DeadlyNinja
Veteran
Julian Eggebrecht interview. Talks about Germany, Lair (motion controls), and Wii.
- Thread starter DeadlyNinja
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DeadlyNinja
Veteran
Better not be another flying game...
Eggebrecht is back to Nintendo with his tail between his legs 
After years of saying 'we only work with the most powerful hardware' he's clearly changed his attitude (or been forced in another direction?). And a good thing too! The Wii could benefit from Factor 5's mastery of the hardware. That might even do well to develop a middleware engine and just cash in on the entire Wii market.
After years of saying 'we only work with the most powerful hardware' he's clearly changed his attitude (or been forced in another direction?). And a good thing too! The Wii could benefit from Factor 5's mastery of the hardware. That might even do well to develop a middleware engine and just cash in on the entire Wii market.DeadlyNinja
Veteran
Hey, maybe Factor 5 are the ones trying to port Unreal 3 Engine to the Wii. I mean, Mark Rein (or someone at Epic) said somebody's trying it, and who better than F5 to take a crack at it? Don't know if they'll be able to, but they seem to be the most qualified for the task. I'd like to see the new Turok on the Wii just for fun.
Considering this was already reported by IGN a few months ago, I think we could actually expect to see some screens pretty soon.
Considering this was already reported by IGN a few months ago, I think we could actually expect to see some screens pretty soon.
With his tail between his legs?
What's that?
Do you think Julian found out he's not skilled enough for the nextgen so he goes back to the hardware for the beginners?
... oh... maybe that's right.
Deadly Towers
Newcomer
It's more that we're lucky Sony took on the risks as publisher of Lair.
I highly doubt that they are porting UE3 and instead are writing their own engine. It will be interesting to see how much farther they can push the machine. I'd like to see them try something besides a flying game, but on the other hand, they'll need some new personnel who actually know how to make walking controls not horrible.
The Rogue Squadron games on N64/Gamecube were great. They also made Battle for Naboo which isn't part of the proper Rogue Squadron games but is in the same gameplay style. A really neat thing about Battle for Naboo on N64 is it was one of the first games(if not the first) to have making of extras(developer commentary on each level). They also knew how to make great on-foot games, they made Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on the N64 which most of you probably didn't play because it had a limited release. IIRC Factor 5 even contributed their talent to Gamecube SDK tools. There was a reason why Lair was so hyped, Factor 5 used to have quite a rep. Maybe they'll vindicate themselves on the Wii.
No. As I mentioned, he's always said they target the most powerful platform. Lair showed targeting the most powerful platform and saying how great you are as developers creating amazing software technology isn't the best way to get good returns on costly developments. Producing good games that people want is far more important than creating amazing technology. Thus the whole 'most powerful hardware' attitude is dropped and he takes a far more sensible approach to game development, choosing a platform not based on specs alone but lots of other criteria.
Indiana Jones was a port of a PC game.
I think the financial prospects were the far more decisive factor here. First of all, they've got a fairly good and extensive engine for the GCN already in place, which can be adapted fairly quickly to Wii. Moreover, Wii already has a good base of installed units (which is likely to grow at a good pace over the few months). And last but not least Factor5's games have a fairly good track record on Nintendo's platform with regard to sales.
So a Wii game could do well for them.
Also, they have gone on record several times stating that they were disappointed with what developers were getting out of the Wii hardware, even compared to what they had been doing on the GameCube. I suppose someone made them an offer they didn't want to refuse, especially as they may not have gotten very attractive deals / prospects on PS3 after Lair, which must have been really bad for them.
That game really needs a demo, still.
That game really needs a demo, still.