17 replies to this topic

[Zinix]

Straight Right is a game development studio based in Melbourne, Australia, and in conjunction with BioWare and EA, it’s the one responsible for porting Mass Effect 3 to the Wii U. Being its first console title in development, we were naturally curious about its experience and impressions on how it was faring with building the title on Wii U.

Check out Farida Y's conversation with Straight Right’s CEO Tom Crago below.

Digitally Downloaded (DD): So tell us, with Straight Right being a fairly new company, how much of a challenge has it proven with the task of developing Mass Effect 3 for a brand new system?
Tom Crago (TC): Straight Right is indeed a new company, but our sister studio, Tantalus, has been around since 1994. We share the same technology, so it was really the Tantalus side of the family that brought the expertise to Wii U. Tantalus has developed for the Wii and for most other major consoles. We did Unreal II on Xbox, and to that end we have some experience working with the Unreal Engine, which proved very useful as ME3 utilises Unreal technology. Straight Right also developed Need for Speed Shift 2 on iOS, and so has had some prior experience on a big franchise.

DD: In what ways have you been able to enhance Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U?
TC: ME3 was a great game on its original formats and we needed to ensure we didn't break anything. So from our perspective we turned to the hardware and asked ourselves what we could do with the Wii U controller that might elevate the gameplay experience. We wanted to make the game better, but we trod very carefully. I feel like the stuff we've implemented gels extremely well and I really hope that fans of the game, say on PS3, will play our version and prefer it. One of the key things we did was make the power wheel interactive which I think all Mass Effect fans are going to love, and we've also drawn new 2D level maps which are interactive on the GamePad. You can give orders to squad mates via those maps, which is really cool. We also added a new weapon.

DD: Was utilising the full capabilities of the Wii U‘s technology a top priority for you while Mass Effect 3 was in development?
TC: Oh absolutely. The Wii U is really all about the GamePad, and we were determined to make full use of that, while staying true to the core Mass Effect experience.

DD: You‘ve been working on the development of this title on Wii U for over a year now. Do you feel you‘re acquainted with the console‘s hardware now?
TC: Definitely. We have another title, Funky Barn, coming out under our Tantalus label at launch too, so we've been elbow-deep in the Wii U for a long time now.

DD: How versatile do you believe the Wii U to be as a next-gen platform?
TC: Well it is a next-gen platform, in that it's the next generation of hardware from Nintendo. Will the successors to the PS3 and 360 be more powerful? Almost certainly. And for many people that's what it's all about. But over the years Nintendo have shown that raw processing and graphics power aren't everything. And I think a lot of gamers are starting to see that too.

DD: As an experienced developer, how do you think the Wii U will fare with other potential developers in future?
TC: From a developer's standpoint, it's a great console to work on. It's straightforward to program and the GamePad integrates seamlessly. We'd be happy making games for it for years to come, but the true test will be how it performs in the marketplace. We're going to start to get some answers to that question very soon.

DD: We hear you have some pretty big things planned for the Wii U coming to us. So, it‘s safe to say you‘re predicting some positive reception in the console‘s first year of release?
TC: We very much hope so. We've put a lot of eggs in that basket so we're very invested in its success. We've seen enough of it to have faith that it will find an audience, and we hope that happens over the course of the next year. Nintendo themselves have a solid lineup, but as ever it will be down to third party publishers and developers supporting the platform and releasing games that people want to play. The launch line-up looks solid, but the Holiday period in 2013 will be just as crucial as this launch window.

DD: You’re also working on a new IP for the Wii U. Given how exciting new games are to us all, might you be able to give us any information on that?
TC: That would be Funky Barn, which comes out at launch under the Tantalus label. It's a crazy, off beat farm simulation where you build a farm, look after animals, plant crops, buy machines and equipment, and try to deal with foxes, UFO's and other pests that want to mess with your livestock. We did a version of that game on 3DS with Ubisoft and we think it works really well on the Wii U. 505 are publishing it and we can't wait to see it on the shelves.

DD: It’s also been rumoured that Straight Right would be porting another triple-A title scheduled for a 2013 release on to the Wii U. Any slight hint or tease for us, maybe?
TC: So many rumours... We'll talk more about our future Wii U plans over the course of the next few months.


http://www.digitally...ffect-3-on.html

There you go guys, a developer has finally confirmed the Wii U as a next gen system!

It's an interesting read, very enlightening on what the developer feels.

Edited by Zinix, 14 November 2012 - 06:09 PM.

[The Lonely Koopa]

Straight Right is a game development studio based in Melbourne, Australia, and in conjunction with BioWare and EA, it’s the one responsible for porting Mass Effect 3 to the Wii U. Being its first console title in development, we were naturally curious about its experience and impressions on how it was faring with building the title on Wii U.

Check out Farida Y's conversation with Straight Right’s CEO Tom Crago below.

