http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/01/08/conduit-developer-dispels-myths-about-wii-hardcore-gaming/
MTV Multiplayer: Why do you think “The Conduit” will sell?
Kerry Ganofsky, CEO High Voltage Software: We feel that “The Conduit” offers gamers the chance to experience the Wii in the way that we all originally dreamed of. This is a gamer’s game, and we make no excuses for it. With incredible graphics, a captivating story, and completely customizable controls we are providing a complete package of gaming entertainment.
Rob Nicholls, lead designer: The game offers awesome graphics that we were able to achieve with our new Quantum 3 engine, and we’ve succeeded in pushing the graphical limits of the game on the Wii system. The engaging storyline as well as the deep gameplay, from the vast array of weapons players can use to defeat the enemy to being able to customize controls in real-time to the players liking, will offer gamers a satisfying gameplay experience. “The Conduit” has great features that will surely appeal to all types of gamers.
MTV Multiplayer: Do you think it will be a hard sell among the casual players?
Ganofsky: I do think that there will be some folks that are not interested in this sort of experience. We very purposefully developed this game for gamers, but it is also very accessible and the story is so interesting that we feel confident that most Wii owners will enjoy the ride.
Nicholls: Naturally, while we would love it if it happened, we don’t actually expect a lot of grandparents to be running and gunning with you. However, given the ease of our controls, the quality of our graphics, and the pleasing nature of our gameplay… we think “The Conduit” will appeal to quite a few casual players as well as the hardcore crowd.
MTV Multiplayer: Why do you think that there aren’t many games aimed at hardcore gamers on the Wii?
Ganofsky: I think some developers and publishers were scared by the initial batch of games that were released on the Wii. It was hard to convince anyone that there even was a core market, let alone one that would support original games. Early on we asked ourselves, “What kind of game do we want to play on the Wii?” and “What do we think other Wii gamers really want?” The answer to those questions and many more was “The Conduit.”
Nicholls: Initially, we think it was because publishers and developers didn’t really consider the Wii to be a “next-gen” platform. It doesn’t possess the same memory and processing power of an Xbox 360 or PS3, so it was written off as not being able to handle the type of games that hardcore gamers would want. Then the Wii’s motion controls turned out to be surprisingly popular with casual gamers and folk who typically didn’t play video games, such as grandparents. Publishers latched onto this new market and were able to put out a number of inexpensive casual games that made them money. But all of this left the hardcore market behind and by the tremendous online response we’ve had to “The Conduit,” a hardcore market exists.
MTV Multiplayer: Why do you think third-party “hardcore” games haven’t sold that well on the Wii so far?
Ganofsky: The majority of these games are ports of previously released games. The market that these games are intended for recognizes a port and has shown that they just won’t support the port. Instead people throw their hands up and say “core” games won’t sell on the Wii. We and our partners at Sega believe differently. We believe in providing the market what it wants. That is why we read every e-mail and consider every fan request.
Nicholls: Publishers point to [low sales] as more evidence of why such games shouldn’t be on the Wii. However, we here at High Voltage don’t agree. We think these games haven’t sold well because they were ports of games designed for other platforms and thus didn’t quite fit on the Wii.
MTV Multiplayer: How much did you look at other first-person shooters on the Wii for your game? What things did you learn from the other titles?
Ganofsky: We played every FPS released on the platform and then we played several of the best FPS games from the other platforms including the PC. This coupled with the excitement of many rapid FPS fans here at the office, gave us a well-rounded knowledge base in the genre.
As to what we learned? One example is from “Medal of Honor Heroes 2.” We kept commenting on how cool it was that we could tweak our control settings, but still none of us could get it just right. We knew then that “The Conduit”’s had to have a fully customizable control scheme.
There were many other things we learned along the way. We tried to harness that knowledge and our own passion to make the best experience possible on the platform. We really think we have something special here and are very excited for everyone to get the chance to play it.
Nicholls: We looked at “Metroid Prime 3” and “Medal of Honor Heroes 2″ in particular, as those games had very good reviews regarding controls and gameplay. We also looked at pretty much every other FPS on the Wii (there aren’t that many) for more inspiration. The truth is, we had the advantage of these other games testing the waters for us, and we could learn from their mistakes as well as their successes.
As for what we learned, one of the biggest lessons was to not abuse the motion controls. Too many games seemed to put in motions controls for the sake of having them, rather than testing to see if they were good for gameplay. Honestly, sometimes a button press is the best solution, rather than a gimmicky gesture. So our motions are relatively minor and don’t get in the way of gameplay.
______________________________________________________________
I hope the Conduit sells well and is reviewed well. After reading this, I'm actually inclined to buying 2 copies of it.
Pixel Art can be fun.
