How The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth made it to Nintendo systems, why it’s not on the original 3DS, more
Polygon has some extensive comments from Tyrone Rodriguez and Edmund McMillen about The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. There’s plenty of talk about why the game didn’t make it to Nintendo platforms until now, and what changed to make it happen. Additionally, we learn why Rebirth is planned for New 3DS only (rather than bringing it to the original 3DS as well).
We’ve rounded up the various comments below. You can find Polygon’s original article here.
On how Nintendo was finally won over…
“The short simple answer is we were very persistent and had a few big fans at Nintendo that helped with our pushing.”
On how 3DS was always planned…
“The initial idea that Ed and I had for the game was to do it on 3DS.”
On his tweet about how Nintendo decided not to allow the game on 3DS because of its “questionable religious content” wasn’t completely the case…
“It wasn’t entirely religious related. I can’t speak for Nintendo, but the game was a little controversial at the time. Since then things have changed in terms of what can and can’t be on their platform. My understanding is that they now rely on the ESRB for guidance. Anything that is rated from E (for Everyone) to M (for Mature) is OK, but AO (Adults Only) can’t be on their platform. I think this and a few other games were the impetus for that change.”
On how three key Nintendo employees made it happen…
– These were vice president of licensing Steve Singer; Mark Griffin, a senior manager in licensing game development at Nintendo; and the company’s head of indie development Dan Adelman (since left Nintendo)
“They all pushed hard for the game to happen. I’ve been pushing hard for this to happen too, with their help. I’m a huge Nintendo fan and it was a personal goal, not a stubborn goal, but a goal that I approached very amicably. I wanted them to know how important they are to me and how important it was to get the game on the platform.”
– Back when McMillen and Rodriguez were first talking about Rebirth they viewed it as a Nintendo exclusive
– This was because it felt like a good match for something so inspired by Zelda
On how it wasn’t until development started that they realized it wasn’t going to be going to Nintendo…
“They never really said no. Maybe this is a nuance, but it was never an official no. They just never said yes. It was a very delicate thing because we have a long-standing relationship with them and pushing too much wasn’t advisable.”
On how the team remained in contact with Nintendo…
“But the conversations with Nintendo never ended. It was very casual. Every two months I’d check in with Dan and check in with Steve. Then last year we had a secret meeting and were approved.”
– Approval came out of one in a long series of meetings near the end of last summer
On tech limitations with 3DS…
“When we originally had the idea to bring the game to the 3DS we had a feature set that was an 8 ounce cup of water. And then when we shifted to the PlayStation we upgraded to a 16 ounce cup of water. Then when Nintendo came back and said yes we were like, ‘Oh crap, how do we get this back into that 8 ounce cup?'”
On how the team wasn’t pleased with the quality of how it was running on 3DS…
“People would have said it was terrible. So we decided to look at the New 3DS.”
On the power of New 3DS…
“We found that the New 3DS was a lot more powerful. There was additional performance, more memory, making it feasible to run at 60 frames per second.”
– A lot of that horsepower comes from the random generation that powers the game and makes it such a delight to play over and over again
– Rodriguez said they would have also had to redo the art to make it work on the original system
– Rodriguez said they would have still figured out a way to make the game work if the New 3DS didn’t happen
– Instead of taking six to eight months to build, it would have likely been longer than a year and it wouldn’t have been the same game
– On original 3DS possibilities: “Officially, I’m going to tell the internet no.”
– New 3DS version the same as the Steam/PlayStation versions
– 3DS version has a map on the bottom screen and as much user-interface as they could fit
– No new content
On how there could be DLC in the future…
“If Nintendo’s infrastructure for DLC is better than it was during the Wii era, I think it’s possible. We tried to do DLC for Cave Story and the certification process was such a terrible disaster that we canned it and gave it away. It seems as if over the last five years Nintendo has tried to improve that infrastructure.”
On how they are happy to finally bring the game to 3DS…
“It’s great to finally release something on Nintendo consoles. I never expected my first game would be Isaac though :)”
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth will be available in June for $14.99.
