23 replies to this topic

[Zok]

Thought I might post this:

 

Now this certainly sounds odd.

 

After President of Nintendo Satoru Iwata admitted that Nintendo’s had difficulty coping with the transition to HD, the last thing we expected to hear is – get this – apparently, the Wii U is easier to develop for than Nintendo’s previous consoles.

 

This comes from legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto during an interview with Game Informer.

 

“I don’t think it’s a difficult system to develop for. Certainly, because it’s Nintendo’s first HD system and we’re using a lot of shaders and things like that there’s certainly things to learn from that perspective. Overall, in comparison to previous hardware I think it’s actually pretty easy to develop for.”

 

If Miyamoto is correct, we should be seeing an explosion in game development from Nintendo once the developers have mastered HD design.

Read more: http://wiiuturn.com/...to-develop-for/

 

Edited by Zok, 10 July 2013 - 02:33 PM.

[Portal]

Interesting. Hopefully this means we won't be seeing another drought for awhile.

[IvyT]

These are certainly great news. I think it might also be easier because the hardware is pretty similar with the architecture of hardware that's been standard in the gaming industry for a few years now, and it certainly allows Nintendo to take more liberties, to push further and that must certainly make it easier for them. They just needed to get used to all the power they have on their hands now 

[Chrop]

If I'm getting this right, they have a hard time developing for it because the leap from normal definition to HD but at the same time they find it the easiest out of the other consoles?

My fanboyism, i want to defend Nintendo... but I can't... 

Spoiler

OBJECTION! Clearly a contradiction!

[tboss]

Lines up with the ubi saying wiiu is cheap ti develope for, mayoto(i know i spelled it wrong) is probly saying its easy to develope games with good gameplay, there is now real hardware limitation until u start pushing extre featers amd effects

As for hd development, i think the extra assets just cost more and take more time, getting the max out of any next gen consul will be dificult

Edited by tboss, 10 July 2013 - 01:13 PM.

[Tom]

If I'm getting this right, they have a hard time developing for it because the leap from normal definition to HD but at the same time they find it the easiest out of the other consoles?

My fanboyism, i want to defend Nintendo... but I can't... 

Spoiler

OBJECTION! Clearly a contradiction!

Spoiler

 

Do you have evidence to back up your statement? If you recall, it's been 11 years since Iwata last programmed for a game.

[Chrop]

Spoiler

 

Do you have evidence to back up your statement? If you recall, it's been 11 years since Iwata last programmed for a game.

 

Spoiler

 

HOLD IT! Iwata still has yet to program a game since that day 11 years ago! Where do you think he gained that information about the Wii U being hard to develop for? The only logical answer is... The Developers themselves!

[TheDoritoKing]

If I'm getting this right, they have a hard time developing for it because the leap from normal definition to HD but at the same time they find it the easiest out of the other consoles?

My fanboyism, i want to defend Nintendo... but I can't... 

Spoiler

OBJECTION! Clearly a contradiction!

It's hard to develop for HD, but it's easy once you get past that. Also, it retaliative to past Nintendo consoles; Nintendo hardware has rarely been too friendly.

Edited by TheDoritoKing, 10 July 2013 - 01:39 PM.

[Tsuchinoko]

Can someone explain how HD makes it harder to develop? I never understood that. Wouldn't it just be making things at a higher resolution with less aliasing since it would be clearer?

[Julio93]

If its easier then why wasn't there a big launch title like they did with SNES, N64 and GC.

[Tsuchinoko]

If its easier then why wasn't there a big launch title like they did with SNES, N64 and GC.

I wish. I have been waiting for a big launch title for a while. I hope their next home console and portable have big time titles. I want it to be like the old days where there is a big time Mario game waiting for us at launch.

[GAMER1984]

Well I hope they are sharing this ease of development with 3rd parties. It seem they don't know how to get the best out of the console and its design style. I don't want to see anymore inferior 3rd party ports released this year... You hear me Ubisoft. AC4, Splintercell, and Watchdogs better run better than their ps360 counterparts. If not no purchase from this guy.

