Posts tagged Gdc at Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Posts with tag gdc

EA Sports to bundle accessories over the next year

Posted Jun 24th 2008 5:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News, Peripherals

Apparently, EA sees the Wii's success with bundled peripherals as a sign of its future prosperity. Following in the footsteps of Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit, EA Sports have made their intentions to bundle peripherals in their future sports titles known to one and all at GDC Paris.

During his lecture, EA's David McCarthy commented that it isn't just about tossing some hunk of plastic into the package and jacking up the price (funny, that's what we thought they had in mind). "You have to be careful with it," he said, adding "because Rock Band, that's a great peripheral, but it's a big expensive box." As nice as it would be for EA Sports to jack up the price, McCarthy commented that the company doesn't want this approach to "raise that barrier of entry and accessibility" the titles currently enjoy.

Super Mario Galaxy gets a few GDCA nods

Posted Jan 22nd 2008 8:00PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

It's nice when your peers recognize your work. So, Miyamoto and co. must be beaming with happiness to hear that Super Mario Galaxy got the nod in several categories for the Game Developer's Choice Awards. If our opinion means anything (it doesn't), we liked the game a lot.

Overall, Super Mario Galaxy gets its hat tossed into two categories, although many* might consider them to be the best two categories: Best Game Design and Game of the Year. It's up against some tough competition, however, as undersea romp Bioshock and Portal, which has seemed to help pie's ugly cousin cake propel itself into the stratosphere of popularity, will undoubtedly give Mario a run for his coin (or stars).

Head past the break for all of the nominees.

Gallery: Super Mario Galaxy

Continue reading Super Mario Galaxy gets a few GDCA nods

Miyamoto calls out third parties

Posted Mar 31st 2007 7:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News, Interviews

Shigeru Miyamoto sat down with Newsweek's N'Gai Croal earlier this month and aired out his concerns with third party developers not putting their best efforts behind games for Nintendo systems. Companies often find that their biggest competition on consoles like the Wii and DS is Nintendo themselves, but according to Miyamoto, most third parties aren't rising to the challenge with their top development groups. Instead, they're depending on third- or fourth-string teams to produce their titles.

While not every game from Nintendo is a blockbuster hit, Miyamoto says that the company makes sure to put its best people behind titles that are "designed to really support and sell hardware." Can most third parties say they're doing the same? If not, then how much longer will it take before developers approach their Wii releases seriously and start using their star teams to create AAA titles for the console?

Nintendo quiet at GDC due to Japanese stock situation?

Posted Mar 13th 2007 3:45PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Rumors

Before going into GDC07, we all thought Nintendo would remain relatively quiet. And, they kind of did. Miyamoto reassured us that Super Mario Galaxy would be arriving this year and even told us about a new Channel. So, it depends on how you look at it, but we consider the show to be a success here at HQ.

Regardless of what we thought, many others are saying that Nintendo really didn't have a presence at the show. And these folk are pointing to the current Japanese stock situation as the reason why Nintendo didn't reveal much at the show. So what does that mean for us? Nintendo is going to stay "hush hush," for awhile. But, when you think about it, hasn't Nintendo always been kind of "hush hush?"

Inafune talks RE4 engine and the Wii [update 1]

Posted Mar 12th 2007 2:45PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News, Interviews

During the recently-concluded GDC 07, Keiji Inafune (do we really need to tell you who he is?) talked about the problems of porting new-gen titles over to the Wii. First, he commented on the possibility of bringing over engines from two of the company's latest new-gen games, Dead Rising and Lost Planet. The possibility, it turns out, is non-existent, as he said these titles' engines were optimized for cross-platform use.

What will take their place? The Resident Evil 4 engine, it would seem. While Keiji commented that the industry is really craving photorealistic graphics, he is still interested in creating the types of franchises that enjoy iconic mascots, such as Mega Man. Mr. Inafune even commented that Capcom is working on a secret project, to be revealed at a later date. He did not comment, however, if the title would be for the Wii.

[Update: loltypo. Thanks, Markus!]

GDC 07: ... and that's a wrap!

