@stuffgamer1 All I can say is I am sorry you feel that way. As I have mentioned my partner is left handed and can use the app with no issues so I am not sure how you could be any different. You can write on the touch screen with the stylus in either hand, you do not need to see the left screen when writing on the right one and vice versa so you can hold the DSi with your right hand and write with the left or vice-versa.
All I can suggest is that you try it out and if you cannot use it get a refund from Nintendo.
The only other way we could have done it would be to reverse the notebook. Which would mean that you (left-handers) would be starting at the back and moving forward through it. Which is something the Japanese do but is not western practice.
We thought this was the best solution for western needs
We have tried to make the app as close to using a notebook as possible. In its normal orientation (touch screen on the right) you write on the right hand page and the other screen shows the left hand page. To write on the left hand page you press A, B, X or Y and rotate your DSi. Or to change page you press left/right on the dpad.
When you rotate and press A, B, X or Y you can now use X and B to turn the pages and the dpad will rotate the book again. This way we get as close to feeling like a real note book as possible.
We think the left/right handed ness is a non-issue. You write on the touch screen using which ever hand you like. Unlike games where you need to see the non-touch screen in myNotebook it does not matter if the non-touch screen is obscured.
My other half is a left-hander and enjoys using the notebook in either orientation. All I was meaning by my comment above is every second page is a 'pure' left hander as in the touch screen will be on the left rather than the right.
Currently when you use a notebook in real life you will write on the left and right pages. Neither is more difficult for either a left or right hander. It is exactly the same in myNotebook
Both Pop+ Solo and myNotebook will take up less than 40 blocks each.
There are no games included with myNotebook you can however play hangman and any other pen and paper game using it. So there is no multiplayer support.
We do aim to release a standalone VS version of Pop called Pop+ VS later this year if Pop+ Solo is successful.
@wanderluster sure. I think it would be better to talk about that on our websites forum if that is ok. www.nnooo.com/community post a question there and myself and Steven our DSi Engineer will endeavour to answer your questions.
Not a full palette just more We have tried to keep with the concept of a notebook as much as possible so we have 5 colours, black, red, blue, green and white. 5 colours increases the save data by a factor of 2 to 3 over the flipnote studio I think.
@bboy2970 I think with flipnote studio you can only use two colours per page? This reduces the save data size massively. There are options also for flexible save data sizes however for us to use this it would limit a lot of our functionality and increase our testing. We are aiming to sell this for 200 points and as it is our second DSi app we would like to focus on the core features. If the app proves popular we will definitely take all this on board for future versions or a pro one
@SUPERZELDAMAN We are still waiting to here. The great guys and girls are Nintendo Europe and America are currently playing Pop+ Solo to destruction. Hopefully it will not break under their mighty testing and we will pass first time. Seeing as almost no one passes Nintendo's test first time we are not holding our breath!
@bboy2970 I'm not sure how flipnote studio are doing it. Are you 100% you can save as many as you like?
@geek-master the app saves each time you turn a page and not when you put it to sleep. Furthermore we save the whole notebook when you quit or power off too so you don't lose any date when you power off!
We do cater for left-handers. Basically you have a page on each screen and by default the first page if on the right screen. As we have no gameplay on the left screen writing on the touch screen with either hand is not really an issue (my partner is left-handed and is cool with the app). To write on the left hand page you press the A, B, X or Y buttons and then rotate your DSi. The app rotates so that the page is now on the touch-screen. So in essence every second page is a left hander
@SanderEvans Access to the SD cards is very restricted mainly because Nintendo do not want us to accidentally include an exploit which hackers can make use of. So unfortunately saving pages out to the SD card is pretty hard. We could make use of the Photo Library but then you would not be able to edit them
@Yamishi If there is enough demand we would certainly consider it. myNotebook is us testing the water with something simple, cool and cheap (for your guys). We would love to add more 'Pro' features as you suggest.
@Wanderlustwarrior Don't think you can patent those I'm afraid and we have already many of those ideas already
We decided to release it as a) I was inspired by the iPhone notebook app and b) I hate using the keyboard on the iPhone app to write out shopping lists so I thought the DSi could do better!
