Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon mainly a project for Game Freak’s younger staff, more veterans for Pokemon Switch
Game Freak has a delicate balance going on at the moment. The studio is currently wrapping up Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon for 3DS. But as we found out at E3, Game Freak is also shifting towards Switch with its very first Switch project.
On the bright side, handling two big projects doesn’t seem to be an issue for the company. In an interview with GameSpot, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon producer Shigeru Ohmori noted how the latest 3DS games can be thought of “mainly as a project for our younger staff to work on and grow and develop their skills, while perhaps the more veteran, established members of the company can work on the upcoming [Switch] project.”
Ohmori explained:
“Of course we have a limited number of staff available to us, but we have a very varied staff within the company. We have younger staff members and also veterans who have been working on the series for a long time, very technically gifted staff members. We want to use these staff in the best way possible. For example this time with Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon we can treat it mainly as a project for our younger staff to work on and grow and develop their skills, while perhaps the more veteran, established members of the company can work on the upcoming [Switch] project.”
“That’s an approach we often take: having a growth-based project for younger staff members and then a new project for the existing veterans. Using this project management style ensures all of our projects have a positive effect on one another as they go.”
Ohmori did add that Shigeki Morimoto, who has been at Game Freak since Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue, is working on the battle system for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.
Director Kazumasa Iwao also noted the following:
“We always have veterans–really experienced people–involved on the quality control side of things, so we make sure the quality we expect and want to deliver with Pokemon is always there.”
