Katamari Damacy
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Katamari Damacy's creator debuts Project Tango-powered AR game
The maniacal minds behind the cult console hit, Katamari Damacy, have unveiled their latest wacky work, an experimental open-world game powered by Google's Tango AR system called Woorld.
Giant Katamari controller crafted from yoga ball, dreams
Chris McInnis, Ron LeBlanc and Tom Gwozdz created this giant, extremely wonderful custom Katamari Damacy controller out of a yoga ball, a gutted DualShock 2, an Arduino microcontroller, some wood, a song in their hearts and the giant, cheshire-cat smiles on their assuredly happy little faces. The controller was built as the centerpeice of a larger, Katamari Damacy-themed installation at London-based fringe festival Nuit Blanche, which allowed attendees to play the game via building-side projection – there was also custom artwork and some pretty fantastic costumes. Chris, Ron, Tom, if you're listening, we only have one suggestion: Oculus Rift support. Eh? Eh? Think about it. [Thanks, Kellbot!]
Keita Takahashi and Journey producer Robin Hunicke working on new project
During the E3 alternative Horizon conference, former Journey producer and now Funomena head Robin Hunicke announced a partnership with Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi. Very little was revealed about the game, though Takahashi asked the audience to "imagine blocks coming to life." The idea came from playing with his son, said Takahashi. The game will be present at tonight's Horizon mixer, and we'll be on the scene.
Katamari Damacy rolls onto PSN as PS2 Classic next week
Katamari Damacy is part of next week's PlayStation Store update. So if on April 30 you see a massive ball of clumped-together games where the PSN should be, you'll know what's up.The game, first released in North America almost ten years ago, will come to PSN as a PS2 Classic. That means it's playable on PS3, but not Vita. If you need a portable fix of rollable crazy, there's always Touch My Katamari.
'Alphabet' made by Takahashi and Saltsman for LA Game Space backers
Alphabet (written by its creators as A͈L͈P͈H͈A͈B͈E͈T͈) is a new game put together by Katamari Damacy's Keita Takahashi and Canabalt's Adam Saltsman. It was created for the bundle of indie games being given away to Kickstarter backers of the LA Game Space.The mysterious Alphabet will be shown off later this week in Austin as part of "Juegos Rancheros," an event for the game development community. Also on display will be Takahashi's Tenya Wayna Teens, which involves two players – with sixteen buttons each – trying to avoid awkward social mishaps while trying to express teen love.Alphabet, whatever it is, will be rewarded to backers as a playable game for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Keita Takahashi unveiling new multiplayer game during GDC
Keita Takahashi, creator of the Katamari Damacy series and Noby Noby Boy, is currently working on a new multiplayer-focused game. Takahashi will unveil his new work during the joint Wild Rumpus/Venus Patrol party on March 27 during GDC in San Francisco.Wild Rumpus and Venus Patrol both collaborated with Takahashi on the new project, and promise all parties involved will reveal more on the lead-up to GDC at the end of March. Takahashi's last collaboration was with Canabalt creator Adam Saltsman, late last year when the two contributed to the LA Game Space Kickstarter campaign.
Katamari and Canabalt creators make a game just for LA Game Space
LA Game Space has 10 days to reach its Kickstarter goal and is half way there, with $125,000 more to go. Today it's sweetening the deal for potential backers: Keita Takahashi, the creator of Katamari Damacy, and Adam Saltsman, the (running) man behind Canabalt, are teaming up to create a game just for people who back the project.Anyone who pledges $5 or more to the LA Game Space Kickstarter will get Takahashi and Saltsman's game – whatever it turns out being – for PC, Mac or Linux. This is on top of the reward for pledges of $15 and more, which offers 30 new games from prominent indie developers such as Hotline Miami's Cactus, Steve Swink of Scale, Ben Esposito of Unfinished Swan, and Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward in collaboration with QWOP's Bennett Foddy, among others. Check out the entire list on on the Kickstarter's main page.LA Game Space is looking to create a hub of game creation in Los Angeles, featuring development tools, pseudo classrooms, mentorship and networking opportunities, along with game development workshops streamed, for free, around the world. We interviewed co-founder Adam Robezzoli in a special episode of the Super Joystiq Podcast; give it a listen right here.
Namco Bandai iOS games on sale through Monday
For those looking to save a few bucks but want some new mobile games to play while waiting in check-out lines on Black Friday, Namco Bandai has you covered. The publisher recently put 20 of its apps on sale on the App Store, giving iPhone and iPad users through Monday, November 19 to cash in on games such as Pac-Man Championship Edition and SoulCalibur.A full list of the games included in the sale can be found after the break.
