TOUCH BOY: NAMCO REVEALS WIP SCREENSHOT OF IPHONE NOBY NOBY BOY
Noby Noby BOY creator Keita Takahashi first revealed his intentions to create an iPhone version of the PS3 downloadable at this year’s Game Developers Conference, which is intended, he said, to help GIRL progress through the universe more rapidly, as both the console and handheld version work in tandem to add players’ various stretches to her overall length.
Namco’s just delivered the shot at top to Japan’s Game Watch news site, without much further detail than the concept has passed internal approval at the studio, and that, adds Takahashi, it’s somewhere around 60 percent complete.
See the video above for my shakycam footage of Takahashi’s original reveal, which shows what’s clearly not intended to be a full 3D port of the PS3 version, but will likely end up at least a similarly goal-less toy-like diversion.
Previously:
- Keita Takahashi bringing Noby Noby Boy to the iPhone
- Life on Mars: Noby Noby GIRL continues her galactic crawl
- o–D.I.Y. 5–o: Noby Noby Boy unlocks Mars, the analog version …
- Synthesizer Noby: the 29 new musical options of Noby Noby Boy …
- It's a stretch: Explaining Katamari creator's new Noby Noby Boy …
See more posts about: Noby Noby Boy, Offworld Originals
ONE SHOT: SMB-WTC 1-1
Fortuitously found in very timely fashion after stumbling across his new Twin Peaks 20th Anniversary art show print: SMB-WTC 1-1, by Austin artist Tim Doyle (previously mentioned for his Punch-Out at the Last Supper), available in three colorways from Nakatomi, and offered here without any further commentary, which I’ll leave entirely for you to do, should you so choose.
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BEASTLY BUSINESS: N+ DEVS METANET ANNOUNCE SKOOL DAZE-INSPIRED OFFICE YETI
Even though their wire-swinging giant-mounting game Robotology is still a good distance away (though most of its hardest technical problems are apparently now surmounted), Metanet’s Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard — creators of real ultimate ninja simulator/platformer N — have announced their third game, Office Yeti.
And it’s (probably) not a joke! The game’s main inspiration, say Metanet, is UK ZX Spectrum classic Skool Daze, crossed with Rampage and will concern the titular Yeti as “a tiny little character in a tiny little simulated office building full of even tinier characters and objects, all of which are going about their business more or less oblivious to the fact that you are, to put it bluntly, non-human. Just like in an office in real life!”
The studio isn’t giving up much more than that at the moment, but you can support their ongoing officeplace efforts by perusing their newly restocked Etsy shop for more Metanet merch than you could possibly handle.
Previously:
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MYTHORA MYTHS: CHAOSEDGE GOES HANDS ON WITH A LANGDELL/EDGE GAME
The on-going Langdell/Edge Games/Mobigame/IGDA story is one I haven’t been keeping up with here as much lately, if only because doing so is a full-time job in itself.
Luckily, the ChaosEdge blog has taken up the task, most recently with their first hands on with Mythora, the game recently offered for sale via Edge Games’ website as proof of its legitimate ongoing publishing operations.
You’d think simply receiving the game might have put some of the suspicious issues to rest, but instead, the Mythora post sprawls on and ruthlessly punctures even more holes in Langdell’s rapidly deflating narrative, arriving, as it does, on an off-the-shelf Memorex CDR, with installer/auto-run files created about a week ago, despite being “published” in 2004.
See more of the ongoing case-against sleuthing at ChaosEdge.
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I WAS JUST DREAMING: LUCASARTS UNVEILS XBLA/PC PUZZLE PLATFORMER LUCIDITY
As teased earlier in the week, LucasArts has just revealed Lucidity, its latest game due for Xbox Live Arcade and PC release on October 7th. Developed by the team behind the recent original Monkey Island remake, the game sees players going inside the imagination of main star Sofi, who (as is instantly clear via the video above) must be protected, Lemmings style, by dropping randomly generated puzzle pieces on the path in front of her.
Below the fold: a gallery of high-res screens of Sofi’s fantastically drawn dreamscapes.
Previously:
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, Wide, Xbox 360
LISTEN: 8BITPEOPLES RELEASES BLIPFEST 2008 2XCD, ANNOUNCE BP2K9 DATES
My gut’s quite certain that, looking back some years on, 2009 will be the year chiptunes broke as big as they’re probably ever going to break, thanks in no small part to the 8-bit Weezer album, the newly announced Beatles cover album, and the various other projects on the side.
Though it’s still quite hard to keep abreast of all of the developments in the chipscene without dedicating yourself to it entirely, 2 Player Productions and 8bitpeoples’ just-released two-disc compilation album bringing together 32 live acts from BlipFest 2008 is probably the best catalog of all the current top acts in their native setting — surrounded by an adoring crowd (as you’ve seen from the frequent BlipFest videos featured here).
For the long time listeners, your favorite artists will probably remain your favorite artists (my choices for compilation toppers: Unicorn Dream Attack, Minusbaby, Nordloef and Anamanaguchi), but for newcomers, there’s a lot to discover here: find the double album at the 8bitpeoples store.
