Nintendo's Splatoon panel at GDC 2018 - Another round of development details and more insight

- the initial prototype used cube-shaped characters shooting black and white ink on a flat map
- they used cubes because they were easy to make, and the team eventually ended up calling them blocks of tofu
- rabbits can be both black and white, making them easy to separate into teams, which is why the next prototype had rabbits
- rabbits are also very territorial creatures, which made sense for the gameplay
- the devs wanted to use brightly colored inks and thought they would contrast well with the neutral color of the rabbits
- the build was shown to others around Nintendo, and many were confused as to what rabbits had to do with ink
- squids were actually one of the original candidates, but the team couldn’t find a reason to choose them over other ideas
- when the team thought up swimming quickly through ink, squids started to make more sense
- the squids were given a human form to help differentiate between their walking and ink-swimming abilities
- Nintendo took the ‘container’ approach when creating the game's world
- the 'container' was the multiplayer, and the team slowly added things to that
- things added included the hub world, character apparel, songs, the Squid Sisters, and more
- the team saw Splatoon as a service game, much like For Honor or Overwatch are
- the team sought to continuously add weapons, stages, and modes to keep players engaged and entice newcomers
- Splatfests also helped to bring people back for more
- the fan reaction and support for the franchise means a lot to the devs, saying nothing makes them happier