Topic: Awesome new Wiiware title - Eternity's Child

[Kenology]

2D Platforming goodness on Wiiware with a nice score to boot!






Eternity's Child has traveled a long and troubled road to get to where it currently resides as an upcoming Nintendo WiiWare release. Loosely based on a mobile phone game, it actually started development as an Xbox Live Arcade title, but after a was later moved over to Nintendo's DS and Wii systems. Not long after that the DS version was cancelled and the game was officially announced for release on Nintendo's new WiiWare service. The game is probably best known for its unique art style - no surprise considering it's the product of eccentric Anglo-French artist and independent game designer Luc Bernard.

Bernard was kind enough to send us a preview build of the game and after several hours of playing time on the game, one thing is completely clear: Eternity's Child is one of the most unique platformers ever created.

It's difficult to describe the insanely quirky art style the game employs. Imagine if Tim Burton was put in charge of designing and creating the artwork for a brand new Rayman title. The end result would probably end up looking a lot like the visuals in Eternity's child. There's just a very "artsy" look to all of the graphics in the game and the contrast in colors used makes them stand out even more. The animation of the characters and enemies does look unusual (Bernard has stated that he wanted to use hundreds of frames of hand-drawn animation, but lack of funds meant he had to go with the 'rag doll' technique, where each character is constructed of limbs that move independently), but it somehow fits in with the over-the-top theme the game incorporates.

Read more here.

Here are some music samples as well

This is the perfect compliment to Lost Winds it seems.  And who can argue with only 5 Wii points!?

[ShyGuy]

Great art style. What was the other game he did? or is going to do?

[vudu]

He's working on two other games.  One's called The Rose Princess (no platform announced).  The other is Imagination Is The Only Escape (DS), which is based on the Holocaust.

[Dasmos]

ugh, i hate those character models.

[D_Average]

I like that style, but all videos I've seen of the game in motion are pretty lackluster.

[BeautifulShy]

Here is some more information about this title. http://n-europe.com/news.php?nid=11946

[BeautifulShy]

For everybody that is interested in this game This game is on Steam for $5. Here is the info

[D_Average]

Cool, let us know how it plays!

[Ian Sane]

The guy is trying to make a game based on the Holocaust?  Man, if done right that would be a huge step in establishing videogames as an artform.  I admire him just for attempting it.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Apparently the Steam version sucks, some people on CAG bought it and the game features floaty controls, while the graphics are good they get in the way of the game play the game in general is slow.

[AV]

looks nice and if cheap game I might buy it blindly. Hope its coming SOONER not later

[BeautifulShy]

Flames that is regretable to hear. From what I know the Steam version is the same as the wiiware version. Hopefully they will fix it before release.

[NWR_pap64]

Apparently the Steam version sucks, some people on CAG bought it and the game features floaty controls, while the graphics are good they get in the way of the game play the game in general is slow.

People shouldn't be hard on it. Remember, Luc Bernard didn't have the money and resources to make the best game ever.

I heard that the Steam version has a lot more options, like a level editor.

[BeautifulShy]

If you have a cell phone you can try it for free!  http://Http://ec.silverspherestudios.com
It is down at the bottom.

[KDR_11k]

People shouldn't be hard on it. Remember, Luc Bernard didn't have the money and resources to make the best game ever.

You don't need money to make controls tight and graphics not get in the way.

[Flames_of_chaos]

http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2008/06/eternitys_child_no_plans_for_a_north_american_release

Apparently the guy who made it is completely oblivious on what platforms it's coming out on.

Speaking exclusively to WiiWare World, Bernard had this to say:

    Well as of right now Eternity's Child is coming out on PC at the end of the month, I am not handling the Wiiware version, I am just having to translate it to 7 languages (so fun...). Eternity’s Child is currently only coming out in Europe on WiiWare for the moment.

    Alten8 have the Wiiware version and it's their decision when or where to release it, and from what I know europe is their priority. At this point I think Eternity's Child Wiiware might come out in europe at the end of Q3, but I don't control when or where it comes out.

    I hope for my next games to release first on Wiiware and be more in charge. I would like to defend World Of Goo though, since I saw alot of people got angry about them going retail, the title looks good enough to go retail and I will probably buy it if I'm still in Europe rather than Call Of Duty. I got offered to do EC as a retail title at one point.

