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shmuplations.bsky.social
shmuplations.com
@shmuplations.bsky.social
2.7K followers 10 following 36 posts
80s/90s/00s japanese gamedev interviews | patreon: http://patreon.com/shmuplations
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shmuplations.bsky.social
shmuplations.com @shmuplations.bsky.social · Oct 2
We have some great new translations this month! First up, an interview with MuuMuu director Yukihito Morikawa from 2000, in which he talks about his background as a CG artist and the making of his pioneering AI game for the PS1, Ganbare Morikawa-kun (Pet in TV). shmuplations.com/yukihitomori...
Yukihito Morikawa – 2000 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This lengthy interview with Yukihito Morikawa discusses his early background, his past work as a CG artist, and his pioneering work on Ganbare Morikawa-kun.
shmuplations.com
Reposted by shmuplations.com
thesuckoshow.bsky.social
Prophetic exchange between Shinya Tsukamoto and Hideo Kojima back in 1999. Death Stranding 2 in particular has plenty of scenes that are exactly what Tsukamoto is describing.
shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...
November 19, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
xxgr1llmast3rxx.bsky.social
shmuplations.com/ghostinthesh... earliest historically attested "git gud"
November 6, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
tr909.bsky.social
obviously the Ninja Gaiden interview shmuplations translated is super interesting but I also feel compelled to point out they dropped this absolute banger at the same time shmuplations.com/namcomusic/
Namco Arcade Composers – 2013 Roundtable Interview - shmuplations.com
This roundtable interview with four of Namco's early arcade composers was originally published in Shooting Gameside #6.
shmuplations.com
November 4, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
johnlearned.bsky.social
Holy shit. @shmuplations.bsky.social translated a massive thread of old tweets from Hideo Yoshizawa that goes deep into the NES Ninja Gaiden's development, including finally confirming the Castlevania influence shmuplations.com/ninjagaiden/
Ninja Gaiden – Developer Commentary (2023) - shmuplations.com
Taken from a string of social media posts shared in 2023, these comments from director Hideo Yoshizawa recount the making of Tecmo's classic side-scrolling action game, Ninja Gaiden.
shmuplations.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
breathoffire.bsky.social
If you've never read these translated Breath of Fire III dev interviews by @shmuplations.bsky.social, you really owe it to yourself!

shmuplations.com/breathoffire...
Breath of Fire III – 1997 Developer Interviews - shmuplations.com
These two Breath of Fire III interviews originally appeared in The PlayStation magazine just prior to the games release in September 1997. Although five members of the team are listed, the majority of...
shmuplations.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:17 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
mrmandolino.itch.io
a long form researched article WITH COMMISSIONED ART in collaboration with shmuplations???

