Cloudberry Kingdom Interview: Pwnee Studios’ TJ Lutz on Wii U and the Art of the Platformer

WZ – Andrew: You are developing Cloudberry Kingdom for Nintendo’s new platform, as well as Steam, PSN and Xbox Live. We have heard polarised opinions about developing for the Wii U, how have you found programming for the machine?

Lutz: Everybody at Nintendo has been fantastic to work with, and has been very eager to help us out whenever we ran across a problem. Their support group is pretty quick to get back to you, and has very helpful feedback most of the time. I am not the programmer, so I can’t really go into much detail about programming on the Wii U, but most of our difficulty seemed to come from the porting process, since we initially started the project using XNA. Had we started in a language that was accepted across all platforms, I think everything would have gone much more smoothly; I suppose that’s how you learn valuable lessons. In terms of Nintendo itself, the experience has gone pretty smoothly.

WZ – Andrew: Nintendo does not have the best reputation when it comes to working with third-party developers. What has been your experience submitting to become an official Wii U developer and tinkering away on a game for them?

Lutz: We had also heard about Nintendo’s reputation concerning third-party developers. We can’t really say much from experience, since we haven’t worked with them prior to Cloudberry Kingdom, but they have been great so far! We were actually really surprised about how easy they have been to work with after hearing all of the rumors. I believe they may have caught wind of their third-party reputation, and seem to be in the process of completely turning it around.

WZ – Andrew: Have you been disappointed by the negativity that seems to be surrounding Nintendo’s new console in gaming journalism, given that, in terms of sales numbers, it is on par with the initial launch of both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360?

Lutz: There has been kind of an odd cloud hovering around the Wii U in gaming journalism, and I can understand why. I don’t think the console was really explained in great detail before it hit the market, and that has led to some initial struggles. There still seems to be some confusion going around about what the Wii U actually is, and what it is capable of. That being said, being on par with PS3 and Xbox 360 initial launches really isn’t bad at all. Look at the success that has come from those systems. Not everything can take off as quickly as the Wii. I imagine sales will start increasing once some more titles have been released on the Wii U, and once people start really understanding what it is capable of.

Read Full Interview at Source: http://www.warpzoned.com/2013/04/cloudberry-kingdom-interview-pwnee-studios-tj-lutz-on-wii-u-and-the-art-of-the-platformer/

BLASPHEMY!

what is "praing"?

It's an indie dev.

Right now Nintendo needs MAJOR 3rd parties.

That was going to be my first question also...

Nintendo needs bigger 3rd parties, Indies can only do so much and even then it seems like the Indie scene is only on pc, vita, and 3ds. Wouldn't surprise me if most 3rd party developers are trying to get their games on ps4 considering how much praise its getting from developers.

Fixed, thank you.

This might have slightly more weight if they had any experience. As it is, it's not insignificant, but we're talking about a studio that has released...precisely zero games to date. Their experience in this area is not exactly substantial.

I'm pretty sure they'll not only make games for the PS4 since there is the Nextbox as well lol, they most likely just can't talk about the Nextbox yet due to NDA. I personally think they'll need big 3rd party if they are original IPs for sure, the numbers games are kinda fucking up the industry.

I think the important part is that it wasn't a "bad" experience like many rumors have suggested, that or Nintendo has changed their ways, which would a good thing no matter what.

As many have said, it's just an indie dev. And if you have been reading Nintendolife the last 6 months there have been a continuous stream of indie interviews that all contained loads of praise for how easy Nintendo is to work with, and I think all mentioned the fact that all those rumors about Nintendo being hard to work with is something they didn't really understand/or it wasn't true anymore. Nintendo need the likes of EA to speak positively, not small devs. like this, even though every little bit helps.