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Saturnine talks Antipole remake chances, Turtle Tale development, Wii U dev status

by rawmeatcowboy
22 April 2013
GN Version 4.0
- Wanted to take a step back after finishing Antipole and make some more traditional
- Started in development working on GBA homebrew
- Got his first development job through this experience
- Cosmos X2 for DSiWare was the first game Saturnine self-published
- Antipole didn’t start with the gravity mechanic
- Reaction to Antipole has been good. Fans have been asking for a sequel
- First few levels of the game were scrapped after the gravitymechanic was added
- The idea for Turtle Tale came from an idea his business partner had and some colorful art depicting a tropical island
- Built the game around those two ideas
- Unusual body proportions of a turtle limited animations
- 15 levels in the main game, collectable fruit will unlock additional levels
- Was going to originally be a DSiWare game, but was moved to 3DS
- Multiple layers of parallax scrolling takes advantage of the 3D features
- 3D didn’t take a lot of time to implement
- Nintendo has gotten better with every digital shop
- Very happy with their stance towards independent developers
- Thinks the eShop is one of the best digital stores
- Would consider doing a remake/collector’s edition of Antipole to add in content that couldn’t fit in the DSiWare version of the game
- Has been approved as a Wii U developer
- Hoping to submit Turtle Tale to Nintendo in May

UPDATE - These footnotes come from Saturnine themselves...

Antipole wasn't really a game before the gravity mechanic was added. I had started coding the very basics of a platformer, hoping to come up with a good idea for one. No actual levels or artwork were designed before we settled on the gravity idea.

The early levels were scrapped as I grew to understand the gravity mechanic better. There was a trial and error phase figuring out how best to use the gravity.

The turtle's animations had pros and cons - some animations didn't work well, but others were easier. I consider it a net positive. I think the style made it easier for us to experiment and get a wider variety of enemies into the game.


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