Kenshi Naruse (interview): Difference between revisions

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Unfortunately there’s no data left over from those days. Since you went to the trouble of emailing me I tried looking for something to show you, but any data prior to the year 2000 has long since been discarded. The publisher Visit also is no longer around, so nothing of theirs remains.
Unfortunately there’s no data left over from those days. Since you went to the trouble of emailing me I tried looking for something to show you, but any data prior to the year 2000 has long since been discarded. The publisher Visit also is no longer around, so nothing of theirs remains.


I worked as the director on Cooly, so I’ll tell you about my experience working on it.
I worked as the director on Cooly, so I’ll tell you about my experience working on it.  


The game went through various situations before it finally made it to the market.  
The game went through various circumstances before it finally made it to the market. Development started at the request of BPS who were famous for Tetris and wanted an action game for kids. The title and character at that time were something completely different from Cooly. We worked on the concept and came up with the idea of making something like Skyblazer which was released by Epic/Sony, but aimed at the younger market.


Development started at the request of BPS who were famous for Tetris and wanted an action game for kids.  
Production proceeded with the intent to make a mascot character for BPS, who weren’t all that popular with the younger crowd. The game ended up being halted due to a change in direction for BPS. It was pretty unfortunate since the game was mostly finished.


The title and character at that time were something completely different from Cooly.
From there we entered into negotiations with Visit and they proposed that we use the game’s engine to make a different game. The Playstation had been released in Japan, but the SFC was still going strong in the North American market, so the project shifted to the SFC for that market. The design and fart attack of the main character Cooly were both at the order of Visit. They told us this incorporated the opinions of North American buyers. We were just near finishing the SFC version of Cooly when the Playstation also broke into North America and the SFC market rapidly vanished. Buyers from the US also requested that we cancel it. This resulted in yet another suspension of development.


We worked on the concept and came up with the idea of making something like Skyblazer which was released by Epic/Sony, but aimed at the younger market.
Afterward we went with making a completely different 2D game on the Playstation. Since the libraries on the Playstation at the time weren’t that well suited for making a 2D game, the programmers used the Cooly Skunk character to research things they were able to do on the SFC, such as animation and background scrolling. Most parts of the SFC version of Cooly Skunk ended up getting ported to the Playstation during this process.


That’s when we contacted Visit and asked if they would be OK with us making it on the Playstation again. They were fine with us using the Cooly character again, but only on the condition that stuff such as the background matched what the Playstation was capable of. So now the project was starting back up again for a third time on the Playstation. Map layouts and the general volume of the game were largely done over and it finally got released. It was also released in Northern America by Jaleco under the name Punky Skunk, and people finally got to play as Cooly.
   
   
Production proceeded with the intent to make a mascot character for BPS, who weren’t all that popular with the younger crowd. The game ended up being halted due to a change in direction for BPS.
It was nice being able to reminisce about those times. It’s sad that none of those companies are around anymore. I’m sorry I wrote so much in Japanese. I tried to make it as easy to understand as possible.
 
It was pretty unfortunate since the game was mostly finished.
From there we entered into negotiations with Visit and they proposed that we use the game’s engine to make a different game.
 
The Playstation had been released in Japan, but the SFC was still going strong in the North American market, so the project shifted to the SFC for that market.
 
The design and fart attack of the main character Cooly were both at the order of Visit. They told us this incorporated the opinions of North American buyers. 
 
We were just near finishing the SFC version of Cooly when the Playstation also broke into North America and the SFC market suddenly vanished. Buyers from the US also requested that we cancel it. This resulted in yet another suspension of development.
 
Afterward we went with making a completely different 2D game on the Playstation. Since the libraries on the Playstation at the time weren’t that well suited for making a 2D game, the programmers used the Cooly Skunk character to research things they were able to do on the SFC, such as animation and background scrolling.
 
Most parts of the SFC version of Cooly Skunk ended up getting ported to the Playstation during this process.
 
 
That’s when we contacted Visit and asked if they would be OK with us making it on the Playstation again. They were fine with us using the Cooly character again, but only on the condition that stuff such as the background matched what the Playstation was capable of. So now the project was starting back up again for a third time on the Playstation.
Map layouts and the general volume of the game were largely done over and it finally got released. It was also released in Northern America by Jaleco under the name Punky Skunk, and people finally got to play as Cooly.
It was nice being able to reminisce about those times. It’s sad that none of those companies are around anymore.
I’m sorry I wrote so much in Japanese. I tried to make it as easy to understand as possible.
I hope you can understand it.
I hope you can understand it.



Latest revision as of 05:57, July 19, 2017

Kenshi Naruse is a video game director who formerly worked for Capcom and founded the Japanese game-developing studio Ukiyotei.

In 2012, Billscat-socks spoke to him over email about the original Super Famicom version of the Playstation game Punky Skunk. Below is a transcript that has been translated from Japanese as well as the original Japanese text.

English Translation

This is Naruse from Ukiyotei.

Thank you for playing one of our games. If you played it in America, then you must know it under the title of Punky Skunk.

