Animal Crossing devs on New Leaf’s diverse team and more

Wired has published a new wave of quotes from Animal Crossing: New Leaf producer Katsuya Eguchi and director Aya Kyogoku. Most of the comments pertain to the team working on the 3DS game, though there are also a few more general topics, such as the possibility of letting players change their skin tone in the future.

Check out Wired’s article in full (it’s quite interesting!) here. For comments rounded up from Eguchi and Kyogoku, read on below.

Kyogoku on working with a team made up of half men and half women…

“When I first started [at Nintendo], it wasn’t uncommon to be the only woman on the entire team.”

“Having worked on this team where there were almost equal numbers of men and women made me realize that [diversity] can open you up to hearing a greater variety of ideas and sharing a greater diversity of ideas. Only after having working on a project like this, with a team like this one, was I able to realize this.”

“In my years at Nintendo, I have come to discover that when there are women in a variety of roles on the project, you get a wider [range] of ideas.”

Eguchi on the team working on New Leaf…

“We wanted to make sure that the content allowed all the players to express their individuality, that it is was something men and women of all ages would enjoy. So in order to view the project from a variety of perspectives, we made sure the team was made up of people from various backgrounds and life experiences.”

Eguchi on how diversity can be useful in game development in ways that extend beyond gender…

“My experience has been that when you bring people in with a variety of interests beyond just games, that opens you up for the possibility of discovering new ways of playing and new experiences to provide to our users… possibilities for exploration beyond just ‘I want to make games.’”

Kyogoku on whether future Animal Crossings might allow users to change their skin tone…

“(We wanted the game to be accessible to players worldwide and allow them) to represent and express their individuality, so there are a variety of things we are planning on doing to facilitate that in the future.”

Eguchi’s closing thoughts on the team’s diversity…

“In hindsight, seeing how diverse the users and fans of New Leaf are, I feel we have taken the correct approach.”