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StarTopic Nintendo First Party Software Development |ST| Nintendo Party Superstars

Reader mode
nenned said:
I believe it was the Suzak-developed F-Zero games for the GBA (GP Legend and Climax) that tanked the series. GX had decent (but not great) sales, at least in the US.
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Hmm, maybe. They'd work with Suzak one last time on Wario: Master of Disguise on DS however.
 
nenned said:
Right, but F-Zero went on it's hiatus after Climax in 2004.
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I guess Nintendo didn't blame them for their F-Zero failures then?

I didn't hear great things about Master of Disguise either, but I felt like Suzak may have had potential. Shame they went belly up not long after.
 
Dark Cloud said:
Still waiting on EPD 8 and EPD 9 to announce their games.
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I'm more eager for those two than anything else.
The two have gone radio silent as far as non-ports and non-mobile games heavily assisted go.
The two were the most prolific Nintendo AAA studios that had steady releases every 3 years of even less.
Mario Kart 8 was EPD 9's first HD game, it's gameplay and graphics holds up to this day, is packed with content, and was impressively made in less than 2.5 years(!!!).
Super Mario Odyssey released four years after 3D and probably had about 3.5 years of dev time.
By holiday 2022 it'll be 5 years since Odyssey, and by mid 2022 it'll be 5 years since ARMS.
Such a gap between new 3D Mario's hasn't happened ever since Sunshine-Galaxy.
It's true that development in the Switch era is way longer than it was before. Hell, even compared to early Switch: Zelda BotW had four years of development, having to get everything from scratch, having problems with the physics engine, being the first 3D game and first open world. Its sequel that already has the physics engine and map done is gonna take 5 years approximately (assuming it's been in development since DLC wrapped up and releases late 2022).
That just makes me wonder how ambitious the next Mario Kart is gonna be. I don't see much room as 2022 is already super packed, so I think it's coming in 2023.
The same can be said about the next 3D Mario. I think Odyssey sequel will actually be the dream game and be way bigger than the original. I'm confident in it releasing next year to promote the movie. Also I expect that the DK game they're supposedly making will be another masterpiece.
Damn 2022 seems more and more like not only 2017 part two but actually an even better 2017 as the sequels are looking even more ambitious than the games that came first.
 
I have every confidence we’ll get another F-Zero at some point. Just this year we got a revitalization of Famicom Detective Club. It’s only a matter of time.

You wanna talk deader than dead franchises? Poor Eternal Darkness.
 
Hero of Legend said:
Nintendo supposedly (or was it debunked) attempted to get Criterion on one for Wii U but they declined.
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www.nintendolife.com

Criterion Games Founder Says Nintendo Never Asked The Studio To Make A New F-Zero

"Oh, here we go"
www.nintendolife.com www.nintendolife.com

Funnily, the original story by Liam Roberts makes it sound like it was actually much more than that. Guess we'll never know.

edit: on the topic of Eternal Darkness, I think it's extremely unlikely that Nintendo will ever touch the franchise again. They tend to follow the people, like how they got AlphaDream, who consisted of Fujioka and other Super Mario RPG staff, to work on Mario & Luigi or how they specifically sought out NLG for Mario Strikers because many of the staff had worked on Sega Soccer Slam at EA Black Box before. And the way Dennis Dyack and Ken McCulloch (credited for Art Direction & Content Supervisor in Eternal Darkness, seemingly also involved in the writing) went after the demise of Silicon Knights...
 
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Marce-chan said:
I'm more eager for those two than anything else.
The two have gone radio silent as far as non-ports and non-mobile games heavily assisted go.
The two were the most prolific Nintendo AAA studios that had steady releases every 3 years of even less.
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Worth remembering that EPD Groups are not studios (well, EPD Tokyo in its isolated bubble kinda is), just a few leads who gather their remaining teams from the entire EPD pool.

