July 16, 2008 - Earlier today, IGN.com had a chance to sit town with the lead producer and project manager behind Animal Crossing: City Folk, Katsuya Eguchi, to pick his brain on the latest Wii-specific life sim. We talk online play, new additions to the game, and more.
Enjoy.
IGN: For starters, what is your primary goal in bringing out Animal Crossing: City Folk to Nintendo Wii? Is it to capture new gamers that have yet to play the series, or are you also expanding it for the hardcore crowd?
Eguchi: Well of course with this iteration of Animal Crossing we're trying to appeal to users of the franchise – people who have played the series before – but also we're hoping to appeal to their friends, and people they want to introduce the game to, and also to new users. To do so we've added a lot of content for people in hopes that it will appeal to both groups at the same time.
IGN: City Folk seems like a compilation of the ideas and designs found on DS and Wii, but we also have had readers that are concerned that it's too similar, and that the feel like they've seen everything there is already. Are you concerned with that, or are there modes, options, or locales to visit for those already very familiar with the series in full?
Eguchi: Well some of the new features we've included in this version of Animal Crossing are of course found in the Wi-Fi additions, some of which you know about. In addition to that there's also the new city area, which exists outside of the player's town and are they live in. The city area is a place where players can go if they feel they need to kind of step out of the traditional Animal Crossing world. They can get dressed up and go out, and get sort of a nice feeling in stepping out of the town and exploring a new area, and while they are there they can engage in a variety of new activities, such as a comic club where they can learn new emotions to display, and of course interact with characters you don't normally get to talk to on a daily basis. Outside of the city area we've also added new things for you to do within your town, and as an example we can look at the clothing/design area within town. Before clothing and patters were a big part of the game, and now we've expanded on it, so while you used to make a design and be done, players can now go in and change the front, back, and sleeves of clothing all independently now. So not only are there things we've added as activities to deepen the game, but also enhanced the creative features already in place, so that users can find new ways to entertain themselves.
IGN: This is really two questions on interaction in the game. First of all, will there be support for GameCube controllers or classic controllers, and secondly, can you confirm for us that USB keyboard support is indeed in the game for all typing? We've heard two different answers from Nintendo since yesterday…
Eguchi: In regards to control, yes, you are correct that there is both the Wii-mote separately, and Wii remote plus nunchuk as your options. With the combination, you'll use the nunchuk to do all the main actions within the gameplay, and the pointer functionality for all menus and screen interaction. As far as GCN and classic controller support, no, those are not supported.
As for the keyboard, yes that does work with this, so it makes messaging and chat faster for those that want to use that.
IGN: Can you give us an idea of the connectivity between the Wii and DS versions of the game? We saw that option right next to character select during our demo.
Eguchi: Addressing the connectivity between the DS and the Wii, if you have Animal Crossing on DS, we're assuming you spent lots of time with that character and might be attached to him – his name, outfits, look – so you'll be able to load that character into the Wii version and use that same character as you did in the DS game. Another thing we can do is use the DS as a means to help people who maybe don't have Wi-Fi. We've talked about Wi-Fi and how neat it is to travel from town to town and interact with friends, but if you don't have an internet connection you can take your character data and send it to your DS, bring your DS to a friend's house, and upload your character to play around in his town and interact in the same way you would if you had a direct connection t them in Wi-Fi. The third thing we've done is add the ability to download new content as they become available online – which will help expand the universe with new furniture and things like that. Now if you don't have Wi-Fi, you can take your DS to – at this point it's still being determined exactly how – but an out of house destination where you can download the new content, and then bring it back to your home town and upload it. That way everyone can stay connected to the Animal Crossing world.
IGN: Just to clarify on the DS to Wii connectivity and the "friend' s house" idea you mentioned. Could players bring their DS over and play their character on their DS while their friend is on WIi playing with his in the same town, or do you upload the character and run around solo in their town?
Eguchi: Yes, let me clarify that. When you take your character data over via the DS, you're not using the DS to do any of the controlling. You can use that mode to explore the other player's town independently, but you can't play at the same time. To do that, you'll need to connect via Wi-Fi and run around with one, or two, or three of your friends as we showed earlier.
IGN: We're curious about a few of the other "Wii tricks" out there. You can send screenshots to email or cell phones or other Wii users as we heard. Have you considered working with an independent Animal Crossing channel, or interacting with other Wii components such as the Wii Weather Channel and having whatever region you place your town be affected by real-world weather?
Eguchi: In relation to Animal Crossing and Wii channels, we have no plan to make a specific Animal Crossing Channel, no. As far as your idea on the weather channel and linking it to your own town, it was something we thought about, but upon looking at it we came to the conclusion that Animal Crossing is its own world. Let's say your location of the world was a place where there was rain all the time; then your Animal Crossing town would always have rain too, and one of the things about this game is that seasons change and activities change with it, so we didn't think that it would add a positive element to the Animal Crossing world if it was limited like that.
IGN: Aww. We were looking forward to setting up in Seattle where it rains all the time so we could catch legendary fish 24/7…
Eguchi: Haha.
IGN: We wanted to touch on Wii Connect 24. The first time we got word of the service we instantly thought about Animal Crossing. Is this game always connected, so your friends are always shown online when you're playing the single player mode? Also, will downloadable content auto-update into the game then, or is it a pay-to-play feature?
Eguchi: Wii Connect 24 of course is something that operates with the WIi being always on, and always connected, so the way that we've implemented that into the title is the city area of the game. That's a common ground for anyone that connects their games together with friend codes. If you're connected with friends in that way the auction house and other areas are updated with WIi Connect 24 automatically, so when you leave I could come in and see what you've done in the area and get updates about your game in that way. And yes, it's all done automatically.
What we're considering with the downloadable content is that it will be an automatic, free service. It will not be pay to play.
IGN: And finally, when can we expect the game, and do you have any final message about it to fans.
Eguchi: Well I can't give any specifics, but it will be releasing this holiday season, and we hope that everyone will enjoy it, and that the game will be a great holiday present for everyone.
IGN: Looks like we're out of time. Thank you very much.
Eguchi: Thank you.
