shmuplations posts from patreon

Fantasy Zone - 2014 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/fantasyzone/ Yoji Ishii is one of the luminaries of Sega history, acting as a director and designer on early arcade titles like Flicky and Fantasy Zone before moving into a producer role for titles like Ristar, Panzer Dragoon, and more. In this interview Ishii gives a detailed account of how Fantasy Zone was created. He also offers a truly unique view of Sega in the mid-80s: years before the M...

2015-04-01 15:50:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Kinu Nishimura – Capcom Designer Interview

http://www.shmuplations.com/kinunishimura Kinu Nishimura was a character designer and illustrator at Capcom from 1991 to 2008. She worked on many of Capcom’s well-known arcade titles, including Street Fighter II and Shadow over Mystara. Recently she has worked on Code of Princess and Gundam Reconguista in G. This interview was originally featured in the Capcom Design Works artbook published in 2001. I have incl...

2015-03-25 01:23:18 +0000 UTC View Post

Mushihimesama Futari - 2006 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/mushifutari/ This Mushihimesama Futari interview from 2006 was something I did as a fun tribute to Futari for winning the annual “Top 25 Shmups of All Time” at shmupsforum. The interview is short, so I’ve added liner note comments from composers Manabu Namiki and Kimihiro Abe. I also translated the in-game dialogue between Reco and Palm, which I don’t believe has been made available in E...

2015-03-19 19:41:28 +0000 UTC View Post

Gokujou Parodius - 1994 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/parodius/ This lengthy and humorous interview with the Gokujou Parodius development team was originally featured in a mook published by Gamest in 1994. Gokujou Parodius was the second Parodius game released for arcade, and this interview shows the big difference between 1990 (pre-SFII, when Parodius Da! was released) and 1994, when most game centers were caught up in “fighting game mania.” Stag...

2015-03-18 17:07:26 +0000 UTC View Post

1986 Game Music Round Table Interview

http://www.shmuplations.com/gamemusic1986 This candid interview with several early game music composers first appeared in the 6/86 issue of Beep Magazine. It features an extremely young Yoshiki Okamoto and Capcom's early composer star, Ayako Mori (of Ghosts and Goblins fame). The phenomenon of game music was just starting to take off, and popular songs like the Mario theme feature in the discussion. I've also inc...

2015-03-10 22:16:26 +0000 UTC View Post

ICO Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/ico/ The first and shorter of these two ICO interviews covers director Fumito Ueda’s development philosophy and several of the challenges of making an unconventional game like ICO. The second interview was conducted in 2011 at special fan event called “Great Scene Sharing” in Japan. For this event, fans voted on their favorite scenes from ICO and Shadow of the Colossus, and Ueda (along with spec...

2015-03-04 19:47:32 +0000 UTC View Post

Policenauts - 1996 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/policenauts In this short Policenauts interview from 1996, director Hideo Kojima discusses his themes for the game, the Saturn port, and his aspirations with adventure games generally. I also have two other Policenauts interviews (one with Mamoru Oshii) that make nice companion pieces, which I will be translating soon. That concludes February's translations: don't forget to vote in the next coup...

2015-02-26 20:00:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Wolf Team - 1990/1991 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/wolfteam/ Three short Wolf Team interviews, arranged chronologically from 1990 to 1991, offering a look at the business concerns of a third-party developer amid the shifting sands of the 16-bit era. Also included is a short interview focusing on the Genesis/X68000 tank shmup, Granada.

2015-02-24 19:07:31 +0000 UTC View Post

Grandia - 1997 Developer Interview Collection

http://www.shmuplations.com/grandia Here are two 1997 Grandia interviews (one pre-release and one post-release). Developers Takeshi Miyaji and Hidenobu Takahashi discuss various aspects of the seminal psx/saturn RPG, from its origins to their approach to characters and world-building.

2015-02-24 19:03:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Triangle Service - 2013 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/triangleservice This lengthy interview with director Toshiaki Fujino and composer Naoto covers both their 10 year history and their pre-Triangle Service time at Konami and elsewhere. In addition to explaining certain design choices in DeltaZeal and XIIZeal, Fujino gives his unique perspective as one of the few independent companies making STGs in the last 15 years.

2015-02-17 19:21:25 +0000 UTC View Post

Yoshio Kiya - 1987 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/yoshiokiya/ A short but sweet 1987 interview with Nihon Falcom developer Yoshio Kiya, covering his games up to Sorcerian, which was in production at this time. This is the first of the patron-voted interviews for the month! Stay tuned for Grandia, Wolf Team, and Triangle Service interviews later this month! You can see the results of voting, and vote on next month's translations here: 2015-02-09 21:11:37 +0000 UTC View Post

The Possibilities of Adventure Games - 1987 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/adventuregames A very cool historical interview from 1987, with Rika Suzuki of Riverhillsoft and Yuji Horii of Enix discussing the potential for Japanese adventure games. This concludes the special set of 7 commemorative translations for the Patreon launch. Enjoy, and don't forget to vote for next month translations!

2015-01-29 20:02:38 +0000 UTC View Post