Kirby and the director of The Forgotten Land, Tatsuya Kamiyama, recently he explained to IGN why the acclaimed series took so long to make the transition to 3D. Speaking during a session at GDC 2023, Mr. Kamiyama explained that one of the biggest obstacles the team faced in creating a 3D platformer staring at the iconic pink puffy ball was Kirby’s spherical shape. This problem stemmed from the fact that in a 3D platformer, the main character generally faces behind the camera, and if players can’t tell which way Kirby was facing when performing an attack, it could certainly lead to player frustration. To solve this problem, HAL has given Kirby and The Forgotten Lands players a little help with aiming. Fortunately, they achieved their goal and made a perfect 3D Kirby game as highlighted in our 9.5/10 review of the game last March.
“When you rotate a sphere, you can’t really tell it’s rotating. Kirby has a simple, spherical design, so it’s hard to tell which way Kirby is facing when viewed from the back. For Kirby’s ranged attacks, it’s a significant problem if the player even slightly misjudges which way the character is facing. Kirby attacks by inhaling enemies and spitting them out. Because of this, if you miss, you have to look for another enemy to inhale, which is very frustrating.”
Kamiyama in an interview with IGN
“Kirby’s ranged attacks in the Forgotten Lands will automatically target enemies if they meet certain criteria based on a point system. Enemies are awarded points if they are already roughly in the direction Kirby is facing (so Kirby obviously can’t hit enemies directly behind him, for example), and get more points if the enemy is dangerously close to Kirby or important in some way (such as the boss). Additionally, attacks while Kirby is on the ground won’t target enemies in the air, but targeting in the air is stronger because of how difficult it can be to target while in the air.
The targeting itself should be subtle, so ideally players wouldn’t notice it happening—otherwise, Kamiyama says, they might not be motivated to aim at all. Most of the guidance takes place in the first frame of the attack and then drops off significantly as the attack continues. And there are additional corrections that happen for depth, such as if Kirby tries to hit an enemy that appears to be next to him, but is actually slightly behind or ahead. This prevents attacks from frustratingly missing when the way the fixed camera is angled makes it look like they should hit.”
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