Yacht Club on the Shovel Knight amiibo’s origins, Nintendo on third-party figures
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Game Informer has new quotes up from Yacht Club Games’ Sean Velasco and Nintendo’s Damon Baker. Between the two, we learn about how the Shovel Knight amiibo came to be (including how Miyamoto said “no” to one of the pitch documents), third-party amiibo in general, and more.
Continue on below for a roundup of Velasco and Baker’s comments. The original interview is located here.
More: Amiibo, Damon Baker, interview, Sean Velasco, top
Nintendo’s Damon Baker talks more about its indie initiatives and efforts
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Polygon recently caught up with Nintendo’s Damon Baker for a chat about all things indie. Baker talked about how the company doesn’t tend to buy exclusives, its openness to multiplatform titles, and more.
You’ll find a summary of what was shared below. Head on over here for the full discussion.
On how Nintendo as a whole has responded well to the different Nindie initiatives…
“Fortunately, the company has been really receptive of it. They’ve embraced the opportunities that we’ve presented to them, and they see the justification.”
On how Nintendo has been supporting indies for a long time, even though the company doesn’t always get the headlines for it…
“I think the other platforms have come out there, and they’ve done a really good job of amplifying their independent support message, and they’ve gained a lot of traction and a lot of visibility for that.”
“I think we’ve stuck to our strategy for some time. We were the first console to promote self-publishing and to allow it on our platforms. And that was going back to the WiiWare and the DSiWare days.”
More: Damon Baker, indie, interview, top
Nintendo open to more third-party amiibo
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 32 Comments
Shovel Knight is making big waves in the amiibo scene. This is the first time that a company other than Nintendo is handling the distribution of its own figure, and it’s the first licensed amiibo.
In a recent interview, Nintendo’s Damon Baker said that the company “is certainly open” to the possibility of more indie/third-party amiibo. He also said that the Big N will “continue looking at proposals” and “there’s every opportunity”.
More: Amiibo, Damon Baker, interview
Nintendo believes Wii U is getting the definitive version of Kerbal Space Program
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U eShop | 4 Comments
Kerbal Space Program was officially revealed for Wii U during Nindies@Night earlier today. While the game isn’t exclusive to the platform, Nintendo believes that the eShop release will be the definitive version.
Nintendo’s Damon Baker told Game Informer:
“We feel we have the definitive version on Wii U because of our interface. You’ll be able to utilize the touchscreen and the GamePad in a number of different ways from actually building the spacecraft and navigating the spacecraft and even getting different perspectives. You’ll be able to fly the spacecraft from the cockpit utilizing the GamePad as a different viewpoint.”
More: Damon Baker, indie, interview, Kerbal Space Program
[Interview] Nintendo’s Damon Baker talks Nindies@Home – origins, challenges, future, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Interviews | 3 Comments
Damon Baker is Nintendo of America’s Senior Marketing Manager of Publisher and Developer Relations. He’s also the new face of the company’s indie efforts.
Over the past few months, Baker has led the way on a couple of surprising and interesting eShop programs from Nintendo. The Humble Nindie Bundle was made available in late May, and just a few weeks later, Nintendo introduced Nindies@Home. Along with providing Wii U owners with the opportunity to try out new indie titles well before their release during E3 week, Nindies@Home had the added bonus of giving those who downloaded the demos a 15 percent discount when the full games launch.
We recently had a chat with Damon Baker to go more in depth regarding Nindies@Home. Our discussion included talk about how the idea came to be, the challenges of bringing it to fruition, and the possibility of seeing it again in the future. Head past the break to read our full interview.
More: Damon Baker, highlight, Nindies@Home, top
Nintendo – openness to approving content, Humble Nindie Bundle’s great success and EU, indie importance, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
Polygon has posted a new interview with Damon Baker, the man leading Nintendo’s indie efforts. Baker discussed how Nintendo is more open to approving content these days, the Humble Nindie Bundle, the importance of indies, and more.
