Nintendo’s WiiWare service has gone from strength to strength since it launched over a year ago, though admittedly the launch line-up was pretty weak, since then the overall quality of games has improved and this trend looks certain to continue with upcoming games such as ‘Icarian: Kindred Spirits‘, ‘FF CC: My Life As A Dark Lord‘, ‘Tales Of Monkey Island‘ and of course Gamelion’s ‘Furry Legends‘.
We caught up with Gamelion to find out more about their highly anticipated platformer and what players can expect from the game.
You can see the full interview after the break along with screens and video of the game in action. Hit it!
Gamelion Interview:
- What is your name and job title at in Gamelion?
Hello! My name is Lukasz Szczepanski and I’m the producer of Furry Legends. This means that I do everything the other guys don’t. I’m the voice of reason, the guiding hand of design, the common sense, the firefighter, you name it. In essence, my job is to make sure that the more talented guys can work without any problems, make sure they have all the materials and resources needed, and make sure that they do things they are meant to do. I also keep the tabs on the high concept of game design, to make sure that all features in the game make sense and are not irritating for the players.
- How long has Gamelion studio been creating games and what drew you to
WiiWare development from mobile?
Gamelion Studios has been established in 2002. Currently we employ around 100 professionals across all the departments in our company. We were mainly a mobile production and post production company. So far we have worked with leading publishers such as EA, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Disney, Sony Pictures and several others. Our mobile portfolio includes titles such as FIFA 07, FIFA 08, Sims 2 Pets, Brain Excersise with Dr. Kawashima, Pac-Man Pinball, Hancock, Puzzle-Bobble, LocoRoco Hi and many others.
- How big is the team that’s creating Furry Legends?
About 10 people. Myself, three programmers, three artists, art director, QA Lead and the nice man who makes all the music for us.
- Furry Legends has received many comparisons with Lost Winds. Were you inspired by that games look or is it just coincidence that there are similarities. Maybe you feel they both look different and don’t understand the comparisons?
We certainly hear your concerns, and we’re already hard at work to address these issues. The most common thing here is similarity to Lost Winds. While we were certainly inspired by Frontier’s work, it is not our intention to copy it in any way. A few things overlap here, we have pretty much the same graphical effects, which makes the two games very similar at a first glance, compared to other (more or less competitive) products, which are either 2D or do not use shading and lightning very well, if at all. The second thing is the environment; you can create a forest and caves only in so many ways. However, we do admit its scarily close to Lost Winds, because of the vibrant colors, setting, oversaturated lighting and so on.
- Most of us have seen the gameplay footage of Furry Legends though can you describe the basic control methods?
The controls are pretty simple and intuitive. We’ve had a lot of prototyping on that stage, trying to figure out the best use for the unique controls of Wii. We had swinging, circling the Wii Remote Controller, and other wacky schemes. However, we have found out that most of these, even though they were ‘cool’ as concept or in the beginning, would tire the player and make him concentrate on the controls, rather than on the game. Thus we took a step back and simplified stuff to make it very natural for players. Furry Legends is controlled with the Nunchuk, where you roll the ball left and right using the stick. There are also buttons for special powers on the Nunchuk too! In addition you have the Wii Remote Controller, where you jump by pressing A, and attack by holing B and swinging it in the direction of the enemy. The B button and swings have also other uses, but I’ll let players to figure that out 
- Without having played the game so far, nin-ten-do.com are most impressed with the background visuals. What element of Furry Legends are you most proud of and was it difficult to achieve?
We’re very happy with the visuals and overall performance of the game. We tried really hard to make this the best looking game on WiiWare and I think that we should end up somewhere near the top. It was a lot of hard work and nitpicking in the code, but it was worth it.
- How have you found developing for WiiWare has been in general? Do you find Nintendo supportive towards developers?
The development for WiiWare is pretty nice, really. The biggest advantage is that we’re our own publisher. This means that we can make exactly the game we want to, and we do not need to give in to publisher’s pressure for a feature or setting, or deadline for that matter. The second thing is the lack of physical media, which makes the development cycle a bit easier, and we don’t need to code around DVD seek speeds and other things like that. Removing those limitations is very liberating for us as developers. Nintendo has been very supportive towards us, giving us all the tools and providing feedback for the major parts in the game. We couldn’t really ask for more.
- Are there any plans to integrate Wii MotionPlus support for Furry Legends?
We do not have such plans at this time.
- What are your plans for future projects? Do you have any other Nintendo games in development and will we see them at E3?
We have a couple of ideas up our sleeve for both WiiWare and DSi, but I can’t really talk about these until we officially move them to the production stage. Watch our websites for more info in the coming months
- Lastly, please explain why people should be excited for Furry Legends and when they can get their hands on it?
Furry Legends is great because there is no other game like it on WiiWare. It’s beatuful, fun, dynamic, has the tounge-in-cheek humor and many more. Did I mention physics? In case I didn’t, there are physics, and they have effect on everything in the game. Not many games on WiiWare use systems like these. And last, but not least, are the adorable furballs which you just want to hug and cuddle 
- Thanks for your time Lukasz!
Visit Game Lion’s official website here.