Rowsdower said:
You wanna talk deader than dead franchises? Poor Eternal Darkness.
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I wouldn't consider this a "franchise" tbh :p

As cool as the idea was, it's a one-and-done deal. They've shown they had no interest in Dyack's attempt to make a new game which led to the "we can't use the name but it's exactly the same type of game" crowdfunding project (what was it called? Shadow of the Eternals or something?). The same exact way we'll never see Geist 2.
 
Hero of Legend said:
I guess Nintendo didn't blame them for their F-Zero failures then?

I didn't hear great things about Master of Disguise either, but I felt like Suzak may have had potential. Shame they went belly up not long after.
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Guess not. Although they stopped partnering with Suzak after Master of Disguise. But, F-Zero Climax absolutely tanked hard. Probably didn't help that it released in Japan only, but its sales were dire.
 
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Not sure if I'll post here that often (I don't really post much anywhere these days), but I was looking through some of the EPD directors (excluding external R&D) that we haven't seen in a while:

Hidemaro Fujibayashi - Confirmed for BotW 2.

Tsubasa Sakaguchi - Last known work was Labo. He might have worked on Game Builder Garage, but it wasn’t as director (unless he’s been promoted).

Hiroshi Matsunaga - Last known work was Ring Fit Adventure. Given the success of the game, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get an expanded version (a la Wii Fit Plus) or a full-on sequel in the near future.

Kenta Kubo - I guess he counts as Brain Training was a collaboration with indieszero instead of just being outsourced. Might be a one-off director, hard to tell. Brain Training and Big Brain Academy are not handled by the same production groups and never have been. Expect Brain vs. Brain to be an EPD 10 project.

Hiromasa Shikata - Last known work was 1-2-Switch. I don’t know if we ever get confirmation that he became an official project lead in EPD 4.

Yusuke Amano - Almost definitely the director for Splatoon 3, if he hasn’t been promoted to co-producer.

Ryutaro Takahashi - Was last credited in Miitomo which has been dead for over three years. He’s not the only Tomodachi lead who’s been absent for a while. I think it’s only a matter of time until we see something from them. Similar to the Brain Training vs BBA comparisons, Tomodachi and Miitopia shouldn't be put under the same umbrella. Miitopia is handled by EPD 4 and has honestly more in common with Find Mii/StreetPass Quest on the 3DS.

Masami Yone - Was credited in Brain Training Switch (in an unknown capacity) for….some reason? He was the sound director for the original game on DS, but there were other sound staff credited like Minako Hamano who I imagine would have been supervising. Maybe it’s because the project began by porting the original game to Switch? Anyway, the assistant director and programming director for Rhythm Heaven Megamix have been uncredited since that game, with the latter being listed under “special thanks” in Brain Training.

Kenta Motokura - Working on the next big project from EPD 8. He was also a producer for 3D All-Stars and presumably 3D World + Bowser’s Fury. The Tokyo office was hiring for both a 3D and 2D Action Game back in Late 2019 and Summer 2020, respectively. It’s unknown if the 3D game was just Bowser’s Fury.

Shiro Mouri - Last known work was NSMBU Deluxe, while also providing development support for Mario Maker 2. The Kyoto office was hiring for a new 2D Action Game back in Late 2019, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s leading that project. It’s currently unknown if this is the same game mentioned above.

Yuji Kando - Recently credited in Pikmin 3 Deluxe as Chief Director, which was his first substantial credit since the original release on Wii U. Though it should be noted that the port was mostly outsourced to Eighting. With Shigefumi Hino moving onto Mario Maker after Pikmin 3, Kando is likely in charge of Pikmin 4. We’ve heard rumblings of the game getting a reboot at some point, which may explain the large gap.

Not even going to bother with EPD 9 (Mario Kart, ARMS, etc.), as the director situation isn’t really clear right now.

I should also mention that Mario Maker series director Yosuke Oshino left Nintendo shortly after the release of Mario Maker 2 to join The Pokemon Company, so who knows what’s happening with that series.
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N75 said:
Not sure if I'll post here that often (I don't really post much anywhere these days), but I was looking through some of the EPD directors (excluding external R&D) that we haven't seen in a while:
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A good reminder of what happens at Nintendo R&D, by way of Takaya Imamura's retirement interview(s), is that a lot of staff work on projects that never see the light of day. Imamura himself worked on many that were never made public and says he was fortunate to be part of the few that were.

