My translation of an interview from JeuxFrance with Naoto Oshima. Dude, he created Sonic!

Original text, pictures of the interview and the studio:
http://www.jeux-france.com/articles_dossiers315_interview-artoon.html

Shin Yokohoma, about an hour by train from Tokyo, is where we have been given an appointment by the developers of the Artoon studio for an exclusive interview with Naoto Oshima, the President of Artoon, famous for having drawn with his own hands that most famous of hedgehogs, Sonic, several years ago with Sega. This is in fact the first time that Artoon has welcomed foreign press to their studios and so it's with great honor that we ate and spoke with this funny, lively, and very pleasant man, just to get an inside look at this developer's studio that's riding a wave of popularity at the moment. Blinx: The Time Sweeper on the Xbox, Yoshi's Island DS on the Nintendo DS, and finally Blue Dragon on the Xbox 360 (certainly their biggest project with Mistwalker) are some examples of games developed by Artoon, notably published under Microsoft and Nintendo. We'll also talk about the return of Blue Dragon on the Nintendo DS, though the subject (still in the rumor stage) remains top secret for the moment.

Interview with Naoto Oshima, President of Artoon Studio

JeuxFrance: Thank you for having have at your Shin Yokohama studios for this interview. First, what do you feel when you see the Sonic character, of which you are the original designer, showing up in games such as Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, or Super Smash Bros. Brawl?

Naoto Oshima (Artoon): [Laughs] Ah, my feelings about Sonic? It's been a while...Sonic...I gave him life, then he grew up, and thanks to the intervention of numerous other people, he has evolved. I truly have the impression of having raised him as my child, and so I feel a bit like a parent in relation to Sonic. “My kid's all grown up!”, I could say [laughs].

Why did you decide to leave Sega's Sonic Team and create Artoon, your own development studio?

Mainly because I wanted to be free to do what I really wanted to. You know, when you stopped working on something, it's because there are things about it that you don't like, and one day it blows up inside, and you decide to go over to another thing.

Maybe it was to develop games that you wanted to create?

But in reality, I could already have done it with Sega, that wasn't the problem. The “Sega” at that time was in pretty bad shape.

So what then was the genesis of the Artoon project? Why did you create your own company?

Rather than follow the idea according to which a company has to always be creating new games, in large quantities, my idea was that it's ultimately preferable to work on a small scale, creating one game at a time, so that it will turn out even better. It's really to this end that I created Artoon. In Japan, in the world of animation for example, the greatest creator is without any doubt Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli. You've certainly realized that that studio works by taking it's time, and creates in the end few animes but puts lots of energy and resources to conceive them, that's the difference, and it's in that spirit that I've created Artoon, to become a sort of Ghibli for video games.

In passing, what's your favorite Ghibli film? Were also big Ghibli fans, their films are very well-known in France.

[Laughs] Definitely Laputa: Castle in the Sky.

Today, as a developer and creator of video games, what amount of artistic freedom do you have when working with the publishers?

I thought I'd become free by creating my own development studio, but in reality, it doesn't happen like that. There's not always agreement between what the publishers want us to develop for them, and what we, at Artoon, actually want to make. So effectively, we aren't free considering this point of view.

How is your relationship with the publishers? Are you the ones who come up with projects for them? Which are your projects, or to ask it the other way, is it more often the publishers that come and ask you to develop their game. If you bring a project to a developer, for example, do you still remain free to continue developing this project as you feel is best, or does the publisher set limits?

In practical terms, I've always wanted to create games with a more realistic feel, with a realism approaching that of film. But up to now, we haven't done a bad job with “cartoon-style” games as you know, and as a result, many publishers bring us projects for “cartoon-style” projects, since we're now “known” for this type of production. I'm not saying that I don't like this style, quite the contrary, but it's a way to explain to you the limitations we can have compared with what we'd like to do in this field.

I'll be more specific: for example, in the case of Blinx: The Time Sweeper, did you bring them the character and the game? Is this your brainchild, and did Microsoft then endorse its creation, or is it the other way around. Was Microsoft the one who came to ask you to create a game with a cat that goes back in time?

In the case of Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Microsoft came to visit us and basically said: we would like you to think about a character who could be Microsoft's Mario, a mascot like Sonic is for Sega. Further than this proposition for the project, we were free to do what we wanted, so we were the ones who came up with the Blinx character and the concept that came with him. Then Microsoft accepted the game that we presented them with, and that's how it happened.

Apart from Blinx: The Time Sweeper, have you often had this freedom to make the game as you imagine it? Or was this a special case?

