Exactly three years have passed since Animal Crossing: Wild World¹ was released for Nintendo DS. I'm sure there are many fans that have been waiting expectantly for this title. Firstly, could I ask each of you to explain what your role in the game's development was?

1	Animal Crossing: Wild World was released in Japan in November 2005 and in Europe in March 2006. It was the fourth Animal Crossing title to be released in Japan and the second in Europe. It is the first to be released on a handheld console.

My name is Hisashi Nogami and I work in the Production Department of the Entertainment Analysis & Development Division (EAD). As the director of this title, my role was to oversee its development from the original concept, as well as working on other aspects of the game such as the development of its communication-related features.

I'm Isao Moro, and I'm also from the Production Department of EAD. I worked as sub-director on Animal Crossing. My role was to oversee the development and implementation of system features and to work on the debugging side.

My name is Ryuji Kobayashi, also from the Production Department of EAD. On this title, I worked as the design director and was in charge of directing and editing the game’s graphics.

My name is Aya Kyogoku and I am also working in EAD, in the Production Department. As the Sequence Director, I was responsible for all elements relating to the animal’s behaviour and dialogue, such as writing the script.

Thank you. Now, Nogami-san, could you tell us how the planning for this project began?

Certainly. As soon as the DS version of Animal Crossing was completed, I was involved for some time in software development for Wii, including Wii Sports. I then went on to oversee development of the Mii Channel for Wii.

As things turned out, you ended up getting sucked into working on the Mii Channel.

And I was told to knock it into shape within two months! (laughs) Then, after things had settled down a bit on the Mii Channel, I was assisting with the general development of the Wii system. It was at that point that I started to think about Animal Crossing, and I was thinking: “Isn't it about time we started planning the next title?” But I really didn't have any time, so I was at a loss as to what to do.

At that time, I was frequently joining meetings about the Wii system development so I had a lot of opportunities for discussion with Nogami-san. But it didn't seem as if the work on the Mii Channel was going to end any time soon, so I was concerned as to when he might be able to work on Animal Crossing.

It was in December 2006, when my involvement with the work on the Wii system functions had drawn to a conclusion, that we began work on the Animal Crossing. I did have some work still to do on the Mii Channel following its launch, but I did this at the same time as starting work on Animal Crossing.

So that means that this title has taken round about two years to develop. Can you tell us what you were most conscious of when you first looked at the new Wii console while thinking about how to develop an Animal Crossing title for it?

As you would expect, the thing that I was most conscious of was WiiConnect24². Fortunately for me, working on the Mii Channel had taught me a great deal about what kinds of things you might be able to do using WiiConnect24.

2	WiiConnect24 is a Nintendo network connection for Wii which is always online and can automatically download new information and other data.

So asking you to work on that project turned out to be useful. I’d love to be able to tell you that when I first asked you to work on the Mii Channel, I had Animal Crossing in mind. But in fact, the development of the Wii system functions sucked many people into working on it and no one had any time. I certainly didn't have time to consider anything like that! (laughs)

(laughter)

At that point, I had researched the functions of the Wii system thoroughly and knew exactly what was possible. So my starting point was to think about how these functions could be utilised in Animal Crossing.

I will come back to the way you decided to utilise the Wii system functions in Animal Crossing a little later in the discussion. Before that, could you tell us how you ended up becoming involved, Moro-san?

I had been the System Director for the Nintendo DS version.

So it was natural that you should work on the Wii version.

Yes, it was. As with Nogami-san, when work calmed down a little on the Wii system functions, I became involved in Animal Crossing quite naturally.

And how about you, Kobayashi-san?

I was also involved in the DS version, but as soon as it was completed, I worked on assisting development of New Super Mario Brothers along with Wii Sports and Wii Play. At the same time, I was overseeing the graphics on the Mii Channel. Then once that was over...

We really know how to put people to work at this company, don’t we? Well, I’m not really the one who should be saying that! (laughs)

When those projects were over, I became involved in the Animal Crossing project. So it's really the same kind of timing as the other people here.

So you were able to shift from one job to another without it being a waste. As Miyamoto-san always says, “life should be lived without waste”. Kyogoku-san, I spoke to you before, during the interview about The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.

That’s right. The Zelda project ended in the late autumn of 2006, and I was able to take a break over the winter holiday. But then, I was just told something like, “And now, take care of the next ‘Animal Crossing’, please.” So I got sucked into it too! (laughs)

Your main job was to prepare the script, meaning you had to think about the character's dialogue. Wasn't there a huge difference between working on Animal Crossing and Zelda?

