Indie devs on eShop revenue cuts, Gunman Clive set for 3DS store, Unity comments, more

October 5th, 2012 Posted in 3DS, News, Posted by Valay, Wii U

A whole bunch of indie developers have weighed in on Nintendo’s eShops. Most of the commentary focuses on Wii U, but there are also tidbits about the 3DS. For instance, Bertil Horberg was able to confirm that Gunman Clive is heading to the portable’s digital store.

Going back to Wii U, indie developers discussed revenue cuts, expressed optimism over Nintendo’s deal with Unity, and more.

There’s lots of content to read up on below.

Two Tribes

- Studio wants to have Toki Tori 2 ready for Wii U launch
- Two Tribes says the revenue cuts between Steam and Wii U eShop are very close
- They wanted to release the game on Wii U since it’s easy to release on
- Two Tribes feels that Nintendo doesn’t curate shop content as much as other systems
- Nintendo has been listening to developers about how to improve the eShop

Bertil Horberg

- Gunman Clive confirmed for the 3DS eShop
- Gameplay inspired by Mega Man and other platformers
- Horberg hasn’t had any issues getting a developers licence
- Nintendo told him that self-publishing would be straightforward
- Porting process was straighforward
- Minimum price on the eShop is 2€ in Europe
- Nintendo has final say about price
- Horberg says “The royalties are the same as on the AppStore (iOS) and most other downloadable services.”

Unity on Wii U

- Unity 4 needed to make Wii U games
- North of Earth thinks Nintendo’s Unity deal is “impressive” and would be open to bringing Omegalodon to Wii U
- Infinite State Games excited about the Unity support
- Infinite wants Nintendo’s digital distribution to focus on quality-based visibility metric instead of quantity
- Astrogun’s Xander Davis was happily surprised by the Unity news
- Davis thinks indie developers will be more willing to take advantage of the Wii U’s GamePad than big publishers
- “After Nintendo’s deal announcement with Unity, clearly aimed at attracting indie developers, Astrogun is now much more compelled to seriously consider bringing our Unity-driven titles to the Wii U.”
- AckkStudios was also happy/optimistic about the news
- The studio has been receiving lots of requests to bring Two Brothers to the Wii U/3DS eShops; they think “it would be an ideal fit”
- Developer of Stardew Valley interested in having the game on Wii U
Developer of Stardew Valley for Steam

Attractiveness of GamePad touch screen

- North of Earth doesn’t find it too appealing due to the lack of multi-touch, but believe it could be useful to display a mini-map or access a “non-obtrusive menu”
- Astrogun: “Having options to maximize the effort put into building a game is always attractive. …We’re moving at an incredible pace for our teamsize, and aim to deliver a great game with some real meat to it on iOS, Steam, Ouya, and maybe even Wii U eventually.”
- Developer of Stardew Valley thinks the touch screen “will be useful for many developers… but Stardew Valley probably won’t benefit from the (Wii U’s) touchscreen. It does allow for some interesting possibilities, though.”

Patch updates

- Pwnee Studios says process to update a patch is closer to Steam than other consoles
- Eric Barone who is working on Stardew Valley for Steam: “I understand this might be difficult on a platform like Wii U, where Nintendo most likely wants to maintain certain standards of quality and prevent objectionable content from appearing. Still, it would be nice if Nintendo was a little bit more flexible than, say, Xbox Live in allowing developers to update their games after appearing on the platform.”

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