Johnny Lee: Better games are coming
NWF:
Are there any that you've noticed that actually do make pretty good use of the controls?
JL: Well, Nintendo has done the best, because they had the longest time to work with it. Wii Sports is fantastically done ... in fact, I was talking to a Wii game developer, and apparently Wii Sports is so good that it's a problem, because people buying the Wii almost don't feel compelled to buy another game, so they're having a hard time getting people to buy their games. It's also hard to make a competitor. For example, if you're making a baseball game, you're essentially competing against Wii Sports, and that's a challenge. There were some games I saw in prototype form, and I don't think I'm allowed to talk about them, but there are some interesting things coming down the pipeline. They weren't "WOW, AMAZING," or world-changing, but they were much better examples of the controls than some of the things we've seen before.
NWF: Hey, that gives us hope! That said, I really just have one more question, and it's probably the one you won't answer.
JL: [laughs]
NWF: I've read in some other interviews that you have more projects coming. Can you give us any hint at all of what we can expect, or maybe when we'll see them?
JL:
I've been really busy lately... [laughs] It's sad, because I haven't been able to do any work since December. I've actually been on my job search the past few months, and dealing with my job search and dealing with the attention from the Wii remote projects has consumed my extra time. And then I'm defending my thesis -- I'm graduating next week, so I've had to deprioritize making new videos. I do have a couple more ideas. I don't know ... it's hard for me to tell if people are going to get excited about them. There's also a closing window here. I don't know how much time I can spend on publishing these videos, partially because once I start employment, I may not be able to continue openly publishing and sharing these Wiimote videos. My hope is that I can, but I don't know. Maybe next week or the week after that, I can push out another video.
[NWF note: said graduation is now this week!]
NWF: Well, on behalf of our staff, and all of our readers, everyone wishes you the best of luck and probably thinks that, out of everybody in the world, you shouldn't need much of that luck. I'm surprised you even had to search for a job.
JL: Well, it's actually been a pretty easy search, and I had a lot of opportunities I didn't even ask for. And oddly enough, Nintendo was not among them. Nintendo never contacted me.
NWF: Never contacted you at all?
JL: Nope. It's okay. I don't think I'd actually want to work solely at Nintendo. I have a pretty diverse set of interests, only some of which are relevant to gaming, so working at a gaming company isn't very interesting to me.
NWF: Congratulations on graduating, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us during this busy time!
JL: No problem!
