Dare Blogs – NeverMind Games

We are NeverMind Games, a game development team from Ireland, we are currently developing WiiKick, an innovative kick based game using the Nintendo™ WiiMote.

We arrived over in Dundee at the start of June, bright eyed and ready to develop. We began this on two fronts, firstly the game development itself, which took some nice steps at the end of the first week, and secondly trying to buy some Polyurethane (Lycra) for our WiiStrap, we were sure the latter was an issue specific to our team.

After we got the basics up, a physics engine integrated, the Wiimote libraries involved, and of course installing some reliable Bluetooth dongles for our WiiMotes. Our artists began modelling some characters, with Kev creating a player character, and KevKev beginning the charming personality that is our goalkeeper Tayto.

During week two we began creating some basic world scenes, a stadium for the player to become famous in, and a park for a more laid back football experience, and we were pleasantly surprised midweek when we received a medium sized delivery of Lycra. Alan began a local search for a seamstress willing to attempt the unique, to strap a WiiMote not just to his foot, but to everyone’s.

As we arrived in to start week three we had our first strap prototype, although it would only fit Alan, who was promptly given a sideways promotion to chief tester. We began work on taking input from a player’s foot, and turning it into an on screen kick.

The artists did some great work, with Kev creating a mini-game scene called “Ball in a china shop”, which sees the player trying to destroy as many expensive antiques as possible, and Kevkev was animating Tayto. We finally received a large batch of straps, so that we could all do a bit of testing, and we soon discovered our game is a lot of fun to test.

During week four Tayto’s animations really started to come together, and Kev made another mini-game scene, set on a spaceship this time. We’re still working on perfecting the kick input and adding as much game play as possible, so stay tuned.

You can find our gallery at NeverMindGames.com or follow NeverMindGames on twitter to stay up to date with development.