Tag: Developers

  • News Nintendo Subsidiary Known For Work On Mother 3 Becomes "1-UP Studio"

    A bit snappier than Brownie Brown?

    Brownie Brown, a development studio funded and owned by Nintendo has confirmed that it's undergoing a change in its internal structure; this will involve the company restarting and being named 1-UP Studio. The team's work is often characterised as offering support and collaborative effort on major projects,...

  • News eShop Sees Turnaround For Nintendo's Digital Services

    Is Nintendo finally entering the digital age?

    Earlier this year, we interviewed Trent Oster of Beamdog Studios, who had infamously claimed he would never develop titles for Nintendo again after the issues he came across when using Nintendo's WiiWare service. Since then, Nintendo has improved its gaming download facilities via the 3DS eShop, which...

  • Interview Super Fighter Team - Developing for SNES in 2012

    Brandon Cobb explains why retro gaming matters

    When we published a news article about a new SNES title on the way in 2013, Nightmare Busters, it attracted a great deal of interest. While many of us spend the majority of our game-time on current-day consoles, there still seems to be an appetite for retro titles and platforms. Few companies represent...

  • News Japanese Developers Wrap Up 2011, Look Forward to 2012

    What did they make of Nintendo?

    Japanese website 4Gamer (via Andriasang) recently asked a huge selection of Japanese developers about their best moments of 2011, and what they look forward to in the coming year. Predictably the 3DS featured heavily, with Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba calling the console "a revolution in...

  • News Survey - 58% of Indie Devs Say Nintendo Difficult to Deal With

    Interesting statistics ahead

    2D Boy is responsible for World of Goo, one of the best games WiiWare has to offer. The studio's Ron Carmel recently conducted a survey of around 200 independent developers, asking which formats the teams had supported and planned to continue working on in future. Sadly, Nintendo consoles sit right at the bottom. The...

  • News Nintendo Wants More Developers Like Retro Studios, Please

    Who doesn't?

    We reported recently that Retro Studios thinks like Nintendo, so it shouldn't be any surprise that Nintendo is keen to find more developers on the same wavelength. Speaking to Edge magazine, Nintendo's US liaison Kensuke Tanabe stressed the importance of fostering stronger relationships with Western developers, in addition to Nintendo's...

  • News Nintendo Clarifies Stance on Garage Developers

    Loves them really

    There was something of a storm in a teacup around Reggie Fils-Aime's recent comments that Nintendo isn't interested in garage developers. As long-time fans of WiiWare and DSiWare will know, some of the services' better titles have originated from semi-professional coders or small development teams. Now Nintendo of America's...

  • News Reggie: We're Not Interested in "Garage Developers"

    Only wants proper indies, thanks

    Whether or not Nintendo has nothing to fear from mobile games, or whether Nintendo President Satoru Iwata's comments about low value games were accurate, the debate about Nintendo's relationship with small game developers is ripe for analysis. What's the company's official stance the matter, though? Nintendo of...

  • News Headstrong Hard at Work on Trio of 3DS Games

    But what are they?

    Previously known as Kuju London, Headstrong was responsible for bringing Battalion Wars 2 and House of the Dead: Overkill to Wii, and is currently working on Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest, but the studio's looking to cast its development net wider with three titles in the works for 3DS. Steve Pritchard, Headstrong's...

  • News Renegade Kid Excited by 3DS's Potential for Original Games

    Dementium developer thinks new machine could reignite third parties

    When it comes to creating superb DS-exclusive titles, nobody rivals Nintendo: we know this, you know this and developers certainly know this, resulting in a marked decrease in DS boxed releases as publishers look to distribute their funds elsewhere. Jools Watsham, founder of...

  • News Nintendo Ranked World's Most Bankable Game Studio

    Miyamoto rumoured to plan purchase of monocle, cane

    Up from last year's runner-up ranking on the Develop 100 list of the most successful game developers, Nintendo this year took the top spot while former titleholder Blizzard Entertainment plummeted to number 80. The current champ's most profitable release this past year was Wii Fit. Eating the big...

  • News Famous Developers to Create WarioWare D.I.Y. Microgames

    Even more microgames to download!

