Equilibrio Interview

The advent of digital distribution services for home consoles has brought about a return of the bedroom coder. Whereas your average big budget spectacular will have a staff of 100 or more, games for WiiWare, PSN and Xbox LIVE Arcade (and Community Games) are made with far fewer. We caught up with Christophe Kohler from DK Games to talk about his upcoming WiiWare title Equilibrio, what it’s like being an independent developer and why he chose WiiWare.

VideoGamer.com: First off, could you explain a little about DK Games and how the studio was formed?

Christophe Kohler: My name is Christophe Kohler. “DK Games” is the commercial name behind my work. I’m an experienced independent video game developer and I share my time between building and developing my own games and working as a consultant for other studios (like “Virtuos games” in China). For my DK Games productions, I have hired additional staff to enable me to complete different projects. During the development of Equilibrio we had an overall “team” of around 13 staff covering everything from programming to translating.

VideoGamer.com: What are the core ideas behind Equilibrio?

Christophe Kohler: Equilibrio tests not only your reflexes but the old gray matter and is in perfect synergy with Wii. The basic concept of getting your ball to the exit pod to finish the level is turned upside down, literally, as you use your Wii Remote or Wii Balance Board to rotate the play area varying degrees in either direction. Players carefully, skilfully, move the spinning ball through corridors, along ledges to complete levels that are fraught with dangers. Move the ball too fast and it can shatter, leaving you to pick up the pieces and restart the level. Go too slow and the ‘equilibrio’ of the ball will not be powerful enough to spring to the desired spot!

VideoGamer.com: How did you come up with the idea for the game?

Christophe Kohler: Whilst browsing some independent games forums – I came across a small shareware title called ‘fragile ball’. The concept was great and I felt that this style of game would be a perfect fit for Wiiware and its audience. I then contacted the designer of ‘fragile ball’ and purchased the code and data from him. This was really the start of what you see before you today, although we have changed every aspect of the game that is now known as Equilibrio.

VideoGamer.com: Has balance board support always been part of the game design?

Christophe Kohler: The Wii Balance Board was not released in Europe when I first had the idea of creating equilibrio on Wii (in April 2008), so it was not part of the game design at first. But when I learnt that all developers were allowed to use the Balance Board, I was then sure that it would be nice to use it in Equilibrio.

VideoGamer.com: Is there an ideal control system for the game? Many Wii games that support the balance board, in our opinion, work better with a standard Wii Remote and Nunchuck set-up.

Christophe Kohler: The Wii Remote is the ultimate controller to play Equilibrio. Some levels required speed and accuracy and it is a hard challenge to go through the 64 levels.

But the game has also been adapted FOR the Wii Balance Board. When using the Balance Board, players will get to play “alternative” and simpler levels so that it is possible to finish the game with only the balance (moreover, this is necessary to win one of the 25 prizes).

The Balance is a very interesting controller because it required synchronisation between brain and body. The game takes its full sense playing with it (“Equilibrio” means “Balance” in Spanish). You’ll have the same sensations playing the “board and balls” mini game in Wii Fit.

VideoGamer.com: Do you have any online functionality in the game?

Christophe Kohler: As this is my first WiiWare game, I did not add any online features. Equilibrio can be played by four offline players; which is a nice multiplayer experience. In our 2009 projects, we will start to use the online capabilities.

VideoGamer.com: As an independent developer, how did you get involved with WiiWare development? Is it a simple process to become a Nintendo recognised developer?

Christophe Kohler: Getting to Wiiware was a logical and long trip. Before being independent I mainly worked as a PS2 “guru”. In 2006 I released my first game (“My Little Flufties”) on PC. A publisher was interested in the DS version and that automatically gave me the precious official DS agreement. Then it was easy to get WiiWare certified.

Getting the Nintendo Agreement when you are an unknown and newbie indie developer is quite hard I think. But my advice is to be patient and keep on trying. Creating a game is always a very long process and failures are part of it.

VideoGamer.com: Is there any reason why you chose to develop for WiiWare and not Xbox LIVE Arcade or PSN?

Christophe Kohler: I filled a form for becoming a XBLA developer but the mail got lost and they did not want to send me another form again. Moreover although Microsoft has great ideas for promoting amateur and indies games, they also have strict constraints (like the rule of releasing only one game per week on XBLA, or the low royalties rate). I hope it is different now.

For Sony, it is a different story. My first game “My Little Flufties” also exists on PS2. I sent the game to Sony and they rejected twice the concept, saying the game was not good enough for the PS2 (it is a game for young kids 4-8 years). This made the publisher go away. So I’m not planning to work for Sony again for now.

Nintendo has a very friendly policy to developers. They really help. The best example is the low price of the hardware (half or third cheaper than other constructors). This is perfect for small developers.

VideoGamer.com: Many small independent developers are looking at WiiWare (and now the XNA community games on Xbox) as a way to make a living out of game development. Are you able to reveal the size of the team, how long development took and the approximate cost?

Christophe Kohler: I’m deeply convinced it is a very good way of earning money, but everything needs to stay small to have a real chance of success. For “Equilibrio”, I paid 20,000 Euros to bring in the expertise of many people who have worked on the game and also to obtain age ratings certificates! The overall project took 5 months of my time. So roughly after 8000 units sold I’ll get my money back, and 8000 other units I’ll get my salary. This would be more risky if the project would have cost much or if we were several people sharing the royalties. Optimising the cost and delay is a real science. Being efficient in all areas is one of the keys to success.

VideoGamer.com: Are you at all worried that the Wii isn’t seen as a very advanced online console, like the 360 and PS3 are, and as such doesn’t have the same market for original downloadable titles?

Christophe Kohler: A lot of people do not even know that the Wii has an integrated wifi feature. But I’m sure Nintendo will strongly communicate that feature and the online market will become bigger. Anyway, the statistics of the WiiWare titles sales are very optimist to me. And with actual economic crisis, I’m sure people will start searching how to buy low price games, and WiiWare is the best solution!