Icon Games has released two games on the WiiWare service, with many more still in development. Arcade Sports, their latest title, was launched on the service earlier last month and we managed to catch up with the developer to dig a little deeper into the development of the game.

Nintendo World Report (NWR): Why did you decide to develop Stunt Cars and Arcade Sports for Nintendo’s WiiWare service as opposed to other console’s online services?

Icon Games (IG): We had previously developed Retail titles for Wii – Vertigo, Pool Hall Pro and Build’n Race, so it was a logical step at the time. We really enjoy working on the Wii, and Nintendo are very indie friendly with WiiWare.

NWR: How long has Arcade Sports been in development?

IG: In total I’d say around 1 year.

NWR: How did you come about picking the four sports that are featured in Arcade Sports?

IG: We’ve done work on these sports games in the past (with the exception of Air Hockey); and personally I am a big fan of Pool and Snooker. The games all gel together nicely and you would expect to find them all in a real bowling alley venue.

NWR: Why did you decide to choose bowling as one of the sports? With Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort now bundled with all Wii consoles, both of which offer bowling as sports, did you fear that gamers might turn to those games instead of Arcade Sports?

IG: Yes, we did worry about this – but for the setting and theme, Bowling was a natural choice. I’d certainly not do a standalone bowling title on Wii though!  Also when you factor in the Career mode, where you are playing through tournaments with a mix of game types, which is a fairly unique feature to Sports, the mix of games works nicely.

NWR: Was online multiplayer ever discussed for Arcade Sports?

IG: Yes, but we didn’t have the resources. To have added this would have taken more man-power, and more crucially time, and most likely bankrupted us as a company.  Bearing in mind, with Stunt Cars as an example, development took around 12 months, and by the time we hit the Nintendo performance thresholds for sales – another 11 months is added on-top BEFORE we see any money.  So that is essentially 2 years, without a cent of income for a title. For a small indie studio budgeting for that is a VERY severe head-ache, the sort of spend your life-savings trying to make it work head-ache.

NWR: How do you deal with any negative criticism that reviewers write about your games?

IG: First off, completely gutted. It hits very hard and gets under your skin. Reviewing is also quite subjective, so for example with Sports we’ve had a couple of really good reviews, and we are hopeful of more.  Next step for me after a review is to look to see what positives I can get from the comments going forward – to apply to future games. Everything is a learning experience.

NWR: Do you have any more WiiWare games in development? If so, when can we expect to see them?

IG: Yes – we have Soccer Bashi and Family Games, both currently going through final Lotcheck submission at Nintendo. So they should be out in a couple of months or so.  We are also working on a new title; Vertigo Tilt and Roll for WiiWare.

NWR: Have you ever considered developing for Nintendo’s DSiWare service?

IG: Yes – we will be starting this later in the year.

NWR: Finally, is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?

IG: Thanks for listening, and we are always happy to chat about our games past and present – so if any of you have any questions you’d like to put to us just visit the website and give us a shout. Thanks guys.

Thanks to Icon Games for making this interview a reality!