Posted Mar 11th 2007 6:35PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Features

Well, now that GDC 07 has come to an end, it's time we collected all of our coverage together into one nice, organized post. Here, you'll find all of the GDC 07 news, interviews and anything else pertaining to the show. It's been a great ride, if we may say so, and we're sad to see it end. Regardless, we must get to doing our thing, so without further ado let's get to the coverage:

GDC 07 news:
He feels bad and stuff: a public apology from the Wii ranter
fl0w was almost on Wii
Mark Rein talks Unreal Engine 3 on Wii (again)
Super Paper Mario meta ... preview?
Twilight Princess and Wii Sports take awards at show
Spore deveoper rants on Wii
Wii dev training to take place at GDC
MySims goes to the Wii, gets rid of pee

GDC 07 keynotes:
Look at that Miyamoto keynote line!
Miyamoto keynote video
Super Mario Galaxy screenshots and footage from the Miyamoto keynote
Liveblogging the Miyamoto keynote
Koji Kondo and the art of interactive music

GDC 07 game impressions:
Super Paper Mario impressions
Pokemon Battle Revolutions impressions
Big Brain Academy impressions
Mario Strikers Charged impressions
Vicious tries a new control scheme

GDC 07 culture and other fun stuff:
Nintendo execs on nerdiest shirt ever
Popularity Channel? A Wii Fanboy staff reaction
Reggie plays Wii Sports: Tennis with journalists, takes names
Wii Fanboy lands at GDC: what to expect

GDC 07: MySims goes to Wii, gets rid of pee

Posted Mar 11th 2007 6:15PM by Andrew Yoon
Filed under: News

"OMG! The Wii is so cool," an enthusiastic female developer screams during a GDC session. That developer is Robin Hunicke, designer of the upcoming Wii-exclusive MySims. Designing the title began long before the team had a chance to get their hands on the system, so they had to rely on the "aesthetic" of Nintendo's advertising. "We wanted to bring The Sims to the Wii in a way that we could say we were at home on the Wii," she said, trying to find a unique look, style and feel for the Wii version.

Converting a game for play on Wii doesn't necessarily mean changing everything. What the team focused on was how it feels to touch the characters on screen with the Wiimote: wild, flailing actions probably wouldn't be appropriate for a title such as this. One of the biggest changes that needed to be made was how the game was managed: there was a great deal of opposition to focusing on a single character (rather than a large family), and there was an even greater uproar against the loss of urination, and other micromanagement features.

Streamlining The Sims process was key to moving the franchise to the Wii, and that's where the character designs came from. Although they look strangely like Mii, the look wasn't based on Nintendo's character creation system. The lead character designer, when showing off her simplified look for Wii Sims, was told: "it's perfect."

See also:
Joystiq: Moving The Sims from PC to Wii
Gallery: MySims design process
Gallery: MySims

GDC 07: Vicious tries a new control scheme

Posted Mar 11th 2007 5:30PM by Andrew Yoon
Filed under: News

The Vicious Engine was on display at GDC, and I'd have to say I came away unimpressed. The engine, which is scalable for PSP use, didn't seem to push any "next gen" or even "new gen" graphics. It's currently being used in the WIi/PSP title Alien Syndrome, which may be indicative of a somewhat distressing trend: are graphics on the Wii comparable to those on PSP? Will publishers look to make quick ports that look similarly on Sony's handheld and on Nintendo's latest console?

At least the Vicious Engine promises to offer Wii developers the ability to easily create motion controls. The software includes built-in controls that developers can easily access. One interesting control scheme allowed one to control the camera using the nunchuck: tilting the nunchuck would adjust the camera. Certainly, it's an interesting alternative to a dual analog setup, but the build that was playable didn't seem to feel 100% intuitive.

GDC 07: Mario Strikers Charged impressions

Posted Mar 11th 2007 4:44PM by Andrew Yoon
Filed under: News

Mario's extreme soccer game, Mario Strikers Charged was available for play at GDC. The game, a sequel to the Gamecube original, featured some impressive presentation values and some very fun gameplay. The graphics seem relatively unchanged from the original. The game does natively support 480p and widescreen modes, a nice plus for HDTV owners. Although not technically stunning, the game's cute, animated art style certainly goes easy on the eyes.

The game's controls are almost too simple, with passing and shooting very easy to perform. Tackling another player comes from simply shaking the nunchuck: it's a simple Wii gesture that doesn't seem too elaborate for its own good. The Wiimote comes into further play when you must defend your goal from an opponent's special shots. They will launch up to five soccer balls, and by using the pointer, you must try to aim at the screen and press A to stop as many as you can. In theory, it's a novel idea, but as is most pointer functionality on the system, it seems like an abrupt change from the rest of the game.

Mario Strikers Charged certainly doesn't innovate gaming, but it remained to be quite fun, especially in multiplayer. How it holds up to longer gameplay sessions is still to be seen, but gamers can find out when it releases later this year.

GDC 07: Reggie plays Wii Tennis with journalists, takes names

Posted Mar 9th 2007 6:20PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News

Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime invited journalists to test his Wii Tennis mettle at a GDC soiree last night. What started as a few friendly matches, however, quickly turned into a slaughter of the news hounds. One by one, his challengers found their skills bested and their gaming egos trampled on.

