Looks like you can wear a Toad hat in Cloudberry Kingdom!
Thanks to Armadillo for the tip.
Straight Right founder Tom Crago tackled a few questions about making Mass Effect 3 for Wii U, developing for the console, among other topics.
Crago also mentioned that another Wii U project from the studio is bound to be announced soon. Surely this is the mystery Square Enix game, right?
All of Crago’s commentary is below.
Bravely Default: Flying Fairy literally just came out in Japan. As usual though, fans already are interested in a sequel!
One fan asked the game’s official Twitter if a follow-up would also land on the 3DS, after purchasing the system just to play Square Enix’s RPG
The reply was as follows:
“Depending on the circumstances, I don’t think it would change. Because I think a lot of people bought a 3DS for Bravely Default.”
Nintendo is including a neat little feature in Animal Crossing: Jump Out.
Players will be able to take pictures in the game.. Butt not just any pictures! Why, 3D pictures, of course!
Unity CEO David Helgaso has sounded off with a few comments about its Wii U deal with Nintendo.
Helgaso first addressed the origins of the deal, noting that the company originally pitched the idea when the engine wasn’t widely-used.
“It’s actually been a dream of ours to be the default development kit for something you can access if you’re just building games for a particular console. I remember we pitched the idea to at last Nintendo, but also Sony maybe five years ago, but of course back then we were a tiny company, and we didn’t have a lot of users.
“So, it was understandable that they didn’t bite back then, although I think they should have, because the tools were really good back then, but they weren’t yet proven. We didn’t have 1.2 million registered users, or 200,000 monthly users back then – we probably had closer to 200.
“Our prowess grew very quickly thanks to the explosion of mobile, and that helped us grow our user base and improve our tools. I can’t describe the exact steps we took with Nintendo, but we were in touch with them, and in the end they may have even come to us. I can’t remember the exact steps.”
Helgaso said that the hiring of ex-Sega of America CEO Shinobu Toyoda may have contributed to Nintendo’s interest in Unity:
“We were over in Japan last year with our really good tech people who are famous in the Japanese industry, such as Shinobu Toyoda, who was the American CEO of Sega. He is very well connected. So we led the charge on this partnership – we were excited about it, as were Nintendo.
“From then on we negotiated a bunch of stuff, like who would do what and when. I think it’s interesting because we’re still working on tools that mean you can take a version of Unity and export it to the Wii U. It’s not done yet, but we know it’s going to get done soon.”
Helgason also explained the manner in which Nintendo will use Unity, and revealed that the company plans on rolling the engine out to all of its first and third-party studios to create a standard of cost-effective, powerful development.
According to Helgaso, Nintendo will “bring it to their big ecosystem of studios.” Unity will be available for first and third-party studios.
“It’s going well and we’re firing along with the project. Once that’s done, two things will happen, and these are separate things, but I think they are connected and they will work really well together.
“One thing is that Nintendo will take Unity tools that we give them, and bring it to their big ecosystem of studios. Nintendo has first-party, third-party and all of the other studios that they’ve worked with for years, and they know them well.
“They trust them because they know how to make awesome games for Nintendo platforms. Historically, none of these companies were using Unity, and they have the same challenges as everybody else – cost effective development and all that stuff.
“So Nintendo is bringing Unity to these studios so they can build with it. The second thing that will happen is that, we turn around with the same tools and technology we’re working on, and take them to our community, which is a different one.”
“Nintendo’s community is very formidable and respected, they’ve been around for a long time. We turn to our community which is new, very energetic – of course we have old studios, but there are a lot of young ones too – and many of them have built games for consoles before.
“But many more have never built console games, or published on any console. What is exciting there is that are many studios out there that make hit games on iOS, Android or Steam, but hopefully many of these studios will be able to bring their games to Wii U, and that’s just really exciting.”
Finally, Helgason feels that Unity could be a big factor when it comes to third-party interest in Wii U. Many developers use the engine these days, so having the technology ready for outside developers could create a more positive relationship with other studios.
“If the Wii U is – and we hope it will be – a big success, then that will be a big deal for a lot of those developers.”
Players will be able to obtain a huge amount of pins in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two. Over 150 different pins are included, and each will provide different buffs and boosts.
Aside from that, the game’s Director Warren Spector detailed other ways pins can utilized during a New York Comic Con roundtable.
Director Warren Spector discussed the pins feature at New York Comic Con 2012:
“You can go to the Pin Shop (on Mean Street) and show off your collection to your friends and all that. Unless you’re a crazy tester, you’re not going to get them all in one playthrough, but it is possible.”
Unfortunately, there won’t be any online connectivity involving the pins.
Spector explained why this isn’t an area the team decided to pursue:
“The reality is I’m kind of a kitchen sink designer. When you start a project, you just kind of get every idea from everybody. It’s almost like sculpting; you just cut the stuff that doesn’t fit. I hope in the future we can come back to some ideas we had for how to facilitate pin interactions. But that implies that there are plans and people are working, and that’s how I get in trouble. Which I guess I just did.”
Spector wrapped up by teasing the Observatory on Mean Street:
“If you find [the Observatory] on Mean Street and you look through it, you might find something about the world and the cartoon universe and all that stuff. It’s pretty cool.”
CyberConnect 2, the developer behind Namco Bandai’s Naruto Shippuden games, is open to making a new title based on the manga/anime series for Wii U.
At a NYCC 2012 panel this weekend, CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama told attendees that the chances of such a project happening would likely be stronger following the release of the console. If there’s enough fan demand, things could be discussed internally. Matsuyama said that “it’s all up to you guys.”
Nintendo will be dropping the price of the Wii later this month. Ahead of the Wii U’s launch and the holiday shopping season, the old console will be available for $129.99 starting on October 28.
Wii’s last price drop came last year. It’s been on sale for $149.99 since May 2011.
Also on October 28, Nintendo will be including a new disc in the Wii package that bundles Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort together – that’s two games on one disc.
For further details, check out the announcement after the break.
