Nintendo on Xenoblade Chronicles 3D – dev length, challenges, why New 3DS only, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in New Nintendo 3DS, News | 2 Comments
Nintendo Life recently caught up with Hiro Yamada, general coordinator of Xenoblade Chronicles 3D. Yamada addressed several topics about the project, including when it began, challenges in porting to New 3DS, why it couldn’t be done on the regular 3DS, use of the two screens for information, and amiibo.
We’ve rounded up the various comments from Yamada below. For those who are interested, the original interview is located here.
Rusty Pup targeted for release by the end of this year, but will launch in 2016 if it isn’t ready
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS eShop, News, Wii U eShop | 0 comments
The Unlikely Legend of Rusty Pup has been in the works for about two years. However, it sounds like the project still has quite a bit of development remaining before it’s completed.
In an interview with Retro, Gory Detail’s Chris Seavor said that creation of Rusty Pup is going well. There’s currently a plan in place to have the title launch by the end of this year, though it may slip to 2016 “if the game is not ready”.
Seavor’s full comments are as follows:
It’s going really well at the moment. We’ve got all the major mechanics in place now and everything seems to work fine. As usual (due to my slightly erratic approach to design), lots of new and interesting ones also fell out during the process. It’s also looking lovely if I do say so myself, way beyond our initial expectations for the game, which I’ll be showing off some sneak peeks soon in our first, somewhat informal “dev diary” on the Gory Detail blog. Everyone should check that out.
I’ve learned a long time ago to try not to stick to deadlines. If you don’t have any deadlines, then you can’t miss them.
I’m being facetious, a little. We are heading for a release window by the end of this year, but if the game is not ready, then obviously we won’t release. Needless to say, every day we get something new done. A bug gets fixed and progress is being made.
I’m very excited about Rusty Pup. I think it’s got some interesting ideas, both in terms of narrative and how we’ve approached the traditional puzzle platformer genre. It won’t be for everyone, which is just fine, because if it was (if that’s even possible), then I’d have failed miserably as a designer.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric producer reflects on the game
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 31 Comments
A new podcast from SegaNerds contains an interview with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric producer Stephen Frost. You can listen to it in full here, though Sonic Stadium has rounded up some of the more interesting bits.
Frost touched on Sonic Boom’s development, and a few other topics as well. Here’s the full summary:
- Suggestion that Sonic had to re-invent itself because the fanbase was getting smaller. Cites Call of Duty as an example/comparison.
- Boom was made to appeal to non Sonic fans. — This is stated multiple times.
- Suggestion that people/retailers are bored of Classic – Dreamcast era Sonic. States you can only do so much with these eras/characters. He does go on to suggest this is from a retailer standpoint.
- Claims multiple times that Boom (franchise) is a big success.
- Admits Boom (franchise) could have been better.
- “Could the games have been better… yes, any game can be made better.”
- Suggestion that part of the reason why Boom (game) isn’t that good is because the team didn’t know what Sonic was about/lack of experience.
- “In focus tests, we heard all the time, people were sick of speed, Sonic was too fast, they wanted to slow down.”
- “People really liked the Co-Op” — Hopes Sonic Team will do that in the future.
- “The biggest mistake in Boom (game) was adding too many features to it.
- “It was too much to ask of the/any development team” — In terms of different characters, combat, features etc.
- “I was tasked (by Sega) with creating an experience that appeals to an audience which doesn’t play Sonic.”
- “If I could do it again, I would remove features and speed would be the main focus from the start.”
- “Speed was shelved because we were under the impression people didn’t want it.”
- “Speed is always a Sonic thing, we didn’t focus on that.”
- “The goal of Boom was to reach new people.”
- “As a branch of Sonic, Boom is a success in many ways.”
- Suggests that due to how much content you need to make for a Sonic alone game, it’s too much work. You need additional characters to spread the burden of content.
- “Multiple characters resonate well with people”
- “Solo Sonic games, I don’t know how long that can last there isn’t enough variety to sustain it.”
- “The future of Sonic games needs to be Co-Op, it worked really well in Sonic Boom, community and online play, that sustains it.”
- Say’s he’d love to see a Sonic level design game.
- “In general, you need to do multiplayer and add online multiplayer aspects, that will sustain and keep the franchise alive.”
- Says that the reason for the change in release date was likely a number of reasons, cartoon air date, Nintendo release dates, Sega release dates.
- When the decision was made to change Boom’s release date, Sega did not know when Smash was coming out.
Bravely Second devs talk about the game’s new jobs
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News | 1 Comment
In a new interview with Dengeki, Bravely Second producer Tomoya Asano and assistant producer Shinji Takahashi discussed the game’s new jobs (thanks Siliconera). The title introduces jobs such as Cat Master, Patissier, Exorcist, and much more.
Asano first spoke about jobs with the following words:
“Whenever we start thinking about new jobs, we start out by keeping the entire game’s balance in mind. We’d like to have this many attackers; there should be this number of offensive mages; let’s stick to this number for healers… these are some of the thoughts that go into the balancing. One important thing of the Cat Master in particular is how we created it to be a ‘playing around’ type [of class].”
