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

Reader mode
there's two Hiroyuki Ito's at Square Enix. I forgot what game it was, but people thought Ito was promoted from being janitor finally
 
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mariodk18 said:
Speaking of which, how did Tanabe manage to become a senior officer when his only directing role was Doki Doki Panic and a bit of course design in SMB3? After that he did a decade of advising/supervising and managed to become a key producer within Nintendo. Not only that, but he seemed to become a co-director of sorts (like many other JP producers) for Paper Mario titles (designing the battle system for PM:TOK).
Click to expand...
Basically, Tanabe was with EAD, EAD assisted with some externally produced games, when Tanabe's boss retired he got promoted.

During the N64/GC era Nintendo started to produce a lot games externally. Roughly, we can split them in three categories:
  • Games produced by Takehiro Izushi from Nintendo R&D1, developed by external teams with strong ties with R&D1 like Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Wars) or TOSE (Sin & Punishment, Game & Watch Gallery); EDIT: Sin & Punishment is Treasure's, of course. Brainfarted
  • Big productions supervised by Nintendo EAD, namely by Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Miki, like the Kirby games, Chibi-Robo!, Paper Mario, Smash Bros., the Rare games;
  • More "casual" games under Shinji Hatano's watch (who came from the marketing department, iirc), like Mario Party or Mario Tennis.

As you can see, games from the second category are the most "Miyamoto-ish". Around 2004 Nintendo was restructured, Izushi and Miki retired, Miyamoto and Hatano were promoted and each of these categories got a dedicated Production Group: SPD2, led by Hitoshi Yamagami from R&D1, SPD3, led by Kensuke Tanabe from EAD, and SPD4, led by Hiroshi Sato. Yamagami, Tanabe and Sato already worked under Izushi, Miki & Miyamato and Hatano.

Why was Tanabe working with those externally produced games? While working at Nintendo, he had some problems staying focused and got burned out easily, as he said in this interview.
"To be honest, I wasn't going to work very often," he says. "It had kind of worn me out. And I was drinking too much."

Tanabe, now 48, joined Nintendo out of college in 1987. Very soon after, he found himself doing high-pressure work, including directing Super Mario Bros. 2. As Tanabe began to burn out, he took on responsibilities that were less enormous. One of these was writing the Japanese script for the original Donkey Kong Country, a 1994 game produced in England by developer Rare.

At home in Kyoto, Tanabe wrote the Japanese text for the game, "mostly ignoring the translation," he says with a laugh. "When it was time to take this Japanese-language data and implement it into the game, I went to Rare with it and was part of the editing process."

Rare had its offices in Twycross, nestled in the sheep-dotted English countryside a four-hour drive from Heathrow Airport. He was far from home.

Tanabe says his bosses discovered something about him: When he went to work abroad, he concentrated on his work and didn't play hooky.

"For someone who wasn't going to work all the time, when I did have to deal with people outside the company, I seemed to shape up, so they kept sending me out to do these jobs," he says.
Click to expand...

Also, how did Shinya Takahashi become General Manager of EPD after only directing Wave Race 64 and various CG model/mocap stuff? Every other deputy manager or senior officer- Eguchi, Aonuma, Nogami, Koizumi, Tezuka, Sakomoto- all either directed or had major roles in multiple games over several years minimum. What did Takahashi and Tanabe in particular do that landed them the positions they have today?
Click to expand...
He helped with CG when CG was an uncharted territory, and during the development of Pokémon Stadium he understood he preferred coordinating people instead of directly working on games. He tells his story in this interview.

“It was my first step, really, into game development,” Takahashi tells me via a translator, describing the explorative period in the mid-1990s when Nintendo was making its paradigmatic leap from the 16-bit 2D graphics of the Super Nintendo to the Nintendo 64’s state-of-the-art 3D vistas. Wave Race 64 arrived shortly after the Nintendo 64’s September 1996 debut, showcasing the system’s visual prowess by letting players jet-ski across astonishingly naturalistic waves, their plausible swells and dips made possible by a then-unprecedented custom Silicon Graphics chip.


“The reason I wound up on Wave Race was because of my work in 3D graphics,” Takahashi explains. “It all started sitting down with these engineers who only had experience with the Famicom and the Super Famicom [the Japanese names for Nintendo’s 8-bit NES and 16-bit Super NES consoles] and the 2D graphics there. We just plopped an SGI [Silicon Graphics, Inc.] machine in front of them and sat down and said, ‘How are we going to make something with this?'”


