Nintendo of America boss on crunch, not pressuring teams
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 0 comments
Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has again commented on crunch, and reconfirmed that the company doesn’t pressure its teams to meet a certain deadline.
Bowser was asked about the subject in a recent interview with Inverse. The site brought up the recent news topic about how the Super Mario Bros. Wonder development team wasn’t given a deadline during its prototype stage.
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder devs took inspiration from how 3D Mario games are made
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
In Nintendo’s latest interview for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, the team spoke about taking inspiration from how 3D Mario games are made.
Producer Takashi Tezuka spoke about a “crisis” as the project began stemming from the thought that 2D Mario games might be too tough for some to complete. Tezuka said the team “started to think about what we could do to make players want to advance”. This led to Nintendo considering more freedom and using 3D Mario titles “as a reference point”, according to designer Koichi Hayashida.
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder originally had live commentary with optional Tsundere version
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
The developers behind Super Mario Bros. Wonder have revealed that the game originally had live commentary, and players would be able to choose between a “generic” voice or a Tsundere version. That news was shared in an official interview that went up today.
Game designer Koichi Hayashida said that Nintendo spent around six months of serious development on the concept. During the game, players would be able to hear voices that matched their actions. But the idea ultimately didn’t feel right to the team and there would have been a lot of work involved for voice variations. The original concept was scrapped, but the idea lives on with the Talking Flowers.
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder devs on how the Rolla Koopas came to be
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
The developers behind Super Mario Bros. Wonder have opened up about the origins of the Rolla Koopas. This comes from Nintendo’s new interview that went out today.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder features a number of new enemies, and Rolla Koopas are a new take on the classic foe. Koichi Hayashida, one of the main game designers, mentioned how during the making of Super Mario World, the developers talked about changing up the look of the Koopa Troopas. That’s something the current Super Mario Bros. Wonder team tried again. Art director Masanobu Sato said “one of the designers came up with the idea of making the Koopa Troopas roll around on roller skates” – and you can check out some concept art above.
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder joints and animations have more than doubled in number since last game
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Super Mario Bros. Wonder has more expressive animations than ever before, and the team has spoken more about that in a new interview published today.
Designer Koichi Hayashida revealed that ” joints and animations have more than doubled in number since the previous title.” This is ultimately what made more expressive movements possible.
One issue during development concerned characters turning towards the player to show their expressions. As art director Masanobu Sato put it: “if we set Mario’s nose to face the direction of travel, like we used to, with a modern 3D model, you wouldn’t be able to see his facial expressions.” The team “had to find the right balance to make it easy for players to see both the character’s expressions and where they’re headed.”
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Super Mario Bros. Wonder devs on Mario Maker 2 motivation and new engine
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
The team behind Super Mario Bros. Wonder has discussed being motivated by the reception to Super Mario Maker 2 as well as making a brand new engine for the game.
In an official Nintendo interview today, producer Takashi Tezuka noted how some felt that Mario Maker 2 “had eliminated the need for another 2D Mario game.” He added that “those kinds of sentiments may have been what motivated me to come up with ideas for this game.”
Right after that in the interview, Koichi Hayashida – who worked on game design – mentioned how director Shiro Mouri pushed for “a new game engine that would serve as a foundation for future 2D Mario games.” This was in part possible because the team wasn’t forced to rush for a deadline.
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Sonic Superstars producer on close launch to Mario Wonder and differences between the series
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Sonic Superstars producer Takashi Iizuka has weighed in on the game’s close launch to Super Mario Bros. Wonder. In an interview with Automaton, he said that he was “surprised” that the two were releasing just a few days apart from each other.
Iizuka was asked about differences between the two franchises, and noted that they “are enjoyable in different ways.” He also sounded appreciative of the fans that have supported Sonic over the past few decades.
Our full translation reads:
Nintendo says 2D Mario is in “a new phase” with Super Mario Bros. Wonder, but unsure what will come next
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a big milestone for a number of reasons. For one thing, it’s the first side-scrolling entry in the series in over a decade. And after four New Super Mario Bros. titles, Nintendo is finally going in a new direction.
Game Informer recently asked Super Mario Bros. Wonder producer Takashi Tezuka about the future, though he was noncommittal on the game leading to more releases like it in the future similar to what we saw from New Super Mario Bros. At the same time, he mentioned how it’s “a new phase”.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom director on what happened to the Sheikah tech from Breath of the Wild
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom builds on the mechanics and world of Breath of the Wild, but there are some elements that are absent such as the Sheikah Towers and Guardians. In their place are things like the Skyview Towers and new types of enemies we didn’t see in the previous title. But what happened to the Sheikah tech in Breath of the Wild anyway?
Hidemaro Fujibayashi, who was the director on Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, offered up an explanation in an interview with The Telegraph. He explained that the Sheikah technology simply disappeared – which the people of Hyrule apparently saw. However, Fujibayashi said “it is considered a mystery.”
Nintendo on giving Super Mario Bros. Wonder devs more freedom
Posted on 6 months ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 0 comments
One of the big concepts we’ve been hearing about with Super Mario Bros. Wonder is player freedom. However, it turns out that this applied to the actual development as well.
Speaking with Rolling Stone, producer Takashi Tezuka said that this time around, they “really wanted to give the designers more freedom than we would have in the past.”
