San, ni, ichi… Hajime! 🎌 Welcome to Nippon Marathon 2: Daijoubu! 🏃🍌🐶Whether you're a total newbie, or still recovering from shiba-related injuries from the OG Nippon Marathon - welcome to the weirdest marathon you'll ever run!Get ready for Nippon Marathon 2: Daijoubu, where fruit is deadly, physics are on vacation, and Shiba Inu are kawaii but absolutely relentless.🛎️ P.S. If you’re liking the sound of this so far, hit that Wishlist button—it’s a huge help for tiny teams like ours!Never Played the Original? Daijoubu! (That’s Japanese for “It’s OK!”)The original Nippon Marathon was our love letter to game show absurdity - drawing inspiration from Takeshi’s Castle (or MXC, for our American pals), Micro Machines, and slapstick Saturday morning TV.The idea was simple: 🦞 Race across Japan dodging ridiculous obstacles, 🍌 Hurl fruit at your rivals,🌀 And flail gloriously through ragdoll chaos…All while dressed as a lobster. And, it clicked: 💬 89% Very Positive on Steam 🎥 Millions of YouTube views 🇯🇵 Even got airtime on Japanese TV Fans were very excited when we announced Nippon Marathon 2, here's some of our fave reactions: What’s New in NM2? So for Nippon Marathon 2, we rebuilt everything from the ground up, building on what you love from the first game: 🍌 All-new obstacle courses with totally unexpected hazards 🧼 Ridiculous power-ups (old favourites + chaotic new ones) 🤼 The return of SoraTheTroll's iconic commentary 📺 Brand-new Create-a-Contestant mode 🕹️ And yes… online multiplayer is coming Who’s Behind the Madness? We’re Onion Soup Interactive - a married two-person indie team from the UK. We grew up glued to Takeshi’s Castle, Wacky Races, and many other completely unhinged TV show/cartoon from the 90s! Now as adults, it’s clearly hardwired into our DNA—because our mission is simple: To make unapologetically weird games that’ll have you questioning your life choices… and definitely ours. Since our debut with Nippon Marathon, we’ve been spreading joyful chaos to players around the world with our weird games.Our first Kickstarter for NM2 didn’t quite land, but we we weren’t ready anyway.So we trained in the indie dojo, unleashed the mini-game mayhem of SUPER 56, and now…We’re back. Stronger. Sillier. More Daijoubu than ever.Join the Community! We’re just two humans and a dream (and a lot of coffee), but it's our community that makes it all possible.Whether you’ve been with us since the first Nippon Marathon, discovered us through SUPER 56, or just stumbled in for Nippon Marathon 2 - we’re so glad you’re here 💛Got ideas? Fan art? Power-up suggestions? Come say hi: 💟 Discord 🐦 Twitter 📺 YouTube 🦋 BlueSky 🔗 LinkTree We post behind-the-scenes chaos, memes, dev updates, and occasionally, beta invites. Wishlist Nippon Marathon 2: Daijoubu! Hit that Wishlist button now to stay updated-and help us defeat the Steam algorithm overlords. It’s the easiest way to support the game and get notified about new updates and Shiba-fuelled madness.Thanks for joining us on this ridiculous journey.That’s Daijoubu!!!💛 Amy & Andy

amara Member Nov 23, 2021 5,532 “If we don’t make new IPs, we’ll die,” Nippon Ichi Software believes mid-size developers need to do what the big guns can’t - AUTOMATON WEST Nippon Ichi Software’s new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talk about the company’s policy when it comes to making new IPs. automaton-media.com Disgaea series developer Nippon Ichi Software (NIS) held a live program in March during which it announced six new titles slated for launch in 2025 and 2026. Except for Fuuraiki 5 – the latest entry in the Fuuraiki travel game series – all of the announced projects were brand-new IPs, which NIS fans were happy to see. In a recent interview with Famitsu, Nippon Ichi Software's new CEO Kenzo Saruhashi and Yomawari series creator Yu Mizokami talked about the company's policy when it comes to making new IPs amidst the rising costs of development and risk of failure. From a business perspective, Saruhashi notes, making a sequel is the easier option for game companies, as you can predict sales and profit margins more reliably. "But in our case, we're more driven by whether our fans want a sequel or. If there's demand for, we'll make it." On the other hand, making new IPs seems like a non-negotiable for NIS, as Saruhashi comments, "On the flip side, if we were to stop taking on new challenges, we would be like a fish out of water – I think we'd die." Although it may sound dramatic, there is a sound strategy behind this – Saruhashi explains that with NIS being a mid-size company, its survival depends on daring to do the things big companies can't risk trying. This approach has worked for them too, as projects like Yomawari (which director Mizokami describes as "a big risk") found their audiences and turned out successful. That said, NIS isn't managing to miraculously avoid the issue of rising development costs – in the face of financial constraints, the company is limiting budgets for its more experimental titles and relying on its devs to come up with creative workarounds. Interestingly, Mizokami comments that even if she were suddenly given a multi-million budget to work with, she'd "probably get bored halfway through," preferring the thrill of problem-solving that comes with working on a tight budget. In contrast to triple-A game development, Saruhashi and Mizokami refer to NIS's approach as "speedrun/real-time attck-style game development." Click to expand... Click to shrink...   RGB Member Nov 13, 2017 814 On the one hand, I applaud the sentiment. But on the other. I just want a good Disgaea from them if they can build upon the rocky start moving to 3D.   Desma "This guy are sick" Member Oct 27, 2017 6,779 Niikawa used to talk like that, so the company's in good hands at least. Just wonder what happened to their localizations. They completely stopped last year except PB2.  t26 Avenger Oct 27, 2017 5,380 Will the new CEO consider localizing their VNs?   robotnikus Member Oct 24, 2023 693 t26 said: Will the new CEO consider localizing their VNs? Click to expand... Click to shrink... Hope so.   Theswweet RPG Site Verified Oct 25, 2017 7,293 California Desma said: Niikawa used to talk like that, so the company's in good hands at least. Just wonder what happened to their localizations. They completely stopped last year except PB2. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Last I heard NISA's localization teams are now focused around their Falcom releases for the most part.  Desma "This guy are sick" Member Oct 27, 2017 6,779 Theswweet said: Last I heard NISA's localization teams are now focused around their Falcom releases for the most part. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, no doubt they put everybody on Trails to catch up   Theswweet RPG Site Verified Oct 25, 2017 7,293 California Desma said: Yeah, no doubt they put everybody on Trails to catch up Click to expand... Click to shrink... I mean, I know no less than 4 people who worked at Geofront that are currently salaried NISA employees, if I recall correctly.  Shard Shinjuku Member Oct 25, 2017 31,607 Tampa There is a certain irony here given NIS needs to rely on Disgaea to survive.   Last edited: Today at 12:58 AM Pyro God help us the mods are making weekend threads Member Jul 30, 2018 18,913 United States It is a shame that most new ideas have come from small indies to mid-tier games for... a long ass time now. Over a decade? Even with new IPs made in the PS4 generation, I struggle to think of many that are breaking new ground or just original to the point of feeling that way (e.g. Death Stranding).   Ckoerner Member Aug 7, 2019 979 RGB said: On the one hand, I applaud the sentiment. But on the other. I just want a good Disgaea from them if they can build upon the rocky start moving to 3D. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Seven was good. Worth playing IMHO.   CladInShadows Member May 2, 2024 301 I really hope they make another Labyrinth game   RGB Member Nov 13, 2017 814 Ckoerner said: Seven was good. Worth playing IMHO. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Definitely better than six, but it's not the most positive thing that I can't remember if I even finished the story. Ultimately even if I thought it was potentially cool on paper the automation stuff wasn't for me, especially in the post game. In six, at least, maybe it works better in seven? For reference my personal high bar for post game would be five or four depending on the day you asked.  Liam Allen-Miller Member Nov 2, 2017 8,023 Shibuya It's frustrating that NIS has legit taken so many stabs at new IPs but hardly anything has landed at all.   Chev Member Mar 1, 2021 848 Shard Shinjuku said: There is a certain irony here given NIS needs to rely on Disgaea to survive. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Yeah, but they do try new IPs all the time too.   Strings Member Oct 27, 2017 34,620 Liam Allen-Miller said: It's frustrating that NIS has legit taken so many stabs at new IPs but hardly anything has landed at all. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Iunno, it's hard to be positive about the games even if they're new IP. Bar Stella Abyss, Monster Menu, Poison Control, etc are all just kinda ass.   Liam Allen-Miller Member Nov 2, 2017 8,023 Shibuya Strings said: Iunno, it's hard to be positive about the games even if they're new IP. Bar Stella Abyss, Monster Menu, Poison Control, etc are all just kinda ass. Click to expand... Click to shrink... Certainly! My frustration is on both sides of the equation (consumers letting down the great stuff, the poorer stuff letting down themselves). Like they actually go to the effort to make lots of new stuff and for one reason or another very few make it. :(   Rum&coke Member May 19, 2025 97 Is Labyrinth of Refrain the last good new IP NIS made?   hyjonx Member Nov 27, 2022 328 they (NISA) didnt even localize stella abyss i thought it looked decent everything else yeah just kind of mediocre 

