These broadcasts are unnecessary to fully understand the story, but provide background information that supplements the overall plot. In addition, as the player explores the game more subtle clues in the environment, such as a precisely placed object in a certain historical location, can be discovered which are meant to provoke questions about elements of the story. The intention of this was to reward players who want to explore and understand more of the story, while not taking away from the experience for other players who only want to complete the game.

The main enemies of The Conduit are an insectoid alien race called the Drudge. Their forces are divided into at least four main types: Mites, Drones, Skimmers, and Scarabs. Mites are the smallest forms, some of which can fly and others explode when in close proximity to the player. Drones are adult-form Drudge that serve as common soldiers, and Skimmers are an alternate adult-form that can fly. Scarabs are the most dangerous group, equipped with heavily-armored exoskeletons and powerful weaponry. Other enemies in the campaign include Drudge-controlled United States military personnel and a faction of the Trust organization that has willingly sided with the Drudge for its own unknown purposes.

The Drudge also incorporate various devices to defeat or hinder the player. Among these is the Drudge portal, or Conduit, which can be placed throughout a level to allow Drudge enemies to spawn from them until they are destroyed by the player. Other Drudge devices, such as a "Regenerator Unit" and "Pulse Box," will also appear in the game, but their purposes have yet to be revealed.The game's Quantum3 engine provides the Drudge with advanced artificial intelligence that allows them to adopt unusual strategies in combat. Such strategies include recognizing when the player is open to attack and then charging the player, or running away and seeking cover when outmatched.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in The Conduit will feature at least three competitive multiplayer modes for online play, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Capture the Flag modes.The online multiplayer will be able to support up to 16 players simultaneously. When seeking an online match, the player can choose playlists with randomly-selected players locally or around the world, or with players who have exchanged friend codes. Maps for the multiplayer are taken from places seen in the campaign, but are redesigned to better suit the different multiplayer modes.

Voice chat for the online multiplayer will be included through implementation of the Wii Speak peripheral. The Conduit will be the first third-party Wii game to use the accessory.

Conduit Images

Mr. Ford uses the All-Seeing Eye to reveal a hidden Drudge Scarab.

Features:

* “Next-Gen” Visuals – Dynamic environment mapping, interactive water with real time reflection, and four stage texture composition including gloss, diffuse, and bump mapping all make this the best looking game on the Wii
* Full peripheral support - Nintendo’s new Wii Speak & Wii MotionPlus
* Fearsome Enemies – A vast number of terrifying alien creatures work against you as you attempt to prevent the invasion
* Intelligent Behavior – Enemies make use of human-like behavior in combat including use of cover and tactical thinking
* Intense Weaponry – Unleash destruction with a huge arsenal of human and alien weaponry that utilizes the innovative Wii controller for unique firing modes.

Plot

 Setting

The Conduit takes place in the near future, as Washington, D.C. is shaken by several tragic and unusual incidents. A mysterious flu-like virus known as "the Bug" has swept through the region, resulting in high-security locations being left understaffed as government workers stay home to try to avoid catching the disease. Months after the initial outbreak, an alleged terrorist attack destroys part of the Washington Monument, and only weeks afterwards on September 11, a presidential candidate is assassinated by another possible terrorist cell disguised as her Secret Service detail, greatly heightening local and national tensions. Following these alarming events, a secretive organization known as the Trust realizes that the capital has become the epicenter for an extraterrestrial attack by an alien race identified as the Drudge. Sent to stop the onslaught, Trust agent Michael Ford must overcome the onslaught of the Drudge and the virus-infected humans under the Drudge's control, as well as a group of traitorous Trust agents that actively support the invasion.

Characters

The Conduit's protagonist is Agent Michael Ford (voiced by Mark Sheppard), a former Secret Service agent newly inducted into the Trust at the time of the Drudge's initial assault. John Adams (voiced by William Morgan Sheppard) is the enigmatic commander of the Trust who orders Ford to infiltrate the Washington, D.C. area to discover the reasons for the Drudge's invasion. One of the main antagonists is a man calling himself Prometheus (voiced by Kevin Sorbo), a former member of the Trust who left the organization for unknown reasons, and later fell in league with the Drudge. Supporting characters include "Five," a Drudge alien captured by the Trust who is willing to communicate with Ford.

 Development

The Conduit is a futuristic first-person shooter created by High Voltage Software for the Wii, and was announced to be in production on April 17, 2008 through IGN. The developer began considering creating a new game for the Wii that would cater to the hardcore audience. The game was designed to have a comparable experience to games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 despite the hardware limitations of the Wii. The game's announcement was seen as something of a surprise because the company had largely been known for its licensed titles which had been marketed mainly to younger audiences. By the developer's own admission, many of these licensed games have received mediocre reviews in the gaming press. Eric Nofsinger, the development team's Chief Creative Officer (CCO), claimed that the company saw potential in the Wii early on, but noted that much of what has succeeded on the Wii so far has been family-oriented or Nintendo-promoted games. Nofsinger went on to say, "The other titles that have come out in that vein have been a bit lackluster. The games that have done well are the casual games so publishers see those as viable. We’re trying to do something that really hasn’t been done to its full extent to my knowledge." In October 2008 the developer confirmed that the game was at a pre-alpha state and the majority of development was being shifted to the multiplayer mode, and by March 2009 the game had reached the "post-beta" stage, with most work involving debugging and play-testing.

