4 ms·

It's pretty crazy to me how successful Splatoon is. A kid friendly third person competitive shooter sounds difficult to pull off. Props to nintendo for making i

It's pretty crazy to me how successful Splatoon is. A kid friendly third person competitive shooter sounds difficult to pull off. Props to nintendo for making it work so well, especially on completely novel IP.

bitwize 4y ago
They used the aesthetic of 90s Nickelodeon gameshows -- replete with brightly colored "gak" -- to do it, too; an aesthetic that is coded as kid-friendly to the now middle-aged people who are buying this game for their children. It's a pretty significant masterstroke of design. I also like how the game chooses colors for opposing teams in such a way that they strongly contrast each other, even to colorblind players.
- staticman2 4y ago
  Would the japanese designers who created this game be familiar with American kid friendly live action 90s game shows or is any similarity just a coincidence??
  - bitwize 4y ago
    It's the kind of thing Japanese developers would study up on to appeal to Westerners, at least. Remember, this was intended to be Nintendo's Call of Duty. There are other influences to Splatoon's aesthetic, too, like Japanese graffiti art and urban culture in general.
groovybits 4y ago
> completely novel IP No kidding - Splatoon 1 launched on the Wii U platform in May 2015, when everyone considered the Wii U to be a flop. It had so much going against it at the time: - New/unrecognized IP - Shooter genre, which typically doesn't cater to Nintendo's fan base - Third-person shooter, which is all but extinct, save for Gears of War - Online-centric, something Nintendo is not known for Splatoon has been a surprise success from the very beginning.
- spywaregorilla 4y ago
  From wikipedia: > Splatoon debuted at No. 2 in the UK software sales chart in the week it launched, only behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is the fifth fastest-selling Wii U game and the fastest-selling new intellectual property on the console in that country, beating the previous record set by Ubisoft's 2012 launch title ZombiU.[81] Splatoon debuted at the top of the Japanese software sales chart, with over 144,000 retail copies sold in its launch week and a total of 1.53 million sold by December 2016. From the article > Splatoon 3, which launched last week in Nintendo’s home country to an astounding 3.45 million units sold in its first three days. Wow! What a major success story on both fronts. From 144k over the first week to 3.45M over a few days. I'd imagine the original would have done even better if not for the Wii U too.
stuckinhell 4y ago
Kid Friendly and played by kids is almost two different concepts. As a millennial parent, I've noticed a lot of adults in my peer group play more nostalgic kiddy games than the actual kids! I've a strong feeling it's due to wanting to return to our childhoods, when life had a lot less pressures.

bitwize 4y ago

They used the aesthetic of 90s Nickelodeon gameshows -- replete with brightly colored "gak" -- to do it, too; an aesthetic that is coded as kid-friendly to the now middle-aged people who are buying this game for their children. It's a pretty significant masterstroke of design. I also like how the game chooses colors for opposing teams in such a way that they strongly contrast each other, even to colorblind players.

staticman2 4y ago
Would the japanese designers who created this game be familiar with American kid friendly live action 90s game shows or is any similarity just a coincidence??
- bitwize 4y ago
  It's the kind of thing Japanese developers would study up on to appeal to Westerners, at least. Remember, this was intended to be Nintendo's Call of Duty. There are other influences to Splatoon's aesthetic, too, like Japanese graffiti art and urban culture in general.

groovybits 4y ago

> completely novel IP No kidding - Splatoon 1 launched on the Wii U platform in May 2015, when everyone considered the Wii U to be a flop. It had so much going against it at the time: - New/unrecognized IP - Shooter genre, which typically doesn't cater to Nintendo's fan base - Third-person shooter, which is all but extinct, save for Gears of War - Online-centric, something Nintendo is not known for Splatoon has been a surprise success from the very beginning.

spywaregorilla 4y ago
From wikipedia: > Splatoon debuted at No. 2 in the UK software sales chart in the week it launched, only behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It is the fifth fastest-selling Wii U game and the fastest-selling new intellectual property on the console in that country, beating the previous record set by Ubisoft's 2012 launch title ZombiU.[81] Splatoon debuted at the top of the Japanese software sales chart, with over 144,000 retail copies sold in its launch week and a total of 1.53 million sold by December 2016. From the article > Splatoon 3, which launched last week in Nintendo’s home country to an astounding 3.45 million units sold in its first three days. Wow! What a major success story on both fronts. From 144k over the first week to 3.45M over a few days. I'd imagine the original would have done even better if not for the Wii U too.

stuckinhell 4y ago

Kid Friendly and played by kids is almost two different concepts. As a millennial parent, I've noticed a lot of adults in my peer group play more nostalgic kiddy games than the actual kids! I've a strong feeling it's due to wanting to return to our childhoods, when life had a lot less pressures.