The Conduit

[Evil Avnovice]

The latest hands-on (http://wii.ign.com/articles/915/915744p1.html) from IGN:

....High Voltage demoed a never-before-shown stage -- the third level of the game in which Agent Ford, working for the secret Trust organization, chases a suspected terrorist into an underground bunker. Only when Ford enters the depths of the location does he begin to realize that something more than mere terrorism may be afoot -- not only does he begin to see alien life forms, but reanimated human guards and soldiers, all of whom seem to want him dead.

Two Conduit game kiosks were situated smack-dab in the middle of MadWorld and Call of Duty: World at War -- tough competition to be sure. Telling, though, was that High Voltage's game continually drew the biggest crowds. Activision's wartime shooter looks surprisingly good on Wii, but it is no match for the crisp visuals and effects-drenched presentation of The Conduit. The project's graphics have seen some notable improvements since we last went hands-on with the shooter. For example: a new depth-of-field blur designed to differentiate between foreground and background objects; added particle effects to explosions and gunfire; improved water transparencies and a newly implemented level of detail system that swaps in crisper textures as gamers draw closer to walls and structures. The only visual drawback we noticed -- and you will probably be able to see some of this in our provided videos -- is that the title's framerate occasionally drops. It will, according to HVS, run at 30 frames per second when it's done. It's important to note that The Conduit remains in pre-alpha state.

Publisher: SEGA
Developer: High Voltage Software
Modes: Single, Online Multiplayer
Designers: Rob Nicholls (Lead Designer), Eric Nofsinger (Chief Creative Officer)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/The_Conduit_Front_Cover.PNG

35887

-Official Website (http://www.seeing-is-deceiving.com/)
-The Conduit@SEGA (http://www.conduitgame.com/index_us.html)
-Wikipedia Page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conduit#cite_note-Nintendo_Date-4)
-The Conduit - Information Center fansite (http://the-conduit.webs.com/index.htm)
-FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com/the-conduit-wii) Page
-Debut trailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/35887.html)
-Quantum3 Tech Demo (http://wii.ign.com/dor/objects/14248157/the-conduit/videos/hightechwii.html)
-Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Conduit-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B001HKPUKC/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1240863595&sr=8-1) (Pre-Order Bonus)/Gamefly (http://www.gamefly.com/game/Wii/The-Conduit/135550/)/GameStop (http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=72956) (Pre-Order Bonus)/Play-Asia (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-z3-49-en-15-the+conduit-70-350x-43-bs.html)/GoGamer (http://www.gogamer.com/The-Conduit-for-Wii-Front-Page_stcVVproductId73463542VVcatId444710VVviewprod .htm)/Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16878142045) Pages

Austraila Limited Edition (http://gonintendo.com/?p=82374):
http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/RVL_RCJP_SP_AU.jpg

North America: June 23, 2009
United Kingdom: July 10, 2009
Austrailia: July 16, 2009

Miscellaneous:

1. IGN's Wii Best of E3 Awards 2008: Best Shooting Game (http://wii.ign.com/articles/893/893266p2.html)
2. IGN' Wii Best of E3 Awards 2008: Best Graphics Technology (http://wii.ign.com/articles/893/893266p3.html)
3. IGN's Wii Best of E3 Awards 2008: Wii Game of E3 2008 (http://wii.ign.com/articles/893/893266p5.html)
4. Gametrailers Best of E3 Awards 2008: Best Wii Game (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/best-wii-best-of-e3/37603)

Promotional Codes:

-Alternate A.S.E. design: NewASE11
-Multiplayer Suit Skin: SuitMP13
-Drudge Drone Skin in Single Player Campaign: Drone4SP

Image is from wikipedia.

[Evil Avnovice]

A Gamecyte interview (http://www.gamecyte.com/interview-high-voltage-softwares-eric-nofsinger-explains-how-freedom-feedback-and-fans-channel-into-the-conduit) with Eric Nofsinger from the 2008 Nintendo Media Summit.

GameCyte: You say this started out as a tech demo, to show off your Quantum3 engine that you used for Gyrostarr, as well as…

Micah Skaritka: We’ve used that in a lot of our titles, and it’s very versatile. We’ve used it for everything from Family Guy to Harvey Birdman; I think most of the games we’ve released in the last three years have been on Quantum3.

GameCyte: So you’d been working with this engine for a while.

EN: What happened was we decided to do a major enhancement to it. We rearchitected some segments of it using our advanced technology group, which allowed us to introduce things like normal mapping, light mapping, dynamic water, full-screen effects, material-based effects… we were able to do a lot of really cool wizardry through that tech demo. Basically, we challenged our ATG group, “Hey, here’s some stuff out there on these other systems. Is this possible on the Wii?” and it seemed like everything we threw at those guys — “Can you do this?” — they’d say “Let me get back to you,” and then they’d come back in a few days and go “Yeah, we figured out a way to do that, it will take this amount of time. Can we do it?” and each time management would say “Yeah, do that!” They put a lot of effort into it, and I think it shows. That demo became our proof of concept that all this stuff is capable of being done on the Wii — and about 12 months ago, we started on The Conduit. We knew we can do the gameplay, and after our ATG group proved we could do the visuals, we decided to combine them.

GameCyte: I’m just rather surprised that you could make an R&D investment like that — even assuming all your staff were in-house — without a project in mind for the technology.

EN: One thing we’ve been fortunate with in recent years is venture capital; outside investors are willing to put money into game products and into us exploring notions for products and building prototype phases, not just full development of games. With The Conduit, the news piece was “Who’s the publisher?” and a lot of folks asked that, but although it became kind of a big news thing it really wasn’t ever in question for us because from the start of the game we’ve had full funding to complete the product how we wanted to complete it.

That really put us in a different position where, knowing we wanted to do an original product, setting aside a certain amount of money to do research and development just seemed to make more sense than to leap right into the game and hope for the best.

GameCyte: Other than the control scheme, is there anything you can put your finger on that fan and press feedback have influenced?

EN: Oh, absolutely. We got great feedback on the default turn speed, the character run speed [both are now adjustable - Ed.], we got feedback on some alternate mappings, and those are all in the works. People on a lot of forums said they liked how it looked, but they felt that some of the screenshots and videos looked a little jaggy, and so that was one of the things that we got on right away — we came up with a new system that allows us to get right up on a texture and have it look really crisp and clean. Folks said they wanted depth of field; we put depth of field in. Those are all things that fans and press have asked for, we’ve listened to, and we’re integrating. We’ve got a big ol’ punch list. We’re not going to say that we’re going to get to everything on that list, but we’re going to keep listening and the things that make sense that we can get in, till the day we ship, we’re going to keep listening — and the things that we can’t get in this version, we’ll put in the next version.

Can you tell me who your publisher is?

EN: No, we can’t yet. Unfortunately, we’ve got the gag order, it’s in the hands of lawyers. We really do want to tell people. It’s a done deal, it’s just a matter of the last bits of contract negotiation on that going back and forth. Until that gets sown up, I can’t really say.

GameCyte: But we can say you have a publisher.

EN: You can say we have a publisher.

GameCyte: How long have you been in negotiation? What was the point at which this company said “Yes, let’s do this?”

EN: It’s been about a month that we’ve been in serious negotiations with them. I mean, we’d talked to many other folks before that, but then it sort of got whittled down to the best condenders. I will say that the publisher that we did go with… we didn’t necessarily go with whoever was the highest bidder; we went with the publisher we felt would be the best partner, and would be willing to work with us and make sure that we could continue to make a triple-A title, and was very open to the idea of starting on a sequel.

[Ancalagon]

EN: It’s been about a month that we’ve been in serious negotiations with them. I mean, we’d talked to many other folks before that, but then it sort of got whittled down to the best condenders. I will say that the publisher that we did go with… we didn’t necessarily go with whoever was the highest bidder; we went with the publisher we felt would be the best partner, and would be willing to work with us and make sure that we could continue to make a triple-A title, and was very open to the idea of starting on a sequel.

These guys sound like a really, really good studio. I wonder who the publisher is?

[BLeeP]

These guys sound like a really, really good studio. I wonder who the publisher is?

As awesome as the game looks, my problem is that they really aren't that great (http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/company/12851.html) of a studio. Companies always have the chance to redeem themselves, though.

As for the publisher, my first guess was Nintendo, but the way they talk it doesn't sound like it can really be anyone that big.

[Evil Avnovice]

Les'see....

1). A "Graphics and Gameplay" video. (Gametrailers (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/41038.html))

41038

2. And a "Character Doc" video. (The Conduit Information Center (http://the-conduit.webs.com/apps/videos/view/996280-developer-diary-1))

40870

[JayVe]

You know, I'm really looking forward to this game, but it isn't coming until 2009. Honestly, I don't know how much more I should/need-to hear about it before... oh... February.

[KingGorilla]

It is like Prey and FEAR had a love child.

[JayVe]

Okay. I was wrong. Both of the above posted developer interviews are really good. I love listening to people talk about their craft, especially if that craft is gaming.

[JayVe]

Looks like the voice of the main character (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0791968/) has been announced.

Mark A. Sheppard stars as the voice of the main character, Mr. Ford. A British-born actor and musician, Sheppard’s TV credits include Battlestar Galactica, 24, Medium, Firefly, Burn Notice, CSI and The Bionic Woman. His film credits include Unstoppable, Evil Eyes, and In the Name of the Father.

Source (http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=32623)

[JayVe]

More voice actors announced (http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/10/14/high-voltage-enlists-hollywood-voice-talent-for-the-conduit/):

High Voltage just shot over a press release informing us that they've got a couple of notable individuals lending their voice to the upcoming Wii FPS, The Conduit. The voice of the main character. Mr. Ford, will be done by Mark A. Sheppard. Not familiar? He defended Gaius Baltar!

Another Sheppard (of no relation) is also in on the project. William Morgan Sheppard will be voicing the character John Adams. William has done plenty of video game voice work before, as well as TV and film.

Third, but certainly not least, is none other than Hercules himself, Kevin Sorbo. He'll be voicing the bad guy/terrorist dude in all of this, Prometheus.

[Evil Avnovice]

Hey. Kevin Sorbo. It's been so long since I last watched Hercules in the mid-90's. :D

[Evil Avnovice]

A video that shows off The Conduit's motion-captured death animations. (The Conduit Information Center (http://the-conduit.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/view/1097840-motion-capture-deaths))

jPX92MfIbvs

[Evil Avnovice]

A hands-on by Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5059734/the-conduit--still-going-strong). It's 18 days old, but hey.

[Doctor Setebos]

A video that shows off The Conduit's motion-captured death animations. (The Conduit Information Center (http://the-conduit.webs.com/apps/videos/videos/view/1097840-motion-capture-deaths))

jPX92MfIbvsAbsolutely gorgeous. It's so weird to think that's a Wii game.

[Evil Avnovice]

Absolutely gorgeous. It's so weird to think that's a Wii game.

Not as weird as all the posts I've gotten that expressed how confused they were, when I pushed my thread over at EvAv. :p

On-Topic: It really does feel that way. It's like "Wow, this is a beautiful game!", and when I see most other Wii titles that don't push the boundaries like High Voltage is doing, I soemtimes feel that first/third parties should have long taken a cue and follow what they're doing (using their own engines for Wii). Plus, I'm eager to see how Cursed Mountain is shaping up.

[Evil Avnovice]

A hands-on (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=17037) from Nintendo World Report.

....Though previous showings of the game were already highly-acclaimed, the developers have added several new graphical effects since the last time the game was shown publicly. In particular, the game features bloom lighting, bump mapping, water physics, stencils, specular lighting, and more.

The developers at High Voltage Software developed their own game engine, which features more advanced graphical effects than any other developer has tried on the Wii. Interestingly, the engine was originally developed with the PSP and PS2 in mind, but found a successful home on the Wii. The action I saw was fast and fluid, though environments were small and enclosed, unlike games such as the Call of Duty series, which don't look as nice, but are more free-range. Though none of the individual effects was impressive in this age of technology, what was impressive was that they were all active simultaneously and the game was extremely fluid and responsive without a sign of slowdown. As an example of something you don't normally see done graphically, I could walk up to walls without having the textures become fuzzy.

While The Conduit achieves effects not seen on the Wii before, it's certainly not up to par with what the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 can do. Aside from the obvious resolution difference, The Conduit showed a couple of weaknesses. The first was comparatively bare and low-polygon environments. The latter was a lack of anti-aliasing, ironically made more evident by the advanced blur effects produced by the game. While all of the impressive effects are present in the game, jaggies occur along every edge, and are particularly noticeable on high definition televisions. The Conduit is not yet done, however, and High Voltage Software is still considering input from critics.

Also included is a four-minute gameplay video.

koWhu1VwM60

[Evil Avnovice]

A Wiirincontrol interview (http://wiirincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=110:wide-marketing-campaign-in) with Eric Nofsinger, HVS Chief Creative Officer and Kerry Ganofsky, Founder and CEO of HVS.

IW: O.k. High Voltage Software has made it a point to the public that a main motivation in developing the Quantum 3 engine, and the Conduit in particular, is that there are so few high quality 3rd party games being developed for core gamers on the Wii. Was it mainly the Wii’s infrared pointing ability that made you decide on developing a First Person Shooter as your first major project?

EN: That was a huge motivator. When we were first introduced to the Wii we saw that there was a huge potential for First Person Shooters using the infrared pointer of the console. And then it didn’t seem like many folks were taking advantage of it by making high quality original titles outside of Nintendo themselves.

IW: So you saw the opportunity and pounced on it then?

EN: For sure. Now it might seem a bit opportunistic, but really it was more selfishness in that we wanted to play a game like this.

IW: Right. I hear you.

IW: High Voltage Software has really gone out on a limb for hardcore Nintendo gamers with the development of this game. So many people want it to succeed. But really, in the grand scheme of things, only a relative few know of its existence. Is there a plan for a huge marketing campaign for The Conduit, or are you counting primarily on the grass roots of the gaming community to spread the good news about this game?

KG: You know, our publishing partner is really driving the PR and Marketing. Together with Eric and I - we’re going to help from High Voltage’s side, really make an effective campaign; to make sure that from hardcore, to even steering in some of the casual gamers; showing that we have a product that appeals to the masses. That’s something that’s really important, because I think that this product is something that Nintendo Wii fans have been looking for, and we’re happy to provide that.

Also: There are rumors floating around that Sega may be the one who will publish The Conduit.

1. Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5070007/rumor-sega-channels-the-conduit-to-wii)
2. New Level Gaming (http://newlevelgaming.blog-city.com/the_conduit_has_a_publisher__sega.htm)

[Doctor Setebos]

Also: There are rumors floating around that Sega may be the one who will publish The Conduit.I'm thinking this is probably true. It makes sense.

[Evil Avnovice]

I'm thinking this is probably true. It makes sense.

It could be. One thing I quickly picked up during the time I've been keeping heavy tabs on The Conduit, is unless it comes from Eric Nofsinger himself, I mostly wait for him, or something more concrete.

[quidmonkey]

Also: There are rumors floating around that Sega may be the one who will publish The Conduit.

1. Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5070007/rumor-sega-channels-the-conduit-to-wii)
2. New Level Gaming (http://newlevelgaming.blog-city.com/the_conduit_has_a_publisher__sega.htm)

Still leaves a big '?' over the multiplayer.

[Ancalagon]

Even if this game comes out and gets terrible review scores, and is torn to pieces, I'd still gives these kudos, for developing such a "risky" game at their own expense, and pushing the Wii hardware as much as they do.

I guess you cant run a business on kudos though (although you could argue that your rate of earning money is related to your rate of earning kudos).

EDIT: Ahem (http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/10/29/sega-may-publish-wii-shooter-conduit)

[Evil Avnovice]

By way of GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=61035), it's confirmed that Sega will be the publisher for The Conduit.

SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON, Oct 29, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — SEGA(R) of America, Inc. and SEGA(R) of Europe Ltd. today announced a worldwide partnership with High Voltage Software to publish and distribute the Wii(TM) home video game system-exclusive title, The Conduit. The first-person shooter garnered multiple awards at E3 2008, including Best Wii Game by GameTrailers and three awards from IGN: Best Shooting Game (Wii), Best Graphics Technology (Wii) and Best Overall Wii Game. The Conduit is a stunning, futuristic title powered by a new game engine technology that delivers remarkable visuals and effects, as well as a rich interactive experience that is unlike any other title on the Wii.

“The Conduit is one of the most talked-about Wii games this year and High Voltage Software has only scratched the surface of the game in terms of what they have shown so far,” says Simon Jeffery, President of SEGA of America, Inc. “They have proven that graphical and technological innovation can be exciting to the Wii market, and SEGA is thrilled to partner with a team that truly shares our belief in the Wii’s gaming potential beyond the casual market.”

“High Voltage Software’s partnership with SEGA to publish The Conduit represents an important milestone for this studio,” said Kerry Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software, Inc. “SEGA shares our vision for the title and its tremendous potential, which is why we chose them from a long list of potential partners. With their support, we are confident that The Conduit will deliver the definitive shooter experience that Wii fans have been waiting for.”

The Conduit takes players into a dark story in Washington D.C. after a vicious alien invasion has rocked the country. An organization called the Trust has sent in Secret Service agent, Mr. Ford, to go up against the insect-like alien race known as “The Drudge.” Armed with an array of futuristic weaponry and an intelligence-gathering device simply called the “All-Seeing Eye,” players follow an intricate storyline filled with conspiracy, shady government activity and terrifying aliens.

The Conduit’s detailed control system allows players to customize and configure look sensitivity, turning speed, the dead zone and much more. As players delve further into the mystery behind the extraterrestrial invasion, shocking details reveal that the invasion may have been brought on with help from the government itself.

Powered by High Voltage Software’s groundbreaking Quantum 3 engine, The Conduit ensures that players will experience single and multiplayer gameplay with graphical fidelity never seen before on the Wii. The Conduit will also support the recently announced Wii Speak peripheral, allowing online multiplayer gamers the ability to chat as they destroy aliens in each terrifying level. Additionally, the game will take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus for optimal control.

The Conduit, exclusively for the Wii, is slated to ship in spring 2009. For more information on the game, please visit www.conduitgame.com.

This is linked from a news article at MarketWatch (http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/SEGA-Gets-Zapped-High-Voltage/story.aspx?guid=%7BF5F5B522-06A7-4DA5-B6ED-EE5666E29878%7D).

[Evil Avnovice]

Still leaves a big '?' over the multiplayer.

You're referring to High Voltage having to use Friend Codes, whereas Electronic Arts has their own setup for online/lobbies/etc., correct?

[quidmonkey]

You're referring to High Voltage having to use Friend Codes, whereas Electronic Arts has their own setup for online/lobbies/etc., correct?

No, I'm referring to High Voltage and Sega's inexperience with Wii online.

[Evil Avnovice]

No, I'm referring to High Voltage and Sega's inexperience with Wii online.

Ah. High Voltage claims they'll do what they possibly can with the limitations of Nintendo's setup. I guess we'll have to see what they come up with.

[JayVe]

I hope it provides a fun experience, but I'm not expecting anything amazing. Nice news that it'll have publisher with some $$ behind it.

For the online component, I'm expecting friend codes. Had a friend over the other night, and put in Battalion Wars. Not only did he love it, but he managed top find someone to play Co-Op with online, without friend codes, at 2:30 AM on a Tuesday. Regardless of what people say about Nintendo, but people play their games online.

[Doctor Setebos]

For the online component, I'm expecting friend codes. Had a friend over the other night, and put in Battalion Wars. Not only did he love it, but he managed top find someone to play Co-Op with online, without friend codes, at 2:30 AM on a Tuesday. Regardless of what people say about Nintendo, but people play their games online.I've jumped onto BWii a few times at weird hours and never had a problem finding some random stranger to play with, which I admit, I never expected with that title.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images. These are from Samus Aran's blog (http://www.gamekyo.com/blog_article212561.html). (Gamekyo)

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/e67dd408f13481fc5a3a7f8fe3e1201820081029195312.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/2f90e7db8bef2a1d114ab8df5ebc018420081029195312.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/14a439921119dcd7af71a71a21c738ce20081029195312.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/2c1e588ed3fe5eeff1509b61c7a0a28520081029195312.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/60dcefd5cbbae97f9859f11adf92cb7e20081029195312.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/23cf49ae6261d03421f9c1ff95e0b6c420081029195417.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

An interview with Sega of America's president, Simon Jeffery. (IGN (http://wii.ign.com/articles/925/925233p1.html))

IGN: First of all, congrats on picking up such a highly anticipated project. What drew SEGA to The Conduit?

Simon Jeffery: The Conduit is one of those few games that comes along that ignites a frenzy of interest across the gaming community. We really liked the way that the developer (HVS) was promoting and presenting the game. They had us at 'The…'

IGN: Why do you think SEGA is a good partner for this game?

Simon Jeffery: SEGA is making considerable investment in core games for the Wii. We strongly believe that games like Mad World and House of the Dead Overkill have a great place on the Wii – and Nintendo of America shares our belief. Everyone is churning out wide market and family-friendly fare for the Wii platform, but there are millions of core gamers being underserved right now – and SEGA was delighted that HVS feel the same way.

IGN: Do you view The Conduit as the beginning of a Wii-exclusive franchise from SEGA?

Simon Jeffery: We are currently only talking about the first game, but we have every belief that HVS is building something awesome here…

IGN: The Conduit is a big game amongst the educated Wii owner, but it's also a new IP – always a hard sell to the general consumer. What kind of marketing /advertising will you back this new game with? How much do you plan to spend to support it?

Simon Jeffery: It's early days to talk about how much we will spend to support the game, but the buzz that HVS have already generated for The Conduit is absolutely outstanding. All metrics indicate extremely high awareness with Wii consumers. We will absolutely put a world-class marketing campaign behind the launch of the game – but we're helped by the fact this game is so good that it sells itself!

IGN: High Voltage Software has not only been a big supporter of Wii, but one of the few third-party developers to really push the system. We happen to know it's already working on major new Wii software. Will SEGA also try to publish the developers other projects?

Simon Jeffery: We have huge respect for HVS and really enjoy working with these guys. We hope they like us back!

IGN: Finally, do you have any words for fans anticipated The Conduit?

Simon Jeffery: Only that everything that you've seen to date is just the tip of the iceberg. When we saw deeper and further into the game, we just got more and more excited. Wii gamers are in for a real//i> treat exclusive to their platform!

[Evil Avnovice]

Part 2 of Wiirincontrol's interview (http://wiirincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111:the-conduit-qa-truly-next-generation-experienceq&catid=16:team-news&Itemid=107). Eric Nofsinger says that they're looking for ways around Nintendo's "Friend Codes".

IW: When we look at a game such as the upcoming “Killzone 2” for PS3, there is a certain degree of realism to the physics of bullet impact, clothing, and flesh and blood spatter. What was your approach to such things on the clearly weaker Wii console with The Conduit, and what if any limitations are there with the Wii hardware in regards to such things?

EN: There are certainly a lot of limitations within the system. There are a lot of things that people really take for granted out of the box with the 360 and PS3. You know, such as normal mapping, environment mapping, material effects… Those are all things that folks take for granted on the PS3 and 360.

They can be done on the Wii, they just take a lot more work. They take some engineers that are incredibly talented at PS3 and 360 style programming; and they need to be really confident with Wii and other styles of programming so that they can trick the Wii system into doing things that it wasn’t made to do right out of the box.

There is a lot of power that can be tapped into on the Wii, and I think we’ve done a good job of that. I think to answer the question more directly, when it comes to impact physics and things like that, one of the things that we fortunately have at our disposal is we did a ton of motion capture, we’ve got phenomenal key frame animators who are able to do incredible animations and we’ve spent a lot of time on the game just to be able to give a great deal of variety in the way that things react to being hit and that sort of thing.

In this version of the game our approach was definitely to use the right types of solutions for physics where it makes sense. So there are places where we do make things into keys or we’ve approached it in a more practical fashion, but I think we’ve ended up with real quality results, where players will feel that the game is very responsive to what they’re doing. It really does feel like a true “Next generation” experience.

IW: Many Xbox 360 and PS3 gamers have a sort of “one eye on it” interest in The Conduit. Graphics aside, for them the clincher will be how well the game plays online. While Friend Codes aren’t a deal breaker, it is a major concern. Has Nintendo given you an explanation for why they are so adamant about the use of Friend Codes for even such a game as The Conduit, even though they’ve built a significant Parental Controls system into the Wii?

EN: Yeah, this is definitely something that we go back and forth with them on. They do have their security issues that we need to be cognizant of. We’re very aware of those concerns and understand where they are coming from with that. But really all we can commit to is creating the best possible experience.

Personally, I’m not a fan of Friend Codes, I don’t think that anyone on the team is a fan of Friend Codes. What we’re promising people is that we’re working with Nintendo, we’ve had them out to the office. We’ve been over to their place. We’re in regular communication with them. It will be as good of an experience on Multiplayer as possible. We know it’s important. We don’t want to let folks down.

IW: Yeah, I understand. It’s Nintendo’s thing, you have to play by their rules.

EN: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I know that there’s been one notable exception of a game that hasn’t had friend codes. As far as I know, at least from what’s been relayed to us, that exception was a one time thing. It’s something where we need to continue to work with them closely, and figure out something that does hit what they need, but also hits what we need as gamers, you know?

IW: Yeah.

EN: We’ve got Multiplayer working, we’re working with them closely, a lot of the details we’re still hashing out daily. There will be a lot of news on that in the near future, but there’s not much more I can tell you about it right now.

Note: This originally came from G4tv (http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/690518/The_Conduit_Team_Looking_For_Alternatives_To_Wii_F riend_Codes.html) which I'm linking, as they have a small gameplay video to watch, and there were at least one to two other links to search through before it ended at Wiirincontrol.

[Evil Avnovice]

An IGN interview (http://wii.ign.com/articles/925/925835p1.html) with Kerry Ganofsky and Eric Nofsinger.

IGN: First of all, congratulations on partnering with SEGA. What made you go with the company?

Kerry Ganofsky: SEGA is clearly committed to supporting original core gamer content for the Wii. They just "get it," you know?

IGN: We saw in the press release that MotionPlus and WiiSpeak are confirmed. How're you using both?

Eric Nofsinger: WiiSpeak is a natural fit for a FPS, but MotionPlus is a bit trickier. We will support it, but not as a "tack on" or a waggle-the-Wiimote mechanic. This comes into play in refining our overall shooter experience without requiring it. For example: tracking the movements of the Wiimote even when not pointed at the sensor bar and thus avoiding "locking" the cursor occasionally when going out of sensor range and similarly tracking the Wiimote orientation when not pointed at the sensor bar to prevent the bolo weapon cursors from "freezing" when losing one or both of the reflectors. These sorts of integrations will make the experience slightly tighter but without explicitly punishing the players without the peripheral.

IGN: Do you view The Conduit as the first entry in a continuing franchise? Is SEGA on board for that?

Kerry: This was key to our decision making process. We really are very likeminded in our goals for the franchise.

IGN: The Conduit obviously has a big online component. Does partnering with SEGA help with this facet in any way?

Kerry: Their team is fantastic! They have an amazing quality assurance group that is exceptionally responsive. Their support is going to make the experience a lot more solid for players.

IGN: How is the game progressing since we last spoke?

Eric: It's not been that long [laughs]. We continue to focus on multiplayer, tighten up single-player, and incorporate fan and press feedback.

Kerry: We're in a really good spot. The game looks, and more importantly, plays amazing.

IGN: Thanks guys. Any final words for fans looking forward to the title?

Eric: The feedback we have received is unbelievable and incredibly supportive. It genuinely fuels us to deliver even more.

Kerry: Get your preorders going! [Laughs]

[Evil Avnovice]

Part 3 of Wiirincontrol's interview (http://wiirincontrol.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=112:pushing-a-console-to-its-limits-the-new-standard-being-set-by-high-voltage-software&catid=16:team-news&Itemid=107) with High Voltage Software.

IW: I must say, The Conduit looks REALLY good compared to other games on the Wii.

EN: Yeah, for sure, and it’ll only get better. Something that we’re already focusing on is key features in The Conduit II. That is an area where we really want to push some new boundaries; the next time out. We feel like we did a lot of boundary pushing this time and we don’t intend to rest on our laurels. There are a lot of things that we wanted to do, but came about too late in the project to incorporate into this version that we plan on having in the next version.

IW: Alright, sounds awesome. One thing that sounds very intriguing that you’ve stated in the past is that you’ve been working on unique death scenes for each type of enemy as pertains to each type of weapon. How is that coming along?

EN: Actually that’s coming along really nicely. We have a lot of unique animation types for each creature, as well as what just recently came online, which was a lot of visual effects that are tied to each unique weapon. I think that it will make for a nicer payoff when you kill an enemy with a specific type of weapon and they disintegrate in a unique and visceral way. I think players will appreciate that. I mean it just doesn’t seem quite as canned. It’s the type of thing that we’re hoping to pepper throughout the entirety of the game.

Again, that was another suggestion from fans. When we were showing The Conduit to folks at PAX, we got feedback like: “This was really cool, but we wish that the death animations were more spectacular”. We gave it some thought. I mean we didn’t want to do it just to do it, so we tied it to gameplay a bit, and now have it tied specifically to weapons. It’s a meaningful payoff.

IW: Yeah, well having played Medal of Honor: Heroes 2, which is so far the best First Person Shooter on the Wii, I for one am excited about that. I mean on that game, you shoot a guy, they all die the same way, then they disappear. That’s that. From what it sounds like, what you guys are working on is a huge improvement.

EN: What you’re seeing now is pretty spectacular, but what will be in there come November; what we’re shooting for as our next milestone, is that all of that will be included and done. Those are polish items really though. You know, the Devil’s in the details. You really have to spend a lot of time tweaking the work, and we have. And we’re going to continue to spend a lot of time just working on making things perfect.

IW: Also, around the same time that you first mentioned that, it was revealed that during the continued quest to maximize the Wii hardware, the team found an extra 3 MB of RAM to work with. Have you settled on how it will be used? And to what extent will that discovery influence the final product?

EN: It definitely did improve all around. Every single day we go up to the wall of what we have for memory. Then we optimize, and we free up some more space, then we’re back up to the wall again. So that was a big big coup when we freed up that 3 Megs, but it was quickly gobbled up again. It’s pretty easy to gobble up that space with more textures, or other effects. It’s been our approach to use that space wisely. We’ve already allocated it many times over, found a way to maximize further, only to gobble it up all over again. And we’ll do that all the way to ship. We want to have as much cool stuff in the game as we can, and that’s really the only way to do that; to continually iterate.

IW: Speaking of the final product, much ado has been made about these beautiful graphics of The Conduit so far, and the fact that the game is still in a relatively early state. But they look so incredible already for a Wii game. Is it safe to say that the amazing bit that we’ve seen so far is close to what the finished product will look like? Or is there a lot more work left to be done still from a graphics standpoint?

EN: I’d say it’s close, but there’s still… You know, every day I go in and look at what the team’s done and they’ve advanced that much further. We’re always coming up with new techniques to push things, and really, what’s been shown to the press so far has been a relatively small portion of the game. At the Nintendo Media Summit we showed one full level, and on all of the previous times we’ve only shown 1/4 of 1 level. So there’s tons of stuff that folks haven’t seen. And those levels we feel are pretty cool, but there are ALOT of neat locations in the game throughout D.C. and other places. We’re really going through the process of tightening that up.

