Overgame : How did the pre-E3 conference occur ?
Novel Campos Oriola : It was really interesting to be with all people of Nintendo. We côtoyé Iwata and Miyamoto during two days during the repetitions.
Red Steel was proposed much, at the same time in the specialized press and at the time of the pre-E3 conference. Does Nintendo count much on you ?
Yes, they count much on us because we were the first studio at which Nintendo presented the télémanette. We had just met them after E3, last year. They had explained us what would be able the accessory : both pads, recognition of movements, etc. During two or three months, we thought on a concept and possible movements with the realizers. And in July 2005, we went to see them in Kyoto. We presented a first concept [ NDR to them : under the name of Katana Project, at the time ] and since, we work more or less narrowly with them according to periods'. Sometimes we have an iteration every month or two months. Sometimes, like that was the case right before this E3, we practically twice have iterations per week.
How is the experiment of development of plays on Wii ?
It is very different bus the interface is completely different. Blow, it is necessary to reinvent control methods because there is not currently any gun in this field on Wii. All the work which we mainly had with Nintendo was to try to find a way common to this level.
How are the engagements with the sabre with the gyroscopic lever managed ?
In fact, it is acted of detection of movements. Those are detected, compared compared to a bank of known movements and, if there is a correspondence, the program connects on animations. It is not exactly true positioning in space.
Do you have other ideas of what could be realizable with this kind of interface ?
When the first prototypes were received, eight month ago, one started while thinking of the types of movements which would be interesting to realize. One left the lists and the lists. There was full with interesting things like, for example, throw of the shurikens. The possibilities are multiple. All that is detection of movements goes very, very well.
It would be said that work was to restrict you.
To restrict itself, yes, but also especially to find what appears most natural. Typically, for the doors, we had started by saying that it would be enough to make a movement [ rotation of the wrist ] because everyone opens a door like that. In fact, we realized that nobody makes this movement in the same way. And that most natural, finally, it was to explain to somebody whom it had just to push the door. Finally, it is there this movement which was retained. It is there that work is rather difficult : to try to know what "will speak" more to people in terms of movement.
Would you say, of the blow, which introduced Wii of new challenges for the game designers ?
Yes As the interface is different, the first basic challenge is to wonder what will be clear for the player. But there are also other problems. For example, the actions should well be cut out. You cannot ask to the player to carry out movements into simultaneous on both pads, as if it played the battery. There is full with small things of this kind which we discovered during the phases of test.
But in can the future, one imagine more complex methods of control for the Wii plays ?
If one puts a play Playstation of first generation vis-a-vis at a play Playstation of last generation, visually, both do not have anything to see. In the same way that, on Playstation or Xbox, of new graphic bookshops arrive progressively with the lifespan of the console, one can imagine that Wii will accomodate, in the long term, of the methods of recognition of movements increasingly sophisticated. With my opinion, according to progress that our team made into three or four months, the detection of movements even more intuitive and will be pushed in one six months/one year. Currently, it goes well but there is still full with small failures. You feel that you are obliged to make the movement which will be recognized. But it is in good way, and I have really confidence because it is a technology which is nevertheless rather complex to take in hand and to control. One is yet only at the beginning.
Can one say that technology is put at the second plan with Wii ?
Graphic technology, yes. But technology that you have in the hand, it, progresses enormously.
Will graphics of Wii be also progressing ?
With my opinion, quality will remain relatively stable. Wii is rather close to Gamecube. It is more powerful but that remains the same type of environment ; these are things that the developers know well. I think that it acts of a console which, upon the departure, will put the graphic bar at the neighbourhoods of the maximum of its capacities. There will be surely people who will a little further push it but as it acts of an architecture very easy to control, one sees all quickly that one can make with.
The rumours spoke about a power comparable with that of Xbox...
I do not have the right to speak in details of what Wii can do graphically. What one can say, it is that on the sum of all that it can do, Wii is more powerful than Xbox. But there are things which Xbox can make and which Wii cannot make.
Could Red Steel constitute on Wii the pioneer of a style of plays closer to than one is accustomed to finding on Playstation 2 or Xbox, but with a different interface ?
It is a little what one tried to do. It is also for that that Nintendo came to seek us at the base. They said to us to know to make plays like Zelda or Mario, but to need us - of our expertise, one could say - for things which they cannot inevitably make : a little adult FPS, more directed a little action. Because Metroid, even if it acts at the base of a FPS, nevertheless remains more platform and ventures.
There, the universe is much darker.
We will try to be classified "For teenagers" [ in the United States ], compared to all the problems which the country currently connait with the video game. It is for that that there will be no blood or dismemberments. They are marketing choices for the USA. But on the level of the universe and the scenario, yes, that will be something of rather dark.
Is Red Steel a universe which can evolve/move, the beginning of a new frankness ?
One will try to do that of it. It is a little the objective of this partnership with Nintendo
But let's say the alleged interview remains shrouded in mystery. Moreover, the developer seems to have contradicted the statements from original "interview" in that French interview.
the results seems the same.