Wii U Indie Game Scene. What Happened?

LordOcidax said:
And what is the OP source??? Is not a fact, is her perception..... and i think he is wrong. The relation with Indie devs has improved a lot with the change of policies, thats a fact. And you can find various success stories on the Eshop.
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Surely though before posting a perception on GAF then a bit of common sense should be used, yeah a couple of games the OP wanted aren't available yet on the eshop but just looking at the front page (yeah I know it varies by country, I'm just using an example) I can see FAST and Runbow, 2 exclusive Indies that should be well known to someone on GAF at least, so even if the OP can't find games to play he should realise that's more his problem
 
Javier said:
Four indie games were released on Wii U this week.

Five indie games were released last week.

Only one was released on the two weeks before, but they were the Holiday weeks and more focused on sales. We also got Super Mario Galaxy, which would have likely overshadowed anything released that week.

The week before that, we got three games, one of which was Minecraft.

The week before that we got four, one of which was Fast Racing Neo.

The week before that we got nothing, but Xenoblade Chronicles X released that week. We also got Trauma Team as a nice bonus.

So no, I don't think anything negative has happened with indies on Wii U. Nintendo tends to release them in batches, and usually they don't overlap them with their big releases (be it new Wii U games or notable Virtual Console releases).
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Well according to King Herpes all of those don't count. So Nintendo gonna Nintendo right?^^
 
I dunno man, Shovel Knight proved indie hits can explode onto the scene. I mean, when my buddy first told me about it after he kickstarted enough to be in the game, I never would have thought I'd be sitting here today holding a physical Shovel Knight figure I bought at the store.

I think it's a matter of the teams and manpower. I don't blame devs who have skipped over Wii U when they clearly want and need a bigger audience which they've found elsewhere. It was nice of Nintendo to court Indies but it appears to not have been enough.

Although maybe they'll all want to stick their hand in the amiibo pot once we see how the SK amiibo fairs.
 
casiopao said:
Well according to King Herpes all of those don't count. So Nintendo gonna Nintendo right?^^
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I don't think Herpes or even OP are exactly saying those "don't count," but that they're not the indie games they're expecting/looking for.
@MUWANdo said:
I don't think "Wii U isn't getting most of the big indie drawcards, and a lot of the games it does get are trash" is a contentious statement.
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Basically, yeah. The age-old "quality-quantity" issue. The eShop may be getting plenty of indies by sheer numbers, but how many indies are they getting that are customer draws?
 
Maxrunner said:
Yeah wheres double fine games? They even work better with the gamepad specially for the lucaa arts games.
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They put out one game and it's the laziest use of the gamepad I've ever seen and there were so many ways one could imagine it would be helpful (the cave)
Edit: They also put out costume quest, not sure how that turned out
 
Maybe the correct question is "Why doesn't the Nintendo fanbase viral market (or Astroturf?) as strongly on this forum as some of the fans of other platforms?".

Every week Nintendo adds quite a few releases to the eShop and those releases are strongly represented by indies. Unfortunately these releases seem isolated to the eShop release thread instead of copied into multiple other discussions and injected into the console screenshot thread.

Is there a <insert random quantity> of games coming to Wii U in <insert current year> thread filled with screenshots of old OUYA & PC indie ports?
 
lyrick said:
Maybe the correct question is why doesn't the Nintendo fanbase viral market (or Astroturf?) as strongly on this forum as some of the fans of other platforms.
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They push some games like Shovel Knight and Fast Racing, likely not worth it for every single new release
 
What are you guys all taking about, what is the OP even about? The Wiiu is still getting a very solid support from indies, and a lot of indies continue to do well on it.
 
James Scott said:
They push some games like Shovel Knight and Fast Racing, likely not worth it for every single new release
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I noticed Typoman has some new Wii U exclusive branding on the eShop. Maybe people should start hyping the lack of it on other consoles as some kind of missing keystone of the indie release library?
 
Nintendo's lack of unified account system killed them. In contrast Sony's system is clearly more customer friendly and more popular with gamers.

When you pair this with the fact that Sony understood indies really well and aggressively sought them out for their platform, it's easy to see why Sony was so popular with indies.
 
The point of my op was to discuss why more indie and PC games aren't on Wii u. Several Devi came through and explained things that were not known. People were informed. Why there are people here that choose to be rude instead of having a cool discussion is perplexing.

Thanks! I didn't know Tharsus was coming to the Wii U. I missed it on many of the sites that I cover. It was enlightening to learn about hardware limitations despite being on unity, and it's fascinating to see how sales go from title to title or how releases may be staggered for varied reasons. That's all. Thread served its purpose. Thanks to everyone with a positive contribution to this thread.
 