One of the areas I’ve seen the biggest improvements that I think will make a big impact on people is in the texturing and the implementation of our new detail mapping that allows a player to get up really close to a texture. It looks really nice. We’ve made some really big leaps and bounds with our Dynamic Lighting. So when a player goes under lights and things like that it’s always reactive. We’ve made sure that we’re going in and are carving lots of details into our normal maps to make sure it’s picking up on those lights. And then with visual effects, a lot of stuff that was shown so far is really cool, but a lot of things like the death animations, when they’re all online, I think people will be very impressed with that. It’s eye candy.

But really, what it all comes down to is gameplay. We want to push the game for all it can do graphically, but that means nothing if the game’s not good. A lot of our focus is on making sure the game plays really well. We continue to listen to people. Even at the Nintendo Media Summit, people were saying that things looked kinda dark, so we went through and introduced a new system that allows players to do some gamma correction, move sliders and really make the game look good no matter how your Television set is configured. We’re really trying to listen to what fans are saying, and incorporate every little bit of feedback that we can.

Edit: Added a small gameplay video.

Vm8Wnz-b4aA

[quidmonkey]

Vid looks slick.

[Doctor Setebos]

Yeah, it looks slick, but I really hope the enemy AI is better than that video suggests it is. :p

[JayVe]

Yeah, it looks slick, but I really hope the enemy AI is better than that video suggests it is. :p

I dunno, that looks fun as hell.

[Doctor Setebos]

I dunno, that looks fun as hell.I agree, it looks like fun. But in that (admittedly very short) video, I saw quite a few baddies just standing there taking damage. Not a whole lot of intelligent movement, avoidance, or anything resembling an attempt to take cover. I'm hoping that was just because of the enclosed environment.

I doubt it would keep me from buying it day one, however. ;)

[Evil Avnovice]

For those not in the know, that's actually an old gameplay video, from the first few months after IGN revealed The Conduit. :)

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images from Samus Aran's blog (http://www.gamekyo.com/blog_article212971.html). (Gamekyo)

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/ba714bfe182d37ea1c56e7293fb09f5e20081103193248.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/a6ef9ae3be67a2b340092010440da97b20081103193248.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/c59d4eebde27e0afb1d4cf00d224d81620081103193447.jpg

http://www.gamekyo.com/images_1/9e0111f006a05c3b6c9b3297c673be2820081103193448.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

I'm kind of hesistant to post these videos, but someone out there won themselves a signed copy of The Conduit's beta instruction manual (in addition to the shirt).

eknXGhP83u8

m28qWrWTmS0

[Evil Avnovice]

Over 2minutes+ of gameplay footage from X-Play, minus X-Play. Sega's Josh Morton gives the demonstration in this video. (NintendoWiiFanboy (http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2008/12/18/x-plays-the-conduit-footage-without-having-to-watch-g4/))

KeTxDJ5nFDg

[Variable Gear]

Omg, that guy isn't strapped in!

(Nice find by the way, EvAv!)

[Evil Avnovice]

Two new videos, an Improvement and Developer feature, from IGN (http://media.wii.ign.com/media/142/14248157/vids_1.html).

[Variable Gear]

Some of those textures look really nice.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some of those textures look really nice.

Those early versions in particular show me just how far the game has come. Shows how much polish High Voltage continues to put into The Conduit.

[Evil Avnovice]

An MTV Multiplayer interview (http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/01/08/conduit-developer-dispels-myths-about-wii-hardcore-gaming/) with Lead designer Rob Nicholls and High Voltage Software CEO Kerry Ganofsky.

MTV Multiplayer: Do you think it will be a hard sell among the casual players?

Ganofsky: I do think that there will be some folks that are not interested in this sort of experience. We very purposefully developed this game for gamers, but it is also very accessible and the story is so interesting that we feel confident that most Wii owners will enjoy the ride.

Nicholls: Naturally, while we would love it if it happened, we don’t actually expect a lot of grandparents to be running and gunning with you. However, given the ease of our controls, the quality of our graphics, and the pleasing nature of our gameplay… we think “The Conduit” will appeal to quite a few casual players as well as the hardcore crowd.

MTV Multiplayer: Why do you think third-party “hardcore” games haven’t sold that well on the Wii so far?

Ganofsky: The majority of these games are ports of previously released games. The market that these games are intended for recognizes a port and has shown that they just won’t support the port. Instead people throw their hands up and say “core” games won’t sell on the Wii. We and our partners at Sega believe differently. We believe in providing the market what it wants. That is why we read every e-mail and consider every fan request.

Nicholls: Publishers point to [low sales] as more evidence of why such games shouldn’t be on the Wii. However, we here at High Voltage don’t agree. We think these games haven’t sold well because they were ports of games designed for other platforms and thus didn’t quite fit on the Wii.

[Variable Gear]

High Voltage has the right perspective. Hardcore games on Wii have a great chance of being successful, as long as they are built for the platform and the marketing department actually does their job.

[boratika]

We have a variety of animations that make the player's killing experience more enjoyable.I have been looking for a more enjoyable killing experience.

[divinechaos]

Wow, if there's a game that'll make me buy a Wii again it's gotta be The Conduit.

[JayVe]

Wow, if there's a game that'll make me buy a Wii again it's gotta be The Conduit.

If it is as good as it looks, we'll need to get together for some deathmatch.

[Evil Avnovice]

Now available in youtube flavoring.

4ff6x2OYIB0

ImkaSd-twWc

[Iron Past]

This has been on The List since I saw it demoed on X-Play. I really hope it sells well so Nintendo can see that it's okay to funnel more money into "hardcore" experiences. I want to pick up Mad World, too, but every time I see a video my eyes want to bleed, so we'll see on that one.

[Doctor Setebos]

Holy shit! The amount of controller configuration combinations is insane. And the AI definitely looks better than it did previously.

Plus a customizable HUD?! Yikes.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen29700_the-conduit-in-new-pictures.html) from Gamekyo.

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090117_150720_1_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images1_4_29700.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090117_150721_4_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images4_4_29700.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090117_150721_7_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images7_4_29700.html)

[Variable Gear]

Holy shit! The amount of controller configuration combinations is insane. And the AI definitely looks better than it did previously.

Plus a customizable HUD?! Yikes.
I just wanted to let all other FPS developers know that this is the base level of functionality I'll be expecting in 2009. If I can't customize the function of every button on the controller, the game is obviously garbage.

[Iron Past]

Those screens sure are purdy. I'm wanting this more and more.

[Evil Avnovice]

Following up the youtube versions, Gametrailers now has them.

44529

44530

[KamaItachi]

I had sort've missed keeping up with this one. Those videos are great
Yeah, I haven't switched on my Wii in ages, but this is a day one purchase, bar awful reviews.

[Doctor Setebos]

I just wanted to let all other FPS developers know that this is the base level of functionality I'll be expecting in 2009. If I can't customize the function of every button on the controller, the game is obviously garbage.While the customizable buttons are pretty nice, the real cake here for me is the customizable hud. That's what I'll be expecting as standard in 2009. :D

[boratika]

While the customizable buttons are pretty nice, the real cake here for me is the customizable hud. That's what I'll be expecting as standard in 2009. :D

You'll be able to use picture of your gun as a crosshair!

[Evil Avnovice]

A fan made trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=69787))

gn32VcuCEhU

[Panthera]

The early renders are what most Wii games look like. I think that's telling.

[boratika]

The early renders are what most Wii games look like. I think that's telling.

Actually, I think the early build looks better than most :(

[Purple Santa]

I just wanted to let all other FPS developers know that this is the base level of functionality I'll be expecting in 2009. If I can't customize the function of every button on the controller, the game is obviously garbage.
Damn you are harsh. Ever think about becoming a College professor? You remind me of some i've had over my long academic career :D
Actually, I think the early build looks better than most :(

You need new spectacles than good sir! ;)

[Variable Gear]

Damn you are harsh. Ever think about becoming a College professor? You remind me of some i've had over my long academic career :D
Nope, I don't desire to be involved in academia. However, I have a strong dislike for developers who think that setting up three or four control options is comparable to allowing the user to actually customize their control scheme. You see it all the time in console FPS titles, and it makes no sense.

[tombofsoldier]

I don't get this game. The only thing the devs seem to think is good enough about the game to brag about are the graphics. Graphics which are good for last gen consoles at best. It's just stupid. Brag about gameplay or controls or something, don't brag about graphics which are dwarfed by average looking games on the two competing consoles.

[Variable Gear]

I don't get this game. The only thing the devs seem to think is good enough about the game to brag about are the graphics. Graphics which are good for last gen consoles at best. It's just stupid. Brag about gameplay or controls or something, don't brag about graphics which are dwarfed by average looking games on the two competing consoles.
I'm pretty sure that HVS is aware of the fact that the game looks good on the Wii, but it doesn't necessarily look great when compared to 360/PS3 titles. In addition, they've put a ton of focus on customization, which you don't see in many FPS games for whatever reason. Being able to customize your controls and HUD should be the standard for the genre. Other than that, the Conduit looks to be a solid FPS game. There's nothing wrong with that, unless it's on the Wii. Then all the PS3/360-loving trolls have to criticize it as being unnecessary.

[Iron Past]

I don't get this game. The only thing the devs seem to think is good enough about the game to brag about are the graphics. Graphics which are good for last gen consoles at best. It's just stupid. Brag about gameplay or controls or something, don't brag about graphics which are dwarfed by average looking games on the two competing consoles.

I would assume that, since the main criticism leveled at the Wii from the hardcore crowd is that games don't look pretty enough, they're addressing those criticisms. After all, that is they're target demographic. The videos I've seen look like a fun game, and I don't usually listen to the devs speak too much anyway, since it's just a sales pitch.

[Evil Avnovice]

An interview (http://hearmiii.blogspot.com/2009/01/wiinewds-interview-with-eric-nofsinger.html) at Hearmii.Blogspot with Eric Nofsinger.

Q: How much work is left to be done with art direction?
A: Not much. We're just about done.

Q: Is getting the bodies to stay on screen and not dissapear after being killed a concern your working on fixing?
A: Yes, most definently. We will have tons of different death animations depending on how the enemy was killed and with what weapon.

Q:When is the next Developer's Diary coming?
A: We will see. It's not really that hard to do.

Q:Will there be a Collectors Edition or perks for reserving the game?
A: We're thinking about some. Details are still being ironed out.

Q: Is this an M rated or Teen rated game?
A: We're shooting for Teen but if it gets an M then oh well!

Q: What do you have in mind in conjuction with the publisher to hype the game, for example gaming tours, billboards, commercials, gamestop kiosk demo's, etc?
A: Those are exactly what we had in mind.

Q:Will you be implementing tons of scripted events in the environment to make the single player experience more cinematic?
A: There are some scripted events for sure but we're more focused on the core gameplay! So far its starting to feel like an action movie (chuckles)

Q:Will there be ragdoll?
A: No! We fell it's more satisfying to give everything different death animations.

Q:Sound is very important to me, so I want to know what are you doing special with the sound design? How will you make up for the lack of digital audio on Wii?
A: Well, like the visuals, we're going to out do every game on the platform in terms of audio. Also, it will be at the highest possible quality.

[Doctor Setebos]

An interview (http://hearmiii.blogspot.com/2009/01/wiinewds-interview-with-eric-nofsinger.html) at Hearmii.Blogspot with Eric Nofsinger.This might just be the first game ever where I pick up the "collector's edition". :)

[Evil Avnovice]

This might just be the first game ever where I pick up the "collector's edition". :)

Depending on what's included if High Voltage went through with it, I'd pick it up. But I'd be just fine with a copy of the game itself. ;)

[Evil Avnovice]

The Conduit will have a presence at the upcoming New York Comic-con, which will be held from February 6-8. (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=9295))

The good folks over at SEGA sent me an email today regarding The Conduit and other Wii titles and I thought I’d give you all the scoop about what the company has planned. First, SEGA will be present at New York Comic-con which will be highlighted by The Conduit, MadWorld, Sonic and the Black Knight, and House of the Dead: Overkill…And I’m sure most of you are interested in at least one of these titles! At the event, you’ll be able to play the games mentioned and leave with some SEGA swag.

[Evil Avnovice]

IGN has a written editoral (http://wii.ign.com/articles/949/949610p1.html) from High Voltage Software's Chief Creative Officer, Eric Nofsinger, about the ups and downs of The Conduit's development.

When you're working with publishers to develop games, they usually send out a "request for proposal" which asks a number of developers to provide them with pitches for a game based on certain genre and license. In some cases, the publisher has a very clear idea for what they want; in others they leave it up to you to define the project.

If the publisher likes your pitch and you can get the business details worked out, pre-production begins, where the design and scope of the game are defined within set limits of time and manpower. From there you move into the production phase, where you build the game, then the post-production phase where you fix all of the bugs and get it out the door. The whole process can take a few months for a downloadable title, or up to a few years for a big retail release.

Keep in mind that at every step along the way, you have to satisfy the publisher and the licensor. We could show you spreadsheets with hundreds and hundreds of comments and requests that must be sifted through, evaluated, and addressed in one way or another. In many respects, dealing with these requests (and sometimes demands) can be a distraction from the game's development, but it's a process that we've grown familiar with. We feel that we've gotten very good at making games this way.

One of the major challenges that we discovered when moving forward with the project was that most publishers we spoke to had no (zero, less than zero, terribly less than zero) interest in seeing what we could do with higher-end graphics, tight gameplay, and integrated mechanics. "The Wii is not a hardcore market," and variations on that theme were common refrains....

We started creating, building, and architecting a game from the ground-up with little-to-no outside direction. Now, we know some of you are thinking that this sounds awesome, and it was a very awesome thing, but let us tell you, it also comes with some healthy fear. As a company, we were investing our own dollars into a project without a guaranteed future… Hell, we had been explicitly told, by many companies, that it was a loser, it had no market, and none of the people that own a Wii would want it. So, while it was so truly awesome, in many ways, it was a big weight on the team's shoulders, and it was a big show of faith from the management of our company regarding the team making The Conduit. To say we bet the farm on this project may be an understatement, but then again, sometimes you just gotta roll that hard six.

Also, from the start we wanted customizable controls. As a gamer, it kind of annoys me when a control scheme is almost, but not quite, what I want. Especially when I just got done playing a game with say, jump on B and shoot on A, and the next game I get has them reversed and I have to re-train myself to the new controls. As a programmer, I know that it's usually not that hard to make remap-able controls. The big issue is usually whether we can spend the time on it. Often, it's a feature that gets cut in favor of some other feature that means a lot to the IP, but not so much to the gameplay. In our case, we felt it was important, and when fans saw it, they told us they liked it a lot. That showed us we really were on to something important to the people who want to play the game, and we stuck with it, and enhanced it. Now we even let you move the HUD around and even change how transparent you want it to be. We really pulled out all the stops, and gave the fans access to everything we developers get to tweak with the controls.

Last but not least, some choice quotes:

1. From David Antognoli, one of the project designers:

"The Conduit had no publisher for several months—most of its development life, actually. This created an interesting dynamic. On the one hand, we were free to make what we wanted; but in the end, we had to craft something we felt confident that publishers would go for. We wanted to make something appealing to ourselves, potential publishers, and the Wii gaming audience. This is largely why the game has gone through so many iterations of improvement.

Ever since the game's unveiling, the team's made an effort to scour the Internet for preview criticism, article comments, and forum posts. We even have someone tasked with documenting and tabulating it all for our records. For example, one of the early criticisms of the game involved a complaint about our Wii gesture controls for melee attacks and tossing grenades. The author noted that stabbing with the Wii remote and shaking the Nunchuk with enough force to trigger the actions caused players' aim to be thrown off. We had considered making these controls more sensitive, but some were concerned players would start accidentally triggering the actions. So, in the spirit of democracy, we decided to extend our customization even further by allowing the players to decide how sensitive the game is to these gestures in the control settings."

