Pokemon April Fools, Seven Knights Coming to Switch

Netmarble Eyeing Switch

Netmarble brings Seven Knights: Time Wanderer spin-off to Switch

One of Korea’s biggest mobile game developers is making their first console game for Switch, a spin-off from their successful mobile RPG Seven Knights.

Seven Knights: Time Wanderer will be available via the Nintendo eShop, and will not feature any of the monetization or engagement mechanics from the mobile version. Netmarble is also introducing a new control scheme, battle system and a brand-new story campaign.

Console debut: “Since Seven Knights’ 2014 Korean launch, it’s been quite humbling and exciting to see the game grow in global popularity. We could not be more thrilled that Seven Knights – Time Wanderer – will be Netmarble’s first Nintendo game,” said Netmarble’s Young Jae Park.

Coming soon: The Seven Knights series has racked up over 60 million downloads on iOS and Android since launch, and features over 700 characters. Netmarble has yet to announce a release date.

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

Outer Worlds director Tim Cain suffers from a medical condition that informs his game design. What is it called?

• Arthritis
• Colorblindness
• Dyslexia
• Acne

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today’s issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Daily Fact

Gex designer was fired for Easter eggs

Cult mascot platformer Gex by Crystal Dynamics was originally about a stuntman named Gecko X working for a troubled movie studio threatened by villain Karl Chameleon. Your job was to earn enough money to save the studio by performing stunts from stock film footage.

The idea was shelved in favour of Gex entering ‘TV Land’ since it offered more creative freedom. Lead designer Justin Knorr was not happy to have his vision compromised, and hid a trail of Easter eggs encouraging players to complain to Crystal Dynamics’ head of product development.

He went as far as including a phone number before the clever scheme was inevitably uncovered by playtesters. Knorr was immediately sacked for his dedication to the fine art of Easter eggery.

Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss today’s fact.

Pokemon News and Events

Beware Pokémon Go April Fool’s tricks

Pokémon Sword & Shield’s new Ranked Battle season starts, Pokémon Go’s April Fool’s event has begun and lasts until April 7th, Pokémon Rumble Rush features the Kyogre Cup and Pokémon Masters has just been updated.

Pokémon Sword & Shield

• Ranked Battles April Season has started
  • Carries on the rules from March’s season
  • Season rewards includes Brave Mint and Quiet Mint

Pokémon GO

• April Fool’s event lasts until April 7th
  • Aipom, Wynaut, Bonsly, Croagunk and Stunfisk found in 5km eggs
  • Stunfisk will not be found in 5km eggs after event, but will appear in wild and research
  • Pokémon may be masquerading as others during event
• New Raid Battles featuring Landorus as Raid Boss until April 21st
• Battle and Gym radius doubled during quarantine
• Niantic is working to improve the home-bound Pokémon Go experience

Pokémon Masters

• New updates are on the way
• New ‘Super Hard’ Supercourses in Training Mode
• Log in daily for 30 days to earn rare daily items from Welcome Back Rally

Pokémon Rumble Rush

• New Battle Royale Cup has started
  • Kyogre Cup competition lasts until April 15th
  • Special bonus power-ups for Water-types
  • Two Poké Glam pieces as rewards

Gaming, it's in the Brain!

Gabe Newell not afraid to look crazy researching man-machine interfaces

Valve founder Gabe Newell has opened up more about his research into brain-computer interfaces, and how it would completely revolutionize entertainment.

It hasn’t been long since Newell raised eyebrows by claiming that we’re ‘much closer to The Matrix than people realise’ and that fully embodied simulations via brain-computer interface is quite feasible.

He speculated that there is a way to achieve “full read/write to your brain”, which is obviously something “a lot of people are going to want”.

Mock defence: Newell joked that he’s “the only person in the company who can go off and think about brain-computer interfaces, because if somebody else did, they’d all just laugh at them”, and believes his spectacular success since the first Half-Life gives him room to pursue this kind of idea without appearing completely insane.

Game for brains: “…with me it’s like, well, I was right about Steam, I was right about the connected economy! And then they get to say back: ‘Yeah, and you did Steam Machines too’”. Valve just launched VR exclusive Half-Life: Alyx to considerable acclaim. Next up, a nasty spiky thing you shove into the back of your head?

What Else Happened Today?

• The Outer Worlds launch for Switch on June 5th. Obsidian has already announced a suitably dystopian 6GB day one patch.
• Microsoft has unveiled April’s Games with Gold, on offer for only $1
  • Project CARS 2
  • Fable Anniversary
  • Knights of Pen and Paper Bundle
  • Toybox Turbos
• Minecraft Dungeons is out on May 26th delivering a pure dungeon crawling experience for PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch
• QuakeCon has been cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bethesda and id says it “will not be possible” to reschedule the event
• Wastelands 3 has been delayed for three months from May 19th to August 28th as COVID-19 disrupts schedule and team works from home

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The Complex PS4 Code

You have a chance to win a PlayStation 4 code for The Complex if you refer DailyBits to a friend! Use our widget to earn referrals, which you can build up throughout the year giving you a greater chance of being selected.

The Complex is currently available on the PlayStation Network for £9.99 and we’ve got a code to hand out today. This will be available for all our subscribers.

After a major bio-weapon attack on London, two scientists find themselves in a locked-down laboratory with time, and air, running out. With choose-your-own-path style gameplay, your actions and your relationship with other characters will lead you to one of eight suspenseful endings.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

Outer Worlds director Tim Cain suffers from a medical condition that informs his game design. What is it called?

Answer: Colorblindness!

A corporate dystopia that’s remarkably accessible to red-green deuteranopes!

The Outer Worlds doesn’t have a colorblind mode like many other games, for the simple reason that it doesn’t need one.

Director Tim Cain is nearly completely colorblind, and that’s why there’s no color-coded information whatsoever in the game. This means the game is uniquely accessible to colorblind players, and also lets the game have a truly distinct color palette.

Color blindness isn’t the biggest visual handicap you can suffer from, but it can definitely ruin a lot of games. For instance, Bioshock 2 featured a hacking minigame relying heavily on red and green color coding that was indistinguishable to deuteranopes.

If you ever find yourself in charge of a game production, make sure to bring in some colorblind people to help make your game accessible for them.

Today’s issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Simon Priest, Erlend Grefsrud, and Jamie Davey.