katsuya-eguchi
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Animal Crossing devs talk building a second home for the world
Crafting fun out of the everyday is the charm of the Animal Crossing series - its towns entice players to eagerly return on a daily basis, despite already having to juggle reality's laundry list of obligations. Chatting with neighbors, paying off mortgages, tending the garden - these are the mundane activities that form the endearing heart of Animal Crossing, charmingly reflecting our real-life concerns. The concept of players making themselves at home aligns with series creator Katsuya Eguchi's vision for the original Nintendo 64 game - his team was less concerned with making a game and more focused on making a second place to live. We spoke with Eguchi and Animal Crossing: New Leaf Director Aya Kyogoku at GDC, through a translator, about their vision for the franchise and how they hope to offer a secondary home for its player base.
Animal Crossing creator open to the idea of AC-themed mobile apps
With many companies pursuing mobile counterparts for established series, even monstrously-long JRPGs like Final Fantasy 6, we asked Animal Crossing series creator Katsuya Eguchi, through a translator, if there was any hesitation to do the same for Animal Crossing. After all, the relaxed nature of checking in with villagers and tending a town feels well-suited for a mobile device, especially in comparison to braving a 15-minute JRPG boss battle. Eguchi reaffirmed the series' home on Nintendo hardware, pointing out that while some may enjoy Animal Crossing in short spurts, there are many that spend the time to meticulously organize their towns, down to the location of each and every flower. He also feels that the 3DS' inputs lend themselves to that style of gameplay better than the existing options on smartphones. With that said, Eguchi did express interest in leveraging mobile devices in a way that could bring fans back to their primary Animal Crossing experience. He offered examples of hypothetical apps that would let you create clothing designs on the go, or serve as reminders of appointments made to hang out with the villagers in their town. Eguchi seems open to the idea of working with mobile devices, provided it's something that would inspire players to return to the central Animal Crossing experience more often. [Image: Nintendo]
Tom Nook goes to the mayor in Animal Crossing 3DS
This Animal Crossing 3DS developer roundtable is appropriately mellow for a game about hanging out in a quiet village. Producer Katsuya Eguchi speaks to pastel-clad members of the development team, presented with cute forest borders on the screen and set to some sweet music. How placid! The developers answer questions from fans, revealing a bit of news in the process. Right away, director Aya Kyogoku reveals that you'll become the mayor of your village, ousting the despotic Tortimer. "As mayor, you can develop your village," Kyogoku said. "Well, you also don't have to." You'll have a secretary to help you conduct mayoral business. Also new to the series: pants! You can customize your (now taller) character's shirt and pants, doubling the selection of clothing items you'll have to spend years playing to complete. Female characters can wear pants, and male characters can wear skirts. Along with reevaluating the main character designs, the village's animal inhabitants have also been redesigned. The smaller species (like squirrels) are now noticeably shorter than the taller ones. Other new features include StreetPass house designs, which you can share with anyone you happen to be near. They appear in others' games as model homes, watched over by a real estate agent ... Tom Nook. Stay tuned until the end for a live performance of a new song by the "real" K.K. Slider, composer Kazumi Totaka.
Iwata Asks the Mario team about the series
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Super Mario Bros., and the release of Super Mario All-Stars: Limited Edition, Satoru Iwata has gathered up more members of the Mario team for another round of questioning. The developers probed include Katsuya Eguchi, who joined the team in 1986, and Super Mario Galaxy director Yoshiaki Koizumi, who didn't join until 1991. As always, Iwata proves an expert interrogator, drawing neat information out of his employees. For example, New Super Mario Bros. on DS was originally conceived as a fifth game in the GBA's Super Mario Advance series. "After we released Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3," says Hiroyuki Kimura, "people were asking if a '5' in the series would be released. That's right when the Nintendo DS system came out, which was perfect timing, so I thought if we're gonna make it, it should be a new title." Additionally, Koizumi describes the experience of working with Miyamoto on Super Mario 64, which Miyamoto directed himself. While Koizumi expected written instructions, instead he got, well ... "it was just Miyamoto-san and me in the office, and he starts showing me how Mario is supposed to swim while saying, 'It's not really a breast stroke, and not a crawl, but something like this maybe...?' And he was completely sprawled out on the desk doing these swimming motions." This is the part where you laugh, perhaps nervously.
Wii Sports Resort: The lost games
In an email interview with Wired, Wii Sports Resort producer Katsuya Eguchi revealed that, beyond the twelve events included in the final game, even more were planned that didn't quite make it in the game."We considered fishing and a water slide activity before deciding on the final twelve events," Eguchi said. We're having a hard time imagining a controllable, skill-based water slide game, which may have been one reason it didn't end up in Resort. "As for more unconventional concepts, we created a pretty fun prototype of kendama, a traditional Japanese toy, that just didn't fit the game's theme." So, a toy didn't fit the "resort" theme, but fighting with fake swords was completely appropriate? Working at Nintendo is complicated.
E308: Animal Crossing: City Folk confirmed [Update 2: First screens and date!]
Katsuya Eguchi's happy face just popped up on the giant screens at Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference to tell us that -- quelle surprise! -- Animal Crossing will be heading to the Wii this year, along with WiFi connectivity and voice chat.Animal Crossing: City Folk's WiFi capabilities will allow players to exchange letters and pictures, bid on (and sell) items at a special in-game auction site, and check out the status of other players at the Happy Room Academy. There's also an option to slap a mask of your Mii on your avatar, and a bigger city area to scope around. But it's the "community microphone" feature -- known as "WiiSpeak" -- that will really grab headlines.[Update 1: First screens in our gallery below][Update 2: Nintendo reckons we can expect this in the U.S. on November 16th! (thanks, Alvin)]%Gallery-27704%
