Wii Game Devs Testing Waters With Less-Casual Games 104
MTV's Multiplayer Blog has a pair of interviews with Wii game developers about how they're struggling to reach a more hardcore gaming audience. Jordan Itkowitz, lead designer for Deadly Creatures, wants to stay away from designing a typical collection of mini-games, saying, "The trick is to get those new players to step outside that easy comfort zone and try some genres and experiences that, while accessible and familiar to gamers, are still a bit foreign to anyone who's new to the culture." Dan Borth of Red Fly Studio is skeptical of the viability of hardcore games without relying on Nintendo and other major companies to "put a valiant effort in properly supporting developers to create great games."
They'll sell (Score:4, Insightful)
There is massive untapped potential for the Wii. I know the graphics are less powerful, but the Wiimote still lends itself to 1st person shooters better than any gamepad. Resident Evil proved that. And the Wii is the only console that a RTS (like Starcraft) would even be possible to be played on. Keep in mind, development costs on a AAA title for the Wii are half or less what they would be on a 360 or PS3.
Please, just make some games for it. Please.
Re:They'll sell (Score:3, Insightful)
I disagree entirely. Just try playing Metroid Prime 3, for example. It's a first person shooter and has fantastic controls, particularly if you compare it the Gamecube Metroid games. As good as a mouse & keyboard? That -might- be arguable. But certainly in the same class.
Hardcore Gamer (Score:2, Insightful)
Nintendo Wii? Oh you mean that thing I pick up once or twice a year when I'm having parties...
Re:They'll sell (Score:5, Insightful)
Except the Wii is ALREADY the most successful platform in this generation if not in all previous generations. It's only competitor is PS2 for sales counts, and its already crushing that for where the PS2 was at the same life point.
Face it, the Wii already took off as it is with the strategy Nintendo is already using. Why would they change it?
For hard core gamers, true. For everyone else, not so much. Most people care about being able to (a) have a little bit of fun, and (b) being able to play the game. For example - I love racing games, but a lot of the hard core games are just so unplayable that it makes them worthless to me unless I devote hundreds of hours learning how to play the game, which I have not desire (nor time) to do. Hard core games may love that, but the other 99% of us don't.
WiiSport and WiiFit are probably among the most played on the console among any age group. They'll likely go down as a the number one titles for this generation of consoles (if not for all generations up to it) as well if they keep up as they do. Don't forget, they're also used in a lot of places that would never have seen a console otherwise (e.g. nursing homes, rehab centers, etc).
I'll somewhat agree here - but even then, there are a lot of different genres on the Wii, and some likely some new genres that don't exist any where else. But that's more due to the new technology Nintendo put out than it is for the system as a gaming console.
As a hardcore gamer and wii owner... (Score:2, Insightful)
The problem I have with the wii currently is that I can count the number of games which I have enjoyed on one finger. (Fyi, super mario galaxy.)
The problem seems to be that for every "serious" game on the wii, 100 "fun/party" games are released. Sure, it was cute at first, but ~2 years later and I've pretty much not touched the wii since. Sure, a few party games are kinda fun (wii sports for example), but most of them fall into the category of "do something silly with the wii remote for a few seconds, and not much else". To say nothing of the fact that I DONT SPEND EVERY MOMENT OF MY LIFE SOCIALISING WITH FRIENDS. (I know, i know, typical slashdot crowd...)
Now, I realise that these games are probably selling left, right and centre, but it doesnt mean that you're not allowed to make decent, single player games. For chrissakes, I use the wii more as a gamecube emulator than anything else these days.
The wii is clearly capable of running halfway decent games, but unfortunately it seems no-one is interested in producing them.
*other note: im not including wiiware in this rant, as Im well aware that several smaller/indie developers have released stunning games, such as world of goo. But frankly, if I wanted a console with online capabilities that didnt suck, I would've bought an xbox.