Portal Knights heading to Switch
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 3 Comments
Portal Knights will be seeing a release on Switch. That’s according to a classification from Brazil, which was added in today.
Portal Knights was thought to be bound for Switch after it was listed by an anonymous major distributor. However, the rating from Brazil is as close we’ll get to an announcement until 505 Games makes it official.
More: 505 Games, Portal Knights
Bloodstained introduces two new enemies, composer interview
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 7 Comments
As part of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s February Kickstarter update, two new enemies are introduced. We have a first look at the flying harpy Aello and the demon beast Gieremund.
Below are the official comments from Bloodstained Koji Igarashi about both enemies:
“Our first new enemy is Aello. This flying harpy keeps its distance from the player. Our original plan was to put her in the ship stage, where she would use physical and wind attacks.
This second enemy is Gieremund, a fast-moving, beast-type demon that attacks on all fours. Guarding against this enemy’s attacks will require quick reflexes.”
Also for the new Kickstarter update, Igarashi interviewed composer Michiru Yamane. Watch the full discussion below.
Indivisible team “currently investigating the possibility of a Switch release”
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch eShop | 9 Comments
Indivisible is a new action-RPG from Lab Zero Games, the creator of Skullgirls. Nintendo fans might be interested to hear that a Switch release may happen.
On Twitter, the official Indivisible mentioned that the team is “investigating the possibility of a Switch release” with publisher 505 Games:
.@009soulmaster We're currently investigating the possibility of a Switch release with @505_Games, but no promises.
— Indivisible (@IndivisibleRPG) February 3, 2017
We heard something similar back in December 2015. At the time, the game’s Twitter account said Switch would be considered when more information surfaced. Nothing is set, but it looks like the team is now actively looking into the possibility.
More: 505 Games, Indivisible, Lab Zero Games
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night video shows new village area
Posted on 7 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U | 1 Comment
A brief Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night video has been prepared showing a new village area. You’ll be passing through it on the way to the castle entrance, according to creator Koji Igarashi.
Igarashi writes in a new Kickstarter update:
“As you can tell from the video, the village is red, which has nothing to do with Christmas! During the eruption of the Laki volcanic fissure in 1783 and 1784, “the afternoon sky was dark as night and red as blood,” according to a contemporary saying from Hampshire, England. So we tried to express that in the afternoon scene you see here.
Building your visuals from a piece of historical data makes the world more realistic. (The internet is so useful!) The village is also under the demons’ attack, so of course there will be enemies here. We are also planning to put a shop here to support the player, and you’ll find Johannes, who we introduced previously, here too.
In addition to Johannes…Oh, we can’t quite tell you yet, but you’ll hear more about them in our later updates. Please look forward to it.”
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night dev update explains how procedural generation is being used
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 6 Comments
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night creator Koji Igarashi took to Kickstarter today and explained how the team is going about improving environments on the game.
One of the issues Igarashi wanted to address was players being unsure of “where a platform was, or whether the thing they were looking at was a wall or something they could pass through.” This has been improved by increasing the brightness of the front side of platforms while making more distant parts of the environments darker.
The Bloodstained team is also now making use of procedural generation in environments. Before that term scares you off, the explanation makes sense, as it will allow for smoother development. To put it simply, procedural generation is being used “to auto-generate environmental grime and destruction effects.” Doing so means environments will have more of a visual flair and will ensure that areas won’t give off the impression of being “looped”. Variation could have been done by hand, but it “would require a disproportionately large amount of resources,” Igarashi noted. Procedural generation allows for that variation without putting a huge burden on the developers.
The following video shows the usage of procedural generation:
For the full Kickstarter update, visit the source link below.
DICO, Monobit contributing to Bloodstained’s development
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
Two more partners are on board for the development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
First, DICO is assisting the team. Creator Koji Igarashi worked with this company in the past, and “will be on the frontline for this stage of the main development.”
Monobit is also involved for “support on all technical aspects of the project.” They’re comprised of “a group of exceptional programmers who have experience working on game engines.”
Here’s a video introducing the two companies:
Igarashi mentioned in today’s Kickstarter post that updates will be slowing down somewhat due to a reorganization of the development structure. However, he feels everyone will collectively “deliver the quality output that the team and the backers are both anticipating.”
Terraria 3DS update should be out this week (version 1.04)
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 4 Comments
If all goes according to plan, Terraria’s big 3DS update should be ready in just a few days. 505 Games estimates that the patch will be up tomorrow in North America and Friday morning in Europe.
Those who missed the news about Terraria’s 1.04 update can learn about the additions and changes here. Among other things, players on New 3DS will be able to create larger worlds.
More: 505 Games, Re-Logic, Terraria, title update
Terraria 3DS version 1.04 submitted to Nintendo, details – expanded worlds on New 3DS and more
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, New Nintendo 3DS, News | 1 Comment
The next update for Terria on 3DS is on the way, and it’s quite substantial.
As we heard about before, expanded worlds are coming to players on New 3DS. The team also fixed a number of issues/bugs and also brought it more in line with the PC version.
Here’s the full lowdown:
The 1.04 update is in submission with Nintendo. We’re hoping to be able to release the update globally by the end of November, but until the update clears Nintendo’s checks we won’t be in a position to project a date. The focus of the work for the milestone was stability and being able to offer Expanded Worlds to New 3DS owners, as we have previously communicated.
The stability round was obviously priority number one to those of you having issues. In our own testing we found the game to be almost always stable, but Terraria is a game that everyone plays differently and a minority of you were experiencing crash issues that were blighting your experience. We’ve worked very hard to put in global fixes for these kinds of issues, and along the way encountered some very odd edge cases. Rather than try and explain every issue, we’ve pulled out a few from a long list that you might find interesting:
More: 505 Games, Re-Logic, Terraria, title update
Koji Igarashi on the status of Bloodstained’s Wii U port
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News | 72 Comments
The team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is in somewhat of a tough position with the Wii U version. It’s well-known that the Wii U is on its way out, and by the time the game is ready in 2018, many Nintendo gamers will likely have moved on to NX.
Bloodstained creator Koji Igarashi touched on the situation with IGN, telling the site that “it’s a very complicated problem.” He all but said that it may not make as much sense to continue with Wii U, since “certain pieces of hardware become irrelevant” through the passage of time. If they need to re-address potentially abandoning Wii U, it sounds like the team would need to talk with its backers about how to proceed. Assuming the support is there, “we’ll be able to do things that are maybe more interesting.” An NX port, perhaps?
Igarashi’s full comments on the Wii U version of Bloodstained:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night dev partners with 505 Games
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 3 Comments
The developers of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night are indeed working with a publisher, but not with Deep Silver as previously thought. 505 Games is being brought in to assist the team as work on the project kicks into full gear. The company will also be able to handle the publishing-side of things.
Creator Koji Igarashi explained the move in a new video shared by 505:
“For our development of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, 505 Games will be working with us. Although we have started this project through Kickstarter, we wanted more people to play now that we are in full production. However, we believe this isn’t possible with our power alone. We are so grateful that a publisher with a vast marketing power such as 505 Games will be working with our small production team. Now that we cannot let everyone down, let’s work harder to develop Bloodstained together.”
Here’s the full announcement video: