Kirby’s Dream Land, or how empathy changes lives

Whatever your definition of “art” is, it will somehow be connected with the concept of “image”. Every person perceives reality through images. But the artist’s task is show their very reality, so that change her. The question arises whether the creator can create the “best image” to achieve this goal? I would answer no, because this is subjective…if not for one thing. In the 20th century, one man was able to portray the “best image”. This geometric object was pure art. With its simplicity it gave the creator power over reality. The very existence of the image divided the whole world into “deniers” and “accepters”, and despite endless disputes, All helped the image achieve immortality. Most likely, you can already see out of the corner of your eye what exactly we are talking about. There is no point in hiding, I am, of course, talking about..

…pink circle.

Kirby – this is the best mascot that has ever existed. He’s incredibly recognizable, anyone can draw him, and most importantly, he represents his franchise perfectly. You get what you see: and Kirby, and his games are very cute and extremely friendly. But once you get to know them better, it turns out that they are capable of truly surprising and challenging those who underestimate them. However, they don’t live to surprise anyone. They are satisfied if they are remembered as "something for kids", because there’s nothing wrong with helping multiple generations fall in love with video games. Kirby more confident than me! At the same time, I have enough confidence to say that he deserves your attention. At a minimum, because find out Kirby – this is a good opportunity to meet two very special developers.

Picture this: Japan, early 80s. You are interested in computers, and, fortunately for you, the shopping center has the newest models. True, they are too expensive to take them with you, but your curiosity is too great. You keep visiting the computer department and other people are doing the same. You start communicating with them. They give you advice, you give advice, and together they share programs via tapes. You feel like you are surrounded by people as passionate as you. It was in this environment that it was born HAL Laboratory under the initiative of an employee of one of these departments. He gathered a group of computer enthusiasts, and then they created a company together. Name HAL meant they were one letter ahead IBM, one of the largest technology corporations. As you can see, HAL Laboratory has no shortage of ambitions, even if its employees worked in a one-room apartment, and among them there was only one programmer, Satoru Iwata.

But what kind of programmer! Satoru I’ve been interested in computers since my school years, creating games on a calculator and disassembling a Commodore Pet for fun. Iwata worked at HAL as a designer, marketer, food customer and cleaner. It was he who made the most important decision in the history of the company. Satoru Iwata believed that Famicom, or NES, “will change the world” and wanted to take part in it. As a result, cooperation began between Nintendo and HAL Laboratory. And this relationship benefited both companies. The first one knew who to contact in case of a project that was behind schedule (for example, a classic Pinball, which HAL was able to fix). The second one released games on consoles, received investments and fame: the company logo began to appear on many boxes.

Soon this logo was noticed https://admiral-casino.uk/mobile-app/ by a young guy named Masahiro Sakurai. Anyone else wouldn’t attach much importance to the letters H, A, L. But the cartridge ended up in my hands Masahiro not because of a simple desire to play. Sakurai was at that time study. He bought and completed as many games as possible. After all, having chosen the path of a developer, he wanted to know what made games fun. In the process, he liked HAL Laboratory, and after some time he came to the company for an interview. The interview was conducted by Satoru Iwata, whose smile and careful attention to words made a good impression on Masahiro. At the same time, Iwata saw in the stranger “a very special person”. Masahiro Sakurai eventually got a job at HAL, and Satoru became his mentor.

Didn’t have to wait long for work. The company was looking for "easily accessible games”, ideas for which any employee could voice. When Sakurai heard this goal, he remembered a moment from the past. He was a pretty good arcade player. Even won 50 matches in a row in Street Fighter 2. And one day he saw King of Fighters 95 machines, placed so as not to see his opponent. Masahiro decided to take part in one of the matches and felt great. He won, destroyed another player and was in his element. After the victory, he looked at the man behind the other machine, and all the joy disappeared immediately: his opponent turned out to be a complete beginner who just wanted to have fun with his other half. Sakurai was ashamed that he might have prevented someone from loving the game or even games in general.

To prevent this from happening again, Masahiro decided to make his first project accessible to beginners. Nineteen-year-old Sakurai came up with an early concept for the game Twinkle Popo and showed it to my colleagues. It was a platformer where the hero could use the opponents themselves to attack. There was nothing concrete yet, even the appearance of the hero was left for later. Instead, the creator drew a circle with paws and large legs. However, the team liked him so much that it was this “character” that became Popopo’s hero. HAL Laboratory took on the project.

