My sorta-brief review of E3 so far (Updated)

This will be "sorta-brief" because, well, I think this sums my feelings up best...

Microsoft, for the most part, stank (it was Kinectmania).  Ubisoft annoyed me with their host Aisha Tyler introducing games I generally didn't care about.  EA was EA as usual.  Sony did a lot more of the same--sequels with little-to-no major changes, a showy 3D-scanned motion-captured "cinematic" game (Beyond, from the makers of Heavy Rain but not as good), a shameless clone of successful Nintendo game, and introducing an stupid investment that no one who owns a PS3 will buy (WonderBook).

Now this leaves me to Nintendo, which whom, personally, I was favoring.  I'm quite fond of the interesting concept of Wii U.  I've followed its development from day one.  I can see its clear potential in gaming.  After a largely boring and disappointing E3 thus far, the ball was clearly in Nintendo's court.  But Nintendo really dropped the ball.  In terms of presenting, yet again they present an interesting piece of hardware but once again they failed to provide an impressive list of launch games.

They introduced a new system that was clearly the best hardware of E3 (the Wii U console--namely the Wii U GamePad controller), and started off by introducing the long-awaited Pikmin 3, which was nice.  And then a special-edition Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition was shown.  It was okay, but nothing outstanding that the game that's already out.  And then it just kinda went south from there, when Nintendo soon gave the floor to Ubisoft (and you know Ubisoft, they're 8 out of 10 of their games are going to be forgettable).  And, well, just watch some conference highlights on somewhere like GameSpot or the E3 website.  Overall, though, it'll leave you feeling like Lemongrab.

I think Wii U still has a chance to make it, but Nintendo just needs to get their act together by taking advantage of their advantages.  In case you haven't seen the E3 presentation or heard news from it, just know that they started off good and then it went all downhill from there, ending the evening talking about a game that frankly should've been left to the show floor to reveal.

But here's 12 announced and strongly-suggested games that I was hoping would be talked about more from Nintendo during their main E3 presentation, but they didn't and for the life in me I don't know why:

1. Zelda HD (it's in the works and would've been pivotal--why not show something about it, even if just concept art?)
2. Star Fox Wii U (one developed by Retro Studios, just as they said they'd like to do)
3. Golden Sun 3DS (there's more 3DS games to announce later, but my hopes aren't up anymore...)
4. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS (again, it's in the works and would've been pivotal--show something)
5. F-Zero Wii U (Miyamoto said he'd like to see it on Wii U--listen to the man!)
6. Zone of Enders 3DS (Konami tweeted about the game--show something)
7. Metroid Wii U (some guy hinted that it was in consideration--why not do it and show something?)
8. Fire Emblem Wii U (I was confident that this game would be announced...)
9. That announced RPG in development from Monolith
10. Project C.A.R.S. (again, it's coming to the Wii U--why wasn't anything on it shown?)
11. An MMORPG announcement from Funcom (as they indicated was a good possibility)
12. Ghost Recon Online Arcade (this game was one of the first games to exist for Wii U and would've been one of Ubisoft's better games to show--why wasn't it shown anywhere during the main presentation?)

Most of these games are actual Wii U games in development--why weren't they announced? It's so stupid, because the Wii U doesn't have to suffer the criticism it's now going to suffer if only they had announced some of these games.  I still haven't given up on Wii U yet, and I think it still has a reasonable chance at success, but I think Nintendo's made their already uphill battle just that much more harder for themselves.

By fumbling that golden opportunity of a second first-impression of the Wii U to more dedicated "core" gamers, they've especially disappointed longtime fans like myself who can also still see how much potential the Wii U has, but just didn't get met last night.  Now we currently look like fools for trusting Nintendo to knock it out of the part (for once).  We still might gain some vindication later from the Wii U later, but for right now, we're in bandages.

Anyways, while it wasn't a total lose.  At least I know that many of those games I listed are actually in development, and among some of the announced games for Wii U was the likes of Trine 2: Directors Edition a Wii U edition of Mass Effect 3, and a very interesting "mass-hero action" game currently called Project P-100.  As bad as Nintendo was on-stage, I've actually seen worse lineup of launch titles (even the recent PS Vita comes to mind here).  There's still more Nintendo 3DS games to be announced.  And things are still early even for Wii U.  So here's to looking on the bright side.

- Brian

Update [06/15/2012]:  Nintendo's president Satoru Iwata has spoken some more about just why Nintendo only announced their launch titles at their E3 conference, and furthermore, reason why I shouldn't have doubted them (and it's so simple, really): They didn't want other people to copy their upcoming ideas for Wii U, so they're keeping quiet about it.  Well, that's a relief!

But a lifelong fan, knowing their innovating characteristic and unconventional quirks for going against the grain, after many being relentlessly and shamelessly imitated, I should've known something like this was the reason why, because it was rather uncharacteristic of Nintendo.  I mean, even last year, they did announce new Zelda and Super Smash Bros. title before they were even in production.  All of a sudden, any remaining post-E3 stress I had has now died.  Though even before now, as you can see in my writing above, I was already waning in my initial disappointment about their E3 conference.  My anatomical structure has been prepared once again for Wii U, full throttle!

