Jason Rohrer's New DS Game

Posted by Brandon "BMcC" McCartin Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:32:00 GMT

Go Stones + Chickpeas + Pennies == DS Game

You may have seen this reported elsewhere, but “arthouse” game creator Jason Rohrer is hard at work on his first retail release, a turn-based, two-player strategy game for the Nintendo DS “about diamond trading in Angola on the eve of the passage of the Kimberly Process.” This first struck me as a heavy subject for a handheld game, but the fact of the matter is there are countless games about counter-terrorism, war, monsters, death… I’m apparently just a bit desensitized to certain topics!

I asked Jason for more details on the game and he was kind enough to oblige. Pictured above is his paper prototype of the game. He’s still ironing out the design, but he got approved as a developer by Nintendo last week and programming should begin soon. He was reluctant to describe the gameplay itself this early, which is understandable, but he says there are no big surprises here, so all will be revealed before release. Oh, and he’s making every bit of the game himself, right down to the box art.

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Comments

  1. ForteDante said about 2 hours later:

    Looks, er, interesting. I’m all for strategic games, and this one sounds rather different, so colour me intrigued.

  2. Andy Hull said about 2 hours later:

    Yesh! Always nice to see games focusing on new and interesting topics. I’m seriously into board gaming as well, so even that prototype looks fun to me!

  3. Synnah said about 2 hours later:

    It looks delicious! How could Nintendo refuse a prototype as tasty as that?

  4. Goran said about 2 hours later:

    Are those go (baduk, wei-chi) stones by any chance?

  5. Synnah said about 2 hours later:

    Wait, those are mints, right?

  6. BMcC said about 3 hours later:

    Go stones, chickpeas, and pennies. How indie is that? :)

  7. TeamQuiggan said about 3 hours later:

    I like the DS lying in wait in the background.

  8. PoV said about 3 hours later:

    Oh, and he’s making every bit of the game himself, right down to the box art.

    And everyone ever denied Nintendo developer status because of a lack of “office space” shakes their fists together harmoniously.

  9. PoV said about 3 hours later:

    Oh hold on, he has a publisher. Scratch that. Return shakable fists to other tasks like percussion and crushing grapes.

  10. Eclipse said about 3 hours later:

    meh

  11. Louis F. said about 4 hours later:

    I just hope to meet a DS owner willing to share a Rohrer game with me since then… Any chance of an AI opponent?

  12. TeamQuiggan said about 4 hours later:

    It might have Wireless online play, like Phantom Hourglass or Mario Kart.

  13. Louis F. said about 4 hours later:

    Oh, I had forgotten about this feature. That could be awesome.

  14. Pilmer said about 4 hours later:

    I’m gonna support the shit out of this.

  15. Anthony Flack said about 4 hours later:

    The game is turn-based, so with any luck it will support hotseat play on a single DS. Since Rohrer seems to be completely focused on multiplayer games now, I wouldn’t be surprised if there wasn’t even a single-player mode… so requiring two DSs to play the game at all is probably expecting too much from people.

    I was never a big fan of Rohrer’s ideas about symbolism via game mechanics, but he seems to be getting more into serious strategy game design now, which I think is a much more worthy challenge. I might be one of the only people that actually became MORE interested in his work after he made Primrose.

  16. geist said about 6 hours later:

    As long as the preachy stuff takes a backseat to the gameplay and not the other way around, I’ll be satisfied.

  17. tim_the_tam said about 7 hours later:

    wow video game designers really use board for prototyping..

  18. gulo gulo said about 13 hours later:

    im desensitized to monsters

  19. agj said about 15 hours later:

    Ouch, not the box art, please!

  20. Alex May said about 16 hours later:

    @PoV

    He still has to be registered Nintendo developer. I guess he has a secure office away from his home, otherwise they would have turned him down like they turn people like you and me down. If he doesn’t have an office, then you’re still perfectly within your rights to get mad.

  21. Anthony Flack said about 17 hours later:

    You’re within your rights anyway. It’s a bizarre restriction that makes life needlessly difficult for solo developers.

  22. gulo gulo said about 17 hours later:

    p.s. the movie monsters inc shamelessly glorifies monsters

  23. JW said about 18 hours later:

    wow, he sure is rich!

  24. BMcC said about 19 hours later:

    Yes, gulo, you’re very clever.

  25. namuol said about 22 hours later:

    Even if Nintendo made an exception for Rohrer, I’m glad they did.

  26. BMcC said about 22 hours later:

    Heh, I don’t think Nintendo makes exceptions for anyone. It’s not their style. :)

    Jason has a publisher and had to get office space and everything.

  27. Impossible said about 24 hours later:

    Eh, I’m pretty sure there will be some kind of AI. A full DS retail release without any AI at all would be an odd choice.

  28. Anthony Flack said 1 day later:

    He’s been pretty outspoken recently about how he feels that only multiplayer games produce interesting patterns.

  29. gulo gulo said 1 day later:

    i was worried that no one got it so i repeated the joke but slightly different

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