Absolutely. It has a completely different feel to it. But in terms of the amount of dialogue, as far as I was concerned, there wasn’t much difference. They were both very demanding.

And on top of that, there was the localisation. With the translation work to prepare the versions for worldwide release, there were a lot of elements that needed to be adapted for each different language and culture. I'm sure that in that sense it was even tougher than Zelda.

That was the case with this title in particular, because it’s scheduled for release at around the same time worldwide. Our colleagues from NOA (Nintendo of America) would keep asking us when Animal Crossing would be ready.

I think that’s because NOA were well aware that the sheer volume of text in Animal Crossing meant it was going to be no ordinary title. (laughs) So they needed to make sure they were prepared by getting the localisation structures established well ahead of time. Okay, let’s go back to the start of the project. With the team decided and work set to start on the Wii version, did you find there were aspects of the DS version which you felt obliged to carry over, or which somehow acted as obstacles?

Naturally, there were issues like that. But we decided to put the previous title out of our minds for the time being, and start work on the next one afresh. After all, Animal Crossing was originally a title that you could enjoy fully even when playing the game on your own.

It's a game where players are able to decide what their own goals are and enjoy the game in their own way: “I'm going to complete this task!" or "I'm going to design a beautiful house!"

But ever since the DS version, some people have come to think that if you can't connect to other players then Animal Crossing isn't going to be any fun.

But it’s not just about that, is it?

Right. There’s no doubt that connecting to other players makes the game more enjoyable. But it's not as if everyone can play the game like that. That's why it's fine for players to play the game alone. But even when you’re playing alone, if you think "at some point I might try connecting with another player", it totally changes your motivation while playing. By connecting to and interacting with other players, the enjoyment of the game really increases. By connecting with other players via the internet I think you'll get double or triple the amount of enjoyment.

The core element of this game which doubles or triples the enjoyment the player gets is the one you mentioned a little earlier: the use of WiiConnect24.

That’s right. For this title, we’ve come up with four new core elements, one of which is the use of WiiConnect24.

The first core element I’d like to discuss is WiiConnect24. This is a system which is able to transmit and receive data, even when you're not playing Wii or when you're asleep. So when I first heard the concept, I really thought: “This sounds like it has been designed for Animal Crossing!”

I was also conscious of this on some level from the time we originally devised the Wii concept. They may not have said it at the time, but I’m sure that among many of those working on Wii hardware and the system functions, there was a feeling that they would like to see these fully utilised for Animal Crossing.

On our side, we certainly felt that weight of expectation. You could sense a kind of unvoiced demand: “Make sure you use this function!” For me, the most appealing aspect of WiiConnect24 is that even when the player doesn’t think he’s making contact with other players, that connection is there in the background. In the DS version, the use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection³ added a fun element, but it could also entail quite a bit of effort.

3	Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection is a system that connects the player to the internet and allows them to enjoy games or other applications together with players around the world.

When you were planning to take a trip to your friend's town, you needed to arrange the time beforehand and make sure that you were both using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection at the same time.

And one player might want to play at a certain time that didn't really suit other players. For that reason, this time round we wanted to use WiiConnect24 to allow players to enjoy the communicative element of the game more, without having to make this effort.

Could you tell us what precisely WiiConnect24 adds to the game?

The first thing we thought of is something we sort of stole from the Mii Channel…

What do you mean “stole”? It was you who developed the Mii Channel! (laughs)

Well, you have a point there! (laughs) So we used an idea from the Mii Channel, and decided that we would have the data about players' towns automatically exchanged with their friends. This exchange of information started with the DS version, when you needed to have two separate consoles, each with a Game Card, connected. But this time around, by connecting to WiiConnect24, without one player having to visit the other player, the town data could be exchanged before either player knew it. So then all of a sudden you’d get an animal that’s new in the neighbourhood, who’s just moved from your friend’s town, introducing himself: ”Hi! I’ve just moved from ----- town."

And “---- town” would actually be a real Animal Crossing town.

Right. And they’ll even tell you gossip about their home town: “This character from ----- town really likes this”, and things like that.

So more and more gossip will get spread from one town to another without you realising it.

Actually, there was a specific incident that gave us the idea to do this. It was something that Hideki Konno-san from our department told me.

That’s the producer of Mario Kart Wii. I've also interviewed him in a previous "Iwata Asks".