Katamari comic starts soon, greet the sun and the King of All Cosmos
Katamari is taking on comic form with a new online series from Alex Culang and Raynato Castro, the pair currently penning Buttersafe. The comic run begins September 17 and will be updated every Monday and Wednesday at 5 a.m. PST, over at ShiftyLook. Destructoid has a preview of the Katamari comic, featuring the Prince of All Cosmos and his father, the King With A Chiseled Chin (name paraphrased). Culang and Castro will be at New York Comic-Con, running October 11 - 14, dropping all the details post-premiere.
Katamari Damacy rolling into New York Museum of Modern Art
Katamari Damacy – the game, and not a big ball made up of everything in sight – will be on display in New York's Museum of Modern Art. The game is part of the "Century of the Child: Growing by Design" exhibit, running from July 29 until November 5."Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000," is an overview of the "modernist preoccupation with children and childhood as a paradigm for progressive design thinking." OMG, right!?But, for real, the exhibition plans on bringing together areas underrepresented in design history, including "school architecture, clothing, playgrounds, children's hospitals and safety equipment, nurseries, furniture, and books."If only they'd conclude the exhibit by rolling up everything on display into a giant ball and displaying it in the lobby for years to come.
Daily iPhone App: Katamari Amore
Na naaaaa na na na na na na na, na na na na na naaaa! Odds are that by now, you've played a Katamari game, and you know the deal: Roll a ball around, pick up stuff, make the ball bigger, and pick up more stuff. That's what Katamari Amore is, and you won't find anything really new here. The music is the same, a lot of the items are the same, and with the exception of some more nonsensical words of wisdom from the King, the story is pretty much the same. That being said, this is still a really fun game to play, and though the controls on the iPhone (and iPad) are not quite as precise as those on the original console game, rolling around and picking things up is still a good time. And if you've never played one of these games, you won't really find a cheaper way into the series: Katamari Amore is on the App Store for free, and if you like the Time Trial mode (sadly the only available mode in the free version), you can open up the rest of the game for $3.99. The full game has 17 missions and six endless modes, so you can roll that ball for as long as you want. If you really love Katamari, you'll probably get your kicks out of this one, and while this probably isn't the absolute best introduction to the series for newcomers (I'm still partial to the original game on the PS2), it's a pretty easy way to try it out. Royal Rainbow!
Katamari Damacy Vita details revealed, things get stretchy
Katamari Damacy is coming to the PS Vita and, as you might imagine, the franchise's clearly insane creators have some rather bold ideas about how to implement the handheld's many, many inputs. For instance, the touchscreen will be used to navigate the Prince's sticky sphere around the game's object-strewn environments, while the rear touchpad will "stretch the ball either horizontally or vertically to pick up more objects at once or squeeze through a narrow gap." We can't wait for more details about the title to surface. You just know the gyroscope is going to have some application, right? Maybe it'll let you control the King of All Cosmos' Royal Rainbows, or maybe it will give you the ability to wiggle the Prince's antenna. Forget it, we're just not thinking crazy enough. %Gallery-134103%
Namco publishing Shinobido 2 in NA, teases Katamari for Vita
Namco Bandai has revealed that it's publishing Shinobido 2: Tales of the Ninja, the PlayStation Vita ninja-stealth game from Tenchu creator Acquire. In Shinobido 2, players sneak, climb walls, and perform silent executions as the ironically named Zen, a betrayed ninja. It's due to be a launch title for North America next year. Meanwhile, in Japan, Namco introduced the new Katamari Damacy no Vita, with a short video (after the break). In the video, the Prince is shown to have the ability to stretch the katamari into a tall, thin oval or a short one, presumably using the Vita's many (OK, two) touch-based interfaces. %Gallery-133955%
'Man vs. Katamari' rolls us up into a ball of terror
Naaaaaaaaaa na na na na na na na, na naaaaa naaaaaa na naaaaa naaaaaaaaaaaa. Naaaaaaaaaaaaaa na na na na na na na, na naaaaa naaaaa na na naaaa naaaa naaaa naaaa naaaaaaaaaaaa.