Read on below for some excerpts from the interview. You can find the full article on Polygon here.
More: Damon Baker, Humble Bundle, indie, interview, top
Nintendo is “definitely looking at” the possibility of an early access program
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 6 Comments
Damon Baker, who heads up Nintendo of America’s third-party relations and indie development, has told Polygon that the company is “certainly exploring options and capabilities” regarding an early access program.
He said:
“We don’t have anything to announce, but I can say that we’re certainly exploring options and capabilities. So anything is possible. I guess the important part of it is we’re very conscious of it and definitely looking at it.”
In terms of the benefits of what an early access program would program, Baker noted that it could act as a beta program of sorts.
“Working out some of the kinks, the server loads or what matching those expectations so that it’s a prime experience when it does, when the full version actually launches. So there could be some benefits there, but I think it’s a very sensitive topic, because you wouldn’t ever want to ask for money for something that doesn’t become fully-realized.”
Lastly, Baker also commented on the Nindies@Home initiative that was held during E3 week.
“We had to change policies over this, guidelines. I mean we basically created almost an early access-type of situation because some of this content isn’t even coming out until towards the end of the year. So to be able to give such early visibility to some of the developers and these builds, there was a lot of work that went into it.”
More: Damon Baker, interview, top
Video: Nintendo’s Damon Baker talks all about indies
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, Videos, Wii U eShop | 1 Comment
Nintendo Enthusiast sat down with Nintendo’s Damon Baker to talk all things indie at last week’s E3. Give it a watch below.
More: Damon Baker, indie, interview
Video: Damon Baker on the Nindies@Home program
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Videos, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
USgamer recently had the chance to speak with Damon Baker, the head honcho of Nintendo’s indie efforts, about the Nindies@Home program. Check out the full interview below.
More: Damon Baker, indie, Nindies@Home
Nintendo – Humble Nindie Bundle success, considered funding indies, Unity games on New 3DS this year, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Wii U eShop | 3 Comments
This information comes from a Gamasutra interview with Damon Baker…
On how the Humble Nindie Bundle went…
“We were quite pleased with how it went. The main objective of the promotion was really to reach a wider audience, and let as many people know about this great indie content as possible.”
“We promoted those same Nindies for the two weeks in the eShop, and their full version prices of those games were actually increased in sales.”
On defining Nintendo’s audience for indie games…
“It seems like a lot of the Nintendo fans and consumers they gravitate towards nostalgia, they gravitate towards platformer and puzzle action games. If I had one wish to be fulfilled, I would love to see Nintendo fans and consumers take more risks on eShop.”
“It’s my responsibility to make sure everything gets as much exposure as possible. There are titles that share a similar DNA to what makes good first party games,” he says, and those tend to perform well.
On the need for devs to promote games themselves if they want to succeed…
“The content that performs best on our platforms are the developers that have already been really proactive in creating a community and a lot of buzz. (Developers that expect Nintendo will take care of things for them, well,) there hasn’t been a lot of examples of where that’s been a successful relationship.”
“That’s the truest definition of what is doing well or isn’t doing well on Nintendo platforms.
On opportunities for promoting indies...
“We look at these opportunities all the time. We’ve done these super indie sales, (but these are) primarily driven by the developers — but we put a lot of support from first party behind it. I definitely have a vision of doing bigger grander promotions and activities.”
On funding indie games…
“We’ve given lots of thought to it. Nintendo is pretty famous for being pretty tight with our money; we want to be efficient with our funds. We continue to look for other ways to promote that key content, and that stuff we consider to be priority.”
“We’ve given a lot of consideration and we may have programs that we may offer in the future but nothing we can confirm at this time.”
– constantly having internal discussions
On Unity for New 3DS…
“It’s getting really, really close, and there is a ton of interest.”
– First Unity games on 3DS this year as a goal
– Tools coming to devs soon
