Wii Game Devs Testing Waters With Less-Casual Games

MTV's Multiplayer Blog has a pair of interviews with Wii game developers about how they're struggling to reach a more hardcore gaming audience. Jordan Itkowitz, lead designer for Deadly Creatures, wants to stay away from designing a typical collection of mini-games, saying, "The trick is to get those new players to step outside that easy comfort zone and try some genres and experiences that, while accessible and familiar to gamers, are still a bit foreign to anyone who's new to the culture." Dan Borth of Red Fly Studio is skeptical of the viability of hardcore games without relying on Nintendo and other major companies to "put a valiant effort in properly supporting developers to create great games."

Comments

They'll sell

[Toonol]

Yes, a lot of Wiis sold to casual gamers. But do they really think hardcore gamers didn't purchase a Wii? Of course they did, to sit next to their 360. They would buy a decent game no matter what console it's for.

There is massive untapped potential for the Wii. I know the graphics are less powerful, but the Wiimote still lends itself to 1st person shooters better than any gamepad. Resident Evil proved that. And the Wii is the only console that a RTS (like Starcraft) would even be possible to be played on. Keep in mind, development costs on a AAA title for the Wii are half or less what they would be on a 360 or PS3.

Please, just make some games for it. Please.

Re:They'll sell

[Anonymous Coward]

...more commonly called a "reticle."

Re:They'll sell

[Quiet_Desperation]

From what I have seen all first person shooters have a shooting ridicule

What, like some NPC that follows you around and rags on you when you miss?

Re:They'll sell

[vux984]

When i tried playing resident evil on the wii i found that the wiimote simply doesn't make a very good gun, you have to aim the a crosshair by moving the wiimote instead of just aiming.

Pretty much. The wii remote is not a light gun. The point the remote is actually pointing at is not likely the point at which the reticule is going to be at... so you can't sight down the 'barrel' of your wii remote.

However, if you use it as intended, as a way of manipulating the on screen reticule... tilting your aim down to move the reticule down, up to move it up, etc... using the position of the reticule to guide your movements to adjust its position it works VERY well. And frankly this is exactly the same way you use a mouse on a computer or target with a thumstick on a ps3/360.

In fact, in my opinion, it works FAR BETTER than a ps3/360 auto-centering thumbstick for aiming, and compared to the mouse its "equal but different".

The mouse is still more precise, and you can play longer without fatigue so its better from that point of view, but standing in front of a big screen TV pointing at it with the wii remote is more visceral and immersive so its better from that point of view. ...but the problem is that most genres need you to be able to control the direction and movement of the character, and if you want to achieve this you either lose the benefit of aiming with the wiimote, or end up with a complex control system which looses the benefit of the wiimote entirely.

It sounds like you played, Resident evil Umbrella Chronicles'. The rail-shooter.
Try Resident Evil 4. or Metroid Prime 3 which use the thumbstick on the nunchuk to control movement to great effect, and then come back and let us know.

It works much better than you seem to think is possible. The Wii is amazing with a good FPS title.

Re:They'll sell

[TemporalBeing]

If Nintendo wanted the Wii to really take off

Except the Wii is ALREADY the most successful platform in this generation if not in all previous generations. It's only competitor is PS2 for sales counts, and its already crushing that for where the PS2 was at the same life point.

Face it, the Wii already took off as it is with the strategy Nintendo is already using. Why would they change it?

Great games marry a well known genre with great stories, challenge curves, artwork, plot, and so on; all of which takes time, iterative design, and lots of competition.

For hard core gamers, true. For everyone else, not so much. Most people care about being able to (a) have a little bit of fun, and (b) being able to play the game. For example - I love racing games, but a lot of the hard core games are just so unplayable that it makes them worthless to me unless I devote hundreds of hours learning how to play the game, which I have not desire (nor time) to do. Hard core games may love that, but the other 99% of us don't.

Wii fit and Wii sports are nice technology demonstrators (just like Quake 3 was a great engine demonstrator on the PC), but not fantastic games.

WiiSport and WiiFit are probably among the most played on the console among any age group. They'll likely go down as a the number one titles for this generation of consoles (if not for all generations up to it) as well if they keep up as they do. Don't forget, they're also used in a lot of places that would never have seen a console otherwise (e.g. nursing homes, rehab centers, etc).

Wii games have not matured into proper genres yet

I'll somewhat agree here - but even then, there are a lot of different genres on the Wii, and some likely some new genres that don't exist any where else. But that's more due to the new technology Nintendo put out than it is for the system as a gaming console.

Re:They'll sell

[Chris Burke]

What, like some NPC that follows you around and rags on you when you miss?

Like that fucking dog from Duck Hunt.

Ahead of its time, apparently!

Re:slashdot != news for nerds or stuff that matter

[meringuoid]

http://www.google.com/trends?q=slashdot%2C+digg

You see that? Even sites where one can post random bullshit have become more popular than this fucking place...

I'll go one further:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=slashdot%2C+digg%2C+4chan

You underestimate the popularity of random bullshit. It attracts vast numbers of people. Of course few of them have anything worthwhile to say desu desu desu desu desu. I can has cheezburger?

It's really quite simple

[Kjella]

The Wii has sold 46 million consoles. How many of those do you need to sell to in order to make a profitable "hardcore" game? Not that many...

Adult games.. where are they?

[LurkingOnSlashdot]

I think the Wii has a huge untapped potential for x-rated adult games with special "attachments". Why are we not seeing these materialize?