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How to (not) make a slumber party video game
When you think of slumber parties and gaming, you might mull over slumber parties involving video games, but you're unlikely to think of the reverse. While there are examples frittered around here and there, like Sleepover Party and the much maligned We Dare on the Wii, slumber party video games represent a genre - if you can call it that - which hasn't been explored properly. At least, that's the feeling of KnapNok Games' Lau Korsgaard, one of the designers of the 2013 Wii U downloadable Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party. If you've not played it, the above trailer summarizes Bumpie's Party neatly. Two to eight players take turns to spin a virtual bottle on the Wii U Gamepad, and the players selected have to complete one of many physical challenges. Things like pushing Wiimote buttons with your noses, or holding controllers behind a friend's back while both of you try to jump in sync - you get the idea. If you're wondering what the inspirations for Bumpie's Party's unusual design are, Ubisoft's We Dare was a big influence... but not for good reasons.
Developers Nifflas, KnapNok team up for Affordable Space Adventures
Space travel isn't cheap, but that doesn't mean you need fancy things like radar-based vision or mechanical reliability to have a proper adventure! Affordable Space Adventures, an upcoming collaboration from Knytt Underground creator Nicklas "Nifflas" Nygren and Spin the Bottle developer KnapNok Games, seems keen on proving this. The Wii U eShop venture is planned to launch in the Fall of this year. Players will serve as pilots of Affordable Space Adventure's Small Crafts, navigating their ship through stealth-based puzzles in a dark, cavernous environment by using a lone spotlight. Multiple difficulties will be selectable, and if players are inclined to recruit a co-pilot to help control the ship, they'll be able to do so. In an interview with IndieGames, Nifflas notes that cooperating in local multiplayer requires "both players to be coordinated and agree what to do and how," which is surely easier said than done. When asked about the possibility of Affordable Space Adventure making contact with other platforms, Nifflas stated that using the Vita with the PS4 would be the only on-market possibility that wouldn't require an overhaul of the game's mechanics. No specific porting plans were offered, however. [Image: KnapNok Games]
Play a round of Spin The Bottle's first content update on February 13
Bumpie's parties get a little unconventional, so if you're looking for the same-old small talk and wallflower party scene, you've come to the wrong place. The first content update for Spin The Bottle: Bumpie's Party is scheduled to add six new minigames to the mix on February 13, some of which will use the Wii U Gamepad's camera. Dajana Dimovska, producer at developer KnapNok, described one of the upcoming camera-oriented challenges to Eurogamer: In "Don't Laugh," two players will use the Gamepad, keeping their faces within the camera's viewfinder. The audience will then say and do presumably polite and tasteful things to inspire snickers from the players, leaving the least stoic of the duo as the loser. Once updated, Spin The Bottle's entry price will rise slightly in the eShop store. If you're already in on the party however, you won't have to pay a cover charge for the new content. While the impending price has yet to be set, KnapNok said it will "probably be a 'couple of bucks.'"
Spin the Bottle points at Wii U next month
Spin the Bottle's protracted development cycle - ho ho ho - comes to an end in two weeks time, when it finally reaches the Wii U eShop on August 8, priced at $9/€7. KnapNok's' party piece was expected in the spring, but its eccentric mechanics meant quality assurance took way longer than expected - stuff like pushing Wiimote buttons with noses, or blindfolded players searching for controllers ... the usual. "Spin the Bottle: Bumpie's Party is our attempt to explore these unique possibilities of the Wii U," said KnapNok's Lau Korsgaard. "Players sit in a circle looking at each other doing silly, wacky and embarrassing stuff. This is a game that couldn't have been developed for any other console and we are super excited to see how the audience will receive it." All of which gives you an idea of how Spin the Bottle plays, as should the suitably quirky new trailer, highlighting how the game focuses attention around the GamePad, and doesn't use the TV at all. As for the exact mechanics ... we've watched the sequence between the 33 and 39 seconds mark over and over, and still have zero idea what's going on. Not that that's a bad thing, at all.
Wii U's Spin the Bottle slowed by 'non-conventional' QA
Spin the Bottle, the Wii U game that puts players in compromising positions, is held up in QA with Nintendo, developer KnapNok tells My Nintendo News. Spin the Bottle was originally slated for May, but later received an "early summer" launch window. Now, KnapNok hopes for "mid-August." "The game has been done for months now; we are going through the last quality assurance with Nintendo and it has taken way longer than anticipated," KnapNok says. "One of the problems is that we are doing so much weird stuff with the Wii Remotes, such as pushing buttons with your nose, passing them to each other over your heads and players blindfolded crawling around on the floor trying to find the controller. Each of these things is non-conventional and there are just so many rules and requirements that can go wrong." In the meantime, KnapNok says it's hard at work prototyping the first update, which will inevitably add even more ways to awkwardly make contact with other human beings. KnapNok plans on using updates strategically, launching the game for "cheap-ish" and increasing its price as more content rolls out – early adopters will get the updates for free, of course.
Spin the Bottle to reward early adopters with gradually-increasing price model
Upcoming Wii U party game Spin the Bottle will use a gradually-increasing price model, creative director Lau Korsgaard told Nintendo Life. Korsgaard said the game will launch at a "cheap-ish," but still undetermined price and will increase as the developer creates more content for it. "If you buy early you will get all future updates for free. Our plan is to release two more updates in 2013 – each time raising the price a bit," he said. "We want reward the early adopters of the Wii U while still being able to earn money on the long run." Spin the Bottle was originally expected to launch in May, but its official site now lists it as an early summer eShop release.
Spin the Bottle points to May 2013 release
Spin the Bottle, KnapNok's Wii U party game that issues physical challenges to its players, will be released on the Wii U eShop this May, the developer told us this morning. If you happen to be attending GDC, you can find Spin the Bottle at GDC Play Kiosk 39, and make a fool of yourself (along with 2-7 others) on the show floor. It was named one of the 8 "Best in Play" games by GDC organizers.The new video released this morning doesn't show off gameplay – almost all of that takes place offscreen anyway – but it does offer a look at the wiggly visuals, designed by Swedish studio Redgrim.
How 'Spin the Bottle' explores Wii U's social potential
The Wii U is already odd, given that it's a two-screened home console with a pack-in game in which you dress your virtual self like Nintendo characters. But even on an unusual console, Knapnok Games' Spin the Bottle is one of the most unusual games to be announced. The party game uses the Wii U GamePad to issue weird physical challenges to players – and doesn't use the television.We spoke to Knapnok designer Lau Korsgaard to determine how this weird hardware and this weird game found each other.
'Spin the Bottle' challenges Wii U owners in spring 2013
The Wii U is getting weirdo indie projects right from the jump. KnapNok Games, part of the Copenhagen Game Collective responsible for Dark Room Sex Game and B.U.T.T.O.N. (and associated with Johann Sebastian Joust developer Die Gute Fabrik) has revealed Spin the Bottle, a multiplayer party game that relies entirely on off-screen play – as in, the TV is turned off.Players sit in a circle around the Wii U GamePad, and are paired up spin-the-bottle style to take part in Wiimote-based challenges that involve rapid-fire pointing, dancing, and whatever else is going on in this trailer. And don't expect it to be another We Dare. Spin the Bottle is an "innocent game for innocent kids," and should spin to Wii U next spring.
