New Rolando Video, Now Published by Ngmoco
posted October 16th, 2008 2:26 AM CDT by arn in Platform, Puzzle, Upcoming Games
HandCircus has posted an update and new gameplay video for one of our most anticipated iPhone games: Rolando.
I believe this video comes a few hours ahead of an official announcement that ngmoco is now Rolando's publisher, as it is now hosted at http://rolando.ngmoco.com.
To catch you up if you haven't been following along, Rolando is an iPhone-specific platform puzzler that we first caught glimpse of back in July before the App Store even launched. The original teaser trailer got us very excited but we haven't heard much for months. As it turns out, it seems HandCircus has teamed up with new iPhone game publisher ngmoco.
Ngmoco was founded by former EA executive Neil Young which has raised funding from Perkins Caufield & Byers’s iFund. We suspect a formal announcement will come shortly, but in the meanwhile, here's the new teaser video:
Be sure to watch the original video for Rolando.
The game is described:
The Rolandos need your help! Their adorable kingdom has been invaded by an angry darkness. Take control of the Rolandos and manipulate their world using innovating tilt, tap and multi-touch controls. Use dexterity, physics and clever tactics to survive dozens of puzzle-ridden environments as you lead the Rolandos to freedom!
- Use Tilt and Multi-touch to guide the Rolandos through their world
- Lead the quest through 4 adorable worlds and 36 challenging levels
- Manipulate the environment and solve puzzles with touch-tactics, physics & dexterity
- Enjoy the vibrant, playful visual style by pop-culture illustrator, Mikko Walamies
The game is due in "holiday 2008".
Thanks CrocStock
October 16th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Looks great but hell that *is* pretty much Locoroco with the inclusion of touch and tilt control! Wonder if Sony are readying their lawyers?
October 16th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Looks awesome, can't wait.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:06 am
Now tilt is becoming a major part of gameplay? This is sounding more and more like a fancier knock off of Dizzy Bee.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Locoroco much?
October 16th, 2008 at 4:22 am
What I don't understand is why anyone would need a publisher developing for the iPhone. There are no boxes and distribution involved. But of course, it could be a funding issue..
October 16th, 2008 at 5:23 am
Yes you have to wonder if Sony could actually sue for copyright. It is the spitting image of Locoroco. If a site posted a screenshot of this game back when Locoroco was released they would think it was the same game.
Looks great though. I like the extra functionality the tilt and touch will bring.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:13 am
I wish people would get over the stylistic similarity with Locoroco. Sure it looks similar, but so does Dizzy Bee and the PC game World of Goo.
The Mikko Walamies reference is clearly intended to be a retort to this. Did Locoroco originate that style, or could we find a million sources of inspiration for it?
How many horizontally-scrolling platformers, vertically-scrolling shooters, 2d beat-em ups, 3d racers, falling-block puzzlers are there out there? Do we have to yell "rip off" at every one that wasn't the first?
October 16th, 2008 at 8:53 am
I was going to post pretty much exactly what Alex said, and I'll add this: There's going to be more game in that genre, if Locoroco has indeed created a genre. It's a compliment.
And especially if they're not going to bring Locoroco to the iPhone, I'm glad someone else does - adding features specific to this new platform. Buying this day 1.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:45 am
I also have to wonder why the hell there's publishers for iPhone games. Apple's already the publisher. Small mobile games don't need much of a dev budget (a big part of their appeal is that they AREN'T huge asset-heavy things) so if a publisher is offering a (probably small) development budget up-front in exchange for a percentage off the top later, the developers are probably getting screwed.
Also, while the visual style is superficially LocoRocco-like (and really the paper-cutout look was nothing new even when LocoRocco came along), the character designs are almost entirely dissimilar, and the gameplay looks entirely different.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:15 am
It's more then a stylistic similarity…. This game relates to LocoRoco as much as the Rutles resembled the Beatles, if you catch my drift. On top of that, LocoRoco's graphics are a work of art, whereas these Rolando "Characters" are so obviously the result of an army of lawyers going over the designs as to avoid lawsuits by Sony. Stale, bland stuff, not to mention the horrible soundtrack. A totally shameless rip-off. C'mon guys, or do you think that even the "Ro" in the name is a coincidence?
October 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
And did you see that Big Bang Board Games? They totally ripped of chess.
October 16th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
publisher = advertising and potential contracts (upfront pay)
By the looks of it: rolando > locoroco and dizzy combined.
So many games have similar styles that we could list MANY games that locoroco has a similar style to but then you have to wonder what the point of noticing that is. Just sayin'
October 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Aww… I hope you got a $500k injection for it, 'cause I can't imagine any other reason to need a publisher.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Looks great, can't wait!
October 17th, 2008 at 12:21 am
@webkarma
OK really. What is with you? Seriously. Sounds like you flat-out hate the developer. I really don't see how locoroco is at all like rolando.
October 17th, 2008 at 3:04 am
I agree with Webkarma. It's not like Rolando doesn't look interesting gameplay-wise, perhaps even more interesting than Locoroco (there's supposed to be an upcoming sequel of that on PSP), but it doesn't seem to be as creative stylistically.
Locoroco ought to have tilt controls to start with, anyway. It's just that Sony's game was such an attractive product, combining character design, music and a contagious sense of fun. I hope Rolando pulls it off, even though it looks a bit derivative.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:38 am
I'm puzzled. The appstore is a great platform to launch small developers. I've seen so many stories of developers making loads of money with (mostly badly designed) games. And rolando is and has been for months the most promising game for the iphone. Everybody's waiting for it. All hand circus had to do was publish it on the appstore and wait for the big bucks. Why would the small studio hand it over to a publisher??
Maybe toucharcade could bring us some insight to this.
October 17th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
@midwaltz - I have no knowledge of the deal, but obviously there's a price for everything. It doesn't look like it was outright purchased, but ngmoco has venture capital funding behind it so have sizable funding.
Releasing such an anticipated game is also beneficial for Ngmoco, so maybe Hand Circus got a really good deal in terms of the % they have to hand over. Ngmoco could also bring a fair amount of advertising dollars and promotion to the table as well.
arn
October 17th, 2008 at 8:39 pm
@ Webkarma
I also subscribe to the two letters are the same = rip-off school of thought.
That's why i suspect you are actually arn and aaron and barry ward in disguise, by virtue of them all having the letters ar in their name, as you do.
You're basically conducting a conversation with yourself, now why is that?