Interview with WiiWare Developer Lukasz Szczepanski

The Wiire recently got a chance to talk to WiiWare Producer at Gamelion, Lukasz Szczepanski about a unique new platformer, Furry Legends.

Furry Legends is an in-development game making its way to WiiWare courtesy of a team of Poland-based developers under Gamelion's wing.  Gamelion, while known for developing almost exclusively on mobile devices, seem to be taking a page from other popular console platformers.

Furry Legends maintains classic 2D puzzle platforming that gamers love, while including 3D backgrounds and elements to make for a pretty result, especially considering the downloadable circumstances.  Although it doesn't deserve judgment yet, as there seems to be plenty of work left for Gamelion to do.  For now, check out the teaser trailer below to get a glimpse of this game!

The Wiire got a chance to sit down with Furry Legend's producer, Lukasz Szczepanski, to talk about the progress of the game and some of the intracacies in developing for WiiWare.

The Wiire: First off, how far along is your team in the development of Furry Legends?

Lukasz Szczepanski: We're currently about 5 months into development of the game.

How many levels are you aiming for the completed game to have?

Lukasz: This is something that is still very fluid and goes through constant changes, so I cannot comment on that.

As a platform game, controls are critical. How are you approaching the game in terms of designing controls for it, and can you give us an idea of how we'll be controlling the fur ball?

Lukasz: We went through various stages of controls development. At the beginning we had the ambition to make something new and unique, but we couldn't find anything that would be both unique and fun / ergonomic. Currently you're controlling the furballs in the most natural, platform way. You use the Nunchuk for rolling left and right, breaking, and activating objects. The Wii Remote Controller is used for jumping, changing powers and performing attacks by holding B + Swinging towards the enemy.

Will the game make use of the Wii Remote's motion control, or will it be balance board compatible?

Lukasz: I think that Balance Board support would be an overkill with this game. ‘Please shuffle your feet so you don't die'. These kind of events would be more hilarious than fun. As for the motion controls, we have a system where you swing your Wii Remote Controller towards objects to attack or nudge them.

This is Gamelion's first attempt at a WiiWare title. You have had a history in developing mobile games. Can you tell us some of the differences in design you've seen in developing for WiiWare versus the mobile platform?

Lukasz: The core difference is the size, of course. The scope, the technology, the amount of content. There's a lot of design and prototyping to be done here. For instance, we've spent around a month of research on the controls before we had them nailed. Level design and concepts are most likely the most laborious tasks we have here. Getting each level just right, not only gameplay wise, but aesthetically takes a lot of effort. All in all, 3D graphics are a huge leap forward from 2D tile based games.

Based on the trailer for Furry Legends [ed: teaser trailer below], it seems like you make use of your environment to solve puzzles and hit switches. How much do physics play into the game?

Lukasz: Physics are the core of the game's puzzles. Majority of puzzles are based on physics, relocating elements, swinging stuff, nudging things, moving objects. There are also things bouncing, rolling, chasing you. We try to make the most out of the physics engine for new and innovative stuff.

Your blog places the game "between the likes of Sonic, LocoRoco, Mario and some LittleBigPlanet thrown in for good measure." When thinking of these games, are there plans for different modes within the game, such as difficulty, multiplayer, and creation modes?

Lukasz: We had such plans initially, but after a through project review, we found out that we wouldn't be able to both fit the game into WiiWare and make it in time. Thus we had to remove such features, unfortunately. We do hope to see them again some time, though.

Will players be able to gain more "powers" or abilities for their fur ball throughout the game?

Lukasz: Yes, players will be able to ‘unlock' additional powers through the course of the story in the game. Provided they can find them, of course ;-)

Your core team working on this game consists of 8 individuals. With this size of team developing the game, how long do you expect the full development cycle to take?

Lukasz: Now that we have the grasp of Wii technology, things should go much more smooth. For starters, with a talented team, I'm assuming 6 to 8 months, if some research has been done beforehand, of course.

When developing for the WiiWare platform so far, have you run into any problems?

Lukasz: From WiiWare specific, the biggest thing to remember is the size restriction, and that's about it. From Wii generic stuff, audio coding is very different from regular devices, if you are not using 3rd party technology. Graphic engine wise, we can make those two gamecubes sweat pretty hard, so it's a thing we're constantly working on, to make it both smooth and pretty.

Nintendo recently updated their console to make more use of the SD card memory expansion slot. Has this affected the development of Furry Legends at all? Do you plan on making use of this feature?

Lukasz: It's a great move from Nintendo, I love it personally. This will increase the WiiWare public, and allow convenient storage for the players. From our point of view, introducing this feature doesn't really change much. Unless the WiiWare size allowance will be increased, things will be more or less the same for the developers. The difference is that the gamers won't have to worry about where to store their games, so they will be less reluctant to buy our games, which is always a good thing.

Do you have any idea on what territories will receive the game, and how much it will cost in Wii Points?

Lukasz: We are aiming at North America and Europe for the initial release. Currently we're in the process of looking for a Japanese publisher, so we can also show our creation in the cherry blossom land ;-)

From the looks of it, then, Furry Legends is shaping up to be reminiscient of classic platformers.  The game has an environment that feels like Lostwinds, but retains a unique, appealing style.  Take a look at the teaser trailer below to see bits of the game in motion.

The Wiire will keep you updated on the development of Furry Legends, and would like to thank Lukasz for taking the time to inform us about the game.