* We have BOTW2 and SPLAT 3 announced.
* We still have DLC for MK Tour and AC
* There's definitely a 2D and 3D game coming.. most likely different Mario projects.
* There's definitely a Mario Kart game coming..
* There's probably a Rhyhtm Tengoku game coming
* There's probably a Tomodachi game coming
* There's probably a Ring Fit Sequel coming
* There are definitely other projects being worked on that may or may not release.
 
Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?
 
FossilPhantom said:
Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?
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It's hard to say 100% whether Kyoto and Tokyo were hiring for separate 2D projects, or the same project.
 
FossilPhantom said:
Is it known if the 2D hiring listings specifically mentioned both Kyoto and Tokyo? Or was it just a general 2D hiring? For example, do we think that these listing were for a potential 2D Donkey Kong in Tokyo and a 2D Mario in Kyoto that are both concurrently in active development? Or is it more likely they were all referring to one project?
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the kyoto hiring was posted 1.5 year before the tokyo one,probably they are different projects
 
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EAD Ninja said:
A good reminder of what happens at Nintendo R&D, by way of Takaya Imamura's retirement interview(s), is that a lot of staff work on projects that never see the light of day. Imamura himself worked on many that were never made public and says he was fortunate to be part of the few that were.

* We have BOTW2 and SPLAT 3 announced.
* We still have DLC for MK Tour and AC
* There's definitely a 2D and 3D game coming.. most likely different Mario projects.
* There's definitely a Mario Kart game coming..
* There's probably a Rhyhtm Tengoku game coming
* There's probably a Tomodachi game coming
* There's probably a Ring Fit Sequel coming
* There are definitely other projects being worked on that may or may not release.
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The ones I'm more excited for and waiting for reveal are the Ring Fit sequel, the next Mario Kart, and presumably the next 3D Mario and 2D Donkey Kong by EPD Tokyo.
I also wonder when they'd release. I'm thinking the next 3D Mario might release next year to promote and take advantage of the film, with DK coming that year as well. Ring Fit can come next year too. I don't see Mario Kart releasing next year anymore, but maybe early 2023.
 
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What is the source of that DK rumor anyhow? Is that even coming from a somewhat reliable place?
 
TheMoon said:
What is the source of that DK rumor anyhow? Is that even coming from a somewhat reliable place?
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DK Vine claimed to have insider info and were the main proponents of it, long before the media picked it up. When it blew up, they did a (very long) podcast about it:

 
Miraj said:
DK Vine claimed to have insider info and were the main proponents of it, long before the media picked it up. When it blew up, they did a (very long) podcast about it:

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Ah thanks!

Back on the "call me when a reliable source corroborates this" pile it goes :D
 
I’m pretty sure that Nate hinted in Era a few months ago that there’s definitely an Odyssey 2 (or similar) in development
 
I'm still hoping something will come from Emily's suggestion that Nintendo was prototyping Star Fox. Also hoping that someday Koei-Tecmo will revisit that Lylat Warriors pitch that Laura Kate Dale reported on.
 
I feel like speculation that EPD 8 was making a DK game only started when that 2D job post went up last August. So maybe they just jumped on that.
 
maidhhc said:
I’m pretty sure that Nate hinted in Era a few months ago that there’s definitely an Odyssey 2 (or similar) in development
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Nothing against Nate but ... anyone could tell you that and they'd be right.
N75 said:
I feel like speculation that EPD 8 was making a DK game only started when that 2D job post went up last August. So maybe they just jumped on that.
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That is basically what I take from this. EPD Tokyo does 2D job listing + we know Retro is doing Metroid Prime and not another DKC and EPD Tokyo made DK before ...so they are making DK again. Feels like simple speculation math not worth taking too seriously at this point.
 
