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Nobuo Nagai, veteran Nintendo employee, passes away
Nintendo Co., Ltd. has reported that Nobuo Nagai, Nintendo’s manufacturing senior managing director who worked at the company for nearly forty-five years, passed away Sunday due to stomach cancer. He was sixty-six years old.
While he wasn’t as visible as other Nintendo employees, such as Shigeru Miyamoto or Eiji Aonuma, Nagai nevertheless maintained a strong presence in Nintendo’s hardware production. In fact, he was hired in 1967, well before either Miyamoto or Iwata joined up, and helped Nintendo during its transition from playing card company, to toy company, to full-fledged video game company. According to Gamasutra, Nagai was also general manager of Nintendo’s manufacturing division, as well as a representative director. More recently, Nagai was in charge at Nintendo’s Uji plant looking over the final designs for the Nintendo 3DS, telling Iwata that the console was “fully packed right from the start.”
A funeral service will be held in Yamatokōriyama, held by Nagai’s eldest son on January 25, at 11:00 am.
Source: Nintendo
HBO options rights to indie game documentary remake
Although production talks have not begun yet, Deadline reports that HBO producer Scott Rudin has optioned the rights to remake Indie Game: The Movie into a half-hour long fictional drama series. Previously, Rudin worked on such films as The Social Network, No Country for Old Men, Moneyball and There Will Be Blood.
The original version followed indie game giants such as Jonathan Blow (Braid) and Team Meat (Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac) in the development and creative process of making their games. Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky directed the film, which is now touring the film festival circuit after premiering at Sundance Film Festival last weekend to some great reviews. The directors have issued a statement online.
“Indie Game: The Movie is an exceptionally sincere piece of work,” they said. “It’s about the struggles, talent and dynamics that go into creating something personal; something different. It’s about the good and the bad that comes from completely dedicating your life to a piece of work that you want to share with the world.”
Renegade Kid talks 3DS support, DLC
If you’re looking for something to play on Nintendo eShop this week, look no further than Renegade Kid’s Mutant Mudds— especially after this interview with Modojo and creative director Jools Watsham. Here’s an excerpt:
M: It seems like time is such an understated element to this game. I didn’t know I was being timed until it ran out on one particular occasion. Why didn’t you put online leaderboards into Mutant Mudds?
JW: We considered adding on-line leaderboards as well as support for DLC, but the amount of work required to make this happen is tremendous. Our goal for our first self-published eShop title was to create a good game that focuses on the single-player experience and have it launched at the beginning of the eShop’s life. This is no easy task in itself, so adding substantial features on top of this would have clouded our goal.M: Where does Renegade Kid go from here?
JW: The Nintendo eShop opens up a lot of potential for independent developers. We will be developing more titles for the eShop. We will also continue to forge partnerships with publishers to develop games for 3DS retail titles. We’re in talks now with a few publishers. I’d like to think we can devote all of our attention to the 3DS. We’ll have to see how well publishers jump aboard with the system now that it is having success.
It looks like as Renegade Kid moves forward, so will Nintendo eShop– and in turn, the 3DS. Here’s one last gem from Modojo’s interview:
M: We’ve seen 2D platformers on the App Store. Why did you go with 3DS over Apple? What advantages do you have releasing this game on a Nintendo platform?
JW: Buttons.
Source: Modojo
