Scott Nixon, a project director at AWE Games, has a great article at GamaSutra called Bring Out Your Dead! Can Nintendo Breathe New Life into Adventure Games?
It references and builds upon an article I wrote last year, A Vision for Adventure Games on the Wii. Whereas my editorial explored the theory of using the Wiimote for adventure games, Scott speaks from actual experience working on the platform.
The article doesn’t shy away from discussing major caveats, interestingly by way of some examples from the first-person shooter Red Steel. While Scott believes most Wiimote interactions are inappropriate for adventure games, he sees the Wii’s large install base and its focus on innovation as great advantages, as they allow smaller adventure game developers to “compete with the big boys”.
Yes, there will be plenty of games which focus exclusively on the more esoteric side of the Wiimote, but I don’t believe that the adventure genre will have many of these beyond the initial wave of novelties. I can look back on dozens of scenarios in adventure games past that screamed for all the unique functionality a Wiimote has on offer. Use it liberally where appropriate. Forget it exists elsewhere.
Admittedly, some of my initial enthusiasm for the Wii has dimmed over the past couple of months. As AWE received Wiis and dev kits, some of the ensuing issues were just too big to ignore. However, I remain firmly optimistic in Nintendo’s attitude towards developers and games in general. Inexpensive dev kits and a focus on a broad game library is nothing but positive for a small developer.
Be sure to check out the complete article. Its angle is actually very positive, predicting a healthy future for adventure games.
(By the way, it’s being felt pretty strongly amongst the Adventure Gamers team that the genre is doing a lot better now than it was just a few years ago. Smart publishers will have probably noticed this upward trend already.)
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