SEGA’s Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio is one of those developers that you are simply curious about – what is it like behind the scenes of the Like a dragon Series? AUTOMATON recently had the chance to speak with two key figures at RGG Studio – Like a Dragon series director Ryosuke Horii (who also directed Infinite Wealth) and game design supervisor Hirotaka Chiba. These guys are at the forefront of the studio’s planning team and gave us insight into their work and how their team differs from a typical planning team. Most importantly, they answered the question “Do the developers of Yakuza ever fight?”
The short answer is yes, but these “battles” revolve around a common goal – creating an entertaining game. First of all, the term “game planner” is rather specific to the Japanese industry, but in general it includes work such as the initial conception of a game project, writing proposals and scenarios, and managing the various teams that execute the project.
RGG Studio director Masayoshi Yokoyama has described his planning team as “special” on several occasions. When we asked Horii about this, he said, “I don’t know if we’re special, but I’m proud to say we’re different from others.” According to Horii, RGG Studio’s planning team goes beyond purely planning-related tasks and is much more hands-on, even including things like leading voice and motion recording sessions. “If we feel that something would be better quality if we did it ourselves, we do it. (…) We don’t outsource decisions or delegate them to others.”
It’s already known that RGG Studio promotes developers who think for themselves and aren’t hard workers, but this seems to be especially true of the planning team. Chiba chimes in, commenting, “Each planner has a specific area of content that they oversee, and they’re a bit like a director of that content.”
This means that their job is not only to complete their own tasks, but also to take a proactive role when disagreements arise. “For example, if a designer and a programmer are arguing, it is the planner’s job to mediate. After all, if there are no arguments or discussions, you can’t expect more than a lukewarm final product. So arguments are always welcome. But of course, arguments are pointless if they don’t lead to a fruitful conclusion, so it is the planner’s job to guide everyone in the right direction. It’s about having healthy and productive arguments,” Horii explains.
The various teams at RGG Studio tend to “fight to the same beat” rather than dance to it, as Horii puts it – but it’s all healthy and serves the purpose of making the games as fun as possible. “We accept opinions based on how good they are, not based on which team suggested them. On the other hand, we also make sure to ‘mercilessly’ reject bad ideas, so it comes down to having debates and ‘battles’ in the interest of making a good game.”
But for this way of working to work smoothly, the team needs people with leadership skills. That’s why all of RGG Studio’s planners are trained to be leaders, even if they don’t hold a senior position, Horii says. They also need to know all the answers when a question comes up – making them the backbone of Like a Dragon’s development.
This article covers only part of an in-depth interview that explores the internal workings of RGG Studio’s planning team on September 2nd.