Digitally Downloaded (DD): So tell us, with Straight Right being a fairly new company, how much of a challenge has it proven with the task of developing Mass Effect 3 for a brand new system?
Tom Crago (TC): Straight Right is indeed a new company, but our sister studio, Tantalus, has been around since 1994. We share the same technology, so it was really the Tantalus side of the family that brought the expertise to Wii U. Tantalus has developed for the Wii and for most other major consoles. We did Unreal II on Xbox, and to that end we have some experience working with the Unreal Engine, which proved very useful as ME3 utilises Unreal technology. Straight Right also developed Need for Speed Shift 2 on iOS, and so has had some prior experience on a big franchise.

DD: In what ways have you been able to enhance Mass Effect 3 on the Wii U?
TC: ME3 was a great game on its original formats and we needed to ensure we didn't break anything. So from our perspective we turned to the hardware and asked ourselves what we could do with the Wii U controller that might elevate the gameplay experience. We wanted to make the game better, but we trod very carefully. I feel like the stuff we've implemented gels extremely well and I really hope that fans of the game, say on PS3, will play our version and prefer it. One of the key things we did was make the power wheel interactive which I think all Mass Effect fans are going to love, and we've also drawn new 2D level maps which are interactive on the GamePad. You can give orders to squad mates via those maps, which is really cool. We also added a new weapon.

DD: Was utilising the full capabilities of the Wii U‘s technology a top priority for you while Mass Effect 3 was in development?
TC: Oh absolutely. The Wii U is really all about the GamePad, and we were determined to make full use of that, while staying true to the core Mass Effect experience.

DD: You‘ve been working on the development of this title on Wii U for over a year now. Do you feel you‘re acquainted with the console‘s hardware now?
TC: Definitely. We have another title, Funky Barn, coming out under our Tantalus label at launch too, so we've been elbow-deep in the Wii U for a long time now.

DD: How versatile do you believe the Wii U to be as a next-gen platform?
TC: Well it is a next-gen platform, in that it's the next generation of hardware from Nintendo. Will the successors to the PS3 and 360 be more powerful? Almost certainly. And for many people that's what it's all about. But over the years Nintendo have shown that raw processing and graphics power aren't everything. And I think a lot of gamers are starting to see that too.

DD: As an experienced developer, how do you think the Wii U will fare with other potential developers in future?
TC: From a developer's standpoint, it's a great console to work on. It's straightforward to program and the GamePad integrates seamlessly. We'd be happy making games for it for years to come, but the true test will be how it performs in the marketplace. We're going to start to get some answers to that question very soon.

DD: We hear you have some pretty big things planned for the Wii U coming to us. So, it‘s safe to say you‘re predicting some positive reception in the console‘s first year of release?
TC: We very much hope so. We've put a lot of eggs in that basket so we're very invested in its success. We've seen enough of it to have faith that it will find an audience, and we hope that happens over the course of the next year. Nintendo themselves have a solid lineup, but as ever it will be down to third party publishers and developers supporting the platform and releasing games that people want to play. The launch line-up looks solid, but the Holiday period in 2013 will be just as crucial as this launch window.

DD: You’re also working on a new IP for the Wii U. Given how exciting new games are to us all, might you be able to give us any information on that?
TC: That would be Funky Barn, which comes out at launch under the Tantalus label. It's a crazy, off beat farm simulation where you build a farm, look after animals, plant crops, buy machines and equipment, and try to deal with foxes, UFO's and other pests that want to mess with your livestock. We did a version of that game on 3DS with Ubisoft and we think it works really well on the Wii U. 505 are publishing it and we can't wait to see it on the shelves.

DD: It’s also been rumoured that Straight Right would be porting another triple-A title scheduled for a 2013 release on to the Wii U. Any slight hint or tease for us, maybe?
TC: So many rumours... We'll talk more about our future Wii U plans over the course of the next few months.


http://www.digitally...ffect-3-on.html

There you go guys, a developer has finally confirmed the Wii U as a next gen system!

It's an interesting read, very enlightening on what the developer feels.

Um from what I read they said its next gen as its Nintendo next console they said nothing of its hardware just that it will almost certainly be weaker than 720 and ps4.

[Soul]

Funky Barn very anticipated.

[cannonshane]

Do people realise that "next gen" is just a name, it doesn't mean jack.

[The Lonely Koopa]

Do people realise that "next gen" is just a name, it doesn't mean jack.

well if you want to go that route than really all names mean jack actually but that beyond the point , the Term Next Gen is useful because it show the differences betweenn hardware generation and gives a more incentive to buy since as an example lets say you have a Nintendo 64 and a person was trying to convince you to buy the new gamecube (note lets say you not a big gamer person who likes to buy new stuff) well you have more games on your N64 so why should I get the gamecube when I have the n64 . The reason is because its part of the next Generation of consoles so it will be supported for the next 5 years and so forth .

[Goose]

Do people realise that "next gen" is just a name, it doesn't mean jack.

It does to a lot of people.

[cannonshane]

Fair call but there is no legally binding title such as "next gen" that's why marketing companies throw it around like its nothing, it's all just to build hype.

[Goose]

Fair call but there is no legally binding title such as "next gen" that's why marketing companies throw it around like its nothing, it's all just to build hype.

I just hope it's powerful enough to stick with the other two consoles. I don't want another Wii+HD Twins generation.

