IllustratorsLeak
shmuplations

shmuplations

patreon


shmuplations posts

Oct/Nov/Dec voting!

Greetings to all patrons new and old. It's time again to offer suggestions and feedback re: what you'd like to see translated in the next few months. I'll still be referring to the previous voting posts, but it's never a bad idea to post again what you'd like to see translated.  Also, if multiple people suggest the same interview, it's more likely to get translated, so feel free to second ...

View Post

Skies of Arcadia Collection... Part II!

Skies of Arcadia Collection... Part II!

http://shmuplations.com/skiesofarcadia/

Last year, we published a huge cache of Skies of Arcadia developer interviews which were commissioned by a very generous individual, who then gave his permission for them to be shared with everyone on shmuplations. You may recall that this was only the first ba...

View Post

Time Crisis/Cool Boarders/Emerald Dragon developer interviews

Time Crisis/Cool Boarders/Emerald Dragon developer interviews

http://shmuplations.com/timecrisis/
http://shmuplations.com/shortcuts/

For our final update this month, I've got three interviews to share. The main one is for Namco's seminal lightgun shooter Time Crisis, but because it ended up being ...

View Post

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – 2000 Developer Interview

 Marvel vs. Capcom 2 – 2000 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/marvelvscapcom2/

Originally printed in the March 2000 issue of Arcadia, this interview with director Tatsuya Nakae and producer Yoshihiro Sudo covers the making of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, the final 2D iteration of Capcom’s beloved series of crossover fighting games whose over-the-top ...

View Post

Golden Sun – 2001 Developer Interview

Golden Sun – 2001 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/goldensun/

This 2001 interview with Nintendo Dream magazine saw Camelot Software Planning co-founders Hiroyuki and Shugo Takahashi discussing the creation of Golden Sun, a Nintendo-published RPG for the Game Boy Advance whose unique “psynergy” system and cutting-edge visuals drew great ...

View Post

Summer of Street Fighter II – 1991 Developer Interview

Summer of Street Fighter II – 1991 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/summerofsfii/

This Street Fighter II developer interview originally appeared in vol. 62 of Gamest, about six months after the initial arcade release. By that time, Street Fighter was exploding in popularity in both Japan and abroad, and the nascent fighting game scene was starting to fin...

View Post

Bangai-O – 1999 Developer Interview

Bangai-O – 1999 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/bangaio/

Originally published in the Japanese Dreamcast Magazine, this 1999 interview saw Treasure alums Mitsuru “Yaiman” Yaida and Koichi “Kafuichi” Kimura discussing the conception and development of the frenetic side-view omnidirectional 2D shooting game Bakuretsu Muteki Bangai-O, ...

View Post

Final Fantasy X – 2001 Developer Interviews

Final Fantasy X – 2001 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/ffx/

This assortment of Final Fantasy X developer interviews originally appeared in a special edition of V-Jump magazine in 2001. These interviews mainly cover on the art and design side of FFX, with a special focus on the novel south asian aesthetic and the new opportunities presented by the PS2...

View Post

Hellsinker – 2019 Developer Interview

Hellsinker – 2019 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/hellsinker/

This in-depth Hellsinker interview first appeared on jp.ign in 2019. Befitting the notorious complexity of Hellsinker, it’s one of the more high-level and abstract conversations featured here on shmuplations. Creator Tonnor has a very “meta” way of analyzing the STG genre...

View Post

Fukio “MTJ” Mitsuji – 1989 Developer Column

Fukio “MTJ” Mitsuji – 1989 Developer Column

http://shmuplations.com/mtj/

This 1989 feature, originally published in Gamest magazine, is part 3 of a 12 part series covering various aspects of console and arcade game design. We published part 5 (a three-person interview) earlier this year; this section focuses on enemy behavior algorithms, how to measure player imp...

View Post

Persona 2/Persona Developer Interviews

Persona 2/Persona Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/persona2/

This pre-release Persona 2: Innocent Sin interview originally appeared in The Playstation magazine in 1999. Although fairly short as far as developer interviews go, it’s got lots of good info about Kaneko’s monster and character designs, story themes, and changes and improvemen...

View Post

Metal Gear Solid – 1998 Developer Interview

Metal Gear Solid – 1998 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/metalgearsolid/

This Metal Gear Solid interview with director Hideo Kojima and  designer Yoji Shinkawa originally appeared in The Playstation magazine  in 1998. The candid conversation largely focuses around Shinkawa’s work,  including how he was hired at Konami and th...

View Post

July/Aug/Sept voting!

Greetings to all patrons new and old. It's time again to offer suggestions and feedback re: what you'd like to see translated in the next few months. I'll still be referring to the previous voting posts, but it's never a bad idea to post again what you'd like to see translated.  Also, if multiple people suggest the same interview, it's more likely to get translated, so feel free to second ...

View Post

Lennus – 1992 Developer Interviews

Lennus – 1992 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/lennus/

These rare Lennus developer interviews were originally featured in The Super Famicom magazine and the official guidebook. Clumsily localized as “Paladin’s Quest” in the West, Lennus is mostly remembered today for its striking visual aesthetic, owed in large part to illustrators H...

View Post

Elemental Gimmick Gear – 1999 Developer Interview

 Elemental Gimmick Gear – 1999 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/egg/

This lengthy developer interview for Dreamcast cult-classic Elemental Gimmick Gear was originally featured in the official Japanese E.G.G. Complete Guide. E.G.G. was a joint development between Birthday and Hudson, and it is the Birthday staff featured here discussing the inspiration, design...

