Tag: Development - Page 5
News Team Kakumei Joins The Wii U Developer Family
They came in like a Wrecking Ball
For fresh, straight-out-of-college game devs, catching a break can be tough. It’s no different from any other job; employers want their new recruits to have experience in the field they’re applying for, so getting the job you want straight out of school can be hard. This was no different for Team Kakumei – a...
News Shadow Of The Eternals Isn't Dead, But Don't Expect Big News Any Time Soon
Precursor "taking a look" at potential options
It's fair to say that Shadow Of The Eternals has had a particularly eventful development period. The game's status as a spiritual sequel to the GameCube classic Eternal Darkness ensured that it received plenty of attention when it was initially announced, but after more than one failed crowd-funding...
News Watch_Dogs' Pre-Delay Budget Was $68 Million
No tight leash for this ambitious project
Watch_Dogs certainly caught plenty of attention when it first surprised the E3 audience in 2012, and broke more than a few hearts when an unexpected delay set it back from a November 2013 release to Spring 2014. A fresh eye was cast on the game's development, and in the wake of Ubisoft's apologies and...
News FuzzyWuzzyGames Talks About Its Development Experience With The Wii U
In early stages of planning for a fresh Wii U project, after Armillo
From an outsiders’ point of view, being a game developer seems like a fantastic way to express creativity. Whether you’re working as a team or whether you’re on your own, you are making something from scratch and turning it into something people can enjoy. There are many in...
News Bravely Default Producer - No Need for More Improvements
The improvements will not be improved upon
Not many games are given the chance to receive an improved update. Bravely Default was granted that opportunity after its initial Japanese release, and our review implies this reworking was of great benefit to the European and North American players who are receiving the updated version. After taking the...
Talking Point Claims of Wii U Third-Party Development Troubles Shouldn't Be Dismissed Lightly
Problems may have been resolved since, but are nevertheless still relevant
Over the weekend there was an interesting article published by Eurogamer's Digital Foundry, in which a "secret developer" shared their Wii U development experience. It made tough reading for anyone loyal and committed to the Nintendo and Wii U cause, but did provide some...
News Retro Could Work On Miyamoto-Led Project In The Future, Says Nintendo Producer Kensuke Tanabe
"We consider Retro as part of the Nintendo family"
Retro Studios has become one of Nintendo's most important associated teams, having produced the likes of Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country Returns — both of which gained critical and commercial acclaim. Retro Studios president Michael Kelbaugh and Nintendo producer Kensuke Tanabe have been...
News Capcom Claims Its New Panta Rhei Game Engine Can Be Adapted To Any System
And that means Wii U and 3DS
Capcom's MT Framework game engine was pretty adaptable — it powered Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the 3DS as well as providing the horsepower for the company's home console titles — and the Japanese studio has gone on record to confirm that its successor will be just as versatile. Panta Rhei is Capcom's...
News A Third-Party "Secret Developer" Gives an Inside Story of Working on Wii U
"We would be lucky to make back all the money that we had invested"
One regular topic that can worry or frustrate Wii U owners is the issue of third-party support, particularly with retail content. While the Wii struggled to maintain third-party parity with its rivals — albeit with some excellent exclusives over its years — there was some hope...
News Animal Crossing: New Leaf Postmortem Discussion Coming to GDC
Coinciding with the release of Isabelle's brutal tell-all book (not really)
Animal Crossing: New Leaf players in PAL territories and North America have had more than half a year to fall into the mayorship and day-to-day happiness of its world. Now, back in this real, arguably less ideal world, New Leaf's director and producer will be opening up...
News Next Level Games "Doing Only Nintendo Products Now"
Still an independent company, however
Next Level Games has produced a good number of Nintendo titles — including the excellent Punch-Out!! reboot on Wii — but truly shot to prominence with the critically and commercially successful Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon. The studio has been working solely on Nintendo games for a number of years, and told us...
News Tantalus Media Seeking Staff With Wii U Experience for New Triple-A Title
Funky Barn 2: The Cattle's Revenge?
Wii U owners have had to endure plenty of game announcements that have skipped Wii U in recent months, so we're happy to jump on any news that suggests an upcoming project is destined for the Nintendo system alongside its new rivals in the market. It seems that a "new AAA Next-Gen title" from Tantalus Media, a...
News Genius Sonority Has Something "Challenging" In Store For Fans In 2014
Denpa Men studio working on new software this year
Genius Sonority has revealed in an interview with 4Gamer that it is hard at work on new content for 2014, and that it could prove to be quite a stern test for players. The Japanese company — famous for its Denpa Men series — isn't able to give a name to this new project yet, but president...