It seems that Konno-san, his wife and their son all enjoyed playing the DS version of Animal Crossing. His wife was apparently a keen fan of fishing, and she spent so much time fishing that their son actually complained to her, saying: “Mum, will you stop going fishing?”

I’m sure that their son also loved fishing, and he was just jealous that his mother was catching such great fish! (laughs)

It seems that’s exactly what it was! (laughs) So the mother resisted the urge to go fishing when her son was there, but she would sneak off and fish when he wasn’t around.

That’s great! (laughs)

Then one day their son was playing when an animal came up to speak to him and mentioned his mother. The animal said: “She’s does nothing except go fishing!”

So it was one of the animals that told him what his mother was up to! (laughs) No one would expect a character in a game to gossip or spread rumours!

It would really take you aback! You wouldn’t expect to hear that sort of thing from a character like that in a million years!

And in the Wii version, even if the animals don't reveal your secrets, another player might just see something on screen that tips them off. (laughs)

What do you mean by that?

Around the town, there is what I suppose you could call undergrowth. There’s green grass, but underneath it, there’s earth. This time, we stuck the grass on so it feels a little like it's floating on top of the earth. When a player walks on the grass, it wears it away so you can see a little bit of the earth below.

So there is data for each square of earth in the grid in Animal Crossing, and the information about whether each of the squares has been stepped on is retained?

Exactly. So as the player walks around, the grass is gradually worn away. We made it so that it starts to grow back after a day has passed. But if, for instance, you were to go to Tom Nook’s store every day…

I see! You would leave animal tracks.

Well, the player controls a human character, so I suppose you would call them footprints rather than animal tracks. (laughs) So if a player is doing nothing but going fishing, the grass on the path from their house to the seashore or the river will be worn away. And where there’s a bridge which everyone has to walk across, the grass will be completely worn away.

So all someone needs to do to see if their mother is always sneaking off to go fishing is to follow the trail in front of their house!

(laughter)

So even if when you visit a friend in their town, you wouldn’t always have to check the map. You could just follow the path from the checkpoint and make your way straight to their house.

I see. That’s an unexpected bonus! (laughs) Out of interest, how often would you have to walk over an area of grass to leave a trail?

If you walk over it for about two weeks, it would have begun to look a little like a path.

And it would take perhaps two months for it to look like a proper path.

I’m speechless! I mean this as a compliment, but all I can think to say is what on earth possessed you put a feature like that in the game? (laughs)

(laughter)

Remember that while the grass will slowly grow back, the speed at which it grows will change depending on the environment. If it's an area full of trees and grass, or where flowers are planted, the grass will grow back more rapidly.

So before you knew it, you had ended up with a small-scale gardening simulator built into the game! (laughs)

You can even cultivate the grass on your lawn in the way you want! (laughs)

When an animal moves away from the town, a rectangular patch remains in the place where their house used to stand. When you see that and realise that this animal has moved away, it really makes you feel sad!

But of course, little by little, the grass will grow back, and as the traces of where the animal's house used to stand disappear, your memories of that animal will also fade.

So by the time the grass has fully grown back, you'll have completely forgotten that anyone used to live there! (laughs)

(laughter)

Shall we move on to the second of the core elements you mentioned?

There’s just one more thing I’d like to mention with relation to WiiConnect24. It's the city which gives the game its subtitle. The reason why we created a city for this version of Animal Crossing was again to make use of the capabilities of WiiConnect24.

Could you explain what kind of place the city in the game is?

The idea was that this city would be the only one that exists in the world, and that all of the various towns would be connected by means of this city. It's not that the city is actually located on the server. The city is in each player's separate copy of the game, so different data is actually being used by each player with the game. But we designed it so that everyone feels that they are really going to the same place.

But if it's actually separate, how do you give the impression to players that they are in the same place?

Two players cannot actually meet up in the city, but you might get an animal that tells you something like: "Just the other day ----- came to visit!"

So you’ve made it so that if one player goes to the city, the animals will take note, and they’ll then tell other players who visit the city?

As everyone is able to have similar kinds of experiences, it will feel to the players as if they are visiting the very same city.

I see. So what exactly can you find in the city?

The biggest attraction is Gracie’s shop, GracieGrace. Gracie the giraffe is a fashion designer who has popped up in other titles in the series. Now she's finally opened her own shop.

Gracie is a character with a slightly snobbish way of speaking, isn’t she?

