BitSummit: Ascend to a Higher State of Concentration with Poppoloco

Posted 18:03 EST on 07MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news, previews » bitsummit, gemdrop, poppoloco

Gemdrop head Yuichiro Kitao wants you to wreck your iPad — or, at least to cover it in sweat.

That’s the idea behind his company’s panic-inducing “real-time action puzzle” title Poppoloco, a game where you need to ascend to a zen-like state of mind to prevent your poor locomotive from being destroyed by a pursuing monster. Think endless runner, but your protagonist is also solving a Rubik’s cube.

The rules are simple: use your finger to trace a line over connected blocks sharing the same color. Do this quickly enough, and your locomotive portrayed at the top of the screen will scream along to the next station, evading its pursuer. Keep the train moving long enough, and you’ll be able to catch your breath (and wipe off your screen) at the next station.

Connect too few blocks, and your locomotive will slow to a crawl. No need to guess what’ll happen then. Fortunately, players don’t need to rely on the luck of the draw. By tapping a block, players can cycle through the color palette, making the block match its neighbor. It’s a risk, since time is always of the essence, but bigger combos mean more steam for your locomotive.

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Gemdrop claims its frantic puzzler is already programmed and good to go for release to iOS, Android, and Windows 8 (including English text!), so hopefully we’ll see this title soon. Keep those fingers limber!

News and images source: Famitsu App

BitSummit: Yoshiro Kimura’s Million Onion Hotel

Posted 17:27 EST on 07MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news, previews » games centrally involving onions, million onion hotel, yoshiro kimura

Yoshiro Kimura, the idiosyncratic developer behind such titles as the PS1 cult classic Moon, was on hand at BitSummit to show off his latest title in person. Kimura’s latest game is a quirky puzzler called Million Onion Hotel — although he might not be glad to see us describe it like that. You see, according to Kimura, the title’s genre is “poem”.

From Famitsu’s hands-on report, players tap the onions as they pop up randomly about the field, turning that square of the field red. Tapping the onions adds a bit of time to the clock. Occasionally, clock icons pop up that add even more time.

The trick is to hold off, leaving a square that will complete a line open, until turning that square red will complete two or more lines. Complete one line, either vertically horizontally, or diagonally, and it’s just a “single”. Complete two lines by filling in one square, and it’s a “double”. Although not seen in the video, since diagonal lines are also allowed, with skillful playing gamers can clear three, even four lines all at once.

This is difficult, because if you’re not tapping onions, you’re running out the clock. Plus, some onions require more taps than others to turn their square red. Trying to get a double, you might get down to the wire, only to have a particularly tough onion finally pop up in that last spot.

The goal of Million Onion Hotel is to rescue the hotel diner patrons who’ve been abducted to space by the mysterious onion soup. To do this, you need to get to space. (Obviously.) To get to space, you need get at least double line clears. Fortunately, once in space the player’s efforts are further rewarded by fruit and other special, high-point items that join the onions in rising out of the playing field.

With a quirky story, flavorful 16-bit-esque graphics (pun intended, we swear), and the attentive crafting that has the developer going so far as to call it a “poem” to gamers, Million Onion Hotel is shaping up to be far more than just another smartphone puzzle game.

News source: Famitsu App and Destructoid

DeNA Announces Pricing Change For MobaCoin In-Game Currency

Posted 10:08 EST on 07MAR2014 by: tim walker in news » DeNA, mobacoin, mobage

DeNA Co., Ltd. has announced a change in the pricing for their MobaCoin currency that is used for in-game purchases in games offered by the publisher on the Mobage and Yahoo! Mobage game platform services. The cost increase is scheduled to take effect on April 4th, and will be implemented through scheduled maintenance in relation to the recent changes in Japan’s sales tax rate.

The 3% increase will bump the price of a single MobaCoin up from 1 Yen to 1.03 Yen. Coins are typically sold in packs of 100, which will now retail for 103 Yen (~$1.03 USD). The pricing change will have no effect on any virtual currency already in players’ possession.

The scheduled maintenance will be completed between March 26th and April 4th. Players will not be able to make any purchases at certain times during this period.

