German website Nintendo-Online published a new article today with speculation about a potential third team over at Nintendo EAD Tokyo. Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Super Mario 3D Land Koichi Hayashida director is said to be leading the new division. Assuming a third team exists, Nintendo-Online believes that Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was the first project.
The speculation stems from Captain Toad’s credits. EAD Tokyo 2 producer Yoshiaki Koizumi is not mentioned, pointing towards a new group. This is further supported by a Japanese interview with Hayashida earlier this year in which he implied that he had received a promotion to producer.
Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker launched in Japan a couple of days ago. Some players have already completed the game and accessed the game’s credits.
According to those very credits, roughly 75 people worked on Captain Toad. Most of the employees were also involved with Super Mario 3D World.
Mahito Yokota, who was the composer of the Mario Galaxy games, worked on Treasure Tracker’s soundtrack.
We also learn that Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker was co-developed by 1-UP Studio, which also helped develop Super Mario 3D Land/World.
Staff positions are sadly not listed in Captain Toad’s credits. However, we do know that Shinya Hiratake directed the title. Kenta Motokura may have also been a co-director. It’s also very possible that Koichi Hayashida acted as producer.
Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is not a very good game. There are tons of glitches, some of which are game-breaking. The gameplay itself isn’t engaging. You could probably point out a bunch of other issues as well.
What exactly happened with Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric? While no one can say for sure, perhaps at least some of the problems stemmed from the departure of employees.
Liam Robertson from research site Unseen64 stated on Twitter yesterday (based on LinkedIn findings) that a number of Big Red Button Entertainment left the studio in July. Additionally, the original producer for Rise of Lyric moved on from the company in September 2013. Other employees who left Big Red Button Entertainment include senior designers and artists, the project manager, production assists, and more.
TSSZ news points out that if the Big Red Button Entertainment staff departures took place in July, then that would be when Rise of Lyric was heading towards the end of development. On the other hand, some say that something happened between builds shown early in the year and the final game that shipped this week.
Shinya Hiratake is the director of Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker. It was many years ago that he thought about a game concept that would take place in a series of small diorama-like levels where the hero couldn’t jump. Players would move the camera around the diorama and guide the hero to the exit.
Who was the hero, you ask? Why, Link of course! Hiratake felt that if he removed the jumping mechanic from a platformer, he could greatly shrink a game’s levels. However, he believed that the concept wasn’t a fit for the Mario universe since most of those characters can jump. It was then that The Legend of Zelda’s Link came to mind.
