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Bayonetta Fan Art Contest – The Platinum Awards

January 14th, 2010 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Kamiya here. Lately I’ve been listening to the Bayonetta soundtrack while working, but whenever I listen to the music from the latter half of the game, I have some sort of conditioned response to remember being in a nice warm bath, staring back at downtown Osaka (Umeda). It doesn’t leave me in a good mood. Ahhh… The last part of Bayonetta’s development was really brutal, and since I couldn’t go home, using the spa here at our offices in the Umeda Sky Building to wash away the days fatigue was the only thing I really had to look forward to; however, it seems like that left an indelible impression on my psyche. The spa on the 22nd floor has an unbroken view of Umeda, so during the day I would escape the development floor and head up to soak my messed up body in the bath. While soaking, looking out at skyscrapers under the expansive blue sky, it felt so great, like I was in heaven… When I hear the track that plays before you enter Balder’s Room, “Paradiso – Sea of Stars,” or the final track, “The Greatest Jubilee,” I feel completely opposite to the track names themselves; it’s delusional, like I’m getting sucked into hell. Both of the tracks were composed for us by Mr. Rei Kondo… Sorry… They really are good tracks… (LOL)

Speaking of the soundtrack, it isn’t just songs created by PlatinumGames staff. We had the opportunity to work with lots of people outside of the company, which I am really grateful for. From Rei Kondo, to all the staff at GEM Impact, to Hiro-san at SEGA, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I’d love to work together again!

On to the next… A while back Wizard Magazine held an art contest entitled Bayonetta Re-Envisioned, and lots of great works were selected as prize winners. Of course, we had a say in who won, and the staff all looked at all of the entries! The Grand Prize winner was one that I selected personally.

The idea of taking Bayonetta’s design and using that as a starting point for a brand new concept was a rather unusual experiment for a contest, and all of the entries obviously showed a lot of passion, each one amazing in its own right. Because of this, there were works that we weren’t able to include in the contest, but were so good that we just couldn’t get them out of our heads. That is why we would like to point them out and recognize them here on the blog.

First up is a work by Michael Hiscott. Our concept designer Ikumi Nakamura picked this one. The cherry blossom trees in the background mesh well with Bayonetta.

Shimazaki picked a work by Chuan Ju Lee. Bayonetta started with the idea that witches had to be black, but this image boldly threw black right out the window.

Shimazaki also picked another work, this one by Alexander Gordon. It’s fancy, like it could be an illustration in a fairy tale collection.

Next is a work by Brent Patrick Wilson. This one is incredible… It was a design contest for Bayonetta, but Rodin and Jeanne are so prominent that they are the only thing we really noticed.

Actually, this work by Joshua Meeks was the most popular among the team. It looks like it was created with colored pencil on drawing paper (?), but posing Bayonetta in such a dynamic drop kick is the work of no mere amateur.

Finally, we have a work by Randall Louis. The design, expression, and pose got stuck in our heads and we just couldn’t forget it. If there were a CD with this image as its cover, I would buy it without question.

So what do you think? For all the works that we picked up in this post, we are going to send the artists a copy of the Bayonetta soundtrack, which is currently on sale only in Japan! Because of the differences in markets and the such, we aren’t sure if the Bayonetta soundtrack will be released officially overseas; however, this 5 disc set is a gem, filled with what we feel is only the best content, so I think that you will find it enjoyable.

Well, that wraps it up. Until next time!

Picture: A promotional item that will be given out in Germany. Here is a picture of the back…

Picture: It has a Gates of Hell logo. What could be inside?

Picture: A lollipop! Cherry flavored, I think? But it’s got a kick to it. Definitely not that kind of flavor you would encounter in Japan. (LOL)

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Announcing (A Bit Early) a collection of Bayonetta Design Artifacts

January 7th, 2010 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello everyone. Character designer Mari Shimazaki here with some good news.

It has been something like two months since Bayonetta saw release in Japan. For those of you still playing Bayonetta, or those of you taking a little break, we’ve still got more Bayonetta to give you, so stay with us just a bit longer.

Which brings me to today’s announcement.

As Hashimoto-san mentioned on the Xbox Live Park broadcast here in Japan, we are going to put out a book collecting the design materials we used for Bayonetta. Woohoo!

