Kotaku: blue castle games

Dead Rising 2's Main Character Is Named "Chuck"

Brian Ashcraft — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:30:00 MDT

Dead Rising's brown-coat-wearing photojournalist hero had a great name: Frank West. What about the motorbike-ridin'-zombie-killing dude in the Dead Rising 2? What's his name?

According to the upcoming issue of Famitsu, the character's name is Chuck Greene. That's right "Chuck". We're already putting in our short and punchy naming recommendation for Dead Rising 3: "Jack".

As with the previous title, Dead Rising 2 is built around a 72-hour time based formula. Unlike the previous title, it's not being developed 100 percent in-house. Capcom has partnered with Vancouver-based third-party Blue Castle Games for the title. The developers announced at GDC that for DR2 they were planning on having 6,000 characters.

The game's character art lead, Izmeth Siddeek, is quoted as saying, "Dead Rising 2 deal[s] with the rendering of the greatest number of characters ever seen in a video game... Everything else needed to be subordinated to this requirement."

Dead Rising 2 Aiming For 6000 Zombies On-Screen

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:30:00 MDT

Dead Rising was great not for the sluggish controls, or the annoying mission structure, or Otis. It was great because it had a zombie horde. Well, Dead Rising 2 is looking to trump that.

Speaking at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Izmeth Siddeek, from developers Blue Castle Games, reckons that "Dead Rising 2′ deal[s] with the rendering of the greatest number of characters ever seen in a video game. Everything else needed to be subordinated to this requirement".

Big claim. No easy way of substantiating it, of course, but the product manager for the software that's helping Blue Castle add so many zombies to the game says that they are "preparing to have as many as 6000 characters on the screen".

6000? On-screen at once? Oh yes.

‘Dead Rising 2′ Is Supposed To Have Most Characters Ever… 6000? [GDC 2009] [MTV]

The Bigs 2 Announced By MLB 2K9

Michael McWhertor — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:20:20 MST

Hey, baseball-loving Kotaku reader, did you like The Bigs? Yeah? Well, we've got some good news. There's going to be a The Bigs 2.

Strangely, you don't seem that surprised by the stealth announcement, made via the soon-to-be-released MLB 2K9 from 2K Sports and rooted out by IGN. But if you're pleased to read that there may be a copy of The Bigs 2 in your future, the announcement trailer of the arcade-style baseball video game sequel is worth a peek.

The game is slated to ship sometime this Summer, according to the teaser.

What we don't know yet are on which platforms, but, as IGN points out, it certainly looks like a PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 title. Considering the original went to the Wii, PlayStation 2 and PSP as well, we'd think the sequel is likely to also.

The Bigs 2 This Summer [IGN]

Someone Else Says Dead Rising 2 In Development At Blue Castle

Luke Plunkett — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:30:00 MST

Earlier this year, all the way back in February, we heard that Dead Rising 2 was in development at Vancouver-based Blue Castle. Capcom wouldn't come out and confirm it, but hey, we heard what we heard. Now? Someone else is saying the same thing. Fresh off a trip to Vancouver, Eurogamer say that a source "familiar with the project" let them know that, yes, Blue Castle are hard at work on the sequel to the 360's premier zombie-infested mall simulator. Nothing else to report that builds on what was reported in February, but hey, maybe second time around Capcom will feel compelled to come out and make an official announcement.

Blue Castle making Dead Rising 2 [Eurogamer]

Dead Rising 2 Set in Vegas ?

Brian Crecente — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:02:42 MDT

You may remember that back in February McWhertor wrote up a rumor that Dead Rising 2 would be developed by a Western developer. Specifically, McWhertor wrote that development duties for the game have been handed over to Vancouver-area third-party Blue Castle Games.

Well, like a zombie, a good rumor is hard to kill. We've just gotten tipped off from yet another source that yes the folks behind The Bigs for 2K Sports are in fact the team working on the Dead Rising sequel. (Is that a copy of Dead Rising on their art director's desk?) Moreover, we're told that this new Dead Rising game will leave the wilds of Colorado (dammit) and venture into Las Vegas.

That's right, what's killed in Vegas doesn't stay dead in Vegas.

In their Games section, Blue Castle Games taunts visitors with redacted details about what they are working on:

We're continuing to deliver outstanding, action-oriented games with the up coming XXXX, as well as two sports related titles, XXXX XXXX and XXXX.

Our teams are having a blast working on the new games. XXXX in particular is getting a ton of buzz internally. We think it must be the XXXXXXXX aspect of XXXX XXXX that gets everyone so excited. Plus, we can't wait to see how people react to the XXXX in XXXXX .

Man, I sure hope those last set of Xs spell out Zombie Hookers in Dead Rising 2!

Dead Rising 2 Coming From The Bigs Team?

Michael McWhertor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:20:10 MST

Remember that rumor from EGM that pointed to a Dead Rising sequel coming from a Western developer? We heard a similar but slightly different rumor from a source that also says development duties are being shifted stateside, specifically at Vancouver-area third-party Blue Castle Games. If you're not familiar with the name, you may remember Blue Castle from its work on The Bigs for 2K Sports. While the relatively young, 100-person strong development studio is known for its multi-platform sports work, it is currently listing an unnamed "action game" for the Xbox 360 as one of three secret projects on its plate.

Recently added videos on the Blue Castle web site feature interviews with team employees who call one of their upcoming games "probably the most sought after projects in Vancouver" amid bleeps that might give some indication about what they're working on. Another interview with the art staff talks of working on "far more interesting things than stadium artwork" including "city streets, weapons and vehicles." While that in no way comes close to confirming that they're working on Dead Rising 2 for Capcom, the chatter we heard at last week's GDC makes it sound like the rumor has some basis in truth.

It wouldn't come as much of a surprise, as Capcom has shown that projects managed by its Japanese HQ and farmed out to Western talent is something the publisher is actively pursuing. Capcom has moved development on Bionic Commando, Dark Void and Okami for Wii to external teams, something it seems happy to continue doing.

When we contacted Capcom about Blue Castle's involvement, they opted to neither confirm nor deny the rumor. Likewise, our e-mails to Blue Castle went unanswered, so consider this rumor for now.