ok, I spent over 10 mins looking to see if this article was posted as it came out on the 24th. I didn't see it, so sorry if this is a double post.
April 24, 2009 - It's just about over. The long journey to the June 23 ship date of The Conduit, High-Voltage Software's cutting-edge Wii-exclusive first-person shooter. The ambitious project, designed to prove that there is such an audience for a hardcore shooter on Nintendo's console, is wrapping up development as you read this. IGN broke the news on the game last year and we've been covering it steadily since. As we head into the final stretch, we caught up with the developer's chief creative office, Eric Nofsinger, to chat once more about one of the game's greatest strengths: its intuitive control setup. Naturally, we've also posted a huge batch of new screenshots for your viewing pleasure. Check it all out below.
IGN: The FPS genre was supposed to successfully prove the benefits of the Wii remote over a dual-analog controller. However, many developers have failed to capitalize on this opportunity. Why do you think that is?
Eric Nofsinger: I believe this is largely based on a larger self defeating issue of presumption as to who the Wii audience is. Many publishers and developers seemed to relegate the status of the Wii to their port system and so the significant effort required to take advantage of the unique peripheral, or the hardware in general, just wasn't there. The other factor is the pervasive school of thought that the system is geared for casual gamers and not FPS fans. And that becomes a catch 22, when there are so few quality FPS titles for them available. There have only been 12 FPS games released on the Wii. The majority of those are ports.
Of course perceptually the Wii is not appropriate for FPS games, when there aren't any good ones for consumers to buy. And publishers and developers don't want to invest in something that doesn't appear to have an audience. I think this strongly mirrors Halo. Before Bungie had the resolve to bring their phenomenal game to life on the Xbox, the consensus was dual analog sticks were not an appropriate input mechanism for a modern FPS. Now it is the standard for many gamers.
The control options screen.
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Choose your layout.
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Then your sensitivity.
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Don't forget your dead space / bounding box.
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IGN: What FPSs on Wii, if any, have you looked to for inspiration on The Conduit?
Eric: On the Wii, we certainly looked at Metroid Prime 3 and Medal of Honor Heroes 2 for control inspiration. Other older games that we looked at outside of the Wii are Perfect Dark, Golden Eye, and Halo to name just a few.
IGN: Conduit has the most customizable control scheme of any FPS we've ever played. Why'd you decide to give so much power to players?
Eric: One thing I find particularly frustrating is when a game forces me to use an input scheme that doesn't feel natural or at a minimum doesn't follow the conventions of other established games in that genre. I don't think any gamer likes it when a developer feels they know better than their audience. Options and choices are good, especially on something so critical to how a game feels. Within the team we each had our own favorite control schemes, and we had a lot fun creating them. But even with variety, limiting players to whatever seemed appropriate to us, just felt like a cop out.
IGN: One benefit a game like Medal of Honor Heroes 2 has over The Conduit where controls are concerned is that the action all runs at 60 frames, as opposed to 30. Do you think the drop in fluidity makes a big difference? Why or why not?
Eric: We could run at 60 fps as well if we wanted to look like a PSP game ported to Wii, which is what Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is. I do appreciate their high frame rates, but I can point to a lot of AAA first person shooters that run at 30 fps. And in all honesty, if we felt it legitimately impacted gameplay, we would have scaled back the art to accommodate higher frame rates. Gameplay is king. But I think we've found a solid balance of fun gameplay and fantastic visuals.
IGN: We know the answer, but we've gotta ask. What happened to Wii MotionPlus support?
Eric: We had built the Conduit without Wii MotionPlus support in there, and when we first discovered it we were very excited about the possibilities. Nintendo was great to work with and got us some of the earliest hardware. However what we found is that since we had built our input based off of not using it and had received very useful hands-on feedback from IGN and other media and subsequently directly from fans at PAX, it didn't seem to offer us a tremendous benefit. Now, I'm not saying the device doesn't work; it does what it is designed to do very well. But that really didn't seem to fit into our gameplay. Melee combat is a much better application. We even prototyped a Wii MotionPlus specific melee weapon and it showed a lot of promise. But we simply didn't have enough time in our schedule to make it polished and great. So, it had to go.
IGN: Can you name and save your favorite control configurations? How's this work?
Eric: Yes. You can save a custom control configuration with your profile. There is a screen showing the controllers and labels for all of the functions and motions and you simply swap them where it feels most natural for you.
IGN: Crazy and kind of stupid, but is there an option to play the game with a classic controller or GCN controller?
Eric: Not crazy and stupid at all. It's just not where we focused our efforts. This is something a handful fans have asked for. And we are listening, but that request simply came a little too late to get it in.
IGN: Ever think about giving players the freedom to assign Wii remote rumble to certain actions?
Eric: No. I hadn't. But that's a really good idea. Mind if I steal it?
IGN: Go right ahead. How close to mouse and keyboard do you feel you've come with Conduit's control scheme?
Eric: Personally, I vastly prefer it. Aiming with a Wiimote is far more intuitive for me than a mouse now. I know some PC purists may argue me on that point, but I'd challenge them to spend some time evaluating our control mechanisms before making up their minds based off of early Wii FPS they may have tried.
IGN: Where controls are concerned, what single point do you want fans to know about The Conduit?
Eric: The Conduit has been a labor of love, but it's been a long journey. We faced our fair share of opposition from publishers and non-Nintendo-centric media about the viability of core gamer games on the Wii. We've put our money where our mouths are and stated loud and clear: "Yes. There is an audience for a quality FPS on the Wii. They just don't have one they can buy." Now, it's your turn to do the same. The industry is watching to see how the Conduit does. Your hard earned dollars, now more than ever, will determine the types of games third-parties are willing to provide for your Wii.