In terms of file constraints we have to be mindful of the space the DSi has and also keep the size low if we want to sell at a cheap price.
Nnooo is called Nnooo because that is what I cry when I get excited/frustrated/beaten when playing games in my Scottish accent which my mates find hilarious!
We work with Nintendo Europe and America as they handle the development side outside of Japan. It is mostly Nintendo America who call the development shots however.
@legochesser Wow nice post mate! We do have some unlockables based on Pop+ Solo and the other notebooks planned. Unfortunately due to space constraints we cannot have that many (hence 18 page types).
It is something we want to explore more of in the future.
@Stuffgamer1 Thanks for the kind words man! Let's get the app finished and then see how the release schedule pans out. In some ways one a week for us might be nice. Keeps us in peoples minds
@bboy2970 We'd love to do that unfortunately access to the SD card is restricted so I doubt it would happen. We might take a look and pester Nintendo
@Dazza We'd also love to do this too however access to websites not your own through Nintendo Wifi is also a no-no. We have to host the site etc. It might be possible for us to host a small server which takes the response and pushes it to twitter. Hmm will have to think about that....
We are in submission with Nintendo for Pop+ Solo so no firm release date yet except soon. We will let the guys and girls at NintendoLife know as soon as we know.
We'd like to release all 3 versions of the notebook at once however this also depends on approval and Nintendo's queue of software...
@wanderlustwarrior We'd love to offer those sorts of functions however that would be a more expensive app than myNotebook. If myNotebook proves popular we will definitely be looking at expanding the range!
Oh I also wanted to say that each version includes 18 different page types so you can further personalise your notebook (e.g. Blue paper with white lines rather than white paper with blue lines).
Who knows what might happen if you have a Pop+ Solo save in there
Hi Guys thanks again to NintendoLife for the great coverage.
Firstly here are some more details on myNotebook: 1) There are three versions one is red, one is blue and one is green 2) We are restricted to the number of pages due to save size constraints. We are working to get as many pages in as possible with 32 being the current estimate. We hope we can increase this before release. 3) We would like to release each version at 200 points. We cannot give stuff away for free, yet, as Nnooo needs to eat
The reason we have created different versions and colours are as follows: 1) Because we are restricted as to how much you can save we wanted to allow people to be able to download new notebooks should one become full and they not want to clear it. 2) As part of Nintendo's personalisation drive we wanted to offer users the choice of colours to reflect their personality 3) By combining both we are offering you the choice of notebook colour which is the same functionally but different based on your colour preference. You can then make as many notes as you like and clear pages as you wish. Should you want to make more notes than you have space for you can always download on of the others. 4) If we had only offered one versions many users could find themselves restricted by the number of pages. We feel this is the best compromise.
Finally the notebook does not include any games you can however use it, like a normal piece of paper, to play games such as hangman. I just wanted to clear that up!
Heh glad you are all excited by it! I very much doubt it will be out this week (or monday) as it takes at least a week to turn round a submission (presuming we pass first time). Then I imagine Nintendo will have a queue of games waiting to be released.
As for why we missed launch. A couple of things slowed us down, we didn't get our dev-kits early enough and Adventure mode took us longer than expected. It is all good now and we think it will be worth the wait.
We also have another announcement coming up about our first DSiWare non-game application so watch out for that on NintendoLife. Then we are going to start work on our second application and a brand new game just for DSi!!
We are getting closer and closer. Down to our last few bugs now and then we can submit to Nintendo. Once Nintendo approve it we will be in a great place to let you know the release date (probably depends on the queue of releases waiting).
As for what you do... At its simplest you pop bubbles. However we think there is quite a lot of depth. Each wave has smaller and faster bubbles to pop, there are boss battles and 4 bonus round types to unlock. Then there is the chain mechanic where if you can keep popping the same colour you will build up a chain and get multipliers...
However when you are in a chain the timer is counting down so you have to decide when to break the chain (pop a different colour) so you can get the points and time you have racked up with the chain!
