Thursday, March 26, 2009

Akihiro Hino's Keys to Success

Link to Gamasutra report on this talk given by Hino of Level 5 (which is one of my favorite developers) - Prof. Layton, Dark Cloud, Rogue Galaxy.

One of the things he is advising for, is to keep the "boom triggers" or buzzwords in mind from the beginning of the planning stages for a game.

This is very good for me to keep in mind moving forward for new game. The more we are in the same mindset, the better.

The first concept that Hino brought up was the concept of "catch copy" -- a Japanese expression he translated as "buzzword" but which might also be broken down to a "bullet point" -- something unique about a title, that catches the attention of the audience.

The key, though, is something many developers might not agree with -- Hino suggests that "Promotion has to be taken into account from the point of planning a game. The creators also have to think about promotion, and promoting the game as they start planning the game itself."

Hino even admits that this may be his weakness. "I think more about the successful launches than about the [game] story itself. Sometimes I say something so outlandish that we have to worry about how the creators will make it later."

The first example he cited was the company's Professor Layton series. Though, as a questioner noted that these points refer to the Japanese market specifically, the concepts do map globally (just not all of them, in this specific case.)

- Mix of puzzles and story
- Collaborative work with Dr. Tago, whose book sold over 12 million copies
- Voice over casting of stars, and movie-quality animation

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