OrtizGames

Imagine my surprise, logging on to my newsfeeds, reading over them in a semi-sick state with my throat in shambles, my nose congested, my attitude generally sour and so much work on my plate it is not at all funny, when I stumbled across this article on Gamasutra mentioning the debut of my hometown game developer, Xibalba Studios. As some of you might remember (most of you won’t) I worked with Xibalba Studios for a tiny bit as an intern level designer, and I got to see a bit of the development of their new title, Icebreakers. I’m very happy to see it revealed at EGS ’08 in Mexico City, and I’m looking forward to seeing the actual product released in 09.

If you haven’t already clicked on any of the links I’ve posted, do so, and look it up! Or Google “Icebreakers Xibalba” for a variety of different news sites, including this one (has a small screenshot), that all happily report the release.

Other than that, my SPORE review (and review of everything else for that matter) is on extended hiatus until I can get my ridiculous workload out of the way.

Share on Facebook

The Swedish developers of Battlefield: Bad Company released a developer interview video that outlines some of the key features of the Frostbite engine they created. It’s funny, though it skips over a lot of the details. I kind of wish they would go into more depth on how the engine works.

But anyway, it’s fascinating to watch, and I’m glad to see the PS3 and 360 used to a higher potential that has been done before.

Share on Facebook

Here’s a quick blurb on he news:

So there’s all this news this morning about various interesting things. We popped out of the dark ages of waiting for Rock Band, it seems. Anyway, Brenda Brathwaite already beat me to the punch for writing about a report put out by the University of Michigan. Only I read it on Gamasutra, so I feel special, and here it is.

As I have nothing more interesting to say on the subject than what has been said (by Brenda), let’s look at what Nintendo says about Western development and how they’re not planning on increasing it. As a Western-based game designer, this sucks for me. There’s a lot of untapped resources in the West, too–plenty of able and capable designers that can be just as effective as those found in Japan. It’s a little painful to see Nintendo limiting its resources and letting third-party games handle targeting the western market. Especially when you look at the top Wii sales, and see what developer is behind each game…

1		Wii Sports	Nintendo	53	421,419	6,695,293
	Super Mario Galaxy

Nintendo 2 417,301 1,106,571

Wii Play Nintendo 41 155,795 3,037,050

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Activision 4 110,685 549,276

Mario Party 8 Nintendo 26 71,749 1,458,651

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Nintendo 3 70,403 210,904

Link’s Crossbow Training Nintendo 1 66,758 66,758

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Capcom 2 65,078 183,187

Soul Calibur: Legends Namco 1 48,761 48,761

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Ubisoft 2 44,921 94,015(http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=39411&console=Wii&maker=&boxartz=1)

I’d like to point out, slots 1-7 excluding Guitar Hero III which is a console of its own (what with that guitar) are all made up of Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo.

It’s my theory Nintendo titles will continue to sell the Wii–and Western talent at NOA will never get a chance to develop for that audience.

Also, Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe the best yet? It sounds like a refined FFXII, which I approve of. I think FFXII could have used a lot of work.

Share on Facebook