WayForward
| WayForward | |
 |
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| Founded | 1990-03-?? |
| Headquarters | Valencia, Santa Clarita, California, U.S. |
| Website | wayforward.com |
WayForward Technologies, Inc. is an American independent video game developer and publisher based in Valencia, California. Founded in March 1990 by technology entrepreneur Voldi Way, WayForward started by developing games for consoles such as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis, as well as TV games and PC educational software. In 1997, they relaunched their video games arm, placing the company as a contractor for publishers and working on a variety of licensed assets.
The company has created a variety of original game properties such as their flagship Shantae series, including the first title in the series which appeared on the Game Boy Color and was published by Capcom. WayForward Technologies has worked on games for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita handheld consoles, WiiWare games for Nintendo's Wii and Wii U, Nintendo Switch consoles and games for personal computer and mobile phones.
Some staff founded Yacht Club Games.
Contents
Games
Music Development
Sega Genesis
On Baby's Day Out and Mickey's Ultimate Challenge, Bill Bogenreif and Voldi Way used GEMS.
Super Nintendo
On Mickey's Ultimate Challenge, Voldi Way used modified version of Kankichi-kun sound driver by Chip Level Designs.
Game Boy/Game Boy Color
Their earlier Game Boy games uses sound driver by Designer Software.
Starting from 2000s, the composers of company used MusyX, a sound tool by Factor 5.
Shantae
In 2000, the sound was developed using the MusyX audio tools by Factor 5. According to game programmer Jimmy Huey, the music for early prototype was composed by game tester John Wasiel. He wrote three songs, which, unfortunately, were not used in prototype. Later, they chose to switch during development. The soundtrack featured about 20 songs at the time, and was composed by Jake Kaufman. Kaufman ultimately used the Paragon 5 GameBoy Tracker to create the music. Paragon 5's CEO, Paul Bragiel, served as music producer, and Stéphane Hockenhull performed music replay.
Game Boy Advance
On their early titles, Jake Kaufman used GBASS sound driver by Paragon 5.
On Rescue Heroes: Billy Blazes, John Wasiel used MusyX, a sound tool by Factor 5.
Later, audio was outsourced to Shin'en Multimedia. Martin Schioeler converted his music files to GAX sound driver, which developed by Bernhard Wodok.
On their last GBA game Shantae Advance: Risky Revolution, Maddie Lim used Nintendo's MP2K sound driver. She also composed 8-bit tunes using FamiTracker.
Nintendo DS
They early titles used Shin'en Multimedia's DSX sound engine by Bernhard Wodok.
Starting from 2007, composers used modified version of Intelligent Systems' Nitro Composer sound driver, which programmed by in-house programmer Jonathan Rucker.
On their last games, original music recordings was converted as RAW data.
Audio Personnel
These composers were internally contracted:
- Bill Bogenreif
- Brandon Amison
- Jake Kaufman
- John Wasiel
- Jonathan Rucker - Programmer of DS sound driver.
- Maddie Lim
- Megan McDuffee
- Mitchell Sigman
- Ron Sures
- Tommy Pedrini
- Voldi Way
These people were sub-contracted via Paragon Five:
- Paul Bragiel - Music producer.
- Stéphane Hockenhull - Sound driver provider.
These people were sub-contracted via Shin'en Multimedia:
- Bernhard Wodok - Sound driver provider.
- Manfred Linzner
- Martin Schioeler
These composers and providers were contracted externally:
- Adam DiTroia
- Benjamin Allen
- Dale North
- Daniel Sadowski
- Eirik Suhrke
- Gavin Allen
- Harumi Fujita
- Ian Stocker
- Jim B-Reay
- Keiji Yamagishi
- Kentaro Sakamoto
- Levan Iordanishvili
- Mark Sparling
- Niamh Houston
- Rom Di Prisco
- Stephen Geering
- Steven Velema
- Tim Davies
Logo History
1990-1998 logo.
1998-2004 logo.
Current logo.