inject it directly into my veins
designroom.bsky.social Design Room @designroom.bsky.social · Oct 14
For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.
Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).
www.designroom.site
October 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
designroom.bsky.social
For the Shadow of the Colossus story, we interviewed 14 people including project leads Fumito Ueda and Kenji Kaido, hired Gravity Rush concept artist Takeshi Oga to illustrate the cover, and put together a 10,000-word story with help from @milkman.bsky.social @shmuplations.bsky.social and others.
Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of Team Ico’s masterpiece by looking back with 11 people who worked on it (and three who didn’t).
www.designroom.site
October 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
capnkabuki.bsky.social
Jumping Flash! fans rejoice! Another interview has appeared! Taken from Game Maestro Vol. 4, there's a lot of cool info from Mr. Morikawa's early career that really hasn't been discussed much around the English web.
shmuplations.com/yukihitomori...
Yukihito Morikawa – 2000 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This lengthy interview with Yukihito Morikawa discusses his early background, his past work as a CG artist, and his pioneering work on Ganbare Morikawa-kun.
shmuplations.com
October 12, 2025 at 4:49 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
Oh, and I almost forgot, but we also added an extra message from producer Takahiro Kaneko to the Legend of Legaia interview from last month! shmuplations.com/legaia/
Legend of Legaia – 1998 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This in-depth Legend of Legaia interview originally appeared in The Playstation magazine and covers the story, battle, character design, and music.
shmuplations.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:27 AM
shmuplations.bsky.social
Finally, we have a nice Final Fantasy III DS interview from the FFIII Official Complete Guidebook. The team discusses the revamped character designs, job system, and difficulty level, while also touching on aspects of the original Famicom development. shmuplations.com/ff3ds/
Final Fantasy III DS – 2006 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This lengthy Final Fantasy III roundtable interview originally appeared in the FFIII Official Complete Guidebook in 2006.
shmuplations.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:26 AM
shmuplations.bsky.social
Next up, a long-running patron request, we have a Ghost in the Shell roundtable interview from 1997 with the Exact and SCE teams. This one focuses on the gameplay and origins of the project, which was actually initiated by Masamune Shirow himself! shmuplations.com/ghostinthesh...
Ghost in the Shell – 1997 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This Ghost in the Shell interview (actually a compilation of two interviews) originally appeared in The Playstation magazine in 1997.
shmuplations.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:23 AM
shmuplations.bsky.social
We have some great new translations this month! First up, an interview with MuuMuu director Yukihito Morikawa from 2000, in which he talks about his background as a CG artist and the making of his pioneering AI game for the PS1, Ganbare Morikawa-kun (Pet in TV). shmuplations.com/yukihitomori...
Yukihito Morikawa – 2000 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This lengthy interview with Yukihito Morikawa discusses his early background, his past work as a CG artist, and his pioneering work on Ganbare Morikawa-kun.
shmuplations.com
October 2, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
mossmouth.bsky.social
Interesting to note that GnG's director, Tokuro Fujiwara, has said that he came up with Red Arremer before Arthur when conceptualizing the series:

shmuplations.com/makaimura/

So it would make sense to return to Firebrand, in a "full circle" kind of way!
Tokuro Fujiwara: "Normally you start developing a game by conceiving the player character first; in this game, because the setting was a 'demon world,' I first thought of a single enemy who would represent that theme: the Red Arremer, who was based on an orthodox, Western-style demon motif. Therefore, in a sense, you could say that Red Arremer is the real protagonist of Makaimura!"
September 25, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
ejlab.bsky.social
Hideo Kojima and Shinya Tsukamoto discussing their feelings on Tokyo are vibes, man.

shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...
Brilliant translation by @shmuplations.bsky.social
Tsukamoto describing the difficulties of city life.
September 8, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
goldskullgames.bsky.social
59 Game Developers in 1985 were asked 20 Questions in a questionnaire for Beep! magazine. The responses are cracking me up, you should check it out:

shmuplations.com/20questions1...
59 Developers, 20 Questions – 1985 Interview Special - shmuplations.com
This fun little questionnaire was featured in the October 1985 edition of BEEP! magazine, an early video game publication in Japan. The fifty-nine (!) developers interviewed here all went on to have l...
shmuplations.com
September 4, 2025 at 6:26 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
the thing about having a 1.5yo daughter is you can't call in sick to play Silksong all day 😒
September 4, 2025 at 5:26 AM
shmuplations.bsky.social
And for more of our recent translations (from May to July), check out this excellent summary thread by our editor/translator GSK!
allcityslopshop.com GSK | ALL CITY SLOP SHOP (ETA SOON) @allcityslopshop.com · Sep 1
running back @shmuplations.bsky.social updates from the last couple months

