aeiowu recently announced TumbleSeed for Switch. This was made possible after the studio reached out to Nintendo this past summer.
Speaking with Engadget about the experience of bringing TumbleSeed to the new console, designer Greg Wohlwend said:
“TumbleSeed has a lot of the same values a Nintendo game has. It’s colorful and easy to get into. But it also has a lot of the things from the NES days, especially difficulty. We’ve spent a ton of energy on getting TumbleSeed to fit that combination of natural-to-learn mixed with challenging and fun, even after playing for two years. That’s how long we’ve been playing, and we still genuinely have fun with it.”
“We always felt like TumbleSeed would really be at home on a Nintendo console, so we cold-called them, and, luckily, they felt the same. I can’t speak for what’s happened in the past because this is the first time I’ve worked with Nintendo, but I can say they’ve been a joy to work with. They’re truly as excited about TumbleSeed as we are about being on the Switch, and so it’s been a really solid partnership so far.”
“There’s a wonderful invisibility to the console that I think all beautifully designed objects have. It gets out of the way and showcases the games like no other console I’ve owned.”
TumbleSeed doesn’t have a release date just yet. However, it’s currently targeted for spring.
Parascientific Escape: Gear Detective is now confirmed for release on the North American 3DS eShop this week. Circle Entertainment will publish the game on Thursday for $5.
Here’s an overview:
“Parascientific Escape: Gear Detective is a sequel to Parascientific Escape: Cruise in the Distant Seas, where the player is required to find clues and solve puzzles to escape certain situations using PSI abilities.
The story follows Detective Kyosuke Ayana, who has the ability named chronokinesis which allows him to look back in time in a limited field of view, for up till 5 days back. Detective Ayana is hired to find a serial killer threatening the quiet neighborhood of Camellia Hills – but soon finds himself in much bigger trouble as he investigates the crime scenes.”
And a trailer:
Game Informer has revealed that its cover story for the March 2017 issue is dedicated to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This is worth sharing if only for the beautiful art alone.
Game Informer says it “experienced more of the game than anyone outside of Nintendo, playing through a dungeon in its entirety, exploring the sprawling open world of Hyrule for hours, discovering Shrines, appreciating the wildlife, and fighting surprisingly powerful monsters (including the dungeon boss, Wind Blight Ganon, and a Guardian).” The magazine also comes with an interview featuring Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma and Shigeru Miyamoto.
Thanks to Game Informer, we have another look at Rime with a few more minutes of footage. Find their video attached below.
Former LucasArts developers Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick are currently finishing up their new point-and-click adventure game Thimbleweed Park. It won’t be on Switch immediately, but it sounds like it’s just a matter of time until it appears on the eShop.
Gilbert told Gamereactor:
“We’re gonna be at Xbox One at launch, Microsoft has a three month console exclusive. As soon as that period is up, we port it to the PlayStation 4, and I would love to be on Nintendo.”
“Nintendo is not particularly good at working with small developers and publishers initially, they like to go out to the big publishers and after a year they let smaller things in. We are definitely talking to Nintendo and as soon as we can do, we will port it.”
Thimbleweed Park is intended to be a spiritual successor of sorts to Maniac Mansion and The Secret of Monkey Island. You can watch a trailer for the game below.
Three weeks from now XSEED will bring Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns to North America. We’ve been covering all the localization blogs that give us a better understanding of the work behind the title, but now it’s time for something different.
The XSEED devs have decided to let the marriage candidates from the game introduce themselves in order for us to know them better. They have published the introduction of Lisette, the florist from Westown, on their Facebook page along with some new images from Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns. Check it out below:
Howdy! You must be new around here. Call me Lisette! I’m pleased to meetcha.
I run the flower shop in Westown. I took it over from my parents a few years ago after gettin’ a degree in horticulture in the city. I just love it here in town; everyone is so sweet and helpful. Carrie and Miranda are like big sisters, and Wayne and Ford are a hoot.