Every couple of days in early 2024, Leonardo Hummel would free-dive into the shallow waters surrounding Koh Tao, Thailand. Amidst the growing communities of reef fish, Hummel liked to document the progress of the first artificial reefs he'd created and deposited two years earlier while at nearby New Heaven Dive School. The original 9mm rebar had grown multiple times in size, with the accretion of calcium carbonate.Sandra Rubio, one of Leo's colleagues at Black Turtle Dive, remembers the passion with which Leo would speak about his work, and the pride that Hummel took in his creations. "They were like his babies," she says. From an early age, growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Hummel found himself perpetually fascinated by the natural world, origami, and art. These fascinations drove him across the globe - from growing up singing with Seattle's Northwest Boychoir and Vocalpoint! Seattle, to a B.A. in East Asian Studies at Carleton College (and post-college years teaching in Beijing), to a master's degree in Industrial Design at Georgia Tech. Hummel found himself in Koh Tao in pursuit of a dream that managed to fuse all of these passions, crafting beautiful artificial reefs in a project that he dubbed "SeaWeaver." These few handfuls of woven reefs still sitting off the coast of Koh Tao, however, now also serve as a gentle memorial; in March of last year, Leo Hummel, 34, passed away. His parents, professors, and colleagues kindly offered their memories of Leo for this article, in the hopes that it might help keep his work alive.—Hummel detailed his project in a paper, "SeaWeaver: Integrating Cultural Craft and Materials Innovation for Artificial Reef Conservation Strategies," which debuted at the Design Research Conference (DRS) in Boston, in June 2024. Leo's former professor, Georgia State's Lisa Marks, presented the research in his stead."Leo was the kind of person that, if something interested him, he would be in school 24 hours a day, ignoring all his other classes just to do that," Marks says. "I'd come back from Christmas break, and my lab was just covered in these insane laser-cut patterns. And I'd say, what's all this? But that was just his brain."Hummel first met Marks after taking her course on the intersection of industrial design and folk craft. Marks, in her work, combines parametric modeling with endangered traditional handcrafts (a field overwhelmingly derived from women's labor, and largely unconsidered in male-dominated industrial design). Leo soon became Mark's research assistant, and she his thesis advisor. Leo went on to complete his thesis on origami that possesses thickness - such as solar-powered marine lights that could fold and sink beneath the ocean waves, to shelter from coming storms."Because he would obsessively go into these deep dives, he would get burnt out," Marks recalls. "So I'd say: 'Leo. Take three days. Go do some other experiment.' And one of those was this hexagonal structure that theoretically could make kelp farms. And that little pet project got University of Washington interested." In June 2020, the University of Washington and the Nippon Foundation launched the "Ocean Nexus Center," whose stated mission is "to establish social equity at the center of ocean governance;" Leo's mother, who worked at the University, put him in contact with them.Ocean Nexus, as it turned out, suddenly had a travel budget going largely unused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and could repurpose some of those funds for Leo to develop his work. Amidst a largely academic consortium of anthropologists and economists who study the complexities of human behavior, Hummel's work in fabrication served as a beloved addition.All along the West Coast, forests of kelp - "the sequoia of the sea," both organism and habitat - once grew in underwater canopies so tall and thick that they could be seen from space. But along with another underwater vegetation - eelgrass, a flowering marine plant in more tidal regions - these vast underwater landscapes have seen their once-Olympian numbers decline by as much as ninety percent