Ziazine Magazine June 2009 : Page 22ROUGH TRANSMISSION games OUGH TRANSMISSION games W W ii owners can purchase a plethora of critically- acclaimed titles belonging to nearly every genre imaginable, some of which include sports, puzzle, role-playing and even fitness. Quality first-person shoot- ers, on the other hand, are few and far between, espe- cially those packaged with extensive multiplayer options. Hoping to fill such a gaping canyon in the console’s library is veteran game studio High Voltage Software with the politically-enriched title e Conduit. With an especially long crunch period wrapping up and the title almost out the door, Eric Nofsinger, chief creative officer at High Voltage, took a break from his development duties to answer a few of our questions. Do you feel this project is too ambitious for the Wii? Nah. ere’s been a lot of hard work, but the Wii de- serves to have a high-quality FPS. Why should players be limited to shooting their friends in the face only on and PC? Why did you choose to develop for the Wii and not another console or the PC? Market saturation? e Wii is a great system and the control input is a phenomenal way to play an FPS. It’s incredibly intui- tive and feels like a natural extension of yourself in the gaming world. The enemies are a disgusting-looking race of insects named the “Drudge.” Any relation to right-wing newsman Matt Drudge, who also may or may not be a blood-sucking insect? I plead the Fifth. [ 22 + ZIAZINE + JUNE 2009 ] GH TRANSMISSION games W ii owners can purchase a plethora of critically- acclaimed titles belonging to nearly every genre imaginable, some of which include sports, puzzle, role-playing and even fitness. Quality first-person shoot- ers, on the other hand, are few and far between, espe- cially those packaged with extensive multiplayer options. Hoping to fill such a gaping canyon in the console’s library is veteran game studio High Voltage Software with the politically-enriched title e Conduit. With an especially long crunch period wrapping up and the title almost out the door, Eric Nofsinger, chief creative officer at High Voltage, took a break from his development duties to answer a few of our questions. Do you feel this project is too ambitious for the Wii? Nah. ere’s been a lot of hard work, but the Wii de- serves to have a high-quality FPS. Why should players be limited to shooting their friends in the face only on and PC? Why did you choose to develop for the Wii and not another console or the PC? Market saturation? e Wii is a great system and the control input is a phenomenal way to play an FPS. It’s incredibly intui- tive and feels like a natural extension of yourself in the gaming world. The enemies are a disgusting-looking race of insects named the “Drudge.” Any relation to right-wing newsman Matt Drudge, who also may or may not be a blood-sucking insect? I plead the Fifth. [ 22 + ZIAZINE + JUNE 2009 ] The The Wii finally grows up with help from The Conduit by kyle stallock Seriously though, the game takes place in an alterna- tive reality where the U.S. is noticeably susceptible to terrorist attacks from within. Is this your own brand of political commentary, or is it just a storytelling device and that’s it? We certainly utilize reoccurring motifs of paranoia, se- crecy and betrayal. And all of our shadowy Illuminati- style organization’s agents are named after former U.S. presidents. Also, there are many cheeky winks peppered throughout e Conduit’s world. We can’t wait to see what fans unearth of the political treasures we’ve hid- den. How cooperative has Nintendo been in your develop- ment of a more “hardcore” title? Nintendo has been fantastic! ey love good games first and foremost, regardless of genre or audience. Putting console limitations aside, as well as “release dates,” what feature would you want to see implement- ed into The Conduit most of all and why? A map editor? How about downloadable replays? The sky’s the limit. Well, if the sky is the limit: big head mode. [Laughs] Honestly, there were several features we really wanted to get in, and we even had them working, but there just wasn’t time to polish it to our stan- dards. As far as pie-in-the-sky new fea- tures, DLC, split screen play and online co-op would all be up there. THE CONDUIT is available now for Wii. Rough Transmissionkyle stallockThe Wii finally grows up with help from The Conduit Publication List |
