Splatoon

Splatoon has really come a long way since its initial launch. The Splatoon that we were introduced to back in May was still an excellent game, but a strong argument could be made that the game was uncharacteristically light on content for a Nintendo game. Since then, new maps, game modes, weapons, and apparel have been added to the game on a nearly weekly basis, and this has expanded the game far beyond what it started as.

Game Informer recently spoke with Yusuke Amano and Hisashi Nogami – the Director and Producer, respectively – to talk about the support the game has been receiving and what's next for Splatoon, naturally asking many interesting questions.

The first question asked was why the game launched in the state that it did and Amano claimed it was a method of 'training' players by piecing content out in a way that would allow them to place more emphasis on each piece of content.

Amano: So when myself and Mr. Sakaguchi were coming up with the idea for Splatoon, we knew that this was going to be a new type of online game and different from preexisting shooters. Regarding the decision to release Splatoon with what might be considered to be a smaller set of content at the beginning, our goal in making that decision was to raise a user base that would understand the game's mechanics solidly and therefore be able to participate even more exciting online battles. We really wanted to prioritize training the user base to learn the fundamentals because we thought that would create the most satisfying experience for everyone.

The short single player campaign was also mentioned, and it doesn't seem like that will be receiving any sort of update. That being said, Amano feels that it could do with some improvement, so perhaps we might see a large update.

Amano: When we envisioned the single player mode, we saw it as a way of teaching those game mechanics I mentioned earlier to players and as something they would be able to take with them into multiplayer mode in the game. One thing with the single-player mode is that it was sort of a way to expand the world view of Splatoon – the sort of story, if you will – that we weren't able to do in the multiplayer mode. Regarding any kind of spin-off or expansion, rather than just releasing additional stages for the single player mode, if we wanted to do something like that, I would want to make it a larger scale update. There were elements of the single-player mode that I wasn't completely satisfied with myself.

Nogami: I really think that there's a strong connection between the two modes in the game. So we don't actually have any plans to just release a single player spin-off of the game itself due to the strength of that connection.

In terms of the updates that regularly drop, it seems like these will primarily just be focused on adding new content to the game, rather than making system level changes, such as expanding available map options or adding voice chat.

Amano: After this update in January, we will of course continue to support bug fixes and balance changes to the game where we feel they are necessary. With map rotation, this is something that we envisioned from the beginning of development of the game. The idea that players would have two maps on which to play and you would take one weapon into the map and figure out the best way to move about the map and learn the ins and outs of each stage. We don't have any immediate plans to change that. Thinking forward, this is something that would really affect the structure of the game. It is something that we consistently continue to see users discussing. It's perhaps something we will start to think about as a challenge, and we would need to think of the best ways to solve that challenge, but we don't have any immediate plans to take that on.

They also touched on the concept of paid DLC, effectively shutting the door on that possibility. While we should never completely rule anything out, it seems that largescale DLC support will come to an end in January.

Nogami: As we mentioned earlier, the free content for the game will continue to release until January 2016 and we don't have plans to release paid DLC after that.

What do you think? Are you pleased with the support Splatoon has received so far? Would you have liked to see paid DLC? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[source gameinformer.com]