Nintendo Dream Web published a lengthy interview of three Donkey Kong Bananza developers: Motokura, Takahashi, and Kubo. It’s much more in-depth than Ask the Developer Vol. 19, and a good read for anyone interested in game design. (contains very minor spoilers)
The article is long, so I’ll translate only the part about working with Miyamoto-san.
Miyamoto-san said something like, “Donkey Kong’s movements seems floaty and light. Maybe because his footsteps sound a bit low.” […] We kept the footsteps quiet so not to lessen the impact of destruction sounds.
We repeated the process of slightly increasing the volume and having Miyamoto-san listen to it a few times. In the end, I think we achieved a balance that feels good, giving a sense of weight without losing the satisfaction of destruction.
Initially, [the button mapping] inherited from Mario, using B button to jump. However, Miyamoto-san pointed out to me, “for digging downward, wouldn’t the B button be more intuitive?” When I actually tried it, this key mapping indeed felt more intuitive. So that was Miyamoto-san’s suggestion.
[Originally posted on 2025-08-20 Pacific Time]