Takahashi was already donning different hats, both designing and coordinating work by the rest of the team. “It didn’t matter whether they were new or they’d been here for years, we had the engineers working with the designers, all lined up at the same starting point with zero experience. And then I was helping to pull them along,” he says. According to Takahashi, it was he and Yoshiaki Koizumi who effectively pulled Nintendo into the 3D era, essentially thanks to their enthusiasm for 3D graphics.

[...]

Each story Shinya Takahashi tells about his tenure with Nintendo involves a kind of high-wire managerial untangling act. For instance, when Nintendo opted to build a Pokémon game for its Nintendo 64 (a task Takahashi describes as “dropped down on us from heaven”), the designers had to create hundreds of distinct character models with signature animations on “a very limited amount of time.”


Short-staffed, with many lacking 3D design expertise, Nintendo began outsourcing help from contractors in Kyoto and Tokyo, making Pokémon Stadium the first Nintendo game in which design groups collaborated from different physical locations. This was terra incognito for the company. Takahashi’s charge was to streamline that process. “I look back at Pokémon Stadium less in terms of the game design, and more in terms of that being the role where I learned the most about team management and team operations,” he says.
Click to expand...
 
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Feel like it'd be worth taking a look at all the announced / confirmed projects without any sort of release window, just to speculate about which of them we'll be seeing first.
  • Metroid Prime 4
    • Announced during E3 in June 2017; reboot / dev switch confirmed in January 2019. Last referenced during E3 2021.
  • Sequel to Detective Pikachu
    • Announced in May 2019 (no logo, no other details beyond platform). Last referenced in Creatures recruitment article published in February 2022.
  • Pikmin 4
    • Mentioned by Shigeru Miyamoto in July 2015; further confirmed to exist in a Nintendo PR response to Eurogamer in June 2017. Status unkown.
  • 2D Action Game (EPD Kyoto)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in October 2019.
  • 3D Action Game (EPD Tokyo)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in October 2019.
  • 2D Action Game (EPD Tokyo)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in August 2020.
  • Girls Mode (Style Savvy / Style Boutique) 5
    • Practically confirmed via Syn Sophia job recruitment, posted in December 2020. "Interest in fashion design" and project with "global appeal" wouldn't line up with any of their other previous works.
  • Unkown port by Vanpool
    • Confirmed via outsource work listing for a Background Artist; genre "Action"; looking for experience in NintendoWare Bezel Engine.
  • Unkown new title by Grezzo
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for multiple positions. Described as "a new original work", "medieval and stylish", visuals not photorealistic but incorporates "real elements"; looking for experience in Unreal Engine / Unity.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered
    • Currently only a rumor (from reliable sources), but contract staff leaving Retro around September 2021 could corroborate these rumors.
Not much to say about Everybody’s 1-2-Switch and Fire Emblem 18/19, since those are all exclusively in the rumor-mill currently and can't be taken as facts regardless of the source.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Basically, Tanabe was with EAD, EAD assisted with some externally produced games, when Tanabe's boss retired he got promoted.

During the N64/GC era Nintendo started to heavenly produce games externally. Roughly, we can split them in three categories:
  • Games produced by Takehiro Izushi from Nintendo R&D1, developed by external teams with strong ties with R&D1 like Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Wars) or TOSE (Sin & Punishment, Game & Watch Gallery);
  • Big productions supervised by Nintendo EAD, namely by Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Miki, like the Kirby games, Chibi-Robo!, Paper Mario, Smash Bros., the Rare games;
  • More "casual" games under Shinji Hatano's watch (who came from the marketing department, iirc), like Mario Party or Mario Tennis.
Click to expand...
Yup, External game development at Nintendo in the Yamauchi days was handled at a department level. EAD, R&D1, and the Marketing department each had their own external game development unit. It wasn't until Iwata established SPD that there became a dedicated group of studios for external development, leaving a now restructured EAD to focus purely on internally developed titles.

I'd also like to mention that Iwata's reasons for establishing SPD was to wrestle more control of Nintendo's games away from EAD, as they eventually became (with a few exceptions), the only internal department within Nintendo supporting the N64 and GameCube. Yoshio Sakamoto said that Iwata even admitted that leaving everything up to Miyamoto would result in Nintendo "only going down one path". SPD was established to make Nintendo a more diverse publisher.
 
0
mariodk18 said:
How likely is it that Kyogoku gets promoted to a Deputy General Manager alongside Aonuma, Nogami, Eguchi, etc.? Would be nice to have a woman among Nintendo's key people. Also would be nice to have a female narrator for JP Directs Especially after all she's done with ACNH. Other developers got promoted for less.

