Source: Kamaitachi no Yoru Official Fanbook (SFC), page 24-29
Kamaitachi no Yoru: Making of Kamaitachi no Yoru (SFC)
The Kamaitachi team have as many stories as there are scenarios... The team have experienced as many hardships as the players have experienced... Hearing these tidbits from the staff will make the game even more enjoyable! There are even some hints sneaked in, too.
The biggest trick in Kamaitachi's arsenal: the basement miniature!
On the right is the full diorama of the basement. It's about 1.1m long, 1.2m tall and 1m wide. From the photos alone, you'd never think it was a model.
This image was made from a combination of photos taken of the diorama. When it's done, it looks just like the photos of the actual pension! Even the wine bottles look real.
The entrance to the basement is on the right side of the diorama. If you peek through the door, you can see a wooden staircase leading to the bottom. It even has a little bannister.
Here's a comparison between the diorama and a human hand. Does this give you a better idea of the scale of the model? The cardboard boxes on top of the shelves contain wire, things wrapped in newspaper and bits of wood.
Here are some more props...
Several props used in Kamaitachi. There's some paint and spoiled ketchup to create the fake blood. Notice the bald cap in the front row!
Costumes for the dead bodies. That's Kayama on the right, and Kobayashi on the left. The fake blood was made from a mixture of paint and ketchup.
Planning
Director
Kazuya Asano (31)
Joined Chunsoft eight years ago.
Began as an assistant on DQ3 and wrote the original draft for Otogiriso, leading to Kamaitachi no Yoru
Favourite music: Kenji Ozawa etc.
Favourite books: psychology, economics, biology
Never watch TV
Once we'd finished work on Otogiriso, I wanted to do a mystery next. Since the game is based around branching choices, I thought it would suit a structure where you have to search around for the answers. Regardless of what our third and fourth games would end up being in the future, I decided that I wanted to try making a honkaku mystery story for this particular one.
The scenario we had Mr. Abiko write for us came out even better than expected, so I was really happy with it! I read some of his work later on, and mentioned that I thought his style of mystery would work well with live action, which is how we ended up using photographs in the game. The character shadows were sort of added on later. The theme of sound novels is "stirring the imagination", and when we were trying to come up with a way to aid that, Mr. Abiko suggested we try putting in silhouettes. That's where those originate from.
Please enjoy the changes we've made to the graphics, perspective, animation and more versus Otogiriso. Lastly, a hint about how to progress in the game... Maybe... "Read the branch points carefully!"
Favourite scene: The theme visual, which expresses the intolerable gloominess of the situation.
Production
Producer
Koichi Nakamura (30)
President of Chunsoft, founded on 9 April 1984.
Broke new ground within gaming with the "sound novel" genre in 1992. The first was Otogiriso, and the second is Kamaitachi no Yoru, which attempts to push the genre's potential even further!
Mr. Abiko started writing the scenario in about September of the year before last. Though it ultimately took two-and-a-half years to get it done, it turned out well, and I'm really pleased with it. The frank scariness and bitter emotions of his writing worked perfectly with Asano's production to create a great end product. This game has even more depth to it than our last! Aside from the game itself, you can also get into Kamaitachi through the CD and this book. No matter how big of an enthusiast you become, there's always deeper to dig down.
Ideally, I'd like people to feel a sense of realism from the incorporation of the beauty of the real life images combined with the translucent shadows over the top. I don't think anyone's done anything quite like it before.
Also, please be sure to play using stereophonic sound. The pink bookmark is in there, too, so give a slightly dirty Kamaitachi a go.
Lastly, a hint. Keep your eyes peeled for a code hidden inside another code! The CD drama contains a key to breaking new ground, too!
The president's favourite: a scene of a snowmobile zooming along coolly!
The Kamaitachi ski poles are put to good use. The team all look like they're having a good time.
Programming
Chief programmer
Masayoshi Saito (32)
(Aquamarine)
President of Aquamarine.
Lead programmer on Famicom Jump II
Favourite books: media magazines in general
The programmers were wholly working behind the scenes on this one - basically like the unseen, unsung heroes.
In actual fact, our team were primarily trained to make RPGs, and on top of that, this was our first game on the SFC. In tackling this new genre of "sound novel", we had to go through some pretty rough preliminary studying and preparation (laughs). That said, I had an even rougher time with the support program I spent a year making so I wasn't like a headless chicken when it came to making the game itself.
On the other hand, what I really want to recommend is the blizzard scene! No other game could've pulled that off! When I was tired, I'd pump myself up by looking at the snow falling on the screen and think to myself, "I'm definitely going skiing later!" (laugs). Please make sure you all take a good long look at it, too.
The thing we paid most attention to while working on the game was the graphics. Though "sound novels" are, as the name implies, novels accompanied by sound, this time we had the graphics at the forefront of our minds. We worked hard to convert the visuals inside the author's head into something that the players would have an easy time understanding, and make it more realistic and immersive. It'd make me happy if everyone feels what we intended.
