Patapon's Kotani: Praise Players, Don't Scold Them

Author: by Staff, Christian Nutt

Talking to Gamasutra as part of an in-depth interview, Sony's Patapon creator Hiroyuki Kotani has been discussing how his background as a teacher helped him realize that, for students and gamers, if you "praise them rather than scolding them", they'll have more fun. Explaining the genesis of the unique, critically acclaimed Patapon rhythm strategy series for PlayStation Portable as the game's sequel debuts in Japan, Kotani, who also designed games such as XI/Devil Dice and Mad Maestro, explained: "When I was thinking about something fun, I just came up with Patapon -- so I didn't think about it too much. However, actually, I was once trapped in this bad kind of thinking -- that complex games look better. However, I returned to my originality; my original idea that simple games are better. And a lot of people around me said, "Are you really sure that you can realize a good game with only three commands?" And I said yes, and I tried to convince all the people around me -- but I did not realize this alone: I had good teamwork from music creators, and programmers, and everybody." Kotani and associate producer Junichi Yoshizawa also revealed that prototyping for the game took up all except three months of the original Patapon's two-year development period. Kotani further explained the philosophy behind the bright and breezy PSP title as follows: "In my previous career as a teacher, what I learned is that if my students are happy, they would learn more; so, we had to praise them rather than scolding them. So, that's the biggest hint I got for the creation of games: I have to make the users happier, so they would feel like they are encouraged to go to the next stage." The full Gamasutra interview with Kotani is now available to view on Gamasutra, including lots more discussion and detail on the series' genesis.