vashivihan
Let There Be Rock
linkAutonomous Productions’ Butterfly Garden first gained headlines when it was submitted to Microsoft’s Dream, Build, Play XNA Contest in 2007. It failed to make the final, but both Xbox Live Arcade and PC versions were given the go-ahead. And now Nintendic has learned that a WiiWare build is also on the cards. Better still, it will arrive before the scheduled Xbox 360 release, with studio director Shayne Guiliano hinting that the simulation is actually more suited to Nintendo’s service and system.
GamerTagRadio recently spoke about all things Butterfly Garden to Shayne Guiliano, the studio director at Autonomous Productions. Only a sneak preview of the interview is available at present (and there’s no WiiWare confirmation in there as far as we can here), but co-founder of the website ‘Godfree’ writes that the title is “Coming out for Xbox Live Arcade & WiiWare in 2009.”
Butterfly Garden is a simulation title that revolves around the raising and collecting of, you guessed it, butterflies. The experience involves breeding different species of the fluttering creatures via genetic selection in a dynamic world setting. Guiliano explains that “Everything you interact with, every choice you make, really shapes the world around you.”
GamerTagRadio’s report seems feasible to us, especially since independent developer Autonomous Productions and the experimental Butterfly Garden is just the type of company and game that Nintendo is hoping to attract to take advantage of the WiiWare service.
UPDATE:
After contacting Autonomous Productions, Shayne Guiliana has confirmed that Butterfly Garden is indeed heading to the Nintendo WiiWare service, as well as divulging a few more juicy details.
Guilana explained that Butterfly Garden will arrive on WiiWare before the Xbox 360 version and also that while they are still experimenting, they are aiming to utilise intuitive Wii controls into the experience.
As for online features, Guiliana added that Autonomous sees WiiWare as more suited to what the team hopes to do with Butterfly Garden than the Xbox 360:
“As far as online capabilities…we actually believe the Wii is more suited to the kind of social and online networking functionality we want for Butterfly Garden,” explained Guiliana. “For instance, having the ability to send cacoons and flower seeds to friends via Wii Connect 24 messages, which they can retrieve at their leisure, is something we intend to support.”
Butterfly Garden is currently scheduled for release in Spring-Summer 2009.