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A friend of mine made a shitpost on discord back in February that Bowser's Fury was the leftover concepts of a canceled EPD8 game. I blew it off at first, but I sometimes wonder if there's more history behind it than we know. To the best of my knowledge, Nintendo never had any interview on how Bowser's Fury came to be.
 
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Great thread with a lot of amazing info. Thanks a lot!
 
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Do we know what Hiromasa Shikata is doing these days? I think the last thing we know he worked on was 1-2-Switch. It's been a while.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Do we know what Hiromasa Shikata is doing these days? I think the last thing we know he worked on was 1-2-Switch. It's been a while.
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Nope but, we never got credits on Labo and Game Builder Garage so he could have been a planner on one of those. We only know about 1-2 Switch because of a Nintendo recruitment post featuring him alongside 1-2 Switch
 
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Bringing over this post about HAL that I made in the Era thread a few months ago.


HAL Producers :
  • Tadashi Kamitake - Mainline Kirby/Expanded Kirby Subgames/Picross 3D (?) (succeeded Satoshi Mitsuhara, who also used to produce BoxBoy)
  • Hiroyuki Hayashi - Kirby Spinoffs (previously Programming Director, possibly succeeded Shigefumi Kawase)
  • Yasuhiro Mukae - BoxBoy (was previously the series director up to Bye-Bye BoxBoy)
  • Yoshiya Taniguchi - Part Time UFO (series was previously under Shigefumi Kawase)
HAL Project Managers:
  • Yoshihiro Nagata - Mainline Kirby (possibly succeeded Tetsuya Abe)
  • Yoshiki Suzuki - Expanded Kirby Subgames
  • Isao Takahashi - Expanded Kirby Subgames (also Assistant Producer on BoxBoy)
  • Kazuyuki Nakamura - BoxBoy
  • Kojiro Ooki - Part Time UFO (Switch) (possibly succeeded Eitaro Nakamura)
  • Eitaro Nakamura (?) - Part Time UFO (Mobile)
  • Teruyuki Gunji (?) - Picross 3D (?)
Shinya Kumazaki has been listed as General Director on the last few Kirby titles, so he'll probably oversee most, if not all of them. There's also no project manager credited for spinoffs like Rainbow Curse and Battle Royale.
 
jeelybeans said:
I really want the Donkey Kong rumor to be true because I want to see what a different team could do with Donkey Kong.
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It seems very believable to me. They gave us a 3D Mario game this year with 3D World + Bowsers Fury. Then get a new DK game out (especially with him in the Mario movie and getting a ride at Universal Studios).
 
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Mario Party Superstars credits are out.



Something I noticed is that Tatsumitsu Watanabe, who has been the Chief Planning Director for all of the console party games since MP9 and who I expected to take over as director when Shuichiro Nishiya became company president, doesn't seem to be credited. Not even under Special Thanks. I might have missed him, though.

Director is Takeru Sugimoto, who was the Chief Planning Director for Star Rush and The Top 100, as well as working on Super Mario Party.

Also, I think this is the first time Asuka Hayazaki is credited as a Sound Supervisor? It's possible that she may be going the same route as Megumi Inoue and not compose music anymore.
 
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It most likely means that this counts as a spinoff entry so Watanabe is likely working on the next main game. Not sure if that is going to be Super Mario Party 2. It could be Animal Crossing Party or another title all together
 
You have some staff from ndcube tokyo (animal crossign pocket camp team) like shinichi nakata and dave maggio who havent been credited since 2014 , leads from the Top 100 team who havent worked on Super Mario party like Susumu Kuribayashi and Tsutomu Komiyama,lots of new game designers, surprising a lot of leads from Super Mario Party are missing,this is more like a game from the secondary team
 
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Supreme Overlord said:
That is not dead which can eternal lie.