There are 8 modes to unlock so there is quite a lot to do. We think that if we can get it up there for 500 points it will be very good value for money comparatively speaking.
Thanks guys. We are hoping to have new videos out each week for the next couple of weeks. Each showing off a new area of the game. Thes videos should also be arriving on the Nintendo Channel in weekly doses too (not sure on the dates however).
Glad to hear that you are all looking forward to it and we can't wait to not only hear your feedback on this but also see what you think of our next DSiWare project which we are looking to announce very, very soon.
Don't think there is any slowdown in the game. Could it be an issue with the streaming video? I'm pretty confident we are running at 60fps all the time.
Thanks again to Nintendo Life for putting together a great piece!
We are still a couple of weeks away from seeing it in the store. Some final bugs to squash and then we need to submit it to Nintendo America and Europe.
We are hoping for a 500 point price point which is one of the main reasons we have no online leaderboards. We would love to include them however due to all the testing and additional complications they can add we decided to aim to get the game to you quicker and for a lower price point.
We are really glad you are excited by this, keep hanging in there as it won't be long now! Also look out for our new videos dropping each week here and on both www.YouTube.com/nnooo and www.nnooo.com
We are working hard on getting this to you asap. I think it is probably at least a couple more weeks away as we are just entering Alpha stage. That means we have some bugs to squash and a couple of features to polish. The boss battles (and adventure mode in general) are looking really great too. We hope you think it will be with the wait.
As always we'll keep the great guys here at Nintendo Life up to speed with our progress.
Darren thanks for posting this up it is great to get you and your fans feedback. I hope that the interview we did with you will be available soon too as I love working with you guys!
Don't worry guys Nnooo have other things planed other than Pop!! We have a great ghost hunting idea we'd like to work on next so watch this space.
Also the reason we have split Pop into two parts is firstly so we can get a great game out soon and also offer people some choice. Rather than spend 800 points on a game with solo and multiplayer we are splitting them up so you can just by the part you need. I hope you understand that for us the testing involved even in local multiplayer is a lot and for us that could mean months until it is available.
We wanted to get something out early in the DSiWare lifespan and then plan on following that up with more software in the future!
Glad you like it and are enjoying it KnuclesSonic8 (well and everyone else!).
Please pass on the favourable comments and feel free to gift Pop to your friends
We are hoping to do a post mortem with Darren and crew once I get back from my holidays. Hopefully the game will be out in Japan and Europe quite soon. I'll keep you posted.
Unfortunately not. We didn't have time to implement web side high-scores. We may try to work with Nintendo and see if there is something we can do tho.
Hi Guys, Thanks to all of you who bought Pop on launch day!
We are noticing that some people are experiencing crashes when connecting to Nintendo Wifi at the end of the game. If this happens to you you can turn off this feature in the Options menu.
We would be most obliged if anyone with these issues emails us regarding their setup e.g. how they are connecting to the internet (using the lan adapter, using a usb wifi stick, what sort of router etc). So that we can try to sort this issue out. support@nnooo.com
Oh and congratulations on getting into the leaderboards!! I posted the high-score so lets see if anyone can beat it
Comments 138
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@stuffgamer1 All I can say is I am sorry you feel that way. As I have mentioned my partner is left handed and can use the app with no issues so I am not sure how you could be any different. You can write on the touch screen with the stylus in either hand, you do not need to see the left screen when writing on the right one and vice versa so you can hold the DSi with your right hand and write with the left or vice-versa.
All I can suggest is that you try it out and if you cannot use it get a refund from Nintendo.
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
The only other way we could have done it would be to reverse the notebook. Which would mean that you (left-handers) would be starting at the back and moving forward through it. Which is something the Japanese do but is not western practice.
We thought this was the best solution for western needs
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
We would disagree. But ho hum.
We have tried to make the app as close to using a notebook as possible. In its normal orientation (touch screen on the right) you write on the right hand page and the other screen shows the left hand page. To write on the left hand page you press A, B, X or Y and rotate your DSi. Or to change page you press left/right on the dpad.
When you rotate and press A, B, X or Y you can now use X and B to turn the pages and the dpad will rotate the book again. This way we get as close to feeling like a real note book as possible.
