WW: What projects were you involved with in your former life working as an artist for Nintendo?

NT: My first project at Nintendo was 1080: Avalanche on Gamecube. After that I was loaned out to Retro for a while and I worked on the new visors for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes. When I got back, Nintendo of Japan suggested I continue to work on Metroid HUD whenever I could, and I did all the menus and player huds in Metroid Prime Hunters for DS. I did some very early work on the MP3: Corruption visors, and then moved on to Project H.A.M.M.E.R. on Wii for a long, long time…

WW: What aspect of Liight do you think sets it apart from other puzzlers available or coming to the WiiWare service?

NT: That’s an important question. There are some things that set it apart that are more subtle than others, so I’ll try to cover as many as I can. Of course, the lack of ‘falling blocks’ or really blocks of any kind is one thing people notice right away, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Being more of a ‘brain teaser’ style game than an action puzzler is another one, but there are other brain teaser games, too. The musical aspect of the game, where a different song is randomly generated as you solve each puzzle, gives Liight much of its unique personality and feel. Liight is also very relaxing to play since there is no time element (with the exception of Nonstop and contests). It has the ability to make your own puzzles and share them, so there’s replay there if you’ve got friends. Nonstop mode is very unique and deep, and hard, and I doubt you’ve played anything like it. More than anything else though, the color-blending and shadow-casting type solving is pretty fresh, and that’s something you’ll have to play yourself to understand. Despite at first looking similar to something like, say Prism: Light the Way, it’s actually a completely different way of solving puzzles.

WW: Does Studio Walljump have any other WiiWare projects in development or possibly in the planning stages?

NT: We have two other WiiWare projects in the early planning stages. At our size, we can’t really afford to throw away everything we’ve learned about WiiWare while making Liight, and move to some other platform and start over again. That said, after we release Liight in as many regions as possible, our next project will be something totally different. I wish I could say more, but I don’t want to spoil anything!

Full interview here

North America:
1. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
2. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
3. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo)
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Nintendo)
5. Active Life Outdoor Challenge (Bandai Namco)

Japan:
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
2. Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo)
3. Wii Sports (Nintendo)
4. Disaster: Day of Crisis (Nintendo)
5. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (LucasArts)

UK:
1. Wii Fit (Nintendo)
2. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Activision)
3. Family Trainer: Outdoor Challenge (Bandai Namco)
4. Wii Play (Nintendo)
5. FIFA 09 (EA Sports)

Nintendo DS

North America:
1. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga (LucasArts)
2. Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo)
3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
4. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
5. Guitar Hero: On Tour (Activision)

Japan:
1. Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo)
2. Pocket Monsters Platinum (Nintendo)
3. KORG DS-10 (AQ Interactive)
4. Daigasso! Band Brothers DX (Nintendo)
5. DS Bimoji Training (Nintendo)

UK:
1. Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training (Nintendo)
2. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega)
3. Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
4. Mahjongg DS (Deep Silver)
5. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)

Link

Los Angeles – October 10, 2008 – Universal Pictures Digital Platforms Group (UPDPG) announced today the creation of a handheld video game for the Nintendo DS™ based on Universal Pictures’ upcoming animated-adventure feature film, The Tale of Despereaux. The game is being developed by Fizz Factor, a Foundation 9 Studio, in conjunction with UPDPG and will be published worldwide by Brash Entertainment. The title is the second self-funded game UPDPG has announced this year.

The Tale of Despereaux handheld game shares the rich look and fairytale feel of the upcoming holiday film of the same name, and will both follow and extend the storyline from the feature film. Players will travel across across the Kingdom of Dor, from the whimsical environs of Mouse World to the kitchen, library and other colorful rooms of the main castle, and finally, to the dark and sinister dungeon domain of the banned and feared rats, Rat World. In this modern fairytale about a small mouse born too brave for his little world, several unlikely heroes will discover that what you look like doesn’t equal what you are.

(more…)

So far I’ve walked up to many of these characters and had Lock chat with them. Most of the characters have nothing important to say.

Many, many games — role-playing games chief among them — include non-player characters who say things that don’t matter to the player’s progression in the game. Townspeople might say that the weather is nice or that they’re scared by the evil king you’re going to fight at the end of the game. But they don’t say anything that helps you proceed. They don’t offer side-quests. The just lend chatter.

Does a non-player character who has nothing important to say add color to a game? Or do they get in the way of meaningful gameplay? These days, I’d be happy if the NPCs just kept their mouths shut. I don’t want to talk about unimportant stuff.

How about a new rule? If you don’t have anything helpful to say, video game NPCs, don’t say anything at all.

Next: It’s a weekend of “Dead Space” and finishing “LEGO Batman” and… should I start a review build of “Fable II“? Or just wait for the finished thing?

The other day I was reminiscing with my brother about our childhood as wide-eyed, avid game fans. Back then gaming seemed to possess this wonderfully infectious energy about it that saw you and all your friends enchanted by its very greatness.

My brother then asked me if games were still this magical today, and I think it is. The only difference between now and then is that now I’m older, and have a greater understanding of everything that is going in within the industry, hence the excitement of the unknown has somewhat faded. Where as being a child, in a time before internet, you could only know as much as your surroundings would let you.

I don’t think that the magic has wanned and I don’t plan on going to go all starry-eyed and talk about the “good old days”. No doubt there are certain generations or time periods in the history of games which I prefer over others, but overall we’ve run a pretty steady trek. It’d be hard to waiver one time being significantly more better than another.

Despite the evenness of our history, I can’t deny it, there is a magic to familiarizing yourself with something new. When you slowly begin to make sense of the experience for the first time there is this uplifting feelings that fills up inside you. No doubt many of us who have played games for a long time, experienced this feeling as kids. I guess you could say that we had this feeling during our gaming prime. So hold that thought for a moment and let’s think about these guys:

All those Mums, Dads, Aunties, Uncles and the elderly that are now traversing their gaming prime, going through that same experience like us for the first time thanks to developers like Nintendo and PopCap Games.

We might all be too brute to acknowledge it but we were all beginners at one stage or another. We all started off playing fairly privative, simplified games and yes we didn’t like the feeling of others who were better at it than us but we endeavored and here we are. These new people coming into the market are no different from us 10, 15, 20 years ago when our fascination piqued. They too are now settling into their gaming prime and I think that’s fantastic. So let’s not try and encourage this rather phenomena than dismiss it.

• Midnight Bowling -- WiiWare -- 800 Nintendo Points
• Potpourrii -- WiiWare -- 800 Nintendo Points

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