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

there were course leaks (I hate leaks, I don't follow any of that stuff)? other than what's just from your regular old datamine (I don't wanna know what they are, just asking about the situation)?
Just datamining, and some music leaks. But it was enough to give a general idea of what we were getting.
 
there were course leaks (I hate leaks, I don't follow any of that stuff)? other than what's just from your regular old datamine (I don't wanna know what they are, just asking about the situation)?
First the prefix leak (it was datamined which consoles/platforms would return for the whole DLC), then a banner leaked that showed about 10 courses coming to the DLC, then the music leak where another bunch of courses gone public. All of this happened last year which is crazy if this was an EPD project.
 
First the prefix leak (it was datamined which consoles/platforms would return for the whole DLC), then a banner leaked that showed about 10 courses coming to the DLC, then the music leak where another bunch of courses gone public. All of this happened last year which is crazy if this was an EPD project.
The Yoshis Island Track had a couple elements datamined as well along with another new track

A Bathroom
 
The Yoshis Island Track had a couple elements datamined as well along with another new track

A Bathroom
this is specific to mario kart tour, the other folks were talking about the mario kart 8 deluxe dlc

of which it's also important to mention the fact there's an insider that's gotten to know about two of the waves ahead of time, that really doesn't happen with EPD anymore
 
Yeah I’m pretty sure EPD is working on the BCP, though I wouldn’t rule out Namco assisting on visual assets and even some of the course design, based on the below job listing for Tour:


Conception and design of Mario Kart Tour courses, data production and coordination
Level design of Mario Kart Tour mini-games, data production and coordination
Establishment and coordination of specifications for courses and mini-game gimmicks, etc.
Negotiation with related companies and departments
The main task is to create Mario Kart Tour courses and bonus challenges (mini-games).
There are already several level designers in the company, and you will learn the tools while working with them.
Under the direction of the director and lead game designer, you will use the level editor and 3D tools to design, create data, and create level designs.

About the Twitter leaker, I wouldn’t be shocked if it‘s from the marketing side. It wouldn’t be the first time.
 
Just datamining, and some music leaks. But it was enough to give a general idea of what we were getting.
First the prefix leak (it was datamined which consoles/platforms would return for the whole DLC), then a banner leaked that showed about 10 courses coming to the DLC, then the music leak where another bunch of courses gone public. All of this happened last year which is crazy if this was an EPD project.
Not sure what either of these have to do with it being EPD developed? You mean as in they would scrub stuff like that out? Can we even claim that with confidence? EPD doesn't do wave based DLC like this for any other game so we don't really have anything to compare it to. For other games, I know all the Fire Emblem Engage characters were datamined and similarly this happened with the Xenoblade 3 DLCs so in general it seem quite common for Nintendo content at large. Outside of Splatoon and Breath of the Wild, EPD doesn't really have DLC like this where one part releases early followed by another drop later.
this is specific to mario kart tour, the other folks were talking about the mario kart 8 deluxe dlc

of which it's also important to mention the fact there's an insider that's gotten to know about two of the waves ahead of time, that really doesn't happen with EPD anymore
Yea like N75 said, this feels like your typical marketing-tier leak and not anything that factors into who made this.
Yeah I’m pretty sure EPD is working on the BCP, though I wouldn’t rule out Namco assisting on visual assets and even some of the course design, based on the below job listing for Tour:


About the Twitter leaker, I wouldn’t be shocked if it‘s from the marketing side. It wouldn’t be the first time.
I think we can safely say that they always have someone else assisting with assets and for continuity's sake it would probably be Bamco again

edit: re my whole post - I'm just trying to poke at everything to make sure we're not just taking wobbly info as solid fact and question where leaks come from that there's always a game of telephone involved
 
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I don't think Nintendo wants to take a break from Mario Sports, though. Those games sell very well.
There isn't any other sports that Camelot could really do. They were known for RPGs and Golf/Tennis. Other Mario sports titles were handled by other teams. With Nintendo testing waters with something like Advance Wars 1+2, Famicom Detective Club, Metroid, and a few other series, a new or remade Golden Sun would be a good test. Both Broken seal and Lost Age together sold more than the Metroid GBA titles. RPGs on the switch do rather well.
 