    It seems fans will not be the only ones to get in on creating their own micrograms using Nintendo's upcoming WarioWare D.I.Y. release on Nintendo DS. Nintendo has just announced that some big name video game developers are getting involved and creating some brand new microgames that fans with a wireless broadband...

  • News Cursed Mountain Developer Closed

    A real horror story

    The studio behind Cursed Mountain has been shut down by parent company Koch Media. The game was Deep Silver Vienna's first piece of Wii software and is one of the few third-party titles that was backed by a healthy television advertisement campaign but, although there are no hard sales figures to go on, it is generally regarded...

  • News Nintendo Blocking Third Party Releases On Virtual Console?

    If your title is in direct competition with a Nintendo one, you may be screwed

    If you like to moan about the apparent lack of quality titles coming to the Virtual Console then you may wish to direct your anger at Nintendo itself rather than third party publishers, if this recent piece of news is anything to go by. A poster on NTSC-UK forum has...

  • Interviews Big John Games - Thorium Wars

    Big John Games talk Thorium Wars.

    Earlier this month we saw the release of Thorium Wars on DSiWare. The game was a pleasant (and unexpected) surprise, and we recommend it highly. Needless to say, we were excited by the opportunity to have a few questions answered by the developers. Read on for insight into the retail version that never was, the...

  • News Ashes Developer Loses A Third of its Staff

    Australian studio Transmission Games makes unfortunate lay-offs

    Despite the sales success of Ashes Cricket 2009 - and the enormous number of emails we receive about it here at Nintendo Life - the game's original developer Transmission Games (the Wii version was ported by UK-based Gusto Games) has just had to let go a third of its staff due to...

  • News WiiWare Needs More Exposure, Says Former XBLA Manager

    Also states that Nintendo's service needs demos and user ratings

    Speaking at the Digital Distribution Summit in Melbourne, Australia, Fuzbi's David Edery has touched upon the problems facing Nintendo's WiiWare service, as well as discussing the issues that affect all three of the major digital download services - Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation...

  • Blogs Rabbids Go Home Developer's Blog

    Bahahaha!

    We've teamed up with Ubisoft to bring you an insight into their latest Rabbid action, Rabbids Go Home, set for release on Wii later this year. "You can’t work on a Rabbids game without being a little bit mad yourself. We decided that the whole world needs to see quite what goes into making a 100% mental game experience like Rabbids Go...

  • News Overturn Weekend Challenge

    Prepare to meet the makers!

    Vince from Studio Zan has just let us know there's going to be a special Weekend Challenge running from the 3rd - 6th of September, where players can get a chance to play against the game developers online in the USA and Japan between 6pm and midnight PST (00:00-08:00 BST). Studio Zan developers can be identified by the...

  • News Little King's Story's Inspirations Revealed

    Game designer speaks of Animal Crossing and lots of drinking

    We're huge fans of Little King's Story here at NintendoLife, partly because of its phenomenally addictive gameplay but also its bizarre vision of the world and the citizens and enemies that inhabit it. When the game's designer Yoshiro Kimura spoke to N-Sider recently about his inspiration...

  • Interviews Kyle Gray talks Henry Hatsworth & indie plans

    Nintendo Life catches up with the man behind one of the most creative DS games to find out if there is life after EA.

    If you've read our review then you'll know that Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure is one of the most creative and fun games you can play on the DS right now; the blissful combination of gorgeous 2D visuals, top-quality...

  • News WiiWare Threshold Is Really About Quality Control

    It’s all about stomping down on shovelware declares mysterious WiiWare developer.

    Following this morning’s revelation about WiiWare sales targets as told to Kotaku the mysterious NDA breaking WiiWare developer has contacted Eurogamer in order to set the record straight: I'm concerned this recent threshold news is generating an artificially...

  • News WiiWare Sales Targets: More Details Emerge

    Solid figures quoted by WiiWare developer

    We recently heard about Nintendo’s sales targets for WiiWare games, and it didn’t make particularly pretty reading if you’re a developer. In a new twist, Kotaku has apparently been contacted by a developer “familiar with the subject” and they’ve given what appear to be fairly solid numbers:...

