Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon dev Next Level Games talked about their close relationship with Nintendo in an interview today, pointing out that they are currently only doing Nintendo projects.
This closeness is noteworthy for two reasons: Next Level Games is not a 1st or 2nd party developer for Nintendo, and as a 3rd party, they enjoy a close relationship with Nintendo, which has become really unusual in recent years. Next Level can also boast of an accomplishment few other 3rd parties can boast of; a string of financially successful games on Nintendo’s consoles, most recently, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
Next Level Games is a noteworthy company in its own right, having been featured in Maclean’s and BC Business. The Canadian dev, based in British Columbia, consistently gets awarded as one of the district’s top employers by BC Business.
Next Level Games’ co-founder James Carr is all praise for Nintendo as a partner. Overall, what they like about working with Nintendo is how it understands game development from the developer’s perspective (In comparison, many Western dev heads come from a business background, and make design decisions with this in mind).
Next Level Games are given generous feedback on what direction their games need to go, but are not forced to make changes as a matter of policy. Nintendo also gives them flexibility in terms of development time and allowing them breathing room to polish and master their games.
Looking at their own interests, James points out that they have worked with other companies (the last being Captain America: Super Soldier with Sega, for Xbox 360 and PS3) and they see little reason to venture beyond Nintendo at this point. Nintendo has been entrusting them with their high profile titles, and have been enjoying most success with the company.
Furthermore, Next Level has no aspirations in becoming a bigger company. They are currently at 70 people, down from when they had 120 people, in four teams, to work on a bigger title (not mentioned here, but which I suspect is that Captain America game).
James explains that at that time, they were stretching themselves too thin, and just could not manage handling so many devs working at so many games. Where they are now, they are more satisfied, and they’re not looking to make any radical changes in their position.
Perhaps Next Level Games learned some lessons seeing what had happened to Nintendo’s former charges, Rare. Nintendo’s relationships with 3rd parties are few and far between, but if Nintendo can make them this good, they may have an edge above their competitors after all. They need only duplicate this sweetheart relationship with a broader number of devs – of course, that’s easier said than done.
Image is from Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon.
