I’ve been contacting smaller developers (and sometimes publishers) for the past few months, trying to get them to bring their games to Wii U. For the most part it’s been successful, although not wielding any power at Nintendo itself meant I was limited in how much I could accomplish. There were many times where the conversation about some truly exciting possibilities had to be cut short because it was no longer in my jurisdiction, and I could only assist developers so much.

However, one thing that I did see was the enthusiasm and interest developers showed when they were contacted first by someone speaking “on behalf” of Nintendo rather than having to approach Nintendo and break the ice themselves. It was so interesting to see how easy it was to create new possibilities and generate interest in working with Nintendo once there was some form of communication or rapport established with other developers. Also, it was astounding to see how often third-party developers weren’t considering a Nintendo release only because they were misinformed or were missing some vital information on Nintendo’s policies regarding their consoles. Some thought their games would have to be exclusive to Nintendo. Others were misinformed on the costs of becoming an approved developers. And yet others had been rejected by Nintendo in earlier generations when smaller developers held less influence. With just a bit of talk and discussion, the proper information was relayed, positive feelings were sparked, and developers eased right into the thought of developing for Wii U.

I think that one of the biggest changes Nintendo could have with third-party companies is if they had some sort of North American diplomat/ambassador whose sole job was to contact potential Wii U developers and build a rapport. Of course, I wouldn’t mind holding such a position but I’m sure Nintendo have more than enough people internally who they would get to handle such a thing. We heard that before the Wii U came out, Nintendo had Shigeru Miyamoto visit top publishers personally as a Nintendo “diplomat”, hoping to generate some positive momentum for Wii U. In my opinion, that’s not enough. And Miyamoto is not the right person for establishing such a rapport anyways. It would need to be someone who was already on the same wavelength as North American developers and publishers and could continue the relationship throughout the year. Having Shiggy show up at your company door is a great once-in-a-lifetime experience, but that’s not the real way to establish a relationship that lasts.

There’s one reason why Nintendo is doing so well with indies on the eShop. That reason is Dan Adelman. He’s a really friendly person with very little ego. His personality naturally encourages people to want to collaborate with him. But, Nintendo needs someone similar to him to deal with big third-party publishers and developers who would be releasing retail games. They should either move Dan into such a position or find someone similar to be their ambassador.

To demonstrate the power of contacting third-party developers with the intention of creating a relationship, I’m going to quote some of the replies I received simply by reaching out to third-parties and offering them information and assistance (I’m leaving out any identifying details because these emails were not sent with the intention of being publicized.) With all the negative press Nintendo gets, you’d never imagine developers could react so positively to the idea of working on a Nintendo platform :

– “Thank you so much for getting in touch with us! 😀 ”

– “Thanks for the interest in us!”

– “Nice talking to you. I don\’t think we\’ve talked, but I was in touch with Nintendo while I was still working at ____. I was actually considering getting in touch with them again when I received your email…”

– “ I would certainly be interested in getting in touch with a representative from Nintendo to talk about the possibilities.”

– “I don\’t know if my _____ visual novels in particular would be a good match for the WiiU or 3DS, but I feel like it would be worth looking into. If you could put me in touch, that\’d be awesome.”

– “We are very glad that you have recognized our game project as promising… We are very interested for releasing ______ on Nintendo Wii U platform.”

– “Wow! Thanks for getting in touch with us! We\’d be very interested in talking with Nintendo! We all like Nintendo’s stuff (who doesn\’t?) and have a few extreme Nintendo fans on our team. I think _____ would fit well with Nintendo! “

– “Thanks for getting in touch. We’re huge Nintendo fans here at ______, they are a huge inspiration to the sort of games we like to make. We actually did apply a long time ago when the Wii first surfaced to try and get dev kits but to no avail and have kind of written off getting on a Nintendo platform since then concentrating on other platforms. I’d still love to get our titles on a Nintendo platform so would love an introduction if we could get one.“

– “That is interesting. We might get back to this post-release if the opportunity permits. “

– “Thank you for this amazing opportunity but I cannot afford the SDK at the moment. I would like to save up some money and give this a try later this year if the offer still stands. 🙂 “

– “Thank you so much for your email and also the lovely article. Your support is very appreciated!

