Luc Bernard's Next iPhone Game: 'SteamPirates'
posted September 21st, 2009 2:04 AM EDT by arn in Exclusives, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Luc Bernard has released to TouchArcade the first screenshots and details about his next iPhone game SteamPirates.
SteamPirates is described as a turn based RPG with the following quirky storyline:
The story follows Kat a human who was raised by the Cat Empire. After she found out that she wasn't a cat (she just thought that she didn't have any fur or a tail), she went out to the seas to find herself (it left her deeply traumatised). A few years later once she comes back, the Cat Empire is now ruled by Captain Purrrrrrrkos who is trying to take over the oceans.Kat must then decide to either stay loyal to the ones that raised her, or join Ze Pug Rebellion.
Bernard doesn't expect the game to come out until the first quarter of 2010 but it will deliver the following features:
- Ship Battles (upgrade your ship and fight with it)
- Ground Battles (normal character battles like in a final fantasy)
- Travel to different weird locations (such as Cat Cove, Neo Orlans, Beaches, Mermaid Lairs)
- Fully Hand Drawn Animated game
- Go on various quests such as saving rockstars from sea eating monsters, getting flowers for dog smelling bars, etc…
- Classic JRPG with Western Influence
- Funny ridiculous storyline
The game is being developed by the same team as Mecho Wars and will again feature an orchestral soundtrack by Sean Beeson. In fact, the main theme has been provided in MP3 format (download) and sounds pretty epic.
The game carries the same distinctive artwork as Bernard's other games:
Additional concept art and animated drawings have been posted in this thread.
Bernard, of course, was responsible for the turn based strategy iPhone game Mecho Wars that has long been promised an online multiplayer update. He reassured us that the long awaited update is set to be submitted within the next few days and it will feature 4 different online modes, push notifications, Open Feint integration and the ability to play up to 20 matches simultaneously.
looks pretty awesome to me, so far.
I really want some decent turn-based RPGs in the app store, but this one is failing to excite me. It just looks amateurish to me.
Hmm. The Cat Empire…
I wonder if Luc Bernard has good taste in music, or if that's just a coincidence.
Yeah, lucs team is da man!
The screens look awesome and fresh! The story sounds unique!
And pleaaase update mecho wars with online multiplayer soon!!!
i'm not so sure about these chracter designs, looks a tad beginnerish for my taste.
I for one really dislike the artwork. I didn't like the art style in Mecho Wars either and I'm sorry but I will probably not pick this one up due to its looks. Mecho Wars wasn't very good either imho. It may look like an Advance Wars clone, but it's not even close, the gameplay was so much worse, there was almost no strategy involved at all.
And why do you keep mentioning Luc Bernard all the time? It's made by Oyaji Games and not just Luc.
Sorry, in a bad mood today, that's all, but that's what I think.
I'm glad someone else mentioned this. Why do you keep focusing on Luc Bernard all the time as the artist and giving him credit? We doesn't actually draw or color the art on his games. He just hires different artists to do it, and then gives them a footnote on the credits. Start crediting the entire company instead of him, or find the real artists behind the work and credit them by name.
Steampirates I am just art director and creative director yes but if you checked my blog you would see that on mecho wars and mecho tales I handled all the concept art myself
so do some research before talking
Same reason it's done for all creative content, the Director's name is always put first in the spotlight. ie Hayao Miyazaki, Peter Jackson, Frank Miller, Zack Snyder, Hideo Kojima etc.
Of course the artists and actors are important, but it's the director whose creative vision brings it all together…
That's just the way it works.
Great artwork !!!
I loved Mecho Wars too…
Very fresh style.
I still think one of the funnest (and most addictive) games for the iphone is http://gumbota33.mybrute.com (both web and iphone version available).
And I assume you're not affiliated with the game at all, even though a quick Google search shows that you've posted this message on a dozen blogs?
Damn! I haven't even found time to play MechoWars or Eternity's Child yet! DX
The part about saving rockstars from sea eating monsters sounds most tempting!
Mecho wars was so much fun! They did a really great job with it. The only gripe I had was the battle sequences were not polished/interesting enough to keep turned on. To be honest, I enjoyed the overworld map graphics much more than the battle graphics. This is a rather big gripe IMO because a player should never want to disable any part of a dev's game.
In short – polish up the in-battle graphics and keep on truckin. Great products at any price!
tim
I didn't care much for Mecho Wars, as it had some serious flaws and the art style spent far too much time with lurid, ugly colour pallettes.
The iPhone does badly need some proper turn based RPGs for sure, but I'd rather see the likes of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.
Or we can hope Sega emerges from their silly stupor and actually gives us a friggin' Phantasy Star game proper on this platform. And I ain't talkin' Phantasy Star Online either, although that would be good too. I'm talkin' old school, grinding, hard-as-nails turn based RPG Phantasy Star.
I really hope that they make it a remaster then, because I couldn't get over the NES graphics. I could still cope with SNES-level graphics, I'm sure, but I found that there's a limit this day and age. A complete remake for iPhone would be fantastic.
Have you tried Vay? It's a port of an actual Japanese RPG.
Vay is not bad. It's nowhere near the quality of the old Final Fantasy or Phantasy Star games, but it passed some time.
The art isn't doing it for me, but that theme sounds -fantastic-. Do want!
Delicious pixel art in a non-megafranchise game?
I'll take it, thank you.
I like the art.
I don't like marmite.
For a split-second I thought this had something to do with Pirates: Legend of Black Kat. But I was wrong.
The artwork reminds me of Carmen Sandiego point-n-click 2D games which isn't a good thing.
Looks really great!
Depending on price, this could be yet another insta-buy
Looks like the RPG I've been waiting for.
Hey, Oyaji!
Looks sweet; can we get like 6 hr of gameplay minimum?
Is that cool?
B/c that wld make this aMAZing…
this game is actually not a Oyaji Games game, but a Fried Green Apps one
I don't what people are saying about the artwork, its fantastic art, are people with vested interest in criticism trying to stick the boot into something that clearly has great visuals.
No vested interest here — it just doesn't work for me.
That girl looks like Julia Roberts
Looks like Luc is losing his touch. The art style keeps going down in his games. Eternity's Child looked great, but all the art in his games since have been crappy pink pixel art. He needs to go back to what looked good before I buy one of his games again.
"Lurid" is certainly a good way to describe this color palette. Less pink and mauve, please, it hurts the eyes of those of us who aren't 13-year old girls.