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

rather than reboot it, just make a new IP. Eternal Darkness has no inherent value that's worth attaching itself to Silicon Knights
Yeah, pretty much. I never played it though so what did folks love about it that warrants going back to it so much, the sanity effect Nintendo owns?
 
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Horror games are something that Nintendo has always tried to get but without any long term success of any horror franchise related to Nintendo. I’d imagine they will try again because it seems something they always have wanted but none of the in-house devs probably are fit for it (due to being busy or making different type of games) so they will need to find someone outside the Nintendo umbrella which is always ‘hard’ for Nintendo to do in the sense of them trusting and being happy with the 3rd party.
 
Horror games are something that Nintendo has always tried to get but without any long term success of any horror franchise related to Nintendo. I’d imagine they will try again because it seems something they always have wanted but none of the in-house devs probably are fit for it (due to being busy or making different type of games) so they will need to find someone outside the Nintendo umbrella which is always ‘hard’ for Nintendo to do in the sense of them trusting and being happy with the 3rd party.
A horror game from their in-house devs would be interesting. Even considering how NLG handles supernatural stuff in LM is pretty unique, Ghostbuster-esque. But you said it best, everyone is busy making games. Maybe an experimental short-story a la Famicom Dec or another one of those, I know the people at MAGES were interested in that.

In terms of partners, they can always go for another round of Fatal frame, thought I think the new re-release did not do well.

Partner with Bloober? 🤮🤮

There arent many studios out there that do horror games.
 
A horror game from their in-house devs would be interesting. Even considering how NLG handles supernatural stuff in LM is pretty unique, Ghostbuster-esque. But you said it best, everyone is busy making games. Maybe an experimental short-story a la Famicom Dec or another one of those, I know the people at MAGES were interested in that.

In terms of partners, they can always go for another round of Fatal frame, thought I think the new re-release did not do well.

Partner with Bloober? 🤮🤮

There arent many studios out there that do horror games.
Fatal Frame 5 re-release did better than expected and was a success but it was multiplatform which means Nintendo allowed KT to release it as multiplat (similar situation as W101) which means no plans from Nintendo part in the future for the franchise, they wouldn’t allow FF5 to be multiplatform if they planned ever to fund/co-dev FF6 or another FF game in general.
 
🤨 Donkey Kong is bigger than Metroid, and Metroid just had Dread with Prime 4 underway.

Like financially, it doesn't make much sense for Retro not to work on a DKC since both of their DKC games was their best selling ones out of their catalog. At the end of the day, it's what they want to do. If they want to work on DKC after Prime 4 then they'll do it. Given the DK team allows them to.

I think Grezzo might be picking up the mantle with that one.
Dude, i said "smaller" part of the franchise. If retro was to make donkey kong again they would tackle 3d dk.

Furthermore, it doesnt mixes with what nintendo seems to be doing with retro - investing on the studio to become an studio that only makes expansive games


And if they got tired of dk by tf i dont think they will feel like returning to it soon. I know, not the point of the convo. Just adding.
 
For me, Nintendo need to prioritise investment so that existing EPD internal groups handle a couple of big projects at a time each, starting with the relatively predictable safe stuff:

  • EPD 3: '2D' and open-world Zelda
  • EPD 4: whatever the hell they want (this group is doing fine)
  • EPD 5: Animal Crossing and Splatoon (this group is also doing fine)
  • EPD 7: Tomodachi Life (internally) and 2D Metroid (with MercurySteam)
  • EPD 8: 3D Mario and Donkey Kong (probably 2D, but doesn't need to stay that way)
  • EPD 9: Mario Kart and ???? (this could rotate between say, Nintendogs, new IP, and Wave Race)
  • EPD 10: 2D Mario and Pikmin

We're not yet at the point where new games in all those 'safe' series are happening; Nintendo have done well to dine out on Wii U for plenty of those franchises thus far. I think the point has been made by other users, but surely some of the current investment is recognition that they need to expand to even maintain their current internal series, let alone expand the number of series handled internally.

