In a new preview published by GamesBeat, new details are shared about Pencil Test Studios’ indie game Armikrog. The game was playable at GDC 2015 this week. For a summary of the latest information, check out our roundup below.
– Tommynaut is the game’s hero
– Dog companion Beak-Beak
– Demo begins with the two crash landing on a strange and hostile alien planet
– Tommynaut and Beak-Beak soon find themselves within the walls of a four-tower fortress
– The towers have mysterious secrets and environmental puzzles that Tommynaut and Beak-Beak must decode
– Game is a classic point-and-click adventure
– Use a sequence of items interlocking with environmental objects to head toward another puzzle
– Doesn’t use a traditional inventory system
– If the player has an appropriate item for a puzzle, the solution is simply to click where that item should be placed in the environment
– Ex: Tommynaut can pick up a hand crank early in the game; he later finds a device that is missing a handle; just click the device for Tommynaut to pull out the crank and start turning
– The team wants to simplify the experience and keep it about puzzle solving, and avoid vague/insane crafting sessions
– Some puzzles will require swapping to Beak-Beak
– Beak-Beak can crawl through tight spaces and travel through the towers’ strange duct ways
– Beak-Beak sees the world around him differently than Tommynaut
– Because Beak-Beak is color blind the environment turns black/white when playing as him
– Beak-Beak picks up on special wavelengths that Tommynaut can’t
– Demo has a section where Beak-Beak’s dog vision revealed an invisible clue tagged on a wall, which couldn’t be seen before
– Pencil Test Studios didn’t just build the characters out of traditional sculptural materials
– Everything in the game is created out of some form of real-world media — the rooms, objects, environments
– Design team: Ed Schofield, Mike Dietz, and Doug TenNapel
– Each of these team members are long-time animators who worked on The Neverhood
– Lighting works by pre-shooting the clay assets then putting them onto a 2D plane in Unity
– Team uses a 3D environment to move 2D assets around, which lets them throw in a specially tweaked spotlight to create the subtle illusion of the characters moving through light and shadow to match the clay backgrounds
SkyKid is coming to the North American Wii U eShop tomorrow, Nintendo’s website confirms. The game will be available for $4.99. SkyKid appears to be the only Virtual Console release for tomorrow, but we’ll let you know if we hear otherwise.
Another couple of excerpts from Game Informer‘s interview with Eiji Aonuma have been transcribed. The latest Q&A covers the pain behind Link’s transformations in Majora’s Mask, and the soul inside the Fierce Deity Mask.
Check out the full responses below:
GI: “Why does it hurt so much for Link to wear the transformation masks?
Aonuma: We’re talking about masks that were created to contain the memories of people who have died. Often there are things they really wanted to do before they left this world, so becoming them is actually really painful because it’s like hosting a really powerful spirit that’s coming into you.”
GI: “Whose soul is inside the Fierce Deity Mask?
Aonuma: The best I can give you is just a suggestion. The best way to think about it is that the memories of all the people of Termina are inside of the Fierce Deity Mask.”
Several indie developers were on hand for a special Nintendo showcase at GDC 2015 this week. GamesIndustry caught up with some of the folks behind Never Alone, Don’t Starve, Runbow, and Swords & Soldiers II. Each one had extremely positive things to say about Nintendo – you can find their full words below.
Dima Veryovka, art director on Never Alone
“It was really fast, everything happened in like two weeks. We didn’t have the build and now we already have the build running, and that’s not something we would be able to do without the support of Nintendo. I think it’s really good that they have opened up to independent developers. To be honest, that’s the future. We really want to see the smaller groups [succeed] and the way Nintendo has supported us is tremendous.”
At Nintendo’s indie showcase at GDC 2015, Engadget spoke with Damon Baker, senior manager of licensing at Nintendo. Baker was asked about a bunch of questions with regard to the company’s approach to indies. Read on below for comments about Nintendo’s relationships with indies, the company’s desire for exclusive features when a game comes out later on Wii U/3DS, and more.
Thanks to a listing on Nintendo’s website, it’s now confirmed that 3D Out Run is releasing on the 3DS eShop on March 12. You’ll be able to pick up the game for $5.99. Europe tends to get the SEGA 3D Classics on the same day, so it should be out next Thursday over there as well.
A message posted to the official Gamescom Facebook page confirms that Nintendo will be at this year’s expo.
Other companies attending Gamescom include Bandai Namco, Ubisoft, and EA.
Gamescom 2015 will take place between August 5 and August 9.
This month’s issue of Game Informer has an interview with Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma. Aonuma tackled several topics pertaining to Majora’s Mask, including the 5 stages of grief fan theory.
Here’s the full exchange between the two:
Game Informer: Some fans speculate that Majora’s Mask is a metaphor for the stages of grief. The towns-folk are in denial of the moon falling; the Deku King is punishing the monkey out of anger; the ghost in the snow temple is bargaining for a return to the world of the living; Lulu in the Zora Temple is battling with depression; and the final temple could be considered acceptance as it wraps up Link’s journey. Was this considered during development, or is this just a fan interpretation?
Eiji Aonuma: It’s certainly true that each one of these different episodes you talked about has a different emotional cast to it. One feels like it’s tinged with sadness, and another with anger – that certainly was intentional. But, I also want to point out that it’s not that each one of these episodes only has the one emotion that they are conveying. There are certainly other notes that we’re trying to hit as well, and the reason we did this is always to allow the player to experience that emotion – to give them a chance to hook into the emotional tone of this scene and react to it and feel like they want to accomplish something in the game as a result.”
