Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello everyone around the world. I’m Kudo, an effects designer here at PlatinumGames.

My main job here is adding special effects to Bayonetta.

I’ve been in the games industry for quite a while now, and I’m a right old man now because of it; however, when you feel you are surrounded by games every day as you work, it’s a kind of fun that it seems nothing can change. (However… There are the rare instances when you feel like, “I’ve had enough of this!”)

Now that E3 is over and more people than ever are paying attention to the Bayo Blog, I am really nervous to be writing my post here. I hope you are all with me on this.

So now that I’ve introduced myself and told you that I work on effects, it leads to an important question many of you may have:

“What are effects anyways?”

When I introduce myself to people outside the industry, I explain by keeping things simple, saying, “I add the fire and smoke, etc. inside a game.” However, it doesn’t seem like very many people “get it.”

I figure it has to be my explanation has to be what is throwing people off, but not being able to express this is actually somewhat upsetting. (After all, it is a really fun job.)

Which is why I’ve capture some simple movies for you all.

This is what you normally see when you are playing Bayonetta.

Now this is what happens when I turn off all the effects in the game.

Everything that went missing in the second video is the responsibility of an effects designer to create.

Bayonetta’s weapons, the impact of the hits, the enemy attacks, the smoke flowing out in the background, etc… When you have effects on, I think you can see that things seem more exhilarating, enemy attacks are easier to understand, and the atmosphere is played up more, amongst other things.

I can’t really explain in too much detail without venturing into spoilers, but in the scenes we feel fit to call Climax Action the effects change pretty substantially.

Like other creative sections making the game, when making effects I consult and make decisions on various things with our director, Hideki Kamiya.

Below is a conversation regarding how to illustrate damage on Bayonetta:

Kamiya-san: Hey Kudo, when Bayonetta gets damaged…

Kudo: Yeah.

Kamiya-san: …We should do something special with that.

Kudo: Yeah, we should.

Kamiya-san: Maybe something like Okami’s hit effects, where flower petals flew off.

Kudo: Yep! That’s a great idea. So Bayonetta would use…

Kamiya-san: A rose, of course.

Kudo: OK. But it’s damage, right? So isn’t there supposed to be blood?

Kamiya-san: If it isn’t pretty, then it isn’t Bayonetta!! Even the blood that flows out of her body can be turned into a rose with magic!!

Kudo: Whoa!!

Kamiya-san: She just goes, “Wuhhh!!” (He’s imitating Bayonetta’s damage voice.)

Kudo: …

Kamiya-san: You know… “Wuhhh!!” (He’s really getting into it here.)

What resulted from this conversation is the hit effect below:

This is pretty much representative of how we went about making Bayonetta’s effects.

So what did you think about this introduction to special effects? I’d be really happy it gave you even just a slightly better understanding of my work.

And if you are really interested, maybe you can try doing this work one day! You can apply here! (Note: Fluent Japanese is required.)

Once you all get on your hands on Bayonetta, it might be fun to give it a play while trying to imagine what is and isn’t a special effect…

Until next time!!

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Tagged: Hideki Kamiya

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello, everyone. I’m Washi, background design lead on the Bayonetta team. Pleased to meet you all.

I’ve been working with Kamiya-san since Okami, and I’m incredibly excited to be working on this game everyday.

Anyways, I wanted to make an appearance on the blog and tell you a bit about the background design (stage design) in Bayonetta.

Writing the word background makes it seem like it is all just simple scenery, and calling it a backdrop makes it all sound a bit too boring… Bayonetta, it goes without saying, is an action game. Moreover one that’s even been labeled a ∞ Climax Action game.

In an action game, backgrounds (and sorry if this is a bit obvious) don’t simply function as a tool to express the world the game takes place in, but also are the arenas upon which battles with your enemies play out. This is both the most difficult and most enjoyable aspect of creating stage backgrounds.

When you are fighting the same enemy on a different stage, it’s pretty clear that you end up with a different fight, right? Then if you have stages that change in real time, you should expect the amount of fun to multiply, as well. So what if you had lots of those kinds of stages?

To tell you the truth, when we started working on Bayonetta, the stage design team spent an enormous amount of time using the newly attained expressive power of the so-called “next-gen systems” trying to figure out how much prettier we could make the graphics. The amount of things we had to do had increased drastically from before, leading to repeated trial and error, but eventually development progressed and we were finally able to set our sights on a level of graphics we could accept. However, if we would have stopped there, we would have ended up with nothing more than pretty backgrounds. They’d have been backdrops.

You could say that this is where the real work began for the stage design team.

There are various elements to ∞ Climax Action, and each section within the Bayonetta team carries their own weight and has included numerous ideas into the game. The background team in charge of stage design takes the ideas drawn up by the game director or planners, and then coordinates with each section of the team – the programmers, effect and motion designers, the sound team, etc. – gaining their support in creating the stages while we design. This time, we made an action game filled with a non-stop assault of Climax scenes!!

When I thought about how our users are going to enjoy the game, or be surprised by its content, it was clear that stages with movement were an absolutely fundamental element. If the stages we tried to make at first were to be labeled with the idea of tranquility, these stages were to be about movement.

However, even if you say “stages with movement,” if they end up as simple “moving backgrounds,” they won’t pack the right punch. What becomes important here is the game camera.

Normally, and especially with the things we like to identify as the climax scenes in a film, I think one way they are able to ratchet up the excitement in scenes are with things like incredibly audacious camera work; however, in the case of games, if you go too far you’ll end up in a situation where the player can’t follow the game, and they will feel the camera is a hindrance to the game/battle. And there is no way you could just leave the best parts, the battles, to be played out in a cutscene. That’s just a waste!!

If it can be achieved, we want to fight a real battle inside something that feels like a cutscene!

With that concept in hand, our director and programmers arrived at a wonderful solution to our camera setup, and once it was put into a stage, we were finally able to say that we had completed a “stage with movement.”

As one progresses through a game, the way the game balances out and presents the various forms of “stress and release” is something I believe to be an important point. With Bayonetta’s stage design, we’ve linked this idea of “stress and release” with the concept of tranquility and movement.

The distribution of these moments is something that we are, of course, paying very close attention to as we proceed through production; however, if I had to put a word on what Bayonetta is like, it would have to be thrill ride!

Not to beat a dead horse, but it’s all because the game is a non-stop assault of Climax scenes. ∞ Climax Action! When I pick up the controller to play a stage we have finished, if someone says to me, “This is kind of boring right here,” I respond, “Well, then let me toss in a little bit more of the ol’ Climax!” (Even though I don’t really have time…) That’s kind of how things are in the studio right now.

In any case, Bayonetta is turning out to be pumped full of all sorts of big and small tricks; a full on rush of outrageous stages.

I’m sorry I could give you even more detailed take on the stage design in Bayonetta, but when you are talking about things like this, there is no escaping the fact that you can’t be too detailed or you will venture straight into spoilers. For now, I’m giving my work my all in hopes that it will get the game into your hands even just a day sooner, so look forward to the final product!!

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Tagged: Hideki Kamiya