| midrange said:
You're idea of reusing assets and engines is nothing new and has been done before ... a lot actually. This is why indies use a common engine like unreal or unity to make games, because they don't have to completely remake or redesign custom assets or engines. Just look at majora's mask. It grew out of being a ocarina of time expansion. The biggest issue with using a common engine however, is that these engines have to be optimized for each console, not only that, but games have to be designed around that engine. Unless you want every game to be a 3d platformer, you probably want different teams making different engines to play to the specific game's advantages. It's not like you can suddenly run mario kart 8 on the super mario 3d world engine and expect the same performance. You get around the need to optimize as much by having powerful harware. If I need to move 4 blocks, my max limit is 5 blocks, but I only put 3/5 the effort, I'm only moving 3 blocks and fail my goal. The solution to this is to put 4/5 or 5/5 of my full strength (optimizing my output), or have more power in the first place to make my max output 10 blocks (having powerfuller resources). Why is this important, because in order for a handheld to run an engine that runs on a home console, the home console version needs to be crap or the handheld version needs to be GREATLY optimized or the handheld needs to have crazy specs for a handheld |
I understand that many other developers are constantly re-using assets and such in games; however Nintendo isn't known for doing that with each game. Some games re-use assets clearly, like OoT and MM, and Super Mario 3D World + Captain Toad, the point is that they want this to be done with their development environments with all of their hardware, which hasn't been done as efficiently before within the company. It takes them a while to port games from 3DS to Wii U or Wii to 3DS or to re-use assets from one game of one system to another game for another system because devleopment environments are completely different among handhelds and consoles as Iwata has stated. Nintendo's playing catchup with the rest of the industry regarding re-using or porting assets, but it's a pretty big deal for them if they could cut development time where necessary.
