{"id":109484,"date":"2020-02-21T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2020\/02\/feature_wayforward_on_vitamin_connections_switch_exclusivity_challenges_and_influences"},"modified":"2020-02-21T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T18:00:00","slug":"feature-wayforward-on-vitamin-connections-switch-exclusivity-challenges-and-influences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/02\/21\/feature-wayforward-on-vitamin-connections-switch-exclusivity-challenges-and-influences\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: WayForward On Vitamin Connection’s Switch Exclusivity, Challenges And Influences"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the three years since the console launched, the Nintendo Switch has firmly established itself as the king of the hill when it comes to local multiplayer gaming. There’s certainly no shortage of great co-operative games on Switch<\/a>, and the ability to slide off Joy-Con anywhere at any time makes it ideal for enjoying with friends and family. The latest co-op game to arrive on the system is Vitamin Connection<\/a><\/strong> from WayForward, the studio probably most famous for the excellent Shantae<\/a><\/strong> series of platformers, although their back catalogue contains a trove of retro-inspired gems from Mighty Switch Force<\/a><\/strong> to The Mummy Demastered<\/a><\/strong>.
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We caught up with Vitamin Connection’s director James Montagna to chat about the Switch exclusive, his role on the project and how he maintains his energy and enthusiasm for games and game development.<\/p>\n

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Nintendo Life: For anyone who might have missed the announcement last year<\/a>, or the first trailer<\/a> in January, tell us a little about Vitamin Connection and what type of game it is.<\/strong><\/p>\n

James Montagna<\/em>: Sure! Vitamin Connection is a Nintendo Switch exclusive game in which players take on the role of characters Vita-Boy & Mina-Girl, either playing solo or with a friend, to copilot a vitamin capsule ship and embark on a journey to fight bacteria monsters and cure the world! The story follows the Sable family, and each member of the family has an instance where they either swallow the vitamin, or interact with it in some meaningful way that sets the course for the story. The game itself makes a lot of specific use of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con, and when playing with two players, each player has their own role in both steering the ship and firing. This asymmetrical experience means players will have to really cooperate with each other well to succeed! In fact, the asymmetry is reflected right down to the fact that each player even holds the Joy-Con controller different from each one another.<\/p>\n

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we all adore Nintendo Switch at WayForward and I wanted to make a love letter game for it<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Were there any specific influences you had in mind while developing the game? How long has it been in development?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The direction I gave to the team was to look closely at games like Jet Set Radio<\/a><\/strong>, and the Katamari<\/a><\/strong> series. At first glance, it might appear that these games don\u2019t have a whole lot in common with Vitamin Connection, nor each other. But both share a very distinct core concept in their gameplay, a strong identity in their visuals, and importantly, an emphasis on a soundtrack that stands alone as incredible music just for listening to. So really, our goal was to create a game like one of those, but for a new generation.<\/p>\n

As for the timeframe\u2026 We started development in 2017, but it took a bit longer than other projects to get off the ground since there was a period where Vitamin Connection wasn\u2019t funded yet, so I was working on other projects. That\u2019s why there\u2019s a gap of almost a year from the first prototype to full production.<\/p>\n

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Has working on this game been much different from working on Shantae or other WayForward projects?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Quite a bit! With Vitamin Connection, we were creating a new WayForward property from scratch, so there was no existing guideline to look at\u2026 not only for what the gameplay should be, but for the world and characters of the game as well. There was an opportunity there for our team to express as much creativity as we could possibly throw at it in establishing what we hope can go on to be something greater than just this one game alone. Another point is, we had a relatively small and tightly knit team for this game, which, of course, has good and bad points. In our case, one great benefit is it provided a lot of flexibility. A lot of the best features were just myself and the similarly passionate lead programmer chatting back and forth like \u201cit would be cool if it worked like this\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Can you give us an idea of what the \u2018average\u2019 day of a Game Director entails? What are the pros and cons of having that role over a pure design role on a project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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On a project like Vitamin Connection, I\u2019ll even get very hands on and adjust some things myself, including creating artwork, sound effects, and tweaking level design.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

At WayForward, it\u2019s typical for the lead designer to also be the game\u2019s director. In fact, the title on my business card reads Designer\/Director, and I\u2019m constantly doing both roles. Therefore, figuring out the pros and cons is a bit tough since it all blends for me.<\/p>\n

My day usually begins once I\u2019ve got my email out of the way, where I\u2019ll prioritize a list of what needs to be done that day and address things accordingly. One of my primary tasks is writing up content for the Game Design Document (GDD), which serves as a blueprint of sorts over the course of development.<\/p>\n

Next, I\u2019ll check in with the staff who are building the game based on the GDD, and provide specific feedback to guide things more in line with the vision, or revise the design where necessary if things aren\u2019t working out the way they were planned. From there, when those tasks are covered, I\u2019ll get my own hands-on time with the game.<\/p>\n

Finally, I\u2019ll make notes and provide feedback on things like the gameplay interactions for programming, level design notes, etc. I also assign out tasks based on what needs to get done, writing out emails to illustrators, musicians, and more, explaining task details. On a project like Vitamin Connection, I\u2019ll even get very hands on and adjust some things myself, including creating artwork, sound effects, and tweaking level design. This time around, I even set aside some time to compose a bit of music, which was made to sound awesome by our collaborators, the Mint Potion music team.<\/p>\n