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How Harvest Moon's creator aims to evoke emotions in playersHow Harvest Moon's creator aims to evoke emotions in players

The creator of Harvest Moon explains how his new game, Birthdays the Beginning, was inspired by both Japanese stories and Western developed world-creation games.

Alissa McAloon, Publisher

November 23, 2016

1 Min Read
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“I always want to create games with unique concepts. In a way, that's part of why I keep creating simulation games.”

- Yasuhiro Wada discussed the motivations behind his new game in an interview with GameSpot.

In the interview, Wada spoke about the Japanese children’s story that influenced the design of his new world-creation game Birthdays the Beginning and how his experiences playing games like SimCity and Populous inspired him to create his own game in a genre usually dominated by Western developers.

Wada, well known for the creation of the Harvest Moon series, says Birthdays the Beginning isn’t all that different from the kind of games he’s worked on in the past. For him, both his new game and Harvest Moon allow players the freedom to create; Birthdays the Beginning just offers that experience on a larger scale.

“Let's just say we zoomed in on the world we create in Birthdays further than what you're actually capable of. What you'd see there--that would be Harvest Moon," he explained. "From that perspective, you'd be zoomed in on a farmer's daily life, but with Birthdays you're zoomed out, creating things on a bigger scale. It's the same thing.”

About the Author

Alissa McAloon

Publisher, GameDeveloper.com

As the Publisher of Game Developer, Alissa McAloon brings a decade of experience in the video game industry and media. When not working in the world of B2B game journalism, Alissa enjoys spending her time in the worlds of immersive sandbox games or dabbling in the occasional TTRPG.

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