Mario & Luigi | Brothership Devs on Creating the Colorful Characters of Concordia

During a new “Ask the Developer” interview with Nintendo, multiple Mario & Luigi: Brothership developers discussed at length, the creation of new characters, choosing to make them less humanoid and more:

Mario & Luigi | Brothership Devs on Creating the Colorful Characters of Concordia:

Hitomo Furuta: It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing. Connie, an original character that appears in this game, was initially designed to look like a human. Afterwards, we settled on the motifs of outlets and electric plugs, and the ideas of an outlet-like face and a plug design that looks like a hat fit right into that world. Eventually, we landed on the current design.

Akira Otani: If other characters looked too human, for example, you may end up with a world where Mario seems superfluous as a protagonist. When creating original characters, it’s important to develop characters and a world that Mario wouldn’t feel out of place in. From that perspective, Acquire has studied the previous games in this series very closely to achieve this. Furuta-san, your efforts came across clearly in the development materials you shared with us. There were a lot of hand-written comments representing your inner voice, such as, “This should work this way… Nope…do it all over”. (Laughs)

Tomoki Fukushima: But because you wrote down everything you were struggling with, it made it easier for us to discuss solutions together.

Hitomi Furuta: Yeah, I guess you’re right. (Laughs) Especially during the initial phase of development, I thought it’d be better to communicate to Nintendo what and how we thought, as well as what we didn’t know, because we were working together for the first time. So I put everything in writing as it came to my mind.

Akira Otani: Speaking of original characters, if we only had Mario and Luigi’s reactions to go on as the story developed, we’d miss out on some detailed information. So that necessitated a partner character for them. That’s how the partner in this new world, Snoutlet, came to be.

Hitomi Furuta: Since the decision for an electric plug as a motif was made early on, we considered various options regarding what form Snoutlet should take, including whether to go for a plug-shaped design.

Haruyuki Ohashi: I was intrigued by one of the ideas that came out of this – a piggy bank-like character whose features could either look like a nose or eyes. Snoutlet is my favourite. (Laughs)

Hitomi Furuta: We first designed Snoutlet so that the eyes were at the top of the head, but while leaving just the eyebrows, we made the nose look like the eyes so it’s fun to guess where the real eyes are.

Tomoki Fukushima: Also, I’ve heard that piggy banks exist in many countries around the world, so this might help Snoutlet’s design be recognisable. And we were glad to see the “Shipshape Island” idea. The moment we saw it, we thought to ourselves, “This is it!”.

Hitomi Furuta: This is the initial concept art of Shipshape Island. We called the first base “the starting island”, and while considering a number of shapes for it, a staff member proposed the idea of an island shaped like a ship. Everyone on the team thought it was a great idea, and we unanimously decided on this design. This shape clearly communicates its functions as a base of operations for their adventure, and from there, various other designs took shape, one after another.

Akira Otani: Since the base is an island, it drifts along the ocean rather than being steered at will. So, it didn’t feel quite right for it to be a real ship. I think that once it became an island shaped like a ship, its appeal really grew.

Haruyuki Ohashi: Because this game is a part of the Mario & Luigi series, there’s no room for gloom with the overall atmosphere. We wanted it to be full of brightness and fun.

Hitomi Furuta: When left to our own devices, we tend to get drawn subconsciously into the heavier directions you find in more serious RPGs. Although we were still getting to grips with the mood in the Mario & Luigi series, we decided on this direction so we wouldn’t forget that it’s a stage for fun, chaotic adventures. This doesn’t only apply to the game’s world, but we learned a lot from Nintendo’s unique design perspective about making things easier to see and understand. The world turned out brighter and easier to play due to the insights we gained.

For the full interview, why not click here to check out Ask the Developer Vol. 15, Mario & Luigi: Brothership – Chapter 2:

Ask the Developer | Mario & Luigi Brothership (Participating Developers)

• Akira Otani | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Producer)
• Tomoki Fukushima | Entertainment Planning & Development Division, Co-Production Group (Associate Producer)
• Haruyuki Ohashi | Director, Acquire Corp.
• Hitomi Furuta | Designer, Acquire Corp. (Art Director)