3. Development Staff Interview "F-ZERO FOR GAMEBOY ADVANCE" "This is what you could call bragging about F-Zero" Producer: Nintendo Nintendo R&D 1 Director Isshin Shimizu ---Both speed and maneuverability are better in the Advance version --How did development on the GBA version start? Shimizu: In the middle of looking at the GBA hardware demo, you can see things that sort of look like F-Zero. When we finished the first stage of that demo, I said to the demo creation team: "Shouldn't we make F-ZERO for GBA"? And just like that, the project began. --The team who worked on the GBA version is different from the original game's team, right? Shimizu: That's right. However, it was created using past experience-- I was part of the design team on the original SFC version. --Oh, really!? Then this is like a remake from the original designer! Shimizu: Yes. I was not involved with the 64 version, so this time I was a bit obsessive with the design, I think. It shows a lot of myself in it. --How did the idea for the original F-ZERO come about? Shimizu: In the era of disk systems I had already made racing games. After that, when the SFC was in development, I performed various functionality tests on the hardware. Among those tests were rotation tests using the D-Pad. There was an interesting experiment regarding acceleration in a direction based on which direction was pressed. From that experiment, the basic design for F-ZERO was born. --And it was established as an antigravity racing game. Shimizu: At first we were thinking we would have tires on the racers, but the problem is that the SFC could not magnify and shrink objects*. For example on a normal circuit, looking at the machine from one side, it would look like a 3D object, but from a different angle the 3D would completely break down. We were thinking of ways to create the illusion of 3D, when someone suggested a near-future game in which "the cars float over a flat track and the ground is always beneath them". This was the start of the development, and so rather than being made from an initial game concept, the project was born from a technical necessity. *TL note: This is accurately translated. I am assuming that based on the content of games like Mario Kart they figured out a way to deal with this problem later on. Most likely through Mode 7. --What's the number 1 feature of the GBA version? Shimizu: The technology in the GBA is much more advanced than the SFC, and the fine details have been tuned up especially. The atmosphere is very similar so you might say "Isn't this just the same game?" but it's not a remake of the original. Looking at the old version now it feels clunky compared to the GBA version. This version offers major upgrades to speed and control. --So the GBA offers you the features the SFC didn't. Shimizu: Yes. Because we couldn't do those things on the SFC, we placed the rotation animations in the ROM and made it read them 1 by 1. Doing that ate up a lot of the ROM so we had very little leftover for the other visuals. That's been vastly improved this time, and the machines visually operate more smoothly. --The visuals themselves have evolved too, right? Shimizu: The machines this time are proper 3D models that are represented in-game as pixels. The pixels can be finely corrected based on how we need them to look. --Do you do that by hand still? Shimizu: In the end yes. There were some fine corrections that needed to be done by hand rather than by computer. I myself did some corrections by hand. -- The courses are different from the SFC version as well. Deceleration feels a lot more severe now. Shimizu: Well, it was severe in the previous game. In deceleration zones too depending on machine you take a little damage. There are mild changes to throughput as well; certain machines can jump far, others can't, and I hope players will investigate that. At the time of the SFC we couldn't program individual unit weights but this time each one is different with respect to weight. --How did you go abpout making the courses? Shimizu: Case by case. We didn't really plan them out on paper. First we started with a general course layout and then worked freely with it and developed the tools we thought necessary to make the courses work. Then we made them using those tools. This was the same as the SFC version. The SFC version was truly handmade, with fine adjustments to so-and-so part of the course here and there. To be able to make the courses as freely as possible we set up guards around the edges. --Ah, the courses in F-ZERO have guard beams around them, so that makes them easier to plan out? Shimizu: That's right. Although it may seem that we put them in there from the start to adhere to the F-ZERO world vision, we put them there to be able to better design courses, and later called them "Guard beams", but they weren't a part of the world vision from the beginning. --That is unexpected! Sounds like you get all kinds of ideas from your projects. Shimizu: Well, that's what real game design is all about you know! -- So this time you made the courses using a course editor. Shimizu: Although, we did a lot of hand editing. I myself was very quick to do a lot of pixel editing. -- Adjusting the courses? Shimizu: While test driving them I would fix things here and there. It took me some time to get the knack for it but within about 2 days I had made a course myself. -- That meant you probably had to go around the course hundreds of times. Shimizu: It was more like tens of times. I would pay attention to problem parts and sort them out in my head. You have to learn by trial and error, and gradually the number of errors decreases. --How many people on your team were doing adjustments? Shimizu: Only me. It was faster that way. Of course, I was also receptive to ideas. ---It's good if it's also a game adults can enjoy --Since it's a portable game, were you thinking about a young demographic? Shimizu: Not in particular. It was the same with the SFC game. Kids want to be like adults you know. Elementary school kids want to be like middle schoolers, middle schoolers want to be like high schoolers. So from the start it was pretty much designed for high schoolers to think it was cool, and we weren't thinking too much about young kids. That's what I've insisted on since the start of development. --"F-ZERO" is a simple game. This time, were you thinking "Let's put in more items" or "Let's increase the number of tricks"? Shimizu: That's the case every time. Looking at the screen this time you might say "Isn't this the same as the SFC version?". But that was my intention. Our strategy was to aim at the people that played F-ZERO on the Super Famicom when they were younger and are now grown up. When F-ZERO X came out there was a lot of talk about "This isn't really F-ZERO". So this time we wanted players of the original to be interested in buying the game. We aimed to send people the message that "This is F-ZERO". For example I saw on a TV show there was a best-of CD for Shogo Hamada** advertised to young people. The reason is because they may have heard their senior classmates sing his songs at karaoke and thought "That's a good song". In the same way for F-ZERO I think it'd be great if company workers decided to buy it and try it out, and spread gossip about it. **Japanese singer --F-ZERO is certainly something that will be handed down. By the way Mr. Shimizu, do you have any game tips for us? Shimizu: Try to find a strategy that suits each machine. You can change the turning angle and such of each machine, so just constantly pressing buttons isn't necessarily a good thing. --Finally, do you have any ideas for people who with to be game designers, Mr. Shimizu? Shimizu: A game can't be just a game. It's important that the player can get something else out of it. Ordinarily everything is made according to planning. To turn a player into someone who shares playing with others, you need curiosity and an inquiring mind. If there's something interesting in a game, don't just say "That interesting", ask yourself "Why is that interesting?". That's what differentiates people who just play games, from game creators.