View Post

Irem Arcade Games – 1989 Developer Interview

Irem Arcade Games – 1989 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/irem/

In 1989 renowned Gamest editor Zenji Ishii ran a large special feature on Irem, of which these two developers interviews were a part. The first is a roundtable interview with several Irem planners, mostly focusing on their planning process and including some interesting design notes about ...

View Post

Shining Force II – 1993 Developer Roundtable Interview

Shining Force II – 1993 Developer Roundtable Interview

http://shmuplations.com/shiningforceii2/

This candid Shining Force II roundtable interview, conducted only a couple weeks after the game’s release, originally appeared in the Megadrive Fan Attack Special book. The team discusses the challenging (and lengthy) development schedule which overlapped with the G...

View Post

Capcom Design Room – 1995 Interview

Capcom Design Room – 1995 Interview

http://shmuplations.com/capcomdesignroom1995/

Originally published in the 1995 Capcom Illustrations mook by Gamest, this roundtable interview chronicles the formation, purview and early processes of Capcom’s design room, an internal department dedicated to illustration and visual design and the incuba...

View Post

Koei: Designing Historical Games (1988)

Koei: Designing Historical Games (1988)

http://shmuplations.com/koeihistory/

This unique interview featuring Koei’s historical strategy/simulation games was originally published in the May 1988 edition of BEEP! magazine. Instead of the usual developers, Koei chose to send two senior PR/sales representatives to talk about their games; it was still co...

View Post

Yukio Takahashi – 2007 Developer Interview

 Yukio Takahashi – 2007 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/yukiotakahashi/

This interview was originally taken from the Game Shokunin book (a collection of developer and industry insider interviews published in 2007) and focuses on planner/designer Yukio Takahashi’s work at Namco. The majority of the conversation centers around the developme...

View Post

Harmony of Dissonance – 2002 Developer Interview

 Harmony of Dissonance – 2002 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/harmony/

Often considered the “black sheep” of the Castlevania GBA series, this Harmony of Dissonance interview with director Takashi Takeda and producer Koji Igarashi was originally featured in the Japanese NTT-PUB strategy guide and covers the game’s design and conception.

Thoug...

View Post

April/May/June voting!

Greetings to all patrons new and old. It's time again to offer suggestions and feedback re: what you'd like to see translated in the next few months. I'll still be referring to the previous voting posts, but it's never a bad idea to post again what you'd like to see translated.  Also, if multiple people suggest the same interview, it's more likely to get translated, so feel free to second ...

View Post

Blue Stinger – 1998 Developer Interview

Blue Stinger – 1998 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/bluestinger/

In this 1998 pre-release interview for Dreamcast launch title Blue Stinger, Climax Graphics president and designer Shinya Nishigaki shares how the project got started, thoughts about genre, and his approach to level and world design. I’ve also added composer Toshihiko Sahas...

View Post

Star Fox Adventures – 2002 Developer Interview

Star Fox Adventures – 2002 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/starfoxadventures/

Taken from the 11/21/2002 issue of Nintendo Dream, this lengthy interview with long-time Star Fox series steward and character designer Takaya Imamura covers his early works at Nintendo, the conception of the Star Fox series, the backstories behind many of its cha...

View Post

Fantasy Zone – 2002 Developer Interview

Fantasy Zone – 2002 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/fantasyzone2/

The first of these Fantasy Zone interviews from 2002 looks back at the making of the popular Mark III port, made by prolific console port director Mutsuhiro “Mucchan” Fujii. The second, from 1997, catches up with the original arcade team after the release of the Sega Ag...

View Post

Kenji Terada – 1988 Developer Interview

Kenji Terada – 1988 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/kenjiterada/

Kenji Terada was a writer who, in addition to his extensive work in various 1980s anime series, also wrote the stories for Square’s first three Final Fantasy games, Dark Wizard, and Meremanoid, among others. This first interview is a candid chat with Namco luminary Masanobu...

View Post

Akira "Akiman" Yasuda – 2000 Developer Interview

Akira "Akiman" Yasuda – 2000 Developer Interview

http://shmuplations.com/akiman/

In this 2000 interview from Game Maestro volume 4, legendary artist and designer Akira “Akiman” Yasuda reflects on his origins as a developer, his early days at Capcom and his work on massively popular and genre-defining titles including Final Fight and Street Fighter II, with a pa...

View Post

Vampire Savior – 1997 Developer Interviews

Vampire Savior – 1997 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/vampiresavior/

These two interviews chronicle the development of Vampire Savior (aka Darkstalkers 3), the third and most enduring entry in Capcom’s influential monster-themed fighting game series. While it introduced many well-received game systems and the popular new characters Jedah...

View Post

Breath of Fire III – 1997 Developer Interviews

Breath of Fire III – 1997 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/breathoffireiii/

These two Breath of Fire III interviews originally appeared in The PlayStation magazine just prior to the games release in September 1997. Although five members of the team are listed, the majority of the interview is centered around director Makoto Ikehara, who had b...

View Post

The Future of RPGs – 1992 Developer Interviews

The Future of RPGs – 1992 Developer Interviews

http://shmuplations.com/futureofrpgs/

In this 1992 feature, originally printed in The Super Famicom magazine, four prominent game designers — venerated Nintendo producer Shigeru Miyamoto, Chunsoft’s Kouichi Nakamura, Sonic! / Camelot Software Planning’s Hiroyuki Takahashi and Red Entertainment affiliate O...

View Post