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Playdate's Wii U Halloween Horror: 'Fatal Frame' and 'Year Walk'
'Spooky' isn't exactly the first word that comes to mind when one things of the family-friendly Wii U -- but that didn't stop the PlayDate crew from digging up a couple or horror titles to mark the coming of all hallows eve. Join us at 6PM Eastern / 3PM Pacific as we tour Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water's haunted Hikami Mountain and learn the legend of its ghost-wrangling shrine maidens. Then, we'll take a Year Walk and step into the darker side of old Swedish folklore. Join in the fun right here, at twitch.tv/joystiq and on the Engadget Gaming homepage.
'Bedtime Stories for Awful Children,' a free ebook from 'Year Walk' devs
The dark, freezing woods of Sweden are the perfect breeding ground for terrifying tales of naughty children who get what they deserve. This week, Simogo -- the developer of beautifully macabre game Year Walk, and mysterious narrative experiences Device 6 and The Sailor's Dream -- released a free, illustrated ebook collecting a handful of five re-tooled, scary Swedish folk tales. It's called Year Walk Bedtime Stories for Awful Children, and it's available in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. "We think obnoxious children all over the world deserve dark nightmares," Simogo writes.
Macabre indie puzzler 'Year Walk' coming to Wii U this year
While the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One get most of the attention when it comes to indie games, Nintendo's Wii U has quietly built a solid stable of them as well. The latest? Creepy puzzler Year Walk from Swedish studio Simogo. Yeah, it's appeared on a number of other platforms before, but the company promises that the version coming to the Wii U is no lazy port -- it's been entirely rebuilt with the console's unique characteristics in mind by the folks at Dakko Dakko. For instance, the GamePad is used extensively throughout be it for note taking or accessing the game's encyclopedia and map. You can use motion controls in conjunction with analog sticks to look around, and Simogo says that while that might scare some folks off, it's actually pretty chill and the required input movements are subtle.
Daily iPhone App: Year Walk exudes a mysterious and personal feel
We posted last week that a new app from Simogo called Year Walk was coming to the App Store, and it's now out and available for download. And man, what a piece of work it is. Simogo consists of two Swedish developers named Simon Flesser and Magnus 'Gordon' Gardebäck, and they're known for their funny, but great little games, like Bumpy Road or Beat Sneak Bandit. Year Walk, however, is much more personal and intimate -- it's just about the most artful game I've seen on iOS yet. The basic idea of the game is that your character is thinking about going on a "Year Walk", which is a sort of a Swedish quest of legend that's meant to predict the future in some way (there's so much Swedish folklore in the game that Simogo has released a free companion app for it). And so much of the game consists of you "walking" through the woods by swiping around the screen -- left and right to travel, or up and down to swipe forward or back through the woods. As you go, there are a number of Myst-like puzzles to figure out, but the whole tone of the game is serene, mysterious and vaguely creepy. Year Walk is an experiment in using the iPhone's touchscreen interface to immerse you in a feeling, in a mood, and on that count it is very, very successful. I'm still sort of reeling from my experience with Year Walk -- I haven't yet finished the game by a long shot, but even the little time I've spent with it so far has left me with a huge, great impression. This is a very, very artful and well-designed project that obviously means a lot to Simogo (even if it may be a little confusing for more casual gamers), and I have a feeling that once we roll around to the end of the year and start talking about the best iOS experiences of 2013, Year Walk will be sitting there among them. Definitely don't miss out, but do enter into it with an open, ready mind: It's available for US$3.99 on the App Store.
Simogo's latest, Year Walk, coming to iOS next week
Simogo is an iOS developer best known for games that are cartoony and fun, like the great Beat Sneak Bandit and the charming Bumpy Road. But the company's next title is going to take a much darker turn, apparently. Year Walk is Simogo's next project, and as you can see above, this game looks neither cartoony or fun. Year Walk is set on a New Year's Eve in 19th century Sweden, as the player is tasked with exploring some dark woods to try and solve a mystery. The game's teaser trailer sets the tone about right: There will be puzzles and exploration involved, all with a very creepy, atmospheric black-and-white feel. Like I said, different from Bumpy Road. The title also has a companion app coming with it, that will fill in players on a lot of the folk lore and backstory that support the game's setting and various creatures. Year Walk looks very interesting. It should be available, according to Simogo, on the App Store on February 21, so we'll look for it next week.
