It's no secret that Indie games play a much larger role in the lineup and promotion of Nintendo's consoles than they have ever before, with a number of triple-A third party companies being largely inactive on Wii U. Indeed, Nintendo has come a long way from the days of the DSiware and Wiiware storefronts, with Indie games getting significantly more promotion and attention.
Damon Baker - senior manager of licensing - talked a bit about Indies with Engadget at GDC recently. Baker says that Indie games have always been a focus of Nintendo, it's just easier to see in this age of increased online activity and media coverage.
We've been supporting Indie content and self-publishing for a really long time. I mean, [going] back to the WiiWare, DSiWare days. But I think that it's just a more visible community because there's so much talent that's coming out of it; there's so much coverage for it that it just makes it naturally higher profile.
It could simply be the case of the Nintendo eShop being vastly superior to the old storefronts that leads to this. The interface is much more user-friendly and all games, Nintendo titles included, are easier to access. Baker also went on to discuss why Indies seem to be more plentiful now as opposed to the initial launch of the eShop. He says that it's been a gradual process, learning from successes and failures on the platform and what that says about the consumer base.
I think what has changed is the learning process over time on what features and functionality that consumers gravitate towards; what are the things that the developers need to be successful on Nintendo platforms? And I think that's been a learning process because we certainly didn't have all the answers from the very beginning.
It does seem like “Nindies" have really hit their prime, barely a week goes by without a new game being either released or announced for either eShop, with a good number of high quality examples. Additionally, when a particular game separates itself from the pack and rises above the usual quality, Nintendo is quick to lend support to ensure that the best content is given a fair chance at success.
One thing we do is we hold hands with the developers and a lot of this key content that is coming out to give them examples of best practices and simple things: how to create a fact sheet; how to create a trailer; how to create an optimum demo experience; how to write a press release.
It's good that Nintendo does this as it significantly lowers the barrier to success on the eShop stores, and nurtures budding developers with the encouragement and support needed to hone their abilities. Baker uses Nintendo's relationships with Indies to justify their relationships with larger companies, as well. He argues that Nintendo gets an undeserved bad wrap for third party support.
We actually have better relationships with our publishers and developers than we've ever had before. I mean, the people that work with us love working with us. ... I think it's more of an assumption that we don't have the strongest relationships with our third-party partners.
It appears that the problem with major third party releases is that developers are hesitant to hassle with porting their game to a console with a very particular install base that doesn't guarantee a profit. Nintendo's partnerships with indies and select major third party publishers is evidence that its doing all it can to make its platforms as appealing as possible, but there's only so much it can do. Moving on, Baker mentioned how Nintendo does not demand exclusivity from indies and makes suggestions as to how the game can be tailored to the Wii U or 3DS to best reach the widest audience.
Honestly, we don't hand out money. It's very rare that anything like that happens, I think the angle that we take is, if we're not able to get a game for an exclusive window, than at least we would love to see exclusive features and functionality that you can only see on Wii U or Nintendo 3DS.
Indie games such as Stealth Inc. 2: A Game of Clones and Shovel Knight are good examples of this through creative use of the GamePad and StreetPass, respectively. Another all important aspect of download games is that they, along with Virtual Console releases, can help plug holes in the ongoing release schedule and take the edge off during droughts.
It is critical for Nintendo business to make sure that we are maintaining momentum in between all of those AAA releases. And the indie developers have found ways of leveraging that either through people coming in, in anticipation of a huge AAA release or coming in afterwards, after they've purchased it and they're seeing all of the other great content that's available.
It's interesting to see that an added bonus when there's a recent Nintendo release is that download games benefit from the higher traffic on the eShop. Expectations must be kept realistic, however, and not every Indie developer has the chops to make a best-seller, though anybody can develop for the eShop if they choose.
Honestly, we have an open-door policy in terms of content, but if it's a lower-quality title, people are going to have to search for that. It's not something we are going to promote front and center in our eShop or through our channels.
Rather sobering, but this is a business after all; only the best will come out on top. Competition does breed innovation, too, so this is really in everybody's best interests.
What do you think of all this? Are you satisfied with Nintendo's approach to digital content this generation? Sound off in the comments below.
[source engadget.com]
Comments 30
nice article from what i'm reading.
Megaman 9 / Konami's Rebirth's / Hudsons stuff (Especially Star Soldier R) / World of Goo / Master Blaster or ports. I know I prefer the wiiware.
@BLPs well your could always make cheap small games and having each one follow a different style of game until you can truly grasp and make some higher end games this way you can use the older small games you make s simple stepping stone of your progress to reflect upon and give yourself idea's of what you were thinking when you made them to help with future games but thats generally what i would do.
I have no problem with Nintendo's approach to indie developers and all you have to do is look to the upcoming games list to see why. My wallet is already in pain and now it will be even worse.
@BLPs
The kind of games that I usually like (the kind of game that I usually buy consist on a much larger library) have almost all or most of these features:
humor, replayability and nice graphics (not necessarily HD). So games like Shovel Knight, Shantae, Pokemon Trozei, Steamworld DIg, Steeldiver Sub Wars, and so on. Ok, these are the top of the line games, but a game like Trozei or even Shovel Knight can (easily) be made,
Also, I love games with minigames, such as Bioshock, Moon, Thief, etc.
