Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Even when it was called the Revolution, Crossbeam Studios decided to get their hands dirty and promote some big titles. The original three were Thorn, Midnight and Orb, and everyone was totally getting into the vibe of these promising projects.

Unfortunately, all those titles seem to be heading to the big recycle bin in the sky. The studio isn't going out of business; they are changing direction towards the PC and the early Wii projects simply aren't a priority, despite the fan following. A giant Falafelkid article on Crossbeam delves deep into the studio and its staff, which is a must-read for anyone interested in the core machinations of a smaller development team.

The games haven't been scrapped forever and ever, but you can stop thinking about saving up for any imminent pre-orders. Check out Cubed3's coverage and discussion with Greg Szemiot from Crossbeam, as well as the original dissection feature.

[Via Cubed3]

Nanostray 2 ... on Wii? Orb, Thorn and Midnight all coming this year? When they leak retail information sheets in the UK, they do it right. Wii UK got their hands on a retail list (origin and destination unknown) with few concrete dates and a lot of unexpected, and even unknown games, as well as a few old favorites we're always happy to hear about. Hit the jump for the full list, but keep in mind that these are UK titles and games ... and since there's not much source information, you might want to keep a few grains of salt handy. But it's okay to get a little excited. We won't tell anyone.

In an interview with Nintendo of Europe, indie development house Crossbeam Studios revealed some more on their three Wii projects. While the entire interview can be found here, it is only accessible to VIP members. Instead, we'll paraphrase the pertinent information for you.

In regards to Orb, this is the company's main project, followed by the other two proposed titles of Thorn and Darkness. Orb and Thorn are classified as adventure games, where Darkness is being classified as a more fear-based experience. See, the Earth has been overrun by forces of darkness and now mankind must make their last stand against these evil forces. The game will feature many branching paths to progress the story and lots of NPC interaction.

In commenting on the whole fear-based experience, Crossbeam's Greg Nichols said:

"Basically what I want you to feel when you turn off the game is that you're too afraid to turn the lights off. Think of when you were three years old, and the fear you had of basements, or the attic, or the dark. It's not the scare of the shock that I'm aiming for, what I want is the actual fear of the things that make you look over your shoulder. When I get afraid, my eyes start to water and a small tear comes out. I want that kind of fear to come out of the game."

Joystiq reports of an interview with the director of Crossbeam Studios, Greg Szemiot, one of the few independent developers currently working on bringing some titles to the Revolution. Their current catalogue of titles planned for the Revolution are Orb, Thorn, and Darkness. Greg goes on to state the reasons why he jumped aboard the Revolution to make titles; both the innovative control scheme and low development costs were major contributing factors for his studio.

Ross over at Joystiq makes a few wonderful points about some of the untapped potential of the upcoming Revolution. The lower development costs to attract smaller developers with bright, unique ideas and the possibilities of the Virtual Console make the Revolution a delicious buffet game developers should easily be saddling up to. Greg confirmed the team would be at E3, yet they would not be showcasing any of their work to the public, choosing  instead to shop for publishers.

[Via Joystiq]

With all the vague Revolution declarations we've had in the last few weeks, it comes as a refreshing gush of air to see someone actually fully committing to developing a Revolution game. The squares over at Cubed3 have posted an interview with just such a developer, Crossbeam Studios Entertainment, politely quizzing them about their forthcoming first-person RPG adventure, Orb.

Though the game has yet to find a publisher or a Revolution development kit, it's already being designed with Nintendo's console in mind. This isn't the first time we've seen a small team of developers making Revolution games on their mouse-driven computers, but it raises some fears as to whether or not it's a good idea to count your eggs before they've hatched. After all, there's a chance that no publisher will take interest in the game at hand--even Nintendo might politely decline.

"The only thing that worries me is Nintendo has thrown out far too many game ideas because they think it won't fly, when in fact they are great ideas. They are too scared of not making it. "

While that doesn't really sound like the Nintendo we know, there is a certain level of quality expected before you get that famous golden seal of approval stamped on your game.  Let's hope things turn out well for Orb. If not, there's always Xbox Live Arcade to fall back on...