We think the left/right handed ness is a non-issue. You write on the touch screen using which ever hand you like. Unlike games where you need to see the non-touch screen in myNotebook it does not matter if the non-touch screen is obscured.
My other half is a left-hander and enjoys using the notebook in either orientation. All I was meaning by my comment above is every second page is a 'pure' left hander as in the touch screen will be on the left rather than the right.
Currently when you use a notebook in real life you will write on the left and right pages. Neither is more difficult for either a left or right hander. It is exactly the same in myNotebook
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
myNotebook is very far in development. We hope to submit to Nintendo in the next week or two
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
Both Pop+ Solo and myNotebook will take up less than 40 blocks each.
There are no games included with myNotebook you can however play hangman and any other pen and paper game using it. So there is no multiplayer support.
We do aim to release a standalone VS version of Pop called Pop+ VS later this year if Pop+ Solo is successful.
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@wanderluster sure. I think it would be better to talk about that on our websites forum if that is ok. www.nnooo.com/community post a question there and myself and Steven our DSi Engineer will endeavour to answer your questions.
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
Not a full palette just more We have tried to keep with the concept of a notebook as much as possible so we have 5 colours, black, red, blue, green and white. 5 colours increases the save data by a factor of 2 to 3 over the flipnote studio I think.
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@bboy2970 I think with flipnote studio you can only use two colours per page? This reduces the save data size massively. There are options also for flexible save data sizes however for us to use this it would limit a lot of our functionality and increase our testing. We are aiming to sell this for 200 points and as it is our second DSi app we would like to focus on the core features. If the app proves popular we will definitely take all this on board for future versions or a pro one
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@SUPERZELDAMAN We are still waiting to here. The great guys and girls are Nintendo Europe and America are currently playing Pop+ Solo to destruction. Hopefully it will not break under their mighty testing and we will pass first time. Seeing as almost no one passes Nintendo's test first time we are not holding our breath!
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@bboy2970 I'm not sure how flipnote studio are doing it. Are you 100% you can save as many as you like?
@geek-master the app saves each time you turn a page and not when you put it to sleep. Furthermore we save the whole notebook when you quit or power off too so you don't lose any date when you power off!
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
Thanks!
We do cater for left-handers. Basically you have a page on each screen and by default the first page if on the right screen. As we have no gameplay on the left screen writing on the touch screen with either hand is not really an issue (my partner is left-handed and is cool with the app). To write on the left hand page you press the A, B, X or Y buttons and then rotate your DSi. The app rotates so that the page is now on the touch-screen. So in essence every second page is a left hander
Hope that makes sense!
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@SanderEvans Access to the SD cards is very restricted mainly because Nintendo do not want us to accidentally include an exploit which hackers can make use of. So unfortunately saving pages out to the SD card is pretty hard. We could make use of the Photo Library but then you would not be able to edit them
@Yamishi If there is enough demand we would certainly consider it. myNotebook is us testing the water with something simple, cool and cheap (for your guys). We would love to add more 'Pro' features as you suggest.
@Wanderlustwarrior Don't think you can patent those I'm afraid and we have already many of those ideas already
We decided to release it as a) I was inspired by the iPhone notebook app and b) I hate using the keyboard on the iPhone app to write out shopping lists so I thought the DSi could do better!
In terms of file constraints we have to be mindful of the space the DSi has and also keep the size low if we want to sell at a cheap price.
Nnooo is called Nnooo because that is what I cry when I get excited/frustrated/beaten when playing games in my Scottish accent which my mates find hilarious!
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
We work with Nintendo Europe and America as they handle the development side outside of Japan. It is mostly Nintendo America who call the development shots however.
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@legochesser Wow nice post mate! We do have some unlockables based on Pop+ Solo and the other notebooks planned. Unfortunately due to space constraints we cannot have that many (hence 18 page types).
It is something we want to explore more of in the future.
-Nic
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@Stuffgamer1 Oh i agree although if you all know upfront I don't think it will be that annoying?
