shiny-entertainment
Latest
David Perry 'sure' new Earthworm Jim will eventually happen
David Perry, aside from now being a part of Sony, is perhaps best known for his contributions on the Earthworm Jim series, once 16-bit pride of the '90s that now rests beneath the soil from whence it came. Perry doesn't see that earthly retreat lasting forever."It's one of those things that, no one's got the time right now. I'm sure it's going to happen, I just can't tell you exactly when," Perry told Eurogamer during last week's Develop conference in Brighton, England. "It's just a bunch of guys who all have their own thing. Everyone has their own company. So, to get them to stop what they're doing and work on a game is very difficult, but it's something they all want to do." Perry explains some of the old gang keep in touch on Facebook, and says the obvious idea of doing a Kickstarter campaign was considered."The thing we had talked about in the past is Jim had been in retirement. So, he's been sitting at home watching movies and eating popcorn. He's grossly overweight now. The plan was to start with him literally getting off the sofa, and it's a disaster because he just hasn't done anything since. But he's got to get back into action again." Perry also explained that this hypothetical new game would definitely be 2D, with "little" camera control.
Earthworm Jim HD trailer wriggles out
So there's a trailer out for Earthworm Jim HD. Don't worry, it looks just fine. Gameloft was even kind enough to toss in some footage of the game's new co-op levels. Heck, we even get to see some entirely new single-player levels, replete with jet-packing grandmas and ... keyboard cat. That's all well and good, but what is up with Jim's voice? Maybe it's just the difference between old, muffled 16-bit samples and the modern sound clarity we enjoy today, but something seems off. Like "someone just grabbed the janitor and told him to say 'groovy' into a microphone" off. Come on, Gameloft. Surely someone over there has Tommy Tallarico's number*. *Or Dan Castellaneta's.
Gaikai promises to stream PC games like WoW straight to your browser
David Perry is one of those game developers who doesn't do anything small -- he started out with a company called Shiny Entertainment, responsible for great old games like Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, and the Enter the Matrix movie tie-in game, and nowadays he's moved on to the MMO market, where he's developed all kinds of crazy ideas (including, we're not kidding, a dance MMO). This is the kind of guy who has ideas and chases them down.His latest idea is a system called Gaikai, a "game streaming service" that allows players to jump right into any PC games they'd like, no installation or hard drive space necessary, online. There are a number of services like this springing up lately, including the much-discussed OnLive, where instead of depending on your local hardware to render and produce the game you're playing, you just send and recieve information with a remote server. As you can see above, Gaikai is focusing on PC games, and anyone who's planning on running a PC gaming service has to include World of Warcraft. Starting at about 6:00 into the video above, he shows off a version of WoW that requires no installation or loading at all; just sign in and play.
David Perry: Selling Earthworm Jim was the "dumbest move ever"
When you stop to think about iconic characters for each of the big three a few easy ones come to mind. Master Chief owning on Xbox, Super Mario fighting for Nintendo and Kratos breaking dudes on the PlayStation (or insert your own characters if these examples don't work for you). One character that had the potential to be a huge gaming icon after his introduction was Earthworm Jim.Jim had it all. Fun games, ridiculous cartoon and even action figures. Then one day the team that owned the rights to Earthworm Jim decided to call it a night and sell the character off for fear they wouldn't be able to bring him into the 3D world. David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, has recently come clean on one of the biggest mistakes his company ever made; letting Jim get away."[Selling the rights of Earthworm Jim to Interplay] turned out to be the dumbest move ever," Perry said in an interview with Kikizo. "There's been other versions of Earthwork Jim done that were done without our permission really, licensing deals, and I was very unhappy about them." We'd be happy enough to see the original titles added to the Xbox Live Arcade or any news on the announced fourth title in the series.You know, it's funny to hear losing Earthworm Jim was the biggest mistake in Shiny's history. We could have sworn it was just being involved with Enter the Matrix. Just saying.
2Moons players to see Bad Moons Rising
2Moons, the action MMO from Acclaim Games, has released their newest game update, called Bad Moons Rising, which features new content spread out across all activities and objects. These include new dungeons, quests, and 2 new maps, Space of Pilgrimage and Aquirai Ruins. A new pet system has been incorporated, allowing players the choice between 3 new pets, with more to come in future updates.Additionally, new players will find more engaging early-level content, while there are also all-new skills, weapons, and armor sets to utilize in the pursuit of combat excellence. David Perry, founder of Shiny Entertainment, promises new updates every 3 - 4 months, with the next 2 major updates 'already on the way'. Finally, there are a slew of great events centered on the update beginning on the 4th of April and continuing until the 11th. For more details, check out the site. Creedence Clearwater Revival notwithstanding, you will want to come 'round tonight!
Earthworm Jim finally coming back? Groovy.
Probably some of the most inventive, off-the-wall crap to come out on the SNES were the Earthworm Jim titles. Nothing could give the sense of high-octane shootin' action as well as some of the most insane humor found in video games of their day. Well, in another interview with former Shiny boss Dave Perry, it seems the worm-in-a-suit will be coming back for more.Perry said the entire team behind the games had reformed: "We reformed the (Earthworm Jim) team and they were all into it. Trust me, all the original Earthworm Jim guys are still very interested in the whole idea; just know that it'll happen eventually." Eventually, indeed. The last one to grace consoles on the N64 was delayed so many times people thought that was actually the game -- waiting. We don't know anything else. No consoles declared, no details... just that it'll happen eventually. Groovy.
PSP gets its Golden Compass
Fans of book to movie to game adaptations, are you going to wet your pants when you hear this news! Sega has let everyone know that they are releasing a game based on The Golden Compass film adaptation. The game is being developed by Shiny Entertainment (who are also working on the Earthworm Jim PSP title) and will feature the likenesses of the film's cast. You'll play as Lyra and her animal friends Pan and lorek Byrnison. The gameplay consists of using special items and sneakiness when playing Lyra and more head-on physical attacks with lorek. The game will span 13 environments based on areas from the movie as well as some areas that aren't featured in the film. I really have no idea what to expect of this title, but I used to love Shiny's games back in the day, so I can only hope this and Earthworm Jim are good fun. We'll find out for sure when The Golden Compass game is released this fall. [Via Gamespot ]