in just the past few decades. Researchers at University of Washington hoped Hummel's structures of woven hemp could provide a means to anchor the vegetation and allow them a chance to regenerate.Leo's parents, Jeff Hummel and Beatrice Gandara, can't recall exactly how Leo's fascination turned to coral. But in 2021, Leo traveled to Koh Tao to take diving classes with New Heaven Reef Conservation. After countless hours bending rebar in his parents' basement, New Heaven helped him deploy his first full-sized design in 2022. Hummel hoped the reef's shape - a hyberboloid - provided an ideal combination: structural stability, interlacing strands that rendered it a single conductive object, and a woven structure that could be easily modified to accommodate different forms of marine wildlife."Because it was algorithmically driven, he could theoretically change these structures to have the openings be bigger or smaller," Marks explains. By customizing these openings to the local biome, the reef "would attract different types of fish and wildlife that need a certain amount of space, or hiding, or nesting."Although Leo started his deployments at New Heaven, he would later forge a relationship with another local diving organization, Black Turtle, which invited him to weave his reefs and teach classes on their construction in the beginning of 2024. His colleague, Sandra Rubio, described him as an amazing teacher whose passion inspired his students."Whenever we work in coral restoration, one of our main problems is getting the tools we need," Rubio explains. "Sometimes we have to weld, or cut metal, or cast concrete. And we don't really know how to do all these things! So he created this specific design for us to simplify this process, and to be able to create really complex structures without spending a lot of time or having a lot of knowledge about it."Much of Hummel's original design files, in Rhino or Grasshopper, remain on his as-yet-inaccessible computer at his parents' house. But Hummel would also document his creations with posts to his Instagram, @seaweaverreefs, which allowed him to add his own geometric color commentary."It broke my heart to do it but I have mostly switched from 12-symmetry to 10-symmetry weaves," he once explained in a post from January 2024, alongside a photo of a thin metal Star of Goliath nestled inside a decagram. "For a variety of reasons, but mostly because when working at scale, that change ends up saving a lot of material. The structure's stability is still many times overkill so that's unaffected, and only total weirdos who count rotational symmetry will even notice. Good thing I don't know any of those ??."One of the driving forces behind Hummel's dedication to SeaWeaver, meanwhile, was not just to perfect its design, but to ensure its accessibility to the low-resource coastal communities most at risk. Compared to other established artificial reef companies that have patented their designs, Hummel's designs could be woven by anyone, in just a few hours, and with everyday construction material."A lot of motivation for the paper [presented at DRS]," his father says, "was to leave a trail that made it clear that this was his intellectual property, and not something that could be patented in some predatory manner." In the wake of Hummel's passing, his parents maintained his online presence so that future researchers could learn from his work - which they described as "more than a technique: it's a philosophy of ecological intention and social equity." But amongst those who remember Leo, one of the most consistent themes was not his capacity to weave beautiful patterns, but the genuinely decent nature of his character."It's really rare to meet someone as talented and, for lack of a better word, almost obsessive [as Leo]. You meet people that do these deep dives into their work, and they're oftentimes not the best people in terms of how they treat other folks," Marks recalls. "But Leo was just a really, really good person."Last year, while in town for his memorial, Hummel's college a cappella group made sure to visit the Seattle Aquarium. There, unmarked, is one of Hummel's original experiments from three years prior: a nondescript patch of eelgrass, anchored by a weave of hemp. It's the only bundle of eelgrass that has survived, for years, in the entire aquarium."I had the feeling that Leo is like these artists that, when they die, their work gains value," Rubio says. "Sometimes, when someone passes away, they become a legend."Learn more about Leo and Seaweaver at Leohummel.com

Sakana AI a le vent en poupe. Huit mois après avoir levé 100 millions de dollars, cette start-up nippone fondée par deux anciens chercheurs de...

