With KOF, the artists make a 3D model for the animation and draw art on top of it. The editor's largely based off Flash and other well-known packages, so it doesn't have a major learning curve for most people. GK: There is a proprietary character editor that we use in the studio, a package that took about a year to develop into its current state. How does the process of creating one full animated sprite work? What is the progression? GK: The very basic process begins with me messing around with whatever I like, then coming up with a screen visual and building the game around that. For instance, concept art exists - is it then done in Photoshop, or do you have your own type of programs you use? Or, for animation, do you use a 3D model that you map 2D sprites onto? It wouldn't be a simple insert - we retouch the compressed graphics here and there to make sure they look as good as possible - but it's not restarting from scratch, either.Ĭan you explain your art production process from the beginning? It can be detailed if possible, because I think people would be very interested to know. As a result, producing a fully HD title would not be a great deal of extra work for us it would just mean our original art is displayed in higher resolution. GK: Well, the original art we draw is all done in double-size - in the case of Muramasa, the animation frames then get compressed down to the Wii's native resolution. What do you think are the main challenges to getting to 720p-level of hi-res? Right now, Muramasa is 480 - how big a leap is it from 480 to 720 - what KOF accomplishes? He said it was quite difficult to find people who already knew how to do 2D graphics at that level. Some time ago, I spoke to someone from SNK about King of Fighters XII. However, most artists these days are simply unfamiliar with the older styles of 2D animation, so our only option is to train them in that field. GK: In terms of pure art, there are a lot of people out there with the talent. We began serious development on GrimGrimoire after Odin Sphere was completed, but that wound up coming out in Japan about a month ahead of Odin Sphere.ĭo you find that it's difficult to find hi-res 2D artists in Japan these days, because not many people are doing that? We completed the game fully within 2006, but sales on Persona were going so well for Atlus around that time period that the publisher pushed the release date back a few months to keep from cannibalizing its own market. In the case of Odin Sphere, Atlus instructed us to have the game done within 2006. It wasn't our aim, really, because when it comes to consoles, we only have one development line going at any one point. GK: Well, a lot of announcements did come out all at once, certainly. It seemed like Vanillaware suddenly exploded in 2007 with a bunch of titles. GK: Within Vanillaware right now, there are three people who worked on Princess Crown, myself included.Īnd how many people are now in Vanillaware? How many people that are at Vanillaware now actually worked on Princess Crown? Largely I participated in their projects on an outsourced basis. They worked on Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games most recently, I think. GK: Well, directly before that, I was at a company called Racjin, a game developer. In the beginning, the company was called Puraguru. It started as a small project, and I was just contributing to it on a personal basis, but it ballooned in size to the point where an entire team was established to complete it. At the time, I was working with Square Enix directing the development of Fantasy Earth. (laughs) Vanillaware was founded around the time I went to Tokyo. George Kamitani: Well, it's not a simple tale, definitely. Here, Vanillaware's founder, George Kamitani, talks about his ambitions for the company - sticking with 2D, going to HD resolutions, and maybe even making an online game.Ĭan you talk a little bit about Vanillaware's origins? It's generating a lot of buzz - fans who played the import version speak of a step up in gameplay quality from Odin Sphere the game won several best of E3 awards from enthusiast publications. Released in Japan in April, the localized version of the game will reach North America in September via publisher Ignition, and Europe in November. The company's 2009 release is Muramasa: The Demon Blade for Nintendo's Wii. Its Odin Sphere was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2007 - a gorgeous dark fantasy that, despite its apparent limited appeal, sold in the hundreds of thousands globally, surprising many. However, somehow, Japanese developer Vanillaware has carved out a successful and critically-acclaimed niche creating 2D games. 2D is only routinely used on portable platforms. There's a small but passionate group of people who still care about 2D gaming the majority of the industry, and gamers, have moved on to 3D - years ago, in fact, at this point.
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