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.

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

Famitsu Interviews Tales of Link Developers

Posted 19:25 EST on 20FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in features » akatsuki, bandai namco, tales of link

Bandai Namco’s Tales of series has long enjoyed popularity with JRPG / action RPG fans. Last August, Bandai Namco revealed development of Tales of Link, an entirely new entry in the series for iOS and Android, being developed in collaboration with social games developer Akatsuki. Tales of Link will feature returning characters from previous Tales titles along with original characters in linked battles of up to twelve.

Bandai Namco recently set a tentative spring release date for Tales of Link, and on this occasion Famitsu App sat down with four of the title’s key developers to discuss the game. Below are some of the highlights of the interview.

Famitsu: First off, could you tell us a bit about what lead to the decision to work with Akatsuki in developing Tales of Link?

Oodate: We’ve already released a browser-based title, Tales of Card Evolve, but we’ve been thinking for a while that we have to release a social game native to iOS and Android. The plan to do so had been in place for a while, but just when we’d got to thinking about how to find a partner company for the project, we first met the people from Akatsuki and everything just clicked.

[...]

The people at Akatsuki had also been thinking it was about time to develop a native application and had already accumulated a good deal of the needed tech and knowledge. So we figured, why not work together?

Shiota: We’d also decided it was time to focus on developing native apps, but the development costs were becoming a concern. That being the case, both our companies agreed it made sense to collaborate on a game to create a game engine we can both use going forward.

Famitsu: So the idea was to share knowledge related to the technology used for developing native apps?

Shiota: Yes, basically. Mr. Oodate is very particular in how everything is planned out. I mean that in a good way. So it was decided we’d put Mr. Oodate’s planning abilities to good use, and that we’d focus on development. In simple terms, we handled the the nuts-and-bolts development, while making good use of the expertise and knowledge related to developing native applications that came our way from Bandai Namco. That was the relationship.

Oodate: We (Bandai Namco) have a lot of experience creating games for the PSP and 3DS, so we know how to make games that have a “consumer title” feel to them. However, we didn’t think it would be the right approach to try to shoehorn a consumer title approach into the development of a native application. We needed to find a way to make a game that you could play with one hand while eating lunch or what have you, but that felt more developed than your typical browser-based title. Since both our companies have experiences creating games on opposite sides of the spectrum, we brought our ideas to the table and brainstormed together, moving forward that way.

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Famitsu: What was the original concept for the title?

Oodate: Both of our companies wanted a game engine that would be competitive going forward, as the trend is toward native applications. For that reason, we put a lot of emphasis on originality. It might sound a little revisionist to say this now, but we really wanted a system where you felt like you were communicating with the character by tactile input, not just mechanically tracing lines. To that end, we put our character IP to good use, making it so that characters would respond to touch input by talking, posing, etc.

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Famitsu: How will the recurring characters fit into Tales of Link‘s world?

Naoi: It’s similar to how there were recurring characters in the Tales of the World titles. Characters from the Tales of main series [that appeared in Tales of the World games] were treated as being from a parallel world, and called “the knight from …” or “the princess from …” The system in Tales of Link is based on that system.

Oodate: At first, the idea was that the Tales of characters were heroes of the past, who were no longer living. As development went along, we had a lot of conversations like, “Wouldn’t it be fun if this character crossed over and was in Tales of Link?” We changed the whole story around at the last minute to go with that approach. (Laughs.)

[...]

Naoi: We booked a recording studio and re-recorded all of the voice work for the main scenario.

Oodate: We thought, why not raise Tales of Link to the status of a spiritual successor to the Radiant Mythology series, and I feel we’re doing that. When we released a bit of information about Tales of Link to kick off pre-registrations, some users wanted to think of the title as a successor to the Radiant Mythology series, and we figured if that was the case, we should respond to those expectations. We’re positioning Tales of Link as a title in which players can look forward to the involvement of characters from other titles.

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Famitsu: The Tales of series is well-known for its involving stories. Will Tales of Link be presented as a scenario with a proper ending?

Oodate: That’s a really good question. (Laughs.) The story is divided into chapters, but there’s no “final” chapter. One thing that sets social games apart from consumer titles is that you can keep adding more and more content for players to enjoy. That being said, we still want to keep an eye on how players are responding to the chapters to continue expanding the story, sometimes even in ways that subtly subvert players’ hopes and expectations.

[...]

Naoi: Taking into consideration the need to make this feel like a Tales of game, a good story is important. Since we’re approaching the story as a group performance, even when the main scenario is wrapped up, there’s still the question of what some other character was doing when some event was unfolding. That way we can keep adding to the story.

