We’ve been told by sources directly affected by the cuts that roughly 50 developers (a sizeable number of Krome’s total workforce) were let go from the company’s Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne branches last Thursday and Friday. The main culprits? A super-high Aussie dollar (making US-backed development expensive) and what’s described as a “lack of contracts”.

Krome CEO Robert Walsh put a more official slant on the causes in the following statement, sent to GameSpot:

Regrettably, an undisclosed number of employees across each of Krome’s three studio locations were informed they would be let go.

With declining game sales, the industry is really feeling the effects of the struggling economy. In spite of industry-wide cutbacks and Krome’s need to reduce costs, we’ve worked really hard to minimise the impact on our staff. These cuts, while incredibly difficult as they affect the coworkers we consider friends, are necessary as we position Krome for the future. We’re also actively pursuing several business opportunities which, if secured, will enable Krome to reemploy some of the staff given notice.

Krome also worked on the PS2 and Wii versions of the latest Transformers game, and were the creators of the last generation’s Ty: The Tasmanian Tiger series.

Speaking to Gamespot, Walsh said an “undisclosed number” of its employees had been let go, but suggested that potential publishing deals may allow those let go to return.

“With declining game sales, the industry is really feeling the effects of the struggling economy. In spite of industry-wide cutbacks and Krome’s need to reduce costs, we’ve worked really hard to minimise the impact on our staff. These cuts, while incredibly difficult as they affect the coworkers we consider friends, are necessary as we position Krome for the future. We’re also actively pursuing several business opportunities which, if secured, will enable Krome to reemploy some of the staff given notice.”

Krome most recently shipped Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes for LucasArts, but outside of pet project Blade Kitten (pictured) the studio has not announced any other games currently in development.

Aussie studio Krome cuts staff [Gamespot]

Former Krome employees have apparently contacted Australian Gamer to let them know about the layoffs. Further redundancies have apparently also taken place at Krome’s Melbourne office as well.

Krome is Australia’s largest game development studio and creator of the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger franchise. Recent titles include Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes (pictured), Scene It? Box Office Smash, the Wii and PS2 versions of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the PS2 and PSP versions Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. Krome is currently working on Blade Kitten, an action game that has yet to find a publisher.

It’s been a tough year for Aussie game development. First, Pandemic Brisbane was shut down after the failure of its Batman project then Melbourne’s Transmission Games suffered severe cuts ahead of the studio’s eventual closure last month. Now it’s Krome’s turn. We hope everyone affected by the layoffs lands on their feet as quickly as possible.

Friday the 13th hits Krome Studios [Australian Gamer]

I’m still confused about how to think of Republic Heroes. On the one hand, it’s a tie-in game for a show that turned out to be way cooler than a I thought — so it follows I should have high expectations of it. On the other, it is a tie-in game — and I’ve been burned by plenty of those before.

What Is It?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes is an adventure game for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, PSP and whatever else they can figure out how to program for. It’s a tie-in game for the Cartoon Network series that takes place between the first and second seasons of the show. Players either take the role of Jedi or of Clone soldiers to get through the story.

What We Saw
I played through a mission on Jum-9 as Jedi and through a mission on Behpor as Clone soldiers in co-op mode with another games journalist on the Wii version. I’m told it’s an older build with some known issues.

How Far Along Is It?
The game is out October 6.

What Needs Improvement?
Not Pretty Where It Counts: The backgrounds and character models look pretty good, but because the camera is pulled so far back, it’s hard to appreciate either. In extreme cases of camera pull-back, the characters start to look like stick figures and all of the spaceship innards are reduced to a dull grey plane dotted with blue pick-up orbs.

Where Am I…? When playing as Clone soldiers, it can be hard to keep track of your clone depending on which one you choose to play as for a mission. Some of them have clear colour differentiation—like blue shoulder pads—but they’re all wearing helmets, so it’s easy to confuse your clone with another clone and then wind up walking over a ledge.

2D Jumping Puzzles On A 3D Plane: The jumping in Clone Wars seems a bit fiddly on the Wii compared to the 360 demo build — but this might be one of those “known issues” I was told about. All I know for sure is that I was supposed to jump to the right for a pipe when my targeting reticule showed up. I saw it and pressed the jump button and right on the analogue stick (if you don’t press a direction, you wind up jumping in place) and instead of jumping right, my character climbed out into the 3D plane of the pipe and then jumped straight out into empty air somewhere to the right of where my reticule was fixed.

