The Kirby Series v Released April 27 1992

The Kirby Series

v Released April 27, 1992 v Developed by HAL Laboratory and Nintendo v Produced by Nintendo v Action, platform and puzzle solving elements v Known for bright, artistic settings, simplistic gameplay, cute characters, upbeat music and Kirby’s copy abilities v 20 games as of right now v 34 million units sold worldwide v One of the Top 50 Best Selling Video Game Franchises of All Time

How Kirby Came to Be v When Sakurai joined Nintendo, they were accepting concepts for “a game that everyone could enjoy” v He wanted to create a cute character everyone would love v Made Kirby a simple design so anyone could draw him Masahiro Sakurai Creator of Kirby

HAL Laboratory Inutamago The HAL Labs Logo v Japanese Video Game Developers v Established February 21, 1980 v Known for Kirby, Mother/Earthbound and Super Smash Bros. v Headquarters in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan v Chairman and CEO: Masayoshi Tanimura v President and COO: Satoshi Mitsuhara v Director: Makoto Kanai & Shigefumi Kawase v Auditor: Akira Sobue v 153 employees

A Graphic Designer at HAL Labs “I participated in the production of Kirby: Triple Deluxe for the Nintendo 3 DS as well as other games, working on main character motion, enemy design, and more. ” “During that time, I learned two important things for game design production: you can’t fixate on your own opinion, and you need to think about the feelings of the player. For example, no matter how much you love the color blue, if you try to put a blue character in an ocean stage, it’ll hardly be visible and only make things more difficult for the player. When I design, I try to foresee if there’s any possibility of giving players a negative impression, putting what the thousands or millions of people who see this will think before whatever my own preferences are. I also think it’s important to be proactive in proposing ideas and bringing playfulness to every aspect of the game, for example in character movement or little jokes that’ll delight the player. ” (Sato; joined in 2013) Etsuko Sato

Their Philosophy Creations that lead to happy customers and happy employees, too “To bind us together through joy The things important to us as creators are amazement, enjoyment and warmth To amaze you To have you say, “That was fun!”” - HAL Labs Website

But Why is Kirby Loved So Much?

Some of the many reasons: v It’s cute v Ability stealing allows for an always changing playstyle v Experimental with every game v Great level design and visuals v The music v The simple and easy gameplay makes every attack you do seem powerful

Sources: v https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Kirby_(series) v https: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/HAL_Laboratory v http: //www. hallab. co. jp/eng/ v http: //shmuplations. com/kirbysadventure/ v https: //www. reddit. com/r/Kirby/comments/4 bfjgb/why_do_you_likelov e_the_kirby_franchise/