GoNintendo Feature - StarFox Command Producer, Director interview

I was lucky enough to partake in a phone interview with Takaya Imamura (Producer), and Dylan Cuthbert (Director) on StarFox Command. The game is a joint development with Nintendo and Q-Games. Tons of interesting info, such as the cancelled StarFox 2 for SNES, storyline details, and how Fox’s television show 24 had an influence on development! I really hope you guys enjoy the interview. HUGE thank you to Takaya Imamura, Dylan Cuthbert, Tim O’Leary (translator) and Tyrone Rodriguez for putting this together!

RMC questions/comments bolded due to reader request

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RMC - How long was StarFox Command in development for?

Takaya Imamura - Well, with the inclusion of the experimental phase that lead into the game, it has been about a year and a half. Actual work on the project itself is right around a year and three months.

RMC - How big was the development team?

Imamura - Roughly 20 people.

RMC - How close was the relationship between Nintendo and Q-Games while working on StarFox Command?

Imamura – Well, Q-Games is very close to Nintendo geographically speaking! (Laughter) I spent a lot of time over at Q-Games having a good time with the team and working on the game pretty much on a daily basis.

Dylan Cuthbert – It is a very close relationship

RMC - Were there game play ideas that both Q-Games and Nintendo were very eager to implement in StarFox Command?

Imamura – Yeah, right at the beginning Nintendo and Q-Games were pretty much on the same page that they would obviously be working on a handheld system, and we wanted something that would fit the DS, fit the functionality, and end up being a quick-paced game that had a very good tempo.

RMC - When it comes to the StarFox series, many of the entries have been on-rails shooters. How did the decision come about for StarFox Command to break from tradition, and go with free roaming game play?

Imamura – The main reason relates back to the fact that this is on a portable device. We wanted something that the player would be able to control their playtime. With StarFox Command, the player can choose to go through and just hit the core enemies and complete the levels quickly, or they can go through slowly and take out all of the enemies. Giving the player the ability to pick up and stop when they wanted was one reason to take the game off rails. As you know, on rails has a definite beginning and ending point, which does allow the player that freedom to adjust the time they are playing.

RMC - It does relate to the handheld well because you can start and stop when you want, instead of being forced to the end of the game…I know I have found it to work out very nicely.

Cuthbert – Also we had people who were working on the unreleased StarFox 2 (SNES) which had all sorts of all-range flight. There were a lot of good ideas in there that we wanted to use for StarFox Command. That game never saw the light of day; it just worked out to use some of the old ideas we had.

RMC – I had been wondering if any elements from StarFox 2 had made it into other StarFox games.

Cuthbert – Mostly, the raw idea is the same, but it isn’t the same game.

RMC – StarFox Command is the first time we see any true real-time strategy elements come into the series. How did you guys decide on implementing this in the game, and were you worried that it might alienate fans of the series?

Imamura – The entire strategic element was part of StarFox 2, so that is where that original idea came from. It was one of the assets that we wanted to use when it came to StarFox Command.

Of course we are concerned about what the fans want, we want to make the fans happy because we make games with the hope that people will play and enjoy them. At the same time we also want to appeal to new users. We know there are people out there who will be picking up StarFox for the first time, so we thought we could go this direction without the worry of alienating too many people.

RMC – Once the staff and I got our hands on the final game, we found that the real-time strategy elements add a very deep game play mechanic to the game that had, up until this point, been missing from the other entries. A very welcome addition.

Imamura – Well that is good to hear! We really, really worked hard on trying to get that balance between the action portion of the game, and the strategy portion. Trying not to have one side outweigh the other. If it is done correctly, then hopefully the players won’t notice that it was something hard to do! If nobody notices that, that is great, but, for the record…it was tough! (Laughter) I want to give a shout out to the entire crew at Q-Games, because myself and Dylan were sitting around right up until the last minute, changing the rules and tweaking the game to what we thought was best for the game. The people who had to then go and implement those ideas were the staff at Q-Games. I think they did a great job, and I want to make sure that everyone knows how appreciative I am of their efforts.

RMC – It is definitely something I believed to have worked out very well, and I would love to see this or some aspect of it in future StarFox games.

Each character in StarFox Command has their own Arwing to pilot. When the development process came to building the ships, were they based on character personalities, or were they from already conceived ship ideas?

Imamura – We did try to make matches with the characters, so they are indeed based on the characters themselves.

RMC – You can definitely tell the differences between, say, Fox’s and Falco’s ships. I enjoyed seeing the character personalities present in their Arwings.

Cuthbert – My favorite weapon is Panthers!

RMC – I still can’t decide which ship I like the most…

Cuthbert – Yeah, there is definitely a good selection in there.