Speaking of which, how did Tanabe manage to become a senior officer when his only directing role was Doki Doki Panic and a bit of course design in SMB3? After that he did a decade of advising/supervising and managed to become a key producer within Nintendo. Not only that, but he seemed to become a co-director of sorts (like many other JP producers) for Paper Mario titles (designing the battle system for PM:TOK).

Also, how did Shinya Takahashi become General Manager of EPD after only directing Wave Race 64 and various CG model/mocap stuff? Every other deputy manager or senior officer- Eguchi, Aonuma, Nogami, Koizumi, Tezuka, Sakomoto- all either directed or had major roles in multiple games over several years minimum. What did Takahashi and Tanabe in particular do that landed them the positions they have today?
Click to expand...
producers seem to be more involved in active game development in Nintendo versus most other companies
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Basically, Tanabe was with EAD, EAD assisted with some externally produced games, when Tanabe's boss retired he got promoted.

During the N64/GC era Nintendo started to produce a lot games externally. Roughly, we can split them in three categories:
  • Games produced by Takehiro Izushi from Nintendo R&D1, developed by external teams with strong ties with R&D1 like Intelligent Systems (Fire Emblem, Wars) or TOSE (Sin & Punishment, Game & Watch Gallery);
  • Big productions supervised by Nintendo EAD, namely by Shigeru Miyamoto and Kenji Miki, like the Kirby games, Chibi-Robo!, Paper Mario, Smash Bros., the Rare games;
  • More "casual" games under Shinji Hatano's watch (who came from the marketing department, iirc), like Mario Party or Mario Tennis.

As you can see, games from the second category are the most "Miyamoto-ish". Around 2004 Nintendo was restructured, Izushi and Miki retired, Miyamoto and Hatano were promoted and each of these categories got a dedicated Production Group: SPD2, led by Hitoshi Yamagami from R&D1, SPD3, led by Kensuke Tanabe from EAD, and SPD4, led by Hiroshi Sato. Yamagami, Tanabe and Sato already worked under Izushi, Miki & Miyamato and Hatano.

Why was Tanabe working with those externally produced games? While working at Nintendo, he had some problems staying focused and got burned out easily, as he said in this interview.



He helped with CG when CG was an uncharted territory, and during the development of Pokémon Stadium he understood he preferred coordinating people instead of directly working on games. He tells his story in this interview.
Click to expand...
Holy crap, thanks so much for the detailed response! Didn’t expect the answers to be so laid out like that. But I guess it makes sense that those two ended up in managerial roles given their seemingly natural talent for it.
 
0
MondoMega said:
Feel like it'd be worth taking a look at all the announced / confirmed projects without any sort of release window, just to speculate about which of them we'll be seeing first.
  • Metroid Prime 4
    • Announced during E3 in June 2017; reboot / dev switch confirmed in January 2019. Last referenced during E3 2021.
  • Sequel to Detective Pikachu
    • Announced in May 2019 (no logo, no other details beyond platform). Last referenced in Creatures recruitment article published in February 2022.
  • Pikmin 4
    • Mentioned by Shigeru Miyamoto in July 2015; further confirmed to exist in a Nintendo PR response to Eurogamer in June 2017. Status unkown.
  • 2D Action Game (EPD Kyoto)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in October 2019.
  • 3D Action Game (EPD Tokyo)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in October 2019.
  • 2D Action Game (EPD Tokyo)
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for a Level Designer, posted in August 2020.
  • Girls Mode (Style Savvy / Style Boutique) 5
    • Practically confirmed via Syn Sophia job recruitment, posted in December 2020. "Interest in fashion design" and project with "global appeal" wouldn't line up with any of their other previous works.
  • Unkown port by Vanpool
    • Confirmed via outsource work listing for a Background Artist; genre "Action"; looking for experience in NintendoWare Bezel Engine.
  • Unkown new title by Grezzo
    • Confirmed via job recruitment for multiple positions. Described as "a new original work", "medieval and stylish", visuals not photorealistic but incorporates "real elements"; looking for experience in Unreal Engine / Unity.
  • Metroid Prime Remastered
    • Currently only a rumor (from reliable sources), but contract staff leaving Retro around September 2021 could corroborate these rumors.
Not much to say about Everybody’s 1-2-Switch and Fire Emblem 18/19, since those are all exclusively in the rumor-mill currently and can't be taken as facts regardless of the source.
Click to expand...