@edgedino
What you said!!
Nintendo needs to keep good relationships with indie developers. Nintendo in the past have been very crappy with their relationships with other devs. Nintendo can't be all talk and no show because too many players are in the arena, such as PC, Sony, Microsoft, Nvidia, and many others.
@maceng now all i need to do is find someone who agrees with me and is willing to help me make (aka they do most of the work and i just do the idea's and planning) some of the game idea's I thought of lol.
@BLPs The fact is, they've run out of new ideas decades ago. In any medium, you won't ever see something that is truly new; rather something that is a new synthesis of old ideas. All you need to do is find that perfect mixture of old ideas and what you come up with will be indistinguishable from a "true" new idea.
Wow, I see a lot more articles about the EShop nowadays. Perhaps it might be a group of articles happening in the trend, like the Amiibo trend, stuff like that. But still, nice article.
@BLPs Well se an idea I reformed and refined from an star wars galactic battlegrounds and make a game similar but with more concepts and have it skeleton themed so not as much detail is needed. You would have to play the game to understand what its like. Now if only someone would make a game like it on wii u.
@BLPs true but if it would be then it would be amazing but another idea you could do is a pyramid shaped competitive maze that changes or adapts as you play with it being up to 4 player with each layer being differently themed including: swamp based, castle, damp cave, coral reef, and even space themed but that's not counting all the basic themes people use. The game could be a race to the top have moving walls to change the path, monsters based on theme, some traps, and maybe simple puzzles. The theme can always have 2 separate modes from all 1 theme throughout each layer or random theme each layer and even time mode.
@BLPs If you have a wii u i can add you.
@BLPs Added also I use wii u chat if you nvr tried it.
@BLPs Well after it says you clicked the accept for friends i can show you its epicness and usuability with it.
@BLPs I shall be conquering earthbound (aka getting beaten by an ant) while I wait.
@BLPs just need to save real fast.
@BLPs i sending it so all you need to do is be at the wii u chat section.
@BLPs it normally jus works all you need to do is click answer if it doesn't work then i will cancel and resend tho it might be a internet setting thing. I know nintendo has steps to help oh i think it might be working now nevermind.
@BLPs well keep sending the call to me while you look up what to do i shall keep pressing answer.
@BLPs your firewall might be blocking wii u chat from what i been reading and i have checked if its a problem on my end and its all working right on my end.
@BLPs well i have plan P (pokemon) do you have pokemon x,y, as, or? These 4 games have a good chat interface and should be a snap to connect.
@well the router may or may not be the problem lol but we can't just use this article to chat constantly the moderator's might not like it since idt its on topic. Do you happen to play runescape the mmorpg?
I know super smash bros for wii u has chat if you have that game and no its not that great but its something.
@BLPs the mmo is free and has lobby so u can just type in the chat while in the lobby and its instant chat that's what many of people do that ik and sadly skype won't work on this computer anymore -.- i nvr figured out what happened.
@BLPs Then we do plan something and make a private topic on the forums for here.
@BLPS
Some advice from experience and you probably know some of this:
Make a game based on something you love and then spin it into something that is your own. You'll be spending so much time on even smaller projects that you want to keep your motivation up.
Also, makes lots of small projects to find out what parts are the most rewarding to you. That way you can choose bigger projects that rely on those parts. (For instance, you might find you enjoy building algorithms for procedural generation of things, so make a game that has procedurally generated stages or enemies, etc.)
Also, get multiple people involved now while you are a student and people do stuff for the experience not the $$. A group of 2 or 3 is able to push each other much further than most people would push themselves alone.
Get each project to a point where it's playable as fast as you can then let people try it.
Always finish a project. Sometimes it's a prototype and you are unsatisfied with its direction, but make it into something before you drop it. Even if it's just a quick document to remind yourself about what you were trying and why it didn't work, put a big "this is done" on it. Nothing kills motivation like a bunch of unfinished projects.
Did I mention small projects? Start small because it can always get bigger if need be and everything takes longer than you think it will. Much, much longer.
@BLPs I'd be happy to try out something you're working on and give you feedback. There are many game developer communities online and you just need to find one you're comfortable with.
You can publish to Mac and Windows and HTML 5 without a license by just throwing something on the internet. Don't let that hold you back. If you are still a student, don't worry about making money from the games, just focus on getting them in front of people and begin a give and take with an audience of any size.
In the past I've made the mistake of holding my cards to my chest and it never helped.
Unity is a decent place to put your effort as there is a ton of support there. The forums at Unity3D used to be much more useful when the members were only in the hundreds, but it's worth a dabble.
The best way to learn languages on your own is to focus on one that is giving you results and keep abreast of others. Don't fall into the trap of hoping you'll only ever need one.
My regular job is college instructor, so I naturally dish out advice without being asked for it. I can't say I've had any success in selling video games but I've worked on it in my spare time for decades now and most of these things I've been telling you come from mistakes I've made in the past.
@BLPs If you need idea's just ask me and if you need more gameplay I can handle that idea as well but I'm just an idea person mainly but if you can make it then any bit of it can be considered practice also i gunna send you a way to email me on miiverse later.
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