2. How The Conduit originally wasn't going to include online multiplayer:

A great example of this was that we were not going to do online multiplayer at first. The team really wanted to do it, but we just didn't have the resources to make it work. We made plan after plan, and schedule after schedule to try to make it fit, but it just could not be done in the time we had with the people we had. After PAX though, so many fans talked about how much an online mode would mean to them, our management saw that, and brought in the resources we needed to do it. It really would not have been possible without that level of excitement from the fans!

3. And various tweaks to the A.S.E.:

"In early phases of the All-Seeing Eye (ASE), there were some mild debates on its usefulness. From the very first focus test HVS conducted, we quickly learned that we did something entirely wrong. We had to completely reevaluate the fun-ness of the ASE. What should it do? How does it work? And most importantly, how do we make it awesomely fun!? After reworking the ASE and adding several new features, we conducted more focus testing. The response was remarkable! Even though the game is a first-person shooter, about a quarter of the people had more fun with the ASE than they did shooting the baddies in the face. And we continue to seek feedback and suggestions. SEGA's feedback has been invaluable. Fan forums, even more so."

[divinechaos]

I really wish they'd say what publishers turned them down because the game had no room in a console like the Wii. Between this and MadWorld I might have to buy a Wii by the end of the year. Maybe.

[Variable Gear]

Depending on what's included if High Voltage went through with it, I'd pick it up. But I'd be just fine with a copy of the game itself. ;)
Same here. If they include something kitch, I'll pick up the CE, but, otherwise, I'd be happy with a regular copy.

I'd like to thank Eric for writing up that post, as it was very educational. Also, I'd like to say that the inclusion of cheats would be awesome.

[Dark Prince]

The Conduit will have a presence at the upcoming New York Comic-con, which will be held from February 6-8. (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=9295))

This is great. Can't wait to get to the event. I hope to make time for these games.

Great write up EA, interesting stuff for sure.

[Evil Avnovice]

This is great. Can't wait to get to the event. I hope to make time for these games.

Great write up EA, interesting stuff for sure.

Thanks! :)

[Evil Avnovice]

According to Matt Corso, 16-player deathmatches are confirmed, and The Conduit will end up using friend codes. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=71332); Nerve.com (http://nerve.com/CS/blogs/61fps/archive/2009/02/02/the-conduit-high-voltage-s-refined-take-on-gaming-comfort-food.aspx))

This is traced back (from GoNintendo) to a NeoGaf post (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14622949&postcount=459), and GoNintendo also mentions that it's rumored.

[Variable Gear]

Ah...I was hoping we wouldn't be force-fed friend codes in the Conduit. :(

Hopefully half of that remains rumored.

[divinechaos]

If they don't use Friend Codes in the first one then how are they gonna improve on the sequel?

[Evil Avnovice]

A two page scan from the latest issue of Nintendo Power. (The Conduit Information Center (http://the-conduit.webs.com/apps/blog/show/397015-nintendo-power-previews-the-article))

http://www.nintendopower.com/images/NP239_Conduit.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

A couple of images/artwork. (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=9641))

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/conduit-3.jpg

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/conduit-1.jpg

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/conduit-5.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

Some more The Conduit goodness. (blogs.sega.com (http://blogs.sega.com/usa/2009/02/03/sega-community-team-at-new-york-comic-con/))

The NY Comic Con is Feb 6th-8th in the Jacob Javits center, and we’re in booth 1457, which is toward the back of the show floor, on the left side. You can print out a convention floor map to help you find your way.

We’ve got lots of stuff going on, including hands-on time with The House of the Dead: Overkill, Madworld, The Conduit, and Sonic & The Black Knight. When you come to our booth, make sure you get a card (they’re business card sized) to keep track of the games you’ve played. Once you’ve played The House of the Dead: Overkill, Madworld & The Conduit, you’ll get a free t-shirt (while supplies last)! You’ll also be able to pre-order a copy of Madworld right from our booth.

We’ve got autograph sessions with Platinum Games (the developers of Madworld) and High Voltage Software (the developers of The Conduit) happening all weekend. Platinum Games signings are Friday 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Saturday 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, and Sunday 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM. High Voltage Software signings are Friday 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Saturday 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, and Sunday 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM. As a special treat, on Saturday ONLY we will have some of the voice actors from The Conduit available for autographs from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM and 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM.


As if all that weren’t enough, there’s still more! If you come to NY Comic Con dressed as a Valkyria Chronicles character, you’ll get a free copy of the limited-edition Valkyria Chronicles art book (while supplies last)! Brush up on the details, and then show us your best costume! If Phantasy Star Universe is more your thing, come to our booth prepared with the answers to these trivia questions, and we’ll hook you up with some Phantasy Star swag!

Even if you don’t know trivia or don’t like costumes, we hope you’ll come by and say hello. We’ll be taking plenty of photos and videos during the day, and detailing the day’s experiences here in the blog each night. We’ll also be updating our Twitter feed throughout the day from the show floor, so follow us now if you aren’t already!

[H.Bogard]

45196

Awesome

[Purple Santa]

Some nice looking video there. Any word when this is coming out? I wan to make sure I can buy this to support the developer. After reading the stuff Avnovice posted from the developers process on the game (that was awesome Avnovice btw) I want to show them the support they need.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some nice looking video there. Any word when this is coming out? I wan to make sure I can buy this to support the developer. After reading the stuff Avnovice posted from the developers process on the game (that was awesome Avnovice btw) I want to show them the support they need.

There was a date for March 2009, but it looks like it's being pushed back to May/June 2009. :(

On-topic: Thanks, H.Bogard! :D

[Evil Avnovice]

Comic-con "Developer Walkthrough" video.

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[Doctor Setebos]

There was a date for March 2009, but it looks like it's being pushed back to May/June 2009. :(Official date: June 9th (http://gonintendo.com/?p=71973).

Also, High Voltage is calling Conduit "Halo for the Wii (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72024)". Bold claims. :eek:

[divinechaos]

Official date: June 9th (http://gonintendo.com/?p=71973).

Also, High Voltage is calling Conduit "Halo for the Wii (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72024)". Bold claims. :eek:

Ugh, I rather play a Perfect Dark for the Wii 'cause that's what it's shaping up to be and PD>Halo. Remember the last game that tried to claim Halo's on a different console?

[Ancalagon]

The muzzle flash for that Drudge weapon in H.Bogard's video looks too bright, looks like it might obscure the gameplay.

[Evil Avnovice]

Official date: June 9th (http://gonintendo.com/?p=71973).

Also, High Voltage is calling Conduit "Halo for the Wii (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72024)". Bold claims. :eek:

1. Ugh. There goes March. I guess that gives me room for Resident Evil 5. Still very disappointed. :(

2. My first reaction with The Conduit being mulitplatform kind of shocked me, but if the game is good, I wouldn't have a problem grabbing another version of this. Of course, the Wii titles come first before anything else. ;)

[Evil Avnovice]

While LAN multiplayer won't make the cut, High Voltage is considering it for a possible sequel. (Nintendo World Report (http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=17701))

Much to many people's chagrin, there won't be any local multiplayer in Sega and High Voltage Software's The Conduit when it hits stores on June 9. Eric Nofsinger, Chief Creative Officer at High Voltage Software, resolved earlier conflicting reports in speaking to Nintendo World Report at NYCC 2009. He also heavily hinted that split-screen multiplayer could be implemented in a potential sequel. Apparently, the developers tried to get LAN multiplayer running, but Nintendo would not allow it.

[Evil Avnovice]

Quite a bit of information (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=9833) taken from the latest issue of Nintendo Power, by way of NintendoEverything.

- Didn’t fight Drudge in the first of the two levels NP demoed
- Instead fighting against Prometheus (terrorist) - has the power to control people
- Up to something at the Ronald Regan Washington National Airport
- Human soldiers shoot at you
- Enemies pop up from behind counters
- While fighting through the airport, brown-orange gas revives baddies - Secret behind the gas wasn’t revealed to Nintendo Power
- All Seeing Eye allows you to find a number of switches to unlock a door
- Finding switches isn’t difficult
- ASE beeps when you get closer to a hidden object
- ASE becomes very important in subsequent levels
- Much of the plot revealed in interspersed dialogue scenes between John Adams and Mr. Ford
- Plot has many twists and turns
- Game has quality voice work - Mark A. Sheppard doing voice work for Mr. Ford, Willian Morgan Sheppard doing voice work for John Adams
- Library of Congress is another level
- Have to take down Trust agents - under the mistaken impression that you’re a puppet for Prometheus, have orders to take you out
- Can play with 16 players online
- Choose to fight globally, people in your region, people who you’ve exchanged friend codes with
- Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag game modes for online
- Nintendo Power only played with 6 people only but there were no graphical or gameplay issues
- Medical Facility is one of the multiplayer maps
- All maps taken from single-player
- Medical Facility “totally remade to better suit multiplayer gameplay with what the developers call the Human Weapons set (handguns, submachine guns, shotguns, and the like).”
- It’s effective to lock onto your opponent with Z - see how much health he has left
- Head shots do substantial damage, though they don’t always kill opponents instantly
- 180-degree turn button being considered so that you could take someone out at your rear
- Training Complex another Deathmatch map
- Central area with balconies on the perimeter - leaves you open to be sniped
- Everyone starts the match with a rocket launcher
- Other weapons can be found on the map including a gun that lobs electric orbs
- Takes some time to load in a fresh rocket - Rocket can damage opponent even if the aim isn’t spot on
- WiiSpeak support wasn’t implemented for Nintendo Power’s session, but High Voltage promises it will be included when the “the game hits stores in spring.”

[Evil Avnovice]

Gamespot's Comic-con '09 hands-on with The Conduit. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72039))

[Evil Avnovice]

[Ru]The Conduit will support a lobby system.[/mor] (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=9872))

[Variable Gear]

I hope this rumor comes true!

[Purple Santa]

Official date: June 9th (http://gonintendo.com/?p=71973).

Also, High Voltage is calling Conduit "Halo for the Wii (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72024)". Bold claims. :eek:

Dear High Voltage,
As much as we know the long hours on this game with the additional crunch time to getting this game out the door has most likely affected your cognitive abilities...please stay away from the comparisons to Halo. Please. We love the game already. Don't bring undo scorn to your game from the Halo rabid crazies that can't wait to tear this apart because it's on the Wii.

Sincerely,
A future Conduit fan

[Dark Prince]

I got to play this at Comic Con and it was pretty damn smooth. I'm writing up my interview with the Conduit guys here that should be posted soon on the website soon (in my sig).

[Evil Avnovice]

I got to play this at Comic Con and it was pretty damn smooth. I'm writing up my interview with the Conduit guys here that should be posted soon on the website soon (in my sig).

Even though you already mentioned this, I still couldn't prod you for some early impressions before you post it? :p

If you do decide to post it, thanks in advance.

[Evil Avnovice]

A preview (http://www.truegameheadz.com/blogheadz/the-conduit-preview/) from Truegameheadz.

Edit: Along with a video interview (http://www.truegameheadz.com/blogheadz/the-conduit-the-new-york-comic-con-interview/) with Eric Nofsinger.

[Evil Avnovice]

Comic-con '09 "Furious Fire" gameplay.

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[Dark Prince]

Even though you already mentioned this, I still couldn't prod you for some early impressions before you post it? :p

If you do decide to post it, thanks in advance.


I am considering it, heh.

It's a shameless plug but I just posted up my interview with Eric Nofsinger and Kerry from NYCC. You can check it out here (http://www.gameplasma.com/columns/index/view/id/18/), if you are so interested.

[divinechaos]

Ha, they're definitely gonna announce something else at E3 aren't they? And I can't wait for this game 'cause apparently the developers have HUGE expectations for it. I just hope they put their money where their mouth is and judging by the videos it looks like that is the case.

[Evil Avnovice]

I finally got around to reading the interview you linked Dark Prince. Thanks again! :)

[Evil Avnovice]

A Destructoid interview (http://www.destructoid.com/destructoid-interview-the-conduit-developer-high-voltage-software-121364.phtml) with Eric Nofsinger and Kerry Gonofsky. There's also a small blurb on Wii Motion Plus not making it into the final build. Today, I'll go a different route:

DESTRUCTOID: So you guys are going up against some pretty big, triple-A first-person shooters on other platforms, games that are setting new bars for things like visuals -- Killzone 2, games like that.
People are pretty impressed by the game, watching them and listening to them on the Comic Con floor. A lot of what I'm hearing is "it looks really good for a Wii game." Why the Wii? Why not another system where you could have pushed more polygons?

NOFSINGER: Yeah, sure. We could have pushed more polygons, but we believe that gameplay is king. Although we want to make a higher-quality experience than sort of the really minimum bar that most Wii games are, for us it was all about control. With the Wii, it affords you a different type of control mechanism other than playing with two analog sticks or a "brick" on a PC. It's a different way to interact, and it afforded a whole other level of interactivity with a first-person shooter.

It makes a lot of sense to just point and kill things. Beyond that, we were able to do a lot of stuff with the motion controls in it. We're able to do melee attacks with the jab, we're able to do grenade tosses with the Nunchuk. And we have a lot of Wii-specific weapons with the alien technlogy and the Trust technology that you just couldn't do on a 360 or a PlayStation 3. Personally, I'd take good gameplay over a few more polys anyday.

DESTRUCTOID: Before you reached out and start getting suggestions, was there anything that you thought, "Oh, this is going to work great." But then, ultimately, found that it just didn't work?

NOFSINGER: Oh yeah, there's a lot of examples of that stuff. The proof is kind of in the pudding, and once you try it, it's kind of proved or disproved. One of the things was melee attacks. We had to play a lot with the sensitivity on that. I mean, you could map the melee to the D-pad but it defaults right now to a quick thrust forward on the Wii Remote. It's really easy to get disoriented, so we had to play a lot with that. "Oh yeah, you'll just thrust forward and it's going to work great." But really, the first implementations of it were terrible; it just didn't work at all. We had to do a lot of work with that to see what would work.

The biggest example of that that I could give was Wii MotionPlus. We were really excited about Wii MotionPlus; we got the kits when everyone else got them -- actually a little bit before. We were really excited, going back and forth with Nintendo on how to integrate this and what the best use for it was. But when we actually implemented it, it really didn't bring that much to the table. It really felt like a bit of a gimmick. The other things in the game had been built from the ground up to take advantage of the Wii Remote. This just felt way too tacked on. We didn't have a lot of melee weapons to take advantage of it; actually, we had no melee weapons. So we tried to scramble a little bit: "Oh, are we going to try to tack on a melee weapon?" We played around with that. To be real honest, it just felt like a cop-out. From day one, our mantra has always been, "If we're not doing it right, don't do it."

So when we looked at that we said, "Hey, this doesn't feel right. It feels like a tack on. There's really not a lot of gameplay that supports it. Let's not lie to our fan base and say, 'Hey Wii MotionPlus,' just to use it as a bullet point on a box." Unlike Wii Speak, we plug that it and it works great. It's really cool to be able to trash talk with your buddies online. But maybe for a future version we'll revisit [Wii MotionPlus], and if we can build something around it that makes sense. We're not going to just tack it on to tack it on.

DESTRUCTOID: Did you find that the technology for the Wii MotionPlus worked as advertised, and it was just for this particular game that it wasn't right?

NOFSINGER: Yeah, it works. It lends itself better to certain kinds of things over others. Because the way that you have to calibrate it, and because of the way that there are some issues with some of the data and the way that it lags and so forth. It really lends itself better to melee-type things and things where you calibrate in-between [sections]. If The Conduit was starting development today -- which it's not -- but if it was and we wanted to use it, we'd probably look at it differently and incorporate weapons that make more sense for it. But it just didn't work out.

DESTRUCTOID: Cool. So Nintendo's introducing the SD card support. Would downloadable content be something you'd be able to support?