In reality...the concept is often the most difficult thing to get the publishers to accept. Once the concept is accepted, the publishers, for the most part, doesn't worry about the details, and we are therefore quite free as far as the development of the game is concerned. But you now, up to now, Artoon has created a lot of pretty strange games. I'm going to show you, for example [Naoto Oshima gets and shows a poster of the game Ghost Vibration], here you can see that it's a game about ghosts that come out of the wall [Naoto Oshima mimes ghosts coming out of the wall!].

And then, there's Pinobee, a game with a robot-bee, created with the famous Pinocchio as our model. In this game, the play can write a diary. When the player does good deeds, the diary will tell good stories. And vice-versa, if the player does bad deess, our hero Pinobee will become a heartless villain, and the story will take a dark turn. In Blinx: The Time Sweeper, which we've talked about, the player can control time. There's also Vampire Rain, another game with ghosts, which we've been wanting to make, comparable to Japanese horror movies. So you see, we always make slightly peculiar games, each of which has its own distinctive properties, some people ill say that we make interesting games, and others who don't know what to make of them! [Laughs]

What's your favorite stage of development when making a video game?

It's in the beginning, when we have to think about what we could make, the phase where we research ideas.

What was it like with the Blue Dragon project for the Xbox 360, for example? Did Mr. Sakaguchi pass by your studios to see how the project was coming along?

Sakaguchi-san is a true creative person. He's an incredible person. Yes, he comes by often, especially toward the end of the project, we work hand in hand.

It looks like composer Nobuo Uematsu handled the game's music, have you had the chance to work directly with him as well?

Yes, in effect, Uematsu-san has also come a great many times to Artoon, mainly to discuss and to consult with us, since in order to make his music, he needs all of his equipment, which is in his own studio.

Completing the "Dream Team" for Blue Dragon was Akira Toriyama, who worked on the character design. Was it difficult for you as the president of Artoon studio, to coordinate all of these talented people for the same project?

Certainly, this was a uniting of these people who are famous in the world of video games, but this wasn't a problem in terms of management, on the contrary. Actually, everything began with the scenario that Sakaguchi-san had introduced. A team spirit was very important for him as well. There are certainly cases where Toriyama-San gave his opinion on what he saw as the less interesting parts of the scenario, for example. Sakaguchi-San always takes into account this sort of input from his colleagues. This often happens between creative people, there's a mutual trust and respect between them. And from our side too, when we suggest things, Sakaguchi-san listens to them attentively and takes it into account, in this sense, the working relations on Blue Dragon have really been very good.

You are a Japanese developer who works together with American, European, and Japanese publishers. Which ones are the most pleasant to work with?

First of all, it's very different according to where the publisher comes from. Microsoft is very different from Nintendo, for example. It's hard to say which one is better to work with, I'd simply say that they both have their positive sides. But you know, with Nintendo, they're incredible! You could say that all their employees have the qualities of a director. It's like the video gaming elite [Laughs].

Which console do you think has the biggest potential today?

I can't answer that. I love them all! My clients are Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, how do you expect me to answer that question? [Laughs]

And as a player, what game are you playing at the moment?

Wii Sports [Laughs].

I'm noticing that now, many games that revolve around sports are being announced for the Wii (notably golf games). What do you think of this trend?

You know, I thought the same thing with the DS at first, there was a period with a lot of “non-games”, or easy games, but afterwards, numerous games that were more varied and classic-style came out as well, and I think that the same thing is happening with the Wii.

What do you think of the Casual Gaming phenomenon in general?

You know, in Japan, the number of children has greatly decreased compared to 10 years ago. If the video game market didn't adapt itself to this demographic change, it would have been destined for an inevitable decline. Moreover, in Japan, more than 90% of elementary school age children play video games. But when they get to middle school or high school, many of them stop playing, and so we find ourselves with a vast majority of adults who no longer play. To attract them, or rather to bring back this population of ex-players, Nintendo and others now create these so-called “casual games”. These aren't made for people who have never played, but rather for adults who played when they were children, to bring them back to video games, even in adulthood.

Are you more a Brain Training or a Final Fantasy person?

I like “real games”, with emotions (laughs].

Any last words for the readers of Jeux France?

At Artoon, even if I don't think that we have yet reached the level of the greatest developers, we make enormous efforts to make quality games, we work passionately, and we want to continue to create games that we like for players who have played and have liked our games. Therefore, I would like to say to our players to continue to support us, and to await our future games.

Thank you very much. We wish you good luck, and we are very honored to meet you today. Domo arigato gozaimashita.

Thank you.