Animal Crossing Director Aya Kyogoku on amiibo Festival: “Honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing amiibo”

9 years ago Justin 2 Comments

In a wide ranging interview with US Gamer, Animal Crossing Director Aya Kyogoku has spilled some more beans on the upcoming Animal Crossing spin-offs releasing later this year.

When asked about whether Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival was created as an amiibo game or the amiibo were added later in development:

Initially when the Amiibo was announced, there was nothing really said about Animal Crossing Amiibos or any plans for that matter. But as the Animal Crossing team, we were confident that if there was one, it would be really cute… honestly, we just wanted Animal Crossing Amiibo. We wanted the company to make Animal Crossing Amiibo, so that’s why we made a game that works with them.

On the possible similarities of Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival to the Mario Party games, and what makes their game different:

One of the main tenets of Mario Party is that you’re playing a board game and in between those board game moves, you play a mini-game and compete, and that’s a focus. For Animal Crossing, the focus is actually playing the board game within the village of Animal Crossing, so it’s not really focused on the mini games.  

If you look at where Joan comes in and you are able to purchase turnips, that’s an element that was very prominent in the original Animal Crossing series and that also happens here. So you purchase on Sunday, and you have between Monday’s turn and Saturday’s turn to sell those turnips to gain money that will help you win the board game. There are a lot of elements that were very popular and significant in Animal Crossing that now act as a very unique characteristic here in the board game. I think that’s a major difference between this and Mario Party.

About the in-game connections between amiibo Festival and Happy Home Designer:

Yes, Amiibo Festival will be including other games that you can play specifically with Amiibo cards. Actually, in the board game itself, you’ll see houses of specific animals. Using an Amiibo card, you can actually get your favorite animals to live on that board with you. So beyond just having your favorite animal live there, if you have had a chance to design a home for them in Happy Home Designer, that home that you designed, the way it looks will actually be built in the board game. So that’s another way that we’ve linked Amiibo Festival and Happy Home Designer through the use of Amiibo cards.

Finally, on the potential of amiibo functionality in future Animal Crossing games and the future of the series as a whole:

So there are no current plans to add that back into New Leaf, but as a series, the Animal Crossing team is always thinking and planning what the next title might be. So once Happy Home Designer and Amiibo Festival come out, the development for the rest of the Animal Crossing series will continue. I’d definitely like to integrate the use of Amiibo cards and Amiibo into the series.

And with that last comment, the endless speculation over whether a main series Animal Crossing title is in development yet or not will continue…

Those are just the some of the most interesting bits that I took away from the interview. Be sure to check out the rest of the original interview over at US Gamer for more details on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival.

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