The Indie Scene | EnjoyUp

By Mike Mason 14.10.2006 17


Mike Mason :: Saturday 14th October 2006

Nintendo claims that all developers, big and small, will be able to develop for its next generation console, Wii and its current generation handheld, Nintendo DS. Despite this promise, though, the process of getting a game out isn't quite as simple for the smaller, independent developers as we might like to think. 'The Indie Scene' aims to spread the word about independently developed games and help out the people behind them, who can be just as passionate about making games as the big guys, if not more so.

EnjoyUp :: Chronos Twin

Please welcome EnjoyUp to The Indie Scene! A European developer, EnjoyUp have more than 8 years combined experience in game creation and their team members have worked in partnership with other companies on a fair few games that you may have played (plus a few you may not), such as Game Boy Colour games Turok 2 and Ronaldo V-Football. More recently, they have worked on Game Boy Advance games such as Asterix & Obelix, Inspector Gadget Racing and Droopy’s Open Tennis. Despite the licence heavy portfolio - which may knock peoples’ outlook on them down by looking at the titles of their past games alone - most of these games have done well overall in the reviewing world and as such they should not be underestimated…

While they seem to have been quite comfortable in their licensed work, they tired of working solely on commercial, conventional games. They set up EnjoyUp as an independent company so that they could try out all the new ideas they wanted without being tied to existing licences.

Clearly, they have something going for them, or they wouldn’t have been signed to a publication deal with the UK’s Lexicon Entertainment, who have previously been linked with well ranked games such as Pool Paradise on Playstation 2, Keepsake and Restaurant Empire on PC and American McGee’s latest title Bad Day LA. Only founded last year, Lexicon have already fitted into their groove of trying to find original titles that inspire, challenge and engage players and boast distribution deals with companies such as Conspiracy Games and Atari, with more to come.

It’s not often that you see a truly original concept. You can get close to it by radically re-designing an existing genre, such Zen Studios’ Flipper Critters delightfully has with pinball, or you can remain rooted in the norm with a few new ideas put in to keep it fresh, but many developers simply enjoy taking features from others and recycling them. While EnjoyUp’s debut title Chronos Twin does not completely overhaul the platforming genre, it strays far from some other developers’ methods of putting out games with the same features repeatedly. What is does have is a new gameplay element that looks to set it apart from anything else seen before.

Before revealing the hook, though, here’s a miniscule history lesson on the project. When EnjoyUp broke off as an independent developer, they specialised in Game Boy game creation - as you can tell by looking at their previous projects. With this experience in hand, they decided to begin creation of their first project on Game Boy Advance hardware, finding it to be “a very impressive machine with many possibilities”. Originally the game seemed destined to be completed around Christmas 2004, but a surprise hardware announcement from Nintendo caused all this to change. Nintendo DS truly was the perfect platform for their title and, the opportunity too good to turn down, the game had been re-created on the later hardware.

See, the reason for DS being the optimal format for Chronos Twin’s release is the vertical split screen nature of it. While miraculously it still worked on Game Boy Advance’s single screen, the dual screens of Nintendo’s latest handheld were a godsend, and Chronos Twin was just the game to take advantage of such a unique prospective system. What was the reason for the need of split screen gameplay though? Simple - you’re not just playing as one character.

Well, actually, you are just playing as one person. Nec is the hero of the piece and is a part of some kind of special force that has set itself against a race of aliens. Nec’s brother has been killed by the enemy forces in a previous mission, leading Nec to go on a mission to defeat the aliens who are causing havoc to peoples’ lives. How Nec must do this isn’t cut and dry, though, as he is bundled into a special kind of time machine that allows him to exist in two time periods at once; past and present. Your job is, as you may have guessed by now, to control Nec through both time periods to reach his ultimate goal of revenge.

In other games about time travel you might be required to play in one time period at any time, switching between past, present and future to achieve your aims. Not here. Here you control Nec simultaneously in both time zones, traversing the same lands that have changed in the years between the past and present. The past is displayed on the lower screen of DS, while the present is shown on the top, and Nec appears on both. Using the d-pad, both versions of Nec can be moved along at exactly the same pace; using the jump button makes them both leap into the air, though the two have separate fire buttons. They also share an energy bar and ‘time’ bar (this appears to be a fancy name for the number of lives you have left).