Nintendo's decisions regarding indies can be downright perplexing though. Game Maker Studio was able to branch out to Microsoft and Sony and offer XB1/PS4/PS3/Vita exports, but Nintendo outright refused to have a Wii U or 3DS export. Which basically means I won't be able to make any games for a Nintendo platform unless they change their minds for the NDX.
 
There are a lot of Indie games on Wii U. I'm a Wii U Indie dev with 1 game out and 2+ on the way.

Though Nintendo needs to certainly improve things for NX in some areas.
 
chubigans said:
Nintendo's decisions regarding indies can be downright perplexing though. Game Maker Studio was able to branch out to Microsoft and Sony and offer XB1/PS4/PS3/Vita exports, but Nintendo outright refused to have a Wii U or 3DS export. Which basically means I won't be able to make any games for a Nintendo platform unless they change their minds for the NDX.
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I take it there wasn't a reason offered for the refusal right?
 
orthodoxy1095 said:
I take it there wasn't a reason offered for the refusal right?
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That rejection was back when Nintendo's view on indies was WiiWare-era and really closed off. You needed a lot to pass their check to even publish on the eShop.

Now its too little too late for the hardware.
 
Vena said:
That rejection was back when Nintendo's view on indies was WiiWare-era and really closed off. You needed a lot to pass their check to even publish on the eShop.

Now its too little too late for the hardware.
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Nintendo have had a pretty much completely open eshop since the Wii U launched, the restrictions were pretty much a lifetime ago
 
I was talking to acouple developers at PAX Prime about the Nintendo audience. When talking about bringing indie games to the WiiU or when they hear their friends are doing it, they were left scratching their heads going "Who is this supposed market that's buying WiiU indie games?"

I kinda don't wanna name names, but these were guys that have had success elsewhere, so their hesitance was interesting to say the least.
 
Shaanyboi said:
I was talking to acouple developers at PAX Prime about the Nintendo audience. When talking about bringing indie games to the WiiU or when they hear their friends are doing it, they were left scratching their heads going "Who is this supposed market that's buying WiiU indie games?"

I kinda don't wanna name names, but these were guys that have had success elsewhere, so their hesitance was interesting to say the least.
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Seems silly, as there is definitely a Nintendo Indie buying audience. All the Nintendo indies I talked to have done well.
 
Javier said:
Four indie games were released on Wii U this week.

Five indie games were released last week.

Only one was released on the two weeks before, but they were the Holiday weeks and more focused on sales. We also got Super Mario Galaxy, which would have likely overshadowed anything released that week.

The week before that, we got three games, one of which was Minecraft.

The week before that we got four, one of which was Fast Racing Neo.

The week before that we got nothing, but Xenoblade Chronicles X released that week. We also got Trauma Team as a nice bonus.

So no, I don't think anything negative has happened with indies on Wii U. Nintendo tends to release them in batches, and usually they don't overlap them with their big releases (be it new Wii U games or notable Virtual Console releases).
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But...but Nintendo gonna Nintendo!
 
Shaanyboi said:
I was talking to acouple developers at PAX Prime about the Nintendo audience. When talking about bringing indie games to the WiiU or when they hear their friends are doing it, they were left scratching their heads going "Who is this supposed market that's buying WiiU indie games?"

I kinda don't wanna name names, but these were guys that have had success elsewhere, so their hesitance was interesting to say the least.
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One of the neat things about the indie business is that, even the successful ones, arent really great business people or good at marketing.

Add on to that the closed platforms and their protection of customer data and sales data and its not easy to do market analytics and research.

Clearly this is proven out when these devs scratch their heads instead of, I don't know, getting intouch with someone like Damon Baker to discuss the market or the business of indies on Nintendo platforms. Odds are Nintendo can share some of the data to help make a decision.

I think it more interesting that an indie developer, who would generally benefit from being on every platform, isnt making an effort to be on every platform.

As for upcoming indies, there are several KS projects that should be hitting this year, but will probably be moved to NX.

One that looks good and has been getting NOA love is Hive Jump.
 
Slate Soda said:
But...but Nintendo gonna Nintendo!
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It's too bad that the console is an indie console now and nothing more. Meanwhile the PS4 and Xbox One continue to be AAA and Indie game powerhouses. Nintendo would do well to do whatever is necessary to make sure the NX doesn't suffer the same fate as the Wii and Wii U. But it won't and we'll be back in a few years from now with folks saying Nintendo has learned from it's mistakes and will DEFINITELY fix it for the next go around.
 
chubigans said:
Nintendo's decisions regarding indies can be downright perplexing though. Game Maker Studio was able to branch out to Microsoft and Sony and offer XB1/PS4/PS3/Vita exports, but Nintendo outright refused to have a Wii U or 3DS export. Which basically means I won't be able to make any games for a Nintendo platform unless they change their minds for the NDX.
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I can tell you that there are games made with GM that are commercially available on the eShop.
 
