends?
LS: Yes, it is limiting. At every point of the development we need to remember about the size limit. Whether it’s the levels, models, textures, sounds, anything, really. We create our technology and assets around these limitations, so we’re not caught in the cold while assembling everything together. Currently with the scope of the game and our internal deadlines, the size is not limiting us that much. However, in the original design it was a major concern for us.
WW: Will any downloadable content be made available for Furry Legends at some point?
LS: We do not plan any downloadable content for this iteration of the series.
WW: Will Furry Legends feature any type of online gameplay or leaderboards?
LS: Unfortunately, not. Online is something we didn’t look into yet.
WW: What are some advantages/disadvantages to developing for the WiiWare service as opposed to a retail release?
LS: The biggest advantage is that we’re our own publisher. This means that we can make exactly the game we want to, and we do not need to give in to publisher’s pressure for a feature or setting, or deadline for that matter. The second thing is the lack of physical media, which makes the development cycle a bit easier, and we don’t need to code around DVD seek speeds and other things like that. Removing those limitations is very liberating for us as developers.
WW: How many Wii Points will Furry Legends retail for when it's released?
LS: That’s not something we’re at liberty to discuss. The final price is set by Nintendo, after the game passes all the necessary procedures.
WW: When we can expect a Furry Legends release in the US and Europe?
LS: It’s good to underline that we’re releasing in both US and EU markets. Additionally we are in talks with publishers to bring the game also to Japan. We’re aiming for second quarter of 2009 with the release.
WW: What do you think of the WiiWare service and the releases we've seen so far and do you have a personal favorite?
LS: I think WiiWare is great. There are however things that are limiting its expansion. The most known is the storage space of Wii, of course. The other thing is the percentage of consoles actually using WiiWare, which is sometimes discouraging for bigger players. I think WiiWare at its current state has something to offer for all players. There’s a lot puzzle games and action games. They come in all kinds of quality and prices. That’s a good thing in general, some people do not care for quality, but they like to have a new experience every so often, so low priced titles fill this area nicely. On the other hand, more ‘hardcore’ players love quality and immersion, this is where titles such as Final Fantasy come in. As for my favourite, well, I’m pretty afraid to say it, but I guess that would be Lost Winds
WW: Do you guys have any other WiiWare projects on the horizon?
LS: Yes, we have a couple ideas, a lot depends on the initial reception of Furry Legends, which is our pilot project. From there we’ll be thinking forward.
WW: Do you have anything you'd like to tell our readers in closing?
LS: I’d like to thank all and every single one of you for your feedback. It has been a hard, and eye opening dose of reality. We certainly hear your concerns, and we’re already hard at work to address these issues. The most common thing here is similarity to Lost Winds. While we were certainly inspired by Frontier’s work, it is not our intention to copy it in any way. A few things overlap here, we have pretty much the same graphical effects, which makes the two games very similar at a first glance, compared to other (more or less competitive) products, which are either 2D or do not use shading and lightning very well, if at all. The second thing is the environment; you can create a forest and caves only in so many ways. However, we do admit its scarily close to Lost Winds, because of the vibrant colors, setting, oversaturated lighting and so on.
Your comments were certainly an eye opener for us. We have stepped back and saw that while we’re doing a totally different game, the striking similarities took us by surprise. I hope to show you a totally different setting in our GDC trailer. Some common denominator elements will still be there, but you cannot make a 3D platformer, without it looking like a 3D platformer.
Keep the feedback coming, and visit our blog and twitter for weekly updates on the game. Hopefully I won’t be doing these interviews very often, as there won’t be any material left for the blog, judging by the size of this interview.
Take care!
We'd like to take a moment to thank Sebastian and Lukasz from Gamelion Studios for taking the time to do the interview with us. We look forward to seeing more of Furry Legends, as well as their other projects, in the future.
Be sure and keep an eye on the Gamelion Studios Blog for current updates on Furry Legends game development!
Quelle
Cube: Gardens of Zen Coming To WiiWare
Kalydo Games has just announced that their new web browser-based game Cube: Gardens of Zen is headed to Nintendo's WiiWare service.
While we don't currently have many details on the upcoming WiiWare version, I was able to spend a couple of hours with the PC version of the game and you can check out my impressions below along with the official PC game play trailer for the game.
Impressions:
The basic game play behind Cube: Gardens of Zen is quite simple in design. You basically maneuver a cube around a giant cube-shaped level in one of four seasons. Your task is to gather up the required number of scrolls in order to proceed to the next level. You can roll your cube around in any one of four directions, even off the sides of the giant cube. The one catch is that you must have an object on the side of the cube your falling onto in order to keep your cube from falling completely off the giant cubed level. It might sound a bit odd, but it doesn't take long to get the hang of it all.
The first few levels are quite easy and just basically give you an opportunity to come to grips with the control scheme. There's really not much to it. You can move your cube in four directions using the d-pad and you can rotate the giant cubed level around to view the various sides using the action button. You'll quickly find that rotating the level around is a must if you're to have any chance of beating the more difficult and intricate levels of the game.
As the levels progress the scrolls become more difficult to reach, not to mention the ever-increasing number of hazards that come into play. Everything from water hazards to crumbling bridges will cause you to analyze each and every move you make in order to successfully traverse the tricky levels. The last level of each season generally requires you to locate a character in order to progress on to the next season. While it's quite easy to breeze through the early levels, you'll find that the difficulty will quickly pick up once you progress past the first season.
The overly simple control scheme and mind-bending puzzles are a nice combination and should fit the WiiWare service to a tee. The game is extremely easy to pick up and play in a very short amount of time and there's plenty of easy levels early on to warm up on. The later levels prove to be quite challenging, perhaps too much so for some who will find them frustrating until the solution can be discovered. A lot of it depends on your level of commitment as you'll find yourself playing many of the later levels quite a few times before you finally stumble onto the solution. Those who like a good puzzle game should feel right at home, but those who are easily frustrated with this type of game might want to think twice before diving into this mind-bending puzzler.
