Ghostfire Games - WiiWare - Helix - Developer Walkthrough

[ghostfire]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd let everyone know about our upcoming title for WiiWare.

Austin, Texas based Ghostfire Games will be releasing a rhythm game title for WiiWare. Our new game, Helix, challenges players to follow the movements of a robot avatar over 3 difficulties and a selection of 26 songs. The music we've gathered for this game comes from independent musicians across the United States and Europe. We expect an August release pending final approval from Nintendo.

Our second trailer has gone up on YouTube.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MiauopktNQI

In this video, producer and CEO of Ghostfire Games, Ed Roman, discusses various gameplay and production aspects of our upcoming WiiWare title, Helix.

Please visit our website for more information:

http://www.ghostfiregames.com/helix

Please leave feedback! It is appreciated.

[Breaker]

Very cool idea. I especially like how you and your team came up with the idea for 2 player mode using seperate Wiimotes.

[Darth Marsden]

Sounds cool. I'll look into it.

On a side note - did you sign up just to tell us about this? You low post count kinda implies it.

[ZTC]

Looks to be quite interesting and fun. I hope does well.
Maybe he saw that thread in GED, joined to explain a few things, and then wanted to tell us about Helix as an added bonus.

[ghostfire]

I'll admit I signed up to post about the game, but I think I'll be sticking around anyway for discussion purposes.

Someone who develops for WiiWare had to lay the smack down on Joe Cracker anyway...

http://www.armageddongames.net/forum....php?p=1188292

[Pineconn]

On a side note - did you sign up just to tell us about this? You low post count kinda implies it.

Actually, no. Ghostfire signed up to explain to a certain member that making a WiiWare game takes money and time. AGN has no money, and no one would be willing to do such a thing over an Internet forum.

[Matteo]

Good luck Ghostfire... I greatly appreciate indie developers such as you guys... hope the game sells well!

[Vagla]

To be honest, I didn't have all that much interest in this game until I saw the most recent video (with Ed's commentary). I like the direction that was taken with regard to the soundtrack, and it does indeed look like the game could be a pretty entertaining rhythm game. That the team isn't sick of it after a long development cycle is definitely a good sign, too. :) It's great to see software like this coming from small developers, and I hope it succeeds in the marketplace.

WiiWare has definitely caught my attention as a potential medium. I'm curious about the game's development and developer, and I've several questions. How long has this game been worked on? How big was the team? How was the company started? What kind of hoops do you have to jump through to make a product for WiiWare, and what's it take to become a licensee in order to make games for the platform?

Additionally, and rather unrelated, what possessed you to come to this forum, of all places, to promote the game? This is far from a bustling, important online destination. I only found such a post by you on one other forum, so it's clear you're not simply going around spamming forums about the game.

Thanks.

[ghostfire]

In a funny way you can actually thank Joe Cracker for getting me here. Google's spider bot picked on him, so when I did a search in Google for "Wiiware + forum", I found this forum. :)

Our core team consisted of our CEO, 2 programmers, and 2 level designers. Everything else was contracted out (art, sound, etc...). We started the game at the beginning of this year. Ghostfire Games was founded by our CEO Ed Roman to follow his dream of making video games. I was brought on in April to do level design, but my role has since expanded. As far as development hoops to go through, there are more than you could ever imagine. Everything from getting through Nintendo's QA department to paying $1k to each of the various ratings boards out there (USA, Europe, Germany, and Australia) to negotiating music license fees. Be prepared to do a lot of work you never expected to do when making a commercial game. And whatever amount of money you had in mind to spend, give yourself a 25% overhead buffer.

[AtmaWeapon]

What's up Austin buddy? :)

It doesn't look like my cup of tea, but it does look like a fun game. I always get on fire about rhythm games then after a while I just give up