Finally, I wonder if, along with potentially bringing Donkey Kong into the fold, they also bring Smash Brothers to EPD. If that happens, I suspect Nintendo actually create a new dedicated group for it. Perhaps EPD 11 even gets set up in Tokyo, to help with hiring, outsourcing, and for easy development support from Bandai-Namco. It just seems odd to continue such a massive hit on an ad-hoc basis, especially when serious investment is happening, and especially when DLC for Smash is so lucrative. Easier to pump out season by season content if you have a dedicated internal group for the series instead of attempting to keep an ad-hoc group going. Another new internal group could be formed with a view to making IP for the 'traditional' audience, given EPD 4's remit almost seems to be 'expanded' audience products.

For now, realistically, I think other new IP and reboots are going to come from externally developed titles produced by EPD, and I don't see that as a negative. EPD have a lot of strengths, but modern game development is insanely resource consuming and there are many studios who would happily work with Nintendo and on Nintendo IP.
 
EPD expansion is one of the biggest issues facing Nintendo right now. I dont know how Nintendo 1st party can survive the move to a new console generation with the current production pace at EPD slowing down the release of what is usually their most popular software. (besides Pokemon)

It gets pointed out that AAA development times have lengthened across the industry including Nintendo, but the key difference is that other AAA games are being made on hardware that is 2 generations ahead of the Switch in power.
 
EPD expansion is one of the biggest issues facing Nintendo right now. I dont know how Nintendo 1st party can survive the move to a new console generation with the current production pace at EPD slowing down the release of what is usually their most popular software. (besides Pokemon)

It gets pointed out that AAA development times have lengthened across the industry including Nintendo, but the key difference is that other AAA games are being made on hardware that is 2 generations ahead of the Switch in power.
Considering COVID effect on Nintendo EPD is hard to judge what is really the capacity Nintendo EPD has to output major titles. I think one/two major titles plus a couple smaller ones is probably what they could do without COVID easily
 
Considering COVID affect on Nintendo EPD is hard to judge what is really the capacity Nintendo EPD has to output major titles. I think one/two major titles plus a couple smaller ones is probably what they could do without COVID easily
COVID fucked them up for sure. Considering that Splatoon was supposed to launch last year for example.
 
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Considering COVID effect on Nintendo EPD is hard to judge what is really the capacity Nintendo EPD has to output major titles. I think one/two major titles plus a couple smaller ones is probably what they could do without COVID easily

Agreed that COVID makes the situation harder to judge completely.

Anyways hopefully we get some answers in the coming Direct as to what they've been working on.
 
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Agreed that COVID makes the situation harder to judge completely.

Anyways hopefully we get some answers in the coming Direct as to what they've been working on.
Also Nintendo EPD expansion to the degree they are doing right now is a recent thing we will not get the games affected by it until 2025 at best and the full affect of the expansion (including new building) probably until by the end of the decade. Until then Nintendo will probably keep depending on outsourcing heavily like they are doing right now and probably will force it to buy studios if the consolidation trend arrives to Japan (which at the moment I doubt)
 
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Agreed that COVID makes the situation harder to judge completely. Part of me wonders however if the signs have been there before the pandemic that Nintendo has been struggling with production. While these aren't in-house EPD, I think back to cases like Retro Studio's canceled new IP, Bandai Namco's canceled Prime 4, and presumably a reboot of Bayonetta 3 (all around roughly 2017 to 2019) are less isolated incidents and instead were signs of a structural problem at Nintendo with overseeing game development.
I’m going to go ahead and say that Yusuke Hashimoto’s departure from Platinum is very much an isolated incident. I don’t think more oversight would’ve stopped Retro’s New IP and Bandai Namco’s Prime 4 from supposedly being messes either. If anything i’d say the stories we’ve heard about the development of Metroid Dread at MercurySteam say more about Nintendo’s management and oversight.

They’ve got issues to sort out; that’s why they’re expanding in both Kyoto and Tokyo, particularly in the former with a whole second development building.
 
I’m going to go ahead and say that Yusuke Hashimoto’s departure from Platinum is very much an isolated incident. I don’t think more oversight would’ve stopped Retro’s New IP and Bandai Namco’s Prime 4 from supposedly being messes either. If anything i’d say the stories we’ve heard about the development of Metroid Dread at MercurySteam say more about Nintendo’s management and oversight.

