Wii Ware

#1 You need to be a Nintendo Developer before you can obtain a TorqueWii licence (as far as I am aware).

#2 I breifly read the Torque for Wii page and from what I gather you don't necessarily have to be a Nintendo developer but you will have to contact GarageGames directly for the license and they will be able to give you all the necessary information you will need for obtaining the proper way to go about it. I think that you have to have special permission (whether that's from GarageGames or Nintendo) before you can obtain the license.

I am also interested but do not yet have the capabilities. I am wanting to develop at least one game for PC before taking on the Wii console. It may be a good idea to go this route. If you leave your code flexible enough you may even be able to convert your PC design to a Wii design once you have something difinitive to show GarageGames and Nintendo.

Hope this helps. Let us know what you find out. I think there are lots of others out there interested in the Torque for Wii.

#3 On a slight off-topic joking feel....
Wii has all the games it needs. Wii Sports. That game rocks.

But now seriously if you find anything out please do share. Plenty of people are interested and it would be fun to do stuff like that.

#4 I believe developing for TorqueWii is contingent upon the requirements Nintendo puts out about WiiWare and general Wii development. AFAIK, we cannot license it to someone without one of Nintendo's licenses, but we can point you in the right direction to obtaining a license. At least that's what I recall from posts here. I haven't asked around on it outside the forums, though, so I could be out of the loop. But it makes sense since I think it requires the use of the Wii development kit, which you can't get ahold of without being approved by the big N.

#5 It might be nice if GG would make the requirements known... and maybe even help potential Torque Wii developers get started with Wii development.

The Nintendo requirements sound like a put-off for any normal "Indie" developer... they're looking for established devs with at least a game or two already on the "shelves", and that rules out most TGE/TGEA licensees.

#6 They're looking for games that promote their platform, which traditionally means shipped games, even if the quality was low. They jumped through hoops to make Square's Tom Sawyer (as an example of a very bad game). But from the interviews, they have single-dev teams to large publishers working on WiiWare games. And I don't think "shelves" are so much a requirement as a commitment to creating fun games. I could easily see The Behemoth getting a contract much like they did for the PS2 and XBLA because they made a flash game that was really fun and really sweet. Or the N team who recently released N+ on XBLA.

I'm not sure if we can make the requirements known due to NDA's and third-party development of the Wii port, etc. Technical requirements, we probably can, because those should end up on Nintendo's dev site at some point. Gatekeeper requirements, however, are often different on a number of levels. I would recommend reading the post-mortem on N+ at Gamasutra (I think it was there, I read a lot of sites) that discussed taking N from a flash game to XBLA and the difficulties with navigating the console dev side of life. It's a rather enlightening look at console dev from those who are not used to it.

#7 From what I was told with someone who has a WiiWare license (or whatever you get) the important thing they want is you to NOT be a home studio. They want you to be a "real" business. From what I was told it's more for the idea you'll commit & be serious vs spend the $$, promote something & then drop off the face of the earth.

Introversion, 2d boy & others I'm 100% could get a license if they wanted (rummer has it 2d boy already does), they've shown the dedication nintendo is looking for. Remember, Nintendo is the publisher in the case of WiiWare & they don't want to publish complete crap and/or waste $$ of vaporware.

So, dev for the PC/XNA first & odds are you'll be able to get a license.

#8 Interesting. I've seen several "crap" games so far on the Wii. Not sure how the dev made it through WiiWare in those cases.

#9 Actually, the "crap games" didn't go through the WiiWare process. They went through a much more rigorous process as part of the traditional console dev scene. All of the consoles have had their share of "crap games" but that shouldn't make a team hopeful anymore than "crap movies" that show up in Blockbuster and get funding. It should make a dev more cognizant of making good games that don't end up like "crap". There will always be people who can play the game and release crap, but we have to work hard to not only release high-quality work but also attempt to negate the "if it's indie, it must be lesser than the crap we see on the shelves" mentality that a number of people seem to have.