E3 is almost here and I can't wait!

My anatomical structure is prepared.

Looking forward to E3 coming up!  I personally don't much care about planned new on Kinect, Halo 4, PS Vita or the probable failure EVO 2--this E3 will probably be all Nintendo for me.

I saw the Nintendo Direct Pre-E3 video from Nintendo presented by Mr. Satoru Iwata today, where he revealed a little about Wii U, and I have to say that if that was just a taste, then Wii U is going to be quite a delicious dish.  And I think the purposely-cheesy funny concept video of a frustrated Wii U gamer seeking help with his game is probably going to introduce this year's E3 meme: "non-specific action figure."

Anyways, my guess overall is that in face of a boring presentation from Sony and Microsoft this year and in light of the high praise several major developers have given the Wii U before now, Nintendo's probably going to steal the spotlight at E3 again this year!

I'll post back later and talk a bit about E3!  Meanwhile, check out some stuff I'm posting on my game developer's blog.

- Brian

TWO demos for the Kickstarter and other news

I'm working on two different playable demos to present as the example of my game Cyka, which I'll be seeking some support with through Kickstarter.  What kind of two demos?  Well, one demo is being developed with the Unity game engine and one is being developed with Unreal Development Kit.  And they're both representing two great versions of the game Cyka.

One game, two game engines. six stores!

I needed two versions to fulfill the potential of this game.  I wanted this game to be available for as many platforms as possible and to play seamlessly cross-platform and persistent-world online between those platforms, and for that, I'm choosing the Unity game engine to develop the "standard" version of Cyka.  I wanted this same game to be even more visually-stunning, the environments to be even more destructible and interactive, and to be available for Steam (which currently does not support cross-platform with such other platforms as mobile devices), and for that, I'm choosing the UDK to develop the rather "enhanced" version of Cyka.

This second UDK version will be called Cyka: Steamed Edition (fitting for a steampunk-themed game), will include the Cloud Quest mode found in the non-Steam special edition of Cyka called Cyka: Cloud Quest Edition, and the present plan is that it will be priced lower than the original wider-platform version of Cyka.  But both versions will be huge genre-bending experiences, beautifully-rendered, done with 100% quality, and put you in the company of thousands of gamers online.  And we still plan to enter our a working demo of each version of our game into the Independent Game Festival (IGF) and IndieCade 2013 both next year, and yes, we aim to win the top prizes in both (we're that confident about the brilliance of this game).  My company PolyKhrome will be pushing the limits of both game engines, as our game pushes new limits in the genre of online action real-time strategy games.  I explain it all here on my developer's blog.

If you'd like to know a little more about what game I'm creating, please visit my development blog.  And if you have any questions or comments about the game or my company, please e-mail me at PolyKhrome@gmail.com (soon to be BrianLockett@PolyKhrome.com when our official website is complete).  Some details about the Kickstarter have already been revealed, and there's more to come in coming days.  I've got some great offerings in store for supporters, but without the demos, they mean nothing.  So PolyKhrome is diligently working to develop two demos that'll blow you away.

If you're interested in possibly joining PolyKhrome, send me an e-mail and provide me with a link to your website, blog, or portfolio, and we can talk.  I'll provide more details then, but I can say that while experience with Blender and Photoshop are preferred, we can work with users of other software, but good experience with Unity and/or UDK is necessary.  We'll be looking for an assets artist or two (characters, environments, props, and 2D elements), an additional game programmer or two (preferably one with some network programming experience), and an illustrator with some graphic design experience.  Later, we'll be looking for an additional game musician/sound designer, though we already do have plans for later seeking a particular amazing freelance game musician in mind.

Also, this summer, I'll be starting back my Operation Moogle effort on the side.  It was a project I started last year to respond to Square Enix's call for an organized effort to be enough of a united voice saying we wanted a Final Fantasy HD collection from them of their most beloved Final Fantasy titles of the past.  Last year, we went into a hiatus as summer came to a close, but this year, we're picking up right where we left--and our supporters are ecstatic!  And Square Enix are listening--we currently have an employee with some brass at Square Enix following us on our Twitter page!  If that sounds interesting to you, check it out, sign our petition, and take our poll--your voice counts.

And finally, I'm excited about the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 (or E3 2012), just 12 days away!  Personally, I'm very interested in the only officially-announced next-gen console to be showed there, the Wii U from Nintendo, as both a gamer and an indie game developer.  I've been following the development of this console for the last year and a half, back when it was just a mysterious project, and when it was finally unveiled last year at E3 2011 (and I talked about it here on this blog last year), I can say that I immediately saw what I could do with that system.  It immediately addressed some of the things I wanted to do with gaming, and its controller is really all I can ask for as a game developer.  I can definitely say that the Wii U will be in PolyKhrome's future, as soon as we become a better established to do so with our current work!  I'd love nothing more than to see the likes of Cyka II (which is already being planned) on the Wii U someday...

Anyways, folks, that concludes this post.  I hope to hear from some of you soon!  I tell you, this is going to be one exciting summer, folks!

- Brian