Metroid Prime Remastered is releasing by November, so that has to be the next game we see out of this group. I think we’ll also get a quick look at Metroid Prime 4 at the same time, so let’s bundle those together. EPD Tokyo has to have a game ready at some point in the next 12 months and I’ll go with the 2D action game (likely DK). I think those three titles are the big E3 games alongside BOTW2 with everything else being shown at the Fall Direct or in 2023.
 
What does everybody expect in terns of New IP from Nintendo this year. They've been pushing for at least one major New IP since the Switch launched (with a few smaller ones), 2020 was an exception due to COVID. ARMS and Ever Oasis in 2017, Nintendo Labo and Sushi Striker in 2018, Astral Chain and Ring Fit-Adventure in 2019, and Game Builder Garage and Buddy Mission BOND in 2021. It's a bit disapointing that we didn't see any New IP announcements in the last Direct, so I'm hoping Nintendo has something in mind for later this year.
 
Captain Falcon said:
Metroid Prime Remastered is releasing by November, so that has to be the next game we see out of this group. I think we’ll also get a quick look at Metroid Prime 4 at the same time, so let’s bundle those together. EPD Tokyo has to have a game ready at some point in the next 12 months and I’ll go with the 2D action game (likely DK). I think those three titles are the big E3 games alongside BOTW2 with everything else being shown at the Fall Direct or in 2023.
Click to expand...
I don't mean to be a downer but we don't have any direct confirmation the game exists, right? Just want to make sure I didn't miss something.
 
Nabbit said:
I don't mean to be a downer but we don't have any direct confirmation the game exists, right? Just want to make sure I didn't miss something.
Click to expand...

Emily has basically confirmed it’s done and I believe Retro recently had some contractual workers finish their contacts. I’m pretty confident it’s legit and it’s highly likely it comes in time for the original’s 20th anniversary this November.
 
Captain Falcon said:
Emily has basically confirmed it’s done and I believe Retro recently had some contractual workers finish their contacts. I’m pretty confident it’s legit and it’s highly likely it comes in time for the original’s 20th anniversary this November.
Click to expand...
I gotcha, I see how that all lines up. Thanks for the info. 🙂
 
Hero of Legend said:
Apparently Chocobo GP was by none other than Arika. Wonder if it used the Bezel Engine like their 99 series games do, also explaining the exclusivity.
Click to expand...
Surprised to see them tackle a non-puzzle game like this one! (then again they have done non-puzzle games in the past so it's not completely left field) And yeah if it use Bezel Engine that would explain the Switch exclusive.
 
P.Scoop said:
Surprised to see them tackle a non-puzzle game like this one! (then again they have done non-puzzle games in the past so it's not completely left field) And yeah if it use Bezel Engine that would explain the Switch exclusive.
Click to expand...
It uses Unreal Engine (surely 4) apparently.
 
0
MagiCarbo said:
What does everybody expect in terns of New IP from Nintendo this year. They've been pushing for at least one major New IP since the Switch launched (with a few smaller ones), 2020 was an exception due to COVID. ARMS and Ever Oasis in 2017, Nintendo Labo and Sushi Striker in 2018, Astral Chain and Ring Fit-Adventure in 2019, and Game Builder Garage and Buddy Mission BOND in 2021. It's a bit disapointing that we didn't see any New IP announcements in the last Direct, so I'm hoping Nintendo has something in mind for later this year.
Click to expand...
If I am not mistaken some of these were announced in the first direct of the year, Astral Chain and SS, while BOND and Ring Fit were announced later in the year, granted BOND was reveal in Oct 2020 but released in 2021. Still mad we havent gotten that game localized....
 
SirArthur said:
If I am not mistaken some of these were announced in the first direct of the year, Astral Chain and SS, while BOND and Ring Fit were announced later in the year, granted BOND was reveal in Oct 2020 but released in 2021. Still mad we havent gotten that game localized....
Click to expand...
Maybe NoA is saving it coincide with a game where it'd make sense to release it with. IE, releasing it closer to Three Hopes. In any case, I want to see what Nintendo will have for a big New IP this year.
 
MagiCarbo said:
Maybe NoA is saving it coincide with a game where it'd make sense to release it with. IE, releasing it closer to Three Hopes. In any case, I want to see what Nintendo will have for a big New IP this year.
Click to expand...

That was my thought, since we are getting almost 2 switch games per month, and May and August don't even have one. So maybe that's their strategy
 
A patent for an Intelligent Systems game which was originally filed in Japan back in September 2020. Only two of the authors worked on Heroes.