first up, a Nintendo Dream interview with Treasure president Masato Maegawa that reflects on the company's 12th anniversary, their Nintendo collaborations, the essence of "Treasure-ness" & more shmuplations.com/treasure12th/
Maegawa: I think that's more a natural consequence of being free to make what we want, rather than a specific insistence of one kind or another. We're not thinking "this is what a REAL video game connoisseur appreciates!" when we make our games. As President, once I've reviewed the plans and given the greenlight for a project, I rarely poke around and micromanage the staff while they're working. That's my policy. If management starts butting into the creative process I think you lose that special quality. "We've got to sell more! Make it like this so it sells more!" Everyone working in game development has heard that before. But I don't want to have management and admin sitting in on our meetings and saying we have to include such-and-such… I don't like where that leads. So I pretty much leave everything up to the staff on the floor. To put it negatively I suppose I'm neglecting them. (laughs) After they've finished something and I have a chance to testplay it, if it's really bad I will say something, but if they're creating the game faithfully according to their original concept, I never say do this or do that. I think that process is what results in the "Treasure" quality. No one interferes with our developers' creative process; there's a straightforward honesty to the games we release and I suspect that resonates with players and they call it "Treasure-ness".
September 2, 2025 at 10:36 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
And finally, we have another update to our pinball interview series, this time with Data East Pinball employee Masaya Horiguchi. It's a nice glimpse into Japan's pinball scene and the challenges faced by Sega and Data East as video games overtook the market. shmuplations.com/pinball/
Japanese Pinball – Developer Interview Collection - shmuplations.com
Two short digital pinball developer interviews with SNES/Saturn developer KAZe and Satoshi Matsuoka, creator of the original Famicom Pinball.
shmuplations.com
September 2, 2025 at 10:33 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
Next up is a very special interview between Hideo Kojima and director Shinya Tsukamoto. I don't want to spoil the content but as a huge Tetsuo fan this was one of my favorites. If only that "Flying Tetsuo" collab Kojima jokes about had really come to pass... shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...
Hideo Kojima x Shinya Tsukamoto (1999) - shmuplations.com
This special interview between then-rising star Hideo Kojima and horror auteur Shinya Tsukamoto originally appeared in Game Hihyou magazine.
shmuplations.com
September 2, 2025 at 10:31 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
First off we have a neat Legend of Legaia interview from 1998, covering the story/world design, the "fighting game" battle system, and the music. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only developer interview available for Legaia. shmuplations.com/legaia/
Legend of Legaia – 1998 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
This in-depth Legend of Legaia interview originally appeared in The Playstation magazine and covers the story, battle, character design, and music.
shmuplations.com
September 2, 2025 at 10:29 PM
shmuplations.bsky.social
greetings all! been a bit remiss in the monthly updates lately (toddler life), but we've got a fresh crop of great translations to share today!
September 2, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
erin.armbarstudios.com
Holy shit this Shmupulations interview between Hideo Kojima and SHINYA TSUKAMOTO??? I'm blown away at them talking frankly about Bullet Ballet and MGS and The Matrix and gun violence and Alien 6, this is incredible stuff
shmuplations.com/kojimatsukam...
September 1, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
gamesblackhole.bsky.social
If you’ve been enjoying my Shining Force III blog posts then Shmupulations has a real treat for you… A lengthy 1998 interview now translated into English!

shmuplations.com/shiningforce...
Shining Force III – 1998 Developer Interview - shmuplations.com
In this Shining Force III interview, the team discusses the motivation for making a trilogy, world design, and the connections between Shining the Holy Ark.
shmuplations.com
August 30, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
teddyburgerdev.bsky.social
shmuplations.com/archive/
every once in a while I stumble back onto shmuplations - it has such an awesome archive of interviews, if you're into retro gaming at all I really recommend going thru and seeing if there's any interviews about games you like
archive - shmuplations.com
1986 Game Music Round Table Interview December 10, 2021 Capcom; Nichibutsu; SNK; Yoshiki Okamoto; Ayako Mori; Kenji Yoshida; Hiroshi Tsuji; Kasatoshi Yoshino; ASO; Gunsmoke; Super Mario Bros; 1986 199...
shmuplations.com
August 10, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by shmuplations.com
gamedevindepth.bsky.social
An interview about Ikaruga, one of my favourite games ever. It covers the early prototyping stages, design influences, and more.
shmuplations.com/ikaruga/

Make sure to support @shmuplations.bsky.social, they do incredible work.

#gamedev #retro #shmup
Ikaruga – 2001/2002 Developer Interviews - shmuplations.com
These two Ikaruga interviews (slightly edited to read as one) follow the evolution of Ikaruga’s design and gameplay. Iuchi also talks about its connection to Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga’s reception ...
shmuplations.com
July 19, 2025 at 1:54 PM