Yes, I\’d be interested in porting ______ to Wii U at some point. Unfortunately, I don\’t have the full rights to ______ myself, so I\’m afraid that won\’t be possible… …This information you shared is truly valuable, so thanks again. I wasn\’t aware of such changes introduced by Nintendo — they\’re certainly more favorable towards indies, far more than Sony and Microsoft I must say. “

– “We\’re definitely interested in bringing ________ to Nintendo platforms eventually, but we\’re still pretty early in development right now. “

– “Thanks for the email – I\’ve been reading about new Nintendo policies and think it’s going in the right direction, so everything sounds really good. We aren\’t currently thinking about a Wii U release for our current title though – but it’s something we will consider in the future for other titles. “

– “I’m glad Nintendo has lowered the requirements for getting indie developers onto the system. Back when I started in the games industry, Gamecube kits were expensive and well guarded. (They also looked like a giant eight-track player.) I’m certainly interested in getting my game on different platforms – and if this game does well, hopefully future games too. I built _______ to be a PC game, so some of the mouse/keyboard interface would have to change, and I’d have to figure out what to do with that second screen. But otherwise I’m fairly certain the game could run on WiiU. I have a ton of experience writing ports of engines to Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3. I built my own engine for flexibility, and Unity isn’t something I’d be interested in. As I’m quite familiar with the Gamecube and Wii SDK’s, I don’t think there would be a problem getting things implemented if it’s available. I would probably wait until after the PC release of the game to implement a WiiU version, but I’d certainly like to chat with Nintendo about the possibilities. “

– “That’s really interesting – I was trying to get in touch with _____ at the GDC, but kept on missing him – busy man. We would definitely be interested in bringing ______ to Nintendo. Thanks for the interest and assistance by the way – its appreciated. We think ______ is going to be awesome when finished, and people have only seen a fraction of what we intend to do with it. So if you do want to put us in touch with ______, that would be great. “

– “ Thank you for contacting me. I had heard of Nintendo relaxing its policy towards developers. And what you mentioned is interesting indeed. I\’ll have to think about it; _______ is still a long way away from being finished of course. Do you know if Nintendo insists on exclusivity or is it up to the developers?” [Editor’s note: it’s up to the developers.]

– “That’s really great news, unfortunately right now we still focusing on PC development first… Although we’d love to see _____ on a Nintendo platform, we\’ll see that later after our final product is released. “

– “Thanks so much for writing us! Wow it’s a big honor and great meeting you. Thanks for checking out the game! I have to admit that I didn\’t give Nintendo much of a look because I had thought that the development and approval process would have been too difficult for us. But this message completely changed my mind. “ [Editor’s note: this one almost seems fake, like I wrote it, but I assure you it’s absolutely real.]

– “First of all, you\’re awesome. Thanks for being blunt, and for all the amazing info. Both as a first-time indie studio, and as a designer who’s never had the responsibility of leading a PR campaign, you have my gratitude. “

– “Nice to hear from you. Certainly that could be interesting for us. “

– “Thank you for the details on publishing on a Nintendo console! I am indeed looking into it. My first priority of course if to create an awesome game (on PC first) and then eventually jump onto bigger things such as the Wii U. I would love the 3DS, but my game runs in 720P…But I am looking into it, and your message has amazing information! I am in touch with ______, we met at Pax and Gdc! So thank you so much for your message! If you saw my Kickstarter video you know I\’m a big Nintendo fan! Cheers! “

– “Thanks a bunch!! Yeah we are super interested to do 3DS version of _____. Please introduce us to_______. “

– “Wow! What an honor! I\’m definitely going to consider this as I explore the options Unreal Engine gives me. “

– “Wow, thanks very much for information, Menashe. Currently porting from the PC is outside of the scope of our project plans, but we’ll contact you in the event that we consider porting to a Nintendo platform! “

– “Thanks so much for reaching out! We\’re totally swamped with the Kickstarter right now but we\’ll keep you and the WiiU in mind for going forward. We\’re lifelong Nintendo fans and we definitely agree that the look and feel of our game fits your aesthetic really well.”

——–

I think you get the point. That’s the kind of reaction developers give when approached about their games rather than having to do the seeking out themselves. Nintendo is very much a Japan-first company, but if they could get the right people in place on the Nintendo of America team I think they wouldn’t have much of a hard time with third-party developers or publishers.

I\’ll end off with a quote from Cliffy B. When asked why he has never developed a game for a Nintendo platform despite enjoying Nintendo games himself, he replied, \”Nintendo never called.\”