High Voltage Software launched a contest for user-created control configurations for The Conduit on September 18, 2008. One control scheme will be selected from the submissions and added to the game as a preset configuration, and the name of the configuration's creator will be noted in the credits.The contest ended with three winners being chosen; the results were announced by Lead Designer Rob Nicholls in a video overview of the game released on January 15, 2009.

The Wii MotionPlus attachment, revealed by Nintendo during E3 2008, was originally intended to be compatible with The Conduit, but the developer later decided against incorporating it due to unresolvable technical issues and the lack of features in the game that could take advantage of the accessory. Eric Nofsinger stated about the Wii MotionPlus that "We were really excited, going back and forth with Nintendo on how to integrate Wii MotionPlus and what the best use for it was. But when we actually implemented it, it really didn't bring that much to the table... But maybe for a future version we'll revisit Wii MotionPlus, and if we can build something around it that makes sense."

Storyline

The storyline for The Conduit was handled by High Voltage Software's staff, with unspecified assistance from author Matt Forbeck, and designed to focus on an underlying theme of conspiracy that would "propel the storyline and the Conduit universe." The location of Washington, D.C. was chosen as the game's setting for its iconic historical background and association with national and international politics, while the acts of terrorism that precede the main storyline were intended to provide a framework that would foreshadow the concept of betrayal for political gain throughout the game. Other elements of the game, such as secret underground passages spread throughout the city that are implied to have been built by the Trust, and the Trust organization itself, were also designed to evoke a sense of conspiracy. The developer drew inspiration for the story from the books The Sirius Mystery by Robert Temple and Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken, as well as the films Cloverfield and They Live, among other works.

The game is notable for the extreme focus on the game's visuals by High Voltage Software, using a Wii-specific engine called Quantum3. Upgrading the game engine, which had previously been used by the developer in several other titles, began in October 2007. This engine "allows the developer to create graphic effects normally seen on other consoles with vertex and pixel shaders." These effects include bump-mapping, reflection and refraction, light and shadow maps and projections, specular and Fresnel effects, missive and iridescent materials, advanced alpha blends, gloss and detail mapping, motion blur, interactive water with complex surface effects, and animated textures, among other things. The Quantum3 engine also includes advanced artificial intelligence, allowing for enemies in the game to possess "human-like behavior." According to Eric Nofsinger, "Our [High Voltage Software's] goal is to be the most technically innovative Wii developer on the planet."

High Voltage Software is currently aiming at a steady 30 frames per second frame rate with no flicker for the game. The development team had previously claimed that they had a goal of 60 frames per second, but in the end they decided that development time would be better spent on the game's other features and that it would run smoothly at 30 frames. Red Eye Studios, a subsidiary of the developer, is supplying motion captured animation for The Conduit.

During E3 2008, the developer debuted a playable demo of the game which consisted of the first half of a level included in the actual game and showed several of the Drudge enemies, as well as several different human and alien weapons. Environmental effects showcased in the demo included reflections in glass objects such as windows and the scope of the player's weapon, water effects, and textures.Following E3, High Voltage Software updated the Quantum3 engine with several new features, including a depth of field effect, heat distortion, and specularity. The developer also claimed it was working to increase the number of predefined death animations that occur when the player kills an enemy, so that each different enemy type would die differently depending on the weapon used against them. Also featured is a "color curve" system in which the screen colors desaturate progressively as the player takes damage, with the colours completely desaturating into black and white upon the player character's death.

Publisher

High Voltage Software began the development of The Conduit without a publisher. Soon after the game received a high amount of publicity, at least 10 companies expressed interest in publishing the game. The developer claimed that one of the reasons why many of its licensed games have generated poor reviews is because big publishers interfered with the game design process, and said that they wanted to do as much as they could with the game before getting a publisher. On October 2, 2008, during Nintendo's fall media summit, the developer's CCO Eric Nofsinger stated that although High Voltage Software had selected a publisher and had originally intended to reveal their choice during the conference, further legal matters had to be finalized and the publisher would not be officially announced until sometime later that month. According to Eric Nofsinger, the developer regards the game as the first in a potential franchise, and the chosen publisher was also open to the idea of creating a sequel to The Conduit. Nofsinger continued, "I think people are going to feel like they got their money’s worth with The Conduit, but we’ve got a big ol’ universe of stories that we want to tell."

The publisher was finally revealed to be Sega on October 29, 2008. Kerry Ganofsky, CEO and founder of High Voltage Software, stated "Sega shares our vision for the title and its tremendous potential, which is why we chose them from a long list of potential partners. With their support, we are confident that The Conduit will deliver the definitive shooter experience that Wii fans have been waiting for." The announcement came the day after Sega added a file folder for The Conduit to their file transfer protocol website, which sparked rumors that the publisher might have been set to support High Voltage Software's game.

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