Brownie Brown Inc. (ブラウニーブラウン Buraunī Buraun) is a Japanese Nintendo-funded and owned video game development studio opened on June 30, 2000 and based in Tokyo, Japan.
History[ | ]
The company consists of many ex-Square Co., Ltd. 2D artists. At least two of its founders had previously worked on the award-winning Mana or Seiken Densetsu series on the Game Boy and Super Nintendo gaming consoles. Nintendo trademarked the Brownie Brown name, the meaning of the name is that, according to Brownie Brown's website, a Brownie is a hard working elf, and the elf that is on their logo, is named Brown, thus he is the Brownie Brown.[1] The founders left Square due to "differing ideals."[2]
The company's first original creation was the Japan-only Magical Vacation for the Game Boy Advance, which was released in 2001. Another popular title developed by Brownie Brown was Sword of Mana, which was created for and published by Square Enix. Thought to be a new title in the Seiken Densetsu series, it was actually an enhanced remake of the first game in the series, Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (known as Mystic Quest in Europe and Final Fantasy Adventure in North America).
Brownie Brown has also been credited with the development of Mother 3 in a collaborative effort with Shigesato Itoi and HAL Laboratory, and Magical Starsign (Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align in Japan) for the Nintendo DS. Brownie Brown, one of the game's three developers, expressed interest in a Nintendo DS port of Mother 3 if Nintendo asked them to make it, and that they would like it to be enjoyed by fans abroad.
While Brownie Brown has only released video games for Nintendo's handheld video game systems up to this point, the company had previously announced a title for the Nintendo GameCube, named Gofuku, which was scheduled for release in 2005 and was announced alongside Magical Vacation: When the Five Stars Align.[3][4]
The company's most recent release is Blue Dragon Plus for the Nintendo DS, developed alongside Mistwalker.[5] Brownie Brown entered into the downloadable games market in 2009 with Kappa Michi, a DSiWare game.[6] Brownie Brown also announced the DS title Livly Garden, which is based on a browser game from So-net Entertainment and is due for release in Japan on January 28.[7][8] Brownie Brown is also aiding the development of two Level-5 titles, Professor Layton and the Devil's Flute and Fantasy Life, both for the DS.[9]
Games[ | ]
Game Boy Advance[ | ]
- Magical Vacation
- Mother 3
- Sword of Mana
Nintendo DS[ | ]
- Magical Starsign
- Heroes of Mana
- Blue Dragon Plus
- Livly Garden
- London Life in Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute, co-developed with Level-5
- Fantasy Life, co-developed with Level-5 [10]
- A Kappa's Trail, a downloadable game for the DSi that came out in Japan in 2009 and came out in North America during June 2010.
References[ | ]
- ↑ Go Nintendo » Blog Archive » New Nintendo trademarks
- ↑ Long, Andrew (November 3, 2000). Brownie Brown President Talks About Name, Game. RPGamer.com. Retrieved on 2008-07-29
- ↑ GAF - News - Brownie Brown reveals new DS RPG & GC game
- ↑ RPGamer - News Bulletin - Brownie Brown Names Latest Project
- ↑ Go Nintendo » Blog Archive » Brownie Brown developing Blue Dragon Plus
- ↑ Gantayat, Anoop (December 7, 2009). Nintendo Teams with Brownie Brown for DSiWare. andriasang.com. Retrieved on 2010=03-03
- ↑ Gantayat, Anoop (August 21, 2009). Brownie Brown Returns on the DS. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2009-08-21
- ↑ http://ds.livly.com/
- ↑ Gantayat, Anoop (August 25, 2009). Level-5 Shares Future Vision. IGN.com. Retrieved on 2009-08-25
- ↑ http://www.level5.co.jp/products/fantasylife/index.html