Game Freak wants to bring Rhythm Hunter overseas, smaller projects, more
Game Freak’s new 3DS eShop game, Rhythm Hunter HarmoKnight, has a good shot at releasing on the North American and European eShops. Producer Junichi Masuda told IGN that the studio is working with Nintendo to see how it could be localized.
“In terms of a North American or European release, it’s definitely something we’d like to do, but we’re working out the details with Nintendo now and seeing what would be the best way to get that to players.”
Masuda was able to reconfirm that the idea for HarmoKnight was created by British designer James Turner, who has been working with a team of 25 staffers on the project.
As far as how that was able to take place at Game Freak, Masuda explained:
“Within Game Freak, we’ve implemented a kind of new system where employees can come up with original ideas for their games. If they can find at least three co-workers to jump on the project and say they want to do it together, then they’ll be able to proceed with that project.”
Game Freak’s policy works in two ways. Not only does it spawn brand new creations, it also causes the Pokemon series to rise in quality.
“One of the nice things about smaller projects like that is… since it’s a project that you really wanted to do, you’ve kind of signed on to do that project. You’re really interested in it. There’s also very few people and a short schedule, so everyone has to work on multiple aspects that they might not normally work with. So by doing that, you really build up experience, which translates back into the Pokémon games.”
