Producer Takayuki Shindo Talks Ideas, Demographics and Gameplay Direction for “Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop”

by Louis Bedigian

“We wanted to incorporate their various wishes through gameplay.” 

Ever wanted to have your own flower shop? Your own grocery store? Some of you probably want to run your own dentistry, and spend your mornings cleaning the teeth of various creatures. Whatever your dreams may be, Bandai and Parappa the Rapper developer Nana-On-Sha set out to make them a reality. A virtual reality with virtual pets (Tamagotchi) and touch screen capabilities.

This, of course, is a Nintendo DS game I am talking about – Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop. 

Inspired by Tamagotchi Connection, the first Tamagotchi toy that allowed the pets to communicate with each other, Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop pairs gamers up with one of three characters. Together you and your partner will run a shop, hoping for success and prosperity. Satisfy the needs of your customers – Tamagotchi – and you’ll be victorious. You don’t have to feel pressured though. It’s not that kind of a game. Fun comes first.

Takayuki Shindo, Producer at Bandai Co., Ltd., took a few moments to tell us how this title came to be, why they chose to design it, and the market they hope to reach.

Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop is an entirely different game for you guys – what made it an appealing project (other than it being something different)?

Takayuki Shindo: The extremely popular portable game from 8 years ago was revived and re-introduced in 2004 as a new series. As it was very popular amongst the school age girls, we thought it would be possible to create a game on the Nintendo DS and decided to begin development. Until then, Tamagotchi had no “sound,” so when Bandai approached us to develop this game, we thought it was a challenge, as we wanted to accentuate this factor in the game and create something truly original.

The Nintendo DS allows for a lot of cool gameplay features that aren't available on any other gaming platform. Did you experiment at all before starting development, or were you ready with ideas and dove right in?

TS: Before starting development on Tamagotchi, we were developing a sample game that focused on “sound”. The sound of the knife cutting a cake in the bakery, or the sounds heard in the dentist’s office serve as the base for those samples and began playing around with those elements. Other game elements came together through experimentation and trial and error.

What's your favorite thing about the DS and how are you taking advantage of that feature in this game?

TS: Being able to directly touch the game screen. Shops such as the dentist, bakery, and takoyaki shop cannot be recreated through other game platforms.

What are the challenges that the development team faced in trying to balance gameplay difficulty on the PSone, and how are you handling it with new technologies like the Nintendo DS?

TS: After creating the program, we played the game and made adjustments based on how we thought the game played.

The idea of creating a royal shop as opposed to individual Tamagotchi creature raising – who came up with that? Was it hard to settle on this as the main idea for the entire game?

TS: After Bandai and Nana-On-Sha decided to create the Tamagotchi game, we had several meetings and decided to create a shop simulation game based on the school girls’ dream of wanting to own and operate a “shop.” As the target audience was comprised of girls between the ages of 7-9, we wanted to create something different than the usual simulation game.

In grade school, when kids are asked, “What do you want to be/do when you grow up?” girls usually respond that they want to own and operate a “flower shop” or “bakery”; basically, some type of “shop.”

When you ask them the same question the next day, they’ll say, “a grocery [store],” or some other type of shop. Their answers constantly change, and we wanted to incorporate their various wishes through gameplay.

Thank you for your time.