From The Producer’s Chair: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

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Hi, my name is YOSUKE HAYASHI, Producer and Director or Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 here at Team NINJA.

I’m really excited to start this post and tell you about where our game is in its development cycle, who we are, a little about how we work behind the scenes, as well as some secrets on the game we are going to launch soon , NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA2.

Ninja Gaiden

I’m a little nervous being the first person to start these Team NINJA posts! We hope that you enjoy these weekly updates for the next few weeks, and I hope we can shed some light on how we work. I would like you to enjoy our post and hope you become fans of our products if you’re not already a Ninja Gaiden fan!

For this first post I want to talk about where we get our inspiration for games, as so many people ask me. In all honesty its difficult to tell “where” any form of inspiration comes from . Sometimes I come to the themes or direction for our games sat in my office, other times I’m suddenly inspired when I have drink at night with my team members – inspiration can come from anywhere and nowhere all at once. I guess that is why it is called ‘inspiration’. My brain is always awake though, and I am always thinking how to improve the games we develop, so for me it’s really not a matter of where inspiration happens, but when. I am constantly thinking or dwelling on ideas. Even when I’m not working I don’t distinguish my job and my day-off since I love game creation, it is part of me. I think any good game designers will tell you the same, it is part of your mind, you always think about it. If you’re not, you don’t deserve to be creating games for people. People are huge fans of Ninja Gaiden, and what we do here at Team NINJA so they deserve a team of developers that will give them what they desire. I guess you could say I am ‘subconsciously obsessed’ with game creation. It’s like 365 days a year 24 hours a day.

As well as the finer, more enigmatic ideas behind inspiration etc, we need solid foundations to start building a game. First of all, in very early stage of game creation, I set large set of objectives which we would like to achieve and a principal pillar of the game, and once those principles are set in stone, we are strict about them. Then I share those pillars with all team members and start expanding that pillar with them. It depends person by person how each member of the team expands on the fundamental ideas, but that is the beauty of a team such as ours – everyone contributes. As each person adds their thoughts, the concept expands. We spend a lot of time doing this even before we start any work.

Ninja Gaiden - Rachel

During that expansion, if any of us find better idea for the directions of the game, we embrace it. Since we have all share a common goal, there are no egos, all opinions are valid and we are flexible to modify and cope with any changes. I believe we are strong team in that sense.

Ninja Gaiden - Rachel

Much of our over-arching inspiration comes from trying to mix Western and Eastern cultures as possible. We’re creating the game with inspirations that I can have from a various movies and games, as well as more abstract media such as music we’ve heard and like, or art and history from both eastern and western cultures. You just have to look at the giant Budha boss Ryu faces to see what a rich cultural harvest we have to pick from. We are very lucky in that sense.

Ninja Gaiden

Just as I respect many games and forms of entertainment that we have sought inspiration from, I hope this NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA2 could be a tribute to those mediums and inspire and stimulate anyone in the future who create any products and launch them to the public.

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