From IGF Finalist 'The Blob' To THQ Wii Game 'De Blob'
As you might have spotted from a multitude of reports, some of THQ's E3 line-up has 'arrived' early, and one I'm delighted to see is the leaked announcement of 'De Blob' for the Wii, since it's a conversion of 2007 IGF Student Showcase finalist The Blob - which was actually called 'De Blob' in its native Dutch, and avoids nasty Steve McQueen copyright suits, now I come to think of it.
It's awesome to see student and indie projects get picked up like this - hopefully the increased IGF publicity had something to do with this! [EDIT: Spoke to The Blob's creators - apparently the THQ deal was almost finalized by the time GDC came around, but lots of other publishers and even Alexei Pazhitnov praised the game in person, so now the makers have some great contacts to pitch their next title at, yay.]
The original PC freeware game, which was done by students in the Netherlands as some kind of municipal project for the city of Utrecht, I believe (?) is still available for download, and the expanded Wii version, being handled by Australian studio Blue Tongue, seems to be due out in 2008.
Plus, as 'WizarDru' notes in the GoNintendo comments, and I pretty much agree with: "OMFG. De Blob is PERFECT for the Wii. I played the free game on the PC, and it was a great Katamari-esque game. Short on gameplay, of course, but it was a University project. Expanding it into a full-fledged multi-level game would be excellent!" Also, I will point out that the game makes me just as motion-sick as Katamari, which is a spectacular achievement (and my problem, not the creators', heh.)
Comments
The fact that freeware games like "Tumiki Fighters", "Line Rider" and "De Blob" are being ported to Wii is nice, but also worrisome. Publishers are looking for some way to capture casual users, and they rely on proven games instead of trying to design their own ones. While it opens the door to small developers, it may also indicate publishers are not taking the consoles seriously. What follows? "Warning Forever"?
Posted by: ReyBrujo | June 30, 2007 1:37 PM
Hey, I for one would welcome Warning Forever on any console or handheld publishers might feel like porting it to. I really don't understand how anyone would feel that taking original titles and bringing them to a wider audience might be a bad thing.
Posted by: alistairw | July 1, 2007 12:37 AM
I saw it at a game convention in Holland and it seems pretty fun.
It's made for Utrecht indeed. They are developing some projects in the city and in the game you are rolling trough future-Utrecht. It's placed in the info-center, for casual people walking by rolling trough the city for 5 minutes (which can explain the short gameplay).
Would be awesome to have it on the Wii ^^
Posted by: Maurice | July 2, 2007 3:09 AM
when does it come out
Posted by: bob bill | December 7, 2007 5:17 PM