Wiiuser.co.uk Blog

On the 7th of February to the 8th 2009, the Vancouver Film School is hosting the third annual Game Design Expo at the Vancouver International Film Centre. Having a sold out event last year, things are being set up for another huge crowd.

All eyes and ears in the expo will be on Clint Hocking, as he runs a series of talks and panels with high-profile game designers. The event begins with Industry Speaker Day, where devs and gamers alike will benefit from the top names in gaming today, including Epic, Insomniac, Radical, and Relic. Panelists from EA, Obsidian, and Propaganda will also take the center stage later that day. Those interested can get tickets for CDN 75 for the full day.

On the 8th, VFS will open its Game Design Campus, where visitors get to test games created by students and alumni, take classes, and meet the students and faculty. They’re also hosting a special Women in Games panel, which will be in-line for the Women in Games CDN 30,000 scholarship. Other scholarships will be announced in the open house as well.

And what’s a Game Design Expo without devs bringing the goods? Expect to see exclusive presentations from LucasArts, Big Fish, and Vicarious Visions.

If you wanna go, then you’d better register early.

More promising development arrives for Iron Hand’s Dungeons, this time now at v0.85. If you thought the previous version of this homebrew mini RPG for the Wii already had a lot of potential with its ten levels and main engines, then you’re gonna be even more impressed with this one.

On top of those previously installed levels, another batch of new maps have been thrown in the mix, as well as three more orbs, upping the count to 18 in total.

Here’s the changelog for this release:

• fixed some graphic bugs
• fixed a bug in the main random function
• game is more balanced
• add new maps
• there are 18 orbs

If you haven’t tried this game out, your aim is to find all red orbs and bring down the last Boss. There are also monsters getting in your way so you’ll have to beat them in order to power up your skills.

In the future, you can expect the following features to be added:

• a trainer/shop where you can spend your gold
• treasure chests
• a realy big end boss monster

Keep it locked here at QJ, we’ll be updating you on new releases on everything homebrew.

Download: Dugeons v0.85

It’s thanks to the casual market that the Wii and DS are on top. But this threshold of buyers is more prone to a recession than the usual gamer market. Screen Digest’s senior games analyst Piers Harding-Rolls explains why.

He points out that the games market is relatively less affected by recession. “The market is very much driven by its own hardware cycles, and that previous cycles have not been significantly impacted by recessions,” he said.

The core gamer demographic has always been males 18-35 years of age - people with time to play and money to spend. During a recession, this market would stock up on games and hibernate in their livingrooms instead of going out where they are likely to spend more.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, this is not their market. “The new mainstream consumers that play lifestyle and social games on the Wii and DS are more likely to be outside that core demographic and may be impacted more by a recession,” Harding-Rolls said. In fact, Nintendo’s casual-gaming market does not consider games to be top-priority purchases.

So even with all the success they’re having, there’s no guarantee that the Wii and DS will not experience any difficulty. Other consoles, like the PS3, continue to hurt as economic turmoil plagues the industry.

• NPD US: Wii still king, Xbox 360 outsold PS3 in October 2008

Ted Prince, CEO of National Graphic Ventures (NGV) today announced the formation of National Geographic Games (NGG), a division that’ll develop and publish games across all major gaming platforms. NGG will be led by some of the industry’s biggest names, including Paul Levine, senior VP of the extended platforms group, and Chris Mate, former Take2 and Bethesda exec.

Says Prince,

The launch of our games division furthers National Geographic Venture s cross-platform strategy of creating and distributing unique consumer experiences and content on multiple platforms and devices. Paul s strong background in cross-platform media, interactive entertainment and business building and development combined with Chris expertise in the video game industry and product development will ensure that National Geographic Games extends our mission globally and makes the National Geographic brand more meaningful to a broader audience.

NatGeo wants to bring that NatGeo feel into gaming, inspiring folks to care about the planet and reach a new generation of consumers and families. “NGG will create fun games that allow gamers of all ages to experience and explore their world through play,” said Levine.

NGG will be working with Namco Bandai as well as Sony Computer Entertainment to distribute NatGeo-branded titles around the world on major gaming platforms.

Along with their launch comes “Herod’s Lost Tomb,” their first in-house produced game, which features content from the December 2008 issue of the NatGeo mag. The game will be available online, downloadable for PC, Mac, and iPhone.

Other upcoming titles from NGG include “National Geographic: Panda” and “National Geographic: Africa” for this November, and “Sudoku Traveler: China” in December. For 2009, they have Rain Forests, Greencity, and From the Bottom Up.

• Namco Bandai announces National Geographic Panda DS

Wiibrew developer bigs has once again released a gem of a retro game. This time he released REminiscence, a port of the engine behind Flashback.