That's right. When Gracie makes her occasional appearances in the shop, she’ll check out the player's fashion and will make references to players in other villages. So she’ll say things like “------ in ----- village really knows how to dress. You should take a leaf out of her book!"

So it’s best to get dressed up before heading to the city. You can buy smart clothes in Gracie's shop.

The only problem is that the clothes on sale in GracieGrace are incredibly expensive. The prices can be around twenty times higher than the items you'll find on sale in the towns. What's more, unlike Tom Nook's store, the items on display are fixed for each season, only changing every three months.

The clothes change every season? Just like the real world! (laughs)

Every three months, the clothes on sale will be replaced by items suited to the season, and at the time they change, the prices will be reduced. But even if you go to the sales to hunt for bargains, you could well find that a lot of the clothes are already sold out.

It’s sounding more and more like the real world! (laughs)

Sales always begin at the same time, so when a player hears that there’s a sale starting on that day, they’ll head to the city with exactly the same feeling they get going to the sales in real life.

So this will lead to conversations just as I might have if I bumped into Nogami-san at work: "The sales started yesterday. Have you been yet?"

Absolutely. In a similar way, there’s a new character called Phineas who gives away balloons free of charge. He’ll appear in all the players’ cities on the same day. But you never know quite when he's going to be there.

So one player can let others know by sending them a message saying something like: "I went to the city and got a balloon!"

And the other players will return the message: "I should get to the city right away!" It would be great if players would talk about things like this outside of the game as well. Another part of the game that uses WiiConnect24 is the auction house. Players can put furniture and other items up for sale and other players can then bid for them just like in a real auction. The auction period lasts for quite a long time so if a player realises that, let’s say, they have two vases and don’t need one of them, they can bring it to the auction house and another player might come later on and purchase it.

So even if two players aren’t playing the game at the same time, they can still enjoy interacting?

Right. And the player will find out the name of the player who bought the item and which town they live in afterwards.

There’s also something really great about the model room. Fans of the series will know the Happy Room Academy well. If you can get a good score there...

The Happy Room Academy is the place in your village where you can get the layout of your room judged, isn’t it?

That's it. One day when I was testing the game, I was really thrilled to see my own room displayed as the model room in Moro-san's town! (laughs)

If you get a good score at the Happy Room Academy, your room will be displayed as the model room in other player's towns.

There’s a character called Shrunk who was introduced in the DS title. When he visits your town, he’ll teach you to get in touch with your emotions. Then when you send messages to other players, you can add emotions that he’s taught you such as "surprise" or "laughter". In this title, Shrunk appears in a theatre too.

It seems like everyone’s moved up in the world now that there's a city! (laughs)

Well, not everyone! (laughs) The emotions that Shrunk is able to teach you will vary week to week, just as the line-up in Gracie's shop will change every three months. It would get tiring for the player to keep visiting the city every time something changes, so the pace at which things change is quicker in the town than it is in the city.

So there’s no need for players to trek to the city every day.

Riding the bus to the city takes time, so I would like it if players thought something like: "It's Sunday, so maybe I’ll pop to the city.”

I see. And you can also give your character a makeover to make them look like a Mii at the hair salon in the city, can’t you?

Yes, you can head to Shampoodle, the hair salon in the city.

I’ve always been very interested in Miis. What have you done with them in this version of Animal Crossing?

I worked on creating the Mii, so if I had announced that I wasn't going to use them, I'd have probably got into trouble!

(laughter)

There were actually a lot of people at the start who thought that, this time round, Animal Crossing might feature nothing but Miis. At the start, we tried this as an experiment, but it really felt quite strange and was more unpleasant than anything else. (laughs)

The Miis which appear in Wii Sports and other titles have different heads and bodies from the characters in Animal Crossing, so it must have felt like something altogether different to use Miis.

Also, one of the charms of Animal Crossing is being able to wear different hats and glasses, and experiment with all kinds of fashions. But if we had forced players to use Miis, they wouldn't have been able to enjoy this. There are also players who like the faces of the original main characters in Animal Crossing.

I think if we had made it so that players were forced to use Miis, it would have detracted from the enjoyment of the game. So that’s why we added a setting where your characters could choose the face of a Mii, and were able to put it on and take it off as they liked.

But it’s not just like a mask. You can also use the emotions that Shrunk has taught you, so you can make your Miis look surprised or happy, which adds a really fresh new element to the game.

That’s why I’d recommend choosing your Mii face before you go on a trip.