They’ve got issues to sort out; that’s why they’re expanding in both Kyoto and Tokyo, particularly in the former with a whole second development building.
We lack a lot of context related to Retro new IP but considering it is a Nintendo subsidiary and they were making a new Nintendo IP, NCL should 100% still have be responsiblity to make sure the project was going well and considering it got cancelled after 4 years something went really badly. It could be something out of Nintendo control for sure but it makes sense to think they should have at least canceled the project earlier


Also one thing I wonder if Camelot does have some type of deal with Nintendo to make games only for them like NLG did because in their webpage they mention they have a collaboration with NCL to make console games and all their hirings require experience with Nintendo hardware.
 
Also one thing I wonder if Camelot does have some type of deal with Nintendo to make games only for them like NLG did because in their webpage they mention they have a collaboration with NCL to make console games and all their hirings require experience with Nintendo hardware.
So acquisition incoming?!?! JK.

Can I say that the new website is wayyyyyyy better than the previous one. It felt like a 1999 website. Its still not perfect but overall improvement. The Golden Sun-esque menu at the corner is chef's kiss
 
Also Nintendo EPD expansion to the degree they are doing right now is a recent thing we will not get the games affected by it until 2025 at best and the full affect of the expansion (including new building) probably until by the end of the decade. Until then Nintendo will probably keep depending on outsourcing heavily like they are doing right now and probably will force it to buy studios if the consolidation trend arrives to Japan (which at the moment I doubt)

While the bigger expansion plans are for next gen, they have added over 400 college graduates to their technology teams since 2017. You can also add an additional decent number of mid career graduates the past years who we don’t have a number for but Nintendo has actively recruited for (Capcom, Square-Enix, From Soft, Konami).

These are more imminent things that we potentially could see the impact of within then next wave of releases. Nintendo R&D has been and still is growing - now - even though we are still waiting for the actual products to materialize.
 
We lack a lot of context related to Retro new IP but considering it is a Nintendo subsidiary and they were making a new Nintendo IP, NCL should 100% still have be responsiblity to make sure the project was going well and considering it got cancelled after 4 years something went really badly. It could be something out of Nintendo control for sure but it makes sense to think they should have at least canceled the project earlier

Is there anything concrete about what Retro was working on at the time? Are people still taking the word of some guy who said they met Retro employees in a bar as fact?
 
Im curious to see mp4's animation quality. From who retro hired (highly cinematic games such as god of war animators and mainstream studios such as dreamworks) and assuming the game's budget will be as large as we assume, i think it will be something really spectacular, at least for ninty levels.
I don't think we even have to assume anything about the budget - it's sure as hell is gonna end up as Nintendo's most expensive game ever only beaten by Smash Bros and maybe BotW or ACNH.
I mean, the total development time from pre production of the canceled version till the release will be of at least 7 years!! With relatively huge teams. I can't wait to see what Retro will serve with that one(will be ~5 years under them when it releases).
 
Is there anything concrete about what Retro was working on at the time? Are people still taking the word of some guy who said they met Retro employees in a bar as fact?
There's not a lot concrete first-hand sources out there (a lot of what we assume to be the case comes from Emily; the game being a new IP and not DK or Metroid at least); outside of a few Linkedin listings like Bill Vandervoort's (he was a design manager on something from 2016 to 2018) and that composer Alexander Brandon is known to have worked with Retro in 2017 on a project that clearly didn't surface.

unknown.png


Less concrete is that David Wise was in Texas in late 2017 and reportedly also involved with this project; it was never publicly mentioned by him though, more second-hand sources. Emily says the project was moved from Wii U to Switch before being cancelled and the above timeframe would support that, so i'm inclined to believe it.
 
Imagine squandering your talent on something as dull looking as Catalyst! If you want a game like that, you're better served with other developers.

Reminds me a lot of the bizarre requests among certain Nintendo fans for Nintendo to make an M-rated, gritty reboot of StarTropics. I don't get the want for Nintendo to start making these sort of games. Do people actually want more games like Geist and Devil's Third?
Lol I remember back in 2014 when I was one of those edgy guys trying to act cool and just went "WOOOOOOW" with Devil's Third E3 trailer. Now I'm like: 😑.

But isn't Geist a good game? Idk, never played it but some people seem to like it - unlike Devil's Third lol.