Taking the leaky nature of the Mario Kart DLC thus far as evidence of it being primarily externally developed is a massive stretch. Mario Kart Tour is an even more open book for datamining (those paying attention already know the next five Tour themes covering now to the end of May, and plenty of racers and courses releasing after that), so I don’t think it says much that BCP has also had a good amount of content leak thus far.

At the very least Yabuki seems very much involved with the BCP; retweeting and liking tweets related to Wave 1-3 (nothing for 4 so far). Wouldn’t be surprised if Bamco were assisting like they have on every EPD 9 project since vanilla Mario Kart 8, but i’m sure the core work is being done internally.
 
At the very least Yabuki seems very much involved with the BCP; retweeting and liking tweets related to Wave 1-3 (nothing for 4 so far). Wouldn’t be surprised if Bamco were assisting like they have on every EPD 9 project since vanilla Mario Kart 8, but i’m sure the core work is being done internally.
yea there's just no way they EPD team isn't designing the original courses themselves. MK Arcade this ain't! :D
 
yea there's just no way they EPD team isn't designing the original courses themselves. MK Arcade this ain't! :D

I agree, but that’s mainly because we know that even the courses they market as being “NEW” for 8DX (Sky High Sundae and Yoshi’s Island so far, but there will be more) were made for Tour first. Like alluded to earlier the Yoshi’s Island track was datamined from Tour last year, with objects like the Stilt Guys and Flower Rings already being in the files for many months; and internally in both 8DX and Tour these two tracks use ‘mob’ (mobile) as their console of origin prefix.

Safe to bet that most of the remaining non-city original courses from Tour will be advertised as 8DX originals instead (besides Piranha Plant Cove, since it already released in Tour; like Ninja Hideaway and Merry Mountain). There’s a bathroom themed track, a track with the abbreviation ‘dk’ and one more that isn’t known yet going by other datamining.
 
Taking the leaky nature of the Mario Kart DLC thus far as evidence of it being primarily externally developed is a massive stretch. Mario Kart Tour is an even more open book for datamining (those paying attention already know the next five Tour themes covering now to the end of May, and plenty of racers and courses releasing after that), so I don’t think it says much that BCP has also had a good amount of content leak thus far.

At the very least Yabuki seems very much involved with the BCP; retweeting and liking tweets related to Wave 1-3 (nothing for 4 so far). Wouldn’t be surprised if Bamco were assisting like they have on every EPD 9 project since vanilla Mario Kart 8, but i’m sure the core work is being done internally.

yea there's just no way they EPD team isn't designing the original courses themselves. MK Arcade this ain't! :D
I’m not sure. Yabuki liking Tweets about the game he made does not mean he’s really involved in the development. I agree that EPD may have an important role in this, but I assume it’s only a small portion.
 
Not sure what either of these have to do with it being EPD developed? You mean as in they would scrub stuff like that out? Can we even claim that with confidence? EPD doesn't do wave based DLC like this for any other game so we don't really have anything to compare it to. For other games, I know all the Fire Emblem Engage characters were datamined and similarly this happened with the Xenoblade 3 DLCs so in general it seem quite common for Nintendo content at large. Outside of Splatoon and Breath of the Wild, EPD doesn't really have DLC like this where one part releases early followed by another drop later.
I agree that it’s a stretch, but to me it’s only one factor besides some other aspects that make me think this project is outsourced or just not mainly an EPD project.

My point is, core EPD projects don’t leak a lot of time. The games you’re mentioning, FE and Xenoblade, are not EPD-only. You’re saying that the only Nintendo games where the DLC didn’t leak were Splatoon and Zelda, and these are more comparable to Mario Kart. And it’s not only one leak, it’s happening again and again that stuff pours out. I’m not saying this is the reason why I think it’s outsourced or anything, but for an EPD franchise like Mario Kart to leak so extensively and also in a kinda clumsy way with marketing materials in the games files is very uncommon.
 
self-requested ban for 2 months as I focus on my new job

peace
 
Regardless of how much they are tied to BCP, they are still one of the biggest mysteries in the Switch era. Yes, most of the staff after ARMS moved right to Tour, but this still does not clear anything that much, also the fact that Tour has no full credits whatsoever, so we have some staff from some interviews and just patents. But there are still plenty of people who are seemingly just missing. 3 ARMS Directors are not credited on anything (yeah, they could have just work on Tour we don't know) and many other members who are not credited. As much as Tour is a full game and it's getting new content, I doubt the whole group there worked on it, but some staff moved to EPD4 to work on Ring Fit.
 
