Parappa Creator Debuts New Title, To Be Honored At GDC

Thanks to Game Science for its article revealing the first visuals of Parappa The Rapper creator Masaya Matsuura's new title, Vib Ripple. An earlier post at Game Science has further details, mentioning "'Vib Ripple' is a similar style of game to [PlayStation 1 title] 'Vib Ribbon' but with different content. The player takes control of Vibri with a photograph as the game field, and must jump at designated points to free characters from the field. The game can use photographs taken from your mobile phone or digital camera via the USB port." Elsewhere, Matsuura is to be honored at the Game Developer's Choice Awards at GDC in San Jose, receiving the oddly named First Penguin Award, "acknowledging developers who have taken risks to break new ground."

Comments

First Penguin - not such an odd name

[WSSA]

First penguin refers to the first bird that enters the water (or is it the first to leave the water?). Once one bird has done it and not been eaten by a killer whale, the rest follow with great rapidity.

So First Penguin is a very appropriate name for an award for risk-takers.

Many props to Matsuura

[Tommy2099]

The Parappa and Umjammer Lammy series are tons of fun and guaranteed girl magnets. Besides, any guy who can "mortify" Shigeru Miyamoto with his genius is cool in my book. There's a great long video lecture with him over at Gamasutra (free registration required) that explains some of his game design theory.