shmuplations

Grandia - 1998 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/grandia1998/

These Grandia interviews all appeared in Sega Saturn Magazine in 1998. They make a nice companion read to the Grandia interviews I translated last year here. This time around, composer Noriyuki Iwadare and the char...

A Quick January Update

Greetings and a happy 2017 to all! The lack of updates this month may have already tipped you off, but I'm taking a break this January from translating in order to attend to some administrative tasks and, well, just to take a break! Many patrons and readers of shmuplations don't realize that the entire site is a one-man job, so ...

The Making of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

http://shmuplations.com/zeldalttp/

This Link to the Past interview originally appeared in the 1/92 edition of Famicom Tsuushin magazine. In typical Miyamoto fashion, it’s a combination of design insights into LttP specifically, and game design ge...

The Women of Game Design – 1990 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/womenofgamedesign/

This questionnaire-style interview was originally featured in the 10/90 edition of BEEP! Megadrive magazine. It’s both a fascinating cultural snapshot of the early video game industry in Japan, a...

The Making of Darius

http://shmuplations.com/darius/

This Darius feature originally appeared in the April 1987 edition of Japan’s famed BEEP! magazine. While I usually stick to “pure” interviews for shmuplations, the content of this one was interesting enough to merit tr...

Toaplan Game Music – Composer Interview Collection

http://shmuplations.com/toaplanmusic/

These composer remarks/interviews were compiled from liner notes of the many Toaplan cds released over the years from 1987-1992. In addition to general musings and the usual self-deprecation, there's also some ne...

Koji Kondo – 2001 Composer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/kojikondo/

This lengthy interview with famous Nintendo composer Koji Kondo was originally featured in the jp book series game maestro. It looks back on Kondo’s musical history both personal and professional, going from his earl...

Final Fantasy VI – 1994 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/ff6/

These Final Fantasy VI interviews first appeared in the 1994 editions of Game-On and Hippon Super magazines; I have joined them together and slightly edited them for content and readability. Although some names will be known to Fi...

Kazuma Kaneko x Tomomi Kobayashi – Designer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/kobayashikaneko/

This candid, wide-ranging interview between lauded designers Tomomi Kobayashi and Kazuma Kaneko first appeared in Game Hihyou magazine in 1996. Although very different designers, the conversation finds...

Real Bout Fatal Fury – 1995 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/realboutfatalfury/

This Real Bout Fatal Fury interview first appeared in an official strategy guide in 1995. I’ve supplemented it with concept art and a few additional tidbits of information from Neo Geo Freak maga...

What is Game Design? Three Perspectives

http://shmuplations.com/whatisgamedesign/

This interview originally appeared in the 1996 omnibus edition of Game Hihyou magazine. It was written in a hybrid article/interview format, so I have retained some of the original writer's framing. ...

Thunder Force III – Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/thunderforceiii/

This interview with Technosoft alumni Naosuke Arai is excerpted from a longer feature at Famitsu discussing the release of the 3DS Thunder Force III remaster. Since very little is known about the makin...

Art of Fighting 2 – 1994 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/aof2/

This short Art of Fighting 2 interview appeared in a special issue of Gamest in May 1994. Although the interview text is regrettably quite short, it does contain a nice collection of concept art showing early and alternate ...

Alisia Dragoon / Ranger X - Developer Interviews

[[Note: the Ranger X interview that was voted on this month was again a bit short, so I decided to translate something from another Megadrive classic, Alisia Dragoon, to make up the difference!]]

http://shmuplations.com/rangerx/

This short i...

Super Mario 64 – 1996 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/mario64/

These two lengthy interviews with Shigeru Miyamoto and key members of the Super Mario 64 development team first appeared in two official Japanese strategy guides from 1996. Both interviews go over the design history o...

Shigeki Toyama and Namco Arcade Machines

http://shmuplations.com/shigekitoyama/

This interview with veteran Namco designer Shigeki Toyama first appeared in vol. 0 of STG Gameside (2011). It begins with an account of Toyama’s early history at Namco designing robotics before turning t...

Chrono Trigger – 1995 Developer Interview Collection

http://shmuplations.com/chronotrigger2/

This is a collection of Chrono Trigger interviews from early 1995, originally featured in Japanese magazines Famicon Tsuushin, Dengeki SFC, and Haou. Because they each feature very similar questions and ...

Deathsmiles (Superplayer) / Mushihimesama interviews

[[Note: the Mushihimesama interview that was voted on this month turned out to be kind of short, so I decided to translate another Cave interview from the list, hence the two-in-one update!]]

http://shmuplations.com/mushihimesama/

Thes...

The Making of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

http://shmuplations.com/sfiii/These three Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike interviews were originally featured in Gamest magazine and the Capcom Secret File. They cover the origins of the 3rd Strike development, the design of the new characters, changes from 2n...

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube – 1997 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/iq/

In this "cerebral" interview, I.Q. designer Masahiko Sato talks puzzle design, gameplay, and the origins of the I.Q development. With a background in commercial advertising, he offers a perspective on game production and design...

Tomohiro Nishikado – 2000 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/nishikado/

As the creator of the revolutionary Space Invaders, Tomohiro Nishikado could rightly be called the Father of Japanese video games. This long interview from the jp book “game maestro” covers Nishikado’s early...

Silhouette Mirage – 1997 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/silhouettemirage/

This collection of Silhouette Mirage interviews from 1997 and 1998 first appeared in game hihyou and Sega Saturn magazines. The first is a standard discussion of game design, story, and characters wi...

Satoru Iwata – 1999 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/iwata/

his insightful interview with Satoru Iwata originally appeared in the 1999 quarterly edition of jp Used Games magazine. It captures Iwata in his role as President of HAL Laboratory, just before his transition to Nintendo ...

Super Mario Kart – 1992 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/supermariokart/

In this vintage Super Mario Kart interview from 1992 (which first appeared in the official jp strategy guide), Shigeru Miyamoto and the other lead developers discuss the design choices behind this semina...

Designing the A-Life System – 1996 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/alife/

This short interview about the “A-Life” system from NiGHTS was originally featured in game hihyou magazine in 1996. Yuji Naka shares some valuable insight about the challenges of creating an “artificial life” syst...

The Rock Stars of Sega – 2009 Composer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/sst/

This lengthy and candid interview from 2009 with alumni Sega composers Hiroshi Kawaguchi and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi first appeared online at game music core. The first part of the interview covers the early history of the sound ...

Switching from "Monthly" to "Per-Creation"

After much consideration, I've decided to switch this Patreon from a monthly to

per-creation campaign. In general, completing 5 translations a month is not a problem, although it is a "near capacity" level of work for me. And since I'm just one person, when life piles on additional (albeit temporary) burdens, I fi...

Final Fantasy Tactics – 1997 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/fft/

This Final Fantasy Tactics interview originally appeared in jp magazine Famitsu. It explores the challenge of designing a SRPG in the Final Fantasy Universe, and Matsuno and Itou share the usual design insights and anecdotes....

Super Mario Land 2 – 1992 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/supermarioland2/

This small Super Mario Land 2 interview from 1992 was originally featured in the official Nintendo guidebook published the same year. It’s a quick but fun read, with the developers joking around as t...

Alien Soldier – 1995 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/aliensoldier/

I've updated this page with two more short Alien Soldier interviews, this time with Masato Maegawa. They provide some additional context to the original interview with one-man designer/creator NAMI. Ori...