DirectX 11 Indie Game, Candle, Coming To Wii U

You've probably never heard of Candle and that's fine. However, you do know about DirectX 11 and we all know that it's an API that commands respect from graphics whores the world around. So how do you feel about the Wii U knowing that an indie game that uses heavy DirectX 11 features will be arriving on Nintendo's Wii U?

Player Essence spotted the update on the team's official Kickstarter page for the successfully Kickstarted platformer, Candle, where the update reads...

“We love Nintendo platforms since our childhood has been full of them, so it was natural for us to go for it. We are already thinking about dedicated gameplay on Wii U – we are not doing any kind of quick port. We will designe specific gameplay features for its gamepad: all the menus, inventory and minigames will be tactile-controled on the touchscreen, as well as other unique actions concerning Teku’s candle. We will talk more deeply about this when we start developing all that stuff.”This is a dedicated development, and so we need extra time and effort to do it correctly with the all-new features. If we could fund it, we would hire some extra professionals and make this a day-1 version, but if we don't reach it we can't promise this one to be a launch day version, unfortunately. It may take us some additional weeks.

It's funny because Player Essence also references a previous article where they point out the very reasons why Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts 3 aren't coming to the Wii U, and it's because Square Enix stated that it didn't have DirectX 11 equivalent capabilities or the potential to make use of the OpenGL API to get comparable graphics fidelity as the PS4 and Xbox One.

Except Final Fantasy XV producer Tetsuya Nomura is blatantly off his rocker given that one of the main features of Unity 3D's game engine is making use of advanced lighting and shader technology offered through DirectX 11 equivalent APIs, and David Helgason already mentioned in a previous interview that they would be offering DirectX 11 equivalent functionality for Unity games made on the Wii U, utilizing shader 4.0 or higher features.

It could simply be that Nomura and crew aren't as talented as some other (indie) developers, or possible that they aren't as adapt to the Wii U's hardware as Helgason and other developers utilizing Unity, and instead of learning the hardware they would rather take the easy way out and avoid the console altogether.

Nevertheless, I like that we're seeing indie games with high-end graphics capabilities come out of the woodworks because you don't always need a massive budget to make something look unique or striking or visually compelling. So it's good to see the Wii U is getting high-end visual support, albeit from the lower-end of the development pool.

Hopefully more developers will stop taking a dump on the Wii U and play it up for its strengths as opposed to comparing it to the other consoles. Because if we really want to throw out hardware capabilities and comparisons, both the PS4 and XB1 are utter crap compared to a Master Rig in the PC arena. Believe it.

Anyway, Candle is looking good and reminds me a little bit of the other indie title Candlelight, which operates on a similar premise of using light and dynamic light sources to add new and exciting elements to the gameplay. You can check out the video for Candle below.

Will Usher

Staff Writer at CinemaBlend.