[Developer Musings] The New 3DS Dilemma: Developing around Nintendo’s hardware iterations
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Developer Musings, New Nintendo 3DS | 5 Comments
Nintendo has a notorious reputation when it comes to iterating their handhelds and in the past it has created an environment with a unique set of issues to consider for developers. Whether it was the Game Boy to Game Boy Color, DS Lite to DSi and now the 3DS to New 3DS, every generation there’s always questions among fans regarding the value and longevity of each new system. You don’t have to look very far to see how fans react to mid-cycle announcements like these, but how do developers react when a new system emerges from Iwata’s coat pocket?
We reached out to developers Stuart Ryall, Brjann Sigurgeirsson, and Ken Patterson to offer their thoughts on the announcement of the New 3DS and what implications it has on each of their development processes, if any. Will focusing on the extra processing power and C-stick split their player base too thin? Do these new units put too much pressure on fans to upgrade and consequently put pressure on developers to focus on the new units? How do these iterations impact the overall life of a console generation? Our guests this week help shed some light on the impact these mid-cycle hardware announcements have on developers, and what questions they have to ask when developing with these challenges in mind.
(Unsure as to what Developer Musings is about? Check out our first entry here for an explanation.)
Iwata talks hardware frustration and trying to fix things with previous systems
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GBA, News, Wii U | 47 Comments
Yet another translation has come in from 4Gamer’s interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata.
In this latest excerpt, Iwata discusses hardware frustration and attempting to fix things Nintendo couldn’t do on previous systems. With the Game Boy Advance SP for example, Iwata pushed for sleep functionality when the system closed. This sadly didn’t make it into the final build. However, Iwata did inform the hardware team that implementing sleep mode into Nintendo’s next system (which would end up being the DS) was a necessity.
What may be even more interesting is what Iwata said about the Wii U. Soon after the console came out, Dwango’s Nobuo Kawakami provided some feedback.
“I had a similar feeling of frustration to the GBA SP situation then,” Iwata said, as he believed that Nintendo will need to implement some of Kawakami’s suggestions in future hardware. Iwata ended by saying, “because of that frustration, not only do we want it to connect with features next time, we are actually working to fix it for next time.” Hmm…
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, top
Iwata on his “Super Programmer” days, helped get Smash Bros. Melee out on time
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in GameCube, General Nintendo, News | 19 Comments
Satoru Iwata became the president of Nintendo in 2002. Prior to that, however, Iwata worked at HAL Laboratory for many years and helped program a wide array of games.
In an interview with 4Gamer (via StreetsAhead translation), Iwata spoke about his proficiency with programming. One notable thing mentioned: “… I believed things like that I could write better NES code than even Nintendo’s (EAD) engineers or that I could write the fastest, most compact code.”
Iwata also spoke about the development of Super Smash Bros. Melee, which “didn’t look like it was going to make its release date”. He “did the code review, fixed some bugs, read the code and fixed more bugs, read the long bug report from Nintendo, figured out where the problem was and got people to fix those.” Thanks to his efforts, Melee launched on time.
Head past the break for Iwata’s full comments.
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, Super Smash Bros. Melee, top
The Music of 2014 – Have Your Say!
Posted on 9 years ago by Patrick(@Patricklous) in 3DS, 3DS eShop, Features, Podcast, Reader Poll, Wii U, Wii U eShop | 3 Comments
It’s that time of year again! Last year’s game music podcast seemed to go over much better than I expected a two-hour show to, so let’s do the same thing for the soundtracks from this year. And once again I’m looking for reader (listener?) input to help put the thing together and narrow down a top 10 list.
The rules are pretty much the same as last year. Vote here to rate each of the twenty shortlisted games and add in any comments if you have them (you can also use that section to tell me if neglected to include certain soundtracks). Since some of them were included in last year’s show, the voting excludes games that were released in other regions last year like Bravely Default, but not ones like Fantasy Life that I previously forgot about. I’ve also excluded any games with an English release confirmed for next year like Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate – save it for the 2015 list! There are a handful of games like Guacamelee on the list that were released on other platforms last year, but as 2014 was their first showing on a Nintendo platform they’re up for voting.
So please get your votes in and look forward to the final podcast whenever it posts. Maybe there’ll be guests or co-hosts this time? Who can say. Since I’ll be out of the country for a while – I’ll probably have left by the time this posts – don’t expect any results until mid-January at the earliest. That’s kind of late for a retrospective, but I’m sure you’re all sick of top-10 lists at the moment. I know I sure am after putting together all that Nintendo DS stuff.
More: game music, highlight, podcast, Reader poll, top, voting
Additional 2015 teases from Itagaki, Game Freak, Level-5, and more
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 15 Comments
We now have another round of quotes from Japanese developers regarding their plans for 2015 courtesy of an article from Japanese website 4Gamer. These include comments from Devil’s Third creator Tomonobu Itagaki, Tetsuya Watanaba from Game Freak, Level-5 boss Akihiro Hino, and more.
Read their responses below:
Tomonobu Itagaki (Valhalla Game Studios)
Known for: Devil’s Third (Wii U)“We’re finally coming upon the release of Devil’s Third on the Wii U after six years, two of which were spent conceptualizing the game and four of which were spent on actual development. I know I’ve made my fans wait a long time for this game, but I figure that if I’m going to strike out on my own for this thing, I better do it with a bang, so the game just ended up taking a real life of its own as time went on. Although given that there aren’t necessarily a lot of independent developers that have that sort of luxury with time, maybe it’s a bit hard to relate to in the end. Regardless, the single player content for the game should rank favorably with what we’ve seen in action games until now. And then when it comes to online versus mode stuff, I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at the breadth and scope of content we’ve manage to make for it. We still don’t have a release date to announce quite yet, but once it’s out, I look forward to playing it with everything. It’s going to be packed full of awesome content!”
Tetsuya Watanaba (Game Freak)
Known for: Pokemon series“We’re doing a lot of different things with respect to our next project, so right now we’re focusing on getting ready to announce it. We sincerely hope from the bottom of our hearts that it’ll be worth checking out once we get to that point.”
More: top
Iwata on story and modern games, the Internet
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 7 Comments
A couple of more excerpts from 4Gamer’s interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata are now available.
First, Iwata shared the following when it comes to story and modern games:
Iwata: So [modern games] are backed by this huge amount of effort and technology, but it feels like very few people remember them [story moments] or players skip over things within the game.
Kawakami: It certainly feels like there’s too many cut-scenes these days.Iwata: Of course, you can use them effectively; I’m not trying to dismiss them completely, but I can’t help but wonder what could have been instead done with the energy [time, money, resources] that went into them. Miyamoto has never used many cut-scenes, in his games, but recently I think he has begun to think the same way, too.
Iwata additionally had the following to say regarding the Internet:
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, top
Sakurai on the thinking behind Smash Bros. Wii U’s Smash Tour
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 3 Comments
Super Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai has opened up on the thinking behind the Wii U game’s Smash Tour.
In a column published in Game Informer, Sakurai explained that the mode “is the result of us pressing forward in our original direction – having a lot of changing elements in the field, leading to totally unpredictable situations.”
Sakurai’s full words are below:
Iwata talks about Miyamoto, says he used to think of him as a rival
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
Another excerpt from 4Gamer’s interview with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has been translated. This time around, we get to read about Iwata’s thoughts on Miyamoto.
Interestingly enough, when Iwata was first starting out, he determined – in an arbitrary manner – that Miyamoto was his rival. Of course, Iwata had plenty of praise for the creator of Mario and Zelda as well.
Check out the full translation below:
More: interview, Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, top
Iwata Asks is “recharging right now”
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 2 Comments
4Gamer has gone live with an interview featuring Nintendo president Satoru Iwata. It’s the final interview in a series done by the Japanese website and Dwango’s Nobuo Kawakami.
One of the earlier parts of the discussion talks about how often Iwata is involved with interviews. Naturally, the chat shifted to the “Iwata Asks” series and what its status is at present. Iwata says that “our customers and even myself grew a little bored with it, so we decided to rest it for a while and it’s recharging right now, so to speak.”
Check out the full interview excerpts below:
More: Iwata Asks, Satoru Iwata, top
Bayonetta 2 director and producer working on new project, series’ future teased
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 29 Comments
Like Famitsu, 4Gamer published a massive interview with nearly 150 Japanese developers as they reflect topics such as the past year, what lies ahead for 2015, and more.
Bayonetta 2 producer Akiko Kuroda was one of the people 4Gamer included in its article. Kuroda confirmed that she’s hard at work on a new project, and also seemed to tease the development of something related to Bayonetta in 2015.
Here are Kuroda’s full words:
“I have started working on the next project, but it looks like the announcement will come later. In any case, I think that it would be nice if something Bayonetta-related was also developed in 2015, so please pay attention to the continuation of Bayonetta!”
Bayonetta 2 director Hashimoto Yusuke also mentioned a new project. However, he was less specific with his words.