  • News Is Game Design Art? Great Designers Say 'Not Really'

    At a GDC 2009 roundtable with renowned designers, Art seems to be a dirty word

    It’s a debate that has raged for centuries: Do video games constitute art? Ok, maybe not centuries, but it seems like a while. Personally, I say ‘yeah, of course it is!’, but I’m not the creator of games that have been hailed as art by so many. At this years...

  • News Indie Developers Enjoy Great Success in 2008

    We've already seen some outstanding indie games for the WiiWare service, and with the prospect of the DSiWare service coming soon, there seems to be no end in sight for the new level of creativity we're seeing from these small game developers.

    With far less overhead when compared to developing a retail release, we're seeing more developers take...

  • News Mushroom Men - Developer's Diary: Part 2

    Even spore thoughts from the ‘Mushroom Men’ developer’s diary

    It was only a few days ago that we posted the first part of the Mushroom Men developer’s diary which led to a series of dreadful fungi related puns. There won’t be mushroom for that sort of thing today as we learn more about the combat variety in Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars...

  • News Mushroom Men - Developer's Diary

    Who would have thought that playing with fungi could be so much fun?

    It’s not long now until the hotly anticipated Mushroom Men games hit the Wii and DS in Europe. Both games attracted favorable reviews back in December when they came out in the US. Euro gamers can get their grubby mitts on both Mushroom Men – The Spore Wars (Wii) and Mushroom...

  • News Tecmo: Dead Or Alive?

    Things go from bad to worse for Japanese developer Tecmo, now all of its employees are suing for over 8.3 million yen.

    Things are looking bad for Tecmo, the company behind the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden games. Not only did the highly regarded developer Tomonobu Itagaki slag off his own games before leaving and suing the company, but now it seems...

  • News Factor 5 Jump Back Into Bed With Nintendo

    Cheers and whooping heard as previous Sony-related indiscretions are forgotten

    Factor 5, the studio behind hits such as Star Wars Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leader and 16-bit ‘run and gun’ classic Turrican, has confirmed that it is once again working with Nintendo hardware. The company was previously an ‘exclusive’ Nintendo developer in the early...

  • News "Nintendo Must Treat Developers Better"

    The man behind Cannon Fodder and Sensible Soccer hits out at Nintendo's less than impressive relationship with third party software houses

    We’re now pretty much accustomed to hearing stories about Nintendo’s incredible worldwide success over the past year or so. The Wii and DS are performing admirably at retail and Nintendo’s resurgence from...

  • News Iwata Talks Development, Miyamoto & Wii Sports 2

    Nintendo's leader talks shop with one of his friends.

    Satoru Iwata, President and CEO of Nintendo, recently had an informal chat come-interview with Japanese site 1101.com. The discussion reveals many aspects of game development from Iwata himself and from stories of how Miyamoto has influenced him. At times throughout the talk such wise discussion...

  • News Game Developers Conference 2007

    It's that time of year again - all the top games developers flock to San Francisco for the annual conference.

    Whilst this event doesn't often lead to any exciting announcements for average gamers, this years Game Developers Conference will see a keynote speech by the legendary man himself, Shigeru Miyamoto, the main man behind Nintendo's continued...

  • News Half-Life Creator Likes Wii, Hates PS3

    Gabe Newell describes the PS3 as a "total disaster on so many levels" but likes everything Nintendo are doing.

    DigitalBattle.com have reported on an interview between Game Informer and PC games legend Gabe Newell whom was willing to share his views on the current gen console market. For those unaware of who Gabe is, he's one of the main guys at...

  • News Nintendo Attracts Indy Developers

    Small time start up developers such as "Twelve Interactive" are flocking over to Wii.

    Although it might be safe for Sony and Microsoft to attract the multi-million dollar developments, it seems Nintendo's simpler and more innovative system is attracting the smaller developers, who often create something new. "Leading Italian game developer,...

  • News Disney Open Dedicated Nintendo Games Studio

    Animation giant Disney is set to open a new games development studio specifically for Wii and DS.

    Whilst Disney aren't particularly well known for making "great" games, obviously the Wii's popularity amoung its developers is growing, so much so that Disney want to see more Wii titles in its catalog. "Disney’s gaming division, Buena Vista...