I do wish Eternal Darkness could escape this wretched slumber. There's potential there.
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I’d love for another Eternal Darkness game but I have to wonder how much of it is Nintendo sleeping on the IP and how much it is they’re reluctant to make a sequel to a video game that is tied so closely with Dyack after all the utterly insane stuff about him came to light
 
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astrogamer said:
It most likely means that this counts as a spinoff entry so Watanabe is likely working on the next main game. Not sure if that is going to be Super Mario Party 2. It could be Animal Crossing Party or another title all together
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Pokemon Party's time to shine! the first Nintendo developed pokemon game Puzzle League
 
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I can see ND cube preparing an Animal Crossing game around 2023 time given the franchise's status. This year Nintendo did both a "Welcome Amiibo" sized update for New Horizons, along with releasing the sequel to Happy Home Designer as an expansion.

So there isn't really anything left for the Animal Crossing series until the next mainline entry years away. But we do know ND cube made Pocket Camp and Amiibo Festival, so another spinoff from them makes sense.
 
Another shot at an Animal Crossing party game would make sense in the aftermath of New Horizons absolutely conquering the world, though I wonder if there's any other franchise like 51 Worldwide Classics ndCube could work on again.
 
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Just did a rough comparison and around half of the SMP staff worked on Superstars.

3/4 of the Clubhouse Games staff worked on it too, but Clubhouse had a much smaller team.
 
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Director
Takeru Sugimoto

Design Directors
Tsutomu Komiyama
Shinichi Nakata
Rina Wegner
Hayato Minagawa
Fumihisa Sato
Atsushi Nakao
Ryo Yokomizo
Yuya Rokuyama
Satoru Imamura
Yukako Kawauchi

Game Design
Daisuke Tajima
Masato Hotta
Karin Kawakami
Yumika Saito
Changs Shirakawa
Ayumi Takimura
Saeka Tanaka
Yoshitsugu Tamaoki
Ryota Sarutawari
Hiroshi Nosaka
Norihito Shima
Makoto Eguchi
Hiroyuki Seki
Hidenobu Sasaki
Takayuki Ide
Miyuki Ooyama
Masafumi Ojika
Kunio Asahara
Ayumu Kawashiro
Yasuki Toyosawa

Chief Program Director
Yuuki Konno

Program Directors
Shinji Shibasaki
Masayuki Shinohara
Akira Matsumoto
Haruhiko Tanuma
Atsushi Hamada


Program
Kazuhiro Enami
Tetsunori Saito
Masami Sakai
Takashi Sato
Kazunori Sudo
Naoki Sozaka
Takumi Namba
Takuya Fujimoto
Tatsuo Yamajiri
Izumi Fukuda
Takashi Iwanaga
Kenji Oohira
Tadao Shohyama
Akihiro Terada
Yasutaka Ikeda
Tomoaki Tanaka
Norifumi Hira
Satoshi Sakaguchi
Hikaru Hino
Sayaka Matsumoto
Takahiro Matsumoto
Kana Mizota
Daizo Yamauchi
Souichiro Yamamoto
Nobuya Wada
Hiroyuki Watanabe
Kazuki Tashiro
Daisuke Miyata
Takayuki Hayase
Yukihiko Tani
Hiroyuki Horita


Chief Art Directors
Susumu Kuribayashi
Keisuke Kasahara

Art Directors
Masahiko Yamada
Takamitsu Manabe
Kazuhisa Okamoto
Saori Yamashita
Arata Kobayashi
Takahiro Karino
Masayuki Tsuboi
Masami Kodaira


Art
Hayato Ogawa
Tomoaki Watanabe
Takuya Funaki
Tsuyoshi Mizuguchi
Tomoaki Sakaguchi
Dave Maggio
Terue Yasunaga
Shohei Tanimoto
Toshifumi Sekijima
Huichung Lee
Kazuaki Henmi
Masayasu Ban
Mitsumi Sakashita
Kimi Niwano
Aiko Inafune
Mari Inomata
Shizuka Abe
Tsuyoshi Otaku
Yasuhiro Ando
Yoshinori Ikeshita
Keisuke Izaki
Mikio Kita
Tsukasa Tanaka
Hideki Morinaga
Yurie Itou
Fumihiko Sugino
Takuya Tawaratsumida
Sho Nakamura
Shohei Higashi
Akira Mizoguchi
Shinsuke Miyazaki
Nana Hidaka
Yumi Futagawa
Senei Sou
Shiori Teramoto
Shouichi Kawamura
Mami Taniguchi
Ryoichi Okayama
Chika Kawase
Kazuhiro Nagata
Sumihiro Kawai
Moena Chikada
Hiroaki Miura
Mizuki Tachi
Mu Ueno
Yuta Arai
Masaya Sakuma
Hiroshi Oda
Yusuke Nishimaru
Kin Kou
Kyohei Ikeda
Cong Thanh Nguyen
Thi Diem Linh Nguyen
Manh Truong Quyen
Xuan Tuan Bui
Thanh Tung Nguyen
Yohei Fujimoto
Kaito Iwamatsu

