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

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Dunban said:
That's awesome! I hope they do ones for Advance Wars and Xenoblade 3.
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It's good they expanded the series to EPD's external titles, not just the in-house stuff. IIRC, Iwata Asks began the same way, starting off with internally developed NCL games before expanding to other Nintendo productions. On a side note, Forgotten Lands looks like its a PDG No. 2 project, as I was able to make out the number 2 in the credit for Nintendo's producer.
 
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For those not wanting to wait for the official translation, here's the Google Translate link to Ask the Developer: Kirby and the Forgotten Land. It details the thoughts and work going into the transition to 3D. Toward the end they shared their optimism that this "masterpiece" will bring back adult gamers who "graduated" from the series, and give them the confidence and freedom to further explore the future of Kirby.

One particular amusing problem that the team had to solve: "Kirby's character design is incompatible with 3D expression. Kirby has a round shape, so if they turn to the back, I have no idea where they are facing."

fig_chapter01-03.png
 
The people in the interview are
Kei Ninomiya (Associate Producer from Nintendo)
Shinya Kumazaki (General Director from HAL)
Tatsuya Kamiyama (Director from HAL)
Yuki Endo (Level Design Director from HAL)
 



Ninomiya:
We were actually worried that Kirby's most beloved qualities would have to be reduced to better fit a full 3D action game.

Once we completed creating the game, however, it became clear that this is a fun-filled title that still feels like Kirby and is easy to enjoy. That made me very confident.

This title encourages us to keep making games that cherish the "Kirbyness" of Kirby, and it challenges us to do many new things, in both 2D and 3D.
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Sounds like 2D and 3D Kirby will co-exist in the future.
 
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More or less the same leads from Star Allies, which isn’t surprising. Tatsuya Kamiyama has been bumped from Sequence Director to Director and Kei Ninomiya has been bumped from Coordinator to Associate Producer.

We’ll have to wait or the full credits to see if the Boxboy and Rainbow Curse leads were involved.
 
Kirby and the Forgotten Land credits:

Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Kyoto Report

kyoto-report.wikidot.com kyoto-report.wikidot.com

Basically the same leads as Star Allies from HAL. The Boxboy + Boxgirl director and level designers are also credited, but the producer (Yasuhiro Mukae) and project manager (Kazuyuki Nakamura) are absent. Most of the leads from Rainbow Curse/Battle Royale are still a no-show, pretty sure none of them are credited here.

Both Vanpool and Good-Feel are listed under Special Thanks. In Nintendo games, companies credited there usually assisted development in some capacity, but both studios have worked on Kirby games before. You'd have to delve deeper into the credits to see if any staff from either company are credited.

If this is an EPD 2 project and Kinashi was producing, is he in charge of both EPD 1 and 2 now? Maybe there was another shakeup after Yamagami's departure.
 
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N75 said:
Both Vanpool and Good-Feel are listed under Special Thanks. In Nintendo games, companies credited there usually assisted development in some capacity, but both studios have worked on Kirby games before. You'd have to delve deeper into the credits to see if any staff from either company are credited.
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No chance they're given a special thanks because there's an in-game menu that advertises all the Switch / 3DS / Wii U Kirby games, some of which they worked on?


IMG_8489.jpg


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With the comment about 2D Kirby in Ask the Developer and the directors/project managers of Super Kirby Clash and Kirby Fighters 2 from the HAL side not working on Forgotten Land, I wouldn't be surprised if one is well into development already. Maybe with Vanpool co-developing as well.
N75 said:
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.
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A lot of staff is missing and there was 0 involvement from the tokyo office,hal was not all hand on deck like i tought,probably others games coming soon
 
Vanpool staff on Forgotten Land:

Ayako Souma - Art
Natsuki Tsuji - Art
Shingo Kabaya - Art
Tomoka Ogura - Art
Kouji Kikkawa - Programming
Satoshi Ohtake - Programming
Jun Tsuda - Producer (only received Special Thanks)

There might be more. I'll check Good-Feel later on.
 
