Where is my Heart? is finally available on PlayStation Vita in North America! It had already been available on the European store, but now it’s out in both regions. You can download it in the “Minis” section of PlayStation Store.
(The above image is excerpt from Alpenland, the comic sequel to Where is my Heart?)
While living with the deer-man through autumn and winter the little boy starts taking care of the deer-man’s greenhouse.
Concept work for Alpenland the comic sequel to Where is my Heart?.
(Alpenland Concept Part 3 here)
Today we want to share a little taste of what we’ve been working on the last few weeks.
Yes, we’re still working on Johann Sebastian Joust and Where is my Heart?, but some of us have also started work on our new game, Mutazione. We haven’t shared so many details about the game yet, though you can read some background info here. The game is going to be a character-driven “swamp opera” set in a strange tropical world.
We don’t want to say too much just yet, but above you can view an early concept of the main character, Kay, sitting in her garden. We’ve also been experimenting with the sound and melodies generated by the garden’s ecosystem. Take a listen:
All those sounds are by our trusty composer, Alessandro Coronas. Alessandro is same guy who did the sound and music for Where is my Heart? and we’re excited to share more of his new work with you. Stay tuned!
This week we’ve received a flood of inquiries about our game Johann Sebastian Joust. Particularly, there have been some allegations that J.S. Joust has become the victim of “cloning.” In turn, a number of media outlets have asked us for an official response.
In this post, we address some of these issues and offer our opinion on a variety of topics.
We’re proud to announce that our award-winning party game B.U.T.T.O.N. (made in collaboration with the Copenhagen Game Collective) is part of Indie Royale’s All-Charity Pack. For just a couple of dollars, you can get B.U.T.T.O.N. and three other rad indie games. If you donate $7 or more, you also get some bonus soundtracks!
More importantly, all the proceeds go to charity! (after credit card fees)
The bundle lasts through the weekend. Go get it before time runs out!
(Photo courtesy GameCity)
For the last three years, I’ve been working on a PhD in design theory and game design, at IT University of Copenhagen’s Center For Computer Game Research. I ended up writing about some of the games I’ve been developing in my life as an indie, including Johann Sebastian Joust, B.U.T.T.O.N., and Dark Room Sex Game.
I finally finished the dissertation this year, and I’ll be giving my “defense” next week, in the form of a public lecture. My talk is going to get quite theoretical, but in case you’re into that sort of thing and will be in Copenhagen, feel free to attend. Abstract and details below!
Research is important, that’s why we have neither spared expenses nor pain to do proper research for Mutazione on Hawai’i, even though we would rather be in cold and rainy Copenhagen right now. Here’s some footage from a walk we did yesterday on an abandoned road, the old Pali highway on Oahu.
Aloha from Oahu!
Nils and I are here in Hawaii on a work/vacation trip. Last week we drove around the Big Island, and this week we’re staying with my family friends in Lanikai.
The last few months have been extraordinarily busy for me. I submitted my PhD dissertation on March 1, and then the day after I left for GDC, where we had our hands quite full. So, it’s been great to finally escape to some relaxation – I really need it!
But this trip isn’t all vacation. We’ve come specifically to Hawaii to do some research for our upcoming action-adventure game, Mutazione. The game is going to be a character-driven “swamp soap opera” set in a strange tropical world. The game is originally Nils’ brainchild, and it’s very much driven by his illustrations. We just started production two months ago, so it’s still in the very early stages.
I don’t want to give away too much about the game right now, but what I will share is that Mutazione is going to centrally involve various ecosystems of tropical plant life. So for both Nils and I, it’s been hugely inspiring to hang out in a tropical environment. Here in Hawaii we’ve been spending a lot of time at botanical gardens and in the jungle. We’ve also started to read some biology textbooks on plants and mushrooms. We aren’t so interested in making some kind of biologically accurate simulation, but doing this kind of serious research does open up a lot of game design ideas, and helps Nils with his illustration work. Finding inspiration is important!
(Photo from Official GDC Flickr stream)
Nils and I are currently away on vacation, recovering after an extremely hectic week at the 2012 Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. GDC week was a little too busy, but we nevertheless had a very enjoyable and productive trip!
I’ll write more about the trip soon, but for now I just wanted to share the one major piece of news:
Our game Johann Sebastian Joust won the “Innovation” award at the 2012 Game Developers Choice Awards!
We’re so honored and humbled! This award is particularly crazy because we were chosen over some AAA titles like Portal 2 and LA Noire. Wow!
When? This Spring!
What? Our puzzle platformer game, Where is my Heart?
Where? Windows, Mac, and Linux!
Can you be more specific? Not yet, but stay tuned for more news!
And remember that the game is already out on PSN, for your PSP and PS3.
(Game journalists, drop us an email if you want to chat with us about the game at GDC next week.)