I would like to see Nintendo's take on "realistic" games, but not those edgy or gore or sex non sense. Think of something like a Fatal Frame or Resident Evil made by NLG. I think that would be incredible.

Actually Ring Fit Adventure was like something I always fan fic'd of Nintendo doing? This action/adventure RPG stuff was actually what I thought about this cancelled game Retro worked from 2013/14-2017/18. I think something like that, but without physical add on so I can actually buy it on eShop, maybe the character with a name and a story, would be something incredible.

I think a new adventure IP is my dream. Whatever they go with - platformer, RPG, mature or cartoony, hack and slash.
ARMS with an adventure mode/beat em up story?? That thing would make me scream.
 
Next Level have excelled on Switch and it really comes down to their incredible character animation. Nintendo don’t often use a lot of traditional animation techniques like squash and stretch in their games, but Next Level do and it makes their work stand out from the crowd.

I’d love to see Next Level tackle a Wario game next. He’s just a fun, expressive, cartoony character that’d fit well with their style; and his animations in Battle League are like a small window into that potential.
Imagine Super Mario Odyssey 2 with Mario/Luigi/Peach/Rosalina/platforming/animations helped by NLG 🥵🥵🥵🥵
 
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Horror games are something that Nintendo has always tried to get but without any long term success of any horror franchise related to Nintendo. I’d imagine they will try again because it seems something they always have wanted but none of the in-house devs probably are fit for it (due to being busy or making different type of games) so they will need to find someone outside the Nintendo umbrella which is always ‘hard’ for Nintendo to do in the sense of them trusting and being happy with the 3rd party.
I think the most successful examples were timed exclusives like Resident Evil 4 and Revelations.
Eternal Darkness is acclaimed but flopped commercially.
They did try Fatal Frame, but not marketing well and regional releases didn't do it any favors.
Metroid Dread kinda fits the horror genre?? Definitely more than some Resident Evil games LOL. Metroid Fusion too. This atmospheric horror/psychological horror/tension was quite something. They can deeper that in Prime 4 with isolation. And in future 2D Metroids.
Luigi's Mansion, if taken away comedy, can have some jumpscares, idk. Maybe they can use this as a blanket, use other characters and change the atmosphere.
 
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Lol I remember back in 2014 when I was one of those edgy guys trying to act cool and just went "WOOOOOOW" with Devil's Third E3 trailer. Now I'm like: 😑.

But isn't Geist a good game? Idk, never played it but some people seem to like it - unlike Devil's Third lol.

Geist is one of the most disappointing games I've played. Awful game and a huge waste of potential.
 
Fatal Frame 5 re-release did better than expected and was a success but it was multiplatform which means Nintendo allowed KT to release it as multiplat (similar situation as W101) which means no plans from Nintendo part in the future for the franchise, they wouldn’t allow FF5 to be multiplatform if they planned ever to fund/co-dev FF6 or another FF game in general.
I mean, they did allow even the new voice lines or something of the Bayo 1 WiiU version for the multiplat re-release, and at the same time they had Bayo 2 and now 3 as exclusives and sure have plans to keep going.
Idk, maybe they just didn't care or got some royalties from the sales? Or were searching for the potential of the series?
I don't think they'll give up on it honestly. Unless they have something horror -themed to try.
 
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Don't know if I'm reading too much into it but the "didn't feel like a Xenoblade Chronicles at all at first" makes me feel like maybe the medieval stuff turned into XBC3?
It definitely didn't. This is more about lacking some of the little parts that make Xenoblade have its feel
 
Dude, i said "smaller" part of the franchise. If retro was to make donkey kong again they would tackle 3d dk.

Furthermore, it doesnt mixes with what nintendo seems to be doing with retro - investing on the studio to become an studio that only makes expansive games


And if they got tired of dk by tf i dont think they will feel like returning to it soon. I know, not the point of the convo. Just adding.
You said "less successful/acclaimed part of a franchise," which had me confused whether you were comparing it to other franchises or DK as a whole as the DKC series is the most successful and acclaim part of the Donkey Kong IP.

I see what you're saying now. I disagree with it, but I see what you're saying.
 
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I still feel like PlayTonic could have become a good new home for Donkey Kong had Nintendo tried to court them early on but I guess (n)either was interested enough in it to make it happen and now it's probably too late.
 
