The Conduit - Development

Development

The Conduit was announced to be in production on April 17, 2008 through IGN. The developer began considering creating a new game for the Wii that would cater to the "hardcore" audience. The game was designed to have a comparable experience to games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 despite the hardware limitations of the Wii. The game's announcement was seen as something of a surprise because the company had largely been known for its licensed titles which had been marketed mainly to younger audiences. By the developer's own admission, many of these licensed games have received mediocre reviews in the gaming press. Eric Nofsinger, the development team's Chief Creative Officer (CCO), claimed that the company saw potential in the Wii early on, but noted that much of what has succeeded on the Wii so far has been family-oriented or Nintendo-promoted games. Nofsinger went on to say, "The other titles that have come out in that vein have been a bit lackluster. The games that have done well are the casual games so publishers see those as viable. We’re trying to do something that really hasn’t been done to its full extent to my knowledge." In October 2008 the developer confirmed that the game was at a pre-alpha state and the majority of development was being shifted to the multiplayer mode, and by March 2009 the game had reached the "post-beta" stage, with most work involving debugging and play-testing. In early June 2009, the developer announced that The Conduit had gone gold.

The Wii MotionPlus attachment, revealed by Nintendo during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2008, was originally intended to be compatible with The Conduit, but the developer later decided against incorporating it due to unresolvable technical issues and the lack of features in the game that could take advantage of the accessory. Eric Nofsinger stated about the Wii MotionPlus that "We were really excited, going back and forth with Nintendo on how to integrate and what the best use for it was. But when we actually implemented it, it really didn't bring that much to the table... But maybe for a future version we'll revisit, and if we can build something around it that makes sense."