Klonoa Chronicles - Part 2

Klonoa Chronicles is a series of tweets by Klonoa’s original creator, Hideo Yoshizawa, that give insights into the development of the games he had a hand in making. Below is a translation along with the original Japanese text.

クロノアクロニクル第２回 版権物のゲームを創れと言われ、３Dアクションゲームを思いついたのでした。

Klonoa Chronicles #2. When I was asked to create a copyrighted game, I came up with the idea of a 3D action game.

小学館の版権というのは皆川亮二先生の「スプリガン」というマンガでした。 「スプリガン」とは超古代文明のオーパーツを悪の組織から守り、封印するアーカムという組織の活躍を描くアクションで、主人公御神苗優は無敵のＡＭスーツを着て、チェーンや剣を駆使して戦うのです。

Shogakukan’s copyright was a manga called “Spriggan” by Ryoji Minagawa. “Spriggan" is an action story about the activities of an organization called ARCAM, which protects and seals the OOPArts of super-ancient civilization from an evil organization, and the main character, Yu Ominae, wears an invincible AM suit and fights using chains and swords.

当初は何があっても死なない主人公なので、ダメージも死ぬのもないアクションができないかと新人の部下のＫくんと考え始めました。 崖っぷちでの戦いや入り組んだ水路の街で疾走するモーターボートの上での戦いなど、アイデアをどんどん出していきました。

In the beginning, I started thinking with my rookie subordinate, K-kun, about how we could make an action game that didn’t involve damage or death, since the main character never dies no matter what. We kept coming up with ideas like fighting on the edge of a cliff, or on a motorboat speeding through a city with intricate waterways, and so on.

３Ｄのマップをビジュアルのスタッフに伝えるのは至難の業でした。２Ｄなら紙に描いて渡せば伝わるものが、立体図形を描くのが難しい上、紙では伝わりきれないのです。そこで粘土を大量に買ってきて立体模型を造ったりもしましたが、やはりうまく伝わりません。

It was extremely difficult to convey a 3D map to the visual staff, because we could draw a 2D map on paper and hand it to them, but it was difficult to draw a 3D figure, and they couldn’t convey the map on paper. So we bought a lot of clay and made a 3D model, but we couldn’t get the message across.

最終的には高価なシリコングラフィックスのマシンを一台分けてもらって、３Ｄモデルの作り方を企画も学び、ヒットになる床の立方体を伸ばして曲げて、ヒットマップを作り、それで遊んでみてＯＫならビジュアルが肉付けするという手法になりました。 でも当時はコマンドが全部英語で苦労しました。

Eventually, I was given a share of an expensive silicon graphics machine, and I learned how to plan and learn how to make a 3D model, and then I stretched and bent the floor cube that would become a hit, made a hit map, played with it, and if I was OK with it, the visuals were fleshed out. But at the time, all the commands were in English and it was a struggle.

なかなかクロノア出てこないな～と思われているかと思いますが、もうしばらくお付き合いくださいね～。 つづく

I’m sure you’re thinking “How was Klonoa made from this.” I hope you’ll stick with me for a while longer! To be continued.

Side note: Spriggan is a manga series that has had several video games made based on it. However, none of the games were developed by Namco suggesting they lost the rights (or cancelled it due to difficulties) to create the game early on. Klonoa for the Playstation was likely created using the Spriggan game prototype.