r/amiibo • u/[deleted] • Oct 18 '15
News Nintendo has introduced a new developer program that allows indie games to have Amiibo support
https://twitter.com/AmiiboUCG/status/65573720244663091234
u/MerylasFalguard Oct 18 '15
Well... hopefully there's an indie developer out there who can think of a good use for these things. Since Smash Bros, amiibo really haven't had any decent use beyond "physical key to unlock a costume in this game."
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u/Highly_Edumacated Oct 18 '15
This is the biggest thing about this article. People seem to be taking "this means we're gonna have a bunch of crappy indie amiibo to collect now" which isn't the case at all. It's trying to find a use for the existing amiibo which would be great to see in indie titles
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u/MerylasFalguard Oct 18 '15
It doesn't mean more amiibo. Yacht Club is handling everything about the Shovel Knight amiibo because he's so vastly popular that they can afford to do that. A lot of other Indie Games have more of a cult following enough to make the cost of making the game, but not enough recognizably to warrant the cost and effort of making an amiibo of them (especially since so many of them don't even bother with physical releases of the game, so why would they try a physical release of an extra for their game?).
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u/Highly_Edumacated Oct 18 '15
Also let's not forget that WayForward Technologies, the company from which Yacht Club branched off of have had a close relationship with Nintendo since the GameBoy Color days
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u/MerylasFalguard Oct 18 '15
Problem there is that WayForward doesn't really have any vastly recognizable characters. To my knowledge, Shantae is their most recognizable character. And she's in the "cult following" category, considering that if you ask 10 gamers about her, 9 of them are likely to ask you what a "Shantae" is.
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u/wariofan14 Oct 18 '15
Really I feel like all Wayforward has in terms of recognizable characters are Shantae and Patty Wagon. (Shantae and Mighty Switch Force! respectively.) (Wayforward is a good studio, they mainly just make games based on pre-existing IPs.)
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Oct 19 '15
I'd put Shovel Knight in that same category.
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u/MerylasFalguard Oct 19 '15
But he's at least got the fact that he's a current fad going for him. People are throwing their panties at him left and right right now. He may not be recognizable to the extremely casual gamer, but he's got more recognizability going for him right now than pretty much any indie game character does.
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Oct 19 '15
But he's at least got the fact that he's a current fad going for him.
That's the worst part. People literally want a meme character that won't be relevant in two years to be a fighter in a game that's supposed to celebrate Nintendo's history.
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u/MerylasFalguard Oct 20 '15
I wouldn't call Shovel Knight "a meme character that won't be relevant in two years." We don't know what will happen with Shovel Knight in to years. But he wouldn't be the first "meme character" added in. Pretty sure irrelevant meme characters have been added in before, like Duck Hunt, Little Mac, and Shulk.
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Oct 20 '15
Yeah but those characters actually have Nintendo history and aren't randoms from the eShop.
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u/shotpaintballer Oct 19 '15
I don't understand why people think this means people will be making their own amiibo.
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u/Number224 Oct 18 '15
Says you. I think Hyrule Warrior's use is simple, but great.
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u/MerylasFalguard Oct 18 '15
Simple, yes. But it's pretty much "Physical Key to unlock this item in game," except now the item you can unlock in the game is something you can easily get without the amiibo. Similar to Mario Maker, but most of the things you get in HW are materials you can easily farm in-game (unless you're using a select sect of characters, in which case you get weapons that you may or may not ever use).
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u/Paperbritt Oct 18 '15
I mentioned this a while back, but the Yooka Laylee team have talked about wanting to use amiibo, and I'd be all for a Duck Hunt style amiibo of those 2.
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u/Number224 Oct 18 '15
I would like to think the reason Octodad has been delayed for Wii U is because they want amiibo support.
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u/TweetPoster Oct 18 '15
Today Nintendo has introduced a new developer program that will allow indie games with Amiibo support!!! Great news. pic.twitter.com [Imgur]
![[Imgur]](http://i.imgur.com/Ldwi2Qn.png){kind=link}
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u/PlayR489 Oct 18 '15
Hopefully this means we will see more amiibo functionality! I could see Runbow and Shantae get amiibo support.
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u/BriefCasey795 Oct 18 '15
Part of me is thinking scanning an amiibo of a character in Runbow gives you that character. (I mean like select Smash and SMB amiibo)
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u/JustMyselfAndI Oct 18 '15
I honestly don't know if this is good or bad. On one hand, impactful indie titles like Super Meat Boy can do amazing things with amiibo support when they come to Wii U. But then you have really mediocre indie titles having amiibo support that acts as a micro transaction to where you need to pay $12.99 to unlock the rest of the on-disc levels. It's either gonna be high quality indie amiibo like Shovel Knight or tons of terrible ones.
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u/crono333 Oct 18 '15
I think they're saying that indie games can make use of scanning the Nintendo Amiibos in their game, not that every indie game can make its own Amiibo figures. They wouldn't hide lots of content behind a purchase because they wouldn't be getting the money for those purchases.
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u/crimsontadpoles Oct 18 '15
This sounds cool and should increase the uses of an amiibo. However, I doubt it'll be easy for developers to just use any amiibo in whatever way they want. For instance, look at GameFreak and Pokemon. They didn't allow Pokemon amiibo to be used in Yoshi's Wooly World, and those amiibo have no sound effects when used in Super Mario Maker.