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Personally I don't see BCP being an outsourced project. Given the extensive works on Tour's city tracks and various gameplay changes and additions.
 
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I agree that it’s a stretch, but to me it’s only one factor besides some other aspects that make me think this project is outsourced or just not mainly an EPD project.

My point is, core EPD projects don’t leak a lot of time. The games you’re mentioning, FE and Xenoblade, are not EPD-only. You’re saying that the only Nintendo games where the DLC didn’t leak were Splatoon and Zelda, and these are more comparable to Mario Kart. And it’s not only one leak, it’s happening again and again that stuff pours out. I’m not saying this is the reason why I think it’s outsourced or anything, but for an EPD franchise like Mario Kart to leak so extensively and also in a kinda clumsy way with marketing materials in the games files is very uncommon.
careful with conflating "leaks" (someone with a loose lip) with datamining
 
I’m not sure. Yabuki liking Tweets about the game he made does not mean he’s really involved in the development. I agree that EPD may have an important role in this, but I assume it’s only a small portion.
MQucTcM.jpg


But seriously, what is with that team. Have they been up to any new projects at all?
 
MQucTcM.jpg


But seriously, what is with that team. Have they been up to any new projects at all?
it's worth remembering that EPD groups are just project leads and group managers and the actual grunt work staff that does all the stuff to make the ideas appear comes from the larger EPD staff pool shared among ALL the groups. something that is easily lost in simplified meme like that. (I know it's just a joke but someone might lurk who still doesn't know this is how they work)
 
At the very least Yabuki seems very much involved with the BCP; retweeting and liking tweets related to Wave 1-3 (nothing for 4 so far). Wouldn’t be surprised if Bamco were assisting like they have on every EPD 9 project since vanilla Mario Kart 8, but i’m sure the core work is being done internally.
So he actually has a Twitter account? Let's all ask him what he's been up to, or if he's actually been making a brand new game on the Switch.









ok don't.

Yeah, Mario Kart Tour. But if you look into ARMS credits you can see that many people went to work on Ring Fit and New Horizons.
Wouldn't say Tour is "new". But I'm pretty sure updating it doesn't take the whole team, or whoever the heck it's made up of at this point.
 
Wouldn't say Tour is "new". But I'm pretty sure updating it doesn't take the whole team, or whoever the heck it's made up of at this point.
Yeah, but it seems pretty obvious that their next project begun after Tour was released, so in 2019. That would make their next game roughly more than 2 and half years or more in development and good to consider that some portion of the team is doing BCP. When some members were busy with Tour, the ARMS staff just went to work on different projects.
 
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Mario Movie directors - "We brought artistis who specialize in a vehicle design and worked closely with the team at Nintendo to create some new karts" - Yabuki and Co. gotta have that Mario Kart Supervision in credits like in the Home Circuit
 
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Have there been any rumours with leads what NST has been up to since Bowser’s Fury in 2021?
Rumours no, but they hiring more than ever at least. More than nlg.


On talk of hiring retro just hired for 5 positions which as far as im aware is the biggest swoop they did at once since mp4 restarted. In 2020 they hired 24 people, in 2021 16 people, in 2022 i think 25 people and since 2023 began i think thry hired 9 or 10 people already.
 