Asano added that although Cat Masters were originally created just to have fun with, they ended up being pretty strong. They’re fine at attacking and can provide support.
Head past the break for even more job quotes!
Miyamoto on Splatoon’s Mario origins, not letting his reputation impact development, creating new hardware, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Wii U | 5 Comments
TIME’s third Nintendo-centric piece today is entirely based on an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto. Miyamoto further discussed Splatoon’s Mario origins, his reputation, other forms of entertainment, the platforms he found particularly fun working on, and plenty more.
As always, we’ve rounded up the quotes below. Head past the break for Miyamoto’s comments.
More: interview, Shigeru Miyamoto, Splatoon, top
Iwata/Reggie/Miyamoto: amiibo origins, more mobile talk, Wii U situation, future
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, New Nintendo 3DS, News, Videos | 3 Comments
A second article from TIME covers several Nintendo-related topics in addition to mobile gaming. President Satoru Iwata, Nintendo of America CEO Reggie Fils-Aime, and Shigeru Miyamoto participated in the discussion. We’ve rounded up all of the tidbits and quotes below.
On amiibo…
– Iwata started sketching out the amiibo idea while on a bullet train in late 2013
– Iwata got more and more excited as he mulled the concept
– He dashed off a four-page pitch to his engineers
“It was something I believed would be completely new for us.”
Reggie and Iwata on how pursuing smart devices helps Nintendo…
“We view it as that marriage of the software with the hardware that together creates a compelling experience.” – Reggie
“If we don’t take an approach that looks holistically at the form a video-game platform should take in the future, then we’re not able to sustain Nintendo 10 years down the road. We would like to create several hit titles by effectively leveraging the appeal of Nintendo IP.” – Iwata
More: interview, Reggie Fils-Aime, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Iwata – decision to go mobile, Nintendo mainly developing, why NX was mentioned, lots more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News, Switch | 80 Comments
TIME has gone up with a big interview featuring Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
Some highlights include:
– Decided to try out mobile after finding solutions to Nintendo’s problems; not porting games from their systems, but instead making new software
– “for each title, we will discuss with DeNA and decide the most appropriate payment method”
– Not against Miyamoto getting involved with development, but he’s currently focusing on Wii U games for this year
– “Development of smart device games will be mainly done by Nintendo”
– Wanted to talk about NX so there wouldn’t be a misunderstanding that Nintendo isn’t as interested in dedicated games
– Iwata promises not to do anything that may hurt Nintendo IP
We’ve rounded up the full Q&A after the break. Be sure to check out TIME’s full piece here as well.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, top
Natsume – Harvest Moon 64 not coming to the VC, no news on older games, A-Train localization, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News, Wii U eShop | 3 Comments
Siliconera published a new interview with Hiro Maekawa, the president of Natsume. Maekawa ended up addressing a variety of topics, including Harvest Moon: The Lost Valley, why the company decided to localize A-Train, and more. Maekawa also said that Harvest Moon 64 won’t be coming to the Virtual Console due to technical issues, and noted that there isn’t any news on Natsume returning to older games such as Wild Guns.
We’ve rounded up a few of Maekawa’s comments below. You can find the full interview on Siliconera here.
More: Hiro Maekawa, interview, Natsume, top
DeNA on the need to begin its Nintendo partnership with the right game, Big N’s IP strength, not too late with mobile, more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 8 Comments
GamesBeat spoke with DeNA West CEO Shintaro Asako following Nintendo and DeNA’s business and capital alliance announcement today. Topics included how talks between the two sides evolved, the need to kick off its partnership with the right game, the strength of Nintendo’s IPs, how it’s not too late for the company to enter the mobile market, and plenty more.
We’ve rounded up Asako’s various comments below. Be sure to check out GamesBeat’s full post here.
More: DeNA, interview, Shintaro Asako, top
Jackbox Games’ lack of Wii U support is due to production resources and market size, but could change in the future
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 25 Comments
Jackbox Games has dabbled with various platforms over the years, but the company has never supported Wii U. In an interview with Destructoid, CEO Mike Bilder explained why.
Bilder noted that Jackbox’s lack of Wii U support comes down to production resources and market size. However, he did also say that the team “may support” Nintendo’s console in the future.
Below are Bilder’s full comments:
We’re a small team and we’ve done the development for all of our platforms in-house and we’ve self-published all of our recent games. We like the Wii U and may support it in the future but our recent lack of support is really a function of production resources, as well as market size. Amazon, Ouya, and others have been easy platforms to get to because of our technology.
We really feel the type of games we make – party games – are uniquely suited for this recent generation of set-top-boxes that feature games. Consumers of those boxes aren’t looking for AAA console quality games. If they are, they likely already have a console. But, some awesome, affordable party games (our games) that you can easily fire up on your TV seem like a perfect fit for that audience.
