Nintendo's Takao Ohara and Katsuya Eguchi will discuss development decisions, challenges and lessons learned about their recent Nintendo DS projects in two newly-announced presentations.
Nintendo is waking up to Game Developers Conference. In 2004 Eiji Aonuma discussed some of the design philosophy behind The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Last year the company's president, Satoru Iwata, conducted a keynote presentation (and press conference) at the show. For the first time, the company also displayed its products on the showroom floor.
This year Nintendo is appealing more directly to third party developers through two just-disclosed presentations. The first, Is that a Franchise in Your Pocket? An Animal Crossing: Wild World Case Study, will be presented by Katsuya Eguchi, the game's director, on Thursday, March 23rd at 5:30pm. During the presentation he will explore the differences between consoles and handhelds with regards to physical capabilities, limitations, and gaming experiences. He will also discuss open-ended game structure.
To boost developer interest in Nintendo Wi-Fi, project lead Takao Ohara will discuss some of the technological challenges, mistakes, and successes in the development of Nintendo WFC. Ohara will even discuss how these lessons can be applied to consoles (such as Nintendo Revolution).
The Zen of Wi-Fi: A Postmortem of the Wireless Features of Nintendo DS takes place on Friday, March 24th at 4:00pm, and will also include tips for developers interested in creating online games for Nintendo DS.