At the same time, festival organizers have announced the first information about the next Blip Festival, which will be coming to Brooklyn’s Bell House on December 17th through the 19th.
No acts have yet been revealed for the latest Fest, but tickets are due to go on sale next Monday the 28th, so expect much more specifics by then.
Previously:
See more posts about: Listen, Music, Offworld Originals
THE OFFWORLD GUIDE TO THE 2009 AUSTIN GAME DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE
With GDC Austin coming to down next Tuesday to Friday, now seems as good a time as any to do a quick guide to what you should see, and why, if you still haven’t registered (with the early registration discount still running through today), you probably should.
1.) The debut of AGDC’s Indie and iPhone Game Summits.
This year marks the Austin debut of the two Summits that have always brought some of the most dedicated crowds at the main GDC (many of the Indie Summit sessions this year playing to at-capacity audiences), and — though I might be a bit biased as one of the Indie Summit’s advisors — the lineup here turned out quite good.
Yours truly will actually be speaking this year early Tuesday morning at 10 for a “New Indie Hotness” session that’ll highlight (goes the description) “games and experiments that enchant or confound” — that is, a number of the games you’ll probably be familiar with from Offworld coverage, including some live demos of a few that haven’t been played in front of an audience before.
But you shouldn’t (and won’t, probably) come just for that: the Indie Summit also includes the makers of the Bit.Trip games, World of Goo, Splosion Man, A Kingdom for Keflings, Fantastic Contraption, Minotaur China Shop, And Yet It Moves, Aquaria and Marian, Bunni, Canabalt, and Penny Arcade Adventures, and you honestly can’t do too much better than that. See the full lineup and schedule at GDC’s official Indie Summit page.
On the iPhone side, most notably, Tiger Style Games will be presenting an hour long look at the making of Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (running alongside my own session — even I can’t help you choose there), with other talks by the makers of Reflexion, Booyah Society, Enigmo, FaceFighter, Words/Chess With Friends and World War Robot, and handfuls more, seen at its own Summit schedule page.
2.) The keynotes and main lineup.
Doing a full breakdown of the main conference sessions is almost too arduous to consider, but the keynotes will include Frank Pearce and J. Allen Brack talking about the Universe of World of Warcraft, Crazy Planets/Pet Society dev PlayFish’s Sebastien de Halleux talking social games, Sony Online’s John Smedley talking about free to play MMOs, with sessions including the writers behind Left 4 Dead, Mirror’s Edge, Infamous, Fallout 3… check the full session lineup or the full speaker lineup to see everyone that’s coming.
3.) The parties, game movies at The Alamo
And then also there’s the real reason you’re all coming: the drunken hob-knobbing, which this year will most notably be taking place at IGDA Austin’s 128-bit party (with ‘Gangsta-Style Rock Band‘ [?!]) — GDC’s got the full list of after-hour parties here .
Also new for 2009, AMODA and local-treasure theater chain Alamo Drafthouse will be hosting two nights of game movies: Tuesday at 10:15 pm they’ll be screening the previously-blogged German TV special that brought together Jason Rohrer and Chris Crawford, and Thursday at 10:20 pm they’ll be showing the documentary TILT: the Battle to Save Pinball. Both of these are open to the public, so even if you aren’t making it to the conference proper, you should come say hello there, and drink beer and eat excellent food.
I’ll be doing my damndest throughout the four days to bring you as much coverage of the conference as I can — look for that all throughout next week.
Official GDC Austin site [Think Services]
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ONE SHOT: 3D TETRIS
Not the Virtual Boy kind, but the Mr. Pitt’s obsession kind. It’s fully playable and works, actually, mostly, though tracking vertical alignment while consistently keeping your eyes crossed ups the ante considerably. [via Coudal]
Previously:
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ONE SHOT: THE ALIEN ORIGINS OF AMANITA’S MACHINARIUM
A collection of concept art sketches recently published by Pixels at an Exhibition shows artist Adolf Lachman tapping Giger for a character in Jakub ‘Amanita‘ Dvorský’s rusted steampunk adventure Machinarium.
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See more posts about: Machinarium, Offworld Originals, One Shot
ONE SHOT: LUCASARTS’ LUCID DREAMING
By way of members of the International House of Mojo comes this teased screenshot from a soon-to-be-announced (as in, today) LucasArts game. Pieced together from various clues left on the LucasArts Workshop blog throughout PAX, the image hints at a style of game not created by LucasArts in quite some time.
[Brandon adds: as hinted at in the title, Joystiq’s ongoing coverage of the recently filed Lucas trademark Lucidity seems to be the best guess as to what the game will be when it’s later revealed.]
Previously:
- E309: LucasArts announces new Wii, PC Monkey Island, Xbox Live …
- Threepwood Coiture: LucasArts' official Monkey Island T-shirts …
- Looming large: LucasArts bringing classic adventures to Steam …
- Poster-izing classic LucasArts adventure art
- The humanity of LucasArts' virtual world forerunner Habitat
- Chronicle holding LucasArts book signing
See more posts about: Offworld Originals, One Shot