[Dragon]

Are you guys missing the point? Just because it's easier to develop for doesn't mean it takes less people to make the games. They require larger dev teams to get more done.

[Socalmuscle]

What miyamoto means is that the process of understanding how to mpcode for the system is easy n

That does not contradict the fact that it takes a lot more time, money, and manpower to make games that are of much higher fidelity, graphically and aurally.

Then factor in the game pad.

Though easier to develop for, the nature of a new gen presents other challenges.

[GreenPenInk]

 I know analogies suck but imagine the Wii U as a bicycle that has to travel 100 kilometers versus previous consoles as unicycles that have to travel 10 kilometers.

 

 There's more work to be done but it's less difficult to get through it all for whatever reasons (I don't know if Miyamoto specified exactly why it's easier.)

[SoldMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

I do really wish Nintendo would stop contradicting themselves lately because it's only going to end badly, c'mon Nintendo your better than this, pump those games out, we need them!

[lucario23]

Ok. You guys CLEARLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS ACTUALLY BEING SAID HERE SO LISTEN UP!!!  When Miyamoto is saying that the Wii U is easier to develop for he is TALKING ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURE. The Wii U's architecture isn't the x86 stuff the other consoles are using, but they have actually made a CUSTOMIZED (not x86) architecture that is easy to develop for. NFSMWU was easily ported to the wii u and is a perfect example of this.  When Nintendo is saying they are struggling they are actually referring to learning how to use all the extra shaders, poly counts, etc. Implementing these on an HD versus SD level in an effective way is costly (you have twice the resolution you have to program to look well which costs more and takes longer to do). 

 

Miyamoto is saying they have a system to develop on that is not architecturally difficult to develop for. Nintendo is saying they are having trouble adjusting not to the architeture, but the costs and dev team sizes of upgrading to the new console with a lot more horsepower they have to utilize. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CONTRADICTION HERE! THESE ARE TWO SEPARATE ISSUES. I REPEAT, THEY HAVE EASY TO DEVELOP FOR ARCHITECTURE, BUT ARE HAVING TROUBLE ADJUSTING TO IT. 

 

On a side note, Microsoft and Sony went through the same thing, they could just offset their losses through other branches of their company, Nintendo can't do that which is half the reason they are only now transitioning to HD.

[Desert Punk]

Need for Speed Most Wanted didn't appear to be an easy port to wii u as Criterion stated in an article they couldn't get it running well until they contacted Nintendo for technical information which solved the problem. That in itself sounds like the wii u has additional potential though. Criterion probably had to utilise the gpu more to take some tasks off the cpu.

[Socalmuscle]

Actually criterion stated that launching the game after the hardware launch was beneficial because then Nintendo had the tools ready. Apparantly running a game meant for one architecture on a new and different architecture wasnt looking too great until they had the proper tools. Once that was in place, development went easy. And they were then able to simply import the upgraded pc assets by doing nothing more than selecting a checkbox in their build pipeline. I don't know how they make their builds but that sounds pretty sweet. Lol from there they added a few things to make the wii u version the definitive version of the game.

Games made specifically to take advantage of the wii u next gen hardware would be even better. And we are seeing that now in the pipeline. Amazing graphics at great frame rates.

The wii u may now be easy to develop for on a technical level, but the nature of this new generation means its going to be more time consuming and require more resources.

Edited by Socalmuscle, 12 July 2013 - 05:42 AM.

[DéliopT]

I don`t see this as a contradiction.

Nintendo`s problema wasn`t with the actual development but with the unexpected need for more manpower and lack of HD development skills. Now, that doesn`t say anything about if the console is easy to develop for or not.

 

Those problems aside, Miyamoto is saying that it is easy to do what they want - even if takes more people to do those tasks.