This is good to see. I know there's a lot of investment happening for EPD, but I'm really hoping Nintendo's other internal divisions and subsidiaries benefit, too. Monolith Soft have obviously mushroomed in recent years and Retro have been hiring a lot, but NST and NERD could become hubs for American and European talent. It's not like they're going to become massive or anything, but each of them doing more than relatively small projects would be great.

NERD especially have done some interesting technical work, so you'd think more investment there could help Nintendo come up with more peripheral based games as well as continued emulation on NSO.
 
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I still feel like PlayTonic could have become a good new home for Donkey Kong had Nintendo tried to court them early on but I guess (n)either was interested enough in it to make it happen and now it's probably too late.
I bet they are happy with doing their own thing. Also at the end of the day their team isn't really big and Nintendo would have to make them a bigger studio then they are right now. A EPD Tokyo DK is honestly the best case scenario for the franchise either way. I really hope the rumors are true.
 
I bet they are happy with doing their own thing. Also at the end of the day their team isn't really big and Nintendo would have to make them a bigger studio then they are right now. A EPD Tokyo DK is honestly the best case scenario for the franchise either way. I really hope the rumors are true.
Oh, definitely. But, uh, just for reference: PlayTonic was founded after Tropical Freeze came out 🙃
 
I know but I don't get how that changes anything of what I said tho :unsure:
My point is that in my hypothetical scenario size wouldn't really be much of a concern anymore. They've also made two games (one okay, one very good) since then while we're still waiting for this mythical EPD Donkey Kong game that might not even exist. Hell, they might put out their third game before we see the next Donkey Kong so I struggle to see this as a "best case scenario".
 
My point is that in my hypothetical scenario size wouldn't really be much of a concern anymore. They've also made two games (one okay, one very good) since then while we're still waiting for this mythical EPD Donkey Kong game that might not even exist. Hell, they might put out their third game before we see the next Donkey Kong so I struggle to see this as a "best case scenario".
I see it as a best case scenario because EPD Tokyo are one of the best developers in the world. Not because of efficiency or anything. IMO of course.

A new, modern DK needs a bigger team and more budget then anything Playtonic can provide or make at the moment.

Tropical Freeze set the bar pretty high presentation wise compred to Yooka-Laylee for example.
 
I see it as a best case scenario because EPD Tokyo are one of the best developers in the world. Not because of efficiency or anything. IMO of course.

A new, modern DK needs a bigger team and more budget then anything Playtonic can provide or make at the moment.

Tropical Freeze set the bar pretty high presentation wise compred to Yooka-Laylee for example.
But I’m not talking about PlayTonic as it exists today without the backing of one of the biggest publishers.
 
I see it as a best case scenario because EPD Tokyo are one of the best developers in the world. Not because of efficiency or anything. IMO of course.

A new, modern DK needs a bigger team and more budget then anything Playtonic can provide or make at the moment.

Tropical Freeze set the bar pretty high presentation wise compred to Yooka-Laylee for example.
You can’t compare Playtonic own games versus what they could do under Nintendo budget, if you want an example of this compare NLG games with Nintendo publishing versus other publishers. Still think that for DK the best is to create a internal team in EPD to make DK games due to the importance of the IP being too big (imo) to depend on a 3rd party to make it if it can be avoided.
 
You can’t compare Playtonic own games versus what they could do under Nintendo budget, if you want an example of this compare NLG games with Nintendo publishing versus other publishers. Still think that for DK the best is to create a internal team in EPD to make DK games due to the importance of the IP being too big (imo) to depend on a 3rd party to make it if it can be avoided.
NLG is literally decades old with an organically grown staff. Playtonic was made out of 6 people who didn't make a platformer for decades.

Like why would Nintendo take these guys and grow a big developer studio out of them because they made DKC back in the 90's? DK being at a first party in Japan again is the best case scenario and nobody can convince me otherwise
 
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I believe it was Miyamoto who once said, "an EPD Tokyo DK would eventually be good. A PlayTonic DK would be mediocre forever."

with the addendum "if it actually existed lmao"

yeah but you don't just make a big ass developer studio out of 6 unproven folks. The last 2D platformer they made was DKC in the 90.
I don't think it would have been likely for Nintendo to back them from the jump but we saw footage from Yooka-Laylee as early as 2015.