When one of your friends looks like their Mii and then comes to visit your town, it's really funny! (laughs)

There will also be people who choose to take on the appearance of other Miis, so when you see them, you’re left wondering: “Who’s this?!” (laughs)

If I remember rightly, the biggest fan of that kind of trick was you, Kyogoku-san. (laughs)

In any case, it's clear how more and more new elements were added to Animal Crossing by making use of WiiConnect24. I think we should now turn to the second of the core elements in the game.

OK.

The second core element in the game is the use of Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. We didn’t use it simply because we'd done it before in the DS version. We figured it was fun for players to be able to use the internet to visit their friend's towns, so we put it in this version as well.

Were there things which you weren’t able to do with the DS Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection that you were able to implement in the Wii version?

Yes, there were. Players are now able to enjoy various events together with their friends. In the DS version, because it was for a handheld console, there were hardware limitations, so the event would come to a halt while the DS units were communicating through the Internet. But in this version, for events like New Year’s Eve and carnivals, you can all gather in your friend’s town and enjoy it together.

So one player can say something like: “There’s ------ taking place in my town today, so come and join me!”

Exactly. There’s a dog that puts on a guitar concert once a week…

Ah, that would be K.K.

Yes. He wasn’t able to appear while players were using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in the DS version. If you had friends visiting your town, you wouldn’t be able to listen to the performance, even if it was 8 o’clock on a Saturday evening. But in this version, up to 4 players can enjoy one of K.K.’s concerts together. When everyone uses an event like that as a reason to get together, I’m really happy. There are also events that take place simultaneously worldwide.

So let’s say on the 31st December, wherever you take a trip in to the Animal Crossing world, you can enjoy New Year’s Eve. But you can't simply talk of events without acknowledging that each country has its own culture. It must have been very tough to adapt the events to suit each culture.

Well, I got the chance to become quite an expert on events around the world! (laughs) In Japan, we have the event called tsukimi (moon-viewing). In Japan, when we talk of moon-viewing, we are talking about the mid-autumn moon. There are also events related to the moon which take place at the same time in America, but they are completely different in nature.

In what way?

In autumn in America, at harvest time, you are able to work at night when the moon is bright, so they have the Autumn Moon festival to celebrate this.

Is that right? I had no idea!

In Japan, when you mention tsukimi, people think of tsukimi dango (sweet dumplings), and pampas grass decorations. But people in other countries don't understand this at all, so we had to change the animal's dialogue.

When an event takes place, the head of the town will come out and give presents to players. So during tsukimi, he would give out tsukimi dango.

But if an American player receives a tsukimi dango, he's going to think: "What on earth's this?"

Right. So we changed the gift the player receives for the US version to a wheat sheaf. Which leaves Japanese people wondering: “Why a wheat sheaf?" (laughs)

Apparently, there’s a custom in America where people use wheat sheaves as decorations during the moon-viewing season.

So if you visit a friend's town overseas during the moon-viewing season, you’ll be able to get hold of a wheat sheaf.

So if you’ve got a Wii Friend in another country, you’ll be able to get hold of items that you can’t get in Japan.

That's right. So perhaps it's a good idea to pack your tsukimi dango to give as presents when you visit a town in another country. (laughs) Compared to the DS version, the elements using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection are more fully-developed and enjoyable.

Another addition this time around is the ability to use Wii Speak to speak to your friends when you visit them. What does it feel like when you do this in Animal Crossing?

Rather than chatting constantly while playing, it’s great fun when you’re listening to the different sounds in each room to sometimes hear a voice saying “Oh!" or something like that.

Does it feel like your friends are right there with you?

It really feels like you're sharing the same space.

So it feels like your living rooms are somehow connected?

Yes. Wii Speak isn't something that you use while wearing a pair of headphones, so you’re not really conscious of the fact that you're having a conversation. You can just sit in front of the TV and enjoy talking as you please. You don’t feel like you have to be speaking the whole time. Even when you don't say anything, you’ll really feel like the other person is right there alongside you, enjoying the game together with you.

When I saw the development team working during the debugging phase, the thing that really struck me was that even though you could use Wii Speak to talk to other players directly, there were still plenty of people who were writing messages at the same time. So in other words, when it was better to say things directly, people spoke, but when they just wanted to chat, they would write messages. It was split in various ways. So while you might think that because it's possible to use Wii Speak, writing messages would become redundant, that's not the case at all. It feels that we’ve added another means of communication.