What this means is that Chronos Twin could be considered as smarter than the average platformer, as rather than accounting for one set of actions, you must correlate the pieces from both screens to ensure that you don’t bound out of danger in one time only to collide with a hazard in the other. In other circumstances you must use the features of both time periods in tandem - for example, a large gap may exist in both worlds, but not seem like it has enough platforms to get across, the spaces between them being too wide. However, if a platform exists in one world, you can hop on a ‘mirror version’ of this platform in the other as well, even though it is not visible (how this is possible, it’s not sure; it could be to do with Nec’s group affiliation and the futuristic suit that he wears). It could sound complex for sure, and difficult to get your head around initially, but when it is seen in motion the idea becomes a lot firmer and gameplay looks far more plausible.

It’s not limited to invisible platforms, though. Players will also have to face bosses, with some of the encounters unveiled thus far showing a dragon-like monster being taken on in the present while dodging about in the past and a purple boss that seems to time-shift between both screens, needing to be shot on either screen whenever it appears. It’s also not always locked to simultaneous play, with it being necessary to freeze one version of Nec at times so that a puzzle can be solved that will directly affect the other time. One example of this shown is that a pit of spikes exists only in the past, whereas the present has a normal, walkable floor. The Nec of the past must be halted temporarily as the present Nec heaves a block across so that his past form can cross over safely without impaling himself. EnjoyUp did not want to make the game fully action oriented and decided that puzzle elements would work well in the title too, and this mix of mindless shooting and cautious planning looks like it could pay off. It’s estimated that the game will last between 15 and 20 hours.

You can tell when you’re looking at a game that has something in it that’s never been done before. If you see a game which has an enhanced system over a previous feature you might think ‘that’s nice’ or ‘that’s a great improvement’. When seeing something never done before that seems strange at first sight, you cannot help to be overwhelmed with a slight feeling of apprehension as you wonder whether it can work and create a brilliant new game experience or will sadly fail. It can’t be said yet whether Chronos Twin will fall into the former or the latter category, but on first impressions it’s looking promising - as Nintendo say though, only playing is believing, and so it will have to be judged when the game appears in early 2007. For now, you may want to take a look at the official trailer below to help in-grain the ideas of Chronos Twin into your mind.


 

Do you know of any worthy independent games in development for Nintendo platforms, whether they are for their handhelds or consoles? Let Mike Mason know and we’ll see if we can cover them!

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

Nice article Mike Smilie

I've always been a bit weary of games that were originally for one platform and then got moved...Scurge...most early DS games (from GBA)...even Star Fox Adventures and Kameo, but I know they can turn out to be good. Hopefully Chronos Twin is. Smilie

At first my addled brain thought this was a new Chrono game for some reason Smilie Oh well.

Still good one Mikey boy! I do like the article's C3 does Smilie Makes it seem much more professional.

But where has the Hound been recently?

( Edited on 14.10.2006 21:02 by Tin Can Man )

1"We're mentalist psychic Scots , which means we can read your mind. If you're lying, your head explodes and we laugh."

Excellent article Mike! Always good to see how its goiing with indie devs.

But where has the Hound been recently?

In uni with limited PC access Smilie

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer

DAMN YOU EDUCATION!

1"We're mentalist psychic Scots , which means we can read your mind. If you're lying, your head explodes and we laugh."

Wow, controlling 2 characters at once.

In japan they should call this game "brain training-train your multitasking skills in minutes a day" and it will sell millions.Smilie

Avoid Games Like the Plague, productivity++

Sounds pretty darn nice.


Controlling two charecters at the same time is Mario & Lugias: SuperStarSaga as well though Smilie
(and worked fantastic in that, I might add).

This game adds the twist of putting a charecter in a different timezone AND multitasking, which I guess is pretty new.

Still, I want someone to invent a truely 4D game that lets me move in time as if it was another direction on the controll pad.
(guess that woul be a 3D game if it was 2D...errr....)

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+

I love this section!! It's really interesting hearing about smaller developers.

Not sure how its an 'indie scene' if they have a publisher supporting them, but nevermind.

The game sounds decent enough really. I have heard a bit about this from IGN, so I don't think that the game wouldn't be a success with word already out about it.

I use to think that the game was a DS version of the old PS2 game of a similar name which scored badly(about 5/10 by GI) but it seems that it isn't. I'd be interested to see how the final game comes along.

Not sure how its an 'indie scene' if they have a publisher supporting them, but nevermind.

Independent developer, so it qualifies. Also, the publisher is a fairly small starting out independent publisher, so that doubles it. They don't necessarily have to be without publishers when they're covered as long as the developer itself is one that doesn't have ties to any other company and doesn't have a substantial history.