Indie devs have access to a way bigger audience on other platforms and the Wii U isn't worth the time or the effort to put their games on it.

That's the answer to this question. Sorry to disappoint you OP.
 
MrV4ltor said:
That doesn't have anything to do with it at all. They got Minecraft after Dan departed and they currently have a really nice guy in charge, who is even allowed to tweet lol
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People don't realize, but the guy who people think replaced Dan, Damon Baker, was actually Dan's boss.
 
Indie games are still coming to the Wii U. The vast majority of them are games that I don't care for unfortunately. And the way they handle digital purchases on their platforms means the few that interest me will be bought elsewhere if possible.
 
Champion said:
Indie games are still coming to the Wii U. The vast majority of them are games that I don't care for unfortunately. And the way they handle digital purchases on their platforms means the few that interest me will be bought elsewhere if possible.
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If I were a betting man, I would bet that come next console, all existing eshop titles will continue to work on the next Nintendo console. Not going to happen for Sony or Xbox. The switch from the last console is precedence.
 
Shaanyboi said:
I was talking to acouple developers at PAX Prime about the Nintendo audience. When talking about bringing indie games to the WiiU or when they hear their friends are doing it, they were left scratching their heads going "Who is this supposed market that's buying WiiU indie games?"

I kinda don't wanna name names, but these were guys that have had success elsewhere, so their hesitance was interesting to say the least.
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I had a similar experience when talking to a few iOS developers. Their responses werent necessarily about an inability to port because of bandwidth, but incredulity at the fact that there might be a real Wii u audience.

I misfired and inadvertently derailed the conversation by adding my opinion about the quality of indie games that HAVE been released on the Wii U. As has been shown numerous times in this thread, they are multitude and growing. The Wii U indie scene is getting healthier by the day.

What I should've said - and which has been partially answered - is why there aren't more high profile and/or PC ports on the Wii U.

There was a point in iOS where it almost seemed like everything and anything would be available on that platform. I believe that if the curation was better and the audience was willing to support the games at higher prices, we would see even more high profile games there today. To the point: indie games of all tiers seemed like a forgone conclusion there. It's a perception that has not been afforded the Wii U, but is beginning to take hold on PS4 and Xbone.

I started this thread for conversation. NeoGAF is a platform that allows a wide range of people to have great discussion, and sometimes those people are part of the development community. On great days, their responses are educational.

This thread was super informative. It's not about a right or wrong. I was curious about the Wii u's perception.
 
orthodoxy1095 said:
I don't think Herpes or even OP are exactly saying those "don't count," but that they're not the indie games they're expecting/looking for.

Basically, yeah. The age-old "quality-quantity" issue. The eShop may be getting plenty of indies by sheer numbers, but how many indies are they getting that are customer draws?
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Then the OP is wrong right? I mean FAST just released and many really love the game.Shovel Knight also started and become the most successful on Nintendo ecosystem

There are also many nice indies coming under Nindies program. So i dont really agree with oP and of course Herpes at all here.
 
Don't own a Wii U, so my knowledge on its software library my be wrong, but doesn't the system have a decent amount of indie support in addition to a few console exclusives (Runbow, Freedom Planet, ect)?

The system is fine on the indie front, but the software echo system is very different compared to the Vita, which is in a similar spot the Wii U is in, only the situation is completely flipped (Nintendo: First Party and Indies but no third party games from publishers/Sony: No First Party Releases but a lot of indies + JP titles releasing on the console).

The Vita has indie games in spades due to how they are successful they are on the console; lack of major Sony releases pushed them to get a lot of attention in late 2013/early 2014 and the platform exploded from that point on for indie developers. They got a market hungry for games and they are willing to throw lots of games at them :D.

JP publishers/developers did this too late 2013/a lot of 2014, leading to JP titles finding great homes on Vita. Point is the Vita community wanted indies/JP games and thus, more came.

Nintendo systems want Nintendo games, so games Nintendo-like (Shovel Knight, Fast Racing Neo, Freedom Planet) do very well on the console. Games not Nintendo-like, likely don't do very well on the E-Shop, but they do well enough to warrant more releases from developer/publisher.

Point is that the Wii U is getting indie games but its not getting as much compared to the Vita due to how Nintendo game sales eat up a good deal of sales from other titles. I could be very wrong stating that, and if people want to correct me, feel free to do so :D.

But historically, third party games (which includes indie games) sell second to Nintendo produced products.
 
chubigans said:
Those must have been ported to another engine, most likely done via GM7.
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From what I gather, they're basically exporting to HTML and then manually fixing things to work with NWF.

