The Conduit (Nintendo Wii): Exclusive Development Team Interview

One of the boldest development endeavors we’re looking out for this Spring is The Conduit, a FPS developed by High Voltage Software and published by Sega. Unlike most FPS titles that are designed for the PS3 and 360, then scaled down and utterly marginalized for the Wii, The Conduit was actually built for the Wii exclusively. That means the development team actually focused on on utilizing the Wii technology, while optimizing the graphics specifically for the console.

We got a chance to take this title for a spin at Comic Con and we were quickly impressed by some of the dynamic weaponry offered. We’re also thrilled to see that publishers and developers are finally trying to push the limits of the Wii, by focusing on creating products that really take advantage of the Wii-control mechanics.

We caught up with Kerry J. Ganofsky, CEO/Founder of High Voltage, and Eric Nofsinger, Chief Creative Officer at High Voltage, to discuss this original release.

How did you come up with the concept for the Conduit?

E. Nofsinger: We saw that there was a real lack of quality 3rd party products for the Wii - specifically for first person shooters. There were some ports, and less than stellar quality games out there. The Wii just seemed like a natural fit to us, as a great product for that IR control interface.

Get The Conduit for the Nintendo Wii Now!

When you look at the range of first person shooters out there like Halo, or even 3rd person shooters like Gears of War, how do you think it compares against those kinds of titles?

E. Nofsinger: For me it’s a lot better. I’m not a fan of playing a FPS with dual analogue sticks. Although those are great products, I think what we’re getting a lot of praise for is the graphics we’re able to push on the Wii. That’s all well and good, but really it boils down to the gameplay. We’ve been working on this for the last year and a half, and I’ve gotten really spoiled by it. Now that I’ve been playing the Wii so long, when I go back to FPS on other consoles it feels like I’m washing my clothes on rocks. It feels so unintuitive and cumbersome.

You said you prefer not having dual analogue. Suppose the Conduit is extremely successful, would you consider porting it to the PS3 or Xbox 360?

E. Nofsinger: Not at all. Not even for just the core controls. We’ve got a lot of Wii specific weaponry that affords the type of gameplay that you can’t do on the PS3 and 360. For example, a couple of weapons like the Shrieker, which is sort of a guided missile. Once you launch the projectile, you actually guide your shot and twist and turn it. You get really good at it, it’s definitely a skill based mechanic. It’s not a waggle the Wii-mote kind of thing. When you’re guiding the projectile around you can actually get it to circle enemies and things like that which is awesome for multiplayer cause you can totally screw with people.

Outside of those other kinds of Wii-specific mechanisms are our Bolo-cannon, the De-atomizer, it has a primary firing mode, which is just a quick burst. Then the secondary mode, the targeting reticule splits in two. The two points, whichever one it hits with, acts as an anchor. The secondary firing missile wraps around that until it meets the first and explodes - sort of like a bolo. What’s cool about that in itself, you go, ‘Oh, that’s kind of neat.’ But, what makes it special with the Wii-mote you can twist and turn the angle of that. So, it allows you to shoot people around corners, people who are ducked behind cover or up on a balcony. You can bank over, or up and under.

There’s an incredible amount of flexibility in that. You just couldn’t do that with the two sticks. Even down to our customization. We’ve got an incredible amount of customization throughout it. Including allowing players to go through and modify their HUD placement. Well with the Wii, you can just point and drag-and-drop the HUD elements wherever you want them to go. It’s a different way to interact and setup the FPS experience exactly for how you want to play it. Even PC Games don’t go to that level.

K. Ganofsky: For those reasons and more, what Eric is pointing out, is why in the beginning of the interview, when you discussed the other titles for the PS3 and the 360, (unlike games for those consoles) this was designed for the Wii from the ground up. And, those are specific features for the Wii. Would we want to see that on a 360 or PS3? Sure. But, could we do it? Not with those interfaces. And, that’s what makes this product special.

What engine did you use? Did you create your own engine, or say use another engine for collision?

K. Ganofsky: No, this is our technology from the ground up.

What kind of development team did you work with?

E. Nofsinger: Our core development team is about 35-40 people on average. But, almost everyone at the company has worked on it at one point or another. We’ve got over 150 employees. Just about everyone has worked on it at some point.

Give me a little background information on High Voltage.

E. Nofsinger: This is our sixteenth year in business. We’re primarily known for licensed development. We’ve done over 75-shipped products on pretty much every console that’s come out over those years. We’ve done a whole variety of different kinds of games.

What’s exciting for us now, is that we’re in a position to do our own original development and sort of put our money where our mouths are. We really believe strongly in it. We’ve put our own money into making sure that this could be successful. We’ve built it up on our own, and, more recently, partnering with Sega for the co-publishing, distribution and manufacture of it. They’ve been great. They’re very like-minded. They believe in the Wii as well. They believe that this system can be a lot more than the casual crappy hand-me-down system that a lot of other 3rd party publishers and developers have relegated the system to.

K. Ganofsky: On a go forward basis, about fifty percent of the studio resources will be devoted to work for hire on licensed property that we’ve been known for in the past. And fifty percent will be original IP (intellectual property) development by High Voltage that when the time is right we’ll shop to publishers.

We looked at the Wii and the decision we made to actually go with the Wii when a lot of other people were considering the 20 million plus projects on the PS3. We looked at the landscape and said how is this product ever going to recoup? How are we going to make money, what’s the risk reward paradigm there? When you look at the Wii, and look at how many units are out there, and you look at the input device you say, “Wow this truly is something special.” And, it’s an underserved market. We made a conscious effort to make a Triple-A project. I think that’s every developers dream. Everything we’ve learned in sixteen years has come to fruition in that project.