NOFSINGER: No, not for this version. It's just not designed for it. We love downloadable content of any kind; it's a natural fit for first-person shooters and other kinds of games. But it's just too late in the game to come on board. Again, we wouldn't want to put in a half-assed solution. It does everyone a disservice.

GANOFSKY: Yeah, tacking something on at this point would be a disservice to everybody.

DESTRUCTOID: Right, right! So, this is technology you've built from the ground up. Is that technology something that would share with other developers, or maybe your publishing partners like Sega?

NOFSINGER: We've been approached a lot about the idea of licensing, as you might imagine. A lot of folks have come out about our Quantum 3 tech. We've not really pursued that, because that's a full-time gig. I don't think Kerry or I are looking to be Epic or anything like that. You need to have an infrastructure for that.

GANOFSKY: The guys at Epic do a great job of that. We're really a developer, and we're approached frequently by developers and publishers for licensing. Part of it is, you know, we want to release this game first and foremost. Our commitment is to the consumer and finishing this game and doing it right. We'll look at ancillary revenue streams and licensing it to a handful of partners because we want everything to be great on the Wii. Right now, we want this title to be great on the Wii.

NOFSINGER: I will say too that some of the folks that reached out to us right away they were really quality, great developers, great publishers. And some of them sure weren't. That gets into a fuzzy area where you know, we want to make sure that High Voltage is establishing itself as a high-quality developer. I think a lot of folks can overlook some of our less stellar titles that we've done under the licensed yoke. They'll give us a free pass once, but they won't give it to us twice.

GANOFSKY: We believe you have to judge the titles for what they are. Time-to-market titles, for a license [developed] in seven to eight months, you have to judge them differently from a title built from the ground up.

Bonus: Ford's full name is confirmed as Michael Ford.

[Purple Santa]

After playing and loving Deadly Creatures, I don't doubt a third party developer can make a fun game on the Wii with the waggle controls. I looked forward to this game before but now this really goes to the top of the anticipated titles for this year.

[Lutheran]

Deadly Creatures is good?

[Purple Santa]

Deadly Creatures is good?

Yes. A very good "action/adventure" game. I am using quotes since that is what i've seen it called. I'd scroll through the Deadly Creatures thread if you haven't to see the various videos etc. I had lots of fun playing as the creatures, unlocking different moves and just enjoying exploring the desert environments. Ever pick up a game and it's just fun from the start? That was this game for me.

Edit: I'm glad you saw this Lutheran...I was hoping to see you around and let you know you might like this game.

[Evil Avnovice]

An 18 minute video interview with Eric Nofsinger. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=72880))

PsdrmyDwklo

[Evil Avnovice]

A preview from Cubed3 (http://www.cubed3.com/preview/276).

[Evil Avnovice]

"NY Comic-Con 09: Experience Interview" video.

45651

[Evil Avnovice]

A few pieces of artwork/images from NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=10862).

[Evil Avnovice]

A two-minute preview from X-Play. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=73292))

[Dark Prince]

A Game Plasma preview (http://www.gameplasma.com/previews/index/view/id/23) :p

[Doctor Setebos]

A Game Plasma preview (http://www.gameplasma.com/previews/index/view/id/23) :pWhoa, that Game Plasma site is absolutely horrendous! Never link to it here again!

Just kidding - excellent write up! :D

[Doctor Setebos]

New trailer courtesy of Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/07/the-conduit-to-use-wii-speak-new-trailer-sizzles-with-conspira/).

46432

[boratika]

Still looking good. Perhaps still looking better. But can we just have it as the next time we see it :D

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images. (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen30512_more-pictures-for-the-conduit.html))

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090318_175808_0_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images0_4_30512.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090318_175808_1_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images1_4_30512.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090318_175808_4_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images4_4_30512.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

A story interview with Eric Nofsinger and Producer Josh Olson. (IGN (http://wii.ign.com/articles/963/963610p1.html))

IGN: Exactly who is Agent Ford, who does he work for, and how does he specifically become involved in the anarchy in Washington DC?

Josh Olson: Agent Ford is a U.S. Secret Service agent. He is clean cut, has a square jaw, and doesn't drink or smoke. He's idealistic and follows orders. He believes in honor, duty, service to country. He likes baseball, hot dogs and apple pie. These qualities draw the attention of John Adams, head of an enigmatic government organization known as The Trust, who recruits Ford to help track down a terrorist cell and reclaim some stolen Trust technology. Ford quickly finds himself in the middle of a much bigger crisis and heads down a long and dark rabbit hole in the interest of doing his duty for his country - and ends up... well... that's part of the fun.

Eric Nofsinger: The Trust is a terrifying organization; shadowy puppet masters behind the scenes ostensibly controlling world affairs via present day governments and corporations. It's unclear when the Trust was established. But I think it is safe to assume they have been pulling our strings for a tremendously long time and this is very dangerous company for Agent Ford to be mixed up with.

IGN: We've heard bits about Ford battling a former Trust agent. Can you elaborate?

Josh: The Trust prides itself on working quietly behind the scenes, and would never allow itself to show any hint of internal discord. They take out their own garbage and certainly wouldn't tell us about it.

All of the storytelling we've seen so far takes place in-game, usually by way of voice-overs from actors -- "John Adams" guides Agent Ford. Why did you decide to go with this style of storytelling instead of more pre-rendered movies, for example?

Eric: Our story is told a lot like the movie Cloverfield, but without the motion sickness. Oh, and we have more than one giant alien to contend with. A lot more.

Josh: It was a very deliberate decision on our part to not take the player away from the action. Tons of time and resources can be spent on cinematics - when I think that 90% of the time the player mashes on a button to skip it and get back to shooting things. That's been our philosophy with The Conduit - we don't want to be overly intrusive and pull the player out of the experience of being Agent Ford - and we think we do a good job of telling the story and moving events forward in a way that doesn't interrupt gameplay or beat the player over the head.

We think we have a good story to tell - but aren't so self-absorbed to think that it's the primary driving force for the title. It's there if you want it - and we've worked really hard to intelligently insert the story into the game and to provide extra elements and layers to give that depth to our world. It's a tricky balance to be sure.

[Evil Avnovice]

A new trailer. (Nintendo Connection's blog (http://www.gamekyo.com/group_article5769.html) at Gamekyo)

[Evil Avnovice]

A little blurb from CVG (http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=211061).

"I don't think that previous Wii FPS titles have made a compelling argument that the pointer and Nunchuk belong in the discussion. With The Conduit, we think we absolutely belong," he told us in a recent interview.

"The biggest lesson learned has been the intelligent use of the accelerometers. They're a powerful tool - and can add a lot to the experience - but you need to be very careful as well to avoid a gimmicky implementation that ultimately detracts from the overall gameplay.

"We use the motion controls where they make sense, and in our case, think that a more restrained approach is the way to go," he added. "We don't have any shake-it-like-a-Polaroid-picture moments in our game, and it's all the better for it. It's a lesson that we learned to some extent from looking at the other FPS titles on the console."

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images (http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/tap-into-new-the-conduit-screens/) from JoystiqNintendo.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen30529_new-pictures-for-the-conduit.html) from Gamekyo.

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090320_122002_1_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images1_4_30529.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090320_122002_2_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images2_4_30529.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090320_122002_6_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images6_4_30529.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090320_122002_8_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images8_4_30529.html)

[davboy6]

not realy because they already said its 16 player online mode.

[Evil Avnovice]

GDC 2009 video.

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[Dark Prince]

This game just keeps looking better and better. Definitely looking out for this one...

[Evil Avnovice]

GDC 2009 interview video from GameSpot (http://gdc.gamespot.com/video/6206890/gdc-2009-the-conduit-interview).

[davboy6]

i just cant wait till this come out. Its an first day buy for me. I wonder if they are still working on the graohics.

[biosc1]

I worry that the graphical glitz is coming at the expense of AI.

[davboy6]

I feel the same way but they already said that they are playing it on easy. so im not realy that worryed about it cuz when i get it i might start on hard to see how the AI will act on hard lvl.

[davboy6]

I wonder if the update for the engine they are useing will update the AI smartness?

[Evil Avnovice]

A small preview (http://www.gamedaily.com/games/the-conduit/wii/game-features/eyeson-the-conduit/) from GameDaily.

[Evil Avnovice]

GDC 2009 footage from Gamepro. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=77334))

[davboy6]

Sweet videos.

[Evil Avnovice]

It has been revealed that the A.S.E. is used to unlock in-game bonuses. (Nintendopad (http://nintendodpad.com/+/Dpad_%7C_News/Entries/2009/3/31_Conduit_bonuses_unlocked_through_ASE.html))

The All Seeing Eye is not just an object which unlocks doors but it will help with unlockables as well.

You may have noticed in The Conduit the odd writing on the walls which is written in Drudge language and is only seen with the ASE. It has been confirmed that by searching for and decoding these strange Drudge writings throughout the Conduit that you will in turn unlock bonuses for the game.

If this sounds a little familiar to you thats because it is. Metroid Prime 3 had a similar design in that you had to search for Lore by scanning certain spots in the environment to unlock credits which could “buy” you extras in the game such as concept art, music and the infamous cockpit bobblehead Mii.

The bonuses are unknown but regardless this will increase the replay value and add a little more play time to the single player side of things which is never a bad thing.

In addition to the unlockables, stats will include how many headshots you have had and how many kills with what weapon you have had to name a few. Multiplayer will have these same type of stats for online play.

[Evil Avnovice]

Kotaku impressions (http://kotaku.com/5187469/the-conduit-control-customization) on The Conduit's customizable control scheme.

[Evil Avnovice]

North American boxart. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=77963))

[Evil Avnovice]

Gamereactor GDC 2009 footage (http://www.gamereactor.net/news/1077/GRTV%3A+The+Conduit+presentation/). But you'd mostly want to take note of the slight reveal of the game's intro.

[Evil Avnovice]

A new trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=78370))

fZ9FQ7LDQmc

[Evil Avnovice]

Small blurb (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=13718) on why split-screen multiplayer won't make it into The Conduit. (NintendoEverything)

“It is mostly for that reason [loss of game quality during split-screen]. When we set out, management handed us a box that had the things that we must incorporate, and one of those things was “Best looking game on the Wii” so, we were very concerned with loss of graphics quality - to basically double render the game on the box. As you can see, we’ve really pushed things with the bump mapping, the shading, the lighting and so forth. But again, it’s something that our in-house technology group is looking into, seeing if there is a way that we can milk the system for more. So that possibly in future titles we can manage that. But for The Conduit, that was the main reason.”

[Evil Avnovice]

IW: Is there anything about The Conduit’s multiplayer that we haven’t heard about yet that you can tell us, or tease us with?

RN: On April 15th we’re going to have a big multiplayer event with Sega (The Conduit's publisher). A press event extravaganza to basically call everybody into the room and say: “O.k. You’ve all been wanting to see multiplayer play, multiplayer etc., here it is”. That will all happen on the 15th. We’re not planning on hiding anything.

HDWarriors (http://hdwarriors.com/index.php/wii/other-consoles-news/280-the-conduit-multiplayer-all-will-be-revealed-april-15th.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

A G4TV preview (http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/694618/The-Conduit-Single-Player-Preview.html).

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images. (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/videoen14884_the-conduit-se-montre-clairvoyant.html))

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090408_231012_1_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images1_5_14884.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090408_231013_4_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images4_5_14884.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090408_231013_5_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images5_5_14884.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

Gamestop pre-order bonuses (http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=72956):

[Evil Avnovice]

An HDWarriors interview (http://hdwarriors.com/index.php/wii/other-consoles-news/287-the-conduit-rob-nicholls-interview.html) with Rob Nicholls, Lead Game Designer for The Conduit.

IW: How has having Sega as your publisher taken The Conduit project to new levels?

RN: Sega has been an absolute joy to work with. Very much a partnership, not a adversarial relationship at all. They’ve really come through for us regarding marketing, testing, and things of that nature that we were not in a position to do as well ourselves. So yeah, they are really coming through for us and helping us out quite a bit. It’s been a really great partnership, and we’re looking forward to more of it.

IW: Yeah, you know, when I first heard that it was Sega I was rather wow’ed. Sega is an awesome choice. I mean I was kind of hoping it was Nintendo, but I can kind of see why it wouldn’t be.

RN: Right, right. Well we wouldn’t have minded Nintendo at all. But of course, that’s not really their style so... Yeah, of all of the others that we could possibly have gotten, I think that Sega was a very good choice. We had some other offers earlier on, but we obviously passed them by because they weren’t really with us in the spirit of what we were trying to accomplish. What I mean is, there were people who wanted to like, get everything out there as soon as possible and make that quick buck; and that’s just not what we wanted to do with this.

IW: (Laughs) Right. Actually the next question is about the release date. While June is the target so far, a definite release date hasn’t been given yet for this game. Would you say that it’s safe to assume that E3 will be the culmination of the pre-release hype for this game, and can we expect to play The Conduit in our homes shortly after?

RN: I would say that that’s very likely. We’ve got some pretty solid dates now because we’re gearing up to time it with the Marketing campaign, E3, and things of that nature. So I would say that around E3 you should either be playing The Conduit or will be shortly thereafter.

IW: The Conduit won’t have split screen Multi-player. Is this due to a loss of game quality during split screen, or is there another reason?

RN: It is mostly for that reason. When we set out, like I said earlier, management handed us a box that had the things that we must incorporate, and one of those things was “Best looking game on the Wii” so, we were very concerned with loss of graphics quality - basically double render the game on the box.

As you can see, we’ve really pushed things like I talked about earlier with the bump mapping the shading, the lighting and so forth. But again, it’s something that our in-house technology group is looking into, seeing if there is a way that we can milk the system for more. So that possibly in future titles we can manage that. But for The Conduit, that was the main reason.

[Evil Avnovice]

First images of The Conduit's multiplayer mode(s). (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen30724_the-conduit-multiplayer-s-screens.html))

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090414_214524_1_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images1_4_30724.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090414_214524_3_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images3_4_30724.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090414_214525_4_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images4_4_30724.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090414_214525_8_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images8_4_30724.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

GDC 2009 interview video. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=79044))

UgNhOc6wFD8

[Evil Avnovice]

A few more images. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=79074))

[Evil Avnovice]

Multiplayer trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=79138))

Edit: Info taken from the video. (NeoGaf (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=349083&page=18) Post#862)

Free For All Maps

- Bunker
- Pentagon (8-12 players)
- Complex (6-10 players)
- Sanctum
- Infirmary
- Streets
- Warehouse
- Random

Weapon Sets

- Human
- Trust
- Drudge
- Near/Far
- Close Combat
- Longe Range
- Explosive
- Chargeable
- Random

[Evil Avnovice]

Three-part walkthrough.

48077

48075

48073

[davboy6]

nice videos.

[Evil Avnovice]

A Destructiod interview (http://www.destructoid.com/interview-high-voltage-on-the-conduit-s-multiplayer-128857.phtml).

[Evil Avnovice]

By way of Joystiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/16/the-conduit-channeled-into-retail-on-june-23/), we'll get this on June 23.

[Evil Avnovice]

An IGN video interview with Eric Nofsinger on The Conduit's multiplayer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=79445))

[Evil Avnovice]

A two-part developer interview video.

48140

48145

[Evil Avnovice]

A new interview. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=79604))

RaiKhtMNYgY

[divinechaos]

Single player is looking damn fine, multiplayer not so much; In comparison anyway. It looks good but you can see that they had to sacrifice graphics to I guess make it more stable. Not that anyone is gonna notice while playing though.

[davboy6]

I will notice now thanks to you.

[Evil Avnovice]

Another confirmation on the release date. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=80245))

[Evil Avnovice]

A new trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=80348))

kgji8DUsre0

[Evil Avnovice]

An IGN interview (http://wii.ign.com/articles/976/976196p1.html) with Eric Nofsinger on The Conduit's control scheme.

