next »

[skaldicpoet9]

I was sitting here thinking and I was wondering what all of you thought of Nintendo's Wiiware, namely, the ability fot Indie devs to be able to develop games for the Wii. I think that it is a great idea but that it might have some limitations (i.e. the Wii only has 512mb of memory, hampering how big downloadable games can be). I think that this is great news though, I would love to see some great little indie games on Wiiware (I am not to terribly keen on VC games...NES,SNES etc..) just imagine what a game like Chalk could be like on the Wii.....

[Alex May]

Hell yes, I'm up for WiiWare.

Thing is that I believe you need to be a Nintendo registered developer to do it. Now, I'm still waiting for answers on that to emerge from the magic of the internet, it's not like I've emailed Nintendo or anything sensible like that, but it seems to me like this service is aimed at small developers who have a track record of at least a few years' development. I don't think it's open to the hobbyist, as Nintendo don't register anyone who has their office at home.

Still, you can use the Wii Remote with your PC, so there's nothing to stop you making a tech demo for a Wii game right now! Although I'm not sure about the sensor bar, the accelerometers are certainly readable.

[skaldicpoet9]

Hell yes, I'm up for WiiWare.

Thing is that I believe you need to be a Nintendo registered developer to do it. Now, I'm still waiting for answers on that to emerge from the magic of the internet, it's not like I've emailed Nintendo or anything sensible like that, but it seems to me like this service is aimed at small developers who have a track record of at least a few years' development. I don't think it's open to the hobbyist, as Nintendo don't register anyone who has their office at home.

Still, you can use the Wii Remote with your PC, so there's nothing to stop you making a tech demo for a Wii game right now! Although I'm not sure about the sensor bar, the accelerometers are certainly readable.

Yeah, I hope that doesn't hamper a lot of indie devs. I was reading that Nintendo actually has somewhat stringent policies toward who can develop for them (i.e. you have to be established, have an office of some sort etc...) But I see a lot of potential in this....I can see indie developers having a field day with the WiiMmote....imagine the possibilities...

[fish]

i hope that nintendo does what the other 2 have been doing at events like slamdance and IGF and just pick up titles they like.
i hope that they see something they like, and that they just publish it.
regardless of if the developer has offices or not. thats just silly.
if theyre really gonna be the indie heros theyve been positioning themselves to be, they need to give us a hand and publish our stuff.

[Alex May]

IIRC they said the same sort of stuff for the GameCube, and that didn't go anywhere either. So I remain skeptical. XNA seems to be the best bet for homebrewers who want to develop on consoles right now.

[fish]

im using XNA right now.
well not me, the coder.
but still. its coming along great.
only issue with it is code portability.

[skaldicpoet9]

i hope that nintendo does what the other 2 have been doing at events like slamdance and IGF and just pick up titles they like.
i hope that they see something they like, and that they just publish it.
regardless of if the developer has offices or not. thats just silly.
if theyre really gonna be the indie heros theyve been positioning themselves to be, they need to give us a hand and publish our stuff.

Amen to that, I feel the same way, if Nintendo really wants to recognize indie devs they need to reach out to the hobbyist/student/garage devs as well....that, I believe is where a lot of the indie game movement is going on at...

IIRC they said the same sort of stuff for the GameCube, and that didn't go anywhere either. So I remain skeptical. XNA seems to be the best bet for homebrewers who want to develop on consoles right now.

Yeah XNA is definitely exciting...I am actually starting to program with C# and am planning on using the XNA framework for my games....I actually almost got a 360 instead of a Wii so I could play my games on the 360 as well....I am there with you though, I am still somewhat apprehensive about what Wiiware will be for Indie games....

[Pigbuster]

I think Wiiware is neat and all, but if this "YOU NEED AN OFFICE" thing is true, then that's just... stupid.

Why would you keep the code out of the hands of people that want to see it?
Is there some kind of downside to allowing more people to do things with your code? Hackers, maybe?

I always feel like people should stop being so defensive about their code. I feel like releasing the source code (or at least the engine) should be a given for any program.
I'm sure there are reasons that people don't do this more often, but... I can't think of anything bad enough to offset the good.

[skaldicpoet9]

I think Wiiware is neat and all, but if this "YOU NEED AN OFFICE" thing is true, then that's just... stupid.

Why would you keep the code out of the hands of people that want to see it?
Is there some kind of downside to allowing more people to do things with your code? Hackers, maybe?

I always feel like people should stop being so defensive about their code. I feel like releasing the source code (or at least the engine) should be a given for any program.
I'm sure there are reasons that people don't do this more often, but... I can't think of anything bad enough to offset the good.

Yeah, I am right there with you....I really hope Nintendo realizes the value of letting the real heart of the indie-dev scene beat on it's console...I would love to see some great one-man projects on WiiWare....ah, I guess time will only tell...