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@Stuffgamer1 Thanks for the kind words man! Let's get the app finished and then see how the release schedule pans out. In some ways one a week for us might be nice. Keeps us in peoples minds
@bboy2970 We'd love to do that unfortunately access to the SD card is restricted so I doubt it would happen. We might take a look and pester Nintendo
@Dazza We'd also love to do this too however access to websites not your own through Nintendo Wifi is also a no-no. We have to host the site etc. It might be possible for us to host a small server which takes the response and pushes it to twitter. Hmm will have to think about that....
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
We are in submission with Nintendo for Pop+ Solo so no firm release date yet except soon. We will let the guys and girls at NintendoLife know as soon as we know.
We'd like to release all 3 versions of the notebook at once however this also depends on approval and Nintendo's queue of software...
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@SonicMaster of course! Although I reckon you can do even better
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@wanderlustwarrior We'd love to offer those sorts of functions however that would be a more expensive app than myNotebook. If myNotebook proves popular we will definitely be looking at expanding the range!
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
@SmaMan Well it is not like real paper you can clear a page and re-use it
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
Oh I also wanted to say that each version includes 18 different page types so you can further personalise your notebook (e.g. Blue paper with white lines rather than white paper with blue lines).
Who knows what might happen if you have a Pop+ Solo save in there
Re: Pop Creator Bringing New Apps to DSiWare
Hi Guys thanks again to NintendoLife for the great coverage.
Firstly here are some more details on myNotebook:
1) There are three versions one is red, one is blue and one is green
2) We are restricted to the number of pages due to save size constraints. We are working to get as many pages in as possible with 32 being the current estimate. We hope we can increase this before release.
3) We would like to release each version at 200 points. We cannot give stuff away for free, yet, as Nnooo needs to eat
The reason we have created different versions and colours are as follows:
1) Because we are restricted as to how much you can save we wanted to allow people to be able to download new notebooks should one become full and they not want to clear it.
2) As part of Nintendo's personalisation drive we wanted to offer users the choice of colours to reflect their personality
3) By combining both we are offering you the choice of notebook colour which is the same functionally but different based on your colour preference. You can then make as many notes as you like and clear pages as you wish. Should you want to make more notes than you have space for you can always download on of the others.
4) If we had only offered one versions many users could find themselves restricted by the number of pages. We feel this is the best compromise.
Finally the notebook does not include any games you can however use it, like a normal piece of paper, to play games such as hangman. I just wanted to clear that up!
-Nic
Re: New Pop+ Solo Focus Bonus Round Video
Damn you sussed us!!
Just joking it is not a clock or calculator
Re: New Pop+ Solo Focus Bonus Round Video
We promise it is not a calculator!
Re: New Pop+ Solo Focus Bonus Round Video
Heh glad you are all excited by it! I very much doubt it will be out this week (or monday) as it takes at least a week to turn round a submission (presuming we pass first time). Then I imagine Nintendo will have a queue of games waiting to be released.
As for why we missed launch. A couple of things slowed us down, we didn't get our dev-kits early enough and Adventure mode took us longer than expected. It is all good now and we think it will be worth the wait.
We also have another announcement coming up about our first DSiWare non-game application so watch out for that on NintendoLife. Then we are going to start work on our second application and a brand new game just for DSi!!
Nic
Re: New Pop+ Solo Focus Bonus Round Video
Well we submitted to Nintendo yesterday so fingers crossed we pass first time! Then it is up to Nintendo's release schedule
Re: New Pop+ Solo Detonate Bonus Round Video
Hey guys,
We are getting closer and closer. Down to our last few bugs now and then we can submit to Nintendo. Once Nintendo approve it we will be in a great place to let you know the release date (probably depends on the queue of releases waiting).
As for what you do... At its simplest you pop bubbles. However we think there is quite a lot of depth. Each wave has smaller and faster bubbles to pop, there are boss battles and 4 bonus round types to unlock. Then there is the chain mechanic where if you can keep popping the same colour you will build up a chain and get multipliers...
However when you are in a chain the timer is counting down so you have to decide when to break the chain (pop a different colour) so you can get the points and time you have racked up with the chain!
