Iwata Interviews Wii Developers 32
Knuckles writes "On the Wii website, President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata conducts an extensive interview with the developers of the Wii. The interview comes in two volumes with three parts each. Iwata actually asks many tough questions, such as: 'In general, no engineer hates higher performance. As an engineer, didn't you experience any inner conflict when it was decided that we would not necessarily take Wii in the direction of sheer horsepower alone?' The interview is the start of a series according to the Wii website." More from the article: "Yes, it wouldn't look very natural beside a TV if it was too toy-like. And likewise, it wouldn't really be an amusing form of entertainment if it looked like some kind of AV equipment. With this in mind, we came up with 'A Design for Everyone', a concept created in order to allow as many people to use Wii as possible. Making Wii into a device that everyone likes is more important to us than a having fiercely individualistic design."
They made the inevitable car analogy! (Score:4, Interesting)
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Re:They made the inevitable car analogy! (Score:5, Interesting)
The only consern I would have with this approach is if their graphical improvements end up being too modest, will that prevent people from buying the system? Personally, I'm not sure; I do know that several people (when it was released) commented that the XBox 360's graphics were only marginally better than the XBox's graphics.
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For instance, few people today make much of the graphical differences between Super Nintendo and the Genesis even though at the time it was a big deal for them.
The problem is that after a certain point with PCs/consoles, you have to pay 100% extra for an improvement of 10%-20% in performance.
In consoles, I think many people will see it as better to just go fo
Re:X-Box 360 not impressive on SDTVs... (Score:1)
Ironically on an SDTV some 360 games look worse than their 360 counter part. Textures are blurry, or other problems associates with games not being made to be displayed at lower resolutions.
lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:5, Insightful)
Which means that Nintendo can launch twice as many games on the same overall budget... to find out which ones stick. Brain Training was one of Nintendo's cheapest games to make, but it has sold tens of millions of copies as well as millions of DS's.
Graphics were a bottleneck in gaming for a long time. You couldn't even get more than three sprites in a walk cycle on some of the old systems. On the PS2, you could do a full 3D walk cycle with inverse kinematics foot positioning adjusted for different skeletal systems. Graphics are about as good as they need to be at the moment, and other needs have arisen.
For one, the controller is getting bad. Sure, we've got sholder buttons (courtesy of Nintendo), a diamond face button pad (Nintendo), analog control sticks (Nintendo), and analog buttons (Sony), but the thing is so unweildy and in need of streamlining. We're interfacing with the most hyperrealistic worlds ever created using functionally the same controllers we've had since the late 70's, though with more buttons. Even then, we're talking about LOW TECH in the late 70's.
Another area ripe for development is Physics. Sure, you can skid cars now, and occasionally you can knock bottles over, but can you punch holes into walls? Does your character tip back further based on the weight of the item they're carrying? Can you aim your gun at the floor and skip a bullet off of it in Metal Gear Solid? Do we even have hair that gets close to sitting on people's shoulders, rather than hovering six inches above it?
And finally, we need more advancement in art techniques. Sure, our art pipelines have been serviced well by the support industry of middleware providers, but it still feels like we're limited artistically and by production method from really unleashing the power of the end systems. Can we work on creating art assets in-game? Texture these things under changing lighting conditions? Near other relevant textures from the game? Can we extrude a 2d concept sketch automatically into the starting basis for the 3D models in the scene?
There is a lot of work to be done. But for now, the graphics of a system aren't really the bottleneck to the next generation of power.
Re:lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:2)
Self-centering analog sticks were used on the Vectrex, back in 82. Even in the late 70's, some dedicated game machines ("Pong-clones") had non-self-centering analog sticks. I know because I own one.
Not punch, but with rocket launchers... Volition's Red Faction, 2001.
Re:lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:2)
It's funny you mention that, one of the bosses in MGS did exactly that.
Anyway ricochet shots are not common but they are around and have existed for years. Give the Flak Cannon in Unreal Tournament a try. It's basically a non-hitscan shotgun that bounces off walls. Or, the Tau/Gauss/Whatever it's actually called in the original Half-Life.
Re:lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:2)
Re:lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:2)
I think the problem there has more to do with the implications of doing it. If you punch through a wall, you need to ensure something is on the other side to see. You also need to take into account things like being able to shoot the enemies in the next room through the holes. Those things potentially could make the level design much more complicated. Als
Re:lower development costs & other bottlenecks (Score:2)
I mentioned this because soft body deformations are one of the hardest things to do right in games. They also feel like they're a huge step behind the kind of leaps we've made in the visual realm. The girls in Fig
Great read (Score:1)
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Mod Ashida +5 funny (Score:2, Funny)
This article makes me want to buy a Wii even more now after reading about everyones hardwork.
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Low-heat design requirement! (Score:2, Insightful)
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it wasnt inbuilt/enabled by default last i heard. But have they realy removed it entirely ??? its using regular dvd format/size media now.. how on earth would switching to anything else make it cheaper for them
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Which I don't mind; I have multiple dvd players anyway, and it makes teh Wii cheaper since they don't have to licence the dvd encryption stuff.
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They wouldn't have to, they could just sell DVD functionality on their online store thing. You don't think the XBox DVD dongle/remote really costs $30 do you? That price covers the encryption fees. Sony had to eat that money on every PS2 sold, even if not every consumer would even ever use the thing as a DVD player.
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I really really really really really really really hate DVDs. Too bad they're the standard these days.
Seriously, are CDs the same way, do you have to pay anyone a license fee for a CD player to play music CDs?
Browsers (Score:2)
Web browser designers know the feeling too...
Virtual Console Indie Games? (Score:2)
Tamaki: Yes. To be honest, I only came to understand this way of thought when I started working on Wii's system functions. But like we've said, when you think of the variety of individuals that make up a family, and their range of interests, you understand that variations in price are only natural. There are people who won't hesitate to
Hardware AND software (Score:1)