Giftpia – 2003 Developer Interview

Kenichi Nishi - Director
Hikarin - Artist
Shunsuke Yoshida - Programmer
Hirofumi Taniguchi - Composer/Arranger

—Why did you decide to make this kind of game?

Nishi: A few years ago, I made a game called L.O.L., and after that I ended up diving deep into environmental issues and other topics, which made me start to wonder: "is making games a positive thing for society…?" After all, games use electricity and create waste. Because of that, for a long while I couldn't quite get myself into the right mindset to make another game, and I couldn't decide on a new title at all.

Around that time, I went to the Nevada desert with Tetsuya Mizuguchi, a Sega-affiliated creator. Native Americans have a rite of passage called a "vision quest," where you wander the desert for four days without food or water. Being alone in the desert is terrifying… you hear wolves howling, you might be killed. After reporting everything that happened during those four days to the elder, you'd be given a name like "Eagle Soaring Through the Sky" and recognized as an adult.

I loved that tradition and often talked about it with Mizuguchi, so I went to the desert and tried fasting for just one day. I started seeing hallucinations, it was very scary. Inspired by that experience, I wanted to make a game that explores the question "what does it mean to be an adult?"

I ended up collaborating with Yutaka Saito, the creator of Seaman, on this idea. After we'd progressed to a certain point, I contacted Nintendo. It just so happened that Shigeru Miyamoto was in Tokyo and agreed to take a look. By then, however, the game had diverged significantly from my original concept. During our meeting Miyamoto asked, "By the way, Nishi-kun, how did this project come about?" So, I told him everything I mentioned earlier. He then asked to see the original concept before the collaboration with Saito. After I showed it to him, he said, "I want to see your vision. You should make this yourself." So I went back to the original concept and created Giftpia.

—Was there a reason you brought the plan to Nintendo?

Nishi: I grew up with the Famicom, so I was very conscious that I was making a game—not some strange, inscrutable media project or something. When the Cube was announced, President Iwata declared, "This is a game machine." So I thought if I'm going to make this, I want to make it for the GameCube. Also, there was a development tool for the GameCube called "sysdolphin," and it had a well established library.

Yoshida: As a programmer, I was in a support role, but the main programmer said that sysdolphin made his job much easier. I'm learning about it little by little myself now, but it really does have everything you need and makes development easy.

—What can you tell us about the graphics for Giftpia?

Hikarin: Since the 3D graphics displayed on the actual hardware looked almost identical to what we designed on the computer, it was quite easy. We created the artwork on a PC using software called Soft Image, and its format is directly supported by sysdolphin.

Nishi: Miyamoto was the one who suggested we use it. Early on he visited us and said, "why not give it a try." Then just one week later, a full set of development equipment arrived. I was surprised how quick their response was, and we were producing graphics on it only two days later.

—So was the game concept for Giftpia based on the Native American ritual you mentioned above?

Nishi: No, while we were inspired by it, the setting is different and it's a different world. Starting from that inspiration, the five of us brainstormed ideas and created a prototype within three months. This project was the first software title under Nintendo's venture business support program. If the prototype met with their approval, we'd get the full contract. So we presented it to several higher-ups, including President Iwata and Executive Director Miyamoto.

After the presentation, everyone seemed to be looking around the room to get a read on each other's expressions. I thought, "this might be a no," but surprisingly they said, "this looks good as-is." People from Kyoto aren't usually very direct, though, so I was still skeptical. Finally, at the end I asked, "So is this good? Or bad? Please tell me clearly." Satoru Iwata then said, "Nishi-kun. The fact that no one here at Nintendo, with this line-up, raised any objections is truly remarkable." When I asked, "Does that mean it's decided?", he replied, "You can take that as a yes."

I then called the staff waiting at the office to tell them the main contract was finalized. Some of them even teared up.

Hikarin: I thought it was fifty-fifty whether it would work out or not.

Nishi: For the company, Giftpia was our first Nintendo title, and Nintendo users include a lot of kids, right? Of course, we were conscious of that, but since everything we'd made up until then was software aimed at adults, we did have some anxiety.

—Giftpia is categorized as an "alternative RPG", but what does that mean exactly?

Nishi: Rock music is often called "alternative", right? It means substitute or replacement. For RPGs, the standard is games like Mother or Dragon Quest. But we aimed to create something that isn't that standard—something that replaces it. Small companies like ours can't compete on the "standard" stage, if you will. By the same token, though, I believe only a company like ours could create a game like this.

—So it doesn't really have a typical RPG system, then.

Nishi: That's right. In the sense that the protagonist has a role and grows, it is an RPG, but it's a game without battles or weapons.

—The goal of the game is to become an adult. Do you have a definition of adulthood in your mind, Nishi?

Nishi: I suppose it's about whether you can live for others. But in the game, just saving money can make you an adult. In real-life society in Japan, too, there's seijinshiki (coming of age ceremony) when you get older, and outwardly you become an adult. But ultimately, what I thought was that becoming an adult isn't something the country decides for you, or someone else decides for you—it's a matter of self-awareness.

—Is that something players will feel as they play Giftpia?

Nishi: No, it's more something you feel after you finish. The game itself is light. The title Giftpia combines "gift" and "utopia", but I wanted to make a game with "gift" in the title where no actual gifts appear. That leaves you wondering at the end, "so wait, what was the gift…?" Looking back, you realize there's nature, there's ample food, and people who get along with you. Just being able to live there, isn't that the gift? We don't make the characters explicitly say this, but I hope players sense it somehow.

