Game Developers Conference organizers are excited to announce that devs on two of Nintendo's most interesting games of last year will be at GDC 2018 in San Francisco this March to speak about what they learned.
These two talks promise fresh insight into the design and development of Arms and Splatoon 2, which together were something of a one-two punch of colorful multiplayer fun for the Switch last summer.
In his GDC 2018 talk on "Splatoon and Splatoon 2: How to Invent a Stylish Franchise with Global Appeal", Nintendo's Hisashi Nogami (who served as producer on both Splatoon and Splatoon 2) will share his experiences working with a design team whose goal was to create a game that was novel, yet easy to grasp and riveting to play.
Among the questions he hopes to answer are: What were the brainstorming sessions like, and what kinds of review processes determined the game’s final ideas? How do you make a sequel better while releasing it on a brand-new platform with unique features? And how do you land on a quirky concept like “squid creatures fighting turf battles with water pistols” in the first place?
Mr. Nogami, who also served as director and lead artist on Nintendo’s Animal Crossing series, will don his lab coat, roll up his sleeves, and divulge lessons learned while illustrating the importance of risk-taking. Developers of all levels and backgrounds interested in a thoughtful, provocative tour of the Splatoon and Splatoon 2 games’ design history are encouraged to join him.
And in his GDC 2018 talk on "‘ARMS’: Building Mario Kart 8 Insights into a Showcase Nintendo Switch Fighter", Nintendo’s Kosuke Yabuki (who directed Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8 and served as producer on both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and ARMS) will talk about the challenges of creating a genre-bending fighting game for a brand-new platform.
There's a wealth of interesting game design issues to explore when talking about ARMS, and Yabuki plans to dive right into it by answering questions like: What lessons can a kart-racer offer a brawler that has players throwing corkscrew punches like tennis players volleying missiles? How do you ensure function follows form, using the Nintendo Switch system’s motion controls in ways that feel as natural and responsive as tapping buttons?
And what’s the story behind a world where protagonists’ fists come unglued from their forearms anyway?
Developers of all levels interested in design tips from two key Nintendo products, as well as anyone interested in learning about the unexpected connection points between the Mario Kart series and ARMS, should definitely make room for this in their GDC schedule.
For more details on these and all other announced talks head over to the online GDC 2018 Session Scheduler, where you can look over all the sessions on offer at the show this year.
For more information on GDC 2018, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS.