[cannonshane]

It probably will happen, it's got to be expected when you launch a console a long time before your competitors, it gives Sony and Microsoft ample time to make sure their consoles are better.

[SoldMyWiiUAndLeftTheForums]

Wii U looks fun and addictive to me that's all that matters, I'm a gamer who wants to enjoy games, and I belive this new console will be very enjoyable, £350 very well spent on my part.

[SDDMN]

Wii U looks fun and addictive to me that's all that matters, I'm a gamer who wants to enjoy games, and I belive this new console will be very enjoyable, £350 very well spent on my part.

Exactly the way I think. As long as the Wii U will provide me with fun and enjoyable games, first or third party, I will happily enjoy the system, as well as the bonuses it gives like TVii and Miiverse.

[Spleenzorio]

Wii U looks fun and addictive to me that's all that matters, I'm a gamer who wants to enjoy games, and I belive this new console will be very enjoyable, £350 very well spent on my part.

Indeed my friend, indeed.

[Alex Wolfers]

I highly doubt the PS4/Nextbox will be much more powerful. I think time and technology finally caught up.

[Nollog]

I highly doubt the PS4/Nextbox will be much more powerful. I think time and technology finally caught up.

Oh without a doubt they will be.
But it'll be less obvious.
You'll have to go the route of the last few years of 360 and ps3 "fans" doing side-by-side comparisons.

It's funny though.
They're talking about next-gen games when they've got a piss-poor port that barely has any wii u features to it, and an even piss-poorer "casual" "shovelware" title to their names.

Edited by Nollog, 14 November 2012 - 09:18 PM.

[Alex Wolfers]

Oh without a doubt they will be.
But it'll be less obvious.
You'll have to go the route of the last few years of 360 and ps3 "fans" doing side-by-side comparisons.

It's funny though.
They're talking about next-gen games when they've got a piss-poor port that barely has any wii u features to it, and an even piss-poorer "casual" "shovelware" title to their names.

The Wii U actually has some pretty badass ports and waaaaay less shovelware.

[Nollog]

The Wii U actually has some pretty badass ports and waaaaay less shovelware.

Unlike StraightRight.

2011 catalogue: http://straightright...games_2011.html

2012 catalogue: http://straightright.net/games.html (they don't even list funky barn lol)
Two year old company, with not a single decent game to their name.

Edited by Nollog, 14 November 2012 - 09:45 PM.

[Socalmuscle]

SR is trying to sell themselves here.

They only were contracted (on the cheap. "will work for food") to do a straightforward port. And even the things they've done with the gamepad are minor.

But that's all they have to sell is their work, which consisted of the gamepad interaction.

They then proceed to minimize the significance of the console itself in order to highlight the gamepad.

They also seem to go out of their way to mi I
Use the next gen nature of the hardware by saying its simply a new Nintendo unit.
Mistakenly they leave out the part where it exceeds the best the current gen has to offer.
Then they proceed to do a sales job for a stupid title that belongs on Facebook or portables.
Outside of port work, the best they could come up with for a console that's 400%+ anything currently available is Funky Barn? A console version of a pathetic game available on portables?
In short, Straight Right sucks.
Mass effect is a great and viable series. But it's only a port. eA figures no one can mess it up. So they get the cheapest bid to do the job.
And that's where straight right comes in.
Mass effect 3 should be great. And all the credit goes to the original developers. So buyers of the game will love it.
But it doesn't speak anything to straight right's prowess.

[3Dude]

Why dont you guys go read shin ens most recent interview about wii u's capabilities. I think its more in line with what you are looking for.

" When testing our first code on Wii U we were
amazed how much we could throw at it without
any slowdowns, at that time we even had zero
optimizations. The performance problem of
hardware nowadays is not clock speed but ram
latency. Fortunately Nintendo took great efforts
to ensure developers can really work around
that typical bottleneck on Wii U. They put a lot
of thought on how CPU, GPU, caches and
memory controllers work together to amplify
your code speed. For instance, with only some
tiny changes we were able to optimize certain
heavy load parts of the rendering pipeline to 6x
of the original speed, and that was even without
using any of the extra cores."

"Fortunately you already have
lots of power at hands without digging deeper.
So i’m pretty sure we will see many cool stuff on
the Wii U when developers are understanding it
better."


NES:
More specifically, we’ve heard rumors about the
CPU, that it’s supposedly the weakest link of the
system. Word has spread that it’s some sort of
Broadway (Wii CPU) but in a three-core
configuration and improved.

Shin en:
We didn’t have such problems. The CPU and
GPU are a good match. As said before, today’s
hardware has bottlenecks with memory
throughput when you don’t care about your
coding style and data layout. This is true for any
hardware and can’t be only cured by throwing
more megahertz and cores on it. Fortunately
Nintendo made very wise choices for cache
layout, ram latency and ram size to work against
these pitfalls. Also Nintendo took care that other
components like the Wii U GamePad screen
streaming, or the built-in camera don’t put a
burden on the CPU or GPU.

http://www.notenough...he-wii-u-power/