FULL DISCLOSURE: INTROVERSION PUBLISH CONFIDENTIAL DARWINIA+ DOCS, EMAILS
After first being announced for Xbox Live Arcade almost exactly a year ago and already several months behind schedule, it’s hard to tell if this is a move of frustration at the normally opaque process of console certification, or a move of pure indie developer philanthropy, but with the apparent full cooperation of Microsoft, it’s apparently a mix of the latter and a healthy dose of pure marketing savvy.
In either case, Darwinia and Defcon creators Introversion have taken the unprecedented step of uploading any and all documents relating to the ongoing development of Darwinia+ — the Xbox 360 port of their original Darwinia and later multiplayer followup Multiwinia — laying bare all the “good, bad and very very very bad” for everyone to see.
Included you’ll find their internal schedules and project plans, problematic early 2008 confidential usability reports from Microsoft, snippets of Darwinia‘s AI code, and nothing less than e-mails between the team and Microsoft.
Well, ok, it’s not everything — they won’t go so far as to let you read their contract, though they do highlight the length of time it took to get signed, but they do, at least, let you see them caught with their pants down by the ever-reliable ESRB leak: all in all it’s quite good reading for fellow indie devs and anyone wanting to get a behind the scenes look at the console development process.
Darwinia+ home [Introversion]
Previously:
What's he building in there: Introversion's Subversion – Offworld
Introversion's DefconAR: mutually destructive augmented reality …
Introversion playing with fire with unbeatable DEFCON AI – Offworld
The art of vector-war – Offworld
Offworld: The Offworld 20: 2008's Best Indie & Overlooked (pg. 2)
See more posts about: Darwinia, Introversion, Offworld Originals, Xbox 360
THE STARS WERE BRIGHT, ROLANDO: TWO IPHONE SEQUELS COMING JUNE, NOVEMBER
If any game were to become the iPhone’s real first platform franchise it couldn’t have happened to a better series than Hand Circus and ngmoco’s platformer Rolando. Though we already knew a sequel was in the works, the developer has officially announced its new title — Quest for the Golden Orchid — as well as a June release date.
ngmofo Neil Young also outlined the outlook for the series at his GDC Mobile kick-off keynote as recorded by toucharcade: between now and June the original Rolando will receive three more level packs in addition to its last, with another four level packs spacing out the time between Rolando 2‘s June release and the newly announced Rolando 3‘s November release.
Keep an eye on Hand Circus’s twitter feed as the dates roll nearer, where Simon Oliver has been teasing regularly about the sequel’s new engine, mechanics, and enemies.
Rolando home [ngmoco, iTunes link, Lite version]
Previously:
Touch me I'm slick: ngmoco/Hand Circus's Rolando – Offworld
Ngmoco: Rolando sequel coming, Touch Pets Dogs announced – Offworld
Ngmoco release first free Rolando level pack – Offworld
Rolando gets papered – Offworld
How Rolando creator Simon Oliver caught the big fish – Offworld
See more posts about: Hand Circus, Offworld Originals, Rolando
PREORDERS OPEN FOR MEZCO’S LITTLEBIGPLANET FIGURE SET
Spotted via vinyl toy/comic/culture blog Super Punch, Big Bad Toy Store has begun taking pre-orders for the first set of Mezco’s LittleBigPlanet toy. $35 will net you a set of three, including:
SackBoy – With baseball cap, two sets of alternate hands, and bendable pop-it lasso.
Sky – With removable pigtails wig, dress, two sets of alternate hands, and bendable pop-it lasso.
Marvin – With afro wig, sunglasses, two sets of alternate hands, and bendable pop-it lasso.
All accessories are naturally interchangable for maximum customization, and, as previously mentioned, Mezco will also soon be releasing a blank version of the models to create your own one-off customs.
Little Big Planet Series 01 – Set of 3 [BigBadToyStore, via Super Punch]
Previously:
I'm your puppet: Media Molecule/Sony reveal official Sackboy toys …
Custom kit: Mezco's naked little Sackboys – Offworld
Offworld: Toys Archives
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Toys
OH MY PORK, INDEED: FANGAMER RELEASES FAN-CREATED MOTHER 3 GUIDEBOOK
Yesterday’s best surprise was waking up to an early delivery of Fangamer’s fresh-off-the-press all-fan-created guidebook to the unofficially localized version of Game Boy Advance RPG Mother 3.
A quick video preview:
As you can see, it’s a show of community ownership and franchise devotion that’s essentially unparalleled in games (apart from the Starmen community’s first outpouring of fan art, in an attempt to get Nintendo of America to give the game the stateside support it would never receive), and, of course, does double duty as an exhaustive guide to the game itself.
From the Pork Army dust jacket that reverses to a clay model character poster and similarly excellent design throughout, to the reams of character art illustrating each page, it’s a true collective work of love and an essential purchase for anyone curious as to what this Earthbound fuss is all about.
