| June 07 |
Dave Mirra BMX
|
| June 07 | PuzzleBall |
|
June 07 |
Shrek the Third |
|
|
Mercury Meltdown Revolution Interview | |
Conducted by James Hobbs |
Wii UK got the chance to interview the developers of Mercury Meltdown Revolution. We'll be bringing you a full preview of the
game soon, for now - enjoy the interview.
Please introduce yourself to the Wii UK readers.
Ed Bradley, Studio Manager at Ignition in Banbury.
How long have you been developing Mercury Meltdown Revolution?
The Wii version has been in development for about 9 months
For those who are unfamiliar with the premise of the game, what's it about?
Quite simply you have a blob of mercury in a 3D maze. Tilt the maze to maneuver the blobs to the finish pad.
There may be the occasional obstacle to negotiate as well ;)
What are the challenges involved with creating realistic 'blob' physics?
from Samster
The physics is fairly straightforward but tuning the various properties of the blob to make it fun was quite a lot of work.
Rendering the surface of the blob was probably the bigger challenge.
How does the game differ from the PSP version?
We've added some new graphics and levels, and added some great new renderer features such as bump-mapping.
What is the Wii SDK like to use?
I'd ask one of the programmers but they're all too busy to be disturbed right now :)
If you say so! Has Wii inspired you to create any other games for the platform?
from haydxn & smithy
We've been very focused on Mercury and haven't given much thought to anything else as yet.
Roughly how many levels feature in MMR?
Over 160.
Is it significantly more intuitive to control the blob with the Wii remote as opposed to the analogue sticks on the classic controller?
It's hard to make a comparative judgment when you've been working on the project for 3 years. It's certainly very intuitive –
it took me about 10 minutes of play to completely forget I was tilting instead of using a joystick.
Would you say that non-gamers would find MMR easy to pick up and play?
Initially yes. There's a pretty comprehensive tutorial and a free-roaming playground level to ease you into the game. And it's not
a complex game that needs a lot of instructions either.
How important is caffeine in game development? We've heard stories of 14 hour days...
Only 14? ;) Caffeine is utterly vital. Sugar is up there as well, followed closely by curry. The guys here have done some pretty
long hours when necessary but I'm not sure what the record is. Personally, before moving from coding to management, my record
was 41 hours straight but I've heard of even longer than that.
What are Nintendo like to work with as a developer?
I've always found them great to work with.
Finally.. do you prefer hob-nobs or rich tea biscuits? - from Superking
Leaving the hard questions till last eh? Hmm. . . .er. . . .both? OK if I REALLY HAD to decide. . .I'd choose Rich Tea. Then probably regret it.
Thank you very much for your time, we can't wait to get our hands on MMR. Would you like to add anything else?
That biscuit question was cruel for a man on a diet :P
A big thank you to Derek for organising the interview for us, and to Ed for answering our questions.
|
|