Namco Bandai files for 'Katamari Amore,' 'Time Trip' trademarks
Siliconera has turned up listings for four trademark applications that Namco Bandai recently submitted to the Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (the trademark registry for the European Union). While all of the potential trademarks have been filed under general video game-related classifications, two are explicitly linked to the publisher's Katamari Damacy franchise. Filings for "Katamari Amore" and "Katamari Amore Rolling Whopper" indicate that Namco Bandai might be preparing to roll out a new entry in the ball-it-up series. (That, or maybe two great kings are forming a strategic alliance for fast food promotion.) It's been nearly seven months since Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi left Nacmo Bandai for good; though he wasn't directly involved with the last four Katamari games, which marked a steady decline for the brand. 2009's HD iteration, Katamari Forever for PS3, did little to update the played out formula, and Namco Bandai has shelved the series since. Namco Bandai filed two additional trademark applications, for "Time Trip" and "Have a nice trip!," along with the Katamari ones, but there's no clear relation between the set. Of course, anything "Trip" calls to mind one-half of the dynamic duo in last year's critical darling Enslaved -- not that we're calling these vague 'marks any indication of a sequel. [Pictured: Beautiful Katamari]
Katamari Hack rolls across your favorite websites, leaving swath of HTML5 destruction in its wake
Google Chrome may have come out of Pwn2Own unscathed, but you can rip through any website it (or another HTML5-compliant browser) displays -- just pull out your handy Katamari Damacy ball and wreak havok on the page. Na NAaaa, na na na na na na na, na na na na na naaaa... Alternatively, paste the following Javascript into a bookmark, and then click it when you're tiring of a page. javascript:var i,s,ss=['http://kathack.com/js/kh.js','http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.1/jquery.min.js']; for(i=0;i!=ss.length;i++){s=document.createElement('script');s.src=ss[i];document.body.appendChild(s);}void(0);
Keita Takahashi still working on games post-Namco
During last week's GameCity conference, Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi explained his departure from Namco Bandai in an interview with Eurogamer. "The games I was making were not necessarily the best-selling ones," he said. "I realized Namco was, as a business, going down a bit. Also, my colleagues were leaving to do another project. I started to feel like I didn't belong there any more." On the subject of why his own games didn't sell better: "Maybe because they're not so interesting," Takahashi said. "The reason why is one of the things I'm trying to find out. If I knew, I wouldn't struggle. I don't know." Personally, we hope he never learns the secrets to game industry success (like Unreal Engine and Nolan North). He opined that the constant development of sequels by major publishers is "boring," while also admitting that he understood the business perspective. "I haven't seen anyone trying to make something really new out of the profit they made from those sequels," he said. Since leaving, Takahashi and his wife have formed a new company, Uvula. He's also working on a playground in Nottingham, the town that hosts GameCity. "I'm going to work on more videogames," Takahashi said, including ideas to present to other publishers. "In general, I want to work on lots of different things that I couldn't work on when I was at Namco."
Katamari Damacy director and wife reveal new company
Katamari Damacy director Keita Takahashi and wife Asuka Sakai officially unveiled their new company, named "Uvula," with a low-key website. Rather than focusing solely on game development, the company's "About Us" page details a focus on "music and video games," adding that "we want to widen the our [sic] limit." Oddly, Uvula's first project falls outside of the realm of music and video games, with Takahashi designing a playground in the UK. In typical Takahashi fashion, the company's website contains an "Others" page filled with, well ... other, often bizarre stuff that he created over the years (our fave was the hippo tissue holder seen above). Sure, the announcement of the new business is exciting and all, but, um, have you seen this goat flower box? Remarkable.
Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi leaves Namco
King of all kings of the cosmos -- Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy creator Keita Takahashi -- is leaving Namco, reports Play.tm. A Namco representative confirmed Takahashi's resignation. The developer expressed his dissatisfaction in the past with developing for the Japanese publisher, even saying he was disappointed with the support he received for Noby Noby Boy. He's also expressed interest in branching out to other careers, telling the BBC in 2005, "In 10 years time, I am not going to be making games any more." More recently, he got to work on plans for a playground in Nottingham, UK. [Image credit: jontintinjordan]
Katamari Forever goes gold, rolls into stores on September 22
Namco Bandai has announced that their upcoming PS3 exclusive Katamari Forever has gone gold. That means it's done. Finished. Kaput.The upcoming Blu-ray release will retail for $49.99, which is about 17% cheaper than the average PS3 game, and about 250% more than what we wanted to pay for the game. While Forever promises a good deal of content and a variety of visual filters, we're not entirely sure if PS3 owners are willing to pay such a high premium on what is, essentially, an HD remix of past Katamari games. The temptation of an easy Platinum may attract Trophy hunters, but we have a feeling many of you will be skipping on this release until the (inevitable) price drop.%Gallery-51402%