MobaCoin is a unified in-game currency used in many different mobile games available on the Mobage platform. (you can read more about it here ) The announcement of the cost increase comes just one month after the company announced that MobaCoin purchases in Japan have been falling at a rate of 4 billion yen (USD 40M) per quarter over the past fiscal year.

News Source: Game Watch

Rumors of Inclusion in Pension Fund Contribute to Growth in GungHo Share Price

Posted 16:56 EST on 06MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, gungho online entertainment

In light of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare’s upcoming revisions of its public pension program (which is conducted once every five years), the Government Pension Investment Fund (the largest of its kind in the world) reported yesterday (March 5th) that it was revising its operation policies. Rumors began to circulate that GungHo was included among the companies which were under consideration for inclusion in the mega-fund.

As a result, GungHo’s share price rose for the second day in a row, peaking near 660 yen per share before finishing the day up 2.9 percent at 645 yen.

News sources: Bloomberg Japan, Social Game Info

Final Fantasy Alums’ Smartphone RPG Gets Japanese Release Date

Posted 19:42 EST on 05MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news, previews » cygames, granblue fantasy, hideo minaba, nobuo uematsu

After several delays, publisher Cygames has announced a March 10th Japan release for Granblue Fantasy.

Cygames is pitching Granblue Fantasy as a “browser RPG for smartphones”, a description which belies the ambition behind the project. As can be seen from the images on the title’s official site, Granblue Fantasy is a gorgeous, sprawling title in a lovingly crafted fantasy setting.

Character and art design is being overseen by Hideo Minaba, longtime Square (now Square Enix) designer, who contributed art design to Final Fantasy titles V, VI, IX, and XII, as well as to numerous other projects. In 2006, Minaba left Square to found DesigNation, from which he has contributed character designs to Mistwalker Studios titles Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

Another Square alum, Nobuo Uematsu is serving as sound director for Granblue Fantasy. Uematsu likely needs no introduction to JRPG fans, having been the primary composer for every main series Final Fantasy title up to part IX, and contributing to the soundtracks of parts X and XI before leaving Square to found Smile Please in 2004. From his studio, Uematsu has continued to contribute to Square Enix projects (including Final Fantasy titles), as well as projects by Mistwalker Studios.

Story

The official site describes the story of Granblue Fantasy:

Cygames’ site goes on to explain that the legend is that the islands were once all one continent, created by the mysterious Founders, who divided them among 4 great families. In time, these great families rebelled seeking greater knowledge. In their disappointment, the Founders left the continent stranded in the skies and departed the land forever.

Eventually a war for supremacy of the skies broke out, and the People of the Stars released a stagnant and deadly air current that split the continent into islands. The current continues to linger, making travel between the islands difficult. Something about the regions where the rotten current billows fills magical creatures with rage, inciting them to attack. To protect their islands, the People of the Skies have engaged in endless battle with the monsters.

Image source: Granblue Fantasy official site

Setting

The island of Zankutinzel (where the protagonist lives) is a member of a chain of floating islands called the Fante Grande. Four different groups live on these islands: the Dolaf tribe, the Elune tribe, the Harvin tribe, and the humans. (Note that these translations are tentative.)

Originally these tribes lived on separate islands and had little contact with one another, but eventually banded together to repel the People of the Stars when they attacked. It was on this basis that Fante Grande was formed.

Naturally, there are also monsters living on the islands of Fante Grande, although the introduction explains that some of these are reasonably intelligent and have formed their own societies.

Image source: Granblue Fantasy official site

The evil empire

The Este Empire is a militant country, which threatens to take control of all of the floating continents — a feat it achieved within only ten years of its founding, so mighty is its military prowess. The Empire has found a way to control the monsters left behind by the People of the Stars, and even went so far as to consider Ruria a part of their “experiments”.

The emperor who reigns over this empire is a figure of mystery, the day-to-day affairs of ruling and war-making left to the Seven Luminaries, a group of knights and alchemists. In particular, players can look forward to crossing paths with the Black Knight, an imposing figure regarded with fear even among his own people.

Image source: Granblue Fantasy official site

Monsters

Among the monsters players will encounter are the Star Shard Beasts, which were created by the magic of the People of the Stars. Loyal only to the People of the Stars, these powerful creations laid waste to countless islands during the war for supremacy of the skies.

