https://blog.nicalis.com/blog Insight, opinion and firsthand indie-gaming info direct from sources inside Nicalis! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Nicalis-Labor-Day-Sale-2019 From now until September 8, 2019*, you can get big discounts on digital copies of Nicalis games for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One* and PS Vita. You can save up to 66% on certain titles; nearly every console game in our catalog is on sale! Here’s a complete list of links to all the games in the sale: NINTENDO SWITCH Umih... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Crystal-Crisis-Update Hello! You may have read on the official Nicalis Twitter that Crystal Crisis was recently submitted to Nintendo for approval. With that said… the Crystal Crisis dev team has made the decision to add one additional month of polish/development time and release the game on May 28, 2019 for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. We’re s... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/The-Heroes-and-Lore-of-RemiLore In RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore—a new “rogue-lite” fantasy action game set for release this winter—players take on the role of Remi (a typical high school girl who joins forces with a talking book named Lore) or Choux (an enigmatic female android) and embark on the adventure of a lifetime. In local co-op mode, one player ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Remilore-the-journey-begins Magical realms, talking tomes, android warriors and legions of mechanical foes—all that and much more are waiting for you in RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore. Starring high-school student Remi, her sentient-book companion Lore and a mysterious android girl named Choux, RemiLore will transport players to the magical world of R... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Summer-Sizzle-Sale Yes, summer is over…but the sizzle still remains. From now until October 1st, all the Nicalis games on the Nintendo Switch eShop (NA only) are on sale. Most are half price, some are even less! Here’s a complete list of the games and their sale prices: Cave Story+ Regular price: $29.99 - Sale price: $14.99 https://www.nintendo.com/g... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-Techniques-and-Tactics If you’ve been paying attention to Blade Strangers news, you’ve probably heard the game described with words like “accessible” and “newcomer-friendly.” And while that’s certainly true, given the game’s four-button controls and easy-to-execute combos and special moves, it doesn’t mean that Blade Strangers lacks complexity or depth. Qu... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-Know-Your-Modes By now, you know that Blade Strangers is coming Aug. 28 to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam and that it offers epic crossover 2D fighting with renowned characters from titles like Cave Story+, Code of Princess EX, The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ and Shovel Knight. But, there’s more to the action than just standard one-on-on... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-The-Art-of-Fighting Beautiful. Vibrant. Fluid. Gorgeous. Those are just a few of the words that could describe the visuals of Blade Strangers, the one-on-one crossover fighting game headed to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam on August 28. But the game’s colorful, smoothly animated aesthetic wouldn’t have been possible without the talent and expe... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Code-of-Princess-EX-A-Visitors-Guide-to-Deluxia Summer is in full swing, and there’s no better time for visiting new lands and embarking on new adventures. When Code of Princess EX arrives on Nintendo Switch on July 31, you’ll have the opportunity to tour one of the most scenic, magical, mysterious places around as Princess Solange and her allies travel across the Kingdom of DeLux... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-Here-Come-the-Challengers! Fists will fly, swords will clash and worlds will collide when Blade Strangers lands on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC (via Steam) on August 28th, bringing with it accessible controls, gorgeous visuals and numerous modes. But while this one-on-one crossover fighting extravaganza features fan-favorite characters from games such... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Putting-the-EX-Into-Code-of-Princess-EX In just over a month (on July 31), Code of Princess EX will bring its colorful brand of hack-and-slash action-RPG fun to a whole new audience on Nintendo Switch, letting players save the kingdom of DeLuxia either at home or on the go. But even better, as the EX in the title implies, it features a lot of EXtra improvements to satisfy ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Bladestrangers-the-blade-is-forged Featuring a fan-favorite cast, astonishing visuals, an arsenal of explosive yet simple-to-execute special moves and a whole lot more, Blade Strangers is poised to take the fighting game world by storm when it hits Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam this summer. But while the game may be a newcomer to the world of competitive 2D... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/RemiLore-Lost-Girl-in-the-Lands-of-Lore RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore, an all-new “rogue-lite” hack-and-slash action game, is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Steam in winter 2018. RemiLore is an anime-style adventure set in a colorful world where players hack and slash their enemies and cast devastating magic attacks using twin-stick contr... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Code-of-princess-ex-arrives-action-packed-on-july-31 Get ready for a date with royalty! On July 31, the lovely Princess Solange would be thrilled to get to know you better when Code of Princess EX arrives on Nintendo Switch in physical and digital form. But don’t expect any idle small talk. With the legendary DeLuxcalibur blade in hand, the princess has a realm to save and evildo... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-Tunes-from-the-Retro-Challenges Howdy! I’m Stemage, the composer for Runner3’s Retro Challenge Soundtrack. Vroom As many of you may remember, Runner2’s Retro Levels featured music by the talented Disasterpeace. He took the spirit of the main game and created his own soundscape to complement the 8-bit aesthetic of Runner2’s retro game. A retro level from Runne... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-Joined-by-Indie-All-Stars The game is called Blade Strangers, but many well-known faces will be getting in on the action when Nicalis and developer Studio Saizensen bring the one-on-one 2D crossover fighting extravaganza to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam this summer. In case you missed the recent announcements, fan-favorite characters from indie blo... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Crystal-Crisis-Drops-on-Nintendo-Switch-This-Fall Do you like puzzles? Do you like fighting? Well, have we got a puzzle-based fighting game for you! An all-star cast of heroes has gathered to test their mettle in Crystal Crisis, a cute and chaotic new color-matching combat game for Nintendo Switch. Crystal Crisis is presented like a one-on-one fighting game, but instead of pres... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-The-Cameos Dant Rambo here! I took a walk down by the pier this morning. It was nice to feel the cold air on my face—to hear the faraway sounds of the ocean waves. I sat on an empty park bench and watched a flock of seagulls as they played tug-of-war with one another. “What are they fighting over?” I wondered. I made my way over, stepping down ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Ikaruga-Blasts-Its-Way-To-Nintendo-Switch-on-May-29 Question: What’s black and white and fun all over? Answer: Ikaruga, the legendary vertically-scrolling arcade shoot-‘em-up that’s headed to Nintendo Switch on May 29. Developed by renowned Japanese studio Treasure (responsible for classic-style action games such as Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes and Radiant Silvergun), Ikaruga garne... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Blade-Strangers-Will-KO-You-This-Summer A robotic female soldier. A masked warrior. A sword-wielding princess. A schoolgirl riding an enormous cat!?! These unique fighters—and many more—collide in the one-on-one 2D fighting mayhem of Blade Strangers, which will be available soon on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. The game has entered its final months of development ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-the-retro-challenges Hey, everyone…it’s Dant Rambo again! After years of retirement and living off a modest-but-reasonable pension, I’ve decided to rejoin the workforce and tell you all about the Retro Challenges of Runner3, AKA the-game-within-the-game. Sit back, relax and pour me a nice beverage. Please. Those of you who played BIT.TRIP RUNNER and/or ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-Pairing-music-with-gameplay Hey all, it’s Dant Rambo back again! So as you know, Runner3 is a rhythm-music platformer game. Every action you perform–avoiding an enemy, kicking an obstacle–has a sound associated with it, which means you’re helping to create the music of the game as you play. Designing a game to function in this way requires a strong relationship... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Code-of-princess-ex-Warriors-and-Legends There are many reasons to look forward to the upcoming release of Code of Princess EX this summer on Nintendo Switch: intense action, spectacular special moves, RPG progression, gorgeous artwork, couch co-op, versus mode and more. But the things that hold it all together—while separating the game from others in the hack-and-slash gen... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-who-am-I-anyway I’m Alex Neuse from Choice Provisions. Nice to meet you, now everyone drop everything you’re doing and pay attention to this giant block of words! As the release of Runner3 approaches, we thought we’d take the opportunity to share some tasty information about who CommanderVideo is and why he’s just so darned awesome. At the beg... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Code-of-Princess-EX-Heroine-in-the-Making As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Nicalis is bringing Code of Princess EX to Nintendo Switch this summer, delivering sword-swinging action, RPG-style character growth, a memorable cast of beautifully designed heroes and villains, cooperative and competitive multiplayer and more. The game continues the tradition of hack-and-slash side-... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-Sprints-to-Nintendo-Switch There’s a time to fight and there’s a time to run…but for CommanderVideo, the time for both is on May 22. That’s when the long-awaited rhythm/action platformer Runner3 arrives on Nintendo Switch. Developed by Choice Provisions, Runner3 follows in the flamboyant footsteps of its predecessors with level after level of auto-running fun.... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Code-of-princess-Ex Start sharpening your swords, Nicalis faithful! The side-scrolling, hack-and-slash action of Code of Princess is headed to Nintendo Switch this summer, in the form of Code of Princess EX! An upgraded version of the original release, Code of Princess EX delivers the same RPG-infused fantasy combat and epic story of the original, but a... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-Blog2-A-Whole-New-World Hey, everyone! It’s Dant Rambo again, producer/writer on Runner3. If my peculiar name sounds familiar to you, it’s likely because I wrote another post for this blog a mere few weeks ago. Apparently I didn’t burn the place to the ground, because Nicalis has agreed to let me write another one! This time I’ll be talking a little more ab... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Runner3-Blog1-The-Home-Stretch Hey, everyone! I’m Dant Rambo, producer/writer/whatever-else-is-needed at Choice Provisions. The fine folks at Nicalis have offered us a chance to chat with you all about the upcoming release of Runner3, the third entry in the BIT.TRIP RUNNER series. Better yet, they’ve agreed to publish a physical version of the game when it releas... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Don't-Miss-Out-on-Physical-Copies-of-Wonder-Boy-The-Dragon's-trap Have you explored the ancient pyramid? Transformed into a Hawk-Man and traversed the skies? Battled the fierce Daimyo Dragon? If so, congrats: you’re a true Wonder Boy (or Wonder Girl)! If not, perhaps a trip to your nearest game store is in order, because that and a lot more await you in Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap, which was rele... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Wonder-Boy-The-Dragon's-trap-Physical-Versions-Available-Now The trap has been sprung! That’s right: The highly collectible physical release of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is out now for Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4! Fans of retrotastic 2D side-scrolling action-adventure-platformers won’t want to miss out on the launch edition, which includes reversible cover art, a full-color manual... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Wonder-Boy-The-Dragon's-Developer-Blog Hello, this is Omar and Ben from Lizardcube! We are the developers of Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap. Like DotEmu, the game’s co-publisher, we are based in lovely Paris, France—a land of croissants and fermented grapes. And most notably, a land where kids born in the ’80s equally shared their love between the NES and its Sega counterpar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/Wonder-Boy-The-Dragon's-Trap-Goes-Physical-on-Febuary-13 Have you heard the wonderful news? Nicalis is publishing the wondrous Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on both Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in physical form. Better yet, the initial run of this 2D side-scroller comes with bonus goodies that collectors won’t want to miss out on: a 12-track mini-CD soundtrack sampler, a full-color... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/You're-looking-at-the-new-Nicalis-Blog You’re looking at the new Nicalis Blog, forged in fire by our expert Websmiths and sharpened to accompany the newly designed Nicalis.com Web site. This is the place where you’ll get the latest in-depth news about Nicalis games and world domination plans. If you’re looking for hastily composed 140-character messages, impromptu survey... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-looking-back Hey guys! Zach here again to discuss Creepy Castle. As I'm writing this, development is essentially all wrapped up, and I've found out that the game even has a tentative release date! Heck, by the time this gets posted, maybe it will even be out! At any rate, this seems like a good time to think about the experiences I had and things... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-a-little-of-this-a-little-of-that Hey guys! This Zach again to tell you a little more about Creepy Castle. I've already talked about the scenarios, the combat, the characters, the items, the retro style, and the customization, so what's left to tell you about the game...? Well, I like to think that Creepy Castle stands on its own as a unique action-adventure-RPG, but t... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-cameosn-crossovers Hey guys! Zach from Dopterra here again to talk some more about Creepy Castle. You know the phrase "It's dangerous to go alone"? Well, it's certainly true when it comes to game development. Or, if not dangerous, at least less than ideal. During this experience, I've had lots of support from friends, colleagues, the crew at Nicalis, an... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-custom-creepy https://youtu.be/Vj_lVOokdU0 Hey guy, this is Zach again. I've talked a lot about the content and features in my previous updates about Creepy Castle, but this time I wanted to touch on something that isn't really directly related to the gameplay: the customization options. If you checked out our Kickstarter campaign, you may recall th... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-what-lurks-in-the-castle Creepy Castle: What Lurks in the Castle As I've mentioned before, one of the key ingredients in a nonlinear exploration-based game like Creepy Castle is to make sure that the world is fun to explore. It's more than just good level design - you also need to fill the locales with interesting characters to encounter and intriguing things... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-music-in-the-castle Hey guys, this is Zach again, and this time I want to talk about something that's especially important to me in a video game: the music! The right music can make a good game great, and make a great game something truly memorable that sticks with you forever. I can't actually think of any moments in video games that I consider to be tr... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-one-game-four-scenarios Hey, this is Zach again. I'm here to tell you more about Creepy Castle, but I also want to tell you that Creepy Castle is just the beginning. What I mean by that is that while Creepy Castle is the game's title, it's also just the first of four scenarios you'll get to experience when you play the game (as you're no doubt aware if you'r... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-looks-like-retro Creepy Castle: Looks Like Retro Hi everyone! This is Zach again to talk some more about Creepy Castle. This time I wanted to discuss the visual style of the game. All it takes is one look at a screenshot to notice two things: 1) it has a very low-fi, retro art style, and 2) it doesn't really look like most of the other retro-inspired ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-lets-battle-ii-burning-fight Hey there, this is Zach again. In my last post I introduced you to Creepy Castle's combat system and discussed some of the duel types. This time I want to tell you about some of the other duels you'll encounter as you get further into the game. Parry: Like the Pursuit duel I mentioned last time, Parry takes place on a three-by-three g... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-release-day It's launch day for Full Mojo Rampage! Get your voodoo on as the game is now available on PS4 and Xbox One in the US and Europe! To celebrate launch day, we have one final blog post that talks about Multiplayer! First, a brand-new trailer, and then - on with the blog post! [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNV3cQbrfxE[/embed] Gre... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-meet-the-loa-part-2 Launch day is almost upon us! Before the weekend we wanted to talk a bit more about the Loa in the game! Previously we introduced you to Baron Samedi, Maman Brigitte, Loko, and Ghede - four of the parent Loa that you can enlist to customize your character's play style in Full Mojo Rampage. Each one brings something different to the ta... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-console-enhancements Greetings! This is Rob from Over the Top once again, and this time I'd like to address the differences between the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Full Mojo Rampage and the previously released PC Steam version. All of the content of the Steam version of Full Mojo Rampage will be in the PS4/Xbox One version, plus it'll ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-lets-battle Hey, guys! This is Zach here once again to tell you about Creepy Castle. In some of my previous posts I've alluded to the game's unique, action-oriented battle system, but I figure it's time to go in-depth on this subject, since it's one of Creepy Castle's defining features. If you followed our Kickstarter campaign then you already kno... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-creating-a-roguelike One of the big goals we set for ourselves with Full Mojo Rampage was to ensure that players never had the exact same experience twice. Personally, I love being able to launch a game - especially one that I made - and not know what's going to happen. We wanted something new and different every time you play, so we designed FMR as a rogu... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-quests-from-the-underworld Greetings! Previously we've talked about choosing your parent Loa and customizing your character with masks and pins and mojos...but then what do you get to do with him? Lots! In fact, since the game is procedurally generated, you could say there's an infinite amount of things to do! But for today, let's take a look at the different ca... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-hits-ps4-and-xbox-one-on-june-28th-new-blog-post-personalized-voodoo Before we get started, we are very happy to announce that Full Mojo Rampage will hit PS4 and Xbox One on June 28th! Check out the trailer below!</p> https://youtu.be/m0AHbd_w_wU </strong> Full Mojo Rampage: Personalized Voodoo One of the major elements we wanted to include in Full Mojo Rampage was for... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-why-voodoo Greetings! This is Rob again from Over the Top Games, here to tell you more about the creation of Full Mojo Rampage. One of the unique things about Full Mojo Rampage is its voodoo theme, but it wasn't always necessarily going to be that way. As I mentioned in my previous post, I've always been a huge fan of The Legend of Zelda, so earl... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-meet-the-loa-part-1 One of the fun aspects of Full Mojo Rampage is that you aren't limited to just one play style. There are eight parent Loa (voodoo gods) in the game that you can pick from to customize your character, and although there's only one available at the beginning, you'll be able to unlock the others by collecting medals. You can think of the... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-exploring-the-castle Hey, it's Zach again. If you're going to have an exploration-heavy adventure-RPG like Creepy Castle, one of the things that you obviously want to get right is the level layout: you have to make a game world that's fun and interesting to explore. In our case, though, we didn't want to make things too complicated either. In the end, I'd ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-creepy-origins Zach from Dopterra here again! So, you might be wondering why I decided to make a retro-inspired adventure-RPG starring a giant anthropomorphic moth. Well, as for the moth thing, I've just always liked 'em. As for the rest, Creepy Castle started as an idea I cooked up for a 48-hour RPG competition back in 2009. Or was it a game jam? I ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/tiny-barbarian-dx-a-barbaric-introduction Hi there! This is Michael Stearns of StarQuail Games, developer of Tiny Barbarian DX. As you may have heard, we're partnering with Nicalis to bring our diminutive musclehead to consoles (the early episodes are already available on Steam for PC, Mac, and Linux), so I'll be popping up here to provide some information about the game and i... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-binding-of-isaac-afterbirth-hits-consoles-soon Hi there, Binding of Isaac fans! I've got some awesome news: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth is just about ready to launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U (at a later date). In fact, it's going to be out today, May 10th for $10.99. If you haven't heard, Afterbirth is the very, very extensive add-on DLC for The Binding of Isaac: ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/creepy-castle-meet-the-developer Hi guys! This is Zach, creator of the upcoming PC/Mac/Linux game Creepy Castle! It's been a while since the game was guaranteed life through Kickstarter, but development has been moving along, and I feel like there's finally light at the end of the tunnel. I'm hoping to keep you informed here about some of the various aspects of creati... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/full-mojo-rampage-hello-from-voodoo-land Greetings! This is Rob from Over the Top games, developer of the roguelike action title Full Mojo Rampage, which we're bringing to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with some help from Nicalis. I'll be bringing you a bunch of details about the game in the near future, but first I thought I'd tell you more about myself and Over the Top. I've ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-release-day Hello! Matt Kap here again, posting on the day some of you have been waiting for... CASTLE IN THE DARKNESS IS NOW AVAILABLE ON STEAM FOR $4.97 UNTIL FEB 12TH, AND $5.99 AFTERWARDS! For those who are just seeing this, I am Matt Kap, a pixel artist at Nicalis. I've worked on 1001 Spikes, Legend Of Raven, and was the lead artist on The... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-world Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll talk about the game's world! This game is split up into areas, but it's also a large open world. Before describing any further, I'll show you guys a zoomed out map of the entire game. To give you a sense of scale, that red mark on the bottom le... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-danger-razor-wing-swoops-in Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll write about one of the bosses you'll encounter- Razor Wing! Razor Wing is a giant and hostile owl that builds its nests on the tops of giant mountains or on tall towers. With its extremely high swooping speed and wings strong enough to create ga... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-upgrades Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll talk about the items in the game! Upgrading your hero is a very important aspect of Castle In The Darkness. By collecting upgrades and items, you will become much stronger, and able to pass obstacles and kill bosses that previously prevented you... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-monsters Hey everyone! Matt Kap here again. Today I will be touching on something that you will see a lot of in Castle In The Darkness, the monsters! For a game like this, there really has to be a lot of enemies to make each area feel different, and to keep the challenge ramping up throughout. So, though there are a couple (very few) palette s... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-the-music Hey everyone! Matt Kap here! Today I will be talking about the music in Castle In The Darkness. I've always had a lot of musical instruments around my house because my father was a musician. Eventually I got into playing music myself, first playing drums in a punk band, switching to guitar at one point long ago (and playing with sever... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-release-date-announcement Hey guys! Matt Kap here again. I know it's been a while since you've heard any news about Castle In The Darkness, but I'm posting here today to rectify that :). Please see for yourself below: So there you have it. Castle In The Darkness will finally be available on Windows through Steam on: February 5th, 2015 for $5.99 For the full p... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-danger-general-attacks Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll write about one of the bosses you'll encounter- General! General is a posessed statue of a deceased knight from Alexandria's history. He is almost a screen tall, and holds a scary stone greatsword. Besides just being a statue of a past general ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-introducing-the-hero Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll talk a little bit about the hero of the game. About The Hero At the beginning of Castle In The Darkness, not much is known about the player character, other than the fact that he is a royal guard of Alexandria, and the sole survivor of the mons... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-design-pt-i-general-design Hello! Matt Kap here again, with another dev blog about Castle In The Darkness! Today I'll spend some time talking about the general design of the game! But before I do, I'll show you a piece of promotional art. As I have mentioned in the past, my main goal was to create a game that would have been my absolute favorite as a kid, had ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/castle-in-the-darkness-ye-olde-introductions Hello internets! My name is Matt Kap, the lead artist here at Nicalis and the designer/creator of Castle In The Darkness! For those of you who don't know, Castle In The Darkness is a 2D classic-styled action-adventure game that I have spent the last three years developing. We are proud to announce that Nicalis will be publishing the g... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/90s-steam-non-steam-and-new-screens For this update I would like to address some concerns and share a few more screenshots from some of the game's new cars and tracks. I have received several emails asking about the game's release date and why we haven't shown any gameplay videos yet. There is nobody that wants the game released more than we do and we are working hard t... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/90s-arcade-racer-and-nailing-every-part-of-the-game We've have been quite for a while on the '90s Arcade Racer front and there are a few (good) reasons why. First, the game has taken on a life of itself and we really want to get it just right. Yes, there are a number of racing games coming, but none have really taken on the idea of reviving an era that we both love and find the most ap... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/update-90s-arcade-racer-and-wii-u Antonis and Tyrone here! As you probably know, part of working together brought along the opportunity develop and publish '90s Arcade Racer for Wii U (among other places). The development is moving along well and for this update we'll share some details related to the Wii U version of the game and our plans. Fortunately, moving the ga... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/90s-new-video-environments Hello everyone, I wanted this update to be a gameplay video but unfortunately the car handling is not ready to show yet. Instead I would like to share a video showing the latest developments for the race tracks. Excuse me for the quite bad youtube compression. As many of you might have already figured out the game won't be out this ye... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/legend-of-raven-coming-to-ps4-and-xbox-one-with-ggpo We're sure some of you may have heard that Legend of Raven is coming to more than just PlayStation Vita. Well, we're super happy to confirm that Legend of Raven will indeed be releasing on PlayStation 4 AND Xbox One. It gets better, too. We've signed an agreement with Tony Cannon to implement GGPO netcode for the console version of Leg... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/90s-arcade-racer-update-physics At this point some of you may feel like we’ve been working on ‘90s Arcade Racer since the ‘90s. That’s not entirely true, while Antonis and I were indeed playing Scud Race (Super GT in the US) and Daytona USA some 20 years--that was just preparation for the game we’re developing now. Here’s what’s been happening the last couple of mon... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/yatagarasu-to-be-reborn-as-legend-of-raven-on-playstationvita An enhanced, portable version of the high-speed 2D fighting game, created by ex-King of Fighters developers Santa Ana, Calif., (August 21, 2013) - Nicalis, Inc., developer and publisher of independently awesome video games announces 2D fighting game, Legend of Raven, for release on the PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment via the ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth-finds-a-new-home Edmund McMillen's award-winning roguelike coming to PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Steam in 2014 Santa Ana, Calif., (August 20th, 2012) - Nicalis, Inc., developer and publisher of independently awesome video games announces Edmund McMillen's multi-million selling roguelike, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth to release on PlayStation... