Flip's Twisted World

Flip's Twisted World
Developer(s)	Frozen North Productions
Publisher(s)	Majesco Entertainment
Designer(s)	Douglas Gregory
Composer(s)	Tommy Tallarico
Platform(s)	Wii
Release
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Flip's Twisted World is a platformer video game published by Majesco Entertainment and developed by Frozen North Productions for the Wii. The game was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 2009 and was released on October 19, 2010.

Plot

The story of the game, written by lead artist Mitch Gladney, follows the tale of a wizard's apprentice named Flip, who gets sucked into a distorted universe inside of a forbidden magic book. Flip, with the assistance of his cube companion Pivot, has to make his way through multiple worlds inside this universe and defeat a boss in each world to gain a Chapter Stone. Using the power of the Chapter Stones, Flip must defeat the evil, destructive mage Axel to save the universe and return home.

Gameplay

Flip's Twisted World is a 3D puzzle platforming game that offers a unique gameplay experience, as the player is able to use the Wii Remote to rotate the angle of the world on a whim, creating new pathways, turning ceilings and walls into floors, and allowing the player to creatively move around on all available surfaces. To twist the world, the player holds the B trigger and then turns the controller ninety degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise. Before the twist occurs, an arrow will appear on screen to indicate which direction gravity will apply and the colour of the arrow represents the threat to Flip. A blue arrow means Flip will land safely after the twist, while an orange arrow warns the player that the twist may put Flip in danger.

As Flip traverses through the worlds, he gains new weapons and abilities, which are useful in combat with enemies, as well as solving puzzles to progress through the worlds. NPCs provide Flip with additional side-quests which, when completed, reward the player with coins that are used to purchase items and new outfits for Flip. There is also a large amount of collectibles to be found during the game, including Master Fulcrum's secret journal pages. In total, there are six different worlds to explore. Each of the worlds (the Void, the Keep, the Canopy, the Glacier, the Depths and the Works) has its own unique environmental theme, as well as a boss guardian that is defeated using Flip's twisting capabilities. The bosses are the Slug King, Duke the Dragoon, the Monkey Brothers, Butch the Narwhal, Bessie the Magma-Toad and Clacks the Cuckoo - they are all fought at the end of their respective chapters and the player is rewarded with a Chapter Stone after the guardian is beaten.

Frozen North Productions, the developer of the game, has stated that Flip's Twisted World is aimed at the core platforming audience who enjoy a good challenge. The 3D visuals are colorful and kid-friendly, and the gameplay can be fairly intuitive. The game features scoring by prolific video game composer Tommy Tallarico. Anthony Stewart Head provides his voice talents as the Narrator and Flip's mentor Master Fulcrum. Canadian actress Emily Schooley and several members of the development team give the voices of Flip and many of the NPCs.

Development

The concept for Flip's Twisted World was created by lead designer Douglas Gregory, whose original inspiration was Relativity, the optical illusion by artist M. C. Escher. In a developer diary, Gregory explained his thinking behind the idea:

"...wanted to find a way to experience a twisted-up world like that, in a game. What if you could change your gravity at will, walking up walls and ceilings to reach your goal?

So I came up with a set of game mechanics:

• You can twist the world in 90 degree increments. So a wall becomes a flat floor for you to fall onto, not a ramp to slide off of. Also, you can't go straight from floor-to-ceiling, a limit we exploit in our puzzles.
• You can only twist in the cardinal directions. Again so you land flat on a wall, not wedged in a corner. This means you can look for twisting opportunities by keeping an eye on what is directly north, east, south, and west.
• If you fall too far, you're set back. Otherwise players could just drop themselves straight to the goal. We keep the penalty light, though, so nobody is punished for exploring and trying new ideas.
• Some nearby objects will twist with you. This lets you use your control over gravity to move things you can't reach, bringing a whole new set of challenges and techniques into play.

It's amazing what you can do with just those four rules. With one twist, walls become floors, pits become paths, and obstacles become opportunities. It completely changes the way players move around 3D worlds."

Gregory designed a Flash prototype called 'up & dn' (Up and Down, with the logo looking identical either way). The prototype used these game mechanics, but Gregory stated that it felt clunky and was confusing to control. After being hired by Frozen North Productions, Gregory led the creation of a tech demo of the 'up & dn' design document for XNA, which was first shown at X07 in Toronto, Canada. The response to the demo was generally positive and Frozen North began working on a full version of the game for Microsoft's Xbox 360. Two months into the development, the studio was contacted by Majesco Entertainment, who were searching for original Wii and DS software. They realised that the motion controls would be a natural fit with the game, so in the spring of 2008, Frozen North signed a publishing agreement with Majesco and started developing the newly entitled Flip's Twisted World for the Nintendo Wii console.

External links

• Flip's Official Website
• Frozen North Productions - Developers' Website