Yuji Naka Encouraging Young Talent

Cubed3 caught up with Yuji Naka at the Eurogamer Expo recently for a quick chat related to Ivy the Kiwi? on Nintendo DS and Wii. Due out in Europe on 29th October, the cute little action puzzler features a tiny bird trying desperately to find her mother. Launching simultaneously on Nintendo DS, Wii and DSiWare (the WiiWare version is not coming to Europe, unfortunately), the title was created by Prope, the team founded by the legendary Yuji Naka. The full interview will be published very soon, but to whet your appetite, below is a small snippet from the article, in which he reveals how he actively encourages the younger talent in his company to come up with fresh ideas, as well as how the cute little Ivy character may make an appearance in future games if demand is high enough:

Cubed3's Adam Riley, Senior Editor: I know in the talk you mentioned that you don’t want to do sequels - like Ivy the Kiwi? 2, for instance - but would you consider using the character Ivy in another game, a new type of game? Keeping the same character but changing it into a new idea?

Yuji Naka-san, CEO of Prope: That really depends on the sales, the sales performance of Ivy the Kiwi? over here [ in Europe ]. If the game proves to be successful over here, and if I see many demands, of course I want to convert the character to other games.

Adam Riley: We mentioned that it was a young developer who came up with the idea initially. Do you actively encourage the younger developers in your team to create new ideas and pitch them to you?

Naka-san: Yes, very much. I want to encourage the young game creators in Japan to work harder. That was one of the reasons I left SEGA; I had to show that skill to the young game developers.