Sunbreak Games on the possibility of Buddy & Me for Wii U eShop
The folks at Sunbreak Games launched a Kickstarter last week for a new game called “Buddy & Me”. What makes this campaign particularly interesting is that studio founder Jason Behr previously lent his talents to Metroid Prime as lead level designer.
At this point you’re probably wondering if Buddy & Me has a shot of landing on the Wii U eShop. Behr is “personally a fan of what the Wii U’s trying to bring to the living room console experience” and also approves of Nintendo’s “recent loosening of their indie developer requirements”, but said that the team’s small size means the developer has to “pick our battles very carefully.” A Wii U version is certainly a possibility “if things are wildly successful”, but for now, the team is concentrating on putting out a quality experience on tablet and mobile platforms.
Regarding Wii U, that’s a great question, you’re not the first to ask. I’m personally a fan of what the Wii U’s trying to bring to the living room console experience (it’s conceptually very similar to how the DS evolved the handheld experience), and what kind of gameplay experiences the extra touch-screen interface might bring. I’m also happy to read about Nintendo’s recent loosening of their indie developer requirements.
But at the moment, Sunbreak is still a very small indie team with limited resources, so we have to pick our battles very carefully. Each additional platform beyond the initial iOS release takes more time, money, testing hardware, special-case assets, etc… So, yes it’s a possibility if things are wildly successful (either via Kickstarter or initial sales), but right now our #1 priority is focusing team resources 100% towards a quality release on tablet/mobile, before considering expansion to traditional consoles.
You can find more information about Buddy & Me on the official Kickstarter page here.
