At 2015 gamescom in Cologne we had an interview with Guha Bala, co- founder and president of Vicarious Visions and John Coyne, senior vice president of consumer marketing.
In our chat, we talked about the recent collaboration with Nintendo, which led to the creation of Bowser and Donkey Kong Skylanders, and their vehicles, included in the Wii U and 3DS version of Skylanders Superchargers.
Can you tell us about how you came up with the concept of casting Nintendo characters in Skylanders?
Guha Bala: So for us, we’ve had creative interactions and collaboration with Nintendo for a long time.
You know, at the very beginning of Skylanders the Nintendo platforms were so important.
That’s where our customers have been, and so Wii and the 3DS were very important, we were there at the Wii U launch as well and when we talk about doing vehicles for Skylanders, and when Nintendo announced they were going to do amiibos, [we tought] maybe we could figure something out that makes sense for both of us, and also do something unique and creative and novel as well, and that’s how we started.
So I think they came up with the amiibo sometime in the middle of 2014 and they said “what could we do to do something creative together?” and it naturally went to “let’s pick a couple of characters that haven’t been done in a 3D environmental form and let’s take a unique twist on them, and let’s do it in a way that we give value to both the amiibo customers as well as Skylanders”.
So in that sense picking Donkey Kong, designing him as a Skylanders version of Donkey Kong, ‘cause Donkey Kong has really not appeared in a 3D action environment since DK64, he’s been more in the sidescrolling interactions for Donkey Kong.
So that’s a unique set and totally new upgraded set of moves. And then Bowser, he has never really been playable in 3D before, and especially as an hero. And I think that Smash Brothers and this type of games and other he is appeared in.
He is not the hero, but a fighter.
GB: Exactly, exactly, and so Nintendo gave us the opportunity to explore the history of these characters, to put them in Skylanders in a very Skylanders way, and both Nintendo and Activision collaborated to say “how do we come up with unique designs, where you can make each of these characters a Skylander and an amiibo, but in a very simple way so everybody can figure this out?”
Well, that answers pretty much my second question: why starting with Bowser and DK? That’s the reason why.
GB: Well actually, you know, my personal favorite is Bowser because I have never really got to play as him, but also Donkey Kong is an awesome character as well.
Was it difficult to adapt these characters to Skylanders style?
GB: Yeah, I think that the actual creative development flowed really naturally, between our character designers and our game designers and the team at Nintendo, the characters designers and game designers at Nintendo.
So we worked with the original creators and designers of Bowser and Donkey Kong, you know with the team at Vicarious Visions, and actually the interesting thing is [that] the creative team at Nintendo has unique ways they wanted to take the characters too, and we were able to collaborate on this, to say “this fits Skylanders, this also is a really nice exploration for Donkey Kong and Bowser”, and they were so happy to work on this with us and come to this point. So that worked out really nicely, and one of the best things about Skylanders is finding unique ways to do things, unique original designs.
Do you believe that amiibo and Skylanders share a common target market?
GB: You know I think that Skylanders appeals to a large Nintendo audience, it always has, of course amiibo is targeted on the Nintendo audience as well, and both set of toys have strong collectability.
I mean, Skylanders unique designs can only be found in Skylanders and certainly many collectors love amiibo so there is some overlap, but there is also a lot of common interest. We can do things in Skylanders that can’t be done in any other game.
Skylanders is designed to be played with our toys and also offers unique ways to explore these two particular characters, while the amiibo are more like accessories.
Like add-ons to the game.
GB: Well they have some game functionality but it’s not the main purpose of that game.
It can work without the amiibo.
GB: Exactly, but the purpose of this Skylander is to bring toys to life.
Is it difficult to develop a game with a vast pool of characters? I mean, there are hundreds of Skylanders, is it hard?
John Coyne: It is very very easy.
<Guha Bala laughs>
GB: John what is your take on this?
Yeah, tell us.
JC: He is the game developer, so I am allowed to say it is very very easy.
It’s very easy.
GB: It’s very easy.
<everybody laughs>
JC: I actually don’t want him to feel too good, but I think it’s very hard.
[In] this game, Superchargers, not only have you got the adventure game Skylanders typically is, but you also have a vehicle adventure game, and then we have not only land vehicles, but sea vehicles and sky vehicles, so these three types of traversing, of travelling through the world, and then, on top of that, we have the racing, and then on top of that we have the online functionality.
