Iwata Explores ZombiU Creation Plus New Multiplayer Developer Diary

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata recently took a scenic trip to Paris to chat to the team behind Wii U launch title, ZombiU.

Speaking to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, managing director of the French studios Xavier Poix, story/design director Gabrielle Shrager and the game's producer Guillaume Brunier on the project, the group cover the origins of the ZombiU concept, the company and the need for the GamePad.

The team played about with concepts for first person shooters on the new controller, to try and create a "new kind of FPS for hardcore gamers" and dealing with asymmetric gameplay in a multiplayer setting. It eventually spawned the project Killer Freaks From Outer Space in 2011, which as we know evolved into ZombiU.

At one point the team new that Rabbids, from the Rayman universe can "can really annoy some people", so prototyped Killer Freaks to shoot these Rabbid-esque creatures to "work off some stress".

Because traditional FPS games revolve around fast paced action, the team felt that by continually looking down at the GamePad the concept needed to slow down. The King Kong game, based on the Peter Jackson movie, was used as the key inspiration for staying alive - with the idea of the GamePad as a survival kit coming into play.

The enemies in Killer Freaks moved too quickly, so players would only be able to use it when "safe and hidden from the action" - there was "no time to look".

Enter ZombiU and a balance of "'anticipate', 'manage' and then 'confront'", allowing a new newer idea to be created using the controller as the survival kit, bringing the pace down to better manage the TV to GamePad ratio.

Our idea came from something Shigeru Miyamoto said before: that the Wii U GamePad could be an object outside of the game world.

The team also considered London as a prime setting due to the Olympics 2012 and Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations - the centre of the world's attention, plus a deep and meaningful historical setting.

Be sure to read the full Iwata Asks session on the Nintendo UK website.

Ubisoft also revealed additional footage of the game today; a developer diary on the multiplayer component of Wii U.