News Wii U "More Than Capable" Of Providing The Core Project CARS Experience, Says Developer
Slightly Mad's Andy Tudor says Wii U version is "extremely promising"
Project CARS is a unique game in more ways than one. A rival to the likes of Gran Turismo and Forza, the racer has been crowd-funded and is being developed with the assistance of more than 35,000 backers. Alongside Kickstarter, Slightly Mad's Worlds of Mass Development platform...
News Nintendo of Europe's Ed Valiente Highlights the Creative Value of Indie Developers
"If there are interesting, creative... and fun games, consumers will come"
In what's surely been one of the most notable shifts of power in recent years, download and 'Indie' developers have gone from being underdogs struggling to release games to being central in a home console battleground. The continuing and extravagant growth of the PC Steam...
News Hideki Kamiya Explains Reasoning For Not Leading Bayonetta 2 Development
"It's not that I don't want to make sequels – I really do!"
Although yet to receive a release window beyond a vague "2014", Bayonetta 2 is a highly anticipated arrival on the Wii U; it's also easy to forget that, when confirmed for the system in August 2012, large parts of the internet given up to game forums suffered a meltdown. While the...
News Ashes Cricket 2013 Officially Cancelled as 505 Games Issues Apology
"Our deepest apologies, however, are reserved for the fans of cricket"
Earlier this week we reported that the continually delayed Ashes Cricket 2013 was briefly released on PC, before it was promptly removed following negative feedback. YouTube videos had quickly appeared following release highlighting a game that was simply not finished and up to...
News Former Pikmin Director Currently Working On "Original Title" for Nintendo
Veteran designer seems to be back in action
Nintendo may be looking to shake things up with an entirely new intellectual property in the near future, and former Pikmin director Masamichi Abe is tipped to be involved with the project's development. The revelation comes from current Tekken lead Katushiro Harada, who tweeted in response to a fan...
News Shovel Knight Digs Up a Few Surprise Features
Miiverse and Streetpass integration announced
The crew over at Yacht Clubs Games are still putting their backs into the development of Shovel Knight, according to a recent Kickstarter update. The team has offered a list of some of the current features it's working on, with a couple that'll be exclusive to the Nintendo versions of the game. In...
News FAST Racing NEO To Feature 'Hyper Real Graphics'
Shin’en to use 4K - 8K textures within the game
Shin’en’s recently announced Wii U eShop title FAST Racing NEO will feature “hyper real graphics” according to a tweet made by the developer earlier today. The follow up to 2011’s FAST Racing - League for WiiWare, will use between 4K and 8K textures to impress from a technical standpoint...
News Aonuma Keeps Returning To Zelda In The Hope Of Making A Perfect Game
Perfection is only a Triforce away
Legend of Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma exhibits all the traits of a true artist, from a willingness to buck the confines of tradition to the overwhelming desire to branch out into different territory. Now, he has admitted that with every new Zelda adventure, he has been striving to make the perfect video game. In an
News Paradise Lost: First Contact Leaves Wii U Stretch Goal Till Last
Wii U target is more than three times the initial $70,000 goal
By now we've come to understand that Nintendo's innovations have many developers excited by the possibilities, and many more simply scratching their heads. The Kickstarter project for acclaimed indie game Paradise Lost: First Contact by developer Ashtree Works has left its Wii U port...
News Take A Look At The Red Steel 2 We Never Got To Play
Leaked production screens show a different style
Red Steel was Ubisoft's big Wii launch title many years ago, and despite its cool visuals, it didn't quite get the gameplay right. Ubisoft atoned for its sins to a certain extent with Red Steel 2, but the game was almost unrecognisable thanks to a totally different "Samurai Western" setting. However,...
News Wii Sports Club Is The Handiwork Of Namco Bandai, With Nintendo Assisting
External studio was instrumental in getting online Tennis working
It has been revealed during the latest Iwata Asks that Namco Bandai is handling development duties on the forthcoming Wii Sports Club. The selection of sporting titles — upscaled and improved from the Wii originals — joins the ever-increasing list of Nintendo franchises to be...
News David Jaffe Is A Massive Fan Of Nintendo, But Thinks The Company Should Sell Out To Disney
"I just think it’s time to bring in some new blood"
Outspoken game developer David Jaffe — famous for his work on the Twisted Metal and God of War series — has suggested that Nintendo should sell itself to Disney if it wants to move forward as a company. Speaking to Hip Hop Gamer in an interview which contains some profanity — this is...
