Entries Tagged 'Video Games' ↓

Having been sorely disappointed with the amount (and quality) of games on the original Wii; forgive me from approaching the Wii-U with a degree of scepticism.

I don’t think the Nintendo presentation was particularly strong; and I think there are some key problems with the platform.

1) They spent so little time talking about the actual console.
Yes new controller. There have already been QUITE A FEW new controllers for the Wii. Many people haven’t realised that you need a new console to go with that new controller. They didn’t really show it off. They didn’t really show any of its capabilities, UI, networking facilities. These are things I would consider quite important, if they’re trying to hit that “U” crowd now.

2) The PS Vita & PS3 can offer the same functionality
Whilst the screen on the Vita isn’t as big, it has all the controls the WiiU controller offers (and a couple more). So, I don’t see reason why the same functionality can be offered with Sony’s consoles. This is actually a good thing (and a bad thing) for the WiiU. I would wager that any developer making a game for the WiiU will port the experience to the PS3-Vita platform. Whilst this gives developers more incentive to actually use the functionality, they are also being faced with some fierce competition (given the PS3′s install base…and the Wii-U’s expected price point).

3) How many non-Nintendo Games will really bother with this?
I’m assuming some will offer some compatibility, but the best implementations will almost certainly be Nintendo’s. If Nintendo are going for the multi-platform releases, it might be tricky to get any nice designs, other than sticking the MAP or weapon select options on the screen. This really ties in with the same problem that the 3DS is having. I wasn’t a Nintendo child, and got into video games quite late. Thus Mario, Zelda and Metroid have no nostalgic value to me. The Mario and Zelda games I’ve played have been “okay”. The hub world and interface of Mario Galaxy wasn’t very good, and the lack of the story made the only “experience” the gameplay. This is fine whilst the game is fun, when it’s a little more tedious it’s hard to justify playing.

I hope the WiiU offers up opportunities for new fun experiences; I really do. The idea of watching Nintendo milk its franchises for another console generation doesn’t fill me with much excitement.

I’m both impressed and dismayed by the large amount of work going into the Kinect at the moment.

Impressed because it seems nearly every subject has a representative application for the device.
Dismayed because most of them are rubbish (read: not using the Kinect to it’s full potential).

Using the point cloud data to make things in Minecraft? Fun, but ultimately trivial.
Using the skeletal approximation as some kind of analogue gesturing device. Neat…but is it really any better than using a Wii remote’s gyros for your waggling? (Something that was all the rage 1-2 years ago).
Using all of the above but resulting in things that don’t really require 3D. Wow all these EyeToy-esque games are great. If only we hadn’t had them over 7 years ago.

Maybe we’ll start seeing some more interesting stuff soon (there’s certainly a tonne of possibilities). Just please, let the waggling stop.

It’s been a bit quiet here recently as it pertains to the latest Android development news. Well…major milestone!!

The whole of the game engine is now in place. What’s left to do? Well, luckily. Nothing too complicated, so it should be plain sailing from here. I can foresee a litle bit of arguing with the Android libraries, but on the whole, nothing too taxing.

In actuality, the biggest job right now is the assets: levels, art, sound. The future development is going to go something like:

Levels – Implement rest of level system, and a chunk of levels.

Art & Sound – Get some release candidate artwork implemented into the game.

Testing – Make sure things make sense, that the tutorials are okay and that the UI makes sense. Various sanity checks.

More Levels – Add more levels to the game

Pollish – Finalise art, sound and UI, Finish up all code

Testing – Final checks to make sure it’s absolutely fine to release.

Develop demo

RELEASE

To be honest I have no idea which of those is going to take the most time. I’m hoping for a November release; but we’ll just have to see. :/

Ended up listening to the whole Itadaki Street Special soundtrack today whilst developing my (MiteWork‘s) new game.

This has left me with some serious pangings for the game. I’m hoping for a PS3 version at some point (preferably in English too, but we can’t have everything).

Epic 2/3 hour games of what is essentially fancy monopoly (with a stock system), what’s NOT to love!?