Dofus does Teevee
What i realized from attending two Game Developers Conferences is that Americans seem to really have their heads in the sand when it comes to gaming trends and the “next big thing.” Companies like Blizzard have flat-out rejected the lucrative microtransaction payment model for online games, while Far East companies like Nexon and QQ are making a killing on them.
Cyworld makes more money than you.
Kid-targeted virtual worlds like Club Penguin and Webkinz were already making a killing by the time Raph Koster shocked the room at GDC 07 and said that Club Penguin does more business in North America than World of Warcraft.
It’s unlikely that many Americans, with their freedom fries and their hatred of the French, have heard of France-based studio Ankama Games. My colleagues and i in Canada have been following their work for years. They have some of the most eye-popping 2D artwork i’ve seen in all my life. While at E3 2006, i was able to snag a hardcover book filled with their artwork, and it remains a source of inspiration and drool to this day.
For sheer visual appeal, Anakama Games’ Dofus is hard to beat.
But who knew they could animate? The exciting news is that Wakfu is being made into a teevee series. Buckle yourself into your chair and check out this Wakfu teaser video:
“Wakfu”, loosely translated, means “Holy crap! That looks AWESOME!”
Those trailers for Wakfu are the most brilliant things I’ve seen this year! Those guys have truly put an enormous amount of effort into their work. I cant wait til this is released over here - too bad we’ll have to wait til next year…
Presumably all that time will be spent localizing it for English-speaking audiences. i remember being very surprised to see some crazy item like “mouse balls” (actual mouse testicles) when i first played Dofus. That kind of thing might make sense in France. but it’s a little weird over here.
This is pretty amazing actually. The Wakfu game looks amazing (the game trailer is better than the tv series trailer, visually at least) and now they’re throwing themselves headfirst into animation. It’ll be very exciting to see where it all heads.
I really like that the character uses the game Portal. I guess you can’t really - a super power though. They’re pretty standard.