Art Academy, which launches Oct. 25 at a suggested retail price of $19.99, provides everyone from beginners to experts with tools to create their own works of art plus simple tutorials to learn about color, shading, movement and perspective. The skills learned in Art Academy are transferable to real-life art materials outside of the Nintendo DS environment. Art Academy includes all 10 of the lessons and tools from both Art Academy: First Semester and Art Academy: Second Semester, which are available separately as Nintendo DSiWare downloads. Plus there are 10 Mini Lessons and more than 80 motifs that players can choose from to use as reference material when creating their art.
This picture, by Nintendo of America Inc. employee Krysta Yang, was created using Nintendo’s Art Academy software, a portable art course made exclusively for the Nintendo DS family of systems.
Source: Nintendo PR
– Comparable to Professor Layton
– Takes place on Delphino Island
– Festival occurs every 50 years on the island
– Zack (main character) comes to the island, takes part in the festivities
– Mysterious bipedal blob-like creature, the Ombra, has taken over the island, causing trouble for the residents
– Zack one of the few people who can see the Ombra
– Need to complete “pranks” in the game that the Ombra has put out on the island
– Need to find the Ombra, touch it with the stylus after you hear a claim from a resident, which will start a mini-game
– Two action-oriented mini-games shown in Famitsu
– One game: Use stylus to move crates around
– Second game: Tap Ombra with the stylus
– Over 180 mini-games
– Can choose difficulty level
– Voice acting for characters
– Studio 4°C doing animation
– Releasing October 28
– Konami game
– Some mini-games have you performing tasks within a time limit
– Directed by Junko Kawano (Suikoden)
– 4980 yen.
– Characters:
Zack
– Skilled magician
– Can make people happy
– The Ombra like him
Polly
– Comes to Delphino Island
– Staying with her grandparents
– Takes interest in Zack
Jino
– Elderly man
– Invited Zack to the festival
– Head hurts at the changes the Ombra have introduced
Raphaelo
– Popular magician
– Works at a hotel resort on the island
– Zack’s rival
– Will meddle with Zack’s affairs
Gorongo
– Mysterious man
Thanks to Robert for the tip!
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“In terms of the competition, we looked very carefully at Wii Sports. We didn’t shy away from it – we actually attack it head on, if I’m honest. We looked at Wii Sports and, okay, if we were going to do this better, how much further can we go with this and will the consumer see an obvious improvement?” – George Andrea, creative director at Rare
See, I really like when developers are honest about where their influence is coming from instead of beating around the push or calling something their own product. You heard it right from them: Rare is going straight for the top where Nintendo is sitting pretty, so best of luck to them in making a better game than Wii Sports!
Thanks to Robert for the tip!
AVIENNA, Austria – August 4, 2010
The highly anticipated puzzle platformer for WiiWare™, And Yet It Moves, officially receives a launch date of August 23, 2010, and pricing of 1,000 Wii Points™. Indie studio Broken Rules brings the award-winning downloadable PC game experience to the living room, introducing all new levels and game controls using the Wii Remote™ that will have players physically rotating environments to overcome various obstacles and challenges. Experience a new twist on the game that won the 2007 Independent Games Festival Student Showcase, was nominated for the 2007 EUROPRIX Top Talent Award and qualified as a finalist during IndieCade 2008.And Yet It Moves is a physics-based platform game in which players rotate the world at will to solve challenging puzzles. A tilt of the Wii Remote also tilts the world, turning walls into floors, slides into platforms, and stacks of rocks into dangerous hazards when flipped upside down. Players navigate through a paper collage world created with colorful pieces of cardboard and set to distinctive music. With four different environments and multiple unlockable modes, And Yet It Moves will provide gamers with endless challenges.
This information comes from Masahiro Sakurai…
“Yes this is indeed my first 3D game but I have a feeling that it’s going to be hard to go back [to 2D]. For example when you watch Avatar in 3D you take notice of the 3D element initially but then as the movie goes on you forget about the 3D novelty as your eyes get used to it and simply enjoy it for what it is. That’s the nature of the way we get used to things as they become familiar. The problem is that when you go back to 2D after 3D it feels flat. So in terms of game development I would think that going back to 2D after working on a 3D project may be very difficult for me.”
In a few years, it wouldn’t surprise me if 3D is dominating the industry. I expect that all of Nintendo’s future handhelds will have 3D support, and eventually, so will the company’s home consoles. Because of that, I don’t think developers will have to worry about returning to 2D.