Good point about Mario & Luigi Darkflame, slipped my mind - cheers for reminding me. Still, gotta agree it's a bit different to anything we've seen before!

There was quite a bit of coverage on this back in 2004 when it was a GBA title, but then it got moved onto DS and there's been rather little since. Cheers for the comments guys!

[/b]
Wow... I must say it certainly sounds interesting. My only problem with it is that it seems like it's gonna be impossible to fight two bosses at the same time, but I'm sure they will have taken that into consideration. They'll probably have similar attack patterns or something

Beginning of next year eh? Hmm... Looks like another DS game that wants to steal my money ;_;

EDIT: You people and your bold tags...

( Edited on 15.10.2006 11:09 by Megadanxzero )

Still a proud member of the 'omfg amazing water in games' society

Mason said:
Independent developer, so it qualifies.

Independent to what? The publisher? Well then I wonder how the game shall be published then.

Mason said:
Also, the publisher is a fairly small starting out independent publisher, so that doubles it.

No, just no. Breaks definition again. Indie developer = independent developer = no aid for product/release = no publisher support.

Mason said:
They dont necessarily have to be without publishers when theyre covered as long as the developer itself is one that doesnt have ties to any other company and doesnt have a substantial history.

Yeah, I see your totally see your point. I'm just being a bitch thats all. Good day. Great feature as well, good to see you supporting the smaller developers.How often does it come out?

( Edited on 16.10.2006 12:20 by Daniel Primed )

They're not a part of the publisher's company and are a standalone company at this point in time, so they're an independent developer. As far as I can tell, at this moment in time it's a one game deal. Do you have any developers you'd consider to be 'true' indies in your eyes that you think would be worthy of coverage? Smilie

It doesn't really have a regular time frame unfortunately, it was originally supposed to be monthly but I've either had problems waiting for information from developers for a while or I've had computer issues which've delayed it a couple of times now. I'm hoping to get it regular at some point...

Independant developer is a very ambiguous term, but this is Indie enough for me.

I like the sound of this, but I take it those graphics are inhereted from the GBA version and will be replaced eventualy, because that's a MegaDrive's colour pallete I'm seeing...

It's going to be shit and you jolly well know it.

Mason said:
Theyre not a part of the publishers company and are a standalone company at this point in time, so theyre an independent developer.

My aplogises I don't believe that it was clearly clarified, not that it had to be of course.

Mason said:
Do you have any developers youd consider to be true indies in your eyes that you think would be worthy of coverage? Smilie

Toughie, I don't really follow much significant indie projects. It just frustrates me as many of them think that game modding is the way to go. Which opposes my views completely.

Although I am a regular at a local indie forum(ironic that, but these guys are different). So I would probably say 'yes'. The forum is based just around my small state in Australia. Now if there is that much talent in just my state(which is considered to be one of the worst in Australia, unfortunately) then I'm sure that there are plenty of projects to dig up that would be worthy of a feature. But they'd be tricky to dig up.

If you want I can do some talking and see what I can do?

Mason said:
It doesnt really have a regular time frame unfortunately, it was originally supposed to be monthly but Ive either had problems waiting for information from developers for a while or Ive had computer issues whichve delayed it a couple of times now. Im hoping to get it regular at some point...

Well good luck with it.

Grumbler said:
I like the sound of this, but I take it those graphics are inhereted from the GBA version and will be replaced eventualy, because thats a MegaDrives colour pallete Im seeing...

Yeah, they do look like the GBA version's graphics. I think this is it in the form that it'll retain to final version, it's due out reasonably soon (next 4 - 6 months I believe).

Daniel, that'd be great if you think you could find anybody worthy or could give any links to indie communities so I could have a look myself. I'm always on the look out, so feel free to PM me if you dig anything up. Smilie

I think at the very least it seems to be pretty well animated...

You can't expect an indie developer to be perfect ^^;

(And it is just me that sees this entire page as bold'D? >.>)

Still a proud member of the 'omfg amazing water in games' society

Tin Can Man said:
But where has the Hound been recently

He was going to be back last night but I started swearing at my new Apple MacBook a lot and before I knew it the clock read 2am and I needed sleep. I might do it tonight instead, got some good topics cooked up, so stay tuned.

Nice little issue Mike, really enjoyed reading it Smilie

Trying to think of a witty signature after 'Hacker-gate'...

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Azuardo

There are 1 members online at the moment.