Interview with Takaaki Kidani (Bushiroad), Planner of “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet” [2/4]

ANIME
Jul. 19, 2013 06:00 PDT

The key is the ability to take action

Ishikawa: Your company has gathered quite a reputation. If someone about to join the working society was to find employment at Bushiroad, what kind of person would you want to do this card making work together with?

Kidani: Actually, we change our way of fishing for new graduates every year a little bit, so that we won’t always employ the same type of people. It’s not like I count it, but I try to hire 30% who like card games, about 30% otaku, and 40% that is neither of them. Otherwise, our balance as a company won’t be good. The worst that could happen is that it turns into all gamers. If the ratio of people who love card games reaches 90%, they would only make games for maniacs. At present, the customers are expecting games you can carefreely enjoy in company, so our motive is not to push victory and defeat. Since the market is very different from what it was 10 years ago, we really need to consider the viewpoints of average people.

Ishikawa: You said that you change the way of fishing, could you elaborate on what exactly you are doing?

Kidani: For instance, in April this year, we chose the new graduates based on an aptitude test.

Ishikawa: Aptitude test?

Kidani: We had the applicants take a suitable test. Those who reached a total score above 120 in energy, activity, and sense were invited for an interview. I left the interview to some employees, but the applicants don’t show their resumes until that time.

Ishikawa: They don’t show their resumes at all?

Kidani: It’s strange, you don’t know what university they are going to. Did they repeat a year? Where are they coming from? I interviewed the people who passed that, and made the final decision. For that reason, this year, the academic background of our new employees is very diverse. It became clear that the aptitude test and the academic background have no correlation at all. That’s why I made my choices mostly based on their ability to take action.

Ishikawa: I see.

Kidani: Since I chose based on that, everyone is very energetic. When I asked about it, it turned out that there were about three of them going to college for six years, I had no idea about that (laughs).

Ishikawa: Amazing (laughs).

Kidani: The most interesting guy was the manager of a hostess bar for a year (laughs).

Ishikawa: That’s even more amazing in various aspects! (laughs)

The abilities needed for a card game

Ishikawa: Well then, what is someone fit to make card games like?

Kidani: Actually, when it comes to card games, rather than making up the rules, adjusting the balance is what’s extremely difficult. Adjusting the balance and making the game so that it can be played smoothly is related to Japanese and math skills.

Hirasawa: Interesting.

Kidani: For example, unless it’s a specialized development company, they won’t save the text library. That basically means that if you told the players to “Right face!” or “Please turn right,” they would do the same thing.

Ishikawa: Yes.

Kidani: However, three years ago the cards had “Right face!” written on them, so they wouldn’t know if it was okay to do the same thing if a card said “Please turn right” on it now.

Ishikawa: Certainly.

Kidani: For that reason, in order to achieve the same behavior, we need to standardize all the expressions, so we need to create a library. If a company that skips this makes a card game, even though they want the players to do the same thing, since the expressions they use are different, the game will turn sloppy.

Ishikawa: Because the player thinks that although it’s the same card, it has a different effect.

 Kidani: However, the makers don’t think about that when creating a game, so answers like, “This and that means the same thing,” pop up in Q&A. At that point, it is a big problem, and Japanese language skills are needed to solve it.

Hirasawa: I see.

Kidani: Another problem is test play. It is easy until the first 100 cards, but if you do it for 10 years, you will have about 3,000 kinds and you have to test play the next 100 together with this 3,000, which, of course, needs a lot of time and effort. That’s why the main designer digitally processes the analog information in his head to a degree, then gives us instructions like, “There is something wrong with this part, do a test play.”

Hirasawa: If there are some problems, he will know it.

Kidani: It’s the same as when a teacher in prep school says, “This will be in the exam.” Our company also does test play, but rather than having 10 people do the test in 1,000 hours, we have 2,000 players buy it on the first day and play for an hour, because we can find the bugs better that way. However, a skillful designer’s 1,000 hours equal to 100,000 hours, and if you can’t reach that level, you can’t make a balanced game without mistakes. For that, one needs a mathematical brain, and that’s why I always put someone on the development team who is really good with science math.

Ishikawa: Science? (laughs)

Kidani: However, it’s not being balanced that will make a game interesting, it is also necessary to purposely make some cards that look broken. That is where liberal artistic sense like, “This is interesting,” or, “If we make them do like this, won’t it be interesting,” becomes needed. It is like making something well-balanced with a deliberate flaw.

Ishikawa: It’s very delicate.

Kidani: If it’s an original, you have to adjust the game and the anime’s development.

Ishikawa: Indeed.

Kidani: We are also doing some pretty advanced stuff in Vanguard. See, we have to work one year in advance. We make the cards that play an active role in the game also play an active role in the anime, and although we have to find the balance of the whole, the story of the anime has to be properly worked out, and the characters have to stand as well. It has a very high degree of difficulty.

Ishikawa: It’s like a puzzle. This looks a bit hard for me...

Gargantia x Tokyo Otaku Mode Special Site

Source: Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet Official Site