I haven't played any of the games played using this workaround but NWF/Construct games seem to struggle on Wii U at the best of times, so I don't imagine it's ideal.
 
casiopao said:
Then the OP is wrong right? I mean FAST just released and many really love the game.Shovel Knight also started and become the most successful on Nintendo ecosystem

There are also many nice indies coming under Nindies program. So i dont really agree with oP and of course Herpes at all here.
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I don't know. I don't think the premise is that crazy. I don't ever go to the eShop for indies because I know I can get a much bigger and better selection on my PS4 and PC. Sure there's good stuff there. I don't think that's really the question. But the catalog doesn't exist in a vacuum and without comparisons to other services.
 
In case no one mentioned, Oxenfree was a timed console exclusive for Xbox One in the first place, so that's one mystery solved.

It's a combination of things: engine support, money changing hands and designer apathy.

The 1st can't be solved at this point, the 2nd is something that we're going to see more of in the future and the 3rd... well, what can anyone say or do to change that? There's plenty of good Steam releases that aren't hitting any console, there's nothing anyone can really say to that aspect of the situation.

But I think the thread's premise really discounts that, despite the platform's health being in the shitter, Wii U has a lot more indie games than anyone reasonably thought they would, including its own set of 3rd-party indie exclusives. So....
 
Herpes Reasons said:
It's too bad that the console is an indie console now and nothing more. Meanwhile the PS4 and Xbox One continue to be AAA and Indie game powerhouses. Nintendo would do well to do whatever is necessary to make sure the NX doesn't suffer the same fate as the Wii and Wii U. But it won't and we'll be back in a few years from now with folks saying Nintendo has learned from it's mistakes and will DEFINITELY fix it for the next go around.
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This is cute but this topic was about Nintendo's relationship with Indies. People blindly shat on Nintendo and completely missed the mark. So now the discussion is shifting to "Well Nintendo is terrible with everything else ever!" Sorry, but I have no interest in chasing goalposts. Yes Nintendo has made fucked decisions. There are plenty of other more fitting topics to shit on Nintendo for the decisions. I'm sure you'll make good use of them.
 
Herpes Reasons said:
It's too bad that the console is an indie console now and nothing more. Meanwhile the PS4 and Xbox One continue to be AAA and Indie game powerhouses. Nintendo would do well to do whatever is necessary to make sure the NX doesn't suffer the same fate as the Wii and Wii U. But it won't and we'll be back in a few years from now with folks saying Nintendo has learned from it's mistakes and will DEFINITELY fix it for the next go around.
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Good job moving the goalposts.
 
Nintendo has done a decent job getting indies on board. That list posted ITT is decent-sized. It does kinda justify the OP though because chances are if you google a title you'll find something with the production values and depth of flaming vomit-covered garbage or no relevant results at all. But if you have a game you think can compete you target bigger markets, pretty simple.

Why Wii U isn't getting ports of most multiplatform releases despite being capable is rather easy to answer: its not worth the effort. Wii U owners: Niche. Wii U owners that don't own another target platform: niche of a niche.


Terrell said:
But I think the thread's premise really discounts that, despite the platform's health being in the shitter, Wii U has a lot more indie games than anyone reasonably thought they would, including its own set of 3rd-party indie exclusives. So....
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Nah. The Vita is even deeper down the shitter and it has had tons of indie exclusives and releases in general over the years.
 
@MUWANdo said:
One thing I will say about the JP Wii U eShop market is that it's a total wasteland; there are next to no Japanese indie games on the service, so they're left to the mercy of two or three publishers who (slowly) localise the occasional western indie game. I'm not surprised games don't sell well there because there's very little reason for Japanese owners to even bother checking the eShop for exclusive games.
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At least Kemco came back to Wii U after a year or two, so that's something.
 
Herpes Reasons said:
It's too bad that the console is an indie console now and nothing more. Meanwhile the PS4 and Xbox One continue to be AAA and Indie game powerhouses. Nintendo would do well to do whatever is necessary to make sure the NX doesn't suffer the same fate as the Wii and Wii U. But it won't and we'll be back in a few years from now with folks saying Nintendo has learned from it's mistakes and will DEFINITELY fix it for the next go around.
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Do you just make it a point to go into discussions and make insults to Nintendo that are irrelevant to the discussion at hand? I honestly can't see why or how you think this is productive. We get it, you don't like Nintendo and you don't think they'll improve, but your not at all vague bias against them and blatant insults aren't doing anything to further the discussion. Let's try to keep our conversational prowess a notch above Youtube and Gamefaqs please. We're discussing the indie library, which is a topic that's worth discussing, but you're not discussing anything; you're just smugly mashing your keyboard while communicating nothing more than useless insults and troll posts.
 
What a weird thread...WiiU gets plenty of Indie releases, some of the better ones are even exclusive.Indies in general have limited resources so dropping their project on every system from the get go isn't always possible.

And at this point some of them are likely just waiting for the NX before announcing or porting more ambitious project to a system that might not be around 1-2 years from now,
 
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