Wiiloveit.com: Shin'en Interview

Shin'en Interview - Fun! Fun! Minigolf

Due to our continuing interest with the WiiWare service, we thought we'd have a look at some upcoming titles. Along the way, we found a game called Fun! Fun! Minigolf, which looked intriguing, We caught up with Shin'en founder, Manfred, to see what he had to say about the upcoming title.

First of all, would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi, I'm Manfred Linzner, Co-Founder and CEO at Shin'en. I'm still heavily involved in development of our games.

As a company, you've had quite a bit of experience as a games developer. Why did you choose to develop for WiiWare?

It was a natural move for us. We always developed licensed games as well as our own brands. With WiiWare we now have the opportunity to bring our own brands very easily to the gamers. As development costs for WiiWare games are also smaller than for retail games, its also less risky to make new ideas and concepts happen.

Your upcoming WiiWare title, Fun! Fun! Minigolf, looks pretty good so far. What are some of the major selling points of the game?

Double the Fun! Make a Fun Fun game :) The most important aspect was to make really a fun game, for single- and especially multiplayer gaming. We tested the game with many people, ranging from kids to grandparents and everyone had a great time, no matter whether they were a hardcore gamer or someone that usually doesn't play much. For the experienced gamers we took care to ensure that everything is produced perfectly. Graphics, audio and execution are top notch and beyond most Wii retail games. On the other hand, the gameplay is easy to pick up for everyone, though there is still enough depth for core gamers. In the end we tried to give the players the feeling of playing an Arcade game on 'endless credits'.

Since each round of mini golf isn't going to take quite as long as normal golf, what are you going to do to lengthen the experience further?

For real golf it takes usually 3-5 strokes to finish a hole. For minigolf the goal is to make it in just one perfect stroke. However, you really have to master the game to do so. At the start, most players will need equal strokes like in a normal golf game, so the playtime is quite identical. When having our test sessions we felt that the play time for each course was quite perfect.

In what ways are you going to use Nintendo Wi-fi Connection in this game?

We don't use it. The problem of implementing a Wi-fi connection enabled game is a much longer development cycle. We tried hard to give players a game that is very affordable. Adding [online] multiplayer would just go beyond the price tag most players are willing to pay for a WiiWare game. To have [online] multiplayer and a low price tag would have meant to lower overall quality or content in the game which was not acceptable to us.

How does the local multiplayer mode work in Fun! Fun! Minigolf - will there be a feature that allows you to share a remote with more than one person?

Of course - you can play with any Wii Remote setting. One Wii Remote for four players, four Wii Remotes for four players or any other combination.

We've noticed that Mii's haven't been included in the game. Why did you vote against these popular avatars?

Many, many games are using currently Mii's, which is great, however this makes those games look a bit samey. We wanted to have a game that looks better and more interesting than most of the other Wii games out there. We wanted quite detailed landscapes and realistic courses, light and atmosphere effects, bump mapping, the whole deal the Wii can do. That just didn't match with the Mii's more simple look.

From screenshots, we can say that the graphics are looking pretty good so far - especially for a WiiWare game - but what are the music and sounds like?

We've developed soundtracks for over 200 games. We are very focused on great audio in our games. In Fun! Fun! we tried to make memorable tunes that really give the game more personality, instead of the casual background music from so many other games. We also invested a lot of resources into professional voice actor recordings. There are also female and male game commentators, which gave the game much more athmosphere and engagement. For SFX we tried to make everything sound very lifelike, so you will hear perfectly recorded strokes, birds in the trees, wind, fountains and cars driving by, all in stereo and 3D positioning.

Fun! Fun! Minigolf has been PEGI, USK and ERSB rated for quite a while now, when do you expect the game to be released throughout Europe and the rest of the world?

The game is to be released in the US, EU and Australia/New Zealand, but we're currently waiting for Nintendo to approve the current release date. As soon this happens we will announce it - you really don't have to wait too long.

How much do you expect the title to sell for?

We really expect to sell the game for less than 1,000 Wii Points. We feel most games in retail are too expensive. WiiWare is perfect to give high quality to the gamers, but for a low price tag. That is what we want to do.

Thank you for your time. Do you have anything else to say to our readers?

For WiiWare, the best is yet to come. Thanks for reading!

We can't wait for Fun! Fun! Minigolf, and by the sounds of things, we're not going to be waiting much longer. A big thanks goes to Mr Linzner from Germany for answering our questions.

UPDATE: Check out the FUN! FUN! Minigolf WiiWare review here - does it live up to it's name?

Manfred Linzner was talking to Billy White

Links www.funfunminigolf.com www.shinen.com