IGN's Craig Harris documented the emasculation of fellow editor, Matt Casamassina, with photos you can see on his blog. Craig also found himself outplayed, admitting to a shutout loss while Reggie sipped from a glass of wine in between serves. It's great to see that Nintendo's upper management have time to actually play the games that they're so busy promoting, but that's just cruel.

GDC 07: Look at that Miyamoto keynote line

Posted Mar 9th 2007 2:45PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: Fan stuff, Video

In taking video of roughly half the line outside of the entry to Miyamoto's keynote at GDC, we're shocked and amazed at just how incredibly large the line is. Certainly all of these people could not have gotten into the keynote? Regardless, it demonstrates just how much of a legend the man is in the industry. We're still bummed he only had the one announcement, though.

Check past the post break for the video.

[Via Joystiq]

Continue reading GDC 07: Look at that Miyamoto keynote line

GDC 07: Mark Rein talks Unreal Engine 3 on the Wii (again)

Posted Mar 9th 2007 1:55PM by David Hinkle
Filed under: News

He said as much last year (wow, seems like yesterday we were calling this thing the Revolution), but the hopes of seeing the Unreal Engine 3 on the Wii is still strong in the community. And this year at GDC, again the question came up and again Mark Rein took the time to take those hopes into a headlock and proceed to give them the ~~Yoga~~ noogie of a lifetime.

Mark said "this is kinda a high definition engine. Designed for a certain level of graphics card and certain amount of CPU. You know, I'm sure one of our licensees will squeeze it down into the Wii. The way Ubisoft squeezed Unreal Engine 2 into the PSP," he explained in a little bit more detail exactly why the Wii and Unreal Engine 3 won't become best buddies, "Unreal Engine 3 is designed for a high level shader architecture and the Wii doesn't have that. I mean, you know, it's just not what we've been aiming for, so it's not something we're looking to do or support." Mark didn't go on to talk about specific companies that were already looking to license the engine, if there even are any, but apparently its fairly cheap to license as Mark said he "only saw a splinter of the money from Splinter Cell."

GDC 07: Miyamoto keynote video

Posted Mar 9th 2007 11:55AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News, Video

There are dozens of clips floating around from Shigeru Miyamoto's keynote yesterday, but IGN has streaming video of the entire event available for your anxious eyes. You won't find any megaton announcements or landmark revelations, but the presentation is full of insights on "the Nintendo Difference" from the company's preeminent game designer.

What's Miyamoto's primary focus when developing a game? Why did it take 20 years before he could finally use his face creation software in a complete game? And whatever happened to Mario 128? If you have a free hour and a half, watch the keynote and find out.

GDC 07: Nintendo execs on nerdiest shirt ever

Posted Mar 9th 2007 10:00AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Fan stuff

The best thing about the massive popularity of the Wii is that eventually we'll be able to wear something like this and not have to explain it. We can already imagine explaining to our grandparents that they're caricatures of prominent figures in a Japanese video game company, created using tools on that company's latest video game system. Oh, and we talk about these people a lot, for work.

This GDC '07 shirt features Mii versions of Satoru Iwata, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Reggie Fils-Aime. We'd totally wear it-- we're not out to win any popularity contests.

GDC 07: Super Mario Galaxy screenshots and footage from Miyamoto's Keynote

Posted Mar 8th 2007 5:25PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News, Video

Scrutinizing Miyamoto's GDC keynote for information on upcoming games might have been about as productive as trying to squeeze water from a rock, but the new Super Mario Galaxy gameplay trailer and screenshots that were brought out did not disappoint.

Along with the clips of planet-hopping and lava stages that we've already seen, we were treated to shots of climbable vines, menacing Thwomps, and ... Planets made of fruit? There are a lot more surprises in the video, but don't take our word for it! Check it out and let us know what you think.

Continue reading GDC 07: Super Mario Galaxy screenshots and footage from Miyamoto's Keynote

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Nintendo Wii Fanboy

EA Sports to bundle accessories over the next year

Super Mario Galaxy gets a few GDCA nods

Miyamoto calls out third parties

Nintendo quiet at GDC due to Japanese stock situation?

Inafune talks RE4 engine and the Wii [update 1]

GDC 07: ... and that's a wrap!

GDC 07: MySims goes to Wii, gets rid of pee

GDC 07: Vicious tries a new control scheme

GDC 07: Mario Strikers Charged impressions

GDC 07: Reggie plays Wii Tennis with journalists, takes names

GDC 07: Look at that Miyamoto keynote line

GDC 07: Mark Rein talks Unreal Engine 3 on the Wii (again)

GDC 07: Miyamoto keynote video

GDC 07: Nintendo execs on nerdiest shirt ever

GDC 07: Super Mario Galaxy screenshots and footage from Miyamoto's Keynote

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