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HAL potential upcoming projects:

Yasuhiro Mukae/Kazuyuki Namura project (Boxboy?)
Yoshiki Suzuki/Isao Takahashi project (2D Kirby w/Vanpool?)
Hiroyuki Hayashi project (Kirby spinoff/new title?)
Kojiro Ooki project (Part-Time UFO sequel/next HAL Egg game?)
Teruyuki Gunji project (Picross 3D Round 3?)

The bottom two are a bit more hazy. The most recent HAL Egg title (some walking game) was never localized and doesn’t have credits from what I can tell.

Forgotten Land could also get DLC. Though from what I’ve seen, the game ends pretty definitively.

MasterGold said:
Think it’s safe to say vanpool is Kirby developer now
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They're still working on a port of something according to that recruitment listing from an outsourcing partner. Hard to say what that is right now.
 
N75 said:
They're still working on a port of something according to that recruitment listing from an outsourcing partner. Hard to say what that is right now.
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Can be ports of Kirby’s Gamecube/Wii Titles (Air Ride, Epic Yarn and Adventure Wii).
 
Marce-chan said:
Luigi's Mansion 4 holiday 2024 here we goooo. With them delivering Mario Strikers so soon after LM3 I wouldn't doubt them getting another game ready for 2024 already tbh. Moreso because Strikers is probably done for months now and this listing is surely for their next project.
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don't overlook that Strikers is very very likely also getting the typical 1 year post launch content updates for these kinds of games.
 
Marce-chan said:
Luigi's Mansion 4 holiday 2024 here we goooo. With them delivering Mario Strikers so soon after LM3 I wouldn't doubt them getting another game ready for 2024 already tbh. Moreso because Strikers is probably done for months now and this listing is surely for their next project.
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Nintendo's acquisition should also allow NLG to expand further. It seems like right now they have just enough capacity to support 1,5 projects, so one game in full production plus either DLC or Pre-Production for their next.

I think they won't jump into LM4 but rather be given another Nintendo Franchise to work on (I'm guessing Star Fox).
 
Along with the game running on LunchPack, this rating basically confirms that Switch Sports is an internal project.

www.classification.gov.au

NINTENDO SWITCH SPORTS

The Australian Classification website comprises information for general public and industry about the classification of films, games and publications.
www.classification.gov.au www.classification.gov.au

Wii Sports Club rating for comparison.

www.classification.gov.au

WII SPORTS CLUB

The Australian Classification website comprises information for general public and industry about the classification of films, games and publications.
www.classification.gov.au www.classification.gov.au
 
Since the Sportmates resemble Inklings, I wouldn't be surprised if Switch Sports had Tsubasa Sakaguchi as Director or Art Director though
 
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On April 1st, we were able to welcome eight new employees hired as new graduates. An entrance ceremony was held at our office. On this day, the stormy weather up to the previous day was restored and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the weather was like celebrating the encounter with new friends. New employee training will start from now on, but I am looking forward to each growth.
 
MetalLord said:


On April 1st, we were able to welcome eight new employees hired as new graduates. An entrance ceremony was held at our office. On this day, the stormy weather up to the previous day was restored and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the weather was like celebrating the encounter with new friends. New employee training will start from now on, but I am looking forward to each growth.
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Nice! Great to see some fresh bright young talent and a whooping 8 of them at once is a decent pick-up! Best of luck to all of them!
 
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https://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/en/2022/220412.html

Nintendo has acquired land adjacent to their own headquarters for $40m

"Nintendo believes acquiring and utilizing this land will carry an important role on reinforcing its R&D."

Facility name:‎ ‎nintendo head office development building 2 (tentative name)‎ ‎
Purpose of the facility‎: ‎strengthen r&d
Functions‎ ‎total floor area‎: ‎approximately 38,000㎡‎ ‎structure and height‎ ‎steel structure 12th floor, about 72m‎ ‎

Completion‎ ‎scheduled for december 2027‎

Is Nintendo going to create more in-house development groups?

img01.png


img02.png
 
MetalLord said:
two weeks,they rented two floors of a public building thats pratically done, to house a influx of new staff
DwBjU7P.jpg

img01.png


www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.
www.google.com www.google.com
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ah that's more promising then if they can temporarily house them in rented offices and grow them slowly until the fancy new digs are ready.
 
