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'Life, liberty, and the pursuit of a perfect tea ceremony'
Bangkok-based Studio Nocturne has kept busy cultivating its games and shopping them around for interested publishers, so it's understandable that we haven't heard much about Housewife Superstar or Makeup Diva since last year's Game Developers Convention.As chauvinistic as Housewife Superstar's title sounds, it's a tongue-in-cheek production in which players master a collection of minigames in their quest to become the perfect stereotypical Japanese housewife. Those minigame activities include mochi making, flower arranging, traditional fan dancing, and, of course, hosting a tea ceremony. Sounds like a bizarre scenario, right? Well, that's what people thought about Cooking Mama, and look at how that turned out!Studio Nocturne has brought in Insert Credit's Brandon Sheffield to handle the game's story, a name some of you might remember from his wonderful work on Barnyard Blast's script with Sanuk Software, another Thai developer.Let's go through these details one more time: offbeat title from a little-known, DS/Wii-exclusive developer strong, colorful art direction peculiar premise for strange minigames promises of a humor-filled script Color us excited! Color us badd, too, because we want to sex this game up. Hit the gallery below for screenshots and artwork from Housewife Superstar.%Gallery-17666%
GDC 07: Makeup and Japanese housewife sims
Forget being a lawyer. Or a surgeon. Two new games from Studio Nocturne, a Thailand game development team, are going to make you experience the horrors and trials of being a Makeup Diva and a Housewife Superstar. Ai Housewife Superstar appears to be a celebration of pre-suffrage femininity: various mini-games will take you through what looks to be quite the Cinderella story.More exciting was Makeup Diva, and not just because of the mysterious (and unexplained) Nintendo Wi-Fi logo featured on the game's poster. The game has you preparing the ultra-glam looks of faux celebrities. One of the game's developers spoke about a much-too-timely addition to the game: a certain celebrity must recover from a head shaving gone wrong--and only the Makeup Diva can save the day! Each of the scenarios will attempt to parody famous people and movies: "It's a lot like Mad TV," one of the representatives said.The concept is certainly exciting, but hopefully the game will deliver the gameplay to make a truly insane, fun experience. Writing of Phoenix Wright caliber would do wonders for a game as quirky and unique as this one. Hopefully, we'll see more of Makeup Diva (and Housewife Superstar) in the future.