So I think it is a very easy thing to do.
GB: I would say that the thing that makes it work well is to start with the child first, and what does the child want, and of course I have three kids and they want everything and that’s where the imagination goes.
So Skylanders is founded on empowering children, it’s around making the children the heroes, the children are the portal masters, and these kind of thing, and children expect that when have a vehicle game, you will have cars and motorcycle, or also have submarines and boats, and you have planes and helicopters and they understand less this may be a challenge to make.
So that is what we take on, because our primary mission is to be able to make this a delightful experience for kids, but it also means that we have to work very hard making that happen and very easy to use; making so that over 300 Skylanders are gonna work.
You know, I remember with the first Skylanders game, we thought boy, we have 32 Skylanders, it’s gonna be hard to make a game with 32 characters.
I have all of them.
JC: Thank you.
It’s my army.
GB: That’s cool. Now we have over 300 and it’s kind of like we scratch our head, but since we have done that, we scratch our head and say that was really hard, but we will probably figure out a way to do it.
So the game is evolving along with the children?
GB: Yeah, it’s basically, one of the things we would have loved to do with children, and all children love to do, like for example vehicles, every child has been in the backseat of a car, but wants to be in the driver’s seat of the car. So we look at something like that, you know, and we say how we can expand it in a truly creative, imaginative and unique way
Definitely with a flaming car or a flying car.
GB: Exactly and a car that you have never seen before and can only be seen in the Skylines. Clown Cruiser is inspired by what’s been in the past with Nintendo, but you can only find it in Skylanders.
What drove the decision to keep using the portal? I mean the Wii U GamePad has a NFC sensor.
GB: Now with the portal, the portal itself works differently than any other technology allows, and it’s about making it so you can put multiple characters and vehicles and bring them to life immediately, you can play with your friends in a very unique way. The fantasy of bringing toys to life, is about the “boom” moment of putting your toy down and seeing it come up, and that experience comes together with the portal.
The portal is… part of the magic, and so it’s almost like saying, well you don’t need to have a guitar for guitar hero, that doesn’t make sense because it is about the feeling of being a portal master: having that magical power.
I remember when I played with my daughter, my daughter is now almost nine but she was almost six when she first started SSA and for her the magic of bringing toys to life, that’s what made it so special for her, we never wanna step away from that, that magic is so important.
Who is in charge of producing the action figures?
GB: All of the Skylanders, everything that we offer we produce, so our team at Activision designs the characters, we manage that entire process, and part of that is, John and I are very involved and that allows us to make sure to deliver the very highest quality and deliver that kind of complete experience that just works.”
JC: Which is your favorite Skylander?
Stealth Elf.
GB: Mine also. So this is not just another series of Stealth Elf, this one is Supercharger Stealth Elf, she is a Supercharger.
She looks badass.
GB: Yeah we made them all look more badass, this one is Deep Dive Gill Grunt, they have all new upgrade tree, this is an entirely new set of abilities.
JC: One of the key things with this game, you know like you’ve actually said, when we first brought the Skylanders in the market it was incredibly magical to see an action figure come to life, and now bringing action figures to life has been done for several years, and so what we wanted to do now was bring the same excitement and the same magic to vehicles.
So for all the kids who like playing with vehicles toys, maybe for those kids who have never played with vehicles toys, vehicles toys are as much fun to bring to life as Skylanders. So a big part of that fun is when you see a new Skylander you don’t know what he or she is going to do in the world, you wonder what they are going to do, but you don’t know, and so a lot of the fun is getting a new Skylander and then seeing what they do. You buy a new one, you see him or her in the store, and you look forward to going home and bringing them to life and see what they do. And we wanted to bring that same excitement and wonder to vehicles, so you know you see this vehicle.
It’s lovely.
JC: You don’t know what is going to do in the world, what its powers are going to be, how it’s going to move and so it’s really exciting to buy something new, and then wonder what is going to do in the Skylanders world. And that’s something that’s really important to this game: bringing a whole new category of toys to life.
You did it perfectly.
<everybody laughs>
JC: Yes I know.
When I buy an amiibo I know the character, I know what’s its job, when I buy a Disney Infinity it’s the same.
JC: You know what they do.
Yeah, Skylanders is a surprise.
JC: But with Skylanders, everytime there is a new Skylander it’s a surprise, you don’t know what they are going to do.