soniCron

I frequently discuss game development as a small-time indie on my blog:

http://soniCron.SolariStudios.com

It's no catch-all, but I like to discuss the nitty-gritty that most people seem to gloss over. Here's a couple recent posts:

http://sonicron.solaristudios.com/2006/04/11/the-hit-factor/
http://sonicron.solaristudios.com/2006/04/08/double-your-sales-screenshots/

Enjoy!

And, incidentally, it's already on the PC (it's a downloadable game), and it isn't a "sim" in even the loosest sense of the term.

I don't understand why this is newsworthy? There are tons of previously online-only casual games being sold in retail. Bejeweled, Chuzzle, Collapse... This has been going on for a long time -- why bring it up now?

I don't put ANY stock in the fact that ANY of these games were hard to control. What you just witnessed is someone essentially sitting down to a new game and console for the very first time. And if it's hard on the Wii, imagine how painful it is on traditional consoles! It's very sobering to see a bunch of hardcore gamers have the same problems as anyone else that steps up to the plate. (Mom included.)

Is the Wii controller inferior? I think the jury is still out. Until someone gets an opportunity to become familiar with the controls and THEN comment, we really won't know. However, as you read the words of anguish and frustration, ask yourself, "What would a non-gamer say about their first time with Halo?" (And with games like Wii Sports proving to be crowd favorites, the problem may be in the implimentation, not the foundation.)

And I think it goes without saying: this is the first generation of a brand new gaming paradigm. We're bound to see changes over the years as developers and players become more and more comfortable with the new control system. With non-traditional video games like Wii Sports, it's becoming apparent that the more novel concepts (like stir-frying, conducting, drum playing, etc.) may be more at home on the Wii than games we're familiar with. And, after all, that's what it was designed for. Wasn't it?

*laughs* THAT was a series of useless posts! ;)

Dare I mention that with a traditional-style Wii shell, the Nintendo controller could blow the PS3 controller out of the water. The best of both worlds: buttons, pads, joysticks, motion sensing, tilt sensing, and location in 3D space. Far cheaper.