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nicalis-publishing-the-90s-arcade-racer February 11th, 2013 - Nicalis, Inc., developer and publisher of independently awesome video games announces a partnership with developer, Pelikan13. Nicalis will publish the tentatively titled The ‘90s Arcade Racer. Originally planned for Windows, OS X and Linux, The '90s Arcade Racer will appear on additional platforms: iOS, Android ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/binding-of-isaac-retro-remake-poll-please-help-us-out Ok first of dont get too excited about the images here (or upset!) THESE ARE MOCKUP IMAGES, they aren’t real in the slightest. none of the thing shows in these images have any validity to the content you will find in the remake of the binding of isaac, these were just made to test and see how the fans feel about isaac being remade ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/binding-of-isaac-console-remake-details Reposted from edmundm.com After receiving 80+ questions via formspring and many via email, i have amassed what i believe to be a definitive check list that should clear up most-all confusion on what the binding of isaac remake (Binding of isaac: Rebirth) is/will be. -Rebirth is a totally remade game based on the flash version of the b... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-steam-halloween-update HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Hopefully you've seen us mention our Cave Story+ Halloween Update, only available on Steam. So what's the big deal? First, the update is entirely free. If you already own Cave Story+ on Steam or buy it, the update will be packed in with the latest version of Cave Story. If you remember our Christmas Story update, the... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/warez-ikachan-on-3ds If you follow this blog at all, you may recall that we've been working on Ikachan in between projects. What originally started out as a DSiWare game has now also grown to be a Nintendo 3DS eShop game, too. Wait, is it a different game? Why two versions? No, it's no a different game and not really two versions. I need to rewind a bit... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/play-cave-story-in-2d-in-3d-on-october-4th 09.14.12 - The original 2D pixel-based Cave Story is officially releasing on the eShop as a native 3D game on October 4th, 2012 for $9.99! Additionally, Cave Story for eShop supports widescreen and original 4:3 modes, two button configurations and MORE Challenges! Cave Story for eShop Features: - 4:3 and REAL widescreen support. YES... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nicalis-will-loan-you-100-to-submit-to-steam-greenlight Ripping a really great idea from our friends at Dejobaan, we want to help other developers get past the $100 Valve Greenlight fee. This blog post isn’t about whether Greenlight is good or not. We’ll leave that to you to decide. If you wantneed to submit to Steam Greenlight, but feel you can’t because of the required $100 Child’s Play... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nicalis-strikes-with-yatagarasu-fighting-game-playpax-prime-2012 Coming to North America and Europe - play@PAX Prime! August 23, 2012 - Nicalis, in collaboration with Circle Edge, proudly announces fighter "Yatagarasu" (final name and release date TBD) bound for the West! Created by a three-man team (past credits include King of Fighters), Yatagarasu rocks hard with classic 2D fighting action and to... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/swift-stitch-coming-to-iphone-and-ipad-july-5th Nicalis To Publish Sophie Houlden’s Vector Experience on iOS July 2nd, 2012 - Nicalis, Inc., developer and publisher of independently awesome video games announces Sophie Houlden’s tongue twistingly titled, SWIFT STITCH, bound for iOS. Releasing July 5th, 2012 on the Apple App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, SWIFT STITCH will b... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/humble-indie-bundle-4-is-live We stole this text from Gaijin Games. They're in the new awesome HIB4 and so are we! Do you like to get several games for WHATEVER PRICE YOU WANT!? Do you like to help those in need during this holiday season? Then this Humble Indie Bundle was tailor-made for you! Just follow the links and name your price! Decide how much money goes t... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-now-on-steam 11.22.11, 11am - Windows players, Cave Story+ is NOW AVAILABLE on Steam is for Windows and Mac with a suggested retail price of $10! Cave Story+ gets additional improvements for Steam including Steamworks support with tons of achievements, the brand new Nemesis Challenge and a few Steam-only surprises coming in December. Marking this s... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/vvvvvv-3ds-at-minecon-2011 We're going to steal this from Terry's blog: "It’s been a while since I gave an update on the 3DS version of VVVVVV, but we have some news – Nicalis submitted it to Nintendo a few days ago. Which means it’ll probably be out within a couple of weeks, fingers crossed! I’m currently in Las Vegas, at Minecon with my game At a Distance. As... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/ikachans-newest-enemies Ty, I've come up with two new enemy characters for the DSi version of Ikachan. See the pixel characters and illustrations for details. Note that I haven't mentioned about the timing of each motion or how fast they move in those, but please balance them on your own [and I'll adjust them]. By the way, once you're done with [the new attr... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-vvvvvv-3ds-banner This awesome little bit of nostalgia is what you're going to see when you download and unwrap VVVVVV from the eShop, a cassette. With cheesy '80s-esque cover art and a cool Dtoid reference. Why'd we go with a cassette? Well, that's what Terry wanted, but also, it makes sense since VVVVVV was inspired by his love of the C64. The 3DS g... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hidden-in-vvvvvv-code Occasionally programmers will leave in-jokes or cool little gems inside game code. When I've seen a source code "easter egg", it's something of note within the team or a random thing and sometimes it's get-you-in-trouble-fast kind of stuff like Dead Island's "Feminist Whore" ability. Terry threw in something pretty harmless, but easy ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/less-than-a-month-to-go The incredibly awesome and talented Linzb0t made us this uber-cute Cave Story 3D artwork in anticipation of next month's release! Thanks, Lindsay! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/warez-ikachan-johnny I think I was asked that at least three times last week at Indiecade. So where is Pixel's Ikachan? We announced it earlier this year for DSiWare, but it hasn't materialized since. Well, we've been working only it on-and-off, but mostly off. Simon, who's handled the amazing DSi version of Cave Story is working on Ikachan with Daisuke a... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hello-world Herro! It's been a while, but we have a fresh new blog to go with the new HTML5-friendly site.  Shown above, two random dudes ogling at the Nintendo 3DS. Not sure what they're playing, but it must be awesome. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-christopher-reavey Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art.</p> Cave Story is of... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-hits-number-one-on-the-wii-shop-top-20 Cave Story is officially the Number One game on the Wii Shop Channel's Top 20. We took a photo just to prove it :) Read the glowing reviews from 1UP, Game Informer, GameTrailers and with links below: 1UP.com Rating: A/A "Cave Story feels like the most amazing console game from the year 1990; that it's only now coming to console 20 ye... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-is-now-available-on-the-wii-shop-channel It's been a long time coming, but you can officially get Cave Story for the Wii now! Thank you all for being so patient. We'll be updating this post throughout the week. What's Cave Story? Who Made it? Watch this video and find out. What's new in the WiiWare version? Lots of stuff! Where do I buy it? Go to Nintendo for more info! Wa... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/getting-close-to-the-final-countdown </embed> I can finally run this video again! Hit it Europe! Reminds me of the 1Up party at GDC. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-ray-ortega Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art.</p> Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/want-a-free-cave-story-add-us-on-twitter-nicalis You may have heard that we're going to be giving away two copies of Cave Story everyday, starting tomorrow, Monday March 22nd through Friday March 26th and the again Monday March 29th through Wednesday March 31st. All you have to do to be eligible is add us on Twitter (@nicalis) and send the following message: "#cavestory is availabl... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-raymond-teo Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art.</p&... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-reviewed-on-ign-com Read the full review at IGN.com. We don't want to spoil the review for you. NOTE: The review may have some spoilers https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-james-harvey-e2-84-a2 Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-melanie-herring Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-nintendo-channel-pixel-interview </embed> In case you aren't near your Wii, you can check out the first public appearance of Pixel, EVER. He tells us the REAL inspiration behind Balrog. Here's a little hint, it's not luggage or a toaster.500 https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-pixel-nintendo-channel-interview-march-15th-1pm-est Listen and see Daisuke Amaya for the first time ever! Until now, very few people have ever seen or met the creator of Cave Story. Although we love having fun by showing the back of his head or mosiacing out his face, we won't need to after tomorrow. The Nintendo Channel crew traveled to Kyoto, Japan to speak exclusively with him rega... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/so-youre-lookin-at-me I think we are. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-katy-coope Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-michaela-clisson Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art.</p&... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-sam-miller Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/what-are-you-looking-at Hello. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-cory-godbey Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art.</p&... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-features-artist-cole-harrington Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. Continuing towar... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-baz-pringle Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, "Calling All Artists". We didn't specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you're going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. To give you a li... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/its-onto-bushlands We're getting closer and closer to that magical date--take a look at the countdown counter if you need a reminder. I want to let those fans who've supported us for so long in on some of the music that you'll hear very soon. Those of you who've followed the blog and media coverage know that Cave Story on Wii has both the original music... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-featured-artist-max-fiedler Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, "Calling All Artists". We didn't specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you're going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. To give you a l... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/coming-soon-cave-story-featured-artists Those among us who have followed the development blog may recall the time when we put out a call for artists, aptly titled, “Calling All Artists”. We didn’t specify why we were looking for artists, but in the coming weeks you’re going to see why we did and what the artists who responded created in the form of fan art. To give you a lit... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/tigsource-interviews-pixel What a busy day! Derek Yu (creator of Aquaria) has put up an interview with Pixel! Go check it out at TIGSource! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-evolution-of-igor Do you remember our Igor Comparison? If you don't, go check it out. At the time I didn't say too much or really show the process in which we arrived on Pixel's final version of Igor. I wanted to take the time to show you more how a typical character is redone for the Wii version of Cave Story. From left to right, the first image is ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/from-pixel-4nintendo-life-w-love https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/happy-birthday-nicklas January 6th is Nicklas' 27th bday. It's already the 6th in Sweden so Happy Birthday! To celebrate his birthday Nicklas is offering Saira at a $5 discount to $12--that's 29.4118% off! Another $1.50 will get you a second license for that friend who's too cheap to buy it on his own. Go get Saira for 29.4118% off!. Just like McDonald's M... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/o-to-the-mg </embed> It looks like NicoNico strikes again. I really don't know what to say. Genius? Thoughts? Hope everyone had a good new year! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/happy-christmas Happy Christmas! If you remember yesterday's Cave Story Happy Christmas Eve update, you'll recall that we mentioned a third tune by Dustin Kulwicki. As promised, here it is! Christmas Story [dewplayer:http://nicalis.com/christmas/Cave_Story_Christmas_Story_k-wix.mp3] And, in case you missed the first two: Holiday Construction [dewplay... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/saira-wallpaper You've probably hear Nicklas released Saira on PC. And if you haven't heard, where have you been? You can go download the Saira Demo. Or get some cool Knytt T-Shirts. But if you just want something pretty for your wallpaper check out the Saira Art Collection done by Charlotte Winroth. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/happy-christmas-eve It's almost Christmas and the end of the year! We've been utterly quiet because updating a blog takes more time away than I'd like from actually making games--what we're supposed to be doing. We'll have some updates post-release with Amaya-san discussing the game. For now I want to bring everyone up to speed on the finished product: -... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/spike-2009-vga-best-indie-game-vote-osmos Spike Video Game Awards 2009 are coming and it's time to vote! I'm a HUGE fan of Osmos, another IGF grand prize-nominee and generally-kick ass game. Hopefully by now you've played it. Visit the Spike VGA Official Site and cast your vote for Osmos as Indie Game of the Year!. Good lucky Eddy! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-more-fixes-2 I fixed another issue in the special property. I've also made major graphical improvements to a large number of the areas. And level tweaks and improvements. Two new Appendix levels. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-more-tweaking Small changes to the level format (Chain= was replaced by Chain Snd= and now links to a chain sound file). I don't think this will affect Mike's NG-Native. I've added more levels to the ******** world! They are quite ****** and ****. I have finished improving the difficulty of a few 'Normal' worlds, too. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-levels No changes was made to the engine or level format. The Snow world is working great. In this version, I've improved many of the game's levels in many aspects. The Normal mode is in some cases a lot easier. I've also started working on a world named ****** **********, which would be great as ****** ***** that you can play as a re***d for... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-the-13th-warrior-er-level The 13th level support is finally added to Night Game. Now Ara can add his levels to the game properly! Some levels have been added to the Appendix too, I was thinking that they could be used for the credits! The Col Snd=!REG thing was removed from the level format and all levels, it's not really needed for anything. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-sound-and-level-adjustments Improved and additional sound effects. Small level adjustments. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-scripting-madness The name of the two types of PreDef (Custom and Embed) objects originally reflected how the original engine dealt with them. I have now renamed Type=Custom to Type=Normal (which is also equivalent of not specifying a Type at all) and renamed Type=Embed to Type=Scripted Type=Normal still gets the graphics from Worlds\[Universe]\[World]\... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-tiny-update Nicklas has been busy. We have some level improvements, fixes, and tweaks. Have a cookie and smile! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/by-the-way Hopefully some of you are going or have friends who will be at PAX. Please be sure to try Cave Story, if you have a chance. We made a special build for PAX with save files in specific areas. Anyone playing, keep in mind that the PAX build is a few weeks old and has certain things locked. Tiffany and I have also finalized what Downloa... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-title-and-menu The Title and Menu universe was changed to Appendix, and a new level can be found there which should appear before the game's ending is played. The ***** level now features background sounds, and the next thing on my to-do list is to record city noises at night time for the new level. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/pax-2009-go-play-cave-story-this-weekend If you're one of the few thousand people lucky enough to have tickets to PAX be sure to go play Cave Story on Wii! Tell us what you think when you're done, too. We'll have a nice update tomorrow for all you CS fans. \(* ^ _^)/ https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-a-whole-new-world New world map that includes all areas! No engine changes. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nightly-updates I hope you've enjoyed all the Night Game updates so far. Mike, Nicklas and myself have been doing our best to put everything together for Night Game. We want to give fans a bit of a preview on what goes on over on this side of the screen and what gets done, changed and fixed as we move towards a finished game. With that said, you've ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-appendix-and-debug Minor level bugs fixed, new Appendix level intended for testing the game controls - as there will be multiple button layouts, it's good having quick access to a test level where all the possible functions can be used . https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-objects-2 One more animated object (the Light one) was removed in favour for static ones that uses the existing features and doesn't need any extra coding/scripting :) Some other level optimizations were added too. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-objects A sprite sheet is included of every object now, in addition to the animation frame split up into different files! To save space, I've started to remove 'scriptable' objects that can easily be represented by normal PreDef ones with the simple sine rotation property. It looks the same, but involves less work for Mike's side (unlike with ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-tutorial-complete The Mountains world now contains a full tutorial, but the text will need to be replaced with the final, edited English text, and descriptions of how to play the game on a Wii. I've merged NiffWorld and ExpWorld into a single universe now, but that doesn't require any engine changes. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-so-secretive All hidden 12 ***** *** are now marked on the level selection screen as ** * **** ******. When you locate a hidden ******, the mark changes into an * on the level selection screen. **** ** **** are now also required to pass certain checkpoints at the **** ****** **. At this point, I'm the levels and secrets are pretty much complete. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-music-integration Here is a quick status on audio: We've have been doing the basic audio work on the PC where it's faster. We've not gone to the extreme of hooking up DirectSound to actually play the audio data, but it is useful to work out the logic of managing the tracks and the decoding of data on the PC. So far, we've have hooked up the Ogg Vorbis d... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-music-engine Hey, I improved music playback features. The balance between when songs are played is much improved. See Engine Info 3 for more details. Also, the music engine was modified to work according to Chris' description. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-easy-street Level improvements in the 'Normal' difficulty according to Ara's feedback. The first five factory levels have also been "easified" :) https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-more-fixes More 'Normal' level improvements. In this version, you can also locate 12 ****** *** ** that gives you ******, that will later unlock ***** **** *******. The location of the **** ** **** is specified in *** ***** ****, and as it's for *** ******** ******, finding them is sometimes pretty hard. Many levels in the 'Normal' mode has been ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/making-night-game-part-1-prototyping Bork! Nifflas here! So basically, during the time I've spent working on the Night Game project and even during the new unknown Q project I've been busy. While Mike created the new Night Game Wii engine, I've been in touch with Clickteam a lot about various things. I prototyped both Night Game and Q in Clickteam's Multimedia Fusion 2. ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-aras-areas I've edit Ara's areas to work better with what I think is consistent for the game, and changed some of the puzzles and graphics. They are included in this beta, under the Mountains, Plains, Ruins, Factory, and Cave worlds. It's by the way area eight in Ruins, it doesn't have an Ara level ****** there. I had to add a new physical parame... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-layer-issues I have changed a layer inconsistency problem. Before, the internal order of the objects within a layer was: -Front- Ball Physical Custom PreDef Embed PreDef -Back- ...which didn't make any sense as the ball is an Embed type PreDef too. I fixed this by removing the ball's ability to break the internal object order of a layer. Now it is:... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-control-implementation Major change! The D button was removed entirely from the game, and selecting blocks works completely differently now. With Up/Down, the player selects what device to activate, and with the push of a button that block is removed. The "Invert Gravity" power still work though, but on levels which allows the gravity to be inverted, the 2 b... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-sound-and-more-tutorial As Mike have not finished his work on the game's sound support just yet, I took the liberty of changing the ambiance and music related parameters in World.ini files a bit, for the better. I hope this is ok. I've now started to work on improving the Mountain world to include the tutorial I mentioned before. I think I'm going to adjust ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nicalis-now-really-on-twitter Anyone following <twitter.com/tyronerodriguez will be happy to know that we're finally on Twitter, for real this time! Be sure to bookmark and follow us at the Nicalis Twitter Page. In case you're not paying attention, it's www.twitter.com/nicalis. We'll have updates on all our projects there. Like a bite-sized blog. /tyroner... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-translate-a-game And one that already has a fan translation. Honestly... As most people reading this know, Cave Story started off as 洞窟物語 (doukutsu monogatari). Amaya-san never anticipated it would become popular enough to warrant a fan-translation into English. But it did. In 2005, Andrew Davis would spend three weeks translating the Japanese script... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-the-tutorial I've started to design the tutorial aspect of the 'Mountains' world where we'll explain how to actually play the game. The only level where you can currently see it in action is the third 'Mountains' level, on 'Normal' mode. When the game is finished, the player will course have to start out in the 'Mountains' world before playing any... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/icarian-er-nyxquest-available-on-wiiware NyxQuest: Kindred Spirits is available on WiiWare today. It's 1,000 points. Congrats to Rob and everyone at Over the Top Games for receiving an 8.5 on IGN.com. Really a great game; great work! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-technical-status-report If you're wondering what's going on with Night Game's audio, here's the weekly status report for code: >>> I'm still plugging away on the goal of playing Ogg Vorbis music and ambient tracks on the Wii. This goal consists of two parts: (1) A track manager that handles the uncompressed audio data and mixes the da... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-online-manual-submitted-for-approval One less thing to worry about--for now. We just need to get NOA's approval or fix whatever's wrong with it. Now we just need to finish the paperwork to do our pre-submission for the actual game. That would be logically next. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-comparison-igor I was looking through our past art comparisons and we're a little light on bosses. I guess it's for a good reason, most of them don't appear until you're a decent amount into the game. Igor isn't much of a spoiler, most players will probably bump into him probably an hour or so into the game. Here he is. He's another Amaya masterpiece... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/from-denmark I got the latest NG build and was really impressed! The levels are really playable now! I've modified the values of the ball movement to be a lot more close to the original, but I've not been able to do it perfectly with the A power yet. For this, I need to know how I skip levels in the NGNative build so I can quickly jump to a level ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/15-minute-break Tiffany and I have been working long days and longer nights. The last couple of weeks have been spent going over in-game dialogue nearly word-by-word with Amaya-san. I'm sure he gets a kick out of text messages at 4am PST asking seemingly random stuff like which "master" Igor is referencing when he talks. Well, I hope he gets a kick o... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/chris-schlarb-interviewed-indie-vgm-roundtable Chris Schlarb, maybe you've heard of him? If you've enjoyed any of the music in Night Game thus far then you better know Chris. He's the man responsible for the ethereal soundtrack intended as a compliment to Nicklas' art, design and general direction for the game. Gamasutra/GameSetWatch's Jeriaska had the chance to combine some serio... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-kazuma As I was selected this overdue art comparison the realization came to me: it's difficult choosing a good art comparison without spoiling something for you. There are so many things we want to show you, but we'd rather you experience them on your own. Well, here's Kazuma. Side-by-side the changes done by Amaya-san are pretty huge, but... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hello-july Hello! It's been a long three weeks. While we've been working harder than ever on Cave Story I've had the pleasure of taking care of a new addition, our first baby. We haven't stopped working one bit on Cave Story. Amaya-san and I literally text-message or e-mail each other multiple times a day to decide important things. Is it Koron... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/a-new-cave-story-screen-sand-zone It's been too long since we put up a new screen shot. Here's a nice one of the hero in Sand Zone with the new missile launcher. Hopefully you like what you see. We'll do another character comparison later this week. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/get-flixely No, not Pixel--Flixel! Semi-secretive dude, Adam Saltsman has been busy working on stuff other than artwork for Cave Story and another little game of ours. He's been building his version of a game maker. I'm far too lazy to explain what it's about so I just asked him to tell us, "[Flixel] is a free collection of actionscript files ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-birthday-card-part-2 Look what arrived while we were at E3. Amaya-san strikes again! This is even cooler than Last Year's Bday Postcard. It looks like our little hero appears to be growing up. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! 天谷さん、　どもありがとうございます！ https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/play-cave-story-at-the-nintendo-booth By now you've, hopefully, watched the Night Game trailer. It's not playable at the show, but another game we're work on is, Cave Story! Kiosks with various WiiWare games are setup at the showfloor, one of those games is Cave Story. Like Night Game, Cave Story will also have its own trailer running during the show. As the trailer is i... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-e3-trailer [flashvideo filename=NG_E3_Edit_final2.flv height=375 width=500 skin=bright /] It's officially the first day of E3! Yes! One of the many trailers E3 attendees will see at the Nintendo booth is for Night Game for WiiWare. We know most of you probably can't make it to the show so we've decided to host the video here, for you to view. Hop... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/guess-whatll-be-at-e3 Need we say more? https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/in-the-water [flashvideo filename=CS_waterway_trailer.flv height=375 width=500 skin=bright /] Let's celebrate my birthday with a new video! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/forums-are-up Based on the number of comments we're seeing for updates you all have a lot to say. With that said we've put up forums for you to use. Click the menu button or This Link to Forums. You'll see a few different topics already in place for Cave Story, Night Game, our other projects as well as a few off-topic places to chat. Remember, we'r... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/mega64-100th-podcast </embed> Congratulations to the guys at Mega64 for hitting 100. We'll look for them at E3. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/facebook-meet-nicalis-inc We're back from holiday and we've created a Facebook Nicalis page! If you have Facebook, please be sure to join--and if you don't, well, make an account already! The fate of the world depends on it. Tell your friends about it, heck tell you mom, even. In case you didn't notice the first link, head to our official Nicalis, Inc. Facebo... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-hero A few people pointed out that although Kotaku and a few other sites posted images of the revised hero, we never did. Well, here he is. Thanks for reminding! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/ign-leaks-outer-wall Oops. Click at your own risk as some may consider this a spoiler. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/in-the-sand [flashvideo filename=/WCVE_Sand.flv height=375 width=500 skin=bright /] You hopefully enjoyed the Bushlands video. Here's one from Sand Zone. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/happy-birthday-wiiware Today marks WiiWare's first year. We're looking forward to releasing a few games in '09. Congratulations to Nintendo and all the developers who have made it successful to this point. And, be sure to check out USA Today's WiiWare Birthday story. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/its-a-miracle Well, actually it's a Miracle Witch. Just launched today, it's from our friends at Nigoro and its their latest free online game. Did I mention that it's free? So head on over to the Miracle Witch Site and give it a go. It's really a work of art and reminds me of the classic Falcom games from the late '80s with a bit of Hydlide mixed i... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/ign-podcast-questions I was on the IGN podcast earlier today. Follow the link to hear IGN's full Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast show. Or you can right click and save the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast, Episode 46 https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/very-random Also very cool. Created by Goh. