Nocturnal talks Flowerworks HD: Follie's Adventure added features, release dates, future Wii U/3DS support
A portion of a Nintendo Life interview with Nocturnal's Michael Shamgar...
NL: Are there plans to add more content in future?
MS: There is every chance we could add more content in the future.
Flowerworks is a long game though - it still takes me around 15-20hrs to totally finish it (and I have been playing it solidly for 5 years!). So I think it's more likely we could add extra features to the game in the future (Miiverse, online leaderboards, improved graphics) and leave the new content for another game.
NL: We understand the release is likely to arrive in North America before Europe; do you have estimated release windows for each region?
MS: It's going through submission now for a US release - so I think late March or April is likely. Europe is likely to be another month or two after that.
Speaking of which - I think it's unlikely that we'll ever release in Australia again, which is pretty sad given we are based there. Getting a game rated in Australia is a slow and expensive process, which is a real pity. A lot of other rating agencies now have special categories for small, downloadable titles: it literally took 5 minutes to get our ERSB rating the US - and it was free!
NL: Are you planning future projects for the Wii U or even the 3DS?
MS: For Nocturnal on the Wii U, everything now depends on how well Flowerworks HD does. Because the devkits are on loan, we need to purchase them if we are to continue with development. And new games are expensive to make, regardless of how simple they are.
So I would like to see Flowerworks hit certain sales targets before we commit to additional projects. Again, I'm optimistic and I think it's definitely doable - but we can't commit until it actually happens.
Assuming it does happen, there are lots of potential future projects. There is an epic RPG (which is almost finished) that I would love to bring to the Wii U. There is a sequel to a game (that I'm sure no one reading has ever heard of!) - "Timegap-X" - which is one of the games I worked on 20 years ago for the Microbee. Think open 2D world, with 3D graphics and a cross between Gradius & Metroid. There are also some pipeline projects designed around the GamePad, that would be impossible on rival consoles.
And a few other projects I don't want to talk about now, but are potentially much larger scope and would involve community and collaboration. So no shortage of ideas really!
As for the 3DS, I don't think we have capacity at the moment.
NL: Are there plans to add more content in future?
MS: There is every chance we could add more content in the future.
Flowerworks is a long game though - it still takes me around 15-20hrs to totally finish it (and I have been playing it solidly for 5 years!). So I think it's more likely we could add extra features to the game in the future (Miiverse, online leaderboards, improved graphics) and leave the new content for another game.
NL: We understand the release is likely to arrive in North America before Europe; do you have estimated release windows for each region?
MS: It's going through submission now for a US release - so I think late March or April is likely. Europe is likely to be another month or two after that.
Speaking of which - I think it's unlikely that we'll ever release in Australia again, which is pretty sad given we are based there. Getting a game rated in Australia is a slow and expensive process, which is a real pity. A lot of other rating agencies now have special categories for small, downloadable titles: it literally took 5 minutes to get our ERSB rating the US - and it was free!
NL: Are you planning future projects for the Wii U or even the 3DS?
MS: For Nocturnal on the Wii U, everything now depends on how well Flowerworks HD does. Because the devkits are on loan, we need to purchase them if we are to continue with development. And new games are expensive to make, regardless of how simple they are.
So I would like to see Flowerworks hit certain sales targets before we commit to additional projects. Again, I'm optimistic and I think it's definitely doable - but we can't commit until it actually happens.
Assuming it does happen, there are lots of potential future projects. There is an epic RPG (which is almost finished) that I would love to bring to the Wii U. There is a sequel to a game (that I'm sure no one reading has ever heard of!) - "Timegap-X" - which is one of the games I worked on 20 years ago for the Microbee. Think open 2D world, with 3D graphics and a cross between Gradius & Metroid. There are also some pipeline projects designed around the GamePad, that would be impossible on rival consoles.
And a few other projects I don't want to talk about now, but are potentially much larger scope and would involve community and collaboration. So no shortage of ideas really!
As for the 3DS, I don't think we have capacity at the moment.