IGN: Conduit has the most customizable control scheme of any FPS we've ever played. Why'd you decide to give so much power to players?

Eric: One thing I find particularly frustrating is when a game forces me to use an input scheme that doesn't feel natural or at a minimum doesn't follow the conventions of other established games in that genre. I don't think any gamer likes it when a developer feels they know better than their audience. Options and choices are good, especially on something so critical to how a game feels. Within the team we each had our own favorite control schemes, and we had a lot fun creating them. But even with variety, limiting players to whatever seemed appropriate to us, just felt like a cop out.

IGN: One benefit a game like Medal of Honor Heroes 2 has over The Conduit where controls are concerned is that the action all runs at 60 frames, as opposed to 30. Do you think the drop in fluidity makes a big difference? Why or why not?

Eric: We could run at 60 fps as well if we wanted to look like a PSP game ported to Wii, which is what Medal of Honor Heroes 2 is. I do appreciate their high frame rates, but I can point to a lot of AAA first person shooters that run at 30 fps. And in all honesty, if we felt it legitimately impacted gameplay, we would have scaled back the art to accommodate higher frame rates. Gameplay is king. But I think we've found a solid balance of fun gameplay and fantastic visuals.

IGN: We know the answer, but we've gotta ask. What happened to Wii MotionPlus support?

Eric: We had built the Conduit without Wii MotionPlus support in there, and when we first discovered it we were very excited about the possibilities. Nintendo was great to work with and got us some of the earliest hardware. However what we found is that since we had built our input based off of not using it and had received very useful hands-on feedback from IGN and other media and subsequently directly from fans at PAX, it didn't seem to offer us a tremendous benefit. Now, I'm not saying the device doesn't work; it does what it is designed to do very well. But that really didn't seem to fit into our gameplay. Melee combat is a much better application. We even prototyped a Wii MotionPlus specific melee weapon and it showed a lot of promise. But we simply didn't have enough time in our schedule to make it polished and great. So, it had to go.

[Evil Avnovice]

Over 64 multiplayer images from Revogamers (http://www.revogamers.net/screen.php?gameId=682-The-Conduit). In addition, GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=80570) cribbed some details from an event SEGA held recently in Europe:

- Three Environments were shown: Hospital, On the Streets, the Pentagon
- Hospital: lot of corridors, corners and small rooms. Fit for pistol and small guns
- The Pentagon: Very good combination of big central area with rooms and “balconies”. At the end, everybody goes to the central space. Some sewers, too. Fit for all types of weapons, snipers particularly
- On the Streets: big empty area with destroyed buildings around. This demo was played with Bazookas only
- 25 ranks to gain online, level up with experience poitns
- Three stages types: small (2-6 players), medium (8-10 and big (8-12 players)

[Evil Avnovice]

From an IGN blog (http://blogs.ign.com/gamingmaster42/2009/04/22/118591) post, there are a few details on multiplayer and WiiSpeak support. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=80572))

* Proximity voice only applies for Free-for-All games. Team chat is used for Team Reaper and Team Objective game types. You can’t, however, talk to members on the opposing team in team games.
* You can only talk to Friends and Friends of Friends with WiiSpeak per Nintendo guidelines. While we would have liked to have been able to open it up to everyone, we’re obligated to follow Nintendo’s requirements.
* You can mute/unmute anyone, both in the Lobby and in-game.
* There is a ranking and XP system.
* You can add Friends in-game without having to manually enter a Friend Code either through sending a console friend request to a Wii console friend or through our UI if a player is a Friend of a Friend. For everyone else, you’ll have to manually enter their Friend Code. Again, we’re obligated to follow Nintendo requirements for Friend Codes.
* We won’t be supporting DLC or system updates for The Conduit. It’s something that we’ve looked at very closely and plan to implement moving forward with our future titles.

[Evil Avnovice]

The Conduit will release in Europe/Austrailia on June 26, 2009. (CVG (http://computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=213859))

[Evil Avnovice]

New multiplayer footage. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=80598))

9ST0LDKE7Ow

[Evil Avnovice]

A new trailer. (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/videoen14981_the-conduit-images-and-trailer.html))

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090429_200600_6_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images6_5_14981.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090429_200600_9_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images9_5_14981.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090429_200600_12_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images12_5_14981.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090429_200601_13_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images13_5_14981.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

An High Voltage blog (http://blogs.ign.com/HV_TheConduit/2009/04/30/119265/) post from IGN. It covers the story and concept of The Conduit.

We had many but there are a few that really stand out as landmark inspirations. On the literary side, we were captivated by The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple, The Earth Chronicles by Zecharia Sitchin, Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, Rule by Secrecy by Jim Marrs, and every shred of paper ever written by David Icke. We were also inspired by many films but two engaging films that we drew from were Cloverfield and They Live. These and countless more compelling works all helped to drive the team to provide an interesting and deep narrative but to reveal it in subtle yet addictive ways. In fact, you could say that these works gave birth to our tiered story telling mechanism.

Since I mentioned our unique story-telling system, I should elaborate. Our goal was two fold. First we wanted to offer gamers who cared more about the action than the story with the chance to play the game with as little narrative as possible yet still comprehend the overall story arc. Second we wanted to provide those players who were interested in knowing everything with an avenue to discover the truth of the story on their own, before the game told them. This tiered story-telling system was realized by offered structured story-telling revealed in mission briefings and additional story hooks that came in the form of our hidden alien text, radio messages, television broadcasts, and even objects throughout the levels. Those that want to find the secrets are immediately rewarded for their efforts with a complex and addictive series of story reveals that we hope will drive them to dig even deeper. We want players to Google the alien text, think through the riddles, solve them and draw conclusions as to how, what, and why all these things fit together. This method is reminiscent of the movie Cloverfield. Our main story arc was bolstered by the significant talents of Matt Forbeck. Matt is an accomplished writer who we called upon to help us tie up any loose ends or fill in any holes in our story. With Matt’s help we were able to deliver a cohesive, conspiracy-ridden story that would stand up to any X-Files episode.

The next thing I would like to discuss is our theme and how we came up with it. Early on it was determined that we were going to make a science fiction based game. We all were very passionate about the theme and what it could provide, particularly in the way of weapons, technology, enemies, and visual presentation. After deciding that sci-fi was going to allow the team to do far more than say a western theme, we started brainstorming about the specifics. We really wanted to push elements of the story, particularly the conspiracy side of things as this is something that most people can appreciate. Other interesting elements that we wanted to exploit were infectious diseases, terrorism, invasion, and war. While these pieces of the puzzle have become staples for the genre, we are confident that how we used them is unique. The conspiracy elements for example are not simply used in the story, but are a huge part of the gameplay. We took a lot of time working to balance creativity with accessibility throughout the story and how we used our conspiracy elements is a great example of that.

[Evil Avnovice]

Senior Designer interview. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=81232))

UAsJ7gYZ-B4

[Evil Avnovice]

NintendoLife's impressions (http://wii.nintendolife.com/news/2009/05/first_impressions_the_conduit_multiplayer_madness# comment101030) with The Conduit's multiplayer.

[davboy6]

good video

[Evil Avnovice]

A new video. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=81229))

[boratika]

Amazon.co.uk is listing a special edition.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f66/boratika/51pggB8aPqL_SS400_.jpg

Box Contains
Embossed and silver-effect slip case.

24 page hints and tips guide which will be packed into the slip case alongside the standard boxed game
3 unlockable items, the codes for which will be printed on the back of the hints and tips guide.

* Re-skinned all seeing eye
* Agent skin for multiplayer
* Drone skin for single player

[Evil Avnovice]

That somehow looks way better than the NA pre-order bonus. *drool*

On-topic: A new trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=81551))

vnsizmzYtx4

[Evil Avnovice]

Joystiq's multiplayer impressions (http://www.joystiq.com/2009/05/06/joystiq-hands-on-the-conduit-online-multiplayer/).

[JayVe]

On-topic: A new trailer. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=81551))

vnsizmzYtx4

This game is badass. As one who takes the Washington DC Metro every day I can say that the look of these levels is REMARKABLY close to the real thing.

I'm so pumped. Why? Well, on the DC Metro, you aren't allowed to walk between cars like you can on other subway systems. It is verboten. Yet in the game, not only am I allowed to walk between Metro cars, but I can shoot baddies while I do it. <-- guilty pleasure!

[danhoo]

This game is badass. As one who takes the Washington DC Metro every day I can say that the look of these levels is REMARKABLY close to the real thing.

I'm so pumped. Why? Well, on the DC Metro, you aren't allowed to walk between cars like you can on other subway systems. It is verboten. Yet in the game, not only am I allowed to walk between Metro cars, but I can shoot baddies while I do it. <-- guilty pleasure!

Hey Kam, have you tried Fallout 3? As a former DC Metro rider, I felt their Metro stations were also fairly authentic (almost disturbingly so) except for the ghoul and super mutant crowds :)

[Evil Avnovice]

A higher quality version of the Trouble in the Metro trailer (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/videofr15041_the-conduit-s-affiche-mais-trop-en-video.html)), and some Destructoid (http://www.destructoid.com/preview-the-conduit-s-multiplayer-131208.phtml) multiplayer impressions.

[Panthera]

Hey Kam, have you tried Fallout 3? As a former DC Metro rider, I felt their Metro stations were also fairly authentic (almost disturbingly so) except for the ghoul and super mutant crowds :)

Sounds pretty accurate to me. :p

[Evil Avnovice]

IGN's multiplayer impressions (http://wii.ign.com/articles/979/979932p1.html).

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images. (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen30997_the-conduit-new-images.html))

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090508_190325_0_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images0_4_30997.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090508_190325_2_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images2_4_30997.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090508_190326_4_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images4_4_30997.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

A Cubed3 interview (http://www.cubed3.com/news/12254) with High Voltage's David Pellas.

[davboy6]

that is sweet.

[Evil Avnovice]

GameStop pre-order email. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=82369))

http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/uploads/thecon.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

An IGN interview (http://wii.ign.com/articles/982/982962p1.html) with Chief Creative Officer Eric Nofsinger and Advanced Tools & Technology Supervisor, Scott Williamson on High Voltage's Quantum3 engine.

IGN: What's so special about the engine? What does it allow you to do?

Scott: Not to sound too repetitive, but its greatest strength is that it's abstract and data driven which allows us to efficiently create content that can be shared across platforms. While this alone isn't necessarily unique, its implementation is. It's highly efficient on each platform but orthogonal from the point of view of the game programmers, artists, and designers. The shared content isn't limited to textures and models either. It includes everything; maps, regions, navigation data, collision data, UI, movies, audio, even the game logic. It really enables High Voltage Software to quickly make high quality games of any type on multiple platforms. It's also extensible; we can add new features and even platforms to the engine.

Eric: One of the genuine strengths of Quantum3 is that it allows for rapid development. That affords us the ability to prove or disprove ideas quickly. Ideas are fantastic while they reside in your head, but they flourish or die in the practical reality of a running game. Our engine and toolset are very good at fostering the strong ideas' survival.

IGN: It seems to handle a lot of effects, but how hard does the framerate take a hit?

Scott: Everything has a cost, there's no free lunch, but we have put a tremendous and ongoing effort into optimization. Every time we implement a new feature, integration and performance are key design constraints. We also put a lot of work into modularity. Features are dependent on other features only when necessary and it makes sense. That way the designers and artists have the flexibility to trade mesh or material detail for additional HDR, Depth of Field GPU cycles in an area of a game for example. Some systems like normal mapping and particles are even scalable and can turned off smoothly in the distance for continuous LOD transitions. We do our best to make sure the pipeline is as optimized and flexible as possible, then give our content creators the tools to measure and balance the load on the system for the best story telling or gameplay experience.

Eric: Artists, Designers, Programmers, and Audio Engineers are continually at "war" for their discipline and the game as a whole. It's that constructive spirit of discontent that made The Conduit what it is.

IGN: Is Wii really capable of true normal-mapping? Is that feasible in-game?

Scott: Yes, absolutely. Our artists create tangent space normal maps and apply them to models just as you would for any other platform. Our tools compress them into Wii specific formats and the renderer uses them for advanced per-pixel lighting, reflection, and refraction. At first we in ATG were concerned about the performance of these techniques on the Wii but found that it was capable of far more than we initially expected. Not only were we able to do normal mapping but we implemented a full unified lighting model that allowed for true per pixel lighting calculation from many dynamic lights, combined with radiosity light maps, and a projected texture light (more to come), on complex multitexture materials with detail mapping, UV animation, specularity, color gloss maps, HDR and much more, all in a unified configurable pipeline. The key was our engineers experience and understanding of the underlying mathematics and physical principals of light and rendering. We were able to remap standard rendering techniques to the unique hardware in the Wii in a way that allowed maximum flexibility, but we didn't stop there. We developed several new Wii hardware specific tricks and techniques like Dynametric Light Tightening, Reframbriance, and ¡Approxiflexion! that contribute to The Conduit's performance and unique graphics style.

Eric: The techniques our artists use to generate their art assets are functionally identical. They create high resolution meshes in Zbrush to generate normal maps which are applied to lower resolution game models.

[Evil Avnovice]

A three minute video interview, and I'll link a higher-quality (http://www.gamekyo.com/videoen15090_the-conduit-new-video.html) video from Gamekyo as well. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=82582))

HMRjsejjOfI

[Evil Avnovice]

A new High Voltage IGN blog (http://blogs.ign.com/HV_TheConduit/2009/05/14/120421/) post on their Quantum3 engine.

....The major difference between the two engines is that Quantum4 has been architected from the ground up to support multi-core systems with programmable shader pipelines like the PS3, Xbox360, and the PC.

Initially, we had intended to add the Wii platform to Quantum4. After all, it was a new game platform and that made it “next-gen”, right? But the Wii has a single threaded processor, and lacks software (HLSL/Cg) programmable vertex and pixel shaders. It also had less video and main memory. All of these things made Quantum4 a bad fit for the Wii, but they all dovetailed perfectly with the trusty, well-established Quantum3engine. Later we learned that those things may not be necessary to make a next gen game.

Integration was straight forward and was made easier due to the fact that we had a large codebase of tested, hand optimized GameCube code in Quantum2 that we could draw from to base systems implementations on. Internally, the Wii hardware resembles the GameCube with a higher clock speed and more memory being the most obvious of many improvements. This fortunate similarity really helped make the Wii implementation of Quantum3 quick and reliable.

The first Wii-centric adaptation we made to the engine was support for the Wii-mote. We knew that chunk of plastic, batteries, and electronics would be the entire user interface for a player and Nintendo had just redefined it, adding the now familiar pointer, accelerometers, speaker, and nunchuck to the old gamepad. We had to expose the interface to every unique feature and configurable parameter of the Wiimote to the application as soon as possible so the designers and game programmers could start prototyping controller paradigms… and prototype they did. I’m glad we exposed it all so soon because there were many, many control iterations on The Conduit which led to the final refined yet uber-configurable interface.

....we had streamlined the pipeline but were not doing anything new with it. So we re-examined the existing engine architecture and all of the literature we could find for advanced rendering, material, and lighting techniques both for the Wii and in general and started to come up with a new unified rendering pipeline. It needed to be able to handle lighting properly for large numbers of light sources of a variety of types that would apply to an extremely flexible material system for skinned and nonskinned objects. We had an overall idea of what we wanted to implement but had no idea if the Wii would get bogged down when the advanced techniques were combined. What we found really surprised us. We kept adding features to the pipeline and the Wii kept up. It really excelled in the area of texture fill and we focused a lot of our efforts on refactoring graphics techniques onto the flexible interface we provided ourselves to the Wii hardware. We were able to get beautiful radiosity lighting effects combined with many dynamic lights, projected texture lights, applied to materials featuring normal mapped lighting, reflection, refraction, detail maps, and much more. I don’t want to be misleading, obviously we couldn’t “turn everything on” for every surface. But there was enough performance and flexibility for our artists and designers to create the dramatic settings and explosive conflicts in The Conduit and support twelve player multiplayer gameplay. Throughout this process, we worked hand-in-hand with the art staff iterating on technology and techniques. Some conventional approaches were either impossible or too expensive to use. We had to invent some new ones unique to our engine and this game, including dynametric light tightening, reframbriance, and approxiflexion to name some of the more interesting.