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Famitsu: Shortly ago, you let us look at the battle screen. The game system seems like it was pretty similar to [Akatsuki's] Thousand Memories. Will there be any elements that really give the system that Tales of feel?

Yamamoto: Yes, there will be. Like we mentioned before, Tales of Link will be different from Thousand Memories in that the focus will be on “lots of connections”. In Thousand Memories, after a certain number of battle turns had passed skills could be employed, but in Tales of Link, as links are made the “link count” grows, and you spend that to use skills. For example, if the link count is at 100, you could use the same character’s skill that costs 20 skill points three times if you wanted to. It’s kind of similar to MP in that respect.

Oodate: [...] Thousand Memories emphasizes managing costs, and that’s where the strategy of its system lies. Since you’re managing costs, if was possible to take out an enemy without linking up, you’d want to do that. That’s fun in its own right, but in Tales of Link we’re trying to make the game more accessible. We’re focusing on making it so that people will think, “Connecting is a lot of fun!”, or, “It’s really to my advantage to link up.” Probably Thousand Memories is the more cathartic title. It’s fun to hold back and wait until you can link your characters up for one huge hit, but Tales of Link doesn’t require you to hold out quite as much.

Yamamoto: Another thing, you brought up alignments a minute ago. Another feature of Tales of Link is that you think about the alignments of the weapons and armor your party has equipped when forming your party.

Famitsu: Will there be any equipment in Tales of Link that appeared in previous Tales of titles?

Oodate: Yes, we’ve already had the equipment redrawn and put in the game as cards, focusing mainly on the equipment that had been introduced up to Radiant Mythology 3. [...]

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Oodate, discussing the care that went into the battle system: The feel of the game changes completely depending on how you define the range of sensitivity to touch input. In this game, if you accidentally make a big mistake, it can be really irritating, so we put a lot of work into balancing the sensitivity to prevent that from happening. We balanced it down to the pixel. Also, tempo. It’s crucial not to mess up the player’s tempo, and we put a lot of focus on that from the outset.

Naoi: The chibi character attack animations are really detailed, so we’d love for people to be able to look at them closely, but we put so much care into the tempo of the battles that players will barely even see it.

Additional information

When asked about recurring characters, the interviewees didn’t give a great deal of information. However, they confirmed that The Dark Wings would make an appearance, likely as in-battle support / curative effects. The developers also eluded to appearances by Agria and Dhaos, saying it would “make the world of Tales of Link too small” if only hero characters made cameos.

When Tales of Link is released, there will be 130 characters available, although it was not clarified whether these were all characters that could be incorporated into the player’s party, or if the count included characters appearing as support items and the like.

When asked, staff admitted that they’re feeling a bit of pressure being handed the reigns to such a storied franchise, particularly since they’re aware that they can’t include enough characters from previous titles to keep all of their fans happy. Still, future updates give them the opportunity to include new characters, or to give deeper back stories to characters already included.

Finally, although there will be a battle colosseum for players to take on a variety of monsters in, the team members did not comment on whether there will be player versus player modes.

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Given the history and popularity of the Tales of franchise and the treatment some popular franchises have received when being introduced to smartphones, a bit of wariness on the part of fans is understandable. Given the development team’s apparent commitment to fine-tuning the battle system and paying homage to previous titles, Tales of Link may just shape up to be the kind of JRPG experience smartphone players are looking for when it’s released this spring.

Bandai Namco and GREE Announce Pac-Man Title for Smartphones

Posted 18:16 EST on 13FEB2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, GREE, pac-man

Bandai Namco and GREE have teamed up to bring Pac-Man to smartphones in Japan. Bandai Namco is calling Pac-Man Monsters a “puzzle RPG”. Pac-Man follows along lines traced by users across their smartphone’s screen, gobbling up cookies as he goes.

Bandai-Namco promises there will be well over 100 quests available from release of the title, and over 100 unique Pac-Men for players to enjoy.

Pac-Man Monsters is slated for release by GREE toward the end of February. Players anxious from the drought of puzzle titles for smartphones can get a jump on the release by pre-registering, getting a limited edition Pac-Man character for use in Pac-Man Monsters following its release.

News and images source: Inside Games

Drecom Shares Rise on Furubokko Heroes Release and One Piece Release Date

Posted 15:32 EST on 27JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, drecom, furubokko heroes, one piece: treasure cruise

Drecom shares reached their maximum allowable single-day gain of 70,000 yen to end trading on the 27th at 375,000 yen per share on the news that its iOS release Furubokko Heroes had surpassed 350,000 pre-registrations, and the announcement of a spring release for the One Piece smartphone title that Drecom is developing jointly with Bandai Namco.

