There are 29 days left in The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Kickstarter campaign, but with more than $1.3 million raised and counting, it’s safe to say that PlatinumGames’ gamble on its overlooked action game has more than paid off.
It’s with that success that director Hideki Kamiya has chosen to take a trip down memory lane, detailing The Wonderful 101’s development history and showing off the first draft of the game’s design document in the latest Kickstarter update posted Wednesday.
Kamiya also shared some early character designs, a poster meant to capture the atmosphere the development team was going for, and the game’s very first screenshot.
You can check out select images and excerpts from Kamiya’s update below, but we highly suggest that you read the post in full by clicking here.
On determining The Wonderful 101 title…
“In this initial stage, I was fixated on the number 100 instead of 101. Then, towards the end of development, when we had to decide on the official title, the client said: “We’d like you to get a little more creative with the title. For example…what about adding one more to the number?” So I changed the number to 101, in order to signify the player themselves joining the roster, while also adding some extra flair to the script.”
On the game’s genre and early sketches…
“Opening the document, the first thing we see is the game overview. At this point, the game was labeled as a “crowd action” game. Wonder-Red’s name was already set in stone as well. Incidentally, I drew all the sketches you see here (LOL). There was no team to speak of at this point, so I had to draw all the necessary art as well as make the entire design document by myself.”
On coming up with Unite Morphs…
“Here, we finally reach one of the pillars of the game: Unite Morphs! At this stage, it was called “Unite Morphing.” I originally got the idea of having a group unite together and form one huge thing from the picture books “Swimmy” and “Kaibutsu ni Nacchatta” (I Became a Monster).
I always think up ideas as I create games, but I also often lose my way. In this case, I knew exactly what the core of the game would be right from the start, which is a rare case for me. (LOL)”
Again, please read Kamiya’s post in full on The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Kickstarter page.
Within hours of its launch on Monday, the crowdfunding effort for The Wonderful 101: Remastered easily reached its goals for the production of a Nintendo Switch, Steam, and PS4 version.
A time attack mode will be added now that the campaign has crossed the $1 million threshold, and the inclusion of an epilogue sidescroller — titled “Luka’s First Mission” — at $1.5 million is looking likely. Another stretch goal for a remixed soundtrack has since been added for the $1.75 million mark.
Originally released as a Wii U exclusive back in 2013, The Wonderful 101 failed to gain much of an audience but earned cult classic status for its unique take on the action game genre. The Kickstarter was Platinum’s second chance (and apparently last chance) for the title, and the studio and its fans have ran with it.
The game will be Platinum’s inaugural go at self-publishing and is the first of the mysterious “Platinum 4” that the developer also revealed on Monday.
As far as other projects go, Platinum has Bayonetta 3 (Switch) and Babylon’s Fall (PS4, PC) in the works, and studio head Atsushi Inaba recently talked about interest in returning to the canceled Scalebound as well as the potential for the Nintendo-exclusive Astral Chain to go multi-platform.
The post PlatinumGames’ Hideki Kamiya Shares The Wonderful 101’s Design Doc, Development History by Nick Tricome appeared first on DualShockers.