Over in Japan this week, Marvelous Entertainment took the wraps off Followars, a game which (if all goes well) will be the first from a Japanese outfit to come out on Apple's upcoming iPad device.
A casual social game, Followars lets you construct an RPG-style fighter based off your Twitter account, with stats like hit points and agility automatically generated by number of tweets and so forth. You and up to three people you follow can band together to form parties, which can clash against rival groups onscreen using a very simple battle system.
"It plays out something like chess," said designer Kenichi Nishi, the Japanese game maker behind such offbeat titles as Nintendo's Chibi-Robo. "Two players gather around a single iPad and battle each other. Depending on the results, you'll be able to earn experience points and have your characters improve their skills and such."
What's driving Nishi to design this game? "We wanted to create something new that could be completed in time for the iPad's launch," the industry veteran told Famitsu magazine. "There's no point sitting there twiddling your thumbs while other people put out launch games for the iPad, after all. There was only a limited amount of time to work with, though, so instead of trying to make a massive project, we concentrated on what could be made possible with the iPad's feature set."
As of right now, Followars is set to be released either alongside the iPad's launch (April 3 in the US, late April in Japan) or soon afterward. "It took nearly two years for the iPhone to propagate as much as it has, and I think the iPad will gradually build an audience as well," Nishi commented. "They may not sell quite as many iPads as iPhones, but I do think it'll be an exciting marketplace."
Originally posted on 1UP.