RMC – I tend to stay away from Falco just because I don’t like his character too much, he’s a jerk! (Laughter)

Tim O’Leary (translator) – Falco is the best character in the game! (Laughter)

Cuthbert – Tim based Falco’s translation on himself I think (laughter)

RMC – Obviously, when it comes to StarFox Command, one of the biggest changes is in the control scheme. Was the stylus control the method of choice from day 1, and did it offer up any problems during development?

Imamura – This is something we wanted to do right from the start, but we had thought of many other different ideas on paper. What happened is Dylan and Q-Games took all those ideas, put them in the game, and made them work. It turned out even better then I had hoped for! It is another testament to their drive and abilities, it worked out very well.

RMC – There are a lot of games that use the touch screen in a very intuitive manner, but what StarFox Command does is extremely impressive. I think it directly relates to the fun that StarFox Command offers.

Imamura – Thank you very much.

Cuthbert – Since E3 we also added some extra little touches, such as the dragging of the stylus to the far left/right for sharp turning. We experimented with that in StarFox 2, and found it very difficult to do sharp turns, which made it very hard to understand the environment you were in. We really needed the analog control for the Arwing. Eventually we decided that the touch screen was the closest equivalent. Once you get used to it, it becomes second nature.

RMC – I had gotten used to it by hopping onto the Wi-fi connection to test that out. I didn’t really have much time to adapt!

Cuthbert – A very quick trial by fire! (Laughter)

RMC – Speaking of Wi-fi, was everything included in the Wi-fi aspect of StarFox Command that you had hoped for?

Imamura – We were looking for something that was simple and easy to play…a nice simple, clean system. We had said right from the start that our Wi-fi mode was going to be dogfight only.

Cuthbert – One reason for that is that if you add in many modes of game play, the players get split between different modes, and you end up not having enough people to play a game. We saw how people really liked the Nintendo 64 StarFox dogfights, so we based it on that and added a few features.

RMC – As soon as I hopped on Wi-fi to play, I found it very reminiscent of StarFox 64’s dogfights. It is interesting to see that core game play brought online.

As far as story goes in StarFox Command, this time around things are very detailed. Why the addition of a full line of character back stories?

Imamura – The original concept was the one that was used in StarFox Assault, but basically we had this episode that we wanted to work on for this game. Then Dylan came up and said that he wanted to make it a branching storyline. I was writing the storyline for this game, and I said that it was too much work for me! (Laughter) We pushed each other back and forth, but Dylan wouldn’t let me NOT write it, so it became the big branching story that it is. Round 1 goes to Dylan! (Laughter)

RMC – It was definitely worth it! Getting to see the back-story and character development is a great aspect. Unfortunately I had to go into seclusion when playing…some of the Krystal/Fox storyline had me getting teary eyed! (Laughter)

Imamura – I didn’t base any of it on this, but the TV show 24 with its focus between each individual storyline and character, their families, and all the intricate weaving going on, it was something that influenced the way I approached this.

RMC – So the next StarFox game is going to be rated Mature! (Laughter)

I cannot keep from asking about the ability to record your own voice in the game. There are a ton of people who are huge fans of the “voice work” from the original StarFox, and having the ability to use your own voice to create that same kind of sound really interested me. How did all this come into play?

Imamura – Of course we wanted to have full recorded voice in the game. However, that giant storyline we have with all the different characters, and time issues as well, just didn’t allow for it. We did want to do something unique to get across the same feeling, so that is where the idea came from.

Cuthbert – The sound programmer is the same guy who worked on Nintendogs, and he developed that system in Nintendogs to sample the voices, analyze it…stuff like that. He is a pretty good programmer!

RMC - As far as the final product is concerned, is there anything that you guys are particularly proud of? Consequently, is there anything that you feel didn’t come across as you had originally envisioned?

Imamura – I and Dylan both agree on these points, things we would have liked to work more on. More cinema scenes, more movie stuff. Things that we are most pleased with are of course the control scheme, the balance between action and strategy, and the way we were able to implement the all-range battles. That is something that hadn’t been done before.

RMC – It is nice to see a more traditional StarFox that still manages to bring brand new game play mechanics to the table.

Cuthbert – One thing we really tried to do was keep the feel of the original StarFox, even though the game goes in a different direction. While you are playing the game, you still feel like you are playing the original StarFox.

RMC – Are there any future projects that Q-Games and Nintendo are planning to collaborate on?

Imamura – I don’t think there is any doubt that we are going to be working together again. There is definitely no question that it will either be on the DS or Wii! (Laughter)

Cuthbert – There won’t be a Game Boy Advance game thrown in there? (Laughter)

RMC – No Virtual Boy game coming down the pipeline (Laughter)

Cuthbert – Oooh, we could knock one of those out! (Laughter)

RMC – Well I guess that is about it, I have covered all my questions! Thank you all very much for the opportunity to speak with you, I truly appreciate it.