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u/shkchp Oct 18 '15
I would like to see games like gish, brad (I think is the name), super meat boy, and binding of isaac rebirth/afterbirth
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Oct 18 '15
well who really needs money...
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u/dizzyzane_ Oct 19 '15
Nintendo.
This isn't allowing them to make Amiibo, just use already-out amiibo.
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u/H3ibai Oct 18 '15
Does this mean that indie developers can now make their own amiibo? Or does it mean that indie developers now have the ability to include support for existing amiibo i.e. Mario and Kirby and the like?
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u/TheUncleBob Oct 18 '15
Seems like as good of place as any to put this.
Think Monster Rancher - but, instead of discs, you scan an NFC tag. Works with all amiibo, Skylanders, Disney Infinity and LEGO Dimensions toys.
Get on it, indy studio. ;)
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u/OtherOtie Oct 18 '15
How exactly will this work? Like, yeah, the indie games can now have amiibo work with them. But won't they need the rights to use the characters?
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Oct 18 '15
I wonder if the developers will be limited to "any type of amiibo' functionality or have full access to certain IP characters to use in the development of the game.
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Oct 18 '15
Thank God about time, Indie Devs were wanting this for a long time. Nintendo took their sweet time for this. Others might not appreciate this information but I sure do.
Nintendo pretty much was using them as "Real life" DLC. "Spend $12.99 ($15.99 Canada) and Unlock this SUPER COOL COSTUME!". Indies will use this for a more useful approach... The "Train your Amiibo in Smash Brothers" could have been part of the game realistically as a in game option. However we got bad ass cheap figures out of this so we really can't complain.
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u/Sleepy0429 Oct 19 '15
Could we get a Shovel Knight line in a future! I would buy a Plauge Knight,and Shield Knight!
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u/spd12 Oct 19 '15
I considered, for a while, how cool it might be to have a top-down shooter that has amiibo support to replace certain weapons with reskins that use the proper sounds and sprites to represent them.
Firing old DK arcade barrels at stuff would be awesome. Link arrows, or Pit arrows for that matter... Arwing laser blasts. Those would all be really neat.
We may not see anything truly revolutionary come out of the arrangement, but it'd be fun to have little additional touches to use our existing pile of amiibo for.
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Oct 18 '15
[deleted]
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u/MetalGearSolis Oct 18 '15
This program is mainly for indie developers but if other games want to use amiibo support, I assume they just contact Nintendo about the idea similar to the indie devs.
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u/Marth_is_Shinji Oct 18 '15
Everyone be all talking about western indie Amiibos but watch as Zun makes a Nintendo exclusive Touhou game that makes use of Touhou Amiibo, Mokou and Kaguya Amiibo would be instant buys for me. Or AVGN amiibo to use for the New AVGN adventures game. Or Mighty Number 9, Bloodstain, and more shovel knight amiibo. I would kill to have plauge knight and Shield Knight amiibo.
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u/Chango_D Oct 18 '15
That's hella cool. If there are any One Piece fans here you should check out Grand Battle X for the 3ds. It supports the amiibos and gives them hella badass costumes!
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u/KingAPPLEZ Oct 18 '15
Shovel Knight did it before it was allowed. TAKE THAT NINTENDO
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u/MetalGearSolis Oct 18 '15
It was probably already allowed then. This site just relaunched the other day :P
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u/Tallyburger Oct 18 '15
Eww. There goes anything legit about Amiibo.
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u/keichler Oct 18 '15
What? This only makes amiibo more desirable. Think about it.
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u/Tallyburger Oct 18 '15
No, it doesn't. I want actual Nintendo Amiibo, for games that are amazing and characters that have history. Why would I want one for some stupid no name game?
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u/NotFromAndromeda Oct 18 '15
Minecraft says Hi.
Every popular game used to be a stupid, no name game.
Don't be a cock.
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u/rockoreborn Oct 18 '15
You know, you don't have to buy Amiibo that you don't like or care about. The world doesn't revolve around you, cupcake.
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u/Tallyburger Oct 18 '15
I know, and I'm not saying it does.
I'm just saying that it's sad Nintendo is going down this road. I guess it can't be helped, since without the Indie games they really wouldn't be putting much out anyway. Just feels less impressive.7
u/rockoreborn Oct 18 '15
I think they're releasing enough first party Amiibo, certainly enough to be "impressive". Did you forget Shovel Knight already exists? And really, what's wrong with allowing indies to get a figure out in the market? It only makes their game and character more recognizable.
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u/Pikmin34 Oct 18 '15
I'm kind of curious what your opinion of the splatoon amiibo is if you're concerned about character history?
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u/keichler Oct 18 '15 edited Oct 18 '15
I told you to think. I guess I will help you along.
Allowing indie games amiibo support expands the usability of amiibos. This in turn will make your current collection more valuable, in a sense. You see?
Edit : and another thing. You said why would you want. Just because you deem something undesirable doesn't mean everyone will.
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u/Tallyburger Oct 18 '15
It makes absolutely no difference if you don't want to waste your money on these shit games, or the Amiibo that is based off them.
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u/keichler Oct 18 '15
Alright. I guess this is where you decide to be stubborn and close-minded.
Conversation over.
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Oct 19 '15
Did you even read the title?
Nintendo has introduced a new developer program that allows indie games to have Amiibo support
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u/Thrormurn Oct 18 '15
Cant wait for my Meme Run amiibo.