It will be a little while until it’s released, but here are the details:

Bayonetta Design Collection (Temporary Title)
Release Date: Q1 2010 (Planned)
Price: TBD
Publisher: Enterbrain

It’s going to be a really thick book, as we are going to include almost all of the images we’ve used in promoting Bayonetta! (We were unable to get rights clearances for a few of them…)

Japanese gamers will get a chance to see art that we’ve only released in the West (which there were quite a few we made behind the scenes), as well as peeks at unreleased character, enemy, background, and weapon designs. There will also be CG illustrations and some new easter-egg illustrations (that I’m working on right now) amongst others. Overall, there will be more than 500 pieces of content to sink your teeth into! There will also be tons of comments from the development team (which they are working on now) to round out this monster collection! Look forward to it!

Whenever I end up working on one of these expansive books, I always end up feeling like, “This is sad. I have to show off all of these designs that got shot down… And they are from years ago as well.”
Even though I love looking at others people’s stuff… this poses a real dilemna for me.

Well, enough of my grumbling, I’m going to stay focused on working on the book for now, and even though it will be a while until it is in your hands, I hope you all look forward to it.

Well, I guess the world is all wrapped up in Christmas colors now.

How did you all spend the Christmas holidays? December 25 was actually our last work day here at PlatinumGames, but I am sure plenty of us went out drinking after we wrapped up.

Until next time.

More…

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Designing Bayonetta 4 – Luka (And a Special MTV Announcement)

October 25th, 2009 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello all. Character designer Mari Shimazaki reporting in.

We are now less than one week away from the Japanese release of Bayonetta. When the game comes out, I’m really excited about going to a huge store close-by and spreading out all the copies of the game! (A bit of a nuisance to the staff though…)

And now back to what has been sort-of the groove of my blog, explaining the design choices behind one of Bayonetta’s characters – this time the man chasing after Bayonetta – Luka.

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Luka_back

When I first drew Luka, I designed him as a bit more “adult;” however, as he is on the receiving end of the sassy Bayonetta’s jabs, I thought that he should be a bit more of a brazen youngster, which is how he ended up as you see him above. Even though he is freelance, he is still a journalist, so he wears that staple of modern masculine armor, the suit. And then there is his favorite camera, which may or may not be a Leica. To chase after Bayonetta, he also has his spy tools-of-the-trade, all secreted neatly away in his gloves, boots, etc.

Since he is rather light on his feet, I wanted to make sure you picked up on Luka’s movements by giving him a nice, long scarf. Putting something moving on these active characters to pick up on their motions is sort of a by-the-book design cue in Bayonetta. Also, Kamiya-san likes scarves.

Unfortunately, it has been a long time since I designed Luka, so I’ve forgotten a lot of the small details and motivation that went into his look.

A glance at Luka can tell you a lot though: He is a bit of a metrosexual, paying attention to his cologne, etc. He is the type to get carried away, as he loves the girls, and would be prone to saying that there is more than enough of him to go around to one-and-all.
But despite all this, Bayonetta is the only women to whom he is openly hostile. Obviously, he must have his reasons…

How will their relationship develop during the game is something you will just have to play to find out.

To switch gears now, I have an announcement to make.

I think you are all aware of MiChi, the Japanese singer who recorded the song played in the background of Bayonetta’s Japanese TV commercial. Well, MiChi is going to appear with Bayonetta on a special program to be aired by MTV Japan!

MTV’s Bayonetta Special will air on MTV Japan on

Wednesday 10/28 4pm-5pm (Premiere airing)
Thursday 10/29 9pm-10pm
Saturday 10/31 5am-6am
Sunday 11/1 4am-5am
* This schedule is subject to change.

Bayonetta herself is going to be the VJ for the show. MiChi will be her guest, and you will get a look into the making of the Something Missing track, as well as their thoughts on what it means to be a strong woman.

I even drew up some special art that you will get a peek at during the show.
It is a tie-up illustration between MiChi, who was kind enough to make the song for us, and Bayonetta. I can’t post it here, so if you want to check it out, make sure to watch the show.

(NOTE: Higher resolution versions of the concept art in this post can be found on the PlatinumGames Inc. Flickr Page)

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BAYONETTA AT TGS 2009!

October 9th, 2009 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hello everyone. If you don’t remember me, I am Kai, an animator here at PlatinumGames.

I haven’t blogged here since May, but I recently had the opportunity to check out the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, so I thought I would tell you about my experience.

I was actually at the show for 3 days, from September 24 – 26, but I was really excited for the September 26, when the show was opened to the public. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to finally seeing people play our game, especially as we have said time and again how much we want people to try out Bayonetta. I know I am not only speaking for myself when I say that all the PlatinumGames staff who went to the show felt the same way.

