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Studio Pixel's Kero Blaster finally hops to it in May
Goats are so last season and frogs are the new hotness: Kero Blaster, the long-delayed platformer from the maker of Cave Story, is coming to Windows PC and iOS on May 11. The game stars Kaeru, a bipdeal frog who looks a bit like Kermit, but unlike The Muppets star he's armed to the teeth* with some powerful-looking weaponry. More like Kermit, he's in interspecial love with his feline girlfriend, who he's running and gunning to rescue. Studio Pixel AKA Daisuke Amaya originally intended to bring the game to iPhone last May, back when it was known as Gero Blaster. He delayed it to add some improvements, and in the interim it seems Japan-friendly distributor of indie games Playism got involved, and now there's a PC version on the way too. If you're interested in an early look at Kero Blaster, Playism says it's showcasing the game at next week's PAX East conference in Boston. [Image: Playism] *Turns out frogs do have teeth
Cave Story creator's Gero Blaster delayed
Daisuke Amaya and Studio Pixel's Gero Blaster isn't going to hop onto iPhones this month. The side-scroller starring a lovestruck frog was originally pinned for May, but with the month quickly depleting, Cave Story and Ikachan creator Amaya announced he's "decided to postpone it." While he didn't disclose a new release window, Amaya noted the delay isn't to overhaul the game, but to tweak it. "Previously, I've remade my work a few times before its completion," Amaya said. "This time, however, is for improving it and not remaking it. I am now doing my best for the completion to make it a more fun and exciting game." Gero Blaster stars Kaeru, a frog running-and-gunning to rescue his cat girlfriend. As for when this croak tale of interspecies love is likely to arrive, Amaya said he'll let fans know once he has an approximate idea.
Cave Story dev's Guxt rated for 3DS, will include vertical display mode
As Cave Story designer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya told us in an interview last March, he's been working on a version of his vertical scrolling shmup Guxt for the 3DS, and Nicalis, who's publishing the game, has just tweeted recently that it's been rated by the ESRB and is ready to go. You can download and play the game online for free on the PC right now, though the game will be updated for Nintendo's handheld for sure.One of the game's producers has tweeted that the title will have a "vertical display mode", so players will be able to tilt the 3DS to hold it vertically, and see the game on a correctly-aligned screen, rather than having a bar running through the middle of the action. Unfortunately, there's no word on exactly when the game will arrive, but considering it's been in development for a while., "soon" is probably the answer you're looking for. Stay tuned.
Interview: Cave Story's salaryman designer, Daisuke 'Pixel' Amaya
Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya is one of just a few Japanese names in the indie gaming pantheon, after developing 2004's Cave Story entirely on his own as a labor of love. This year, he came to the Game Developers Conference to present a long-overdue postmortem about the development of Cave Story and to promote the upcoming 3DS remake, which he's working on with developer Nicalis and publisher NIS America. During this presentation, Amaya showed never-before-seen footage of a beta version of Cave Story, including locations, characters, and enemies that didn't make it into the beloved indie game. Soon after the presentation, we sat down with the game designer, and found out that despite the popularity of Cave Story, he still has a day job. For now. " I still work full time as a salaryman," Amaya told Joystiq, "but from April I'm going to be a full time developer." He explained that he planned to leave his job as a programmer for large-scale printing equipment a year ago, but "everybody was like 'are you really okay with developing games?' They weren't really sure if I could support myself." As he also had to train his replacement, his transition to full-time game designer was delayed. " I have a wife, I have kids, so [his co-workers] were a bit worried. It's not like they doubt my skill."
Cave Story before it was Cave Story
During his GDC talk "The Story of Cave Story," developer Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya revealed that two years into the development of his 2004 indie hit, he scrapped his game design and started completely over. He then proceeded to show a video of this beta. This version is very different from what we eventually ended up playing. It featured not only Quote, but Sue and a frog prince as playable characters, each of whom takes over at a certain part of the story. The famous rectangular boss Balrog is present, but he's named "Puu" and has a much less expressive face. He's occasionally seen wearing a scuba mask or other facewear. He's joined by another soap-bar guy named Oscar, who can ... transform into an angry cloud that shoots lightning. And, of course, the level layouts were all different. Weapons aren't upgradable, and are only acquired by purchasing them from shops. The music, however, sounded like what made it into the final game. We hastily snapped some pictures of the video in motion, so you can get a glimpse of this unreleased version in our gallery below. The quality isn't great, because, well, it was a video playing on a projector.%Gallery-118452%
