“Do you want to touch them?” Yoshiro Kimura invites you to play his new game…

It’s been a long time coming but Yoshiro Kimura’s indie studio Onion Games is about to show off its first title at indie game show Bit Summit II.

If you’re lucky enough to be in Kyoto between March 7th and 9th then you can pop along to the show, meet Kimura and try the game. If, like me, you’re thousands of miles away you’ll just have to make do with the character sprites Kimura posted on his blog. Those characters sure are oniony, and even a little bit asparagusy, but I can’t imagine how the final game will shape up.

If you do go to Bit Summit and play Onion Games’ first title then be sure to drop by here and let me know what it’s like, you jammy buggers.
The blog also reveals that Lovedelic legend Kazuyuki Kurashima is doing the art for the game. Which is awesome. Make sure to read the whole thing to get some background details on the pair’s history together.

Speaking of Kurashima…. I have a real suspicion that he drew the character portraits for Nintendo’s unlikely free-to-play 3DS game, Steel Diver: Sub Wars (pictured below) but I’ve yet to find any evidence either way. What do you think?

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Appy Days

While searching around the websites of a few ex-Lovedelic team members I came across an iPhone game that was released way back in 2009 and that I’d somehow managed to miss. It’s called Bug Hunter is made by Kazuyuki Kurashima and Hikarin (formerly of Skip). It’s a pretty neat spot the difference game that reminds me of Namco’s Magikai Museum on DS and features some wacky paintings from Hikarin and some pretty cool classic game parodying pixel art from Kurashima. Oh and it’s only 59p. Get it here.

Bug Hunter isn’t the only Lovedelic related app that’s circulating right now, actually. Grasshopper Manufacture has just released Frog Minutes, a completely bonkers game for iPhone and iPad that has you collecting bugs and feeding them to frogs in a strangely tranquil rural setting. On a mechanical level it’s pretty simple stuff but the odd presentation, and audio commentary, makes it a lot more appealing. The Lovedelic connection, of course, is Grasshopper’s recent hire Yoshiro Kimura who’s credited on Frog Minutes as a supervisor. Like Bug Hunters, Frog Minutes is just 59p and there’s the added bonus that all proceeds got to the Japan Red Cross to help survivors of the Tohoku earthquake. Get it here.

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