Antipatharians, or black corals, are named for their jet-black skeletons, but they can actually be quite colorful. Photo by ROV SuBastian Among Newly Discovered Ocean Species, a Baby Colossal Squid Is Filmed for the First Time May 16, 2025 NatureScience Kate Mothes An archipelago in the South Atlantic known as the South Sandwich Islands is home to some of the most remote landmasses in the world. Uninhabited except for occasional scientific research, their volcanic makeup highlights the geological and ecological diversity of this part of the world, and we still have much to learn. Schmidt Ocean Institute (previously) recently completed a 35-day trek on the Falkor (too) to the remote island chain and discovered new hydrothermal vents, coral gardens, and what researchers suspect to be entirely new species. During this expedition, the team also confirmed the sighting of a juvenile colossal squid, capturing one on film for the first time. “Colossal squid are estimated to grow up to 23 feet in length and can weigh as much as 1,100 pounds, making them the heaviest invertebrate on the planet,” the institute says, noting the significance of the documentation because the animals have only ever been found dead, after they’ve washed ashore or been eaten by predators. “Little is known about the colossal squid’s life cycle, but eventually, they lose the see-through appearance of the juveniles,” says a statement. “Dying adults have previously been filmed by fishermen but have never been seen alive at depth.” This recent expedition forms part of the Nippon Foundation–Nekton Ocean Census program, the largest initiative working to expedite the discovery of ocean life. During the voyage, the team weathered tropical storm-force winds with hurricane-level gusts, 26-foot waves, icebergs, and a subsea earthquake. Ocean Census scientists focused on discovering new species, documenting corals, sponges, sea urchins, snails, sea stars, and benthic ctenophores—commonly called comb jellies or sea gooseberries. The team will announce the exact number of new species later this year after taxonomic experts verify their findings. This is the first confirmed live observation of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, in its natural habitat. Photo by ROV SuBastian “The 35 days at sea were an exciting rollercoaster of scientific discovery, the implications of which will be felt for many years to come as discoveries filter into management action,” says Dr. Michelle Taylor, head of science and expedition principal investigator for the Ocean Census. She adds, “This is exactly why the Ocean Census exists—to accelerate our understanding of ocean life before it’s too late.” See more on the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s website. A sea cucumber recorded at 649.45 metres at Saunders East, in waters measuring +0.51°C (about 33°F) A “ping pong” sponge (Chondrocladia sp.) is documented on a seafloor bank west of South Georgia Island This isopod was found during a dive at 470 metres depth at Saunders East, with a water temperature of +0.54°C (about 33°F) A vibrant grouping of coral, documented on Humpback Seamount A nudibranch observed at 268 metres on the eastern side of Montagu Island, where temperatures hovered at +0.35°C (about 32.6°F) A Brisingid — a type of deep-sea starfish — perches on a ledge among many brittle stars (ophiuroids) at a site east of Saunders Island Basket stars, a type of echinoderm, are abundant on seamounts and rocky outcroppings; ROV pilots recorded this observation at 673 meters during a dive on a bank west of South Georgia Island A crustacean from the Antarcturidae family found at 331.61 metres at Saunders East, where the temperature measured +0.5°C (about 33°F), seen here perched on a sea pen Research Vessel Falkor (too) conducts studies off the South Sandwich Islands, including a site close to Montagu Island. The South Sandwich Islands area is extremely active volcanically Previous articleNext article