[Weekly Screenshot] Art of Balance Wii U #6 – Shin’en’s First Time Online

Keeping things light this week, Shin’en’s Manfred Linzer returns to NintendoEverything with a nice summary of the game’s lobby system and how implementing online for Art of Balance on Wii U was tough because it was the team’s first time ever doing an online game. Aside from what he told us, we can glean that the game will keep track of your win/lose record, as well as display your country of origin when matchmaking. The rest remains mysterious… for now.

Read on past the break for Manfred’s own words about what you see above, and the development of the game’s online mode:

Today I’ll give you a sneak peak at the online lobby in Art of Balance for Wii U.

Besides playing locally with friends through split-screen, you can also play online. Matches can be created between friends or anyone. You’ll be matched as fast as possible with opponents. In the lobby, you see the online matches history and country of origin for both you and your opponent. Up to four people can play at the local Wii U together against online opponent(s).

Including online play into Art of Balance was not that easy, especially because it was our first online game ever. We wanted the experience to be as smooth as local play, but of course connection speeds and throughput can vary a lot. In the end, we were pretty satisfied with the results and we learned a lot about how to implement online features for our future games.

That’s it for today. Have a nice week everybody!