sym 🍓
@symliadoo.com
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🌷 27, she/they the most drawer! back in undergrad bestie <3 @lobstermandan.bsky.social personal/lads @symliadoo.bsky.social symliadoo.com • links.symliadoo.com
🌷 27, she/they the most drawer! back in undergrad bestie <3 @lobstermandan.bsky.social personal/lads @symliadoo.bsky.social symliadoo.com • links.symliadoo.com
![Image built like a Powerpoint presentation.
To the left, there's a banner of main characters Elliot, Aubrey, and Maria. Elliot looks annoyed as Aubrey hugs his arm, and Maria is laughing at their antics.
To the right there's text in Comic Sans.
Text reads:
Decampment Delusion (2016/2018)
- modern fantasy drama about a teen with powers running away from home
- didnt get far in the story (made when i was 16 and rebooted [it] in 2018)
- found family <3
- elliot's still one of my favorite protagonists](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreifw4n6sa5gl6sea5io3xayqoag4lnjqbif4rotkibpb4gjpd6s2sq)
![Minegishi [sound director]: My child still had fun making Mii characters and exploring friendships. But the romance elements didn't capture their imagination, which is something we hadn't accounted for, and that was really interesting to see.
Ohnishi: My child, on the other hand, was completely invested in my Mii character's love life. (Laughs)
Everyone: (Laughs)
Takahashi: Everyone who took part in the play test had a different approach to the game, and it was very rewarding to see each person discover their own way of enjoying Tomodachi Life. There are countless ways to play Tomodachi a life, and ever since the first game, we've wanted it to be something you can play casually in a relaxed way. So, we wanted to ensure that, while you can create what you want in this game through UGC, you can have just as much fun even if you don't create anything at all. There are ready-made templates for UGC that you can use if you like, but you can also choose not to create anything at all. Even island-buildung can be left entirely to the Mii characters. We wanted to ensure that anyone seeking a relaxed experience can play this game in the most carefree way.
Seeing players embrace all those different ways to play was one of the biggest takeaways we got from the playtests and was a huge encouragement for us.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreicprayk5clmpxntdm6szw2vngfv4l57isjghyz3zu3xhpp23vmlfe)
![Kageyama: We set up an idea board where anyone on the development team could share their ideas.
If someone posted a fun idea, someone else in a totally different role might pick it up and make it happen. Bringing an idea to life meant setting up a proper workflow, which presented challenges. But we trusted the passion of the team members who wanted to drive it forward and encouraged them to refine their ideas. One of the defining features of this project was seeing that kind of collaboration all the way through into the later stages of development.
[Interviewer]
I see. So, this game is packed with scenarios that the developers themselves thought would be fun.
Kageyama: Even when it came to room designs we packed in lots of ideas. To be honest, maybe we went a bit overboard adding little touches, as some rooms turned into a headache for the graphics team... (Laughs) But the excitement each team member felt while creating those details really gave the game its energy.
Ueno: Before I knew it, a bunch of things were moving, objects were making unexpected sounds, and smoke was coming out from somewhere... (Laughs) Things got pretty wild. A lot of the newer team members had played Tomodachi Life on Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, and I think they were the ones most passionate about the series. They'd say things like, "We absolutely have to include this!" with so much enthusiasm.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreifpglg2z6xh6vvcl6dsues3staes2izox7iaovtifcldc2syiyoay)
![Article text.
[Question]
So, what sparked development of this all-new Tomodachi Life game?
Takahashi [the director of the game]: I believe development started around 2017, after things had settled down on Miitomo. The producer, Sakamoto-san (6), and I both have a special attachment to Tomodachi Life and have been playing the previous games on Nintendo 3DS for many years. But we'd already squeeze all we could out of that game, and Sakamoto-san said to me sadly, "There's so much that I want my Mii characters to experience, but there's nothing more I can do for them."(Laughs) So, we talked about our desire to create a new Tomodachi Life game.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreidryoffqdm56jr74snesdqwxs2vty62mxeg4nss2pqc4fa5q6ydlq)
![So, making the character designs more elaborate, or voices and movements more realistic, in line with improved hardware performance, was actually creating a sense of inconsistency with the series?
Takahashi; That's right. The development team has numerous discussions on the topic, pondering what makes Mii characters in Tomodachi Life unique.
Ueno [programming director]: This goes not only for appearance, voice and movements, but also for actions. As the Mii characters became more capable, they started to come across as too mature. The opinion gradually emerged within the team that these characters—who were so cute in previous games—had started to feel a little off.
Takahashi: We were all like, "Hmm, it just doesn't feel like a Mii."
Ohnishi [programming director]: We wanted them to be loveable characters that you can't resist taking care of. (Laughs)](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreifpmvzg5aya7exuigvndngk7ipz6ovnqitmd65cv4hdlgf7o3cxki)
![Takahashi: We also learned from past titles that some players want to create original characters, not just people who exist in real-life, like themselves, or their family and friends. So we made it possible for players to create any kind of Mii with a bit of creativity. More freedom to adjust skin tone and the color of individual facial features means it's now easier to create non-human Mii characters, such as animals or aliens.
Kageyama [art director]: You can also draw face paint however you like, so depending on how you make use of it, you can draw whiskers, like this.
Image of two Miis that look like cats. One is a tuxedo cat with a suit, the other is a gray cat with a gray sweatsuit. The cat heads are very detailed to look like real cats, and they are in a regal looking room. The tuxedo cat Mii is speaking to the player in Japanese, holding a baby that looks like them.
The caption underneath reads:
*Image created during development.
**English Translation: We like the name Kyuta. What do you think?](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:g3kdwau5eg5hoyzszyfriyse/bafkreihds4jefkot4tf7krezwj2dmygg2tqzlj3vsmpb34syi4cbpfom74)