After improving the material and lighting systems we devised, or re-devised advanced effect and post process systems for the Wii, including high dynamic range lighting (HDR), emissive materials, depth of field, blur, dynamic water simulation with real reflection/refraction, shadow casting, and more proprietary techniques to achieve the look unique to the game. All of this work required tool extensions to expose reasonable interfaces to the creative staff, and on at least one occasion, the entire material interface in 3DS Max was refactored to better reflect the rendering pipeline for all platforms to the artists. Some features were also extended onto pre-existing platforms. It is important to involve the creative staff early in these processes because what may be obvious to a programmer may not be to an artist. It’s also easy for programmers to create an interface that deviates from conventions found in existing art packages. In short, early and continuous collaboration between programmers and creative staff was (and is) critical.

Another ongoing task was optimization. Game programmers must be masters of time and space, or more specifically, frame rate and RAM. Because we didn’t know how all of the systems would perform when they were working together and we didn’t know the footprint of the Wii libraries until late in the project we worked slightly over budget. But in the end, we were able to trim a little fat, and optimize code to fit into RAM at a solid frame rate. Lots of profiling was done to find the functions that were taking the most time. The entire skinning system, and the WiiSpeak audio filters were recoded by hand in assembly. The particle system was overhauled. The renderer was instrumented to measure performance metrics about every draw call and was also instrumented to visualize the use of resources. There was much more optimization work done but that’s the kind of stuff that goes into just about every project, and it all makes the engine better for the next games.

[Evil Avnovice]

Also, I went and updated the old placeholder website they used to have to their newer, "Seeing is Deceiving" official site.

[Evil Avnovice]

Special Edition Multiplayer Skins. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=82762))

http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/Skin_Select.jpg

http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/Action_5.jpg

[Thrak]

I'd really rather order from Amazon, but that Gamestop Limited Edition is really nice looking. Decisions, decisions.

[Evil Avnovice]

A hands-on from Eurogamer (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-conduit-hands-on).

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images. (Livegen (http://www.livewii.fr/news/121911/The-conduit-s-039-offre-une-gerbe-d-039-images.html?c=11))

[davboy6]

great, glad to see new info

[Evil Avnovice]

A DevelopMag interview (http://www.developmag.com/interviews/479/Interview-High-Voltage).

What makes the Quantum 3 engine unique?

Nofsinger: The first thing people notice about Quantum3 is that it is capable of pulling off truly next-gen visuals on the Wii. While this is its biggest impact to most people, it is merely the tip of the iceberg. Quantum3 provides an incredible networking path for rock-solid multiplayer, excellent tools for designers, a time-tested art pipeline, and so much more.

All of the features of the tech allow project teams to rapidly prototype gameplay and to quickly make changes to nearly anything in the game throughout development.

What this boils down to is that we can get the game running quickly, prove the fun of the gameplay, incorporate high quality visuals, and iterate until we finish.

This process has been invaluable in the creation of not just The Conduit, but many of our other games as well.

Why haven’t you used any third party engine?

Nofsinger: We did evaluate just about every technology on the market for the Wii. What we found is that no one had a solution that would allow us to push gameplay and visuals the way we wanted. We then decided to research our own solution and began prototyping the tech.

We provided a laundry list of features to our internal tech team, the Advanced Technology Group. This feature list was comprised of what we felt was necessary to deliver the kind of gaming experience that we wanted. After some time, they gave a demo of what they accomplished and we were blown away.

We are very happy of the decision to generate our own tech and proud of the entire team who have contributed to it.

[Evil Avnovice]

A blog post (http://www.behance.net/Gallery/The-Conduit-Shaping-the-Soundtrack/226926) from Diego Stocco on how The Conduit's soundtrack was created.

hGCiA2vg4eQ

[Evil Avnovice]

Weapon profiles. These cover the basic (I would assume Trust) weaponry. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=83497); Game Informer (http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200905/N09.0522.1338.14187.htm))

http://gonintendo.com/wp-content/photos/USP45Pistol.jpg

[Evil Avnovice]

A video interview with Rob Nichols. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=83583))

DBDL_N7QTxE

[Evil Avnovice]

An video interview with Eric Nofsinger. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/?p=83623); Business Wire Parts 1 (http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/3705432) & 2 (http://www.thenewsroom.com/details/3705433))

[Evil Avnovice]

Amazon is now offering a pre-order bonus of an exclusive The Conduit comic. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=83817))

[Evil Avnovice]

A truegameheadz multiplayer video interview. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=83794))

[Evil Avnovice]

A hands-on from MTV Multiplayer (http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2009/05/26/the-conduit-brings-first-class-fps-action-to-the-wii/).

[Evil Avnovice]

First impressions (http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/31852/first-impressions-the-conduit-wii) from Dread Central.

[Evil Avnovice]

Very cool: :cool: (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=84215))

As we put the finishing touches on The Conduit (and finally find the time to take a quick breath of air!), we just had to send a quick email out to all of the fans to say thank you.

You all are what keeps us all going here at High Voltage Software (we really can’t emphasize this point enough) and we thought that you all should know it.

The letters of encouragement, cakes emblazoned with The Conduit, LEGO versions of our characters and weapons, forum posts, the fan sites, fan art (much of it is hanging up throughout our building), controller suggestions, Papier-mâché strike rifles, YouTube videos, and remixes have all really helped the late nights go a whole lot smoother. It has been as if each of you has been in the room with us saying, “C’mon. You can work a couple more hours can’t you?” And how can we say “no” to that?

Our process in sending this email out has been pretty unscientific (you’re getting this because you spent the time to email us sometime during our development process) and we apologize that we couldn’t have personalized this a bit more. Know though that we do read them all (there have been hundreds of thousands) and try to answer as many as possible, but we simply don’t have the time to answer each and every one. We’ve been working on the game as well. =)

So thank you. Thank you for the encouragement. It keeps the team motivated and working long hours to try to make sure that we meet your expectations. Thank you for the criticism. It keeps us honest and forces us to look very closely at some of our decisions, and in quite a few cases, make changes to our design to improve the experience. We don’t set out to upset folks – game development is a tricky, crazy process and we’ve certainly made our fair share of tough decisions to cut features that we really, really wanted but that didn’t fit within the budget or the schedule. Please be vocal about what sucks. Please be vocal about what you think is great. Please be vocal about what you’d like to see moving forward. We are listening.

And finally, thank you for the pre-orders of the game! This is a _very_ important benchmark used by publishers to help determine advertising budgets and future development dollars. We want to continue to make bleeding edge games like the Conduit for the Wii (we truly believe that there’s a market for ‘em) but sadly there is some apprehension on the part of shortsighted developers and publishers about making “core” games for the Wii. So, if you haven’t pre-ordered, and you plan on picking up the game, please do so and help send a strong message that the Wii needs more games like this. Plus, if you order at GameStop or Amazon, you’ll get neat goodies (an art book or comic book, respectively) to boot!

We can’t wait to start the conspiracy this June. We’re almost done – thanks for being there along the way. We feel we have something special on our hands. We hope that you agree.

The Conduit Team

www.high-voltage.com

P.S. And by popular demand soon we will have some killer Conduit merchandise for sale on our site in the upcoming weeks.

High Voltage Software: The new Rare for Nintendo.

[Evil Avnovice]

A new trailer. (Gamekyo (http://www.gamekyo.com/videoen15151_the-conduit-new-trailer.html))

[Evil Avnovice]

A new IGN developer blog (http://blogs.ign.com/HV_TheConduit/2009/05/29/121717/) post on Camera and Lighting techniques:

We knew that the way we handled the first-person camera was going to have a huge impact on the success of the Conduit. Striking a good balance between how much of the world you are seeing, aiming of the reticule and how much control you have over the camera's movements would be a difficult task.

We had to figure out how much of the world you are going to allow the player to see. We wanted to have a large, almost panoramic field of view. This would allow the player to see as much of the action as possible without having to constantly pan the camera around or feel like they had blinders on. We found a good number that allowed the player to see more of what was happening around them but didn’t cause too much “fish eye” or visual distortion on the edges of the screen.

Next, we had to determine how much control of the camera movement the player would have when aiming. Do you want the camera to move with the reticule and turn the player or do you want the camera to stay still and use the nunchuk to turn? There were tons of different ways we could address this problem and I think we tried every conceivable method for looking around in first person. In the end, we selected a good default camera that had the balance of aim and movement and all of the iterations of camera controls lead to the customizable options that the player has in the final game.

So we finally found the happy medium that we wanted for the default controls but this did introduce a problem. Having the field of view set as high as we did made the first-person hands and weapon look squashed and distorted. To fix this distortion, the programmers implemented two different fields of view. We needed one field of view for the first-person hands and a second for the background. This allowed us to have the large field of view we wanted to give the player as much visibility as possible and to have the first-person hands use a smaller field of view so they would not look distorted. There was one big problem that this introduced: the reticule was not synched up with the foreground weapons. The farther you would aim from the center of the screen, the more out of synch the weapon would be from the reticule. This really looked bad and Jerry said it was going to be a huge amount of work to fix. So I spent a little time trying to figure out if we could artificially elongate the weapons to make them look correct with the large field of view, but that solution would look strange during reloads. Maybe there was a way we could scale the weapon, so I went to talk to Jerry about this crazy idea, only to find that he was smarter than he thought he was and figured out a way of synching up the aiming between the foreground weapons from the first person and the aiming reticule in the background. That’s the way it seemed to go for this whole project, things always seemed to work out one way or another, and usually better that expected.

Another aspect of the game that worked out better than expected was the lighting and post effects. The advanced tools and technology team handled all of the changes made to the Quantum 3 engine for The Conduit. Throughout the development cycle, the technology was constantly being improved upon. It seemed like every other day we would have a new request or some new feature would be added. The overall look of the game was improving each week. If we didn’t have some new aspect of lighting or a new post processing effect each month, we were disappointed. Three of biggest changes made to the engine for the Conduit were ambient cube maps, high dynamic range lighting and the post effects.

One of the first things I wanted to have for the Conduit was a way to display ambient cube maps. This allowed us to have a default ambient lighting on the characters and objects we had tagged for this effect. The night we implemented this we all were blown away and couldn’t believe how much this effect changed the look of the game. Later on, we even made more improvements that allowed us to change the cubemap on a room to room basis

High dynamic range lighting was also a big step forward for us. Having the ability to set the HDR on a per-material basis was huge for us. This allowed the artists to have control over which materials they wanted to jump into the higher range and begin to bloom. This gave us the visual pop we were looking for from the beginning of the project.

We had a ton of post effects in the Conduit, which also contributed to the overall lighting solution. We had modifiers that allowed us to control the levels of bloom and tint. We also had color curves that we used for color correction and for certain screen effects. Overall, we just scratched the surface of what we could do with all of the post effects that were created during the development of the title.

Also, I checked my Yahoo! inbox and turns out I had an thank you e-mail as well! :D

[Evil Avnovice]

E3 2009 Conference trailer.

50255

[Evil Avnovice]

A new multiplayer trailer. (GoNintendo (http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=84693))

-U4h1i_ovSg

[Evil Avnovice]

Some extremely cool fan art. (TinyCartridge (http://tinycartridge.com/post/116499540/ford-pursued-by-bob-nelson-the-conduit-art-i))

[civil]

Wow EA, you're really keeping the torch burning on this one.

A fellow I know is working on this and he told me Saturday night it was done and ready to go. Poor guy, took a lot out of him (his wife was telling me she saw very little of him the past few months). But he's stoked about it and thinks it'll get great reviews. I asked him how he felt working on the game that was to deliver the Wii to the hardcore. He laughed and said everyone was very proud of what they've done.

I'm hoping it gets great reviews and sales. It's nice to a have a (relatively) local developer get all this attention.

[Evil Avnovice]

Wow EA, you're really keeping the torch burning on this one.

A fellow I know is working on this and he told me Saturday night it was done and ready to go. Poor guy, took a lot out of him (his wife was telling me she saw very little of him the past few months). But he's stoked about it and thinks it'll get great reviews. I asked him how he felt working on the game that was to deliver the Wii to the hardcore. He laughed and said everyone was very proud of what they've done.

I'm hoping it gets great reviews and sales. It's nice to a have a (relatively) local developer get all this attention.

I've been pimping this for over a year straight since I saw both the Quantum3 demo and debut trailer from IGN. I already know some have the wrong signals sent about this game, whereas I think The Conduit if anything looks to be a very fun and polished FPS.

And give your friend my regards, will you? I'm only one person on the internet, but I'll tell him here and now that High Voltage & Company have done a fantastic job on the game and they should be proud of what they've accomplished so far. :)

[Evil Avnovice]

An 11-minute G4tv walkthrough. (GoNintendo (http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=84785))

[Evil Avnovice]

Kombo podcast (http://www.kombo.com/article.php?artid=13157) with Lead Designer, Rob Nichols.

[Urizen]

High Voltage Software: The new Rare for Nintendo.

HVS has done some good stuff on WiiWare and both this and the Grinder look promising. But if this game can do what GoldenEye or Perfect Dark did for me, it will be heavenly.

Speaking of which, Rare didn't present at E3 - did they?

Thanks for the encyclopedic coverage, Avnovice.

[Evil Avnovice]

HVS has done some good stuff on WiiWare and both this and the Grinder look promising. But if this game can do what GoldenEye or Perfect Dark did for me, it will be heavenly.

Speaking of which, Rare didn't present at E3 - did they?

Not that I've seen. Admitedly, I only caught a little of Microsoft's E3 '09 conference on G4tv. And I haven't heard anything from any of the sites I normally check.

Thanks for the encyclopedic coverage, Avnovice.

You're welcome. But everyone else simply tells me that I'm capable of nothing but great harm towards Colony of Gamers. :p

[Evil Avnovice]

E3 2009 impressions from NZGamer (http://www.nzgamer.com/e3/previews/771/e3-the-conduit-hands-on.html).

[Evil Avnovice]

E3 2009 impressions from ScrewAttack. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=84895))

[Evil Avnovice]

Developer Multiplayer Walkthrough video from Digital Chumps (http://www.digitalchumps.com/video-gallery.html?task=videodirectlink&id=263).

[Evil Avnovice]

Wallpapers are available for download at NintendoLife (http://wii.nintendolife.com/news/2009/06/exclusive_the_conduit_wallpaper).

[Evil Avnovice]

A few Livegen images (http://www.livewii.fr/news/124146/-E3-2009-The-Conduit-finit-sa-promo.html?c=20).

[Evil Avnovice]

Fact sheet. (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=17837))

Platform: Wii
Category: First Person Shooter
Developer: High Voltage Software
Release: June 2009

The current chaotic state of Washington D.C. has escalated due to increased reports of “alien” activity in the Potomac area. These reports have been confirmed as true by our field agents. Normally, we could be sure that this information would be ignored, but the events of recent terrorist attacks on the capital and the assassination attempt on the President’s life has left government and private organizations in an overly paranoid state. All U.S. agencies are scrambling for any answers to these threats. As you know they are unprepared and incapable of dealing with what is to come. It is in the Trust’s hands to neutralize this new threat to our nation.

We have designated these alien subjects as the Drudge. It has been established that they are operating in and around the Potomac River near the capital. All attempts of contact have been met with hostilities. As to their purpose it is as of yet unconfirmed, but speculation of an invasion seems to be the highest probability.