News Bewitching Adventure Knite & The Ghost Lights Is Confirmed For Wii U eShop Release
"We're really excited about this and have been waiting to announce it"
Knite & The Ghost Lights is one of the most unique looking titles we've seen on Kickstarter yet, and its creators are aiming to release a Wii U port "close to launch". Developed by Mobot Studios — which is also behind Paper Monsters — the game offers a mixture of...
News VD-Dev Aiming For 60 Frames Per Second For Gears Of War-Style 3DS Shooter IronFall
Third person action title uses a custom game engine
VD-Dev may not have revealed a great deal about its forthcoming 3DS shooter IronFall but the game is already causing quite a stir with Nintendo fans. The indie studio — which was responsible for the technically impressive DS title C.O.P. The Recruit — has been speaking to Nintendo Everything...
News Wii U Isn't Getting Need For Speed: Rivals Thanks To Low Sales Of Most Wanted
"I’d love for it to be way bigger than it was"
The Wii U version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted is arguably the definitive version, adding in new features which are exclusive to Nintendo's console. However, it didn't sell as well as expected — which seems to be a key reason why we're not getting Need for Speed: Rivals. The Six
News Michel Ancel: The Biggest Surprises Seem To Come From Nintendo
"Nintendo’s greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is innovation"
Rayman Legends creator Michel Ancel has been speaking to Official Nintendo Magazine about Nintendo's position in the industry, and has pointed out that the company's greatest strength — and weakness — is its willingness to take risks and come up with fresh ideas:...
Video Check Out WaterMelon's New SNES Title ProjectN
Going underground with the developers in Germany
Indie developer WaterMelon is perhaps most famous for its Mega Drive title Pier Solar, which is coming to the Wii U eShop next year. However, the small studio is also working on a brand-new SNES title, currently referred to as ProjectN. WaterMelon has been uploading some rather amusing — not to...
News QubicGames Hopes To Release A Game On The Wii U In The Next Year
Currently preparing its own game engine
The developer behind 3DS eShop titles 2 Fast 4 Gnomz and AiRace Speed has expressed its interest in developing games for the Wii U. In a recent interview with Nintendo Everything, QubicGames revealed it's currently working on its own game engine, C-Way, to allow it to handle development on the Wii U. We are...
News A Decade After Being Bought By Microsoft, Rare Still Wants To Channel The Spirit Of Nintendo
UK studio wants Kinect Sports Rivals to emulate Nintendo classics
As we all know, Rare used to be one of Nintendo's most valuable development studios, but was acquired by Microsoft in 2002 to work on its Xbox console. As the years have passed the company has seen staff come and go, and few remain who can remember the days of the SNES, N64 and...
News Pandora's Tower Creator Ganbarion Is Co-Developing Wii Fit U
Name appears on the title screen
Recently, Nintendo has made a habit of outsourcing or collaborating with other studios on many of its key titles, and it would appear that Wii Fit U is no exception. According to Kotaku's Stephen Totilo, Pandora's Tower developer Ganbarion is involved with the forthcoming Wii U title, as its name appears on the...
News Working With Western Developers Is All About Trust, Says Miyamoto
"We know we can rely on them"
It's no secret that the world of games development has shifted slightly in the past few years. Japan was once the centre of the gaming universe, with companies such as Square, Konami, Capcom, Sega and of course Nintendo offering the best titles the world had to offer. While those companies are still doing sterling work,...
News Shadow of the Eternals is Officially "On Hold"
Precursor Games announces the team will be "taking a break"
Precursor Games has had a couple of stabs at crowdfunding Shadow of the Eternals, which is pitched as a spiritual successor to the GameCube classic Eternal Darkness and was aiming for a Wii U release. The first attempt involved two campaigns that ran parallel to each other, one on the...
News Nintendo Acquires 27% of Panasonic’s PUX Technology, Which Includes Voice Recognition
As well as tools for detecting handwriting, faces, objects, and gestures
Nintendo has, in the past, utilised technologies for its games and then purchased shares in the related companies, either in part of through a full acquisition. One example is from February 2012 when Nintendo purchased MobiClip, and in a similar move the company has now...
News Shigeru Miyamoto Explains That Internal Development Teams "Gravitate" Towards Big Franchises
Less about names and more about desired game styles
We suspect a common complaint for some with Nintendo's current and confirmed lineup of titles is the absence of particular cherished and relatively under-served franchises. Examples such as Star Fox, F-Zero and 1080° are notable examples, as they enjoyed various entries on previous systems yet...
News La-Mulana is Receiving A Sequel
No news on platforms just yet
La-Mulana finally excavated itself to WiiWare last year after a lengthy process. Originally a PC title, it turned out to be an incredibly enjoyable game on Nintendo's system and earned a 10/10 from us in our review. Now, some six years after its original release, developer Nigoro has a sequel on the cards that will be...
