Develping Dewy, the Konami chat

Last week I had a pulled Ray Hiyoshi, the associate product manager of Dewy’s Adventure, aside to chat about Konami’s new watery hero. Dewy’s Adventure is designed by the same team that created the Elebits, which also has a cast of cute and imaginative creatures. Since I already wrote some impressions about how Dewy plays I thought it would be more interesting to delve into the origins of Dewy during the talk.

Where did the idea of Dewy come from?

RH: The producer and team in Japan that designed it is a socially responsible group. We saw that with Elebits which was kind of about conserving energy and this game is an eco friendly game indirectly about keeping the world clean, safe and making the world a better place. I think that was how the concept came about. To create a game like this, make it cute and friendly.

But why did the team decide to make him a water droplet?

That’s a good question, I actually don’t know why a water droplet. I mean they decided to make something that looked cute. I don’t know why the team came up with a water droplet to be honest with you.

I always thought one of the most creative parts about Dewy is that he is a water droplet, which lets the player freeze him and vaporize him.

I think that might have been the reason why because as you were saying you can control every aspect of you world. You don’t actually control Dewy, you actually control the world to move Dewy. The water droplet was a simple way to show that being able to turn him into ice and different forms.

How long has Dewy been in development for?

I think the concept started even before Elebits released. The idea had much earlier before Elebits and development started before Elebits did. It is much more robust, Elebits was a launch title With Dewey we had time work on it and make it a much more robust game. 

Can you tell us a little bit about the multiplayer part?

The multiplayer is up to four players. Basically it is a co-op type of game. You play with four Dewys on a split screen. There is also an edit mode where you can edit a map and upload it on Wii Connect and let your friends download it.

Just like Elebits?

Just like Elebits.