Several developers partnered together to host a “Nindies Love You” sale on the eShop today. 50 percent discounts are live for a number of Wii U and 3DS games in North America, Europe, and Australia.

The campaign started with an idea from Greg Wiggleton, the founder of ZeNfA Productions. In an interview with Nintendo Life, Wiggleton explained how it came about:

I truly had the idea for this group event sale around a year ago when the 1st and 2nd “epic indie sale” events were happening. I was curious if it was possible to host my own type of sale with other indies I’m in contact with and if Nintendo would advertise it on the eShop at all. It was around August 2015 that I finally started to get active in recruiting other Nintendo indies and contacting Nintendo directly about setting up one of these sales.
The very 1st step I took was taking charge of this idea and contacting Nintendo (already with a few select indies interested) back around August 2015. I was curious on how these group sales came into being. Nintendo would go on to tell me that these group indie sales were 100% created from indies and that Nintendo just helped set it up with the indies being in charge of it. From there I tried to gather a bunch of different indie Wii U games that would go well with this sale and show Nintendo that we were interested in doing our own sale. From here, I would go on to be Nintendo’s main contact for our group and talk to Nintendo on what is required, type of banners needed, and deadlines for different parts were. Every few weeks I would send updates to all involved as well as keep Nintendo involved with our developments to help keep them informed that we were serious about doing this sale.
The original goal was to have this 2 week sale period occur sometime around Christmas of 2015. A few of us involved early on thought this might be a good idea. After all, the Christmas period can be very nice for sales. However, a problem with this plan was that this period is usually very crowded. Nintendo themselves even warned us that a sale like this in December was a bad idea and recommended January or February for doing this sale. By October we finally decided to officially make it a February sale. Since this would take place around Valentine’s, we decided on that as a theme and came up with the “Nindies Love You” title for it.

As for another promotion like Nindies Love You, Wiggleton is very much interested in making that happen.

I would love to create new promotions like this in the future. I am hopeful that this event goes well for all involved so that we can all continue to make interesting and fun games for Nintendo systems for all to enjoy. Who knows, maybe one day you might see a similar promotion by me for the Nintendo NX for a new set of games!

Source

More: Greg Wiggleton, indie, interview, sale, ZeNfA Productions

Big Red Button reflects on Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, SEGA on Sonic’s future and more

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 50 Comments

Today, Polygon published a massive piece about Sonic’s history. The site chronicled the series’ early times all the way up through Rise of Lyric as well as the future (in general terms).

We highly suggest giving the full article a read here if you’re a fan of Sonic. But after the break, you can find a breakdown of comments from Big Red Button CEO and co-founder Bob Rafei about Rise of Lyric as well as other comments from SEGA about the franchise.

More: Big Red Button Entertainment, interview, SEGA, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, Sonic the Hedgehog, Takashi Iizuka, top, Yuji Uekawa

Kamiya reflects on making Bayonetta and harsh directing style, Platinum on collaborations

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 10 Comments

With PlatinumGames celebrating its tenth anniversary, Japanese magazine Famitsu has a big feature about the studio in its latest issue, including an interview with several staff members. It focuses more on the developer as a whole rather than specific games. There are some interesting Nintendo-related bits from the discussion though.

Hideki Kamiya has only made two games in the last ten years at Platinum. Of course, those are Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101. Kamiya created the original Bayonetta with the following prerequisites: make an original game with hardware you’re touching for the first time with no library, no resources, and no game engine. He wanted to have it published in three years.

More: Bayonetta, Famitsu, Hideki Kamiya, interview, PlatinumGames, top, Yusuke Hashimoto

Niantic delves more into the origins of Pokemon GO

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Mobile, News | 1 Comment

In Famitsu last week, Niantic went more in-depth with the origins of Pokemon GO. The magazine caught up with Setsuto Murai, representative president of Niantic Japan and Kento Suga, marketing manager of Niantic Japan.

As has been mentioned before, you could say that the concept was born after Google teamed up with The Pokemon Company for an April Fools event back in 2014. Murai and Suga touch on this, and then explain how things carried on from there.

Head past the break for our full translation.

More: Famitsu, interview, Kento Suga, Niantic, Pokemon GO, Setsuto Murai, top

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash team on HD development, new characters, amiibo, and online play

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 23 Comments

Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash finally launched in Japan last week. To celebrate, Famitsu spoke with a few developers who worked on the game. The lineup includes director Shugo Takahashi and producer Hiroyuki Takahashi from Camelot as well as Nintendo producer Toshiharu Izuno.

