During this stage of development, where game systems like sword fighting, combat sounds and all the other elements are now in the actual game levels, I’m going through the game again and again to see how the mix works and what we can fine tune to make sure we deliver on our original vision.

Roman Campos Oriola

My name is Marie-Sol Beaudry, producer of Red Steel here in the Ubisoft Paris studio. We’re excited to share bits of information here on the ongoing development of this Wii exclusive launch title. Along with me, you’ll get to hear from our creative director, lead designer, art director and others on their areas of expertise.

We were really excited by everyone’s response to the Nintendo Wii at E3 and were thrilled to showcase Red Steel at the Nintendo press conference.  After working so long on this project in complete secrecy, it was great to not just show the game but to also let people play it for the first time.

For this initial Blog entry, we want to talk about the Wii controller and how we’re using it to it is fullest.

The challenge for working on a new system, especially one that has such a focus on the interface with the Wii controller is that everything we’re doing in the game is directly effected by the controller. This includes everything from level design, overall game design, movement and storyline.  When we first received the controller our imaginations were limitless but then we spoke to our programmers and determined that there were guidelines and rules of which we’d need to adhere to in regard to both functionality as well as game play.

In other words, while the shooting was fairly straight forward, point-and-shoot, it was the sword play that proved to be a true challenge.  We quickly learned that wielding a sword and manipulating the controller was a lot of fun, but we didn’t want to force people to become actual professional swordsmen – just have fun. Also, we have to consider the animations of the sword and matching it up with what you see on screen. We didn’t want any delay whatsoever in response to what was happening with the controller and what you saw on the screen.

We’re continuing to tweak the controls to optimize the game and ensure it’s a great experience on all levels, for example keeping the precision and accuracy of the aiming but working on the sensitivity and the stability. Also the sword fighting is going to offer more diversity in movements and couple of special moves I will not talk about this time... Stay on line!

Well, that’s it for now.  See you again!