This is a 2-part developer interview. This is the first part.
Points of interests:
Controller differential control scheme:
Developer even cried during the development of Labo:
Physical feedback (opposed to Haptic Feedback)
Source:
https://labo.nintendo.com/developer-interview/
Points of interests:
Controller differential control scheme:
When you say, "use the differential," what do you mean?
Mr. Sakaguchi: Well if you had one controller be a "sword" and the other controller a "shield," that's an additive relationship, by which I mean each controller can perform its action on its own. If that's the case, you could theoretically just use one controller and switch the control schemes with a button press. But using both controllers and controlling something with "the relationship between the controllers" is a control scheme that absolutely requires the use of both.
For example, the fishing game we've made here uses this "controller differential control scheme."
By attaching the right Joy-Con to the handle of the fishing rod and then attaching the left Joy-Con to the reel, it allows us to use the position of the handle to measure the rotation of the reel.
Or to phrase it differently, if you were to only use the left Joy-Con, you would not be able to differentiate the motion of the fishing rod from the movement of the reel. However, if you then added the right Joy-Con and compare the differences seen from its sensors to those of the left Joy-Con, you can make it work. As we got deeper into all our experiments we started to think of the Joy-Con as bundles of sensors—that really freed us to consider all kinds of possibilities
Developer even cried during the development of Labo:
Ogasawara-san, you were tasked with the design of the cardboard sheets at the time, weren't you? What did you make of this feedback? I'm assuming you had never worked on cardboard design projects like this before.
Mr. Ogasawara: Well, we had experience designing product packaging using cardboard, but this was the first time I'd ever tried to make a cardboard design that was easy to assemble for the consumer. Despite this, I continued working on the designs and—well, the consumer test was a real shock! (Laughs.)
Sakaguchi-san said it made him cry, but to tell you the truth things were rough over in hardware development too.
It was surprising because it wasn't like we hadn't put a lot of thought into the design at that point. We were always calling over co-workers unfamiliar with the project and seeing how well they could make the Toy-Con projects we designed, and those experiments had always gone well. So basically, consumer tests on adults had all been good up until that point. Going into the test I'd been thinking that 70% or 80% of the kids would do well. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. It was a real disaster.
Physical feedback (opposed to Haptic Feedback)
When you hold a Toy-Con creation, it clearly feels different than other game controllers, and there's a feeling of feedback from it. Was this something you intentionally sought to create?
Mr. Sakaguchi: We call it "physical feedback." The Toy-Con Motorbike accelerator really shows it off.
Mr. Ogasawara: It's made with rubber bands so that more force is required the further you try to twist it.
Mr. Sakaguchi: Had we tried this with controllers we've made before, like the Wii Remote, you'd twist it through the empty air and not feel anything. But if this is supposed to be the handle, then you want the shift lever to be here too, right? And if this is supposed to be a motorbike, you want to feel the acceleration in your hands.
Source:
https://labo.nintendo.com/developer-interview/