Well, I think when it comes down to it, people can be a little shy about having a conversation via a game.

You wouldn't worry about speaking on the phone, but for some reason you do tend to feel a little self-conscious about speaking in a game. I suppose one difference is that the purpose of telephones is to speak to other people, while the purpose of games is to enjoy them.

It’s like when you’re playing against someone using DS Wireless Communication. You might be sitting together, and even when there's no need for you to say anything, you still say things out loud. I’d like people to use Wii Speak while playing Animal Crossing with that same kind of feeling. So rather than people getting together just to have a conversation, even just saying short phrases like "Wow!" or "Hey!" makes players feel more connected and enables them to enjoy playing even more.

Depending on the person, I imagine there are those who are wondering why there isn’t also a built-in camera in Wii Speak. How would you respond to that, Nogami-san?

I didn’t feel that there was any necessity to attach a camera. In fact, there were players who didn’t even feel comfortable being connected on the DS version, so I think if we'd added a camera, it would have made those people feel even more uncomfortable.

Say, for instance, that you are connected and playing with three other people. Let's say that the other three people have their faces shown on the TV screen. It would really put constraints on the game’s graphics.

Also, if you can see the other player’s face, it becomes a lot harder to let yourself get absorbed in the game.

There’s another reason why I wouldn’t like having a camera. I did a test at home using Wii Speak, and because I’d been so busy, my room was a total mess!(laughs)

So your room in the game was so nice that it was displayed as a model room in Moro-san’s town, while actually your real room...! (laughs)

Well, my room’s one thing, but I’d also be worried about how I was looking...

(laughter)

I’d be telling people to wait a minute while I put on my make-up!

It would be more like an hour! (Laughs)

That’s why it’s lucky it’s just a microphone! (laughs)

We don't really want people to get worked up and think: "Right! Now it's time to use Wii Speak!" Basically, we want it to feel just as relaxed and informal as if they were playing round at their friend’s house. Even when people go and visit their friends, there are plenty of times when they're just lying about reading comics.

That’s what it means to really bring living rooms together. From the start, Animal Crossing was a game that was created with the intention of allowing people to enjoy it without having to energetically throw themselves into it. Now, let’s turn to the game’s third core element.

The third element is the way in which the Nintendo DS can be used in conjunction with the game. It's the issue I spoke about at the start. There are always people who are not able to enjoy the features that utilise an Internet connection.

Well, however much we talk about how many fun things you can do using WiiConnect24 and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, there are homes which are not online and so can't connect their Wii console to the Internet.

But I wanted those players to be able to experience going out and about and visiting other people. Visiting other people's towns is at the very heart of this series.

For the Nintendo 64⁴, you could use the Controller Pak, and for the GameCube version, you were able to use the Memory Card⁵.

4	The first Animal Crossing title was released in April 2001 in Japan for the Nintendo 64 console
5	Two Animal Crossing titles were released for the Nintendo GameCube in Japan: “Dobutsu No Mor+(Plus)”i in December 2001, and “Dobutsu No Mori e-Plus in June 2003. Animal Crossing’s European release for the GameCube was in September 2004.

And now, in the Wii version, it’s the DS that allows you to visit your friends.

So how exactly do you go about using the DS to visit a friend? There are players who don't own the game for the DS.

You don’t need to own the game. All you need is one DS console. By using the DS Download Play function, you can download your player data, put the DS in Sleep Mode and take it to a friend's house. You'll then be able to play in that friend's town.

So the DS becomes a way of transporting data?

We've called it the DS Suitcase. If a player isn't connected to the Internet at home, even if they’re the kind of player who was happy to play on their own at first, if they have designed a great room and decorated their town, they’re going to want to show their handiwork to someone else at some point. That’s when we want players to use the DS Suitcase so they can get their friends to come and visit them.

And for the other player, paying a visit your friend's town might mean you can get hold of some hard-to-find items.

We’d like players to play the game with the feeling that even if they aren’t connected to other players at the moment, the day will definitely come when they will be.

Isn't it also the case that players who own the DS version of Animal Crossing will be able to bring some of their data across to the Wii version?

Naturally, there are a lot of players who have been playing the DS version for a long time and who really feel an attachment to the town they’ve built up. But when you actually think about what was the most important part of the town in the DS version, it was the character that they played as. That’s why we’ve made it possible for players to move house from the DS version across to Wii, taking their name and face, as well as their catalogue.

Video for “Moving House from the DS to the Wii" here.

