GDC Live Blog - The Light and Dark Sides of 2d Game Production (Koji Igarashi)

The keynote should begin sometime soon. I think we are going to find out if Igarashi is a vampire during this keynote. Hang tight, updates should start soon.

Igarashi still makes 2d games because he loves the style of 2d, and there are a lot of benefits when it comes to 2d for Castlevania. 2d and 3d offer very different gameplay experiences. There are 4 types of gameplay in Igarashi’s mind…timing, distance, positioning, and Direction. All these are very important to Igarashi when he produces games. The problem Igarashi sees when producing 3d games is with taking a 3d space and projecting it onto a 2d monitor. The size ratio of characters and settings are scaled in real life terms in 3d, but when it comes to seeing this on a 2d screen, things change. Judging distance between items and enemies in 3d is also much different in 3d. 2d clearly shows your relation to the enemy or setting because there is only one view. This allows for instant action in 2d games. 2d allows for full use of Igarashi’s 4 key points.

Pixel art is a huge part of the Castlevania series. The original Castlevania only had 4 colors, whereas the rest of the 2d series has 16 colors, and sometimes 256 colors. The aspect ration of the character is the same in Super Castlevania 4, Portrait of Ruin, and Symphony of the Night. Keeping this aspect ration helps in reusing assets for new entries in the series, and they can focus on quality instead of cost. Jonathan was slighyly smaller than Alucard due to the vertical display area on the DS. Enemies don’t apply to aspect ratio because they can be tiny or huge. Igarashi believes the pixel art in SotN had the best pixel art, which is why they reuse assets from the game, and expand upon them. The ability to reuse assets makes quality control a very easy job, and there isn’t much team training needed. This is a huge asset to the team, much more than just the cost outcome.

Castlevania uses 2d and 3d animation techniques. Strict 2d animations take 4 days. This includes movement attacks damage death and standing still. When it comes to 3d animation, these same animations take a total of 8 days to complete. The artistic abaility in animating a 2d and 3d model (sprite) takes a lot of illustration talent, which can be a disadvantage overall. The good part is that the final project comes out much more clean when using 2d games due to the fine attention to detail. As systems get more powerful, it is harder to maintain the quality of the game. Moving from a portable to a console, there is much, much more work needed with pixels due to screen size. This is why it is so hard to create another pixel art Castlevania game on a console. A need for true hand drawn artwork makes much more sense in this instance. Of course this comes with huge issues as well.

2d gameplay doesn’t have the issue of camera angles. There are only the X and Y axis. 3D games include much more camera work, which adds huge hurdles for gameplay, and add a ton to development time. The 2d nature also makes it much easier to visual the final project, and helps programmers get their job done. There is really only one way of looking at things. The downside of the camera is that it is constantly fixed, only offering one constant view. This keeps the camera from being varied, and takes out the idea of impactful camera angles. Because 2d games have been around for so long, it is really hard to innovate. The 2d type of gameplay has reached as far as it can in most aspects.

2d games require a much smaller team than 3d. Once again this plays into cost, but also helps to keep the team motivated. Portrait of Ruin had a 20 person team, but this is much less than 3d games. Igarashi likes to keep his game team at 10 people and under. In 2d games, background art can be given to one person, instead of an entire group of people for just one set. When enemies come into play, it is one person per set of enemies. When it comes to 3d, you need much more people just to put together one portion of a level, instead of an entire level itself. The more people involved, the harder it is to keep a single vision. This can make the team grow tired of their job, and they become less passionate. Igarashi finds it very hard to keep control and focus on a 3d team. It’s hard to keep people focused from the early stages compared to a few months in development. The most important part of any game is that the team feels that they are making a great game. There is no better motivator. 2d games are not without its problems. 2d is well received by hardcore gamers, where as 3d is better received by all. 2D is more of a niche market nowadays. 3d games will always have a bigger market in today’s times says Igarashi. If a game isn’t a bigger seller the company won’t be happy, even though the games can be very well reviewed. Castlevania sells very well in the US, but not so well in Japan. Also, it is hard to find team members that are willing to work on 2d games. It doesn’t leave much room for career advancement. As the next gen consoles come out, this becomes more and more true. This combined with the fact that 2d games have been in a sharp decline for a number of years makes it hard to make these games, as well as finding a reason to make them.

2d games are far from dead says Igarashi. The DS, VC, Xbox Live Arcade and cell phones all over very viable platforms for these games. Igarashi says they will never die.

Now a question and answer session is beginning. Mr. Igarashi says that the art style of older Castlevania games doesn’t fit well on the DS or GBA. The art style has been changed due to the age focus of the platform. They were afraid the more detailed style would scare some gamers. Also facial expressions are also important in the cut scenes, and that is harder to do in the older styles.

Igarashi says he never wants to stop doing 2d games, and will do so as long as he can. He also feels it is important that gamers experience 3d Castlevania games as well, and recognizes that the 3d games aren’t that good.

Taking 3d polygonal characters and putting them into a 2d game is a way to experiment bringing 2d style gameplay to a 3d focused world.

Igarashi is interested in formats like Xbox Live Arcade, and made mention that he is interested in other services like this as well. He didn’t mention the VC by name, but we were lead to believe he is talking about this…and other services like it.

Igarashi says that friend codes do put up a barrier for gamers, but when he plays online games he feels that there is an issue with player manners. He believes friend codes do help to control this issue. Portrait of Ruin’s online is an experiment in furthering online 2d gameplay in Castlevania. He believes there is much more room to improve.

Igashi believes that using 3d assets in a 2d game opens up the camera. This adds to the overall presentation, and makes gameplay more dramatic. You can also make sets twist and move for the player to travel around. The disadvantages are the time and money issues.

Igarashi says that his team is ocnsidering the Wii as well as other next-gen platforms. They need to think about how they will produce games. Right now the market in Japan and NA are a little bit different, so his team wants to wait before they make a final decision.

Igarashi loves to makes the fans happy by invluding older characters. As far as wifi they are just experimenting, but would like to expand upon it.

innovating story in 2d games may be a bit difficult, but not impossible. Perhaps they can use animation skills for more innovative things in that perspective. Igarashi would love to innovate in the 2d gamespace, it’s just hard to find an idea that will really work.

Igarashi loves the original style of Castlevania, the more linear gameplay. He belives that the new exploration style can be enjoyed much more by women and gamers in general, instead of the linear based (tougher) titles of the past. It is a goal to make the game more enjoyable by everyone.

The reason of the art style behind the characters nowadays is to make the characters and vampires more mysterious, more alluring when compared to the original “barbarian” style characters…such as Castlevania I.

The latest Castlevania took 16 months to complete

Portrait of Ruin has gotten much better sales in the US, but they would like to make it a better seller worldwide. Their main focus is Castlevania.

The End! We will catch you guys in a few hours!