Zoink on why WeeWaa never came out for Wii, interest in bringing it to Wii U
WeeWaa was one of the strangest game/peripheral combinations we ever saw on Wii. But for a number of reasons – mainly the decline in interest from its investor and publisher – the product never hit retail.
Klaus Lyngeled, the owner and creative director of Zoink and the creator of the project, explained:
“We did finish the game for Wii, and the tech and gameplay [were] working really good. But the investor and publisher didn’t go through with publishing it since the Wii market wasn’t strong enough. It was a very big disappointment to us, too, since we had worked with the project for many years. We even designed the plush toy ourselves and set up the full production in China.”
Lyngeled pointed to the third-party market on Wii as a big factor behind the decrease in interest from its investor and publisher:
“It was mainly because they didn’t see any third-party games selling on Wii. The kids angle worked really well on Wii. At the beginning, we had deals lined up with both Walmart and Toys ‘R’ Us. They loved it, but then the market changed, and third-party games just didn’t sell.”
WeeWaa was never completely abandoned. Actually, the team transferred assets and designs for the story, characters, and universe and used them for its iOS/Android title known as WeeWaa RockOn!.
Lyngeled said that Zoink would be interesting in bringing the original WeeWaa to Wii U, but it would “really need a strong partner to make that happen.”
“We just test-released WeeWaa RockOn! in Canada and Australia and hope to roll out a full release in the U.S. [in] early January. We would like to put the original WeeWaa plush-toy game on Wii U, but we really need a strong partner to make that happen. …The new game is developed with Unity 3D, and as you know, the Wii U [supports] Unity 3D. So it would probably be easy to get it up and running. Also, the Wii U is still using the same style Wiimote [that] our plush toy was designed to work with.”
Lyngeled went on to talk about how the GamePad could add to the first WeeWaa’s gameplay.
“Another great feature would be to incorporate the GamePad with its screen into gameplay. I could easily see the extra screen becoming a customizable toy for WeeWaa, his backpack, his camera, or use the pen for a coloring/drawing toy. Look at how Toca Tea Party uses the tablet as a table for plush toys….