Chief Sound Director
Ichiro Shimakura

Sound Directors
Takahiro Nagano
Naruki Kadosaka
Yuhki Mori

Music Director
Chamy Ishi

Music
Toshiki Aida
Satoshi Okubo

Sound Effects
Tokiya Watanabe
Yutaka Takahashi
Shohei Niigawa
Janjeff Aquinde

Sound Support
Taisuke Kobayashi

Sound Coordination
Hiroyuki Tsuboguchi
Shinji Yoshikawa

Sound Supervisors
Megumi Inoue
Koji Kondo
Asuka Hayazaki
Ryoji Yoshitomi

Character Supervisor
Chiaki Ogura

Illustration
Yuri Adachi
Shigehisa Nakaue

Package Design
Keiko Inoue

Technical Support
Toru Inage


Coordination
Kazuyoshi Toriyama
Yoshinori Tsuchiyama

Project Manager
Shinya Saito

Associate Producer
Misaki Hiraga

Producers
Toshiaki Suzuki
Toyokazu Nonaka
Kenji Kikuchi
Atsushi Ikeda

General Producers
Shinya Takahashi
Shuichiro Nishiya

Executive Producer
Shuntaro Furukawa





NDCUBE
CA PRODUCTION
Will
SmileBoom
Magnum Enter
Freelancer/Other
T's Music
Nintendo
 
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Total Staff 122

NDCUBE Sapporo (Main Team) - 80
NDCUBE Tokyo (Island Tour,Amiibo Festival.Pocket Camp) - 42

40 Artists
29 Game Designers
33 Programmers
6 Composers
4 IT
10 Management

CA Production 45
Will 93
SmileBoom 30

Other Partners
Rocket Studio
Toyste Beach
Digital Works Entertainment
 
Taking a step back, just looking at all of the raw talent that Entertainment Planning & Development houses is awe inspiring. I can’t think of a homogenous internal development group hosted in just a few buildings with comparable talent.

Thank you for the thread. It’s a great reminder of how much Nintendo as a development house has to offer.
 
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MetalLord said:
Total Staff 122

NDCUBE Sapporo (Main Team) - 80
NDCUBE Tokyo (Island Tour,Amiibo Festival.Pocket Camp) - 42

40 Artists
29 Game Designers
33 Programmers
6 Composers
4 IT
10 Management

CA Production 45
Will 93
SmileBoom 30

Other Partners
Rocket Studio
Toyste Beach
Digital Works Entertainment
Click to expand...
Oh shit, they got Rocket Studio to help out with Mario Party Superstars? They have a host of ex-Hudson and other ND Cube staff there as well.
 
Gartooth said:
I can see ND cube preparing an Animal Crossing game around 2023 time given the franchise's status. This year Nintendo did both a "Welcome Amiibo" sized update for New Horizons, along with releasing the sequel to Happy Home Designer as an expansion.

So there isn't really anything left for the Animal Crossing series until the next mainline entry years away. But we do know ND cube made Pocket Camp and Amiibo Festival, so another spinoff from them makes sense.
Click to expand...

To be fair, NDCube was part of the second Animal Crossing team and not a single entity developing the game. Pocket Camp definitely has game programmers, network programmers, UI artists from the Nintendo EPD (Kyoto) side and surely DENA tech staff and other undisclosed art/design companies who took part.
 
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