Maybe they could have put the money they pumped into Retro for the past ~8 years with nothing to show for it to better use. 🤭
 
I don't think it would have been likely for Nintendo to back them from the jump but we saw footage from Yooka-Laylee as early as 2015.

Maybe they could have put the money they pumped into Retro for the past ~8 years with nothing to show for it to better use. 🤭
How fast do you think a new studio is ready to go to make a modern high budget title? This takes probably years of putting resources into unproven developers. They are based in the UK so good luck finding enough devs for a 2D platformer of all things.
 
I would not rule out Playtonic with Nintendo backing. Nintendo has proven that they can support games from external developers with shaky track records. Like MercurySteam with Metroid did not seem like a perfect fit based alone on the quality of their Castlevania games.
 
I would not rule out Playtonic with Nintendo backing. Nintendo has proven that they can support games from external developers with shaky track records. Like MercurySteam with Metroid did not seem like a perfect fit based alone on the quality of their Castlevania games.
Mercury Steam has first of all Metroidvania experience and second of all already a staff of over 100 people.
 
I guess the crux of it is the question of whether the experience of the veterans at PlayTonic would be worth funding rather than starting something from scratch. That's not a question I can answer, having not played their good game. I've played a bit of their crappy one though, and I'm glad that wasn't on shelves for $60 with Donkey Kong in it.
 
Mercury Steam has first of all Metroidvania experience and second of all already a staff of over 100.

Playtonic is formed of people who actually made the original Donkey Kong Countrys. If we are comparing Playtonic to MercurySteams before they got a shot at Metroid it's clear Playtonic has the better resume.
 
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Kazunari Yuki
Rie Ota
Tetsuya Tohara
Kana Hagiri
Jinichi Ito
Masashi Yoshimura
Motohiro Sasaki
Yuka Nomoto

Studio Hotaru CO., LTD.
Zhao Yupeng
Kito Ogihara
Guo Yongchao
Yang Chenyi
Michihide Tsubota

STUDIO TRIGGER Inc.
Atsushi Kitagawa

Subako Inc.
Tetsuya Kobayasi
Naoko Hara
Akihiro Miura
Yuuji Wada
Yuusuke Uchida

Thoris Co., Ltd.
Ryo Anahara
Jindo Mori
Chalise Hari
Koji Iwase
Mikako Kasagi
Tsurugi Katsuki
Shun Koyama
Yukihito Sabae
Hiroaki Tagami
Sana Nakamura
Yuta Hakoda
Seiji Muramatsu
Eduardo M. R.

Planning

Field Planners
Masahiro Iwamoto
Yutaka Egawa
Tomonori Kawazoe
Yuichiro Tsumita
Tomoki Yamamura
Ayuri Satoh
Yusuke Kiuchi
Yuji Okamura
Taichi Kawano
Junpei Suzaki
Takuma Amano
Shunya Handa
Rikito Handa

Shota Abe
Itsumi Hori
Hiroshi Konishi
Atsuko Oode
Hiroko Gunji
Kanae Nakayama

Ryoji Tanaka
Chika Amemiya
Kengo Yuasa
Shinji Kawata

Battle Planners
Mitsuhiro Hagi
Takeo Enomoto
Daisuke Yoshinaga
Shuhei Oga
Yuta Fujisaki

UI Planner
Makoto Shimamoto

System Planners
Koji Hayashi
Keiichi Takano

Sound Planner
Yutaka Kunigo

Cutscenes

Cutscene Director
Mamoru Ota

Project Manager
Atsuo Nozaki

Cutscene Production
Norihiro Takami
Rena Ohki
Dai Ito

Katagawa Tadahiro

Graphinica, Inc.