Drecom developed Furubokko Heroes in collaboration with CyberConnect2. Promising simple and satisfying gesture-based controls, Furubokko Heroes was voted to Social Game Info’s list of the top 20 titles to look out for in 2014.

Information that Furubokko Heroes allows players to assemble a team of heroes drawn from all ages and corners of the world to duke it out in what Drecom claims will be a “new genre of RPG” has also piqued the interest of many smartphone gamers, helping the title gather over 350,000 pre-registrations in the space of just over a month. Although specific figures are not yet publicly available, it’s a safe bet that the huge number of pre-registered players will mean a strong start for Furubokko Heroes, released on iOS today.

Drecom’s share price also benefited from the announcement of a spring release for the smartphone title One Piece: Treasure Cruise, which Drecom is developing in collaboration with Bandai Namco.

Treasure Cruise loosely follows the story of the animé version of the popular franchise. Players will assemble their party of pirates (likely starting the game with only Luffy, the leader of the motley crew) and develop their stats in what Bandai Namco is calling a “role playing-type game”. Of note, players are not limited to the usual band of One Piece protagonists; parties can be made up of friends and foes alike (as seen in the character selection screen below).

Different party members will have different abilities and stats suited to their characters, with battles managed through slides, taps, and other gestures.

In another testament to the ongoing popularity of the One Piece franchise, the announcement of a spring release date for Treasure Cruise was accompanied by an improvement in Bandai Namco’s share price, as well. Bandai Namco’s shares went up just over 100 yen to end the day’s trading slightly north of 2,200 yen apiece.

News and images source: Social Game Info [ 1, 2 ] and Famitsu.com

Joint Venture Between Bandai Namco and DeNA to Close Its Doors

Posted 16:58 EST on 22JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » bandai namco, DeNA, gundam kingdom, macross sp: cross deculture

Bandai Namco Holdings has announced that its consolidated subsidiary BNDeNA will be closing its doors at the end of March. BNDeNA was a joint-funded venture between Bandai Namco Games (a wholly-owned subsidiary of　Bandai Namco Holdings) and DeNA (owner of SNS and games publisher Mobage) for the cooperative development of social games and other “network contents”.

In addition to an enviable franchise portfolio, Bandai Namco Holdings has ample experience as a games developer and publisher. DeNA has established itself as a leading providing of mobile social networking services and social games. With BNDeNA, Bandai Namco and DeNA hoped to foster knowledge sharing and staff exchanges that would benefit both companies. The fruits of the collaboration can be seen in titles released under the BNDeNA brand, such as Gundam Kingdom and Macross SP: Cross Deculture.

Both companies believe BNDeNA has fulfilled its role in information and personnel exchange and stress that the step of dissolving BNDeNA to work cooperatively as separate entities is a “natural development”.

As a result of BNDeNA’s dissolution, services for both Macross SP: Cross Deculture and Gundam Kingdom will be suspended permanently as of February 17th and March 20th, respectively.

News source: Inside Games

Mixi, Crooze See Shares Rise Amid Shaky Market

Posted 17:20 EST on 16JAN2014 by: indie navi news staff in news » acr drift, bandai namco, crooze, financials, mixi, monster strike

The following is a translation of the original article as it appears on Social Game Info

The Tokyo Stock Exchange saw general declines on the 14th, with companies in the games business also being affected. Amid these declines, Mixi’s Monster Strike continued to post strong sales, and publisher Crooz enjoyed increases in share price in response to high expectations for its upcoming title ACR Drift.

Mixi’s share price ended the day’s trading at 7,470 yen, up 790 yen (11.8 percent) from the previous Friday. Mixi’s title Monster Strike has become a fixture at the top of the App Store and Google Play sales rankings, spurring huge growth in the company’s share price. Monster Strike cracked the top 10 of the App Store sales rankings in the games category on the 10th, and remained there as of the time of this article (January 14th). In the Google Play sales rankings games category, as of the 14th Monster Strike had reached the 12th spot, its highest position yet and just within reach of the top 10.

Similarly, Crooze saw its share price rise for the 4th trading day in a row, coming to rest at 5,080 yen. This is the first time since May of 2013 Crooze’s share price has surpassed 5,000 yen. Investors have high expectations for Crooze’s iOS racing title ACR Drift, which was released in Australia on January 6th and will be released shortly in Japan.

Looking at large-name games publishers, Bandai Namco HD’s share price continued to drop, finishing trading down 4.8 percent at 2,208 yen. Several investment firms in countries outside of Japan adjusted their ratings of Bandai Namco HD’s shares from “buy” to “neutral”, likely contributing to the loss in share value. Explaining their readjustments, these firms assert that Bandai Namco HD’s advantages in the field of native application games has been factored into the share value, so that shares are no longer a bargain.

News and images source: Social Game Info