So if you have your catalogue, you can order all the furniture and other items you collected on the DS version from Tom Nook. But why did you decide not to allow players to carry across their money and possessions?

Even if the player character moves to the Wii version, they will still remain in the DS version. There are still people who are playing the DS version, and if all the money and furniture was simply removed from the game...

It would turn into a ghost town! (laughs) That would be really harsh on those players.

You’re also unable to carry fish and insects across to the Wii version. The reason for this is because we want players to feel that whole new challenges are awaiting them. The number of fish and insects has increased significantly, and there are a number of strange and interesting new additions.

Finally, let’s turn to the fourth core element in the game.

The fourth core element is the ability to add extra items at a later stage. You could add characters on Dobutsu No Mori e-Plus for the GameCube, so we thought...

On the GameCube, you were able to use the e-Reader Card⁶ to load new data for additional characters.

6	The e-Reader Card was an accessory for the Game Boy Advance. 2-D barcodes printed on cards were read, allowing the player to enjoy mini-games and to add new data.

At the time, game magazines were holding competitions where readers could send in their characters, and then these characters could go and live in your town. But there were limits to the capacity of the e-Reader Card.

But this time on Wii, things are different.

That’s right. It looks like all kinds of things will be possible. For instance, we could team up with a drinks manufacturer and then have vending machines that look just like the real thing used in the game as furniture. I’d love to see real objects being integrated into the game as furniture.

A huge number of animals make an appearance in this game. What's more, you have the Internet allowing gossip to spread between towns, the passage of time through the 365 days of the year, the seasons changing, and all kinds of events taking place in your town... And then on top of all this, you add in extra items and grass that responds if the player walks on it... It must have been an absolute nightmare to do the debugging for this game!

It was. In the latter half of the development process, that final push was a real uphill struggle...

“The final push”? There’s the whiff of the battlefield about that phrase! (laughs)

That’s exactly what it was. The debugging of a regular game can be done by simply playing it through in order.

But in Animal Crossing there is no order!

And what’s worse, it’s a game where all kinds of things are interlinked and tangled up together, which makes it really hard to know where to begin and when to end.

Congratulations to you all for getting through it in one piece! Now, I’d like to bring this interview to a close with a message to the fans of Animal Crossing. Let's start with Moro-san, the sub-director for the title.

I’d like to ask that everyone who plays the game pays particular attention when the animals look like they’re about to move house.

I remember in the DS version that you were able to stop the animals moving house when they had packed all of their furniture into cardboard boxes.

But it’s not very realistic, is it? Everything packed up ready for the move the following day, and then suddenly you call a halt to it and they just say “Okay. I’ll stay." So in the Wii version, before the belongings have been packed up in cardboard boxes, there's a period when they’re just considering moving. At that point, if you try to talk them round, you can make them change their mind. The other thing I'd like to say is that I want players to play this game everyday, even if it's only for 15 minutes. The more you play it, the more you’ll discover the game’s charm.

Next, let’s hear from Kobayashi-san, who was the Design Director.

We’ve made this game so that it can be enjoyed by fans of the series and newcomers alike. I’d like people to play a little every day. And I’d also like you to pay attention to the way the sky changes while you play.

On the DS, the two screens meant that you were always able to see the sky.

Creating that sky was totally a process of trial and error. Now that I didn't have two screens to work with, I really felt strongly that there was something lacking when the player couldn’t see the sky. Making the terrain drum-shaped in the same way as the DS version allowed the sky to be visible at the top part of the screen. I really wanted to make it so that you could see the sky changing in different places. I even thought of somehow linking it to the Weather Channel, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to follow this through. I researched the climate in each country, but you had places where hardly any rain fell, on the one hand, and then other places where it poured for most of the year.

If it’s always raining outside, the last thing people want is to play a game and find that it’s raining there too! (laughs) Now, to Kyogoku-san.

Now that Animal Crossing will be played once again on a TV screen, I think that people who first came into contact with Animal Crossing on the DS will find that there's a very different feel to this game. And then on the other hand, I think it will bring back fond memories for people who first played the game on the N64 or the GameCube. The titles in the Animal Crossing series start with the player working for Tom Nook, so there’s that feeling of familiarity, while at the same time there are many things that are different and many fresh elements for the player to enjoy. I’d especially like the players to enjoy the animal’s dialogue. We’ve really paid a lot of attention to detail, so as well as the regular conversation, I’d like the players to enjoy all the subtle reactions of the animals, some of which will come as a total surprise.