Cutscene Director
Hiroshi Shirai

Cutscene Animation Chief Director
Shinichi Miyakaze

Cutscene Animation Directors
Hidehito Yamamoto
Kouki Hori
Shigetaka Ushida

Cutscene Storyboard Artists
Hiroshi Shirai
Ryuta Ono
Koko Yamazaki
Kenji Setou

Script Event Storyboard Artists
Kouji Houri

Testing
Sadanori Kaneda

3DCG Animators
Koji Nakahata
Ryunosuke Tachibana
Shusaku Ishida
Takato Sato
Takashi Yokoya
Masahisa Adachi
Masato Matsumoto
Midori Nakano
Ayane Ando
Ryohei Suzuki
Saeko Yaginuma
Musashi Miura
Hiromitsu Miyashita
Mahito Kuwazuru
Yoshihiro Yuki
Shun Kumagai
Tetsuya Kouzuma
Mengyao Zhang
Tomomi Sato
Tatsuro Sasaki
Tsuyoshi Uno
Nanako Kumagai
Yoko Ishii
Mayu Nakano
Yoko Aki
Julius Kosasih
Koji Kawaguchi
Himeri Tani

3DCG Producers
Hirotsugu Shimoyama

3DCG Desk
Yuji Sakata

Managers
Tatsuya Maki
Ken Taguma
Kentaroh Nishimura

Production Managers
Asuka Ueno
Tsukasa Ishikawa
Kumiya Somekawa
Erina Chikaizumi
Shuto Hoshino
Miki Shinagawa
Hiroki Tsuchiya
Mio Hisada
Takahiro Tsuzuki

asura film co., ltd.
Haruki Akamine
Itaru Kajita
Yasuto Kanazawa
Junzo Takahashi
Satoshi Hayakawa
Tomoya Higa
Syogo Miyagi
Minami Uchida
Chizuru Mita
Yoko Mita

Cutscene Support

ANIMA Inc.
Naoto Kimura
Takaya Iwamoto
Masahiro Nishimura
Midzuki Terada
Makoto Seki
Shouhei Kiuchi

FANTASISTA, INC.
Hirotaka Obata
Masataka Aida
Hideaki Nagai

Ignis Imageworks.Corp.
Tetsuya Kobayashi
Misato Usui
Masaaki Hasegawa
Mariko Egawa
Hidetomo Kanemaki
Yoko Konno
Koji Ogawa
Yudai Aratake
Hanson Villian

INAZUMA Animation Studio
Makoto Suzuki
Miki Nakahara
Yuka Hayashi
Leona Ogura

Optical Force, Inc.
Tsubasa Kuwabara
Kenta Kiryu
Ririko Tekmiya
Shinryu Shinzawa
Hirotsune Kouno

RIOT Visualization Co., Ltd.
Kimihiro Ueno
Hiroyuki Okuyama
Satoshi Negishi
Hirotoki Inomata
Takuya Goto

RIZ Inc.
Yuya Matsumoto
Kouki Tenma
Kaname Toshima

SAMURAI PICTURES, Inc.
Kenya Taniguchi
Takayuki Sato
Takeru Midorikawa
Takuya Hashimoto
Teiko Murakami
Ryota Nagashima
Tatsuya Sekiya
Hiroyuki Kusama
Ryo Yamaguchi

studio VOXEL
Takashi Sakamoto
Yoshiaki Shimatsu
Kentaro Shiomitsu

TYUTYU Ltd.
Kiyoshi Okuyama
Tomomi Koike
Tomokazu Ohara
Chihiro Nitta
Chisaki Sato
Minoru Kida

WAO WORLD
Masumi Reisen
Masanori Asano
Hui Zhang
Naoya Katsura
Keisuke Tahara
Kei Murayama
Kazuya Nishimura
Tomomi Kaneko
Kouhei Satou
Kazuhiko Yoshida
Meng Xiao Cai

Zinou Pharmaceutics, Inc.
Koichi Nobuta
Ryo Yamazaki
Yusuke Hirota
Yutaka Iwama
Miura
Shota Deguchi
Nobuo Hosoyama
Tatsuki Suzuki
Chay Lyn Lyn
Takuya Oki
Akane Osawa
Ryouya Ishikawa
Rimika Kumazaki
Miyu Higuchi
Ayumu Fuke

Script Event

Script Event Director
Emi Takano

Project Manager
Syo Togawa

Script Event Production
Hideki Tanaka
Hayato Nikawa
Yuki Sekiguchi
Ako Ito
Hikaru Katsuda

Yasuhiro Matsuda

Graphinica, Inc.

