Wii U: An Indie Darling?

[Nester the Lark]

After that infamous article about how the Wii U and Nintendo were supposedly difficult to work with, a lot of indie developers came out to defend Nintendo. (Here and here are links I didn't get around to posting in the other thread.) At that point, I started to notice how indie devs are supporting the Wii U as much as major publishers are running away from it.

Just recently, René Hellwig (of NG.DEV.TEAM) mentioned, "Nintendo is more straightforward with Indie devs, and we believe that in the coming years Nintendo consoles will be a great place to publish Indie games."

And Hugo Smits (of Goodbye Galaxy Games) recently said, "Communication between developers has been improving in a big way in the past year. Where in 2012 I barely talked to Nintendo, I now had almost weekly conversations in 2013." (Interestingly, he also noted, "The Nintendo 3DS is still a relative closed system, with expensive devkits. Hopefully those positive improvements on Nintendo WiiU will also transcend to Nintendo 3DS this year.")

I assume, however, that these positive vibes aren't just because of Nintendo having indie-friendly policies on the Wii U, but also because these developers are actually making money from putting their games on the console.  It's probably easier for a relatively low-budget digital game to turn a profit on lower sales than it is for a multi-million dollar production to move enough units just to break even.

It's kind of interesting, I think, that Nintendo is on the crest of the indie wave.

Here's a short list of some notable indie games coming to the Wii U eShop:

Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut (Toxic Games)
Gunlord (NG.DEV.TEAM)
Oddworld: New 'N Tasty (Oddworld Inhabitants)
Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (Oddworld Inhabitants)
Mighty No. 9 (Comcept)
Pier Solar HD (WaterMelon)
Shantae: Half-Genie Hero (WayForward)
Shovel Knight (Yacht Club Games)
Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey (Red Thread Games)
1,001 Spikes (Nicalis)

And Nintendo even released their own indie sizzle reel last November:

[Nester the Lark]

If you're interested, Nintendo Enthusiast has a list of over 120 indie games coming to Wii U.

[Nester the Lark]

Nintendo Enthusiast is doing a video series based on their article I posted above.

The first part focuses on action-adventure games:

[Arcadenik]

I'm quite interested in some of those indie games... I only have two eShop games in my Wii U... EarthBound and DuckTales. I would like to expand my library a bit. Shovel Knight, Pier Solar, and Shantae catch my eye but I'm also intrigued by Ittle Dew... it seems to be inspired by Zelda ALTTP.

[Nester the Lark]

Phew! I thought I was the only one paying attention to the indie scene on Wii U.

I've gotten interested in The '90s Arcade Racer, which is exactly what it sounds like: inspired by arcade racing games from the '90s (like Daytona USA), just with better graphics.

[8bitretroshit]

I've saved the url link to that 120 indie games article. It's a good way to keep track of neat games to come now that I've got a WiiU of my own.

90's racer got my attention too and I'm probably gonna double dip on Shovel Knight. I backed the kickstarter and will get a Steam key, but I need a joypad for these kinda games y'know.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's another indie game that caught my eye recently called Heart Forth, Alicia. It's a '90s-style metroidvania with really gorgeous sprite graphics. I guess that the guy that's making it has been working on it for a few years now, but the game had a successful Kickstarter that ended last week, so now it's coming to Wii U and 3DS.

The thing that intrigued me about it is that it apparently includes some live-action FMV sequences featuring a character called "The Woman." The website is a little mysterious about how she fits into the game, but I get a Neverending Story vibe from it, like there's a "real" world and a fictional world that are vaguely aware of each other.

Oh, and it's going to have some music by Manami Matsumae.

Gonna keep an eye on this one.

[Nester the Lark]

Apparently, Nintendo's "indie guy," Dan Adelman, has left NoA after nine years. (Source) It sounds like relations were a little strained, with him being prohibited from tweeting after he openly criticized Nintendo's region locking policies. However, it also sounds like his departure was not unfriendly, and he said that the indie team at NoA would still be providing good support.

This is unfortunate, as I felt Nintendo's indie relations were fairly progressive. I suppose that won't necessarily change, but I'd like to hear some of the developers who dealt with him chime in on this.

[Nester the Lark]

Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is no longer coming to Wii U. It's now a PS4 console exclusive. (Still coming to Win/Mac/Linux, tho.) (Source)

Well, that's disappointing.

[Da Robot]

Aug 13, 2014 17:20:52 GMT -5 Nester the Lark said:

Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey is no longer coming to Wii U. It's now a PS4 console exclusive. (Still coming to Win/Mac/Linux, tho.) (Source)

Well, that's disappointing.

According to Twitter, it seems like since they are a small team they can only focus on one console at a time. And Sony approached them first.

But then again, this was said about a Wii U version last year.

We are also in dialogue with Nintendo. We're going to be looking at it. We can't make any promises because the the Wii U, it's underpowered compared to the next-gen consoles and PC obviously - I don't think that's a secret or Nintendo would get upset at me.

We're going to look at getting the game running on Wii U and then we'll make decisions depending on how that goes and what we see the market possibilities are doing. Like I said, we don't want to exclude anything, so we'll try anything.

[Nester the Lark]

Actually, Nintendo approached them first:

“Nintendo approached us last autumn, immediately after Dreamfall Chapters was announced – they were, in fact, the first console manufacturer to do so,” says Red Thread founder and creative director Ragnar Tørnquist. “At that point, however, we weren’t ready to make any commitments regarding engine and platforms, so we decided to wait. We got back in touch with Nintendo in late May of this year, and they were very interested in working with us.”

The studio has just received its first Wii U dev kit, and is still in the process of getting the game up and running on Wii U. It is aiming to release Dreamfall Chapters on Nintendo’s home console complete with Gamepad functionality. “So far, they’ve been very helpful and supportive, and it’s been a painless and surprisingly rapid process,” adds Tørnquist.

I'm not gonna lose sleep over it or anything, but it sucks that they would promise the game to Wii U owners and then back out of it.