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The more I think about it the more it makes sense to me. After LABO VR Kit, Sakaguchi went to work on new IP for new hardware (altough he may have also worked on Game Builder Garage we have no idea). Either way, I don't think he stayed in EPD4 he is probably in whole another EPD Group or and this is a big if, seems like Hitosthi Yamagami (who was the group manager of EPD1), I said was since his last credit was Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX in 2020 and all other credits like Xenoblade 3, Bayo 3, FE: Engage are only special thanks which seems like he left NIntendo at this point. EPD1 producers moved to EPD2 which implies that EPD1 is now more internal group, that's why the Sakaguchi could be a leader of this group now, the timeline would also lineup when Sakaguchi finished Labo VR and moved there to work on something.
 
So I am sure that most of you read the BOTW session at CEDEC 2017 but the Ring Fit Adventure development session from CEDEC 2020 I felt went really unnoticed for a lot of people. I recommend reading this whole Twitter thread which translated the most important points, In the early stages it was just about holding two Joy-Cons and not Ring-Con and a lot more.



There were 3 other sessions for Ring Fit as well, one about log collection, second about Overcoming Differences in Development Cycles and the third was about the effects in the game. These 3 are in japanese but simple translate will work and give you idea what's talked about.

At the same time there was also interview on NintendoJP with staff about it as well with some other details, f.e. how Ring-Con development goes as back as 2016 and how somehow they had Ring-Con like controller in hardware department even before they were discussing Ring Fit, "A completely different team was developing it on their own, and one day we heard about it. We were like, "We have just the right controller for this! We were like, "What a coincidence!"
 
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Do you think we are getting more updates on Switch Sports? I remember when the game launched dataminers found references for basketball and dodgeball.
I don't think so. These references were iirc in the trial and not in a retail release. It's probably content that was considered at one point.
 
Do you think we are getting more updates on Switch Sports? I remember when the game launched dataminers found references for basketball and dodgeball.
Maybe we'll find out in a few weeks. There's four more updates until the item collections rotate.
 
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Do you think we are getting more updates on Switch Sports? I remember when the game launched dataminers found references for basketball and dodgeball.
iirc the latest update added long term cycling of the collections and titles for completing them all, as well as adding golf to the home menu icon. I'd say it's dead, jim
 
iirc the latest update added long term cycling of the collections and titles for completing them all, as well as adding golf to the home menu icon. I'd say it's dead, jim
I see, well I knew what I was paying for and I'm happy having Tennis, Bowling and Golf but was hoping for some Resort stuff down the road...
 
it's worth remembering that EPD groups are just project leads and group managers and the actual grunt work staff that does all the stuff to make the ideas appear comes from the larger EPD staff pool shared among ALL the groups. something that is easily lost in simplified meme like that. (I know it's just a joke but someone might lurk who still doesn't know this is how they work)
That's true. I think Nintendo's ability to mix different teams has always been a great strength, and I have to say that I think it's a bit of a shame that the 3D Mario people have moved away geographically because it does change the dynamic a bit. I really liked the idea that, for example, 3D Mario and 3D Zelda fed off each other and were made in close proximity, as well as sharing the same game engine.

In the same way, I like to think that people who work on massive series like Mario Kart or Splatoon can be free to go and contribute to the development of, for example, a new Pikmin or a new 2D Mario. For me, EPD10, because of its historical role, must absolutely preserve this culture of internal mobility and innovation.
 
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iirc the latest update added long term cycling of the collections and titles for completing them all, as well as adding golf to the home menu icon. I'd say it's dead, jim
They also added some achievement items:


(Why they're adding these just now, idk either)

And here are the last four weekly collections remaining:
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Yep I want resort sports now.
I'd prefer it as an expansion, like Resort Pass. Could add like two sports initially and a few more in waves. My most wanted is definetely Archery Range. Canoeing and Table Tennis are must too. Not sure about the rest. Air Sport was fun but I don't see them remaking Wuhu island.

Btw another game I was thinking that should return: Captain Toad 2. Finally got around to play it again yesterday, plan to finish it this time. This game is so charming! I think they barely scretched the surface with the first one, it has a lot of potential.
 
Btw another game I was thinking that should return: Captain Toad 2. Finally got around to play it again yesterday, plan to finish it this time. This game is so charming! I think they barely scretched the surface with the first one, it has a lot of potential.
I personally think this could be what NST is working on.
 


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