Our complete translation of the interview can be found after the break. The staff touched on topics like approaching HD development for the first time, how new characters were selected, amiibo integration, and online play. There’s also an interesting bit about how Nintendo was initially opposed to including Boo in Mario Tennis 64.

More: Camelot, Famitsu, Hiroyuki Takahashi, interview, Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Shugo Takahashi, top, Toshiharu Izuno.

Aonuma on valuing feedback from Zelda fans, not trying to force messages into the games

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 79 Comments

Speaking with GamesMaster this month, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma commented on how feedback from the fans is greatly valued.

He said:

“We’re constantly thinking about how to make it unique compared to other games, both in general as well as to others in the Zelda series. Of course, the response of fans is most important and something we care very much about, which is why recently we have been showing early previews at events like E3. We’re looking to see that there are no problems with the directions we’re taking, and are reflecting the reactions we do get into subsequent development.”

At another point of the interview, Aonuma talked about how the Zelda games are free of meaning. He finds the idea of putting ideologies in games “kind of scary.”

Aonuma stated:

“I haven’t and won’t be trying to put any message or meaning into the games. (If someone else were to make a Zelda game though, of course it might be different.) Occasionally I receive messages from fans telling me how playing Zelda games has changed their lives. While of course this makes me incredibly happy to hear, I feel a great sense of responsibility as well, so part of me feels that developers putting their own ideologies in games is kind of scary.”

That wasn’t all from Aonuma. During the same interview, he also weighed in on Link having a voice. You can find his comments about that topic here if you missed them last week.

More: Eiji Aonuma, interview, The Legend of Zelda, top

Video: Image & Form talks possibility of a SteamWorld amiibo

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments

Image & Form has prepared a new episode for its series known as “The Engine Room” – watch it below.

This time around, the studio tackles the topic of amiibo. To put it simply, Image & Form is interested in making a SteamWorld amiibo happen, but there would be a lot of work involved. They do want to continue to see fans support the idea, and they encourage everyone to share their own ideas for what the figure would look like and how it would function.

More: Amiibo, Image & Form, indie, interview, SteamWorld Heist

Shigesato Itoi on Mother 3’s development and much more

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 3 Comments

Late last year, an event for the Mother series was held in Japan. Nintendo Dream was in attendance, and spoke up with well-known designer Shigesato Itoi.

In the interview, Itoi commented on topics such as Mother 3’s development (cancelling the project on the Nintendo 64 before moving onto the Game Boy Advance), the series in general, the fans, and plenty more.

We now have a complete translation of Nintendo’s Dream’s piece. To read it in full, head past the break.

More: interview, Mother 3, Nintendo Dream, Shigesato Itoi, top

Genei Ibun Roku #FE devs on how the setting and Fire Emblem characters were chosen

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 19 Comments

Last week, we posted some translated excerpts from Nintendo Dream’s Genei Ibun Roku #FE interview. It’s a very interesting read since it gives you more of a clear picture about the project’s origins and how the game eventually turned into an RPG. If you missed it, be sure to check it out here.

We have a few final excerpts from Nintendo Dream’s piece today. Primarily, today’s topics include an in-depth explanation as to how the setting was decided upon, and how the team determined which characters from Fire Emblem to include.

Head past the break for the translation. The comments are from the interview with producer Hitoshi Yamagami (Nintendo), director Kaori Ando (Nintendo), producer Shinjiro Takata (Atlus), director Eiji Ishida (Atlus), chief director Wataru Hirata (Atlus), and art director Fumitaka Yano (Atlus).

More: Atlus, Eiji Ishida, Fumitaka Yano, Genei Ibun Roku #FE, Hitoshi Yamagami, interview, Kaori Ando, Nintendo Dream, Shinjiro Takata, top, Wataru Hirata

Aonuma unsure about having Link speak in Zelda games

Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 80 Comments

In an interview with GamesMaster this month, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma shared some thoughts about the possibility of having Link speak. He does believe that this could be a good idea, but at the same time, he also “feels that that air of proud independence he has because he doesn’t speak is a precious part of the individuality of his character.”

Aonuma’s words in full:

“We’ve had a lot of requests from fans to hear [Link’s] voice, and while in some ways I do feel that it could be good to have a game where he speaks, part of me also feels that that air of proud independence he has because he doesn’t speak is a precious part of the individuality of his character. I want to think long and hard about whether changing that would be for the better or not before I make any decision.”

Link has been known throughout the history of Zelda as being a silent protagonist. If he were to be given a voice, that would definitely have a notable impact on the series. How would you feel if Link spoke in a Zelda title?