Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter announced

THQ has begun development on the follow-up up to Drawn to Life franchise, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter. The new game is currently in development exclusively for Nintendo’s Wii and DS platforms. Featuring a new action drawing feature and better drawing tools, Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter promises a much improved experience in a new set of worlds that players create and then explore. The game is scheduled for release in fall 2009.

In Drawn to Life: The Next Chapter for Wii, players draw their own heroes using the Wii Remote to find the Artifacts of Power and rid the Raposa village of an evil, shadowy figure named Wilfre that has taken over the land. Throughout the game, players will draw more than 100 items from drawing tools, such as vehicles, weapons and other tools, to conquer their enemies.

The new Action Drawing tool allows objects to be drawn directly into the game to help navigate through several environments, including a sky world, a jungle and a shadow city. In addition, the game’s multi-layer feature will allow players to draw their team members and equipment to compete against others in a variety of mini-games, such as soccer, hockey and basketball.

Expect more details next week at E3. For more info on the Drawn to Life franchise, check out www.drawntolife.com.

Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition Released

THQ’s themed Draw To Life follow-up, Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition, has shipped to retailers worldwide. The game follows the release of last year’s Drawn to Life, the first video game that allowed players to draw and play as their own characters. Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition combines elements from the original Drawn to Life title with the world of SpongeBob SquarePants.

Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SquarePants Edition promises to allow fans to draw themselves into their very own video game using the Drawn to Life drawing mechanics. Players can draw the hero, power ups, costumes, and their Bikini Bottom home to interact with personalities from the show.

A two-player vs. mode will allow players to compete against each other, while built-in drawing lessons will help players improve their artistic abilities by learning to draw SpongeBob. The special Coloring Book section of the game will also allow kids to color their favorite characters from the world of Bikini Bottom.

Construction Combat: Lock’s Quest Announced

If you liked Drawn To Life then you might be interested in 5TH Cell’s latest project called Construction Combat: Lock’s Quest. This tower defense game for the DS charges players with designing a virtual world block-by-block to protect a “world” from marauding invaders.

As an “Archineer” (part architect, part engineer), players use the stylus to build the world using a variety of materials (stone, metal, or wood) to build defense towers that protect “sacred source artifacts” from these invaders. Besides different types of defense towers, players can also create special structures and traps to further protect the world like quicksand traps and glue cannons.

The game will also support multiplayer battles via Wi-Fi or multi-card play. Construction Combat: Lock’s Quest is expected to be available this fall.

THQ Conference Call Notes

A lot of interesting news came out of this week’’s THQ conference call besides just the usual facts and figures. THQ president Brian Farrell revealed some of the games the company plans to release in the next quarter and beyond, with a couple of interesting surprises.

One that everyone already knew about was Saint’s Row 2, but THQ talked a little bit about the game’’s focus in the second chapter of this gang-themed third-person action game, promising a more refined game. The most important thing to note is that Saint’’s Row 2 is going to avoid directly competing with Rockstar’’s Grand Theft Auto IV, which is probably a wise decision on THQ’’s part. The company said that the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is being built using existing technology at Volition and that it will hit outside of GTA IV‘’s release window (late April).

Farrell also revealed that developer 5th Cell’s popular DS game, Drawn to Life, is being developed for the Wii. The game has sold 700,000 copies worldwide on the DS. Farrell hopes to duplicate or improve on that success with the new game.

Red Faction, the latest in Volition’’s shooter franchise, was also revealed, with Farrell promising more action revolving around the concept of highly destructible environments. That game is being developed for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. More details on the game will be released within the next couple of weeks.

THQ is also putting a lot of faith into de Blob for the Wii and DS, which is one of its many original titles. The company delayed the game once, to give it more time for polish, say Farrell.

Farrell said that Frontlines: Fuel of War will prove to be a promising title for the company because of its keen focus on multiplayer. The game promises 32-player online games for the Xbox 360, with more on the PC. Finally, Farrell said that the PS3 version was canceled for a number of reasons but then went on to point the finger at Epic’’s Unreal engine as a major roadblock. According to Farrell, Unreal engine is not optimized for open-world development. Sticking with the development of the PS3 game would have put its release date 60 to 90 days behind the other games. A playable demo will be released sometime next week on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Here are some other small but interesting tidbits from THQ:

- First details on the new UFC title will be revealed on Memorial Day weekend in conjunction with a live event. The game is being scheduled for a release in March 2009 — prior to the launch of its regular WWE game season. Farrell says that the game has one year of development under its belt and another year to go.

- THQ expects Disney Pixar’’s Wall.E to outperform the previously licensed Disney Pixar title Ratatouille (which was kind of a bust).

- A new Tak game is coming, along with other licensed Nickelodeon titles.

- Company of Heroes Online will launch soon in China and is the first of many planned free-to-play online titles.

- THQ Wireless will be creating mobile phone titles based on LucasFilms” Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises.

- There are currently 1,700 developers working in THQ’’s various studio systems and each is working on three skus or less.

- Stuntman failed because it did not translate well to next-generation platforms.

- Juiced failed because it was way too ambitious and the developers were overburdened (they were working on a whopping six sku’’s!).

- Farrell said that he was pleasantly surprised with Warhammer 40K Online‘’s progress but cautioned that development is still the early stages. So far, so good, he said.

Interactive Achievement Awards Nominees Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences issued a press release today revealing the nominees for the 11th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, with two games taking the lion’’s share of the nominations. The nominations for these peer-based awards have been dominated by two titles: BioShock (2K Games) and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) by receiving over 10 nominations from its peers. Finalists in close lead with top nominations include The Orange Box (Electronic Arts and Valve Software), Rock Band (MTV Games) and Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo of America), all up for the Overall Game of the Year Award. Below is a partial list — the full list of categories and nominees can be found at the AIAS Web site:

Overall Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

Computer Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Crysis
The Orange Box
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade

Console Game of the Year:
BioShock
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Mass Effect
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy

Handheld Game of the Year:
Drawn to Life
Jeanne d’Arc
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

Outstanding Innovation in Gaming:
Assassin’s Creed
BioShock
Rock Band
Super Mario Galaxy
The Orange Box

The awards ceremony will take place during The D.I.C.E. (Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain) Summit 2008 on Feb. 7 at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, with comedian Jay Mohr returning for his third year to host the award ceremony.