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Nicalis/Pixel talk Cave Story 3D gameplay, music, possible sequel, other Pixel ports, 3DS in general and more

by rawmeatcowboy
10 February 2011
GN Version 3.1

A portion of a GamesRadar interview with Nicalis’ Tyrone Rodriguez and Daisuke Amaya (Pixel)…

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GR: What exactly is going to be different in Cave Story 3D?

Daisuke Amaya: The difference between the original Cave Story and Cave Story 3D is going to be the environments are going to be in full 3D, but we will keep the original style of the game, which is a 2D scrolling action game.

GR: So it’ll be 2D gameplay, but the character models and levels are now polygons?

Tyrone Rodriguez: Right, yeah. We’ve gone to a level of detail that probably is unheard of compared to what we did for the original WiiWare version. And now, as you said, you’ll see characters are fully 3D. The main character’s really cute – he’s got a scarf, he’s got this really great hat, and we’ve modeled him, along with the accompanying cast, as well as the enemies. The weapons are in full 3D, all the items, everything you see in the world has this level of depth that you’ll be able to really utilize with the 3DS’s stereoscopics

GR: Are you still able to find time for your own projects, or are you sidelining them while you work on Cave Story 3DS (and, presumably, other Nicalis projects)?

DA: Since I’ve been able to work with Nicalis, I’ve got a little more time on the side. So I am working on a project, an original new game, but nothing’s really done or prepared yet. So I can’t announce it yet, but as time goes by, I’ll slowly release it on my web page.

GR: There seems to be an enormous fan scene that’s sprung up specifically around Cave Story’s music. Can you talk a little about how you’re handling it for the 3DS?

TR: For the music… it’s a pretty big undertaking. I think when fans associate with Cave Story, a big part of it is the music. Without giving any spoilers for new fans, you think of a level, and you hear music in it – Daisuke and I were actually talking about this on the way here – music can really spawn memories, for good or for bad. You hear a song, and it’s not just a song, but it’s what you remember about it. So we’re very cautious about what we’re doing.

We’re going to be announcing who we’re using, it’s a very good composer, for the 3DS version. But we’ll be announcing that at a later time. And what we’re doing is similar to what we do with Daisuke for the artwork, and for the design, and for the creation. We go back and forth. The composer will initially create a new remix of one of the original tunes, we’ll get it, we’ll take a look at it. I’ll initially vet some of it, so if I think, “oh, Daisuke’s probably not going to like this, or he’s going to want to change this,” I’ll give him some feedback, and what we’ll end up doing is, we’ll get two versions of a song over to Daisuke, and say “which one do you like? Here’s the original one he did, here’s the feedback I gave him, and here’s the remix.”

GR: If this does well, do you see yourself working on handheld ports for your other games, like Ikachan and Guxt, down the road?

DA: Right now, I’m just thinking about Cave Story, so it’s hard to say. But if I can make something interesting and fun, I’d love to work on a different port as well.

GR: Now that Cave Story has been/is being ported to three different platforms, is there any interest in or intent to make a sequel down the road?

DA: The original Cave Story took me five years to create, and the testers that were playing the game, they wanted to have something even more difficult than the original stages. So I created the Hell stage, and put so much effort into it that I basically said, “all right, this is the grand finale for Cave Story for now.” And then I wanted to create a few other games on the side, which I was able to in the past few years. So I’m satisfied with that. It’s now been 10 years since the original Cave Story came out, so I’m now thinking that maybe it’s time to start thinking about a sequel for Cave Story. There’s a very, very good chance we’ll see a sequel.

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Cave Story remake announced for 3DS - full feature and more art here