The blizzard created by veteran programmer Omorita is both men's favourite.
Programmer
Masahiro Nii (22)
(Aquamarine)
I'm still in school!
Favourite music: Songs I sing at karaoke
Favourite books: Toko Shashin (that's a lie), manga
I was totally new to all of this, so I kept getting told off non-stop (laughs). My role on the game was to sit in on all of the production meetings for Kamaitachi, get the opinions of other people and departments, and then make sure all of that was reflected in the game. There were so many times when I was told that something I'd made needed to be done over and I wanted to cry...
The main things I was in charge of on this game that are actually visible to the players were the reread mode and chapter select mode. These two mechanics were actually made to help with development, and we hadn't planned on putting them into the game.
As we were working on the game, President Nakamura said he thought it was handy and suggested we add it in, which we ended up doing. In terms of what gave me trouble, I guess I'd say the shadows. Making the bit that comes after the pink bookmark was fun, though. What happens is a secret♡
In any case, I think we managed to make a game where every last little bit of it is put to good use!
Graphics
Graphic designer
Fuyuhiko Koizumi (26)
Second year with the company.
Short-tempered and selfish.
Favourite music: Huey Lewis and the News.
Favourite books: Fantasy novels as a whole.
Most of the difficulty came from the fact that there were supposed to have been fewer movements to create than usual, but, in fact, there were not fewer at all (laughs). Due to issues with the amount of space being taken up, the amount of graphics I had to draw in detail just kept piling up.
I was responsible for drawing the bulk of the shadows. I made them by tracing just the outlines of line art of the characters dressed up.
The trickiest part of all was trying to depict people sneaking down the stairs. Scenes with a bunch of characters overlapping each other were a pain, too. The screen would end up covered with a big purple blob (laughs). I managed to make it work somehow or another by moving them further apart. There were some cases where I struggled to even tell whether someone was facing forwards or backwards (laughs). I managed to differentiate between them by drawing in their arms in the end.
I went through each chapter shouting, "This can't be right!" to myself.
Favourite scene: The one where Midori dies and Toshio flies into a rage. It's a real tearjerker.
Graphic designer
Shinya Ochiai (25)
Third year with the company.
Stubborn, strong maternal affection.
Favourite music: Another Graffiti by Toshifumi Hinata.
Favourite books: Teru Miyamoto etc.
Six of us worked on the graphics for Kamaitachi. We did all sorts of different things, from incorporating the live action photographs to making the dead bodies. The charm set was handmade, too.
I drew a lot of the backgrounds, but since we couldn't just add colour photos straight into the game, that took a lot of work. I pretty much had to add in black and white images and then colour them in using colours the SFC could display. That was a nightmare.
Also, since we couldn't use any fake blood at the pension, we were the ones who basically made anything to do with the dead bodies. The dismembered corpse was a doll, and the graphics team served as models for the rest. I'm actually Kayama's body (laughs).
Since Kayama is supposed to be bald, I had to put on a bald cap to play him (laughs). I'll never let anyone I know see that photo. When you see it pop up on screen, please remember me (laughs).
Favourite scene: The, "Morning, Mari," one. It's Toru's best line!
Sound
Sound programmer
Chiyoko Mitsumata (27)
Fifth year with the company.
Favourite music: Film music, Jerry Goldsmith, etc.
Favourite books: Sidney Sheldon.
Work on the audio is done quietly, in an isolated room. It's kind of lonely (laughs). For Kamaitachi, I worked hard to create natural-feeling, realistic sounds that wouldn't seem out of place. There were a surprising number of retakes, though, which was rough (laughs). The worst were the wind sounds, making up over half of the sounds in the game, which I had to make sure weren't too harsh on the ears... I had to create natural wind sounds that wouldn't be distracting. I worked really hard on the wind, so please be sure to take a goood listen!
The scene where Mr. Tanaka is killed is one long series of sound effects, so it was a huge pain to make.
Composer
Kota Kato (20)
Third year with the company.
I'm in a band.
Favourite music: Hiroko Taniyama.
Favourite books: Campanella by Mayumi Nagano.
Hi there, this is Suerte Kato (laughs). I got to make some weird stuff for this game, which was fun. I'd sit in the meeting room all by myself, sucking the back of my hand to make squelching noises. I made Kayama's song, too. One time, I even spent a whole day recording screams. It was creepy (laughs).
The bad ending is the thing I remember best, since it required so many retakes.
Composer
Kojiro Nakashima (26)
Third year with the company.
Favourite music: Jazz and hard rock.
Favourite books: Historical fiction, Keiichiro Ryu.
This was my first time working as a composer. I was allowed to do whatever I wanted for Kamaitachi, so I was able to take a pretty relaxed approach to my work. I made close to 20 tracks. I also made the curtain sounds. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, since it was so tough to make the sound loop properly, but it came out well in the end.
The lounge music, the track you hear most often, might be Kamaitachi's theme song...