David  on July 1st, 2008

I want this!! Take your time and make it good, though.

Michael  on July 1st, 2008

I have to say this looks like the best upcoming iPhone application to date. Great work!

mj » Blog Archive » The Gaming Market: time to break in?  on July 2nd, 2008

[...] consumer as opposed to the publisher. There are some incredibly fluid and fun-looking games like Rolando as well as the traditional games like MahJong. And if you like the idea of using your iPhone like a [...]

Joshua Baker  on July 2nd, 2008

This looks like really good fun! I’m looking forward to playing it.

Drake Philmore  on July 2nd, 2008

This looks fun, but to pretend it’s not basically an iPhone port of LocoRoco is to deny the game’s obvious ancestry.

handcircus  on July 2nd, 2008

Hey Drake, yep it does use physics and it does have 2D vector artwork (as opposed to pixel art or a 3d shaded scene) but the game has more in common with lemmings than LocoRoco. I’ll post another trailer soon that will show the game in more detail and hopefully that will make the differences obvious.

steph thirion  on July 2nd, 2008

wow. this is really impressive. I’m puzzled that one person could pull this off by himself. this looks really cool. I love how you interact with the environment.

the similarities with locoroco distract a lot from the differences though (come on, it’s way more than just about “2D vector artwork”). I had to watch the trailer 3 times before I stopped looking at it as a copycat, and started to notice the cool new stuff. (Btw, if you’d rather see it compared to lemmings than to locoroco, that was NOT the right song for the trailer).

Was not using the accelerometer a design choice or a limitation because you’re waiting to get in the developer program? Moving the little guys with the accelerometer instead of the virtual arrows could be huge. locoroco developers would have killed to have that feature in the PSP.

I’m really, really impressed with what you’re doing. You’re gonna be very successful. Good luck in finishing it, keep up the good work.

handcircus  on July 2nd, 2008

Hey Steph,

Thanks for the kind words. I can see the comparisons with the artwork, but I do think Rolando has a very distinctive look and I’m really happy with the work that the Mikko (Rolando’s Illustrator) has done. There are just too few games using this kind of visual style which I think compounds the inevitability of comparison. Hopefully future screenshots and videos will showcase Rolando’s aesthetic a bit more clearly.

In terms of using the accelerometer, it is used for some bonus sections where you control the gravity directly (think Yoshi’s Universal Gravitation), but these aren’t shown in this teaser trailer. There’s a couple of reasons for using the multitouch for input – multitouch control is much more precise (ideal for things like changing direction, stopping on the spot etc) and its also (in my opinion) a lot better when you are playing out and about and getting nudged all the time.

Longer trailer next time, different music, showing a lot more of the strategy and higher-level mechanics

Cheers,
Simon

Royce  on July 3rd, 2008

Drools…

PS: What is that song? (Or rather who is it by…)

handcircus  on July 3rd, 2008

Hey Royce,

Its the Clapping Song by Shirley Ellis – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clapping_Song

Twan  on July 3rd, 2008

Love the graphics,
Love the look,
Love that it’s coming for iPhone,
and love the use of Shirley Ellis!

Colin McKinstry  on July 10th, 2008

When is it coming to the app store?

Mr.doob  on July 11th, 2008

Looking good man! Are you planning a win/macos port?

MrCaptainEvil  on July 30th, 2008

I’m looking forward to this but your attempts to describe it as anything other than a Loco Roco clone are, im afraid, falling on deaf ears. I understand that the first few generations of iphone apps will be me-too copies of existing games, hence the speed of delivery, but visual plagiarism is as devious as game mechanic plagiarism.

The illustrations look great but coupled with the motion, the mechanics, and the general ‘theme’ of the trailer it all becomes a little uncomfortable.

Still, amazing work for cramming it onto an iphone.

handcircus  on July 30th, 2008

Hey MrCaptainEvil,

Obviously opinion is a subjective thing, but (in my opinion) the mechanics are very different to LocoRoco. LocoRoco’s mechanics are pleasingly simple – tilt world left, tilt world right, jump and split up/rejoin. Rolandos mechanics (and I can understand that there isn’t enough time to pick up on these in the short trailer) allow you to pan around the entire level, selecting and controlling individual Rolando or groups, and issuing them commands (ala Lemmings, MvsDK2). You can also directly manipulate level elements by dragging, sliding, rotating, pressing buttons and much more. Some of the bonus levels do just allow you to rotate the level using the accelerometer – the closest to this is most likely Cameltry on the SNES.

Anyway, thanks for your interest in the game, hopefully the next trailer will show this in more detail

Simon

motech  on July 31st, 2008

im very excited for this game,
i check back every week to see any updates ..

when will theis be coming out ?
: )

Gilbert  on July 31st, 2008

When can we possibly expect this game? I have been anxiously waiting for this game since I heard of it like a month ago. When can we expect status updates?

Lapixx  on August 3rd, 2008

I’m looking forward to this game too. The graphics look nice and do remind me (and everyone else :p) to LocoRoco, but you can see the differences in gameplay in the teaser video. Not using the accellerometer every second is a good choose, you often want to be able to move/tilt the device a bit without moving the ‘units’.

I assume the game is almost completed and I’ll directly buy it when it comes to the appstore.

Matt McCarty  on August 5th, 2008

When can we expect more information on the game?

Also a release date?

Tony5  on August 9th, 2008

when release Rolando????

Jack  on August 10th, 2008

Hi, I’ve been following this game for ages and I was wondering if you had a release date nailed down yet.

Also I’m quite interested in getting into making games in future and was just wondering where you think the best place is to start, and if you could reccomend anything that I should learn or any resources that you found helpful when you were learning.

Cheers.

James  on September 1st, 2008

This looks fantastic. Reminds we of Little Big Planet in some of its gameplay and cuteness but its different altogether if that makes any sense.

Cant wait till it comes out. Looks to be damn sight more value than Krash Bandicoot.

boyo  on September 15th, 2008

Dude, you need to get on that Rolando game, and stop fucking around with this bullshit! I’m serious!