Information Processing System, Non-transitory Computer-readable Storage Medium Having Stored Information Processing Program Therein, Information Processing Apparatus, And Information Processing Method Patent Application

U.S. Patent Application 20220067771 for Information Processing System, Non-transitory Computer-readable Storage Medium Having Stored Information Processing Program Therein, Information Processing Apparatus, And Information Processing Method
uspto.report uspto.report



Also, confirmation that Kenta Motokura, Shinya Hiratake, and Katsuyasu Ando worked on Bowser’s Fury.

Storage Medium Having Stored Therein Game Program, Game Apparatus, Game System, And Game Processing Method Patent Application

U.S. Patent Application 20220062762 for Storage Medium Having Stored Therein Game Program, Game Apparatus, Game System, And Game Processing Method
uspto.report uspto.report

 
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0
This could have already been talked about but it looks like Nintendo has been pantenting a way for users to stream games to a second Switch, similar to Share Play on PS4/5 if I’m reading it right.

US20210093952A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com

US20220040571A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com

US20220040571A1-20220210-D00000.png
Click to expand...
 
N75 said:
This could have already been talked about but it looks like Nintendo has been pantenting a way for users to stream games to a second Switch, similar to Share Play on PS4/5 if I’m reading it right.

US20210093952A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com

US20220040571A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com
Click to expand...
Oooooooh, could this allow for games like Nintendo Land to exist on Switch?!
 
Tye said:
Oooooooh, could this allow for games like Nintendo Land to exist on Switch?!
Click to expand...
Could you not just do this with local Wi-Fi? Always weird they never did this and have a portable Switch connect to a docked one for GamePad-like gameplay.
 
Quoted by: Tye
1
Hero of Legend said:
Could you not just do this with local Wi-Fi? Always weird they never did this and have a portable Switch connect to a docked one for GamePad-like gameplay.
Click to expand...
Well, PAC-MAN VS. shows that it’s absolutely possible (though to be fair I’ve had a number of connection issues with that game on Switch, so it may not be ideal) but Nintendo hasn’t done it themselves for whatever reason. So I wonder if this may be a better way to handle it?
 
The Dragalia Lost Radio Show is ending at the end of march




Also something interesting...

Creatures Inc. - Employee update February 7 2022 (Since last update November 16 2021)
Total employees - 207 (+29)
 
Last edited:
N75 said:
This could have already been talked about but it looks like Nintendo has been pantenting a way for users to stream games to a second Switch, similar to Share Play on PS4/5 if I’m reading it right.

US20210093952A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com

US20220040571A1 - Systems and methods of transferring state data for applications - Google Patents

A computer system that includes at least two game devices is provided. A first game device is used by a user to play a game and a second game device is used to receive state data regarding playing the game on the first game device. The state data is continuously applied to a game that is...
patents.google.com
Click to expand...

My first thought here was the mobile device connectivity for stinky horse person game...

"Become game playing device" bottom right
 
0
Yokaze said:
The Dragalia Lost Radio Show is ending at the end of march




Also something interesting...

Creatures Inc. - Employee update February 7 2022 (Since last update November 16 2021)
Total employees - 207 (+29)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the Creatures Inc. employee update!

Also, Platinum Games are now 291, which means -3 from previous 294. No changes in other companies.

I have update my post in page 3
 
N75 said:
I don't think TCGO was ever officially supported in Japan. I guess the local scenes are still strong?
Click to expand...
it's not and still isn't. it's a TPCi venture. I doubt local play has anything to do with it and just more of an ease of play deal. easier to get them to download a game than to buy non-existent (because of scalpers and those damn youtubers) packs at stores
 
0
nakuto said:
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
ILikeFeet said:
Detective Pikachu needs more bodies

also, I wish they were more involved with TCG Live
Click to expand...

I really do wonder what is happening with Detective Pikachu. It feels like it just up and disappeared after the announcement. I was really excited for it too - hope it’s trucking along in the right direction.
 
Chaotic Neutral said:
I really do wonder what is happening with Detective Pikachu. It feels like it just up and disappeared after the announcement. I was really excited for it too - hope it’s trucking along in the right direction.
Click to expand...
Since it was recently mentioned on their website, I'm not too worried. The full version of Detective Pikachu released in 2018, so it's been 4 years. COVID hit in the meantime, and Creatures also does support work for mainline titles. I imagine it will show up next year or so.
 
Zalman said:
Since it was recently mentioned on their website, I'm not too worried. The full version of Detective Pikachu released in 2018, so it's been 4 years. COVID hit in the meantime, and Creatures also does support work for mainline titles. I imagine it will show up next year or so.
Click to expand...

Oh, I missed that first part, actually! That’s great news!
 
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