Unfortunately there’s no data left over from those days. Since you went to the trouble of emailing me I tried looking for something to show you, but any data prior to the year 2000 has long since been discarded. The publisher Visit also is no longer around, so nothing of theirs remains.

I worked as the director on Cooly, so I’ll tell you about my experience working on it.

The game went through various circumstances before it finally made it to the market. Development started at the request of BPS who were famous for Tetris and wanted an action game for kids. The title and character at that time were something completely different from Cooly. We worked on the concept and came up with the idea of making something like Skyblazer which was released by Epic/Sony, but aimed at the younger market.

Production proceeded with the intent to make a mascot character for BPS, who weren’t all that popular with the younger crowd. The game ended up being halted due to a change in direction for BPS. It was pretty unfortunate since the game was mostly finished.

From there we entered into negotiations with Visit and they proposed that we use the game’s engine to make a different game. The Playstation had been released in Japan, but the SFC was still going strong in the North American market, so the project shifted to the SFC for that market. The design and fart attack of the main character Cooly were both at the order of Visit. They told us this incorporated the opinions of North American buyers. We were just near finishing the SFC version of Cooly when the Playstation also broke into North America and the SFC market rapidly vanished. Buyers from the US also requested that we cancel it. This resulted in yet another suspension of development.

Afterward we went with making a completely different 2D game on the Playstation. Since the libraries on the Playstation at the time weren’t that well suited for making a 2D game, the programmers used the Cooly Skunk character to research things they were able to do on the SFC, such as animation and background scrolling. Most parts of the SFC version of Cooly Skunk ended up getting ported to the Playstation during this process.

That’s when we contacted Visit and asked if they would be OK with us making it on the Playstation again. They were fine with us using the Cooly character again, but only on the condition that stuff such as the background matched what the Playstation was capable of. So now the project was starting back up again for a third time on the Playstation. Map layouts and the general volume of the game were largely done over and it finally got released. It was also released in Northern America by Jaleco under the name Punky Skunk, and people finally got to play as Cooly.

It was nice being able to reminisce about those times. It’s sad that none of those companies are around anymore. I’m sorry I wrote so much in Japanese. I tried to make it as easy to understand as possible. I hope you can understand it.

It makes me extremely happy as a producer to know that you had fun playing the game.

Thank you.

Original Japanese

浮世亭の成瀬と申します。


弊社のゲームで遊んでいただいて、感謝いたします。 アメリカで遊ばれたのならば、PankySkunkというタイトルですね。

残念ですが、昔のデータは残っておりません。 せっかくメール頂いたので、何か喜んでいただけるものをと探してみましたが 2000年以前のデータは既に廃棄しておりました。 発売元のVISITも今は無くなっていますので、データは残っていません。

クーリーは、私がディレクターをしておりました。 ですので、当時のお話だけお伝えします。

クーリースカンクは、色々な事情を経てやっと市場に出たゲームです。

まず最初に、テトリスで有名だったBPSから子供向けのアクションゲームを というリクエストで制作が開始されました。

タイトルもキャラクターもクーリーとは全く違うものです。

コンセプトは私たちが制作し、EPIC/SONYから発売されたSKYBLAZERというソフトを 低年齢向けにするというものでした。

低年齢層に弱かったBPSの、マスコットキャラクターにするために制作が進められましたが BPSの方向転換で、発売が中止になってしまいました。

殆ど完成していた状態でしたので非常に残念でした。

それから、しばらくしてVISITと、話をしていた時に、 ゲームのエンジン部分を使って別のゲームを作れないだろうか?と言うお話になりました。


日本ではPlayStationが発売されていましたが、北米市場はまだSFCが強く、 北米市場向けSFCとしてプロジェクトは動き出しました。

主人公のクーリーのデザインとおならでの攻撃はVISITからのオーダーです。 北米のバイヤーからの意見を取り入れたとのことです。

ところが、SFC版クーリースカンクも完成間際になった頃に、 北米でもPlayStationがブレイクしてしまい、SFCの市場は急激に無くなりました。 北米のバイヤーからも中止の申請がありました。 またもや開発は中止になってしまったのです。

その後、全く別の2DゲームをPlayStationで制作することになりました。 当時のPlayStationは、2Dゲームを作るライブラリー等が弱かったので、 クーリースカンクのキャラクターを使ってアニメーションや背景のスクロール等 SFCで出来ることをプログラマーが研究していました。

この研究の過程で、SFCのクーリースカンクの多くの部分がPlayStationに移植されました。


そこで、VISITに再度PlayStation版を制作してみないかと、連絡を取りました。 VISITからは、キャラクターはSFC版を使用しても良いが、背景等はPlayStationのレベルに合わせる という条件でPlayStation版として3度目のスタートとなりました。

マップ構成やボリューム等、大幅にリニューアルして、ついに発売されたのです。 JalecoからPankySkunkとして北米版も発売され、クーリーは遊んでもらえるようになりました。

懐かしいお話をさせてもらいました。 関わった会社も、今は無く寂しいです。

日本語で長い文章になりましたが、出来るだけ分かり易く書いたつもりです。 理解していただければ幸いです。

楽しく遊んでもらって、制作者としては非常にうれしく思います。

ありがとうございました。