What kinda things do I like? Gosh… Well, I like flowers. Duh, right? Nothing makes me happier than makin’ an original bouquet for a customer.
An’ what’s more, fresh flowers don’t just brighten up a room, they have special meanings. Even the same type of flower can have different meanings dependin’ on what shade it takes, so I’m always careful about how I compose a bouquet. Wouldn’t want someone else fluent in flowers gettin’ the wrong idea from a present, you know? The language of flowers even covers fruits and vegetables. For example, the apple flower represents…
Oh, gosh! I’m sorry for ramblin’ on like that.
I also love reading. What kind of books? Umm… I definitely like books that adults should be reading! Not storybooks or anything childish!
My dislikes? Well… I’m perfectly fine with most bugs since I work with plants all day, but there’s somethin’ about snails. The same kinda goes for food too—I can’t stomach anythin’ slimy.
Anyway, come by my shop sometime if you need flower seeds. Don’t be a stranger!
Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns will launch February 28th in North America.
This week’s Famitsu review scores are as follows:
Sangokushi 13 with Power Up Kit (PS4/PSV) – 9/8/9/9
Diabolic Lovers Lost Eden (PSV) – 8/8/8/9
Kamaitachi no Yoru Rinne Saisei (PSV) – 8/8/8/8
Mercenary Kings (PS4) – 8/7/7/8
Moon Hunters (PS4) – 7/8/8/7
Teslapunk (Wii U) – 7/6/7/7
Emily Wants to Play (PS4) – 7/7/6/6
Nidhogg (PS4/PSV) – 7/7/6/7
We picked out some highlights from Nintendo’s Corporate Management Policy Briefing / financial results briefing earlier today. If you’d like to read the full English transcript, that’s now available. You can check it out for yourself here.
At the Q&A session at Nintendo’s latest Corporate Management Policy Briefing, one of the questions was about Nintendo’s internal development structure, the development team that handles the smart device games and Nintendo’s hiring process. The question was answered by company president Tatsumi Kimishima, Shigeru Miyamoto (Director, Creative Fellow) and Genyo Takeda (Director, Technology Fellow).
Q: I would like to hear more about the current and future direction of your development structure, which is widely considered to be your greatest competitive strength. Do you plan to maintain the current scale for the mid- to long-term, or will you expand it? How will you expand the smart-device team within the larger development structure? My assumption is that there are currently fewer than 100 people on this team, do you think that is sufficient? Also, what sort of employees are needed to help Nintendo grow and evolve in the future, and how do you plan to develop these employees?
A: Kimishima:
Our overall development staff has increased over the past year, but that does not mean it will necessarily continue to increase. In the entertainment industry, it is very common to take the approach of hiring employees who already have experience and technical knowledge in needed areas, in addition to developing new technology and ideas within the company. Going forward, we would like to increase the number of employees who already have some technical ability and who have fun ideas that can inspire new game experiences. These are the kind of people we see as necessary in our field of development. For smart devices, we have been developing using one of our most important IPs, Mario, so instead of using a team that had no prior experience with Mario, we had developers who worked on past Mario games join the development of Super Mario Run. The scale of the team we currently have working on apps is not as large as you
surmise. In the future, while we will plan the course of development, we may not necessarily allocate exclusively internal development resources. We would like to continue cooperating with external partners who understand Nintendo well when the situation calls for it.
Head past the break for Miyamoto’s and Takeda’s take on the subject:
At the Q&A session at Nintendo’s recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing, president Tatsumi Kimishima was asked about his eventual successor as president of Nintendo.
Q: Mr. Kimishima, what do you feel is your goal as a manager in considering your successor? What sort of person do you think would be appropriate to lead the company in the future?
A: I believe that my personal role is to consider how to create an internal structure that will allow Nintendo to continue to release entertaining products in the future. When I took on the President position, it was still too early to reveal the full details of Nintendo
Switch, our smart-device business and our efforts to use Nintendo?s IP. I have been working with both Fellows since then to make sure that these business ventures could get off to a successful start.
