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. (more…)

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

Now that escapeVektor: Chapter 1 has been reviewed 4 times, it has an official Metacritic score. And what a score that is! Check out the Metacritic page and have a look at our ranking.

Click here to be taken to the Metacritic page for escapeVektor: Chapter 1

We’re delighted escapeVektor: Chapter 1 is receiving such a positive response from fans and reviewers alike. We love it when a plan comes together! We have also received many positive comments about the game’s music, even from Nintendo! So many in fact that we thought we should make the music available for download.

You can visit our Facebook music store, CD Baby, Amazon or iTunes and download the escapeVektor soundtrack now. Over the course of the coming weeks the soundtrack will also be available for download across a number of other outlets. Have a look below at what the reviewers are saying:

“The music is, without qualification, some of the best on WiiWare period. escapeVektor: Chapter 1 easily joins the ranks of World of Goo and the BIT.TRIP series in this regard; the gripping, evolving tunes keep you engaged and focused, and they’ll call out to you long after you turn off the game for the night.”  Nintendo Life review

“It’s the soundtrack that really grabs you at first, as the chiptune beats fueling the audio side of the equation immediately mesmerize your mind – fans of the Bit.Trip series would be wise to take notice right away.”  IGN review

Nintendo Life have written their review of escapeVektor: Chapter 1 and it’s another hugely positive one. With comments like “one of the finest experiences on the entire WiiWare service” and “This game is sharp, challenging, clever, gorgeous, atmospheric, thought-provoking, and, above all else, fun”, we think they quite like it! Have a read and see if you agree with us.

Virtual world, real quality

by Philip J Reed

After the delightful Pop (and its various offshoots), it seemed a bit like Nnooo was taking a break from game development. The studio released several applications through DSiWare, and while they were quite good, gamers might be forgiven for assuming that the company’s future releases would gravitate more toward “useful” than “fun.” Now Nnooo has released escapeVektor: Chapter 1 to remind us all that not only is the team still interested in games, but that it can also to deliver one of the finest experiences on the entire WiiWare service.

escapeVektor: Chapter 1 is brilliant. There are no other words to describe it, though, so that this review isn’t the shortest in Nintendo Life’s history, we’re going to have to try to find some.

Click here to read the rest of this review