Yoshi’s Woolly World devs on amiibo, why the yarn style was revisited, more
Now that Yoshi’s Woolly World has arrived in Europe, Nintendo Life was able to quiz a couple of the game’s developers on a few different subjects. Nintendo producer Takashi Tezuka and Good-Feel executive producer Etsunobu Ebisu discussed topics such as the Yarn Yoshi amiibo and amiibo functionality in the game itself, why the team decided to revisit the yarn style (they even have additional ideas!), and more.
Read up on some excerpts from the interview below. Those that are interested can find the full talk here.
On how environments in the game move and soften under Yoshi’s weight…
Etsunobu Ebisu: We actually put a lot of effort into getting the look of the yarn just right, and capture the subtle details of the threads. On top of this, we made it react just like you would expect if you could touch them, as you can see with the environments gently bending under Yoshi’s weight. We wanted players to really feel like Yoshi was in contact with yarn, so some objects needed to react differently from others. This involved a lot of computation, so we needed to find ways to optimise that too.
On how the use of Yoshi and his capabilities inspire ideas for Yoshi’s Woolly World…
Takashi Tezuka: We came up with a multitude of ideas by imagining what might happen if Yoshi lived in a world made of wool. Having this clear artistic vision of a world made of wool (with everything being soft, and made from knitted yarn) kept everyone on the development team on the same page, making it easier to come up with ideas that worked.
On Yoshi’s transformations…
Takashi Tezuka: With platform games, it is difficult to maintain a high level of tension for a long time. Including a time limit in these transformation areas gives us a chance to change up the pace of the game. Having something different like this gives players a break from the normal gameplay, and they can start the next level feeling refreshed.
On the Yarn Yoshi amiibo…
Takashi Tezuka: We didn’t have any experience in making woollen toys, and a very large number of them needed to be made, so the woollen Yoshi amiibo project was filled with lots of new experiences for us. We put in a lot of hard work, so I was really moved when I got to see a sample for the first time.
Users all have different tastes, so we created three different colour variations. We wanted to create something that might even interest people who prefer the figurines. This way they can choose the colour they like best.
On how the team came up with the amiibo functionality…
Etsunobu Ebisu: In Yoshi’s Woolly World, Yoshi is made from wool, so right from the beginning we imagined having lots of different Yoshis made using different coloured wools.
It was a natural step to have amiibo add Yoshis with different colour patterns into the game. As for the Yoshi amiibo themselves, since this is a Yoshi game we wanted to do something nice, and give users a fun surprise, so we decided to make the Yoshi amiibo actually appear in the game.
On what about the concept of “yarn” styles has Good-Feel coming back to it…
Etsunobu Ebisu: Yarn can be used to make all kinds of different things, and the items themselves seem to take on a warmer and more adorable feel. This even extends to the gameplay too, and allows us to introduce fun new mechanics. This is what makes using yarn so much fun. The first game we made using yarn was in 2D, while for Yoshi’s Woolly World we have migrated to 3D models. Saying that though, we still have lots more ideas to explore.