That’s right, Flashback, the platform shooter of 1993 that’s been ported to numerous platforms since. I hope I’m not the only one here who knows the game :p

Anyway, like his other gem Commander K. Wii, you’ll need the original files from the Flashback game to play it with this engine. Here are the required files:

• FB_TXT.FNT
• GLOBAL.ICN
• GLOBAL.FIB
• GLOBAL.SPC
• .OFF
• .SPR
• .MAP
• .PAL
• .ANI
• .CT
• .MBK
• .OBJ
• .PGE
• .RP
• .TBN
• .CMD
• .POL
• CINE.

Put all of these files in the DATA directory. You’ll need to hold the Wiimote horizontally for this one. Bigs says there are a few bugs here and there, but he’s hunting them down.

Download: REminiscence v0.8

Hear that? That’s the sound of a blue hedgehog getting up close and personal with a) gravity, and b) the floor. Ker-SPLAT!

Following the news that Sonic Unleashed will be delayed in Japan, we now have confirmation that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game will likewise get a later-than-scheduled release in North America. Despite these delays, the PS2 and Wii versions are on track for their release tomorrow.

Don’t worry though, we may not have to wait as long as Japan does (they’re getting the 360-PS3 versions by Spring 2009 - they called the “sales strategy” and “manufacturing schedule” cards in their region).

According to a Sega news release, Sonic Unleashed on the Xbox 360 gets a November 24 release in North America. No specific details yet for the PS3 version reschedule, but Sega’s eyeing a December release.

• Sonic Unleashed still on for pre-Christmas release in North America, Europe
• On your mark, get set, delay! Sonic Unleashed Xbox 360, PS3 delayed in Japan

Mental note: always pay your developers… though it’s not like Brash Entertainment had much choice in the matter. They had to shut down operations last November 14th due to a severe shortage of cash.

You may recall a previous article on how Brash had to drop all of its games save two: Six Flags Fun Park and Saw. The developer of the former, 7 Studios, has chosen to sue Brash to recoup the money they were owed, approximately US 581,000 total for two projects.

Joining them is Zootfly, the developer of Prison Break, a game based on the Fox TV show of the same name. They’re claiming US 748,000 in payments owed by Brash.

Given this represents only three of the dozens of games left dangling in the wind by Brash, one can expect more suits in the near future.

That was fast. Hackers from SoftChip have introduced a new app that goes around some of the Wiibrew blocks Nintendo introduced in the latest Wii Menu update.

This program enables some of the benefits of the new firmware without actually updating. (Repeat, just for emphasis: this is not the actual update. It’s just a patch.)

This program is actually a modification of tona’s IOS51 and Wii Shop installer. Requiem, the author of the program, describes it this way:

It works, but doesn t update you to 3.4 (yet). It just enables the keyboard support in the mii channel and allows you to patch the fakesigning bug back into IOS50 (meaning you can install trucha d content using IOS50.)

Download: IOS50, Mii Channel, and System Menu 3.4

Here’s the final batch of entries from TehSkeen’s Wii Coding competition. This batch contains puzzle games: Rokoban, Portii, and Matches.

Rokoban from ZaloDS is a puzzle game similar to Sokoban. If you’re not familiar with Sokoban, think Chip’s Challenge. The game is in 3D, and while it has no sound, presents a fair amount of challenge that can keep you busy.

Download: Rokoban

Matches is a game from Felix and Georg P. It’s a simple game involving, uh, matches. It’s one of those tabletop games you should be familiar with. You and the Wii compete to eliminate all the matches on the game. You and the AI each take turns taking up to three matches; the one who gets the last match loses.

Download: Matches

Portii comes from Beardface, author of WiiPhysics. The game has you playing a young companion cube from Aperture Science, only because of your non-cube like form, you gorge on cake only to realize that you want to go back to the core of Aperture Science to get… more cake! The concept alone has me sold.

Download: Portii

• Tehskeen Wii Coding Competition: Smashing v1.0 and CosmoRaketti v1.0
• TehSkeen Wii Coding Competition arcade games: BlastGuy, 3YOG, uschtris
• TehSkeen Wii Coding Competition: WiiCalc and LibWiiGameLoad

After hearing the story of the Swede teen collapsing after 24 hours of playing Wrath of the Lich King, this news comes to no surprise for me.

World of Warcraft’s second expansion pack has sliced its way to second place in the UK charts, topped only by fellow newcomer, Call of Duty: World at War. Incidentally, they’re both under the Activision Blizzard banner.

Gears of War 2, which debuted on top spot last week, was brought down three places to number four, while Guitar Hero: World Tour shot up 11 places to number 6. Mirror’s Edge, which I took to be a solid seller, sadly debuted on 20th place. LittleBigPlanet also shot down from fourth place down to 19th place. Ouch.

Here are the rest of the top 10 games in the UK for the week of November 15:

1. Call of Duty: World at War
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. Football Manager 2009
4. Gears of War 2
5. FIFA 09
6. Guitar Hero: World Tour
7. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
8. Mario Kart Wii
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
10. WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2009