I kept wondering, “Can I really do this”?ĪL : Is there anything that you would like to tell those interested in Yomawari? I felt like I got a fever from how nervous I was. YM: Of course I was really happy, but when the game was selected it was only my second year in the company.
Anyway, after I pitched my idea, it was chosen.ĪL : What was your reaction like after it was chosen? This is also the way the The Firefly Diary was developed. Whoever’s idea gets picked, they get to create that game. Essentially, anyone in the company can present a game idea. Well, our head office has something they like to call “Challenge Plan”.
After this, I wanted to try and implement this fear into a game. YM: Driving home after work on late nights, I became scared of the dark because our office is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I would just like it be a fun project.ĪL : Where did the idea of Yomawari come from? YM: With Yomawari being a dark game, the next game I would like to create would probably be bright, open, maybe even stupid. There’s a lot of room for creativity in indie-style games. YM: Right now, I feel like I want to stick closer to the indie stuff. YM: Yes, seeing all the fans in general at Anime Expo 2016 has made me want to deliver a great game to them.ĪL : With future games, would you like to go for a bigger budget or keep working on small budget titles? Horror games, by nature of what they are, can do that.ĪL : Now that Yomawari is coming West, do you plan to keep the West in mind when working on future projects? Affecting the emotions of a player is very difficult to do. As a creator, I wanted to deliver that emotion and fear. YM: Yes, since I was young I’ve always enjoyed the horror genre in games. Everything from both of those projects, I’ve applied to my work.ĪL : Do you find the horror genre of video games fun? and why? YM: I’ve been with the company for four years, I took experience that I’ve learned from every project like, stage design, to what makes a game fun, to what works where. I wanted to create that “could happen to you” feeling.ĪL : From past games you’ve worked, such as, Disgaea 5 and The Firefly Diary, what have you learned that you applied to Yomawari? I wanted them to be two girls from any part of Japan. YM: I wanted to not be specific and say these are these two girls from this part of Japan. She was very strict on making sure that both the Japanese and Western fonts were what she visioned.ĪL : For new fans that have no clue about this game and just pick it up, what would you like them to see within the first hour? Side-note: The font in the game is made to look like a little girl’s hand writing.
Also, I played a part in making sure the font choices worked with my vision. YM: In the beginning, we had a meeting with the translation staff to talk about the points that I needed them to hit during localization. In that area, it might cause frustration, but the game was made so that when you do restart, you restart quickly.ĪL : What role did you play in the translation of the game? It’ll take some time to figure out what the patterns are, and because she’s a little girl, she doesn’t have any power or strength, there’s no health gauge at all.
#Try yomawari night alone trial
What it comes down to then is I feel the game has some trial and error when you’re dealing with the enemies. Yomawari‘s controls are very straight forward and responsive. YM: In terms of The Firefly Diary, the biggest issue in terms of difficulty was the controllability.