The visuals are colorful and pleasing to the eye, but don't expect a lot of detail since the majority of the action takes place on the one giant cube. While the scenery changes with each new season, it can be a long stretch viewing the same basic visual theme in the many levels of each season. After 10-15 levels in the same season, you'll be welcoming the change when you finally do reach a new season.
The oriental-style music in Cube: Gardens of Zen is quirky at times but you can't argue that it fits the action and the scenery quite well. A little more variety might have been nice, but given the nature of the game, it's difficult to fault what the developers were trying to do with the audio package. You can get a little taste of the game's unique musical score in the game play trailer below if you're still curious as to what you can expect from the game's audio experience.
Cube: Gardes of Zen isn't going to revolutionize the puzzle genre, but it does so many things right that it's almost impossible not to like the game. It's basically everything a good game should be with its simple game play scheme and addictive puzzles that never seem to end. Puzzle fans should find a lot to like with the game and even those who aren't big on the rather large number of puzzlers we've already seen on the WiiWare service might want to at least consider giving the game a chance. With 100 levels, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck with this unique WiiWare title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIjf1Efw3U0&eurl=http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2009/03/cube_gardens_of_zen_coming_to_wiiware
Kalydo Games has just announced that their new web browser-based game Cube: Gardens of Zen is headed to Nintendo's WiiWare service.
While we don't currently have many details on the upcoming WiiWare version, I was able to spend a couple of hours with the PC version of the game and you can check out my impressions below along with the official PC game play trailer for the game.
Impressions:
The basic game play behind Cube: Gardens of Zen is quite simple in design. You basically maneuver a cube around a giant cube-shaped level in one of four seasons. Your task is to gather up the required number of scrolls in order to proceed to the next level. You can roll your cube around in any one of four directions, even off the sides of the giant cube. The one catch is that you must have an object on the side of the cube your falling onto in order to keep your cube from falling completely off the giant cubed level. It might sound a bit odd, but it doesn't take long to get the hang of it all.
The first few levels are quite easy and just basically give you an opportunity to come to grips with the control scheme. There's really not much to it. You can move your cube in four directions using the d-pad and you can rotate the giant cubed level around to view the various sides using the action button. You'll quickly find that rotating the level around is a must if you're to have any chance of beating the more difficult and intricate levels of the game.
As the levels progress the scrolls become more difficult to reach, not to mention the ever-increasing number of hazards that come into play. Everything from water hazards to crumbling bridges will cause you to analyze each and every move you make in order to successfully traverse the tricky levels. The last level of each season generally requires you to locate a character in order to progress on to the next season. While it's quite easy to breeze through the early levels, you'll find that the difficulty will quickly pick up once you progress past the first season.
The overly simple control scheme and mind-bending puzzles are a nice combination and should fit the WiiWare service to a tee. The game is extremely easy to pick up and play in a very short amount of time and there's plenty of easy levels early on to warm up on. The later levels prove to be quite challenging, perhaps too much so for some who will find them frustrating until the solution can be discovered. A lot of it depends on your level of commitment as you'll find yourself playing many of the later levels quite a few times before you finally stumble onto the solution. Those who like a good puzzle game should feel right at home, but those who are easily frustrated with this type of game might want to think twice before diving into this mind-bending puzzler.
The visuals are colorful and pleasing to the eye, but don't expect a lot of detail since the majority of the action takes place on the one giant cube. While the scenery changes with each new season, it can be a long stretch viewing the same basic visual theme in the many levels of each season. After 10-15 levels in the same season, you'll be welcoming the change when you finally do reach a new season.
The oriental-style music in Cube: Gardens of Zen is quirky at times but you can't argue that it fits the action and the scenery quite well. A little more variety might have been nice, but given the nature of the game, it's difficult to fault what the developers were trying to do with the audio package. You can get a little taste of the game's unique musical score in the game play trailer below if you're still curious as to what you can expect from the game's audio experience.
Cube: Gardes of Zen isn't going to revolutionize the puzzle genre, but it does so many things right that it's almost impossible not to like the game. It's basically everything a good game should be with its simple game play scheme and addictive puzzles that never seem to end. Puzzle fans should find a lot to like with the game and even those who aren't big on the rather large number of puzzlers we've already seen on the WiiWare service might want to at least consider giving the game a chance. With 100 levels, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck with this unique WiiWare title.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIjf1Efw3U0&eurl=http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2009/03/cube_gardens_of_zen_coming_to_wiiware
New Golf Game Coming To Japanese WiiWare Next Week
Arc System Works is bringing out what appears to be the sole new WiiWare release on the Japanese service next Tuesday, a game centred around golf putting called Okiraku Pata-Gorufu (Family Golf Putter). You're able to choose from four characters (a cute anime family rendered in cel-animation style) and try to putt your ball into a series of holes doing various trick shots. Wiimote control only with use of a simple arm swing after setting shot power to get the ball rolling appears to be the interface. The game will be 500 points, we expect Aksys Games will publish this in North America and Europe sometime later this year.
Bilder und Video
Arc System Works is bringing out what appears to be the sole new WiiWare release on the Japanese service next Tuesday, a game centred around golf putting called Okiraku Pata-Gorufu (Family Golf Putter). You're able to choose from four characters (a cute anime family rendered in cel-animation style) and try to putt your ball into a series of holes doing various trick shots. Wiimote control only with use of a simple arm swing after setting shot power to get the ball rolling appears to be the interface. The game will be 500 points, we expect Aksys Games will publish this in North America and Europe sometime later this year.
Bilder und Video