GDC: Noby Noby Boy coming to iPhone

Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi revealed that he's working on an iPhone extension of his PSN game Noby Noby Boy at his Game Developers Conference talk today.

He showed the game running on his own phone, holding it up to a camera so the audience could see. It features a multi-touch control scheme, with the player manipulating each end of the stretchy BOY character - represented in 2D - with a different finger.

He moved the BOY around, displacing floating letters of the game's name as he did so.

"We just started doing this a week ago," he told the audience, and said that it might be a free application.

He hopes to be able to plug the game into the PSN version. In Noby Noby Boy, the cumulative stretching done by all players contributes to the length of GIRL as she tries to reach all the planets in the solar system.

The problem is that, if GIRL keeps growing at the current rate, it will take 820 years for her to span the solar system, due to Noby Noby Boy's poor sales.

"I thought it would be neat if we can use the BOY from the iPhone and communicate to the girl, maybe that would make the girl reach the solar system in 400 years instead of 820," Takahashi joked.

Takahashi also showed the forthcoming multiplayer update to Noby Noby Boy, which he hopes to release "probably in the latter part of April". He let members of the audience play it on screens while he talked.

It's an offline mode that allows up to four players to control BOYs simulataneously. If two BOYs break in two, they can then combine to create a BOY where each end is controlled by a different player.

Takahashi charmed and confused the pants off the audience at his typically off-the-wall GDC talk. We'll publish more from the eccentric creator later.