Feature

The Future Of Wii U

How can Nintendo convince indie developers to make games for Wii U?

THE WAR FOR I N

t E3 last year, we saw famous developers scrambling to say how much they wanted to create games for the Wii U. All the big guns were pulled out: the head of EA praised it; Codemasters, THQ and Sega all conrmed their franchises were coming to it; Ken Levine, of Bioshock fame, eulogised it, calling its secondary screen a really revolutionary thing; Warner Bros revealed Lego City Stories for it and GDC Lifetime Achievement award-winner Warren Spector predicted that developers would soon be making the sort of games that have been impossible to realise until now. Similarly, the conference chambers at E3 and GamesCom in 2011 were full of developers talking about the device, the potential for the exciting new high-defcapable hardware and the unique, half-tablet controller. Some were more cautious, though Doom and Quake creator, id, was particularly hesitant, stating that it was dubious about there being an audience for their shooty bang-bang games on it but it was certainly a focus of attention.

However, as Oscar Wilde said, There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about. At GDC this year, the conference chamber was excited, but not about Wii U. I didnt hear any Wii U buzz, Nicholas Lovell, director of games consultancy, Gamesbrief, told ONM. Literally, none. The chatter was about moving games into healthcare, into education and about how the industry should stand up for games as being valuable in themselves. Even the potential of the new Apple iPad 3 was only a scarce undercurrent; the biggest story was about how many luminaries of the industry were looking hungrily at the independent games market and thinking about going it alone.

Independent Thought
This wasnt because developers dont want to make games for the Wii U we didnt nd a developer who didnt love Nintendo but because the industry is changing so quickly. Industry legend Tim Schafers Double Fine studio is a symbol of this independent trend. The company

was on the verge of collapse when working as a contractor on Brtal Legend for EA, not having enough money to pay its staff. Making a virtue of necessity, it took a fortnight to brainstorm dozens of small, downloadable games, then got to work on them, subsequently saving the company with unique, award-winning titles such as Stacking and Costume Quest. By cutting out the publishers and the distributors and focusing on the sort of games the studio wanted to make, it made games people wanted to play and sold them by the bucketload. These small, popular indies are the developers Nintendo really needs to convince, because they break the mould and make games like Angry Birds, Lost Winds and Cut The Rope. If youre an indie developer with extremely limited resources, then the additional time and cost of developing for another platform becomes signicant, unless your engine or the platform makes it easy. Guy Somberg is the technical developer behind Minion Master, a combined card, gurine and video game coming out on multiple platforms. In order for Nintendo to win over these

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I NDEPENDENTS
independent developers, it needs to do two things, he said. First, make it cheap and easy to get development kits. And second, make the development environment easy and robust. Nintendo has had problems distributing development kits before, but on the second point, thats where popular programs like Epics Unreal Engine and Unity come in. These are cheap, multi-platform development tools that make very good looking games and hold independent developers hands when exporting their games to new platforms.

Start Your Engines

Though Unity hasnt declared whether or not it will support Wii U, at GDC Epic announced that Unreal Engine 3 would, which is a huge step for independent developers. Epic vice-president, Mark Rein, said, I think the E3 will be a big eye-opener for people. I played Batman: Arkham City on the Wii U and some cool stuff had been done with the controller. Having the biggest development platforms on board means developing

Batman: Arkham City is currently released on other consoles and runs on a modied version of Unreal Engine 3 technology, which is owned by Epic Games. Epic recently offered their development tools up for free for non-commercial developers and those who wanted to sell their games need only buy a $99 license. Cheap, powerful and easy to develop for, the Unreal Engine has become a mainstay of independent development. The technology continues to be used by thousands of game designers who would otherwise have to spend time and money putting together their own graphics engine from scratch.

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The Future Of Wii U

Games Industry Is Frog In Well

Keiji Inafune slams Japanese game development at GDC
The challenges for the Wii U arent just from the hardware or the market: the real problem is local Japanese developers who are stagnant and obsessed with nostalgia, or so Keiji Inafune says, Kejii Inafune, Mega Man creator co-creator of and major creative mover behind the seminal title, Mega Man. Having quit Capcom to launch his own studio, his GDC talk laid into Japanese game development, saying the major developers were no longer hungry enough and were resting on their laurels. To win, you must rst acknowledge your loss and start over. The Japanese games industry has become a frog in a well. Inafune went on to claim that he believes Japanese developers hadnt tried to develop games with a global audience in mind, as Capcom had attempted to do during his tenure at the company. Nowadays, though, he feels embarrassed to travel overseas because he feels that Japanese games are in danger of becoming little more than a blast from the past. Inafunes comments were echoed less subtly by Phil Fish, winner of the Independent Games Federations grand prize this year for Fez, who told an audience of developers that Japanese games just suck. You dont have to look very far to nd heaps of evidence to the contrary, though its hard to deny that the industrys big money-spinners are deantly Western (think Call of Duty).

The Game Developers Conference in San Francisco is a week long series of events, from a games expo to developer talks and presentations. GDC also plays host to the Independent Games Festival as well as the Game Developers Choice Awards. Its professional, rather than consumer-focused. So you wont see any Mario costumes. Okay, maybe just a few.

