[Game Character Design & Scenario Writing] - Yoko Taro, The SEA Summit 2017

Q: How does Yoko Taro go about designing game characters?
A: There are 7 steps in sequence from the start to the end:

1) Budget - It is important to clarify this as it affects the scaling of story and content
2) Period - Any accurate or rough timeline given to create content, can affect number of characters and amount of interactions
3) Market - What is wanted from the market you're targeting? Platforms? Genres?
4) Balance - Gender, percentage of Males vs. Females. Number of characters, 3-5 is a good number he usually start or work with
5) Fans - If the game is a sequel, what do the fans want? You may go against their wishes and try something new
6) The Game - Gameplay Specifications, Motion Cost for your characters to integrate as content in the game
7) The Drama - World View & Characteristics, characters interact with other characters and environment

Sometimes along the way, timeline becomes constrained and things such as 1 character per level can shift content balance. Carefully split scenarios to capture sufficient content for individual characters.

For students learning character design, it is really important to know about the budget because when a real budget really occurs, creators often try too hard to merge multiple characters into 1 character (in Japan).

Q: Why does Yoko Taro always work with a dark story?
A: It was not a conscious decision at all. I think this is because I believe [Reality is just as dark]. This is proven from 2 traits...

Trait 01: Video Games are an imitation of the real world. For example, in classic Space Invaders with low quality graphics: Humans are able to perceive the black screen as "space" because there are alien sprites invading defending bases.

Trait 02: People (mostly) seek to kill in games. In a game where you kill enemies, there is no realistic possibility of a pleasant world filled with hope. Game tropes like killing 100 enemies/bosses with the main character ending up being a hero, kissed by a "princess", are the unrealistic stories (to Yoko Taro).

"Humans are smeared by their own desires, never able to run away from competition or enmities", this notion apply in many games (especially fun and popular ones).

There are a lot of wars happening right now. Competition and rivalry becomes part of a world view to the audience. Rivalry becomes about creating winners and losers. Games that depict this, I feel, can connect with others. Games are essentially parallel to the real world.

Q: How did NieR:Automata come to life?
A: [Platinum Games is the Genesis of it]

1) Platinum Games approaches Square Enix first
2) Square Enix sounds out NieR's production (Yosuke Saito, Executive Producer pitches to do another NieR game)
3) Square Enix approaches Yoko Taro. Rights of NieR is with S.E... (jokingly), I think S.E. took pity of me and gave me an opportunity for a poor to earn money (yet again)
4) Yoko Taro tries to understand and imagine in the direction and expectations of Platinum Games (since the best of developers are there)
5) Yoko Taro analyzes between Sci-Fi or Battle Adventure sort of themes. He thought perhaps Fantasy is a good pitch to Platinum
6) Yoko found out that Platinum developers actually respect the themes of the previous NieR IPs (to not change it too much)
7) Yoko always misunderstood that Hideki Kamiya was the centre of the whole company. (jokingly, he thought the company was like the Mad Max game)
8) He also realizes that Platinum is not an office with top-down hierarchy, they even take opinions and suggestions from newbies in the office
9) The RPG element is revived as Platinum wants to maintain the consistent RPG factor from past NieR titles: Gestalt and Replicant

Q: What sort of trial & error does Yoko Taro use during game writing?
A: [IMAGINE] is the core

This is by no means a short answer, I think some creators may not truly understand imagination. To me, it's something near to making something interesting out of something that no one would commonly think it's interesting.

There is also [You]. Who you are is critical to your imagination.

1) You are the center of your own world
2) To express yourself is to control what others think of you
3) Throwing a rock to someone's heart will ripple your environment
4) Ripples created actually differ from person to person based on perspectives
5) However, people hope to connect by sharing similar perspectives

[No matter how interesting an idea can be, always doubt it]

(Shows kitten picture)
- Without captions, this mostly look cute to people, even though not everyone
- With "This kitten is abandoned and abused" captions, people have the power to immediately change their perspectives when they are given different labels

It is important to analyze why people would have initial perspectives and then change their minds later from other factors.

[If you are seeking for uniqueness, you need to know the standards]

It is also good to understand that a creator can not have control to how everyone feel with just 1 story. It is important to know the customers you are servicing to. Are they a massive crowd or a niche audience?

Creators often insist on purely doing what they want but market research ends up being the most important as it depicts common connections of different perspectives. It is never about how you understand your own story.