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Stop Stress is a new WiiWare game in development at Abylight. We caught up with product manager and studio founder Alberto González to get some more details on the game, why the studio chose the Wii and if the game could come to other platforms in the future.
VideoGamer.com: Tell us a bit about Abylight. What made you develop a game for WiiWare?
Alberto González: Abylight is a video game company founded in 2004 by four veterans from the gaming industry. Our experience traces right back to the eighties with the first 8 bit computer games.
We have created quite a lot of games for Nintendo platforms in the past, so WiiWare was the natural choice for us. We also wanted to become the publisher of our own games since we have worked mostly as third party developers in the past. WiiWare allowed us to explore this new path previously with “Fish’em All” and now with “Stop Stress”.
VideoGamer.com: Where did the idea for Stop Stress come from? Is Abylight a particularly hard place to work?
AG: We work with a set of very talented scriptwriters who created the idea and the story. The game was then formed around that story. It’s been a very experimental project in many senses.
Abylight is not a hard place to work quite the contrary. Since it’s a small company we know each other very well, and that sets a specially nice and friendly environment.
VideoGamer.com: Does WiiWare offer developers any particular advantages over PSN or Xbox LIVE Arcade?
AG: Since we have no experience with PSN or Xbox LIVE Arcade as of yet, we can’t tell if WiiWare has any advantage over the other platforms.
VideoGamer.com: Could Stop Stress come to either of those services in the future?
AG: Not sure right now, but as we are not tied to any platform in particular, anything could happen in the future.
VideoGamer.com: What do you think about the quality of games released on WiiWare to date?
AG: It’s a very mixed bag, as are other platforms. But that’s the beauty; you have plenty of different games to target at a very good price. What you may think is boring, others may think is entertaining. It’s all about variety.
VideoGamer.com: Is WiiWare the best option for smaller developers? If so, why?
AG: If you have a good idea and want to bring it to the market, WiiWare is a good place to start, especially if you like Nintendo’s “flavour”. It is also a very affordable platform to work on!
VideoGamer.com: What should gamers expect from Stop Stress? It appears to be a first-person destroy-em-up.
AG: With Stop Stress, we wanted to bring a different perspective to the first person genre. Set in familiar environments but seen through quixotic eyes, it creates a distorted and exaggerated reality together with high doses of sense of humour. We also wanted to make it accessible to all the players, – even those who have never experienced first person games, so it’s very easy to control and enjoy.
VideoGamer.com: Does the game use the Wii Fit Balance Board or Wii MotionPlus? If not, did you consider implementing support for either of those at any point?
AG: No it doesn’t. We wanted the game to be as accessible as possible, without using any additional devices.
VideoGamer.com: How long has the game been in development?
AG: About 6 months.
Stop Stress is due for release exclusively on WiiWare soon.
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