Development started like this: “We need to create a simple game. Let’s make it so that the hero can survive several attacks. Stop, this is a platformer, and according to the law of the genre, he must immediately die from falling into a pit. But there is some dissonance in the issue of complexity. Can give Popopo the ability to fly around gaps? How will he do it? He will puff up, taking in air. Oh, if he can do that, why doesn’t he absorb opponents and then spit them out as star-shaped projectiles?!"This resulted in gameplay that was understandable to any child and made the game fun. And the controls consisted of just two buttons and a D-pad, meaning it was ideal for the popular console Gameboy.

Of course, not all work on the game went so smoothly. Sakurai used a console for programming Twin Famicom. It had connectors for cartridges and floppy disks, as well as for additional devices such as a trackball (analogous to a mouse). But it didn’t support a keyboard, so Masahiro wrote code by selecting letters on the screen using the cursor. He described the process as “cooking lunch using a lunchbox.”. Fortunately, HAL had software that made visual programming a little more convenient. However, this did not solve the memory limitation problem. The entire game had to fit into 512 kilobits. Not a kilobyte, but 8 times smaller. So we had to reuse sprites, limit frames, and think about level design. The desire to create a fun experience also brought a mountain of difficulties. For example, defeating a boss should have been accompanied by the hero dancing to joyful music. But the composer could not answer the question “how many frames are in the melody”. Then Sakurai saved the song on tape and listened to it again, and again, and again while creating the animation.

And you know what? On the one hand, a terrible first impression – I can only imagine the stress Sakurai went through! On the other hand, HAL Laboratory could not make enemies going down the stairs. But the levels were more interesting to play this way. Masahiro didn’t have to listen to the victory tune over and over again in order to perfectly animate Popopo’s dance. But this is how the player’s achievements were rewarded. And the team might not have listened to some new leader from the very beginning. No Satoru Iwata, designer Tetsuya Notoya, composer Jun Ishikawa and others – they believed in Masahiro and were eager to turn his project into a game that everyone would enjoy.

After some time, the team finished work on Twinkle Popo. All that remained was to find out the number of pre-orders, and it would be possible to send copies to stores..

26 thousand. It was…not a terrible number. However, it did not justify the amount of hours and effort spent. HAL Laboratory believed the game deserved better! For this reason, the company turned to Nintendo for help. Myself Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario and many other franchises, saw potential in the project, but needed a rebrand. The name Popopo would not appeal to American audiences, so Nintendo compiled a list of more suitable names for HAL to choose from. Among them was Kirby. And so, after a slight delay and 2 years of development, the game was released, and this small but charming adventure attracted the attention of gamers and people far from video games. Kirby’s Dream Land sold over 5 million copies worldwide, nearly 200 times pre-orders. The young developer’s first project was a success.

Subsequently, Masahiro Sakurai will create more adventures of the pink circle; a couple of not very popular, but good games and the fighting game Super Smash Bros., which will become one of the most influential franchises in the entire gaming industry. It will gather crowds with its events, create a whole culture with its legends and reveal the beauty of games to many generations. And all this would not have happened if Satoru Iwata and HAL Laboratory had not been imbued with the desire of some newcomer to create something good and important. As for the mentor himself, Iwata will become the fourth president of Nintendo in the future and, using his experience at HAL, will strive to return people’s interest in video games. His policies would lead to a new golden age for the company, creating some of the best-selling consoles of all time and some of the most beloved games. Satoru’s motto was: "Games are meant to be one thing: fun.". Fun for everyone". And I can’t help but think that his motto was influenced by one "very special person".

I wanted to end the text with a classic Happy New Year greeting – after all, December is outside the window. But let’s be honest, the lack of New Year’s mood is becoming as much a tradition as the holiday itself. The last 3 years have shown how beyond our control the course of our lives is. And this thought does not lead to carefree fun, but makes you just lie down and not get up. But stories like the careers of Masahiro and Satoru push me to move on. Kirby is a character whose simplicity underlies an unwavering desire to help and bring people together. And the creators’ success is an example of what a little empathy can do. Perhaps if we continue to believe at least a little in the best and use this faith in something, even the most seemingly inconspicuous, we will achieve something cheerful.

This blog was created as part of a small “movement” that I wanted to organize in honor of the holiday. We, blog authors, decided to get together and share small stories and memories, one way or another related to the topic “Game Gifts”. The reason for my text was last year’s New Year’s souvenirs from my friends. No, they didn’t agree to give me things in the same theme – they just know me too well.