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/4pixel-from-nanoko-studios-w Seems like the birthday wishes for Amaya-san keep rolling in, this time for Annabelle Kennedy--you know, she did the Cave Story Anthem. What do you guys and girls think? Great work Annabelle! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/birthday-wishes-to-pixel-from-nigoro Amaya-san was very happy about all the positive birthday wishes, but they seem to keep coming. This time from our friends in Japan at Nigoro. ありがとう and HOWACHAAAAA!!!! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/two-pianos-moonsong-remix </embed> Sebastian Wolff strikes again! Just in time for Amaya-san's bday, too! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/e5-a4-a9-e8-b0-b7-e3-81-95-e3-82-93-e3-80-80-e8-aa-95-e7-94-9f-e6-97-a5-e3-81-8a-e3-82-81-e3-81-a7-e3-81-a8-e3-81-86-ef-bc-81-happy-birthday-amaya-san Cool Bday art by Adam Saltsman :) Today's Amaya-san's birthday! Let's all all show him how much we appreciate him and all the work he put into giving us Cave Story. Neogaf, Miraigamer, Livejournal--get all your friends to wish him happy birthday. Get your friends to stop by and wish him the best! 天谷さん,　誕生日おめでとう！ 洞窟物語をつくってくれてありがとう！ https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/e3-82-af-e3-82-b5-e3-83-a0-e3-83-a9 [flashvideo filename=/WCVE1.flv height=375 width=500 skin=bright /] https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-medley </embed> Did I already put this up? Can't remember, but you should watch it. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-and-night-game-in-nintendo-power Go pick up the May issue of Nintendo Power to read about the awesome Punch-Out! and Silent Hill. After you're done, turn to page 18 to see a two-page feature on Cave Story followed on the next page by Night Game. The Cave Story mention may have what a few of you might consider spoilers, but they don't mention a certain-someone's na... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hmm-package-from-kyoto Two packages arrived from Japan. One happens to be from Kyoto and from Amaya-san. You probably already figured that out, huh. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-rated Before I forget, Cave Story's already been rated. - Mild Cartoon Violence - Mild Language Oh yeah, apparently Amaya-san sent a package. I wonder if it's a few Wii Remotes. (* ^_^) https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/world-of-goo-medley-wolff-on-piano </embed> You might know Sebastian Wolff as a Cave Story fan and piano maestro. Previously, he transcribed the score to Cave Story--just for fun. Now's he's killing it with the music of World of Goo. Great work on this Goo medley and good seeing you at GDC! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/coming-soon-the-pixel-interview-on-the-nintendo-channel So, technically, it's not Monday anymore, but it still is in Hawaii so that's good enough for us. Some of you were waiting for some big news and, hopefully, this is what you were waiting for. First, we're VERY close to putting the finishing touches on Cave Story. And by very close, meaning the game is very done and we're doing our be... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nintendo-channel-night-game-interview </embed>Night Game - GDC interviewby rawmeatcowboy Filmed at GDC, the Nintendo Channel crew speaks with Nicklas, Chris and me about Night Game. Thanks to Kevin at GoNintendo.com for uploading this. Anyone who has a Wii can watch directly from their console. Enjoy! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-makes-the-gaf-collection The guys (and girls, I think) at Neo Gaf have been putting some time together in Photoshop to make some really cool box art inspired, presumably, by The Criterion Collection. Go check out The GAF Collection thread! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/moonsong-remix I can't remember who, but someone asked for the remixed version of Moon Song that plays on the Official Cave Story Website. Well, here it is, Moon Song Remix. Left click plays, right click and Save As. Enjoy! Yes, we're all working this weekend. Happy Easter! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-video-on-ign <embed src="http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf" flashvars="object_ID=14320530&downloadURL=http://wiimovies.ign.com/wii/video/article/969/969899/nightgame_gmp_040609_flvlowwide.flv&allownetworking=\"all%\"" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="433" height="360"></embed> Night Gam... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-isnt-delayed-until-september "Hello Nicalis! I am sorry to bother you if you are on a busy schedule, sleeping, or trying to eat that one delicious chocolate chip cookie that's been trying to hide from you, but I heard somewhere that Cave Story Wii will not be released until September 30, 2009. Is this true? Were you not able to get the April/May release? Please r... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-fan-anthem </embed> Cave Story fan and talented artist, Annabelle Kennedy, has created a video and anthem for Cave Story. It's a well-paced trailer with original music and lyrics presumably written by her. I just wish we would have given her footage from the Wii version to go with this--it's pretty cool. I'm going to have to send ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nifflas-igf-intervie Just in time for GDC and IGF, Eric Caoili asks about Night Game? Go read the Nifflas interview now. Night Game Interview https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-escapist-interviews-pixel What are you waiting for? Go read The Escapist Pixel Interview https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/last-night Worked on Cave Story pretty late. More work this weekend. Tiffany is working away at the code. We're getting there. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-update-crunch-time Tyrone Hello! I hope you missed us. Sorry for the break. There's a reason we've been MIA for the last couple of weeks. No, we're still not dead--we're officially in crunch mode and trying our best to wrap up Cave Story! If all goes well, you'll be playing Cave Story by the beginning of May or even end of April. Instead of a simple one... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/mcnewsy-news Hello! Tiffany here again and I come with a little bit of good news, or at least a couple of new things to tell you. Pixel and Ty have put together the weapons and the weapon icons for the HUD, everything dropped in nicely and, I think you'll agree, it looks fantastic. Pixel never disappoints! The MIDI player is ready to go and the ne... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/and-before-i-forget-mimiga-graveyard We've been a little lacking on the screen shots. So here's a new one what. Do you like? https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/direct-from-japan I've been in Japan one full day now. Last night I landed, and met my friends from Nigoro for a secret meeting, dinner and drinks. I'd have a photo to show, too, but the damn iPhone doesn't seem to be saving my photos lately. Aaargh... So here's a picture of our walk on the way to dinner. After dinner, I did a little work from the hote... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/kyoto-here-we-come-again Sorry for the lack of art updates, but we've been very busy working hard. However, it's about time that I mentioned that I'm a little more than 12 hours from boarding a plane bound back for Japan. This time around I'll be visiting Tokyo yet again, but I'll also be in Kyoto for two days. Oh can you figure out the reason of the trip? I'... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/huzzah A good friend pointed out this great make-it-yourself version of Balrog at cubecraft.com. Now Balrog can watch over you while you sleep! ;) https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-new-screen As GDC draws closer we'll continue to update this blog with information on Night Game. For now, here's a new screen shot. Enjoy. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/best-of-times If you read Tiffany's previous post, you know we're doing our best to make sure Cave Story for Wii does the original PC game justice. Amaya-san has been busting his ass on all the art, providing his feedback and even making time for interviews--as you may have seen in Nintendo Power and Play Magazine. I've wrapped up most of the work ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hello Hey, I'm Tiffany, the programmer on Cave Story Wii. Things have been pretty busy for us as we get closer to release, but I wanted to say hello. As you probably know, over the past few months we've been cracking away, trying to bring Cave Story over to the Wii platform. Thankfully to Pixel's clean work, we've been able to do it without... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/nicaliscom-is-live The Nicalis developer blog has been live for almost a year and you've seen our updates, but we hadn't finished up our website. Change the address on your browser to www.nicalis.com to see the new Nicalis company website. We'll have more info on Night Game and Cave Story later this week. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/mtv-digs-cave-story MTV's Stephen Totilo put together a short list of Wii games he's looking forward to for 2009. The list of five games includes Sin and Punishment 2, MadWorld and Punch-Out!! Also on the list is Wii Sports Resort; these are all some pretty notable games for the Wii. The fifth game on the list is Cave Story! We're happy that it has made ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-curly With the second week of the new year almost over, we're back to our schedule--including trying to update the blog. It's technically Friday and that means it's time for a new character. Since we were quiet over the holiday it's time for a good one. What you're seeing above is pretty obvious, Amaya-san's original and new take on Curly... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/and-hello-again Yes, we've been MIA for a bit. No, I'm not dead. And, no, Cave Story for Wii hasn't been killed. Truth be told we did try to make it in time for Christmas, however, we weren't able to do so. We've taken more time to make sure everything is perfect. We're still working away at Cave Story trying to make sure it's faithful to Amaya-san's... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/night-game-nominated-for-independent-games-festival It looks like Night Game made it into the Independent Games Festival (IGF) finalists, in two categories! Erik Svedäng, one of the guys who I met at "No More Sweden" (a game developer's meeting in Sweden), also made it to the finals with his game "Blueberry Garden" which looks extremely promising. What do you think of this screen shot? https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-malco Sorry for the extreme lack of updates. We've, well, been working on your game. :) I'm still working now, but it's about time we show another character. So, here he is--the new version of Malco, the friendly robot. Pixel did an awesome job on this one. By the way, you might want to check out IGN Wii this Wednesday. I hear they're going... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hilarious This has nothing to do with Cave Story. Nigoro, if you haven't heard is a Japanese developer based in Tokyo. I had the chance to hang out with them while visiting Japan for TGS. It's time to take a break from working on Cave Story so I'm playing a game by Nigoro. Rose and Camellia is one of their free flash games. It's simply hilariou... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/calling-all-artists There's something very special planned on the Cave Story website very soon and we just might need your help. We’re looking for a few good artists to contribute to the community. Specifically, we’re looking for anyone who can do digital paintings or illustrations. If you’re interested, drop an e-mail with the following information: We’... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/more-surprises You may want to head over to GoNintendo if you haven't done so already. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/kotaku-reveals-new-sprite And it's a pretty important one, but you might want to head over to kotaku.com to take a look at the new hero sprite for Cave Story. When you're done, be sure to come back and tell us what you think. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/lego-balrog How awesome is this? [Source: Kashiwa] https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/kotaku-surprise There's a nice little Cave Story surprise coming to Kotaku sometime later today. You may want to keep a watch out for it. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-sketch-for-fun A tiny bit of downtime tonight so I started drawing a certain hero holding a certain little man. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-basu No, it's not Friday yet, but as Amaya-san continues to deliver more and more artwork it's nice to see what we're getting, right? This is Basu, one of the tougher enemies you'll encounter pretty early on in the game, but you already know that. Give us your thoughts on this new creation in the the comments section. Oh and, don't, worry-... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-misery Some fans have been waiting to see this one. It's the new Misery. Like the rest of the artwork in the game, this one is still using the original palette, but has more definition. Probably much closer what you'd expect in the character portrait. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-mimiga-sue In case you missed Wii Fanboy's update yesterday. Here's the newer, more-detailed Sue Sakamoto--one of the first character met in Cave Story. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-balrog Balrog, anyone? Pixel kept this one a lot closer to home. But with a character like Balrog, a little bit of change is just the right amount. Bet you can't wait to see Misery. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-mimiga-village-tiles So we're changing things up a little bit starting this week. You may see random-yet-relevant updates from the team. As such, we're doing another art comparison--don't worry we'll still do a new character on Friday. However, we wanted to give everyone an idea of some of the changes that are being done to the background artwork to A) ma... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/the-pixel-wii-remote By request, here's a better shot of the Pixel-autographed Wii remote. Again, bad photo from a bad camera phone. The actual remote is a bit beat-up as it's been heavily used in the development of the WiiWare version of Cave Story. Pixel also logged in a couple of hours of World of Goo with it and the scribbled-on Wii. We're probably go... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-chin-fish You didn't think we'd forget our weekly character comparison update just because it's Halloween, did you? Someone requested we show the new version of Chin Fish. Another Pixel success? https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-on-facebook Come join us at The Official Cave Story on facebook.com! https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/funny-comment-of-the-week Background artist, Adam, said something funny earlier today: Adam: I am never pixeling cracks in stuff ever again!! >:o Me: I can imagine your relief that this isn't a 1080p PSN version. :) https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-grave-keeper It's Friday and time for another comparison. Thus far we've been showing non-player character Mimigas, but it's about time we start to show some enemies. This week we have the Grave Keeper, a character from the Mimiga Cemetery. Pixel has done a great job of upgrading this character, giving him more detail while maintaining the charm ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/ddr-mobius-is-available Released last week for mobile phones, DDR Mobius is one of our latest cell phone games. It has a nice little surprise for Cave Story fans. Watch the video to see what it is. Excuse the lag, the emulator doesn't run the game nearly as well as mobile phones. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/by-request The iPhone is a terrible camera. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hmm-whats-this That sure looks like three save files, doesn't it? https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/still-tired Forgive the lack of updates on the meeting with Amaya-san--getting ready to make the trip back across the Pacific and I'm still exhausted. Yes, he did play the game. We also played World of Goo, MegaMan 9 and a few other Wii games. Hopefully the photo above will be enough for now. From what I've been able to gather it's the first phot... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/back-from-kyoto-sort-of We're back from our trip to Kyoto to visit Amaya-san. Well, kind of. Two back-to-back eight-hour bus rides adds up to a lot of backed-up sleep. Here's what Kyoto looks like when you arrive before 6am. NOTHING was open--not even McDonalds or Starbucks... That's it for now. More after some rest. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/kyoto-here-we-come In roughly one hour we'll leave Niigata and make the overnight trip to Kyoto. おやすみなさい。 https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/how-cave-story-came-to-wiiware-mtvcom For anyone interested on how we connected with Amaya-san, MTV's SF editor, Patrick Klepek, ran an interview and story on how it all happened. Follow the link to see How Cave Story Became WiiWare. Less than a day before we get Pixel's impressions on his game. https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-king I was planning on updating the blog with a comparison a week. I'll be in transit this Friday to Kyoto so this week's comparo comes a little early. Amaya's new version of King obviously has more detail so now you can see a bit more of a frown as well as his mouth and whiskers. It still uses the original palette, we just have more pixel... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/gametrailers-video-footage-yes-the-audio-is-wip Gametrailers has some gameplay footage up. They put up a bumper stating that the artwork is work-in-progress. The music is work-in-progress, too. There was also a strange bug where the music was playing at about 17-percent slower than it should. The sound effects haven't been balanced and are WAAAAAY too loud in the footage you see her... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/saturday-in-shinjuku Today is a "fun" day. Will be working over the weekend, but want to enjoy a day in Shinjuku. I went running, went too far and got lost, but managed to find my way back. Being here reminds me of PGR3, but maybe it's the Aston Martin I spotted by the JR station. What you don't see is a photo of the yellow Ferrari F430 which I also saw. ... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-art-comparison-toroko Since last week I've received a few questions in-person and via e-mail about the upscaled Wii-exclusive artwork. It's been a mixed reaction of "great," "good," and "meh" from editors and fans alike. As some fans may or may not know we are implementing a switch for both the graphics and audio. However, we want to show you a side-by... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/tgs-day-2-over-time-for-dinner Day two of TGS is over. Started a bit slow after a very late Thursday night an a rough morning, but managed to make it to the show. Today was my last day at the show floor. Tomorrow and Sunday are public days and will probably be about 10 times more-crowded--no, thanks. I was able to play Blaze Blue yesterday and today I had a quick m... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/japan-day-one-over Excuse the crap iPhone photo (c'mon Apple!). First day in Japan has come to an end. I've tried my best to stay up as long as possible to avoid waking up at 5am. I'm staying in Shinjuku until next week; it's about an hour from here to Chiba, but at least there's stuff to do here at night. The plan for my time in Japan: - Spend Thursda... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/huzzah-we-alive And Yes! The Cave Story WiiWare website and blog are now officially running! I feel like I need to say something a little more official for this first "live" post. We'd like to thank everyone who has supported the game up to this point and we're looking forward to its first commercial release. 天谷さん、おめでとうございます！すばらしいゲームを作ってくれてありがとうございま... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/ign-cave-story-wiiware-videos IGN posted some videos from last week's Nintendo Media Summit. <embed src="http://videomedia.ign.com/ev/ev.swf" flashvars="object_ID=14287155&downloadURL=http://wiimovies.ign.com/wii/video/article/916/916293/cavestory_clip3_100308_flvlowwide.flv&allownetworking=\"all%\"" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wi... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/almost-rested-and-packing-for-japan I've been home exactly for a day after Nintendo's big fall media summit and haven't decided if I'm tired, excited or both. In less than two days I leave for TGS and will spend the better half of October in Tokyo, Niigata and Kyoto--the latter of which is to meet up with Pixel. Back to the Nintendo event, it was pretty amazing. The resp... https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/cave-story-birthday-postcard I received a nice surprise in the mail today. Amaya had mentioned he'd be sending a birthday postcard, but I didn't expect it to be so cool! It's a hand-drawn birthday note featuring Quote from Pixel himself. 天谷さん, ありがとう！ https://blog.nicalis.com/blog/hello-world And it works...