There are 8 modes to unlock so there is quite a lot to do. We think that if we can get it up there for 500 points it will be very good value for money comparatively speaking.
Nic
Re: New Pop+ Solo Gameplay Trailer
Thanks guys. We are hoping to have new videos out each week for the next couple of weeks. Each showing off a new area of the game. Thes videos should also be arriving on the Nintendo Channel in weekly doses too (not sure on the dates however).
Glad to hear that you are all looking forward to it and we can't wait to not only hear your feedback on this but also see what you think of our next DSiWare project which we are looking to announce very, very soon.
Re: New Pop+ Solo Gameplay Trailer
Don't think there is any slowdown in the game. Could it be an issue with the streaming video? I'm pretty confident we are running at 60fps all the time.
Nic
Re: New Pop+ Solo Gameplay Trailer
Hi guys
Thanks again to Nintendo Life for putting together a great piece!
We are still a couple of weeks away from seeing it in the store. Some final bugs to squash and then we need to submit it to Nintendo America and Europe.
We are hoping for a 500 point price point which is one of the main reasons we have no online leaderboards. We would love to include them however due to all the testing and additional complications they can add we decided to aim to get the game to you quicker and for a lower price point.
We are really glad you are excited by this, keep hanging in there as it won't be long now! Also look out for our new videos dropping each week here and on both www.YouTube.com/nnooo and www.nnooo.com
Nic
Re: First Look - Pop Plus: Solo
Hey guys. Thanks for the kind words!!
We are working hard on getting this to you asap. I think it is probably at least a couple more weeks away as we are just entering Alpha stage. That means we have some bugs to squash and a couple of features to polish. The boss battles (and adventure mode in general) are looking really great too. We hope you think it will be with the wait.
As always we'll keep the great guys here at Nintendo Life up to speed with our progress.
Nic
Re: Pop Plus: Solo Coming to DSiWare
Darren thanks for posting this up it is great to get you and your fans feedback. I hope that the interview we did with you will be available soon too as I love working with you guys!
Don't worry guys Nnooo have other things planed other than Pop!! We have a great ghost hunting idea we'd like to work on next so watch this space.
Also the reason we have split Pop into two parts is firstly so we can get a great game out soon and also offer people some choice. Rather than spend 800 points on a game with solo and multiplayer we are splitting them up so you can just by the part you need. I hope you understand that for us the testing involved even in local multiplayer is a lot and for us that could mean months until it is available.
We wanted to get something out early in the DSiWare lifespan and then plan on following that up with more software in the future!
Yours
Nic
Re: Review: Pop
Glad you like it and are enjoying it KnuclesSonic8 (well and everyone else!).
Please pass on the favourable comments and feel free to gift Pop to your friends
We are hoping to do a post mortem with Darren and crew once I get back from my holidays. Hopefully the game will be out in Japan and Europe quite soon. I'll keep you posted.
Re: Review: Pop
Hey it would be great if you could get your reviews up on metacritic!
Also thanks to all the above who seem to be enjoying Pop. Reading these comments makes it all worth while!
Re: Review: Pop
Nice review! Thanks guys
We are really pleased with the game and hope you all really enjoy it.
Re: Pop
It being lacking in single player depends on your viewpoint it seems. Quite a lot of people really like the high-score challenge it presents.
I hope you enjoy it Knuckles please let me know what you think!
Re: Pop
Unfortunately not. We didn't have time to implement web side high-scores. We may try to work with Nintendo and see if there is something we can do tho.
Re: Pop
Hi Guys,
Thanks to all of you who bought Pop on launch day!
We are noticing that some people are experiencing crashes when connecting to Nintendo Wifi at the end of the game. If this happens to you you can turn off this feature in the Options menu.
We would be most obliged if anyone with these issues emails us regarding their setup e.g. how they are connecting to the internet (using the lan adapter, using a usb wifi stick, what sort of router etc). So that we can try to sort this issue out. support@nnooo.com
Oh and congratulations on getting into the leaderboards!! I posted the high-score so lets see if anyone can beat it