Darksiders 2 developer chips in on Wii U

EA's already told us how much it loves the Wii U, and now Darksiders 2 developer Vigil Games has told us about its experience of developing for the console.

At a recent event promotional event for the game, Jay Fitzloff, Vigil Games' studio marketing manager, talked us through the process.

Based on the same engine as last year's Darksiders, Vigil Games initially faced a bit of struggle porting it to the Wii U. "It's our engine, it's our code, so it's our problem, to figure it out," said Fitzloff. "It was hard, but you enjoy that challenge of breaching new ground."

Darksiders 2 was demonstrated on the Wii U at E3 earlier this year, and the developers only had five or six weeks to get the game running. "Getting it started was the hardest part, but once they got it going, they said it was really easy to beat it through," said Fitzloff.

'A line of code'

Vigil Games' biggest concern was getting the game running on the Wii U's major selling point - its controller, which includes a tablet-style 6.2-inch screen.

Fortunately, the developer didn't have too many problems, as Fitzloff said: "getting the whole game to appear on that controller was, like, a line of code, and it was parity, right there."

A new console is always going to bring its own problems for developers, and the PlayStation 3 has been notoriously difficult to program for given its complicated Cell Processor.

But Nintendo's doing everything it can to help developers get their heads around the revolutionary new console. "It seems relatively easy for us to work with so far," said Fitzloff. "And Nintendo's been really helpful with it, so it's cool."

Darksiders 2 will be released by THQ as a Wii U launch title next year.