November 30, 2012 | J.J. Cappa
Takahashi Keita, the creative mind behind Noby Noby Boy (のびのびBOY) and the Katamari Damacy (塊魂) series, is working with Adam Saltsman (the maker of Canabalt) to develop a new game that will be sold exclusively through Kickstarter. The project, about which very few details are available at the moment, is being used to fund a gaming research and development facility called the LA Game Space. Purchasing the game requires a minimum $5 donation, and is included in all higher tiers as well.
Katamari Damacy and, to an albiet lesser extent, Noby Noby Boy are popular games with Japanese learners. The former, of course, is famous for its ability to serve as an interactive vocabulary list, and in the latter, players can swallow kana pieces that are then spoken aloud once they have been pushed out of Boy’s body. As the new game is still a mystery, however, it is impossible to say whether or not it will include anything that benefits language study. Given Takahashi’s past work, though, it seems likely that it will.
Over the next seven days, nearly $85,000 in donations are needed to make Takahashi’s latest project and the LA Game Space a reality, and there is no word on what will happen to the game if the funding drive is unsuccessful. It is up to the gaming community, therefore, to bring these two worthy causes to life.