Mother 3 Handbook – The English gamers’ guide to the world of MOTHER 3 [Fangamer]
Previously:
Earthbound goods for the rest of us – Offworld
Harvey James's Mother 3 fan art vanguard – Offworld
Mother 3: Behind the Music – Offworld
Mother 3 musical toe-dip into Bach, Vivaldi, Satie… Batman …
Saturn-ine: another Mother/Earthbound treat we can't have – Offworld
Mother 3 translators start Earthbound Central blog – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
LISTEN: 6955 REMIXES FEZ TITLE TRACK
Wicked old but a relevant and essential watch and listen following Fez‘s freshly-updated reappearance at this year’s GDC, Polytron co-founder Jason ‘6955‘ Degroot remixes his Fez title track live at Tokyo’s 8-bit music night Fami-Mode.
Fez home [Polytron]
Previously:
Indie Games Summit: Polytron debut new Fez trailer – Offworld
Poly-amory: Polytron's Polyshop v0.1 offers Fez, Portable Pro …
Happy pills: Fez, Aquaria devs collaborating on new iPhone game …
Indie Games Summit: 2D Boy/Polytron's top 10 ways to market your …
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
KEITA TAKAHASHI BRINGING NOBY NOBY BOY TO THE IPHONE
The biggest surprise from Keita Takahashi’s GDC session on Noby Noby Boy? That the team involved has just started work last week on an iPhone version that he said could possibly be given away for free.
Here’s the problem: even though players managed to get Noby Noby GIRL to the moon in the game’s first week, at the current pace of her growth, she won’t connect the entire solar system for another 820 years (“I’ll be dead by then!” he lamented).
To try and bump up those odds to at least 400 years, the iPhone version will likely connect to the same system, letting the collective stretches of a new army of many mobile Noby BOYs bring their love to GIRL as well.
I’m currently uploading video of the reveal and will update this post (and later will write up the fantastic talk in its entirety) as soon as YouTube finishes processing.
As you can see from the video above, it’s obviously currently in a pre-pre-preproduction state that simply lets you stretch the BOY and bounce him off the other letters, but his interest in the platform is one of my happiest surprises of GDC.
o–o home [Namco]
Previously:
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Happy Holidays from Offworld (feat. Keita Takahashi) – Offworld
Only on Offworld: your first look at Panic's Noby Noby Boy T …
I was just dreaming: multiplayer, maracas coming to Noby Noby Boy …
See more posts about: Noby Noby Boy, Offworld Originals
BEAUTIFUL STAR: KATAMARI DAMACY TRIBUTE COMING TO PS3
Just announced in Japanese games mag Famitsu and now shown off in motion, a new full HD version of Katamari Damacy has just been announced for the PlayStation 3, with (maybe even more excitingly) a full slate of remixed versions of its brilliant original soundtrack by Offworld faves like YMCK and Sexy Synthesizer.
More on it when I’m not about to dash out to see, coincidentally, Keita Takahashi himself for his Noby Noby Boy session here at GDC.
Previously:
Katamari rolls onto iPhone – Offworld
Katamari Damacy coming to DSi as… a block puzzle game? – Offworld
It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
Listen: YMCK's Bowser-busting hardcore Mario remix – Offworld
Listen, too: Another PicoPict YMCK NES mega-mix – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
ZENO CLASH FRAMED: ACE TEAM’S PROMOTIONAL WEB COMIC
More GDC-week-cleanup: though their game was ultimately bested by Jakub Dvorský’s Machinarium at the Indie Games Festival, Chilean studio ACE Team has started the promotional push toward the release of their PC first-person brawler Zeno Clash with the release of this 4-page mini-web-comic which perfectly captures their breed of alien Neanderthal/native punk.
Click through to their full gallery for more fantastic art and screenshots, and pre-order the game via its Steam page where it’s currently offered at a 25 percent discount.
Zeno Clash comic [ACE Team, thanks Andres!]
Previously:
Blueberry Garden, Machinarium, Between top 2009 IGF Awards – Offworld
Offworld: The Offworld Guide to IGF 2009 (pg. 4)
The Young Machinarium: Another early look at Amanita's latest …
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
DON’T STOP BEING MY SCARYGIRL: TOUCH MY PIXEL/NATHAN J. COMBINE FORCES
Today’s best art/toy/game crossover (and a nice snack before tomorrow’s Game Over/Continue? show), Australia’s Touch My Pixel has sent over the latest trailer for their forthcoming web game based on Nathan Jurevicius‘ Scarygirl.
TMP head Tarwin Stroh-Spijer says the final game will include “platforming and adventure elements as well as physics based bike riding and even a street Street Fighter style fighting game,” and I don’t really need to hear much more.
Scarygirl [Nathan J]
Previously:
Offworld: Art Archives
Offworld: Toys Archives
See more posts about: Art, Offworld Originals, Toys
GDC VIDEO: WATCH THE 2009 INDEPENDENT GAMES FESTIVAL AWARDS
Bit late with this one and you already know the results, but GameSpot’s full-length coverage of this year’s Indie Games Festival is the perfect way to spend a post-GDC come-down day, and not just for the lost bet that saw Cortex Command creator Dan Tabar accept his award shirtless.
[via GameSpot]
Previously:
Blueberry Garden, Machinarium, Between top 2009 IGF Awards – Offworld
The Offworld Guide to the 2009 Independent Games Festival – Offworld
See more posts about: Offworld Originals
