A portion of a NindieSpotlight interview with Matt Hammill of Asteroid Base...
NS: Having been on other platforms what would you say is something Nintendo is doing right with the Switch that you have been impressed by?
MH: As always they are willing to take risks and try new things in their hardware design. When we first watched the announcement presentation we kind of freaked out. The fact that they packaged the system with two controllers was HUGE. Not only do the detachable Joy-Cons make the Switch a perfect platform for LOVERS, but it’s just a really neat feature.
NS: What are your hopes with getting into the still much more minimal Switch marketplace compared to the likes of Steam? Do you have concerns about the rate Nintendo is announcing new indie titles, that within the next year it will be comparably overrun by titles? What thoughts do you have about how the owners of these digital storefronts could make more effective strides to keep indie games from being buried in the weekly churn, let alone struggling for attention 2 weeks or a month in?
MH: The increasing flood of games is just a side effect of game dev becoming increasingly accessible, and to argue against game dev being more accessible, or against walled gardens opening up, would just be self-serving. I mean, we are 100% beneficiaries of game dev becoming more accessible! There's no way we could have made LOVERS a decade ago.
The downside is good games getting lost in the flood, but my hope is that smarter storefronts will help overcome that. This is something that Steam is obviously really focused on, and I gotta say that whenever I'm on Steam, I almost always see something new that I'm curious about. I hope that approach keeps spreading among the other platforms.
There's no point in wishing the platforms acted like a charity to bring attention to your undiscovered game -- that almost never happens any more; that's the developer's job. But the other thing I have faith in is the passion of the community -- people still *like* finding neat new games and telling their friends about them, and people still *like* learning what new stuff is coming down the pipe. As long as that's true, there is hope!
from GoNintendo
0 comments: