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Armikrog details

Posted on 10 years ago by (@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 4 Comments

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

IGN went hands on with SteamWorld Heist at GDC 2015 this week, and has now posted a preview covering the demo. The site’s article contains plenty of new information about Image & Form’s indie game.

We’ve rounded up the various tidbits below. For the full preview, head on over to IGN.

– Out in August
– Takes place 100 years in the future
– Control a robot squad
– Some bad stuff happens between the events of SteamWorld Dig and Heist that forces the Steambots into space
– Recruit other bots to join your squad mid-mission or inside intergalactic saloons
– Develop a team and choose between multiple classes
– Classes have their own weapons and abilities
– The heists take place from a familiar 2D perspective
– Move the camera with the right stick and take a quick glance of all the enemies in a room
– Move characters with the d-pad
– The turn-based aspect adds a special set of rules
– While you move the cursor, it highlights a path the Steambot will take to its next position
– Gold path means it can still fire its weapon at enemies during the same turn
– Blue path means you’d be open to attack once the turn ends
– Can take cover behind barrels and other structures
– Firing weapons happens in pseudo real-time and requires careful aim and execution
– Can shoot through floors
– It’s also possible to miss shots
– Control Pipper and Sea Brass in the demo
– Piper is the taller of the two
– Piper’s gun is weak, though it has a capable sight that can be used to ricochet bullets off of walls to hit enemies
– Sea Brass can use a hand cannon that dishes out large damage at close range, but requires you to use your own line of sight to area
– Pipper’s peashooter won’t do much damage (even with a headshot), but Sea Brass’ powerful cannon easily takes out enemies
– Recruit another robot during the mission that looks like a robotic fihs
– He fires an Uzi that recoils wildly and affects his aim
– Lots of enemy variation
– These include grunts, snipers, automated turrets, and big burly robot bosses with lots of health
– All missions in the game have a procedurally generated map
– Multiple pathways in the map
– Need to consider which teammates to bring to the battle since characters are class based
– Ex: an engineer robot can repair broken pathways and help your squad reach hidden areas to claim more swag (treasure you’re trying to collect)
– When a teammate dies, it is significant, but not as unfair as permadeath
– Image & Form tried out permadeath, but ultimately wanted a system similar to the one used in SteamWorld Dig
– The robotic fish died during IGN’s demo, but another version of him can be recruited somewhere else in the game
– Recruit allies and mission in intergalactic saloons
– In the final game: recruiting robots to join your squad, space travel between jobs and intergalactic saloons, and upgrading a squad to be stronger and more resilient than your opponents

A few more Xenoblade Chronicles details have come through a new preview on NintendoWorldReport. We have some some bits on how the game controls as well as the new Collection Mode. Read on below for a roundup of the latest details.

– No cuts aside from Japanese voice acting
– Button layout is different than on the Wii controllers
– Pick attacks by scrolling with the d-pad
– Use the ZL-button to get more control over the camera
– Use ZR to quickly let a fullscreen map pop up
– C-stick for camera controls
– Touchscreen provides information about the state of your party and a small mini-map
– Only a handful of things to collect in Collection Mode as you start out, but more are added as you progress
– 3 tokens for scanning Shulk
– 2 tokens for every player you meet in StreetPass
– 1 token for every 5 Play Coins
– If you want to unlock something new in Collection Mode for certain, you need to spend 3 tokens
– Can use the Shulk amiibo each day
– Listen to music in Collection Mode while the system is closed

Source

Square Enix has shared concrete details about what’s included in Theatrhythm Dragon Quest. You can find the information rounded up below, courtesy of Siliconera’s translation.

– Board game-like mode for unlocking content
– Unlock “Rhythm Points” by clearing stages
– Acquire Rhythm Points to play in the Sugoroku Field, get Sugoroku Tickets, or Orbs used to get more teammates
– Sugoroku: Japanese board game that involves using dice to roll from start to finish, often with various gimmicks on your way from start to finish
– Once you reach the goal, you’ll get orbs which come in handy for unlocking allies
– Gimmicks in the Sugoroku Field can be helpful/hurtful
– These include various stores and doors that warp you to other doors, and pitfall traps that throw you outside of the field, resulting in a failure
– You can choose to go again for a chance to double-up your reward, but failing results in getting nothing at all
– Music stages in Theathrythm Dragon Quest aren’t too different from Theathrythm Final Fantasy
– Player Cards in the game let you make with your own comments and looks
– Trade cards with other players
– You’ll also get access to new Sugoroku Field maps by collecting these
– Player Cards contain information such as your top 3 characters and songs, play time, comments, and other records

Source

A new preview from Nintendo Force contains even more details on Mario Party 10. The latest information is as follows:

– no solo mode
– in amiibo party, while moving on boards, you have to tap the amiibo to GamePad to use your dice, roulette wheels and more
– one token lets you summon stars all across the board
– another token lets you double the coins you earn in one select minigame
– another token lets you swap places with one other person
– swap and save tokens to your amiibo
– collect character tokens to unlock board part
– you don’t need any additional amiibo to unlock extra boards
– pieces are locked to the one specific amiibo you save the tokens to
– Mario Party mode has surprises along the way in the form of traditional events
– no more special Captain spaces or the Bowser Jr. minigames
– Bowser and Lucky and Unlucky spaces return
– you can no longer choose what miningames you will play
– midway and end points still have you battling a boss
– five boards in total
– boards are standard grass land in Mushroom Park, a spooky environment with Haunted Trail, an underwater world called Whimsical Waters, a sky high experience with Airship Central and your lava finale in the Chaos Castle
– Bowser Party uses three of the five boards
– Boswer can place traps on the playing field
– the player team can try to steal dice blocks from Bowser

Source

A new preview from IGN shares more information about Mario Party 10. We have several details about amiibo Party plus Bowser Party.

View a summary of the latest tidbits below. IGN’s full preview is located here.

amiibo Party

– Won’t unlock on the main menu unless you have an amiibo
– Scan different amiibo to unlock a character-specific board skin
– Boards come with touches like Goombas, Toads, etc.
– Boards are split into four quadrants
– Each section can be swapped out with the corresponding piece from another character’s board
– Board has only one path
– Get around quickly with warp pipes
– Each amiibo acts as a player piece as well
– You can write one of several special tokens to the figure
– Token examples: roll five dice on a turn, veto a selected mini-game and start the selection process over (looks like a P-Switch)
– Using a token drops it from your figure, but you can discover more to replace it as you play

Bowser Party

– Party mode and Bowser Party are also in Mario Party 10, as previously mentioned
– Bowser Party: a fifth player on the GamePad assumes takes on the role of Bowser
– Up to four players on Wii remotes compete against Bowser in various mini-games
– Sinister Slots: Mario and friends are all running on a hamster wheel, Bowser can spin and stop it at odd intervals to throw off the other player’s timing so they run into stage hazards
– Clawful Climb: the four other players scale a tower to escape Boswer; the player with the GamePad rapidly taps ZL and ZR to build up enough energy to move Bowser’s hands

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