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We nabbed an interview with Josh Olson, producer at High Voltage Software, better known as the team behind The Conduit for Nintendo Wii.  During this unique opportunity, we asked numerous questions about their upcoming "hardcore" title for the Wii, doing our best to reach across the board for the game so that we got a little info on everything.

Gabriel Vega (Neo): The Wii is a console that caters itself to new and old gamers, how will The Conduit attack these demographics or will the hardcore be given the luxury of having a title geared directly toward them?

Josh Olson: There are over 50 million Wii consoles out there – and we’re confident that a market exists for a title like The Conduit.  I think that there’s been some nervousness about the viability of “hardcore” games on the Wii – especially in light of some recent titles that haven’t fared too well – and while we do fall squarely into the core gamer demographic with The Conduit, we were also very cognizant that the title is on the Wii and made very deliberate decisions to avoid making a niche title and instead went for the summer blockbuster feel.  It still has all of the elements that we think core gamers want, but a lot our decisions in regards to story, genre, gameplay, and art direction were aimed at accessibility. When people look at The Conduit, they immediately understand it.  While we may get dinged for some of these decisions, we feel it was ultimately the right direction for the console. 
 
Another thing to point out is that one of the coolest things that we’ve discovered during development from giving folks hands-on time with the game is that they immediately get it – there’s a direct connection between firing a weapon and pointing the Wii remote that you don’t get with dual thumbsticks or the mouse and keyboard.  It feels natural and it’s intuitive – in that sense I think there’s an accessibility there you don’t find with shooters on the PC, 360 and PS3.  It’s a new experience that you won’t find anywhere else.
 
Neo: The graphics engine of The Conduit has been the talk of the town for quite a while, how do the other aspects of the game engine stack up though? Will the experience deliver just as much for game play is it does for visuals?

JO: We knew when we started development that we had a very capable engine in Quantum3, and I admit that a lot of the early development was spent making sure that we could achieve a level of graphical fidelity that really showed off what the Wii was capable of.  The being said, however, gameplay is king.  We made a lot of decisions during development to cut things that while perhaps visually appealing, were detrimental to the game – either because they were too graphically intensive and caused slow-down, or because they simply didn’t add to the gameplay experience.  It’s a tough balancing act to be sure – you want your game to look very good – but our mantra has always been to ensure that gameplay is paramount.  We’ll leave it to the fans to decide if we’ve been successful.

We also spent a lot of time looking at the other FPS titles on the Wii to see what worked and what didn’t.  This really emphasized for us that what makes a shooter unique on the Wii is the controls – we spent a huge amount of time on them as a result – and in the end exposed a lot of our internal development tools and options in the retail game to allow the player to customize most everything.  We feel that there’s no “right” way to play a game – and that forcing a player to adapt to our “best” scheme was a recipe for failure.  We weren’t going to get it right for everyone, so we decided to let the player decide.  On the Wii, it’s all about the controls.  We think we nailed it.    
 
Neo: Online mode is a popular question in our forums, people are still waiting for a solid multiplayer shooter experience on the Wii and The Conduit is one of the few games tailored specifically for the console, what can gamers expect and how will support pan out for the feature?

JO: We’re extremely proud of our multiplayer.  It really, really came together and we’re confident that it’s the definitive MP shooter experience on the Wii.  There are of course hurdles to overcome with Nintendo’s online requirements, but I think we have a good system and offer a lot to avoid player frustration and get people into games quickly.  While manual Friend Code entry is still an option, you can also send and accept Friend Requests through the Lobby with Friends of Friends without having to enter the Friend Code, and you can also become Friends through sending a Wii Console Friend Request in-game.
 
In regards to the core MP gameplay, we have a really robust MP experience with all of the standard modes that gamers expect (Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Multi- and Single-Flag CTF).  We also offer some more unique modes to include ASE Football, where the goal is to keep possession of the All-Seeing Eye Device for as long as possible…problem being that you can only melee and throw grenades when you’re holding it.  Bounty Hunter is a mode where everyone is assigned a single target, and you only accrue points for killing that target.  Problem is, someone else has you as his target, and you have no idea who that may be.  If you kill an innocent, you lose points so you can’t just indiscriminately kill everyone you see.  It gets really, really crazy.

Neo: Will gamers get a break from the influx of shooters that rely on online mechanics over single player experiences through the Conduit; instead of a 5 hour game will there finally be that break that takes them to another realm of interaction? How will the Wii features play into this?

JO: We started development of The Conduit on single player and focused most of our resources on the single player campaign.  We’re seeing an 8-10 hour playthrough - it’s a great experience that we’re really proud of.  We also spent a lot of effort in making sure that there’s replayability in the single-player campaign – we have unlockables and cheats that you get from collecting hidden items scattered throughout the level.  For those that care about the story, there are a lot of elements – conspiracy objects, hidden alien text, radio and TV stations – that you can find to dig a bit deeper into what’s going on.  There’s a lot there in the SP campaign and I don’t think gamers will be disappointed.
 
We use Wii functionality where it makes sense.  There are several Wii-specific weapons that offer functionality that you simply can’t get with other control interfaces.  Grenades are thrown with a flick of the wrist and melee is a jab at the screen on the default settings.  It feels natural.  The key is to use this functionality where it makes sense and avoid gimmicky implementation that feels clunky or gets repetitive.  This is another big lesson-learned from looking at other Wii shooter titles.  Use the added functionality of the controls in an intuitive way that’s a natural extension to gameplay – and avoid doing something simply because “you can.”
 
Neo: The Wii remote has been given a recent upgrade with Wii Motion Plus, will the impact the way the game is played or will it have no bearing on the current control mechanics for the game? If it had been released earlier would it have really brought anything new to the way the game plays or is The Conduit designed for the core system itself?

JO: The Conduit was designed without Wii MotionPlus in mind – we started development before it was even announced - though we did get prototype models of the peripheral during development and actually developed a prototype melee weapon that used it.  The problem is that as a shooter, you really want to keep the pointer (and aiming reticle) on the screen.  We could have added it to have the sticker on the box, but in the end felt that we’d be cheating gamers if we didn’t include Wii MotionPlus in a meaningful way that’s integral to the core gameplay experience.  That simply wasn’t the case with our design.  That being said, we continue to look at it and are eager to see what Red Steel 2 does with it.   
 
We really have to thank the folks at HVS for taking time to field some questions with us, we'll have a second round using Q&A from our forum community as well that we've already selected. Stay tuned as we'll be doing a final feature including hands on with the game as we near the release date.