Script Event Storyboard Artists
Hiroshi Aoyama
Takaaki Ishiyama
Kei Umabiki
Yutaka Kagawa
Ko Soung Cheol
Kenya Kodama
Daisuke Shimamura
Yuka Takahashi
Kiyoto Nakajima
Shinnosuke Tonaka
Hiroshi Hara
Koko Yamazaki

Production Managers
Kenya Kodama
Kiyoto Nakajima
Shyohei Anzai

Productino Support
Koutaroh Horiguchi
Keisuke Futagi
Min Seong Cheon

Script Event Support

QREAZY CO., LTD.
Tsubasa Okuda
Ai Kato
Kenta Suzuki
Kie Shimizu
Ting-wei Tsao
Mayumi Fujii
Yuki Furuya
Wei-hsuan Wang

Motion Capture

quack-luck Inc.

Motion Capture Actors
Katsuyuki Yamazaki
Naomi Taniyama
Ami Ikenaga
Keigo Kitamura
Yoshino Imamura
Atsushi Ohkawa

Koji Shirahama
Takumi Yamada
Kai Kitamura
Kisuke Hara
Masahiro Kuranuki
Kaori Kawabuchi
Ami Nakano
Chikako Hashimoto
Tsubasa Honda
Keiko Wakao
Daiki Suzuki
Kenya Hirano

Stunt Coordinators
Sanshiro Wada
Yoshio Miyaki

Stunt Coordinator Assistants
Meito Abe
Saori Izawa

Motion Capture Support

Digital Frontier Inc.
Susumu Fujihara
Kazuhiko Watanabe
Kohki Koshita
Ami Kurita
Tatsuya Saito
Risa Arakawa
Chie Kashiwabara
Yusuke Saheki
Kento Katsuma
Tetsuaki Fujii
Takatoshi Yoshikane
Keitaro Hamabe
Daisuke Kobayashi
Yuji Sato
Chieri Ishimaru
Takehito Watanabe

Support Engineer
Toru Honbu
Shuhei Arai
Joe Morita
Mitsuhiro Hirose
Naruto Suzuki
Hideki Kinoshita
Keita Sugawara
Takamiya
Yuri Sato
Yoshihisa Ishihara


Artwork
Hoonkyung Lee

Special Thanks
Nanami Tsuruta
Ayako Moriwaki
Hitoshi Yamagami

Character Supervisors
Takeshi Tateishi
Fumiko Miyamoto

Product Artwork
Yuki Ijiri
Osamu Nagai

Testing
Mario Club Co., Ltd.
Shigeo Takada
Rika Imaeda
Takahiko Kono
Masaki Furukawa
Ryuji Hamaguchi

NOA Product Testing
Sebastian Galloway
Takashi Baker
Amanda Barrera
Frank Caraan
Jake Lokholm

Pole To Win Co., Ltd

Technical Support
Tomohiro Umeda
Takehiro Oyama
Shuhei Furukawa
Kyohei Minato
Hiroaki Gohara

Production Managers
Takako Shijo
Ryuhei Nakao
Masae Takatsuki
Hazuki Sannomiya
Ayako Yoshioka

Project Managers
Shinya Saito
Akira Kinashi

Directors
Koh Kojima
Genki Yokota

Co-Producer
Yuki Sakamoto

Producers
Koh Kojima
Genki Yokota

Tomohiro Hagiwara

Katsuya Eguchi
Toyokazu Nonaka

General Producers
Hirohide Sugiura
Shinya Takahashi

Executive Producer
Shuntaro Furukawa

Executive Director
Tetsuya Takahashi
That's one huge amount of people. This game must be something else but still finishing 2.
 
Playtonic is formed of people who actually made the original Donkey Kong Countrys. If we are comparing Playtonic to MercurySteams before they got a shot at Metroid it's clear Playtonic has the better resume.
This is not about resume, its about realistic investements. No company does this. No big publisher forms a studio for devs who made great platformers 20 years prior in time. These guys are talented for sure. But what is the rationality behind giving them a new studio instead of putting these resources into intern developer houses that have a better resume and experience? Like I don't get it. I really don't.
 
0
Tokyo hired people for a 2D game. Donkey Kong or not, they're definitely putting effort into expanding internal development
 


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