News Miyamoto: Retro Studios is High on The List of Candidates For A New Metroid Game
Discusses Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and the future of Samus
The UK Official Nintendo Magazine published its 100th issue this month, which is a pretty impressive milestone, and to celebrate it sat down with Shigeru Miyamoto and spoke about several things, including Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Metroid. During the interview,...
News Pokémon X & Y Nearly Had a Feature To Translate Pokémon Cries
"Stop force-feeding me Poké Puffs!"
October is just around the bend, which means you'll soon be able to try out the intriguing new features tucked away in Pokémon X & Y, such as Pokémon Amie and Super Training. But what about the features that didn't quite make the final cut? We recently spoke with Director Junichi Masuda and Designer...
News River City Ransom: Underground Dev Wants To Bring The Game To 3DS And Wii U
Conatus Creative looking to bring River City Random "home" to Nintendo
We reported last week on a Kickstarter campaign for an officially licensed sequel to the NES classic River City Ransom (known as Street Gangs in Europe). When the campaign went live there was no word on which consoles it would be released on, should it find the required funding...
News Burnout And Need For Speed Studio Criterion Downsizes To Just 15 People
Working on new IP outside of the racing genre
UK studio Criterion — which created the Burnout series of games and has had a key role in recent Need for Speed titles — has downsized to just 15 staff. The smaller company will now focus on titles away from the racing genre in which it found so much fame. Criterion staff are assisting EA's Ghost...
News Nintendo Treehouse Staff Reveal The Process Behind Choosing Which Games To Localise
They're a secretive bunch
The famous Nintendo Treehouse is situated deep in Nintendo of America's headquarters and is responsible for a lot of things, including bringing the company’s games from Japan to North America. Shrouded in a mist of secrecy, the team that climbs up to the Treehouse every day are often devising complex marketing...
News The Wonderful 101 Could Have Been Released on Wii
Wii U eventually became the console of choice
The Wonderful 101 has been out on Wii U for a good few weeks now in Europe and Japan, but it all could have been so different as Hideki Kamiya, the director behind the unique title, has revealed it was tentatively scheduled for a Wii release instead. In an interview with USgamer, Kamiya said the game...
News Nintendo of America Highlights Strengths of eShop Platforms, and Plans to Embrace New Ideas
Over 1000 developers have expressed interest in the Wii U
With much talk at the moment surrounding Nintendo's third-party prospects and its positioning to embrace new ideas and changes in the video game market, key figures within the company are taking every opportunity to highlight the positives of its approach. With that in mind, Nintendo of...
News TimeSplitters Rewind "A Possibility" On Wii U, But Don't Get Your Hopes Up
Fan-made remake is coming to PS4 and PC for now
TimeSplitters Rewind is a fan-made remake of Free Radical's popular FPS title, and there's a very slight chance it could be coming to the Wii U. Project Manager Michael Hubicka recently conducted an "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit, and was asked about the chances of a Nintendo version: I'm not...
Talking Point Nintendo's eShop Policies Deserve Both Praise and Attention
We break down the known details of eShop publishing
Just recently we reported on announcements made by Nintendo of Europe's Business Development Manager, Ed Valiente, who gave a presentation on eShop publishing at The Indie Games Collective event at the UKIE HQ in London. We picked up on a couple of notable revelations, relating to Miiverse coming...
News Nintendo: We Need To Do A Better Job Of Attracting Indies To The eShop
"We've learned a lot of lessons over the past five or six years"
If there's one thing you learn from speaking to indie developers working on the Wii U and 3DS eShops, it's that Nintendo is a much easier company to work with these days when you're a small-scale studio. The nightmare days of WiiWare are long gone, but that doesn't mean that the...
Talking Point The Wii U May Be Playing Catch-Up With Some Developers, But Money Always Talks
Some third-parties may never be on board, however
The challenges facing the Wii U, like those that faced the 3DS before it in 2011, are numerous. It's seeking to reverse stalled momentum that was, perhaps strategically, allowed to happen in exchange for a busy lineup of games in the second half of the year. This is being done against the backdrop of...
News Bethesda: The Time For Convincing Publishers And Developers To Support Wii U Is "Long Past"
Bethesda’s Pete Hines feels Nintendo has missed the boat
The Wii U badly needs third party support — that's a fact that few people will argue about. With the Xbox One and PS4 looming on the horizon, Nintendo is doing its utmost to attract publishers and developers, but Bethesda’s Pete Hines feels that it's too little, too late. Speaking on...
