Indie developers share eShop experiences at GDC as Nintendo lines up some big titles

This year’s Game Developer Conference is in full swing. For many years now Nintendo has been there talking to indies and, more recently, showing off some of the great indie games coming to the Wii U and 3DS.

A ton of new titles have already been revealed at this years show, and it appears Nintendo is strengthening its relationship with independent developers even further, continuing to help them bring their games to Nintendo’s systems. In fact, Nintendo had more third party games at GDC than in-house, first party ones.

At the event, Gamesindustry.biz spoke to a few developers on their experiences working with Nintendo. Jaspar Koning of Romino Games has worked with Nintendo before, but say that the eShop now offers “something special”, which is why they’re bringing Swords & Soldiers II to the Wii U exclusively.

eShop is actually pretty good to indies right now. For the type of traditional, say $10-$15 fairly polished indie game it’s a really nice safe haven from places like iOS and Android, which are crazy crowded, and even on Steam it’s hard to stand out.

It’s a well known fact that the Wii U is not the most successful platform out there but at the same time I feel that in our space, or for the kind of numbers that we generally do, we don’t need a platform with a billion users. Even though this game is a lot bigger than the original and took us a lot more time it’s still not like a AAA title where we need to make millions back. I think we’re in a good place.

Developers who haven’t worked with Nintendo before are also bringing their games to the Wii U. Never Alone, which tells the story of a young girl from the Inupiat tribe of Alaska, is coming to the Wii U eShop, and it only took the developers a couple of weeks to get the game running on the system. Dima Veryovka, art director on Never Alone had this to say:

“It was really fast, everything happened in like two weeks. We didn’t have the build and now we already have the build running, and that’s not something we would be able to do without the support of Nintendo,”

The initially low sales of the Wii U scared off a lot of developers a couple of years ago, but with the ecosystem now 10 million consoles strong, the risk is much lower. Dave Proctor from 13AM Games is bringing Runbow to the Wii U, and says that thanks to increased sales and Nintendo’s support they ‘wave the banner’ for the eShop.

We grew up with Nintendo, so did a lot of people and the people who went on to make Sony games. So that’s a big honor, and Nintendo has a real commitment to quality, so when a game is fun they will support it whether it’s their own game or an independent game. We’ve been noticing that trait as we get closer and closer with them.

I wave the banner. I can’t not support them after what they’ve done for us, which is amazing for a team and a game that didn’t exist two years ago. If you put time and effort into making your game fun Nintendo will recognize that across the board. With other indies we’re watching them put stuff out on Nintendo faster than they ever would otherwise, and I feel like the tide is kind of turning.

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Everyone gets a little scared when they look at Wii U sales numbers from two years ago but when you look at them today, I’m ok with 10 million units. That’s an ok platform to be on. That’s punching weight with the other two. What they’ve done is they’ve made people remember that Nintendo cares about fun. They made consumers remember that and they’ve made the industry remember that.

Alongside all this positive praise, Nintendo has managed to secure a few more high-profile games to head to the eShop. We’ve already mentioned Never Alone, but games like BOXBOY!, Runbow,  Trine Enchanted Edition, Octodad: Dadliest Catch and Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut are making their way to the eShop.

Developers are even taking the games one step further, with games like Affordable Space Adventure and Don’t Starve: Giant Edition taking advantage of the Wii U GamePad to change and augment the gameplay of those games.

To get an idea of all the great games coming to the eShop, Nintendo of America have sent out this list. Keep in mind that these release dates are for America and may not apply here or even in Europe.

Wii U

• 6180 the moon – Q2 2015
• Adventures of Pip – May
• Affordable Space Adventures – April 9
• Antipole DX – Q3 2015
• Art Academy – 2015
• Back to Bed – May
• BADLAND: Game of the Year Edition – Q2 2015
• Beatbuddy – Q2 2015
• Chromophore: The Two Brothers Director’s Cut – August
• Don’t Starve: Giant Edition – Spring
• Dot Arcade – March
• Elliot Quest – March
• forma.8 – Q3 2015
• Hex Heroes – Q3 2015
• Life of Pixel – Q2 2015
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars – March 5
• Mutant Mudds Super Challenge – Q2 2015
• Never Alone – June
• Nihilumbra – Spring
• Ninja Pizza Girl – June
• NOVA-111 – Summer
• Octodad: Dadliest Catch – Summer
• OlliOlli – March 5
• RACE THE SUN – Q2 2015
• Runbow – Q3 2015
• Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut – Q3 2015
• Shutshimi – Q2 2015
• Slain! – Q3 2015
• Space Hulk – May 2
• STARWHAL – Q2 2015
• Swords & Soldiers 2 – May
• The Swindle – Summer
• Toto Temple Deluxe – Q2 2015
• Trine Enchanted Edition – March 12
• Ultratron – May
• Windup Knight 2 – April
• Woah Dave! – Q2 2015

Nintendo 3DS

• Antipole DX – Q3 2015
• BOXBOY! – Spring
• Cube Creator 3D – Q2 2015
• Dementium: The Ward – Q2 2015
• DOOORS – Spring
• Lionel City Builder 3D: Rise of the Rails – Q2 2015
• Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Tipping Stars – March 5
• Mutant Mudds Super Challenge – Q2 2015
• OlliOlli – March 5
• Proun+ – March 5
• Shantae: Risky’s Revenge – Director’s Cut – Q3 2015
• Shutshimi – Q2 2015
• SteamWorld Heist – August