Gizmodo Australia run a regular feature called Developer Cubed in which they focus on Australia’s up and coming dev scene. They grabbed Nic for a quick interview recently.

Nic & Bruce - the owners of Nnooo

Developers Cubed: Nnooo

by Alex Kidman

Gizmodo’s Developers Cubed series offers a behind the scenes look into Australia’s up and coming dev scene. This week: We chat with Nic from Sydney-based games developer Nnooo about why all development isn’t just iOS development and why it’s important to carve your own niche.

Developers! Developers! Developers!
It’s not just Steve Ballmer’s favourite sweat-laden catchcry! If you’d like to be featured in Developers Cubed, shoot a note to alex.kidman at alluremedia.com.au. I’d love to hear from you.

Who are you and where do you work?
My name is Nic Watt and I’m the Creative Director (and technically CEO) of Nnooo an indie games company based in Sydney, Australia

Why do we know you? What have you created?
We have created several successful franchises for WiiWare and DSiWare and are now turning our hand to the next generation of consoles with games for Nintendo 3DS and other unannounced consoles. Our most successful projects have been Pop, a launch title for the WiiWare service; Pop + Solo a sequel to Pop for DSiWare and our myLifeCollected series of applications for DSiWare which includes myNotebook, myPostcards and myDiary; finally escapeVektor our latest game was released to critical acclaim at the end of last year on WiiWare.

Our current projects include escapeVektor for Nintendo 3DS (and other platforms – to be announced) and Spirit Hunters Inc an augmented reality RPG for DSiWare and Nintendo 3DS.

Click here to read the rest of this feature

It’s been quite a while since our last post, but that’s because we’ve been super-busy (and also on holiday for a couple of weeks)! But we’re back and hopefully we’ll have plenty of exciting news for you soon. But before that, there’s this – our new Mario Kart 7 Community!

Yes, we’ve been playing the awesome Mario Kart 7 on our Nintendo 3DSs and we want to race you! We’ll be racing every weekday from 1pm-2pm (Sydney time). Just check the countdown clock on our community page to find out when the next race is. The running totals of the top 10 cup winners will be recorded on our leaderboard for everyone to look at in wonderment and awe.

But that’s not all! If your name is at the top of the leaderboard at the end of the first week, we’ll gift you a copy of escapeVektor: Chapter 1 for WiiWare. If you already own a copy or don’t own a Wii, you can choose someone else for us to gift the game to.

Have you got what it takes to get to the top of our leaderboard? Have you? You really think so? Well, bring it on!

We’ll keep the racing going until…..well, until we get bored of it. See you in the race suckers!

We’ve just added Game Center support to Pop on iOS. We’ve also recently added an iPad upgrade to the game. So what are we doing now that you have this all-singing, all-dancing version of the game with all of the additional modes included? We’re dropping the price, that’s what we’re doing!

Oh yes, for the whole of December this shiny new version of our award-winning game is featured in the Aussie App Sale at only $0.99! Yes, you read it right, only $0.99! If you haven’t already got your hands on this addictive and fun game, then get straight over there. You’ll also find some other cool Aussie apps to download.

Click here to go directly to the Aussie App Sale

When November comes around it’s time to participate in the facial-hair-athon which is known in these parts as Movember. This involves growing a “Mo” for the whole month to raise awareness and money for 2 great charities: Beyond Blue, a mental health charity, and The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

This year was no different than any other. We started off wondering what we would look like with facial hair, delighted at not having to properly shave for a month. However, as the month progressed, our chins and upper lips became increasingly itchy and hair had to be trimmed to stop it from sticking in our mouths! Yuck! As usual, by the end of the month we are ready to get rid of our facial monstrosities. Full shaves WILL happen tomorrow morning!

Except of course for Steven (far right), who thinks he looks rather handsome in a beardy kind of way. We’ve seen this before. There’s always someone who thinks they’ll carry on after the end of the month. But facial hair is hard to live with and in the end they all give up. We wonder how long he’ll last?

This year we’ve raised over $750. Many thanks to everyone who sponsored us. If you wish to donate, our Movember sponsorship page will be open long after November ends.

Go to our Movember 2011 album on Facebook for the rest of the pictures.

We knew our friends at Nintendo of America liked escapeVektor: Chapter 1. So when they asked us for some artwork to feature our game inside the US Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword box, we were so excited!

But they told us to keep it a secret until Zelda was released. After a few weeks of constantly biting our tongues, here it is! How cool is that! It’s like a dream come true to be associated with the great Legend of Zelda series.

Now, please just leave us alone while we get all emotional over it. Sniff!

As you know, we’ve recently issued each of the Pop modes as individual games for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

We’ve now issued an upgrade for Pop, making our original game (complete with all of the individual modes) fully iPad compatible. We think the game looks great on the iPad as you can see from the picture above.

Click here for more photos of Pop on the iPad or go straight to the App Store.

Nic was recently interviewed by UK games site Cane and Rinse. They wanted to chat about how a Scotsman ended up starting a video games business in Sydney and what WiiWare development is like. They also wanted to know about the design and music of escapeVektor: Chapter 1 and of course Spirit Hunters Inc. Have a listen to this illuminating chat.

Click here to be taken to the podcast

It’s still really busy at Nnooo HQ, what with the launch of escapeVektor: Chapter 1, competitions to win a copy of the game (check out our Facebook and Twitter pages), the release of our new versions of Pop for iPhone, iPad & iPod Touch (including FREE giveaways on Twitter), setting up our Movember team to raise money for charity AND a visit from video games show 5 Inch Floppy who interviewed Nic and had a look round the office.

Nic and Bruce are also off to the annual Australian games shindig in Melbourne next week, otherwise known as GCAP (Game Connect Asia Pacific). They’ll be meeting up with some old game dev mates, having some serious industry pow-wows, listening to a load of interesting & inspiring talks and meeting a whole heap of new friends. They’ll take a few pics too. Read the rest of this entry »

The latest games website to review escapeVektor: Chapter 1 is MMGN.

Did they like it? Well, let’s see. They scored the game 5 stars out of 5 and wrote “Very rarely do we see a game come through with such perfect design and gameplay, but escapeVektor: Chapter 1 nails it on debut.” So yes, we think they liked it. Have a look at the review below.

escapeVektor: Chapter 1 Review

by Stephen Heller

Some of the best games of all time are the simple, yet challenging ones.  Donkey Kong, Pac-Man and Tetris all have simple concepts, yet immense difficulty that challenges the player and keeps them coming back for more. While the puzzle meets retro arcade gaming sector has seen a number of successes in recent years, Nnooo’s escapeVektor: Chapter 1 goes above and beyond all expectations, as it offers an inviting and unforgettable experience.

Click here to read the rest of this review

Wow, it’s been a little busy at Nnooo HQ in the last couple of weeks, what with the release of escapeVektor: Chapter 1. Because we’ve been keen to share the initial reviews of the game with you, we haven’t had time to show you the second part of this MMGN article. Until now that is! If you haven’t read Part 1, you should take a look at that first though.

Making escapeVektor Chapter 1: 7 Key Principles of Game Development

We recently completed our second WiiWare™ title, escapeVektor™: Chapter 1 which is released in Australia, NZ, The Americas and Europe on September 29th for 500 Nintendo Points.

If you’ve read our 3 features on escapeVektor: Chapter 1 over the last few weeks, you’ll hopefully know all about the game by now. We thought we would finish off by sharing what we believe are some key principles of game development, and show where we applied them to escapeVektor: Chapter 1.

This is part two of this article, if you missed it you can view part one by clicking here.

Click here to see the rest of this article