When the People of the Stars were successfully repelled, the beasts reverted to the form of Star Shards, and fell into deep slumbers. In time, as Star Shards, they were incorporated into the religious beliefs and myths of the lands where they laid in sleep.

Recently, though, something is causing them to awaken, threatening to once again throw the floating continents into disaster.

Image source: Granblue Fantasy official site

Battle system

From Cygames’ description on the official site, it seems Granblue Fantasy will have a battle system that’s a combination of a JRPG battle system (with affinities and chained attacks between party members) and a card collector. Players can use the cards of Star Shard Beasts they’ve collected to summon these creatures in battle, dealing huge damage. Players also assemble a party, using chain attacks to dish out bigger hits. Cygames also advertises the game will allow players to team up with other players to take on the most powerful enemies.

Granblue Fantasy also uses a job class, allowing players to switch between classes to gain new skills, and to level up in certain classes to open new classes for advancement. Players can also change their characters’ weapons and equipment to change their affinity (earth, wind, fire, etc.) for that extra bit of advantage.

Image source: Granblue Fantasy official site

For more images (and to see one impressive Web site), head over to the official Granblue Saga site. The navigation is in English, and the “theatre” section has a huge amount of game art to check out.

Million Arthur Tops Puzzle & Dragons (in Korea)

Posted 17:02 EST on 05MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, kaku-san-sei million arthur, square enix

As of today, March 5th, Square Enix smartphone title Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur is outpacing the mighty Puzzle & Dragons in sales.

…At least in Korea.

The Korean-language version of Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur sits at 12th place of the iPhone sales rankings, 8 spots ahead of GungHo’s Puzzle & Dragons.

Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur was translated by Korean localization studio Actorz Soft. The natural dialogue and ease of use has likely helped boost the title’s appeal.

News and image source: Social Game Info

Crooz Shares Up Again Despite ACR Drift

Posted 16:39 EST on 05MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » acr drift, crooz, ragnabreak, the knights of avalon

Although sales revenue from its iOS racing title ACR Drift remains stagnant, Crooz’s share price rose 1,000 yen on the release of The Knights of Avalon and the announcement of tie-ins for The Knights of Avalon and social game Ragnabreak. Crooz’s share price finished the trading day at 6,760 yen.

Despite being selected as “best new app” in 89 countries, ACR Drift has turned unremarkable sales. As of today, ACR Drift sits at 232nd place in the U.S. and 227th place in Japan in terms of sales.

The Knights of Avalon and Ragnabreak are both available through DeNA‘s social gaming platform Mobage. The tie-ins with beverage producer Asahi and convenience store chain Lawson will bring attention to the established titles.

News source: Social Game Info

GungHo Shares Rise as Puzzle & Dragons is Released in Taiwan and Hong Kong

Posted 17:39 EST on 04MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, gungho online entertainment, puzzle & dragons

March 4th: GungHo’s share price rose by 10 yen on news that Puzzle & Dragons was faring well in Hong Kong and Taiwan after its March 3rd release, bringing P&D worldwide downloads to 25 million.

On March 3rd, GungHo released the Japanese-language version of Puzzle & Dragons to the App Store in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Despite the language barrier, P&D quickly leaped to the top of the downloads and sales charts in both regions.

The demand for an Asian release of Puzzle & Dragons is evidenced by the huge number of similar titles released in Asia.

GungHo reports P&D has been downloaded 2 million times in North America and Europe and one million times in South Korea. In Japan, P&D has surpassed 22 million downloads, and remains the undisputed reigning free-to-play app.

News source: Social Game Info [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Sega Sammy Releases Revised FY Forecast

Posted 14:05 EST on 02MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » chain chronicle, financial reports, phantasy star online 2, puyo puyo!! quest, sega sammy holdings

February 28th: Sega Sammy Holdings issued a revised earnings forecast for its fiscal year ending on March 31st, in light of poor performance of its pachinko & slot and arcade divisions.

The revised estimates are revenue of 377 billion yen ($3.77 billion), down 22 percent from the company’s initial estimate of 485 billion yen ($4.85 billion), and operating profit of 37 billion yen ($370 million), down nearly half from the earlier estimate of 73 billion yen ($730 million).

Citing its intent to “maximize units sold”, Sega Sammy announced it had made the strategic decision to hold back the sale of certain models of “pachisuro” (a unique gambling apparatus the name of which is a portmanteau of “pachinko” and “slot”) to the following financial quarter, leading the company to revise its estimate of machines sold to 307 thousand from 478 thousand.

Sega Sammy also blames returns and exchanges of pachisuro devices for carving 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) out of its profit.

With the exception of Pachinko CR Fist of the North Star 5, Sega Sammy’s traditional pachinko machines also sold slowly, causing the company to revise its estimate of units sold to 198 thousand from its previous estimate 324 thousand.

Sega Sammy’s arcade division also suffered from recent movements on the part of arcade operators to reign in investments, so that Sega Sammy now estimates an overall operating loss for the financial year. Sega Sammy’s own arcade centers turned out a mediocre performance, turning profits slightly lower than what the company had anticipated.

On a positive, Sega Sammy’s games and iOS / Android titles performed well. Sega Sammy’s online RPG Phantasy Star Online 2 performed well on PS Vita and PC. On smartphones, Puyo Puyo!! Quest and Chain Chronicle both achieved strong sales. Sega reports sales from its games and iOS / Android titles were largely as predicted.

News source: Social Game Info

Crooz Share Price at Week Low as ACR Drift Posts Unremarkable Sales

Posted 12:57 EST on 02MAR2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » acr drift, crooz, financial reports

Investor excitement over Crooz’s iOS racing title ACR Drift has cooled as the title has failed to post noteworthy sales, bringing the company’s share price back to its value one week prior.

As of today, March 2nd, ACR Drift ranks 196th in sales in the U.S. App Store games category and 210th in Japan.

Image source: Yahoo Finance

Image source: App Annie

Crooz’s share price doubled in the course of just one week on positive buzz for ACR Drift, and reached a head when the title was selected as “best new app” in the App Store in 89 different countries.

However, after reaching a high of 7,000 yen ($70) on February 26th, Crooz’s share price dropped sharply on the 27th as investors became concerned the company’s share price was overvalued.

Image source: Yahoo Finance

Unremarkable sales results for ACR Drift have lent support to this stance, and as of today investors are taking a “wait and see” approach until the title improves its sales through positive word of mouth, or through promotions and additional content from Crooz.

News source: Social Game Info

Mixi Share Price Hits Max Allowable Gain Despite Dilution Concerns

Posted 18:22 EST on 28FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » financial reports, mixi, monster strike

February 28th: Mixi’s share price reached its maximum allowable single-day gain, despite concern on the part of some investors that the company’s issue of stock may dilute share price.

Mixi has made clear it intends on applying all funds raised through sale of additional shares toward promotion and development of its popular iOS / Android app Monster Strike.

To that end, Mixi announced earlier in the day that it would team up with the Tencent, a Chinese online media and services provider, to bring Dragon Strike to Asia. Tencent is well established in Asia, providing communication tools (QQ, WeChat, and SNS QZone) and a popular online games platform (QQ game platform). With this agreement Tencent gains exclusive rights to distribute Dragon Strike in China, Hong Kong, and Macao.

In order to purchase further advertising for the fast-growing title, Mixi also announced that it would be issuing an additional 1.13 million shares, valued at a total of 6.3 billion yen ($63 million). When issued, the new shares will account for 7 percent of total outstanding shares.

Mixi director (and founder) Kenji Kasahara will also put 440K of his own shares for sale, and company president Yusuke Asakura will put up 110K of his shares for additional revenue. By selling these shares, Kasahara’s ownership of the company will drop beneath 50 percent to 49.24 percent, changing his status from controlling shareholder to principal shareholder.

An over-allotment of up to 250K shares is also possible.

The sale price of the new shares will be determined between the 11th and 14th of March.

News source: Social Game Info [ 1, 2, 3 ]

Bandai Namco and GREE Release Pac-Man Monsters

Posted 20:38 EST on 26FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, GREE, pac-man monsters

Bandai Namco today released its Android title Pac-Man Monsters, developed in collaboration with and published by GREE. Pac-Man Monsters is free to play, monetized via in-game purchases.