    The problem I would say in this industry, is that when I go up to publishers all they want is EC and won't look at any other of my games because there is no press around them, which is kind of sad. These are the phrases that I often get "great game design but art style is not mainstream enough", "art style does not appeal to hardcore gamers", "we have not seen results of Wiiware sales so we'll pass", "there is no press surrounding this game we don't know if people will want it". Maybe I should just put in a space marine with a gun that is defending earth from space nazis for them to be interested!

[vudu]

http://www.wiiware-world.com/news/2008/07/alten8_eternitys_child_is_coming_to_north_america

Apparently the guy who posted above me is completely oblivious to this follow-up article released a few days after the one he posted.

    EC is in the porting stage - Luc is an artist and concept creator, who under contract to us has licensed 5 game concepts across DS and Wii formats with EC being one of them.

    Luc had the original EC PC version commissioned by a coder external to Alten8. Alten8 is now porting to Wii the PC version code as supplied recently to us. We could not do this till the PC version was nearer completion. This game will be ported by Alten8's in-house coders based in the Luton UK office, then rated for the various regions and put through the Nintendo system before going out on WiiWare, as always intended by us.

    It will subject to actual rating and go out as closely as possible in Europe and NA regions. We aim to ultimately have it out in all regions, but realistically those two will be first.

    We do not want to give specific time scales on its release other than to say now it is being ported from the supplied code. We are as a company working as fast as we can to do this porting and get it through the Nintendo system once done.

    The versions Luc puts out himself on PC should not be confused with the Wii versions we will put out, and may differ in terms of final levels and game play. We aim again to bring the best game we can to Wii players and enhance it and make use of the Wii's unique features.

    Luc is an independent artist, not an employee or directly working for Alten8, and his views do not always reflect our own and of course do not always reflect actual business facts. Luc is highly talented and we look forward to working with him on future products, but the public should not confuse Luc’s public statements with the view and realities of Alten8's actual actions.

    I hope this helps make clear where EC is currently…it will be coming to as many people as want it and as quickly as possible whilst staying true to Luc's original game and concepts.

    As a company we hope to be able to confirm on various DS and Wii projects coming out through us and other third party publishers we are currently working with soon.

[Smash_Brother]

I didn't know he wasn't part of the dev house, but the relationship between Luc and the developer sounds...tenuous, and sounds like there should be a bit more communication involved.

[Flames_of_chaos]

http://www.destructoid.com/destructoid-review-eternity-s-child-97583.phtml#ext

review score 1.0/10 by 2 reviewers

To summarize: the graphics are bad, the story is irrelevant, the level design is horrendous, the shooting is sloppy and the platforming mechanics are even worse. Yeah, there's a level editor, but saying the level editor makes the game better is like giving someone a crudely-drawn picture of a penis along with a pencil, and saying the pencil makes the picture itself better because you could hypothetically improve it.
There is nothing good about this game.

Score: 1.0

When all is said and done, this is a horrible excuse for a commercial release. Nothing could possibly redeem the full product, but there is one positive that I can lend to this review: the soundtrack is excellent. It is too good for this. The best experience you can possibly have with Eternity's Child is to look at screenshots and listen to the score. And, at around nine and a half minutes, this activity would be enjoyable for a longer period of time.

Whatever you do, don't buy this game. In fact, don't even say its name, for that might give its already unholy form power.
Final Verdict: 1.0 (Practically unplayable. An exercise in absolute madness.)

[vudu]

That review makes me sad.

There is nothing good about this game.

Whatever you do, don't buy this game. In fact, don't even say its name, for that might give its already unholy form power.

However, the press release I quoted above gives me a little hope:

The versions Luc puts out himself on PC should not be confused with the Wii versions we will put out, and may differ in terms of final levels and game play. We aim again to bring the best game we can to Wii players and enhance it and make use of the Wii's unique features.

[Flames_of_chaos]

This is from the thread about the review.



The irony is Conrad and Anthony reviewed it.






If the game creator admits that one of the control schemes is UNPLAYABLE why the hell is this game released!!

[KDR_11k]

Because he's an artist

[Gorgonian]

The music does seem to be very well done and fun to listen to (at least the samples that were provided above, at http://seanbeeson.com/Eternitys_Child/Eternitys_Child_The_Official_Soundtrack.htm)

very much Danny Elfman.

[Smash_Brother]

I read that entire comment list on Destructiod last night. I see this as a cautionary tale more than anything.

I'm surprised at the sheer number of people who are still defending him after how he has behaved.

[Flames_of_chaos]

Next time Luc and dev team should make sure that the game is at the very least playable before it actually came out. I bet if they submitted it to Nintendo in this form, the game would be in Q&A limbo.