What Should Stay The Same?
Droid-Jacking: Rather than just murdering your way through a slew of different droids, Republic Heroes asks players during the Jedi levels to hijack droids and solve puzzles with them. The droid-jacking mechanic itself is simple – just jump on top of them with a double jump and press B to ram your lightsaber into them to steer — but it adds a layer of depth to gameplay that’s greatly appreciated.

Swooshing Lightsabers: The famous lightsaber effects play from the Wiimote speaker whenever you opt to use motions controls to swing the lightsaber. Using the Wiimote to swing the lightsaber turns into a bit of a waggle fest, sure, but it’s still neat to have the sounds there. Also, you can opt not to use motion controls at all and just mash the B trigger to pull off ‘saber combos.

Split Gameplay: Switching back and forth between the Jedi and the Clones is pretty fun. Playing as Jedi is like being in a brawler where you’re mashing B or swinging your arm around to pull of close-quarters combos and jump on top of droids. Playing as Clones is like playing a shooter where the Wiimote becomes your targeting reticule and B becomes the blaster trigger. Both gameplay approaches suit the Star Wars universe and it’s fun to switch between the two.

Final Thoughts
As far as tie-in games go, I know Republic Heroes could be a lot worse. But, based on what I enjoyed in the cartoon screening, I think it could somehow be a lot better, too. I just wouldn’t know how exactly to make that happen without ruining the ESRB rating. Maybe they’ll get that figured out in time for season three’s tie-in game.

Two did!

At a respectable #93 is Blue Tongue, creator of Kotaku favourite De Blob. Blue Tongue ranked ahead of studios such as Dimps (Street Fighter IV, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai series) and Intelligent Systems (Paper Mario, Advance Wars, Fire Emblem).

But even more impressive was the showing of Krome Studios. At #41, Krome placed above such illustrious developers as Crystal Dynamics, Firaxis, Crytek and even Bungie. Krome released Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Wii, PS2, PSP), The Clone Wars: Lightsaber Duels (Wii) and Scene It? Box Office Smash (360) last year.

“Develop 100 ranks the world’s most bankable games development studios based on a variety of key criteria including sales data, critical success and industry standing.” And as an annual list it’ll favour developers who shipped product in that particular year.

The Develop 100 [Develop, via Australian Gamer]

In Republic Heroes gamers will take on the roles of Jedi and clone troopers, including Anakin Skywalker and Clone Captain Rex. The storyline will bridge the game between season one and two of the animated series and has gamers trying to stop a “mysterious techno assassin’s destructive plot.” The game will include more than 30 missions.

“The Clone Wars franchise has struck a chord with viewers and gamers around the world with its action-packed storyline and memorable heroes,” said Darrell Rodriguez, president of LucasArts. “With its Jedi and Clone Trooper gameplay and all-new storyline, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes takes the franchise into a truly exciting and interactive direction.”

Due this September, the title is coming to the DS, PC, PS2, PS3, PSP, Wii and Xbox 360.

According to the story, the plane disappeared during an attempt to perform a massive loop. Search and rescue efforts found a propeller on August 31, but otherwise no wreckage has been found. Very sad news, and I can’t imagine how everyone over at Krome is feeling. All the best to the studio and Lovell’s family.

Krome Studios artist in tragic plane accident [Tsumea]

The DS version is being developed by LucasArts Singapore and looks to be very touch-heavy, while the Wii version is being developed by Krome Studios in Australia. The LucasArts folks call Wii game the “ultimate light saber dueling experience”.

Check out the whole interview over at EW.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Exclusive [EW]

Interview: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [IGN]

Ah the Wiimote. An elegant weapon, not as clumsy or as random like a blaster. Paired with the Nunchuk, it’s pretty awesome too, according to this video from G4, which got an exclusive hands-on with Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii’s duel mode. (Man that was a mouthful).

G4’s reporter went as Luke Skywalker, duking it out in a TIE Fighter bay with Asajj Ventress There’s saber-slashing and Force-choking galore, all arising from a pretty shrewd use of combinations and reverse moves in both controllers. It’s not all lightning bolts and throws, either. Check out that old-school kick to the grill Luke delivers at the end.

The video says you’ll get 9 different arenas and 27 characters to choose from, classics to the expanded universe. I know that LucasArts is promising exclusive gameplay for all consoles. But I had the two Jedi Knight games on Xbox, where lightsaber combat was a lot of button mashing and getting lucky. Honestly, if the purpose of this is to at last swing a lightsaber in 1:1 combat, then this is your baseline version.

It’s probably going to make me buy a Wii. The question, will it make others do the same?

X-Play Exclusive: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for Wii [G4]