—I'd like to ask about everyone's individual work now. Since this is an non-traditional RPG, I imagine the programming was particularly challenging.

Yoshida: I was really just in a support role, but I think the main programmer had a tough time. Personally, I handled the 2D-related programming, and behind-the-scenes I quietly tackled the things that couldn't be done with scripts.

—What kind of things couldn't be done with scripts?

Yoshida: For example, there's item exchange in the game, and items can rot. For that, we had to program it to express "this is rotten." We also created lots of little details like making sounds when you knock on a door, or adding other ambient environmental sounds.

—Did you decide those kinds of details as you went along? Or did Nishi give instructions?

Nishi: I didn't say anything at all.

Yoshida: It was more ad hoc, just working as we went. "Wouldn't this part be better this way?" That kind of thing.

—How did you go about creating the graphics?

Hikarin: Since we'd already decided to use FuriFuri Company's artwork during the prototype phase, I worked closely with their map designer. A major theme this time was creating islands that were connected without any "map jumps". Midway through, I realized we needed a more structured plan, so I drew an overall island map, set a work schedule, and we proceeded that way.

Initially, the map was several times larger than what we have now. We knew it was too big, but we had to start by getting some art out there and then gradually scale it down. In the end, the map became about one-tenth of the original plan. I still think it's quite large. Ultimately, the data just kept growing and expanding, so it ended up splitting into two separate maps: the mountain map and the town map.

Nishi: But since the game isn't constantly loading map data, I don't think that aspect feels weird or annoying.

Hikarin: Finally, we also worked on revising and placing the house designs that came from Furifuri-san. That was how the graphics work went, basically.

—Why did you end up using FuriFuri-san's artwork?

Nishi: I was personally acquainted with Ryosuke Tei, a representative of FuriFuri-san. Right around when Miyamoto came on board and the project got approved, staff members started leaving until we were down to about three people. Salaries had to be cut by 30%, we were really on the ropes. And we only had three months to make the prototype, so there was honestly no time to get hung up about the art direction.

Furifuri-san already had an established art style, which allowed us to imagine what the finished product would look like to some extent. That's why I asked Tei to draw for us. I told him we couldn't pay for the prototype work now, but we could pay once the main contract was signed, so please lend us your strength. He said, "Sure," and from there, I started calling the former staff members, entreating them to come back. Quite a few of them actually did, which made me really happy.

—When did you start working on the sound?

Taniguchi: From the prototype stage. I first made the bare-minimum essential sound effects and the title theme.

—Was there a musical theme?

Taniguchi: I wanted to create something between a musical and an opera. Normally, game soundtracks are instrumental, but I thought adding vocals could be interesting. Before this game, I'd experimented with writing songs like that, and they were well-received by those I showed them to. So we decided to try it here for Giftpia.

We used vocals I sang myself, and vocals sung by a female singer. For the opera parts, we needed more voices, so we processed those vocals and used multi-track recording to make it sound like a large group was singing. We asked the female singer to sing in a flat style, not with true operatic vocal technique. So the overall feel might be closer to a musical.

—When do the opera songs play?

Taniguchi: They play during events. There are instrumental tracks too, but for important scenes, they almost always include singing. Since the character voices are these strange, incomprehensible sounds, the lyrics were created to match that, emphasizing the sound of the imaginary language itself—something like a cross between Italian and German, very operatic.

Nishi: You can also stream the title track on the Nintendo website, so please give it a listen. It's a masterpiece.

—Were there any retakes?

Nishi: Not really. There weren't many corrections to the map either. We'd already built the core framework of the game for the three-month prototype, so the rest was fine.

In previous titles I've developed, I was always too busy with on-site work to oversee everything properly. This time, though, I focused strictly on direction. I played the game thoroughly and made detailed adjustments. We didn't discuss things much, but the staff generally understood what I wanted, so we were on the same page. I only needed to steer things back on track when they started heading in the wrong direction.

—Your team is small, and I get the impression that it's a lean, elite operation.

Nishi: I don't think there's been any other GameCube title made on such a small scale. Everyone was working about 15 hours a day though. We hardly used any outsourced work either.

—Finally, please share a message for the users.

Nishi: I think Giftpia is the kind of game where you really get its appeal when you see it in motion, touch it, and hear it. I think it has an appeal that veers slightly away from Nintendo's traditional orthodox path. If reading this article gives you even the slightest tingle of interest, I hope you'll buy it. It's cheap at 5,800 yen, after all.

Taniguchi: I highly recommend Giftpia for people looking for something a little different, or those seeking the unexpected. It also offers a unique musical approach, so fans of LoveDelic and Skip should enjoy it. For those who have never experienced a game like this, I think they'll find it refreshing and realize, “Oh, you can do it this way too.”

Hikarin: If you just dive in without overthinking it, you'll likely discover Giftpia has a surprisingly unique charm. Also, the map is vast, so move around as much as possible and really experience that scale. Bottom line: it's a game about running, eating, and "living".

Yoshida: I'm a huge Nintendo fan, so I play a ton of Nintendo games. This game is completely different from those. All the restrictions in the beginning with the protagonist, like that ball and chain, makes it pretty rough at first, and the characters are pretty intense, so initially I didn't like it much either myself. But now, each town resident feels like they're truly alive, and the protagonist Pockle even seems more adorable than Pikachu. (laughs) So I think if you take the time to savor the island, your feelings about it will change too. That's why I really want all Nintendo fans to play it too.

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