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The last time I was at the Game Show as in 1995, when video games were presented at the Tokyo Toy Show. I remember being incredibly excited to see a version of Virtua Fighter 2 that was on display for the Sega Saturn. Looking back, the number of people at the show nowadays has really increased, hasn’t it? We lined up with everyone else to get into the show, but even though we got to the show 30 minutes before opening, it still took about an hour to get in.

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Here is the Bayonetta booth. We went here right after we got into the show, shortly after 10 AM, and there was already restrictions being placed on those standing in lines. (More than a 2 hour wait to play and SEGA staff would stop allowing people to wait in line.) People weren’t just gathered around the demo stations, they were also gathering in front of a screen at the center of the booth that would show trailers and the new Bayonetta TV commercial. The booth was at a fever pitch!

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We also went inside the booth to check it out.

Kamiya-san, Hashimoto-san, and the rest of the staff would stand to the side of the booth and soak in the atmosphere. What made us happiest was that the lines never died out, and that emotional experience continued, as we were able to see lots of excited people playing the game to the very end of the day. At around 3 PM, they shut down the line for Bayonetta, so there may have been some people there who didn’t get a chance to play. We truly apologize for this.

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Kamiya-san was quite popular, and often had fans come up to him and say hello. He was happy to oblige their requests.

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Shimako was also very popular.

Bayonetta was also featured in the Microsoft and Sony booths to a very warm reception, and we were lucky enough to be selected as one of the recipients of the Game Future Awards from the 2009 Japan Game Awards. They say that this award is given to those titles shown at Tokyo Game Show that have garnered the most amount of attention. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us this far, and to all those who voted for us at Tokyo Game Show! Also, if you are in Japan, keep an eye on the official Bayonetta home page for information about our in-store events, the downloadable demo, and other hot news as we take the wraps off the latest information. Make sure you don’t miss anything.

One of my personal favorite things to do is camp out in a game store and watch people buying our game on the day it is released. I can’t wait to meet many of you when you are picking up Bayonetta.

A little bonus:

Kamiya-san was a guest at Capcom’s booth for their Ghost Trick talk show.

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Kamiya-san wore a “Wicked Witch”　(Majo Saiban) printed t-shirt with a picture of Bayonetta on it. (Shimako and I were in charge of this bit of nefariousness.) Once he wrapped up with the event, he tossed the shirt out into the crowd.

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Bayonetta TGS Consoles and Photo Collection!

September 25th, 2009 by

Bayonetta

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hi everyone. Character designer Mari Shimazaki here.

Tomorrow is the opening of Tokyo Game Show 2009 to the general public.
I’m sure by the time this is posted, we will already be on the show floor getting ready for your arrival. Make sure to come visit us! We’ve even got a little souvenir to give to everyone who tries out the game.

I also have a couple of announcements to make.

We’ve decided to celebrate TGS the same way we celebrated San Diego Comic Con – by making one-of-a-kind Bayonetta game consoles! This time, we’ve made both an Xbox 360 and a PS3.

But right after we ordered the hardware, the PS3 Slim was announced… （@o@）!?
So unfortunately, it is the previous model of the PS3, but this is what it looks like!

First up is the 360.

b_360_01

And here is the PS3.


For the Comic Con version, we used a sort of subtle Red/Black background, but for this series, we are taking a book out of the Japanese box art and using a moon background!
This one’s really cool too!

We are also going to be giving these consoles away at a PlatinumGames user event we have planned for the future. We will get them into a gamers’ hands somehow, but for now, the staff at PlatinumGames are just enjoying gawking over the machines. (OK… I’m the only one doing the gawking.)

There is one more announcement that I have to mention, and you may have already caught glimpse of this before, but we are releasing a Bayonetta Photo Collection in Japan!

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This book will be release a week before the Japanese release of Bayonetta.

Bayonetta: Witch of Vigrid
80 pages, available 10/22 for 2100 yen at Japanese book stores

The cover is a brand new render made especially for the book.

On the inside, you have a real photo collection. Beyond various new renders of Bayonetta, there is also an exclusive interview with the witch herself, making it a volumious collection of content the likes of which you rarely see before a game’s release!

Kamiya-san and the staff really enjoyed thinking up ideas for this project, like hoping we could included a centerfold or a pin-up…

At the very least it should give all of you some late night reading while you wait up anxiously anticipating the release of the game! Be sure to pick it up!

Everyone have a great time at TGS!
That’s all for now!

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