There are cases where if you are persistent and keep talking to animals, they can end up losing their temper with you.

That’s right. We’ve come up with all kinds of things like that. I really want the player to be pleasantly surprised when they encounter a situation where they really didn’t expect there to be such a reaction. Those are the things that I enjoy as a player.

Just out of curiosity, how much text is there in the game?

Around 1.6 million characters. And that’s just for Japanese!

You say it so matter-of-factly! 1.6 million characters! (laughs) It’s a mind-boggling number. Imagine that you can fit about 400 characters on one sheet of paper. That would be 4000 pages, completely filled with text!

It’s not just the fine details of the animals’ reactions that we’ve worked on. Up until the last title, there were a lot of cases where the subject would suddenly be changed with a line like: "Nice weather we're having. What are you doing?" This time round, we've tried to go as much as possible for a more natural flow to the conversation. And as we tried to account for every single combination of dialogue, the total number of words just kept creeping up without us noticing! (laughs) But having the subject suddenly changed with questions like " What are you doing?" has been such a stock part of the series up to now, I was worried that by taking the dialogue in a more natural direction, that there would be players who wouldn't feel comfortable with the change. But when we did the monitor testing, the feedback was really positive so we went ahead and worked right to the very end to remove any unnatural dialogue.

I see. So by doing that, the word count just kept growing. And then before you realised it, you were looking at a script that was 4000 pages long! (laughs) Okay, let's have the final word from Nogami-san.

I'll just say a little more about the game's controls. There’s a whole variety of control methods made possible by Wii's unique controllers. You can play using both hands, holding the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, or play simply holding the Wii Remote in one hand. As well as enjoying a control method that's very different from the DS control system, you can try out different control methods to find the one that suits you. You can use the +Control Pad to switch between different tools, and you can also take photos. So if all your friends get together, for instance, you can take a picture of them and then send it to your friends. I’d love this game to lead to communication which takes place even outside the world of the game. And finally, as I said a little earlier, I would like players who don't have a connection to the Internet to fully enjoy the world of Animal Crossing, and to keep being spurred on by the thought that someday they might get the chance to show the room they’ve put so much effort into to other people.

Finally, I'd like to say a few words. The first Animal Crossing title was released at a time when progress in game development was opening up a huge divide between highly-skilled game players and those who were much less proficient. The original Animal Crossing titles on the N64 and GameCube didn’t demand any high-level of gaming ability, and while they were not enormous hits by any means, they still managed to build up a solid fan base. I feel that this marked a milestone in deciding the present direction of Nintendo. Then when the DS version was released, what happened took all of us who had been involved in the game by surprise. It wasn't just that players were able to connect and play together. It was the fact that the deeper players dug, the more levels they discovered and they were truly able to find their own way to enjoy the game. It was this which gave the game its impressive fan base. Now at the end of 2008, exactly two years after Wii was released, the new world of Animal Crossing is set to be unveiled. Players will be able to connect in a whole variety of ways, via WiiConnect24 and Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, and events inside the game will become topics of discussion in real life. I therefore sincerely look forward to watching as the game eventually becomes seen as a valuable means of communication by all kinds of people. You have all worked extremely hard and I’d like to thank you all very much for your efforts.

Could I just add something? Listening to you speak just now, I remembered something.

Please, go ahead.

I remember I was giving a presentation to some of our colleagues overseas at the time when we were developing the original N64 version. A lot of people were saying things like: “This doesn’t look like it would really sell overseas.” But I recall that Iwata-san, who was also at the presentation, said: "You’re doing something really interesting here.”

Yes, I remember it well! I think it must have been just after I had come to Nintendo as the head of the Corporate Planning Division.

Well, the presentation also introduced the games that would go on to become Pikmin and Luigi’s Mansion, so perhaps you were talking about those titles too.

No, I remember this game which didn’t demand expert gaming skills striking me as clearly being very original. Of course, I didn't imagine it was going to turn into a hit title selling 5 million copies, but I did think that there was something genuinely unique about it.

At that time, you were not yet President of Nintendo, but the fact that you had thought it was interesting really spurred us on in developing the title after that. Those of us working on it had thought it was interesting, but we were still at a point where we weren't really sure about whether anyone would want to play a game that wasn’t quite a game...

To think that what I said to you seven or eight years ago could somehow be connected to the Animal Crossing we have today. I’m just glad I told you it looked interesting! (laughs)