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Dark Cloud said:
The “right way” is definitely an opinion.
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I agree. I dont support acwuisitions as big as the actiblizzard one but if the studio is happy to sell then its just as ok as starting from zero. Imagine if nintendo didnt buy retro and let them rot in 2001? Or if monolith soft was still bandai namco?
 
BY2K said:
Monolith Soft never did Tales Of.
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Pretty sure he's saying they would've ended up a support studio on it if they still existed under Namco. Though I do wonder if they would've survived this long.
 
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Tentacle-tropes said:
It is a curious thought as what their fate would have been had BN still owned them.
Maybe Nintendo would have poached him if he were let go?
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I doubt it. if I remember correctly, Monolith was a trade for the shares in Bandai that nintendo owned. it helped that Takahashi knew someone high up in Nintendo to help that along. if Takahashi bounced, I doubt Nintendo would have been interested otherwise.
 
ILikeFeet said:
I doubt it. if I remember correctly, Monolith was a trade for the shares in Bandai that nintendo owned. it helped that Takahashi knew someone high up in Nintendo to help that along. if Takahashi bounced, I doubt Nintendo would have been interested otherwise.
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If you had a connection like that then I would say it is on the maybe scale though not likely. Definitely not to the position he has currently though.
 
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ILikeFeet said:
I doubt it. if I remember correctly, Monolith was a trade for the shares in Bandai that nintendo owned. it helped that Takahashi knew someone high up in Nintendo to help that along. if Takahashi bounced, I doubt Nintendo would have been interested otherwise.
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Iwata and other higher ups were big fans of Takahashi works and Monolith Soft in general, that’s also why they were the team choosen to help them in Brawl. Without Nintendo Monolith Soft would probably gone under , it was too expensive to mantain for Bandai and didn’t make money (that’s also why Xenosaga finished early). Takahashi would probably get poached in this situation anyway but a decent part of Monolith Soft would either become part of Bandai or would have left for other companies not only Nintendo.
 
Blue Monty said:
Iwata and other higher ups were big fans of Takahashi works and Monolith Soft in general, that’s also why they were the team choosen to help them in Brawl. Without Nintendo Monolith Soft would probably gone under , it was too expensive to mantain for Bandai and didn’t make money (that’s also why Xenosaga finished early). Takahashi would probably get poached in this situation anyway but a decent part of Monolith Soft would either become part of Bandai or would have left for other companies not only Nintendo.
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Maybe they still could've gotten some staff but I doubt they would've gotten Takahashi or much of the Xeno team. They don't really poach people they have no history with.
 
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ILikeFeet said:
I doubt it. if I remember correctly, Monolith was a trade for the shares in Bandai that nintendo owned. it helped that Takahashi knew someone high up in Nintendo to help that along. if Takahashi bounced, I doubt Nintendo would have been interested otherwise.
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@Ishaan wrote an outstanding history piece about Monolith's road to Nintendo:

kotaku.com

From Xenogears To Xenoblade: The History Of Monolith Soft

If you’d told me back in 2006 that Monolith Soft would go on to become one of Nintendo’s most talented and indispensable first-party development groups, I would have said the same thing as everyone else: “The guys who did Xenosaga?”
kotaku.com kotaku.com
 
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I missed that Vanpool updated their site to reflect their work on Forgotten Land. Nothing on Good-Feel's site so i'm skeptical about that special thanks meaning much.


The mention of background models make me think about that outsource recruitment Vanpool were doing awhile back. Obviously that happened too late to be for this, but perhaps that "port" really is a Kirby 3DS remaster collection if they had a similar role on this.
 
MondoMega said:
I missed that Vanpool updated their site to reflect their work on Forgotten Land. Nothing on Good-Feel's site so i'm skeptical about that special thanks meaning much.


The mention of background models make me think about that outsource recruitment Vanpool were doing awhile back. Obviously that happened too late to be for this, but perhaps that "port" really is a Kirby 3DS remaster collection if they had a similar role on this.
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I’m thinking Good-Feel special thanks comes from Kirby epic yarn being referenced
 
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