Interviews// Tancred Dyke-Wells - Studio Creative Director - Kuju London

SPOnG: How did you find working with the Wii's online functionality?

Tancred: Kuju has a good history of developing multiplayer games, having worked on the original multi-player section for Call of Duty and Dark Messiah of Might & Magic amongst other titles. We have our own, proprietary, platform-agnostic network technology.

What that means is that BWii’s multiplayer game is very robust with Co-Op, Assault and Skirmish game modes. And, unlike a lot of other such titles, we can boldly claim to offer inter-region play between Europe, Japan and the States with virtually no lag. I know because I’ve spent a lot of time playing games against Nintendo of America and Nintendo Corporation Limited in Japan! So yeah, it was good, basically. We missed having the voice chat option, but our one-button communication system makes up for that pretty well, I think.


SPOnG: Was age rating a factor in the structure of the game?

Tancred: Not really. People may look at the graphics and think we were going for a young audience, but the last game was Teen rated. The art style is a ‘feel’ thing, like that of Worms or Metal Slug. The look of the game means ‘fun’, rather than ‘kiddy’.


SPOnG: Do you feel that strategy-based (or influenced) games such as BW2 really benefit from the Wii control system?

Tancred: Battalion Wars is really a tactical action game, rather than a strategy game. The battlefield decisions the player makes are largely time-pressured, on-the-fly combat choices about what to hold back, what to send forward, when to wade in yourself, and so on – rather than longer-term strategical considerations about supply chains, resource gathering or economy.

What the Wii offers over the Gamecube in this context is a point-and-shoot or point-and-order control interface that is supremely effective and immediate. Where previously, in order to free-look the player had to hold down a modifier button and use the analog stick to manipulate their reticule, now they can just aim at the target and hit [B] to fire or [A] to give a context sensitive order. So, yeah, it benefits all right! BWii is far superior in terms of basic ergonomics than its predecessor.

SPOnG: How was adapting the game-play mechanic to the Wii controls in terms of challenge?

Tancred: It was very challenging, primarily because there are far fewer buttons available. But, that forces you to strain your design head and come up with more elegant solutions. So, where previously we used [X] to toggle your units between wait and follow, [Y] to send them forward and [Z] to control transfer - now we do all of that on the [A] button alone, using context sensitivity and a little press-and-hold. The result is a cleaner, more intuitive and more accessible interface.

SPOnG: Many thanks for your time, Tancred.