Support NeoGAF

[Kon Tiki]

http://ds.ign.com/articles/559/559957p1.html?fromint=1

IGN: What about (Spiderman 2) on a technical level?

Karthik: Well, yeah, take this with a grain of salt, of course, but on a technical level, Spider-Man 2 definitely seemed to shine. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Jorge: I think people were expecting to see a lot more intense use of the touch screen, because that's what everyone focused on with the E3 demos. Some of the previews I read mentioned that there were very good ideas, nothing spectacular, but that developers were starting to understand what the system can do and what we can do with it. A lot of the stuff I'm seeing is hit or miss. Some people might like it, others may not.

IGN: What about people saying "Wow, look what developers can do in five months on the DS!"

Karthik: (laughs) I think talking with other developers at the Gamers Summit, they seem to be pretty impressed with what we did in five months. Luckily, our next projects have much larger schedules, and thanks to Spider-Man 2 we now have an established set of tools to pull from and build off of. So really, the pressure's on for the next round of DS games. In general, Nintendo has done a really good job with development tools so developers can do some great titles in a short period of time.

IGN: So now that you know all the answers, are you happy with them? Is this a good platform to develop as a studio's business model?

Karthik: I think it could potentially be very good. It's certainly more expensive to develop for, compared to GBA. I mean, you could potentially do GBA-like games and cheap out, but it's not taking advantage of the hardware.*cough Urbz*cough* On the flipside, it's not as much to develop for as a console system, so that's a good thing. Hopefully what we'll see on the DS is selective, fewer titles, because we all remember that in the first few months of the GBA's life there were a TON of titles, and a lot of them weren't very good. That took away shelfspace from the good titles and made it very difficult for people to make money. What we're hopefully going to see is more innovation and more new ideas...and even new ideas on existing franchises.

Jorge: There's a lot of versatility to the hardware, with the two screens and its wireless multiplayer, stylus play. One of the best touchscreen ideas I've seen on the DS was Animal Crossing...I've played that on the GameCube, and you have to draw in places. And drawing is tough with the controller. So the hardware lends itself to some really great ideas. One of the biggest obstacles with us for creating multiplayer games for GBA was that it never felt like anyone was going to take advantage of the feature. I mean, you need two systems, two copies of the game, you needed to carry around a cable with you at all times, and you might not be in a place where you should have a cable sticking out of your system anyway.

Karthik: The install base for GBA link cables is small compared to the overall installed base of hardware, even with Pokemon. Pokemon players bought the cable, but the audience may not overlap all that much with the game you are creating for the system. Therefore, it's a small percentage of people playing multiplayer games on GBA. You end up compromising the multiplayer features because of it.

Jorge: Multiplayer is going to be a big deal on the DS, because it's just built right into the system. Pictochat right away gets you interested in linking with friends...

Karthik: And the Metroid demo is going to give people a taste of multiplayer gameplay on the handheld. And they're going to want more. That's going to be a big deal, because we can now go into a game proposal saying "We want to have wireless multiplayer." And there's going to be no question whether people are going to have the ability to play it or not.

 

[GaimeGuy]

Of course it's more expensive: You're using two separate processors for the screens, a touch screen, and a mic in some of these games: They're not exactly the easiest things to program for.

Obviously it's not expensive enough to warrant raising the price in comparison to GBA games.

 

[M3wThr33]

On the flip side, since the DS lacks the GBA port, developers have less incentive now to make multiplayer GBA games and games with the AWESOME GCN/GBA link ability.

 

[Kon Tiki]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/10/26/news_6111488.html

Here is a GS one too.

KB: The DS is a really well-designed piece of hardware, and it is a real joy to work with. Nintendo has been extremely supportive and has developed some great tools for developers. They are putting a lot of effort into supporting third-party developers and publishers, which is of course resulting in great titles for the system.

Hey Kobun was he drunk at the time?

 

[Kon Tiki]

IGN: Do you think this is something Nintendo will be setting up, or is it something that Nintendo's going to hope developers and individual publishers will pull off on their own, a la GameCube Phantasy Star Online?

Jorge: I hope it wouldn't be up to us. Xbox Live is one of the saving graces of the system, and people are into the system because of Live. I would like to see Nintendo try something like it for the DS.

Karthik: Obviously Nintendo hasn't officially announced anything on it, so we're anxious to hear what they are doing with it. There's certainly more work involved in getting a game online. What they have done with the multiplayer wireless so far is really nice, and way better than what was done in the past. There were difficulties in multiplayer on past systems, but Nintendo's done a really nice job this time around.

IGN: Would it be possible for someone to rig up something that would turn existing multiplayer games on DS into WiFi, similar to how some programmers "tricked" the Xbox and Halo early on to play over the internet?

Karthik: I don't think so, since LAN and WiFi on the system are two different protocols. The local wireless play is great; Nintendo did a nice job since it doesn't require a lot of power. 802.11 on the other hand is a bit more power intensive, so I don't think it can easily be interchanged.

IGN: So when will be seeing the next DS game out of Vicarious Visions?

Karthik: Next year. We've already started on our second project, and there's more when people return from taking a break. We're pretty committed to the platform; we've got the tools at our disposal as well as some really exciting ideas. A lot of ideas, in fact, that were shelved during the Spider-Man 2 development. I think people will be happy with the Nintendo DS. There's a much stronger line-up of games than the GBA and a lot more exciting ideas for it.

http://ds.ign.com/articles/561/561483p1.html

 

[jarrod]

Of course it's more expensive: You're using two separate processors for the screens, a touch screen, and a mic in some of these games: They're not exactly the easiest things to program for.

Obviously it's not expensive enough to warrant raising the price in comparison to GBA games.

The biggest jump will be the move from 2D to 3D development though... this will amplified in the move to PSP development too. It's nice to see Vicarious Visions stepping up though, they're one of the more capable western teams out there.

 

[seismologist]

You can break out of one move and go into another, like web swinging and jumping out of it to web-zip to the ceiling, which I was trying to demonstrate that at the Summit. You get much faster response times this way. I think the combat experience becomes more fluid because we get a lot more "buttons" with the touch screen. That layout, or what we call the "Buffet of Moves" on the DS screen is really convenient.

This is one of the things I'm looking forward to on the DS. Gameplay is gonna be alot faster.