What’s extra enjoyable than a farming sim? Many of us like to wind down with a number of hours of tending crops, taking care of cows, and taking within the seasons in an excellent ol’ Story of Seasons sport. And for nearly 30 years, this vastly common collection has been sowing the seeds and setting the usual for the style.
So what if it have been to do one thing totally completely different? The farmhands have swapped their hoes for pens and brought up a spot of picross. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons marks the primary time Marvelous’ farming franchise has stepped out of the mulch and into a unique style. Can you get extra enjoyable than a farming-based puzzle sport?
To discover out what made Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross the right match, we spoke to the creator of the Piczle collection James Kay from Score Studio, and the model supervisor for Story of Seasons at Marvelous Inc, Hikaru Nakano.
Nintendo Life: So, the place did the thought for Piczle Cross: Story of Season come from?
James Kay, founder/creator of Piczle collection: Rainy Frog, the writer, and I have been blue-sky brainstorming about what could be cool IPs to do crossovers with and when Story of Seasons got here up it felt like such an important concept that we determined to actually pursue it.
Story of Seasons is cute, enjoyable, comfy gaming and Piczle Cross is a calming visible logic-puzzle so it simply felt proper. Also, I’m an unapologetic fan of the Story of Seasons collection.
How does the usual Piczle Cross gameplay combine with the Story of Seasons system?
JK: The puzzles are all based mostly on Story of Seasons mainstays, just like the farming instruments, crops and animals, but additionally the bachelors and bachelorettes and villagers from the Story of Seasons video games, in addition to a number of collage puzzles (a whole lot of smaller puzzles that altogether kind one a lot bigger answer picture) based mostly on some traditional festivals.
On prime of that your farm within the background evolves as you clear puzzles and as time progresses, experiencing the seasons and years as you’d within the Story of Seasons video games. There can also be an almanac exhibiting the lovable animals and characters, together with their likes and dislikes, when you’ve unlocked them by means of clearing puzzles. There’s a music participant too the place you’ll be able to take heed to the included music tracks from the video games within the Story of Seasons collection.
This is described as “probably the most feature-rich and option-abundant expertise” thus far. What adjustments and additions have been made for Piczle Cross: Story of Season?
JK: I very a lot consider you’ll be able to play nonograms nonetheless you please. Some folks like a problem, others simply wish to calm down. So you’ll be able to flip off the timer, use hints to indicate the place strikes may be made, mechanically right mistaken strikes or have the sport examine for any errors you’ve made general. Or none of those. These are all elective. There is not any mistaken strategy to play!
On prime of that, there are a whole lot of high quality of life options, like accomplished rows or columns mechanically having their empty cells marked off for you. Counting how lengthy a collection of blocks is by the contact of a button (or mechanically). Measuring a collection of grid cells simply – no extra counting by hand!
Completed clues may be marked off mechanically, or under no circumstances, and even manually — you’ll be able to, in order for you, mark off clues by hand.
All these choices are defined simply within the choices menu so you recognize precisely what does what.
What retains you coming again and making extra Piczle video games?
JK: I simply actually actually like puzzles! Logic puzzles of all types are simply issues I really get pleasure from, so once I create Piczle video games I’m creating video games I actually actually wish to play. Even the event of the Piczle video games is a bit like puzzles for me. I set myself some targets that I really feel are past my technical expertise after which get pleasure from studying and fixing points till I determine it out.
“Ikigai” is a time period usually thrown about by life-style coaches, however on this case growing logic puzzles actually may be my ikigai.
As the primary non-farming sport within the Story of Seasons collection, did you will have any considerations earlier than or throughout growth?
Hikaru Nakano, Story of Seasons model supervisor: We didn’t have any explicit considerations earlier than beginning the undertaking. You can get an important really feel for the world of Story of Seasons in Piczle Cross and we hope that it would encourage customers who’ve by no means performed Story of Seasons earlier than to check out our farming video games.
What was it like working with Score Studios, and what components of Story of Seasons did you wish to retain within the sport?
HN: When James (Score Studios) and Tony (Rainy Frog) informed us in regards to the undertaking, it was onerous to think about at first what it will be like, however as we mentioned extra, we might really feel their ardour for Story of Seasons and I began trying ahead to taking part in the sport. When we tried it out for the primary time, it was nice to see how characters, crops and many others. from the Story of Seasons video games had been become puzzles, and it was a whole lot of enjoyable to play.
Although the sport genres are completely different, I wished Piczle Cross to have the identical charming environment because the Story of Seasons video games. We did not give James any explicit route on what to do, however you’ll be able to see that he has accomplished an unbelievable job of realising Story of Seasons’ attraction in a puzzle sport.
How necessary was it to have the almanac, which celebrates the historical past of Story of Seasons, within the sport?
JK: One of the issues many gamers like myself love in regards to the Story of Seasons video games are the various characters and their personalities. As Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons isn’t a standard Story of Seasons sport with characters interacting, I actually wished so as to add them in another manner.
The almanac incorporates all of the Story of Seasons characters with their character artwork, a small bio and, for gamers of the Story of Seasons video games, and some hints as to what they like and dislike. It was a strategy to let folks get pleasure from their favorite villagers and bachelors in addition to giving somewhat additional incentive to play the puzzles to unlock all of them.
Do you will have a dream Piczle crossover you’d prefer to create?
JK: Hoo boy, sure, fairly a number of! Some are extraordinarily unlikely to ever occur, and others I, alongside my writer Rainy Frog, are actively pursuing proper now. So fingers crossed we get to make some extra!
Could we see different crossovers within the Story of Seasons collection sooner or later?
HN: I wouldn’t rule it out. James at Score Studios is a superb puzzle sport creator and was capable of faithfully recreate the sensation of Story of Seasons as a puzzle sport. If related alternatives like this come up sooner or later, then I’d like to contemplate it.
This interview has been edited calmly for readability.
Thank you to James Kay and Hikaru Nakano for taking the time to reply our questions. Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons launches on twenty seventh February 2024 on Switch. Will you be planting with picross? Let us know within the feedback.