Bandai Namco refers to Pac-Man Monsters as a “puzzle RPG”, likely to invite comparison to GungHo‘s Puzzle & Dragons. Players control the legendary game character by drawing lines across the playing field, guiding Pac-man to gobble up cookies, fruit and ghosts.

Much like Puzzle & Dragons, players can assemble a motley crew of Pac-men, which offer different in-game power-ups and other bonuses, based on their level and rarity.

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Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You’d think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase ‘Paku-Paku,’ which means to flap one’s mouth open and closed.

News source: Social Game Info

Crooz Share Price Doubles in Seven Days

Posted 19:40 EST on 26FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » acr drift, crooz, financial reports

February 26th: shares in Crooz continued to grow in value, ending the day at 7,000 yen ($70) per share, twice their value just one week ago. The rise in the value of shares in Crooz is attributed to high expectations for the company’s mobile racing title ACR Drift, which was promoted as “best new app” in the App Store in 89 different countries.

With this rise in share price, shares in Crooz have gone from their lowest price since mid-December to approaching a record high, doubling in value in the space of only seven days of trading.

However, indicative of concerns on the part of some investors that Crooz’s shares may be overvalued, the share price fell slightly toward the end of the day’s trading, and as of the morning of the 27th, Crooz’s share price is vacillating between 6,900 and 7,000 yen.

News source: Social Game Info

Square Enix Announces Rise of Mana For Smartphones

Posted 10:25 EST on 26FEB2014 by: tim walker in news » rise of mana, secret of mana, seiken densetsu, square enix

Square Enix have announced Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana, the latest title in their Mana series of Action RPGs. The game will be released “very soon” on iOS, and will be available on Android as well later this year. Rise of Mana will be free to download and play, and will include in-app purchases.

According to Japanese gaming website 4Gamer.net, the player will control an angel and a demon who have somehow become trapped in a single body. While adventuring, players will discover exactly how this happened, and will try to find a way to return home to the heavens.

A post on Ameblo offers a few more details on the upcoming title, which appear to come from this week’s Famitsu magazine:

• Players will be able to switch between angel and demon forms on the fly.
• The main hub for the game will be a town called Miste. You will be able to purchase weapons and items here, as well as raise pet demons to help you out in your quest.
• The three main weapons in the game will be swords, spears and bows.
• Up to 8 players will be able to play together in real time.

The official website also notes that the soundtrack for Seiken Densetsu: Rise of Mana will be released on April 23rd, and can be purchased directly from Square Enix for 2,700 Yen (around $27 U.S.) plus tax.

Moon: Remix RPG Adventure Designer To Debut New iOS Game At BitSummit

Posted 15:54 EST on 25FEB2014 by: tim walker in news » bitsummit, hirofumi taniguchi, kazuyuki kurashima, million onion hotel, moon remix rpg adventure, yoshiro kimura

Game designer Yoshiro Kimura, best known for his work on cult classic Moon: Remix RPG Adventure for the original PlayStation, has announced on his company’s website that he will be showing a new game at this year’s BitSummit Indie Game Festival. Entitled Million Onion Hotel, the game will feature character designs by Kazuyuki Kurashima (Little King’s Story) and music by Hirofumi Taniguchi (Chulip).

Japanese news site 4Gamer.net has provided a summary of the game’s backstory:

Kimura is planning to release the game on iOS later this year. “Even though this is very tiny work…I am very glad to introduce my new strange Characters and fellows to the world,” he writes about the game on Onion Games website (which happens to be fully in English). “Because this is my poem, this is my imagination 100%.”

Yoshiro Kimura originally got his start in the game industry by working at Square (now Square Enix) on games in the Romancing Saga series. He departed Square several years later with his comrades to form Love-de-Lic, where he worked on Moon and a couple of other quirky titles. Million Onion Hotel appears to be his first venture into mobile gaming.

BitSummit MMXIV will be held March 7th-9th in Kyoto, Japan. Notable guests for this year’s event include Masaya Matsuura (PaRappa the Rapper), Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Space Channel 5, Rez), and Manami Matsumae (Street Fighter II).

(Image Source: Onion Games)