Nintendo will be adding another multiplayer map to Splatoon pretty soon.
Starting tomorrow, players will be able to battle in the Camp Triggerfish stage, which will be made available at:
– 10 PM ET
– 7 PM PT
– 3 AM in the UK
– 4 AM in Europe
Here’s the official announcement and overview from the Splatoon Tumblr page:
Pack your knapsack because we’re going to camp. Camp Triggerfish, that is!
When the Inklings aren’t busy making s’mores or boondoggle key chains, they enjoy the majestic scenery afforded by camping the best way they know how – Turf War! Battles here play out across a series of bridges, which you’ll have to cross to reach your opponents’ turf.
Each team base at Camp Triggerfish is outfitted with a set of floodgates. When the gates are down, it’s easier for the other team to come and go as they please. In Turf War, the gates lower with one minute left on the clock, leading the way for late-game assaults. In Ranked Battle, they stay down so players can come and go as they please. Watch out in Tower Control! The tower’s path is almost always over water and you’ll need to show off your best squid skills to avoid getting dunked.
Starting tomorrow at 7 PM PT, Camp Triggerfish will be added to the stage rotation. Maybe after we’re done battling we can gather round the fire and sing some jaunty campfire tunes!
You can also find some screenshots in the gallery below:
In addition to the announcement above, Tsubasa Sakaguchi, one Splatoon’s directors, was recently interviewed by Eurogamer.
I quoted his comments below, but if you want to see the original piece, you can do so here.
“Splatoon, of course, has many elements of a shooter, but it didn’t start off with us wanting to make a shooter game,” explains Sakaguchi. “It was more that we found fun in colouring in vast areas and spaces around us, and as part of that visualisation of the movement of the characters we found really exciting, and this is how the project started. We’ve got many programmers in the team who aspire to this, and my co-director, Mr. Amano – especially him – he really wanted to create a co-op game. I love games where I can move freely within the 3D space, and this led to the characteristics of the squid that you see in Splatoon. With the ZR you shoot, and with ZL you turn into the squid – this game, for me, has shooter elements and action elements in that sense. The user goes back and forth between these two genres. When we discovered the potential with this mechanic, we decided this was going to become the core of the game. The action elements – the colouring in and the swimming – the common denominator there, it’s the ink.”
“Humans can move our hands less when we’re moving them downwards, and more when we move it upwards,” Sakaguchi says, motioning with his wrist. “When we were doing the mapping for the gyro sensor, we incorporated these subtle human movements into the game. It might not be apparent at first glance, but maybe you might notice it in the future. Another thing is that since the release of the Wii U, Nintendo has experienced and learnt a lot regarding player controls, especially for the gyro sensor, and we’ve been able to learn from that and incorporate a lot into Splatoon.”
“We were slightly concerned about whether users might feel the gyro controls were a little bit difficult,” says Sakaguchi. “But I like to use the analogy of riding a bicycle. You need a lot of practice, but once you’ve learnt that the bicycle becomes one with your body and it opens the whole world to you. In that sense, we’re really happy that many users have learnt to ride the bicycle!”
“About 70-80 per cent of players are using the gyro controls. That’s not to say we’re forcing it on to them. From our point of view, we think that the gyro controls are the best way to play Splatoon, the reason being there are two main movements you need for a shooter. One is moving the body, the other is aiming where you’re shooting. In that sense, we think for Splatoon the gyro gives that subtle movement and more precise actions to be able to really experience the game in a much better way.”
“We’ve been surprised by the fast learning curve and how much everyone’s achieved so far. There was a lot of adjusting of the player mechanics in Splatoon, and we played it until the c-stick on the gamepad was invisible. I’m extremely surprised that one week after the release, there were many players who surpassed my skills.”
“When we were designing Splatoon, reaching level 20 was going to take quite a lot of time,” says Sakaguchi. “Learning the game mechanics with the gyro sensor – we thought that would take a lot of time. In that sense we’re surprised that people have reached the level cap in such a short time. We’re actually really worried about those people – worried that they’re still sleeping and eating! We recognise that a lot of people have reached level 20, and that there’s not much left to do in the game. There’s not much I can announce today, but I hope you can look forward to some future announcements.”
“Since I’m in London,” says Sakaguchi, “it’d be cool to do a Splatfest for Oasis fans or Blur fans!” Splatfests are carried out on a three-week rotation, Sakaguchi says – though there’s some wriggle room in there – and the next big update comes in August. As outlined in a recent Nintendo Direct, it’ll introduce party matchmaking and custom games. What happens after that, though? “At the moment, we’re not planning any paid download content. Beyond August, there’ll be new stages and new weapons slowly being released.”
“We’re extremely happy about the response we received from everyone, but we feel it’s just the start. Splatoon, our main goal, is for the people who are currently playing, when they become adults, to pass it on to their children.”
NOTE: You hear that kids? Don’t forget to tell your grandchildren to play Splatoon 5, ok?
Besides, I’m worried about those players too, I haven’t touched the game yet and I’m wondering if it’s that easy to get to Level 20 or people just do nothing else besides playing games all day… o.0′
Also, does anyone else feel that they should give more direction work to Sakaguchi? He has been doing an awesome work since his contributions to Twilight Princess’ design back in 2006! <.<‘