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'Walter' developer Blossom Minds seeks immediate next-gen publishing help
"As of today, with most known opportunities investigated, we're preparing to put the studio on hold if we can't find a solution in the next few days. Walter can't be released without a financial support for the remaining development." That's the bottom line about the bottom line from Blossom Minds, the studio founded by former Eden Games talent.Last year, the studio unveiled Walter, an adorable platformer about some water with googly eyes. It had plans to release the game in 2013 on PSN, XBLA, and Steam, but those plans have evaporated."Right after our debut trailer was released last year, we got a solid opportunity with a publisher," the studio revealed in a statement today. "As a part of this deal, besides Steam, we've been upgrading Walter for next-generation consoles (ps4 & durango), rewriting our in-house engine and boosting graphic assets. We've been working and negociating [sic] for months."However, that unnamed publisher backed out, leaving Blossom Minds in its current predicament.
Walter puts the 'aww' back in 'agua' in its premiere trailer
Oh, now we get it – all this time we thought the healthcare authorities were telling us to drink more water, but apparently all we need is Walter, this adorable, quirky platformer. Watching the above trailer, we think we could survive off of its cuteness alone for a few months, easy.As we learned back in November, Walter is a PSN, XBLA, Steam title launching in 2013, which follows a bundle of water with eyes as he takes on an evil oil company. This is the first trailer for the debut title from indie developer Blossom Minds, a French studio founded in part by Jérôme Braune, a former designer at Eden Games.So, as the doctors says, stay healthy and drink some Walter this summer. With your eyeballs. Drink Walter with your eyeballs. That sounds about right.
Blossom Minds teases 'Walter,' a platformer starring ... liquid?!
Indie studio Blossom Minds has ecology on the brain with its new game, "Walter." The titular protagonist appears to be composed of two parts hydrogen, one part oxygen and a pair of eager-looking eyeballs. Walter's "uneven fight against an evil oil company" takes the form of a vibrant platformer. No further details have been announced, but we do know that Blossom Minds is targeting PSN, XBLA and Steam for its games. "It's a technically advanced game and can only be done on those platforms," studio co-founder Jérôme Braune told us in July. "We are not making games for phones or Facebook. Nothing can beat the feeling of having a gamepad in hand." Hey, that didn't stop us from befriending a courageous dolphin in EcoQuest: The Search for Cetus, did it?
Blossom Minds targeting PSN, XBLA and Steam for first game
Earlier this month we saw the formation of Blossom Minds, a French indie studio with chia on the brain and small-scale productions at heart. Its first project has not been specified, but co-founder Jérôme Braune tells Joystiq that it would "surely" sprout on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Steam. "It's a technically advanced game and can only be done on those platforms," Braune says. "We are not making games for phones or Facebook. Nothing can beat the feeling of having a gamepad in hand." Braune, who is one of the studio's ten co-founders (and a former designer at Eden Games), sees Blossom Minds as a necessary break from big-brand bureaucracy. "The communication has always been the biggest problem," he says. "Decisions are made, not always clearly explained to employees. When this happens, people tend to feel less involved in projects and less motivated." As Braune sees it, a small studio removes the risk of garbled, hierarchical communication. Having a permanent publisher -- like Atari, in the case of Eden Games -- has its benefits, but Braune believes that game production under that model simply took too long. "Pre-production periods may last 18 months or more," he says. "It takes too long from the first concept ideas to the moment the game is shipped. For some games, the full cycle lasted more than 4 years. We want to make more games, more often." Blossom Minds is a label for a "brand new adventure," Braune says, and it's meant to highlight the company's focus on creativity. "You can't imagine how many names we've thought about for the company before finding something which suited everybody." Oh, and there's one little secret in the name: If all their ideals germinate fully, they might just blow some minds.
French studio Blossom Minds founded by former Eden Games designers
Blossom Minds is a new, independent French developer with a cheery chia-head logo and a desire to make "smaller games but with big production polish." The studio's first game is set to debut in 2012 through unannounced digital distribution channels. Before co-founding Blossom Minds, Jérôme Braune worked with Eden Games as a designer on open-world racer Test Drive 2 and Atari's survival-horror reboot, Alone in the Dark. Braune and nine others left Eden Games to pursue this publisher-free path, and claim that 13 years of shared experience in traditional businesses have taught them how to make "innovative game experiences for demanding gamers." In order to convey the team's spirit, the press release offers this cute quote: "We are done with AAA titles; let us bring the OOOOOOH! instead."
