Tomodachi Life devs on westernizing the game, creating a different sense than Animal Crossing, more
CVG has published a new preview for Tomodachi Life. Sprinkled throughout are quotes from producer Yoshio Sakamoto and director Ryutaro Takahashi.
For quotes from the two, read on below. Also be sure to check out CVG’s full piece here.
Takahashi on westernizing Tomodachi…
“Our biggest focus was how we could make the Tomodachi feel like real Western people. We knew the dialogue, animation and many features of these characters needed to change drastically. The dialogue of the characters for example is not just simple translation from Japanese; we have reviewed it so that it feels more natural. Regarding animation of characters – how they walk, nod, shake hands etc – we have adjusted those gestures in detail so that they match each territory. We also put lots of effort in the culture. One example is currency, which is adjusted in all versions to local currency. We’ve adjusted the actual pricing of items in each country as well so that it matches the real-life value. Finally, we’ve adjusted the facilities and locations that the Tomodachi can visit and also the seasonal events so that they will match the actual territories.”
Sakamoto on the game’s origins…
“Development began when we started thinking about if it was possible to make a DS game which players could not only enjoy inside of the game, but one which could also trigger communication outside of it. Eventually we came up with a simple tool that users could use to make portraits of themselves or other people. When we presented this tool to Mr. Iwata and Mr. Miyamoto, they felt that it would work very nicely with a new platform, so it evolved into the Mii Channel that was implemented on the Wii.”
– His team was pleased to see its small concept take on such a big role
– It ultimately did not achieve their ultimate goal, which was to create a game that could trigger social interaction between 3DS users, even when they weren’t playing
– Sakamoto needed to take the Mii concept further
– After Mii Maker launched with Wii, Nintendo’s internal team (SPD Group 1) began experimenting with how it could inject more personality into its avatars, assigning each character with their own unique characteristics so that they could act and move of their own accord
“One day one of our developers came up with a way to make them speak. We found that a speaking Mii character was far more attractive than one that did not.”
“By turning Miis into something that felt alive, we found we were able to achieve the goal we were originally aiming for, entertainment which is fun just by watching, and also having the actions of those Mii characters become a social topic.”
Sakamoto on how populating the game with Miis you know leads to a more compelling experience…
“I believe Tomodachi are completely different from the Miis of Mii Studio. They freely move around with their own will, and independently build relationships. They get hungry, have fights, catch colds and even fall in love. To players, the Tomodachi are alter egos of their friends and family, so their problems become serious issues for players. In order to have players feel the core of Tomodachi today, we needed to have Mr. Iwata, Mr. Aonuma and Mr. Miyamoto play a role in the Nintendo Direct preview – people consumers are familiar with. The actions of Tomodachi based on friends and family stimulates your imagination and brings empathy. If your Tomodachi were based on unknown people, the experience would be less appealing.”
Sakamoto n the game’s quirky nature…
“By putting the Tomodachi in unrealistic incidents, it made the Mii characters more funny. Many members of the team came up with wacky concepts – and maybe there are some actual dreams reflected in these sequences – but to be honest, dreams were the easiest way to implement the funny ideas.”
Sakamoto on avoiding Animal Crossing…
“Although the directions of the games are similar, we didn’t receive any influence of input from Animal Crossing. Rather, we intentionally tried to remove their ideas from our heads when developing Tomodachi Life.”
“We’re not saying we do not want to become like Animal Crossing, but we wanted to create a very different sense from that game. If we couldn’t do that, I think our original concept would have become vague or deluded. So I told Takahashi-san when developing the game that we should try not to think about or look at Animal Crossing.”
Final words from Sakamoto…
“I honestly do not know if Tomodachi Life can be similarly accepted overseas, however I believe that the emotion of caring for and loving others is universal. There are many crazy elements in the game, but I hope that after looking deeper at the core of the entertainment, the way you feel towards it has changed. In Japan, Tomodachi Life was played by a huge number of people and made a lot of them very happy. I hope that we can make many more people happy, not just in Japan but also in Europe and America.”