KEY FEATURES

• Cutting Edge Visuals: You have been provided a Trust issue Heads-Up Display (HUD) which provides “Next-Gen” visuals of a caliber never before seen on the Wii. Through dynamic environment mapping, interactive water with real time reflection, and four stage texture composition including gloss, diffuse, and bump mapping.

• Enemy Intel: Early intelligence suggests that invading forces are not human in origin. Designated as “the Drudge” these sentient beings have increased hostilities within our nation’s capital. They are brutal, cunning, and without mercy.

• Weaponry and Equipment: You will have access to our Trust arsenal of experimental weapons as well as conventional firearms. Additionally you will be able to acquire the alien weaponry of the Drudge. These devices are specially tailored to the capabilities of the Wii controller, allowing different firing modes and ease of control. You will also be issued an “All Seeing Eye” (ASE). This experimental devise will reveal concealed enemies, objects, and more providing an in-depth level of problem-solving.

• Complete System Customization: We have made available a robust array of customization and calibration options for your controller. These functions will assure your personal style of play through changing of controller options, button layouts, dead-zone/bounding box, and more.

• Trust No One: You may engage with as many as 12 operatives in various online modes. “Wii-Speak” communication is available for contact with friendly agents. Resolve conflicts between rival forces in many designated areas throughout the D.C. area.

[Dark Prince]

I've been pimping this for over a year straight since I saw both the Quantum3 demo and debut trailer from IGN. I already know some have the wrong signals sent about this game, whereas I think The Conduit if anything looks to be a very fun and polished FPS.

And give your friend my regards, will you? I'm only one person on the internet, but I'll tell him here and now that High Voltage & Company have done a fantastic job on the game and they should be proud of what they've accomplished so far. :)

High Voltage & crew are a great development team. When I interviewed them at NYCC, the guys were great and fun to talk with about the game and the Wii in general.

Yea, tell that guy we all really appreciate his work on the game. What I've played of it at that show really sold me on the game and buying it for sure.

[Evil Avnovice]

High Voltage & crew are a great development team. When I interviewed them at NYCC, the guys were great and fun to talk with about the game and the Wii in general.

Yea, tell that guy we all really appreciate his work on the game. What I've played of it at that show really sold me on the game and buying it for sure.

Off-topic: I echo that. Listening to Eric Nofsinger in video interviews and audio podcasts, he sounds like a down-to-earth and really cool person to be around.

On-topic: High Voltage helping out a fan in need. :D (weemancom (http://weemancom.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/high-voltage-software-fan-service-top-notch/))

[Evil Avnovice]

Two E3 2009 videos I missed/may accidentally repost:

50848

49777

[JayVe]

We're gonna have a Conduit LAN party the weekend after it launches, on the evening of the 27th. Everyone is invited to join in the fun via the Intertubes. I'll post friend codes the moment the game comes out.

[Evil Avnovice]

The Conduit has gone gold for North America. (GoNintendo (http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=85698))

SEGA and High Voltage Software are proud to announce that The Conduit has gone gold, and will ship to North America on June 23rd, 2009. A unique first-person shooter, The Conduit is an original IP featuring an intense conspiracy-laden single-player campaign that brings an unparalleled shooter experience exclusively to the Nintendo Wii™. Soon you will be able to arm yourself with an arsenal of sci-fi gadgets and high-powered weapons as you fight against aliens, rogue agents and other enemy forces. Additionally, be ready to dominate your friends from around the globe in up-to-12-person online multiplayer battles!

Be ready to defend on June 23rd, 2009.

For more information on The Conduit please visit: www.conduitgame.com

[Purple Santa]

Wow EA, you're really keeping the torch burning on this one.

A fellow I know is working on this and he told me Saturday night it was done and ready to go. Poor guy, took a lot out of him (his wife was telling me she saw very little of him the past few months). But he's stoked about it and thinks it'll get great reviews. I asked him how he felt working on the game that was to deliver the Wii to the hardcore. He laughed and said everyone was very proud of what they've done.

I'm hoping it gets great reviews and sales. It's nice to a have a (relatively) local developer get all this attention.
EA has done a great job getting the word out on this game and keeping it updated (although I can say that for lots of games he gives notice too). This is another title I wouldn't of known about without EA. He's stirred a bit of interest on CoG for this game.

You're welcome. But everyone else simply tells me that I'm capable of nothing but great harm towards Colony of Gamers. :p
Maybe harm to our eyes from all the reading we do from your posts. But I can't say we begrudge that since they are chock full of goodness :D.

I am sad to say that I most likely won't be buying this title day one. I don't think I can swing the cash...but i'm not renting it either since I promised I would support the developer. So eventually...a few months perhaps...i'll buy it. I'll just read everyone's comments on the game. I hope it sells well...the game looks to be amazing...

[divinechaos]

Ten days till this game comes out. I'm not the biggest fan of the Wii but High Voltage might be the only developers that make me wish I had a Wii to play this game on. I really, really hope this game turns out to be as good as the previews and videos make it out to be.

[davboy6]

You and me both. except i do have a wii.

[JayVe]

Ten days till this game comes out. I'm not the biggest fan of the Wii but High Voltage might be the only developers that make me wish I had a Wii to play this game on. I really, really hope this game turns out to be as good as the previews and videos make it out to be.

We're having a party at Casa de Kamalot for this. Wanna come on up and give the game a shot?

[boratika]

Been delayed in Australia until July 16.


Boo.


Oh, wait, I'm skinned. Maybe this way I'll find work before it comes out and be able to afford it when it does.

[divinechaos]

We're having a party at Casa de Kamalot for this. Wanna come on up and give the game a shot?

Huh, that actually sounds like it could be fun. When's that gonna be?

[KamaItachi]

Been delayed in Australia until July 16.


Boo.


Oh, wait, I'm skinned. Maybe this way I'll find work before it comes out and be able to afford it when it does.

That's kinda' good news for me. I'm poor, well over my budget and trying to choose this or Ghostbusters as my one and only purchase this month.

[Evil Avnovice]

An interview with Diego Stocco on how The Conduit's soundtrack was composed. (Music 4 Games (http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=355))

[Evil Avnovice]

Two new videos. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=86184))

[Evil Avnovice]

To build upon boratika's post, while the North American version is still on track for June 23rd next Tuesday, The Conduit has been pushed back:

In the United Kingdoms:

Sega and High Voltage Software's Wii FPS, The Conduit, has had its UK release delayed until July 10. It was originally planned for June 26.

Sega UK said the delay's due to localisation issues on the European version of the game, and the North American release will go ahead next week as planned.

And in Austrailia:

SEGA have pushed back the Australian release of The Conduit, which will now launch on July 16

Originally slated to hit store shelves on June 25, High Voltage Software’s much-anticipated first person shooter for Wii has now been pushed back a whole month. The news follows accounts of retailers pushing back the date for pre-order pickups, and the absence of a weekly release update from SEGA last week. The title was recently pushed back in North America, and will release there on June 23.

1. Joystiq (http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2009/06/17/the-conduit-delayed-in-europe-australia/)
2. CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=217738) (UK)
3. Vooks (http://www.vooks.net/story-18119-The-Conduit-release-delay-confirmed-for-Australia.html) (Austrailia)

[Evil Avnovice]

Three "Trust" weapon profiles. (GoNintendo (http://gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=86234))

[Evil Avnovice]

A GameZone interview (http://www.gamezone.com/news/06_18_09_02_22PM.htm) with Josh Olson and Rob Nicholls.

Weapons are an essential part of every shooter, especially The Conduit. What can we expect from the futuristic arsenal?

JO: The cool thing about our game is that there are essentially three different weapon sets – that of the humans, the alien Drudge, and the hi-tech Trust – so we have conventional “standards” of the genre to include the SMGs, shotguns, assault rifles, and rocket launchers of the world, as well as some more interesting designs to include the slimy organic hive cannon of the Drudge and the glowing plasma weapons of the Trust. It really gives the game a unique feel – and offers plenty of choice to the player. We have 18 different weapons in the game and something that fits most every play style.

How is the Wii remote being utilized for different firing modes?

JO: We have three weapons that have remote-based controls. The Shrieker is an alien Drudge weapon that fires guided bio-energy that follow the pointer once launched. It’s a lot of fun – good players can keep the spheres in the air for a very long time and work them around corners. The Deatomizer is a Trust weapon that when charged, fires a pair of plasma spheres that you can rotate by twisting the remote. When the first sphere hits a target, the second one wraps around it, similar to a bolo. It’s great for hitting the edge of a wall and wrapping the second sphere around it to take out guys behind cover. It’s also a great multiplayer weapon – there’s something very cathartic about wrapping a deatomizer shot around a guy’s head…and it’s quite humiliating when it happens to you.

Finally, we have the Hive Cannon, a Drudge “mini-cannon” that fires exploding insects at its target at a high rate of fire. By twisting the remote, you can control the size of the reticle – a wider reticle disperses them more for an area effect while a tight reticle keeps maintains a focused beam of fire that’s very devastating at close range. We use Wii controls as they make sense and tried to make them natural extensions for the player, rather than a gimmicky mechanic that would quickly grow tiresome or clunky.

RN: We really wanted to use the Wii remote motion controls intelligently and not just have motions because we could have motions. In a fast paced action shooter, you don’t want to have to do anything that causes you to lose your aim or orientation. We’ve got Wii-motion weapons that make sense for the style of gameplay that we want players to enjoy.

The Conduit was supposed to take advantage of the Wii MotionPlus. What does this add-on allow you to do for the game that wouldn't have been possible with the Wii remote alone?

JO: We don’t support Wii MotionPlus. We looked long and hard at it, and actually had a working prototype weapon that used it, but ultimately decided that it didn’t make sense. In a title that is very shooter-centric – one that requires the pointer to be on the screen at all times – it didn’t make sense in the end. We’ve always been about quality, and while we could have shoe-horned a weapon in that used it, we felt that it would have been cheap. If a gamer is going to pay the extra money for it, it needs to be integral to the experience. Moving forward, we [will] continue to look at it and will make use of it if it makes sense and has a big impact on the gameplay. I’m very much looking forward to taking a look at Red Steel 2 to see their implementation.

The Conduit is the first Wii game attempting to push the boundaries of multiplayer with 16 players. Was this the goal from the start -- 16 players -- or did you just keep pushing and pushing to see how far the Wii could actually go?

JO: We support 12 players online. While we initially targeted 16 – and did have it up and running – we ultimately felt that 12 was the best number in terms of what we wanted to do with multiplayer. The decision wasn’t based on a technical limitation of the Wii, but rather driven by gameplay considerations.

RN: 16 players was always our goal but we found that 12 players actually worked out better. It was a tough call, but one we had to make for gameplay reasons.

How will players hook up online? The Conduit will use the friend code system, but is there any other way to play with others?

JO: Matchmaking is done either through a Worldwide, Regional, or Friends searches. Worldwide and Regional matches are public, though Friends can join you in a public match. We do follow Nintendo’s policies and require Friend Codes, though in as unobtrusive a way as possible. You can avoid the manual entry of Friend Codes either through sending Console Friend Requests, or by sending an in-game Friend Request to a Friend of a Friend.

RN: We’ve done our best to streamline the system and make it as close to what players have come to expect from online matchmaking. And our system sorts by multiplayer ranking, so that players of equal or close to equal rank are matched up first before pulling in anyone available.

[Evil Avnovice]

Here we go: (NintendoEverything (http://www.nintendoeverything.com/?p=18305))

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-9.png

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-10.png

http://www.nintendoeverything.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/picture-11.png

Just five days left....

[Evil Avnovice]

High Voltage's IGN blog (http://blogs.ign.com/HV_TheConduit/2009/06/19/123323/) has been updated with a new entry. This one talks about composing The Conduit's score and voice acting for the characters.

As for the voice over work that was done in The Conduit we went through several iterations of the main characters and recorded a lot of place holder before we found a perfect fit and the script went through countless iterations. We knew we wanted to have talented professional voice actors with possible science fiction genre back grounds that might already have a following. A designer here at HVS, Rob Nichols, mentioned one day that he happened to know Morgan Sheppard, Mark Sheppard and Kevin Sorbo from being a coordinator at several different conventions. We contacted them and they were all interested in contributing to our project. From the very beginning they really breathed life into our characters. Not only were they all great actors and really down to earth nice guys, but they were also willing to help out and promote the game when ever they could, they all really believed in the project.

When it came to the sound design, we knew the weapons were a huge part of the puzzle and we had to get them right. There are sets of regular human weapons, some very high-tech human weapons and of course alien weapons. The guns went through countless art, design and audio changes until we were satisfied. Some of my favorites are the very organic alien weapons which Noah Jurcin, a senior sound designer here at HVS, was able to make very wet and juicy to give them the half alive/ half tech feeling that they needed. Noah was also instrumental in the creation of the remarkable ASE sounds which are also a big part of the game. We wanted the ASE to be very techie sounding, but it also needed to have an essence of mystery and to sound foreign and unfamiliar. For ambience in many levels, we recorded a Waterphone with a PZM mic to add into the background to give it more of a suspenseful and creepy emotional effect.

[Evil Avnovice]

Some new images (http://www.gamekyo.com/newsen31292_the-conduit-new-pictures.html) from Gamekyo.

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090508_190325_2_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images2_4_31292.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090618_143053_3_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images10_4_31292.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090618_143054_5_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images12_4_31292.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090618_143055_14_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images21_4_31292.html)

http://www.gamekyo.com/Webmasters/Images/72191520090618_143055_18_big.jpg (http://www.gamekyo.com/images25_4_31292.html)

[Evil Avnovice]

"Exclusive Launch" trailer.

51651

Also saw the commercials on television this morning while watching Ninja Warrior.

[Urizen]

What the hell is Ninja Warrior?

[Evil Avnovice]

Depending on how successful online play is, High Voltage could put more of a focus on that for future titles. (GoNintendo (http://www.gonintendo.com/viewstory.php?id=86610); NeoGaf (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364708&page=7) Page 7, Post# 320)

"We don't have an invite system. However, you can see from the main multiplayer page how many Friends you have online and then see from the Friend list who they are and what type of game they are playing. You can then elect to join that friend or not. Character limit on profile names is 8; there is no ability to do "clan tags". And no, you cannot rename your profile without losing your multiplayer information. These are all things we will be addressing in future products; however for Conduit we focused on the gameplay first and getting a good system up and running on Nintendo's servers. IF multiplayer does well, this will give us more to push with when we want to make the experience more like other titles on other platforms." - Rob Nicholls

[Evil Avnovice]

What the hell is Ninja Warrior?

It's a show on G4tv where people run a series of courses to see who can make it all the way to the final stage.

[Evil Avnovice]

Someone recorded the commerical and tossed it on Youtube:

A31ut78qu84

[Dark Prince]

Only one day till release, can't wait...might have to get it a few days after launch considering I'll have to wait for some funds to drop in.

[Evil Avnovice]

I should (hopefully) have my copy this thursday. Unfortunately, I semi-screwed up my pre-order back when The Conduit was announced for March. I did however, place a pre-order last week at GameStop over in Schofield Barracks.

At this point I don't expect to score the GameStop pre-order bonus, but I'll still be happy with a copy of the game itself.

[Evil Avnovice]

cc86awTjzCE

YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc86awTjzCE&feature=player_embedded)

[Evil Avnovice]

IGN has posted their review of The Conduit, which is available in the OP.

Also, I going to be a little flaky with reviews. For the most part, I actually prefer to wait until I fully play The Conduit myself, regardless of the difficulty level. So either later this week or next week, I'll start scouring for reviews to post for anyone who's interested.

[Purple Santa]

I would be interested in what the reviews state. I'm going to buy this despite the reviews but interested in what the game writers have to say about the game.

[Troggles]

IGN gave it an 8.6. Higher than the 80 that Nintendo Power gave it.

[Evil Avnovice]

IGN has their video review up.