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Atooi: Jools Watsham talks about the Nintendo Switch, Chicken Wiggle, Treasurenauts

On Friday, Jools Watsham from Atooi (previously from Renegade Kid) posted a pretty lengthy blog post titled “Healthy Time for Indies?”. In this post, he talks about the current state of the industry for indie developers, and more precisely the platforms on which they can chose to release their games.

He also talks about the Nintendo Switch, a platform he’s personally interested in. He explains that the launch of a new platform is always a great opportunity for indie developers, and for several reasons:

For indie developers, the launch window of a new platform can be a great opportunity to release new original games. It is a time when players are generally more willing to consider buying new games to get the most out of their new hardware purchase. It is also a time when the number of titles available is at its lowest, potentially offering less competition.

However, there are several catches: there may be strong titles from AAA publishers or first-party to compete against, and when a console launches, the install base is small (even if the Nintendo Switch is really successful, you won’t end up with 10 million units in the wild after the first couple of month).

Unfortunately, there will not be any Atooi games on the Nintendo Switch at launch, since Nintendo of America has restricted developer access to Nintendo Switch information (Nintendo of Europe seems more lenient in that regard). Until they can get their hands on a devkit, there’s not much that can be done…

Right now, Atooi is working on two projects:

  • Chicken Wiggle, which is coming to the Nintendo 3DS in Q1 2017 (and maybe on other platforms at a later date if reception is good);
  • Treasurenauts, a game that has been delayed several times and for various reasons. Jools Watsham believes it’s a candidate for a multi-platform release, since it has a full-fledged single player campaign, and co-op multiplayer (2 players) in split-screen. The game originally started as a Nintendo 3DS title, but it has since “increased in ambition and scope”.

The decision to also bring the game to home consoles was taken “long ago”, for two reasons: to “maximize the games’ potential in terms of player-enjoyment”, and to potentially increase sales. More details about the game, including the release date and the supported platforms, will be announced “soon”.

Source: Jools Watsham

Lite_Agent

Founder and main writer for Perfectly Nintendo. Tried really hard to find something funny and witty to put here, but had to admit defeat.

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