Avoiding the lazy way out: Behind Ghostbusters on the Wii
The Wii may be selling consistently—not to mention remarkably—better than the 360 and PS3, but its games have a reputation for being either junky collections of minigames or dumbed-down ports of games from other systems. We're starting to see some evidence that this trend is slowing down, however: Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 is the definitive golf game and it's on the Wii, not the PS3 or 360. An even better example would be the "port" of Ghostbusters to the Nintendo Wii, done by Red Fly Studios.
How did that game beat the odds? We go to the men behind the game to get some answers.
"Many publishers seem to think you can simply shoe-horn a design onto each platform, but with one as unique as the Wii, we were lucky to have the opportunity to make a truly focused experience," James Clarendon, the programmer and designer of the game, told Ars. His team began work on the game after Terminal Reality had been cranking away on the more graphical-intensive version for quite a while.
The core of the game came through easily, but making the thing fun was a whole 'nother story.
"From a design standpoint, it was ludicrously simple to imagine using the Wii Remote as a proton wand; the challenge lay in how to express all of the player’s verbs in an elegant manner while leveraging the power of the system," Clarendon explained. "I’d say 99 percent of the difficulty in designing a Wii title is figuring out a good control system. This means a lot of exploration, iteration, and late nights going back to the drawing board."
Atari allowed the company plenty of time to watch players try to game, leading to some surprising snags; some portions of the game that the developers assumed were tight ended up being "awful" by their own admission.
"It sounds trite to say, but motion controls have to be used only where appropriate," Clarendon continued. "I think we went through over half a dozen wrangling schemes—an old one was present at the 2009 Comic Con demonstration—before we got something that felt and played right." The entire audio engine was swapped out midway through development, but that decision led to better presentation overall. The team wasn't afraid of admitting when something was wrong, and that commitment shows in the final product.
The art style, and what we can learn from Ghostbusters on the Wii
"I can’t understand why publishers would try and do a down-port for a system with such a unique control system," Clarendon said about the Wii.
The Wii may not be as powerful as other systems, but that doesn't have to hold devs back. We've discussed the unique challenges of developing for the Wii before, but Ghostbusters is a material example of how a project can take advantage of the power of the system while side-stepping the weaknesses.
"We wanted to do something original with the art style rather then try and cram what the 360/PS3 versions had into the Wii," Kris Taylor, co-founder of Red Fly, told Ars. "Going in a more cartoony exaggerated style seemed a natural fit for the game given the personalities we were working with, and ultimately worked really well with performances from the cast. So we kicked a few ideas around with the publisher and came up with a style that was cartoony in nature but nothing like the Real Ghostbusters cartoon series from the late '80s."
You also have to go into the project knowing that... well, you don't know much about what makes a good control scheme for the Wii. "From the developer’s point of view, it has to take a strong commitment to get it not only functional but also feeling right. That means a lot of uncertainty on the part of the schedule, which makes producers want to stalk and kill you," Taylor said.
In other words, the Wii is a system that requires testing, patience, and a little bit of art to get it right. If a developer's publisher understands that, he or she is in a much better place to create something of value.
It's also frustrating how little the industry understands when it comes to what Wii gamers are looking for. "The Wii audience is different from the 360/PS3 one, but I’m still not sure if anyone has figured out exactly what it is yet," Clarendon said.
He waves away the charge that the Wii is only good for kiddie games or casual titles. "Those are naïve and prejudiced dismissals. While games in those genres have sold well for it, we see that titles outside of those boundaries (like Ghostbusters) can also work really well!"
What can we take away from Red Fly's efforts?
It's possible to make a high-quality version of an existing game for the Wii, but that possibility only exists when the publisher is willing to spend the time and effort to create a game that "fits" with the Wii. Ghostbusters is a fun title, and it's worth noting that even after finishing the 360 and PS3 version it still seemed as if the Wii game had surprises and felt fresh, mostly due to the control scheme.
As the Wii matures, more developers will learn how to take advantage of what the system offers. Red Fly has created something of a road map for those efforts, and we can only hope that others are taking notes.
Sounds like folks at Red Fly Studios are the real deal compared to certain other over-hyped developers...
