Nihilistic’s Huebner and Cooke talk about development ease

The last time that Nihilistic hogged the QJ limelight was way back in April, when we reported a rumor that they have a PS3 title up their sleeves. Now, we guess it’s about time that we give focus to these talented bunch of guys. Recently, Nihilistic Software‘s Rob Huebner and Mark Cooke answered some questions thrown at them by Gamasutra. The interview basically revolved around the ease of use for developing games on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So which platform is easier to produce games for? Here’s what Rob Huebner had to say:

But 360 and PS3, they’re individual personalities, and it has to be said that the PS3 requires a bit more handholding sometimes. You’ve got to beat it around a little more to get what you want out of it, but ultimately you can make a game that’s going to look good on both, without having to add a year to your development time. So that’s good for the industry, and it’s good for us…

I think the biggest difference is that the 360 has been in our hands longer, and I’ll be totally honest that Microsoft’s development tools are better, so you can compile faster, you can debug quicker. PS3 is catching up though – PS3 tools are already better than the PS2 ones.

Mark Cooke also added that since MS is a software company, they have a better grasp on tools compared to Sony. But Sony is getting better, however, they have a lot of “catching up to do in terms of ease of use that the development team gets out of the development tools.”

Bottomline: They favor the Xbox 360’s dev tools but they are also implying that they have yet to harness the potential of the PS3 and that Sony is catching up in terms of dev tools. And in due time, the differences in ease will be equal. As to when that time will be, well, we don’t know. So where does the Wii fits into the picture? Here’s Mr. Huebner again:

The Wii is a totally different animal. It’s going after a different market, the games feel totally different, so I think you won’t see a lot of cross-platform [development] like all three at the same time, but you’re going to see games for the Wii, then other games for the PS3 and 360.

But at the end of the day, because they are a cross-platform developer, for them competition is equivalent to income. The better the competition, the better the cash flow at Nihilistic. Although they have no plans of developing for the Wii, they encourage people to buy it since it will encourage smaller developers and even indie game devs to churn out creative games.

Via Gamasutra

The last time that Nihilistic hogged the QJ limelight was way back in April, when we reported a rumor that they have a PS3 title up their sleeves. Now, we guess it’s about time that we give focus to these talented bunch of guys. Recently, Nihilistic Software‘s Rob Huebner and Mark Cooke answered some questions thrown at them by Gamasutra. The interview basically revolved around the ease of use for developing games on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

So which platform is easier to produce games for? Here’s what Rob Huebner had to say:

But 360 and PS3, they’re individual personalities, and it has to be said that the PS3 requires a bit more handholding sometimes. You’ve got to beat it around a little more to get what you want out of it, but ultimately you can make a game that’s going to look good on both, without having to add a year to your development time. So that’s good for the industry, and it’s good for us…

I think the biggest difference is that the 360 has been in our hands longer, and I’ll be totally honest that Microsoft’s development tools are better, so you can compile faster, you can debug quicker. PS3 is catching up though – PS3 tools are already better than the PS2 ones.

Mark Cooke also added that since MS is a software company, they have a better grasp on tools compared to Sony. But Sony is getting better, however, they have a lot of “catching up to do in terms of ease of use that the development team gets out of the development tools.”

Bottomline: They favor the Xbox 360’s dev tools but they are also implying that they have yet to harness the potential of the PS3 and that Sony is catching up in terms of dev tools. And in due time, the differences in ease will be equal. As to when that time will be, well, we don’t know. So where does the Wii fits into the picture? Here’s Mr. Huebner again:

The Wii is a totally different animal. It’s going after a different market, the games feel totally different, so I think you won’t see a lot of cross-platform [development] like all three at the same time, but you’re going to see games for the Wii, then other games for the PS3 and 360.

But at the end of the day, because they are a cross-platform developer, for them competition is equivalent to income. The better the competition, the better the cash flow at Nihilistic. Although they have no plans of developing for the Wii, they encourage people to buy it since it will encourage smaller developers and even indie game devs to churn out creative games.

Via Gamasutra