[Interview] Ripstone Games on why Knytt Underground is coming to Wii U, working with Nintendo, future support, and more

Posted on August 25, 2013 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Features, Interviews, Wii U eShop

We recently caught up with Ripstone Games’ creative director Phil Gaskell to discuss Knytt Underground for Wii U and a whole lot more. The game is more than just a simple port, and Nintendo’s new system will even be receiving some exclusive console content.

Read the full interview here.

NE: Knytt Underground has previously appeared on other platforms. What was behind the decision to bring the game to Wii U?

PG: When we spoke with the guys at Nintendo Europe they were very open with us and excited about Ripstone supporting their platforms. Nifflas worked with NICALiS on Night Sky which is a WiiWare title, so Nintendo were keen to see Knytt Underground come to Wii U and we wanted to give Nintendo gamers something extra which is why the Infinity Hype update is included.

Will there be any new content or changes for the Wii U version?

Since launching Knytt Undergound Nifflas has been hard at work on an update called Infinity Hype which features even more quests, room, and secrets. It makes an already huge game even bigger! On consoles the Infinity Hype update will be exclusive to WiiU.

Are you looking to take advantage of any of the console’s unique features? Off-TV play, maybe?

We’re big fans of the off-TV play so we’ll be looking at ways to support that, and also how the GamePad can be used as a second screen to improve regular gameplay.

What’s the experience been like bringing Knytt Underground to Wii U? How has development been?

So far it’s been a very straightforward experience. The developers we work with have found the hardware to be very easy to develop for, and as a publisher we’ve found Nintendo incredibly helpful.

Most indies have mentioned having positive experiences with Nintendo. How has it been for you up to this point?

We’re no different, our experiences so far dealing with Nintendo have been nothing but positive. They are supporting us in all the right ways, which makes continuing to support the platform an easier decision to make.

Wii U has certainly seen its fair share of struggles since launch. What do you make of the system’s slow start thus far?

We don’t make big $20m games, we prefer to get involved in more experimental niche titles, so we don’t really require huge audiences to engage with the games we help developers make. In the past Nintendo have demonstrated their ability to turn sales around on their devices through a mixture of pricing and strong 1st party software, so I don’t for a minute think they are in any way concerned over the current position of the Wii U, and neither are we.

Ripstone Games recently announced that it intends to support the eShop with more releases in the future. Any particular titles you have in mind for the Wii U or 3DS?

Yes we’ll be continuing to support Nintendo and the eShop. We’ve announced that the visually stunning Pure Chess is making its way over to both Wii U and 3DS, both of which look awesome and feature a great cross-platform multiplayer feature. We’re also working on a number of other games with developers that will appear on eShop but we’re not quite ready to show them off yet. Right now if we include the titles we’ve announced we have plans to bring 6 games to Wii U.

Knytt Underground will be out on the Wii U eShop at the end of 2013/early 2014.