A New Hope
Will Nintendos games carry the Wii U?
As if to provide a ray of sunshine after Inafunes despair, GDCs best talk was from the director of Super Mario 3D Land and Super Mario Galaxy 2, Koichi Hayashida. He described the design process for Super Mario 3D Land, giving an inspiring glimpse into the inner workings of Nintendos collective dev-brain and an enticing snapshot of the kinds of ideas that never leave the drawing board. We always consider ideas outside the normal range of what people expect for a Mario game, explained Hayashida, before showing off the cancelled concepts the team had for Huge Mario (where only his feet appeared on the screen), Long Mario (gangly and disturbingly spidery), Pro Skater Mario and Princess Peach (where you could change and swap faces with your friends) . We want to make others laugh with our strange new ideas; I want to make something fun, rather than something new, he said. With that in mind, Miyamoto persuaded the team to look at 3D optical illusions, which accounts for the many Escher-style puzzles in the nal game. He also talked about the effects of the 2011 Tokyo earthquake on game development, how the studio shut for a week, how they worried about radiation and the many aftershocks and how difcult it was to motivate themselves to work when they felt they should be helping outside. But then Hayashida realised, As game developers, our work is special. All of us here can put smiles on very many peoples faces. This was how they could help by making Super Mario 3D Land and getting Japan to smile again. With inspirational and touching people in charge like Miyamoto and Hayashida, Nintendos games for the Wii U cant fail to be brilliant.

Super Mario 3D Land is a 3DS bestseller. Perhaps Nintendo dont even need independent developers?

for Wii U alongside its older competitors is almost as easy as ipping a switch. Victor Magnuson, a developer on EAs Battleeld Play4Free, whos working on his own Diablo-style download game, Krater, was very excited about the controller. The addition of the second screen could have great gameplay potential, mixing all the fun and exciting things that have been emerging on the handheld market with a more traditional gaming experience, he enthused. Somberg agreed: Were particularly excited about it in the context of Minion Master multiplayer games, where we can show the game board on the primary television, while showing each players hand on their personal controller. Indeed, the developer who was most excited was Joel Bylos of Funcom. Wii U could be the rst real console on which running an MMORPG without compromise is plausible, he said. The controller is perfect for lining up those rows of hotbars that are essential in most MMOs. A customisable touchscreen interface combined with the 3D spatial movement of a console controller could be a winner. We asked Suda 51, developer of Killer 7 and No More Heroes, if hed bring his

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Funcom reckon The Secret World (above) is an example of an MMORPG that would work on Wii U. Meanwhile, Brtal Legend (near left) was developer Double Fines last commercially published game before they sought to go it alone and self-publish online. Freeing themselves of corporate shackles allowed them to ex their creative muscle. The Wii Us Nintendo Network is ready to support their games.

new game, Lollipop Chainsaw, to Wii U. When I created it in HD, I didnt have the opportunity, but, possibly with the help of Warner Brothers, I would hope to do so, he told us. Its a possibility and its the developers who really have the power to do it, but in collaboration with other people. So, yes, if someone else pays for it, in other words.

On The Down Side

Despite their avowed love of Nintendo, several developers we talked to werent ready to commit to the platform just yet. Mark Rein is a case in point. Like id, Epics audience is more hardcore and, despite bringing the Unreal Engine 3 to Wii U, even Rein didnt seem ready to commit to developing a game for Wii U. If I had ten development teams Id make a game for every single platform, he said. But we dont, so its a matter of picking and choosing what we do. Why would these developers shy away from developing for the Wii U, if its so easy? John Warren from Minicore a typical indie start-up working on its rst game, Laika Believes considered the Wii a failure in terms of delivering fantastic gaming experiences. When my fondest

memories of a console include a handful of proprietary games, but a larger set of ports and nostalgia pieces, thats a problem, he opined. Nintendo needs to convince me that developing for the Wii U is worth the time and money. Not all developers agree with Warrens damning verdict on the Wii, but some do have concerns about Nintendos use of online, as Matt Higby of Sony Online Entertainment and Planetside 2 explained. Nintendo has an incredible talent for bring hardware and software together to create unprecedented, magical gaming experiences. The only hurdle left is taking online seriously: Sony and Microsoft are light years ahead and a major draw for the core games that are bread and butter for third-parties. Warrens criticism does point to another issue there werent many huge successes on the Wii that Nintendo didnt make themselves. Nintendo has to persuade developers that there is money to be made while explaining how it will use digital technology to drive signicant additional revenue. saidLovell. Frederick Wester, CEO of Swedish PC publisher, Paradox, agreed. HD or no HD, Nintendo has been unable to show really good numbers for other

publishers. It needs to support thirdparty developers more with marketing to show that their games can sell on the Nintendo platform. Hopefully, Nintendo will demonstrate at E3 how it has changed the store from the Wii and how it is going to get us to buy more games online, which will allay this fear, he concluded.

Brave New World

So the Wii U is likely to emerge into a challenging world, much changed from when it was conceived and announced. The support from Epic is a huge boost. If Nintendo can convince indie developers that theyll make money on the downloads market, is generous with development kits, and gives marketing support like theyve done with eShop, theyll ock to it in droves, especially as its unlikely to be opposed by any other consoles for at least a year. Add in the always-brilliant rst-party games from developers like Hayashida (see A New Hope, left) and the fact that the big publishers like EA, Activision and Ubisoft will always put all of their games on it, and theres every chance the Wii U will storm the gaming world.

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