[Actually conducted before the Clover dissolution announcement, but you can see some of the dischord involved.]
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061023/sheffield_01.shtml
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GS: When you joined Capcom, what kind of game did you want to make?
AI: Well when I was at SNK, I looked in Famitsu and saw that Capcom was hiring for Resident Evil, and thought man, Id love to work on the next Resident Evil if I could get out of here. I really wanted to work on the series. But during the interview, they asked if I would want to be on any other teams, and if there was anything else I was interested in, and I said no. Just Resident Evil.
GS: Which was that?
AI: It was Resident Evil 3. And I actually did get on the Resident Evil 3 team, but when I joined there was a Resident Evil 1.5 project, which actually became Resident Evil 3. When the PS2 came out, the Resident Evil 3 teams name was changed to the Resident Evil 4 team. That didnt go so well, so we thought what can we do with this, and Devil May Cry was the result. So I never wound up being involved in a released Resident Evil game.
...
GS: Can you explain the collaboration with Clover, Nudemaker and Grasshopper that happened early in Clovers career? This was around the time of Steel Battalion and all of that.
AI: Nudemaker and Grasshopper were two companies that resulted from the death of Human. They started doing their own things. Steel Battalion was something we were working on with the Nudemaker team while they were still at Human, before they were even Nudemaker. They were kind of freelance heroic game designers, and as we were making the game, they decided to form their own company. We decided we liked them and wanted to work with them, so that was the partnership there.
In Grasshoppers case, we really respected Goichi Suda (Suda51), hes a genius designer. So even though we werent sure how things would work if we ever collaborated on a project, we look forward to everything he makes.
GS: Is that how the Killer 7 collaboration with Capcom came about?
AI: So Killer 7 was a design document that was brought to Shinji Mikami by Goichi Suda and Grasshopper. We didnt send them staff or anything like that, Suda simply wanted Mikami to produce his game. In the case of Nudemaker, it was a collaboration and mixing of both of our staff.
--
Also some hints on the difficulties felt by the principals at Clover:
--
GS: With these sorts of things, how do you convince them its good for the company? Either from a creativity or business standpoint, especially in the case of a game like Steel Battalion where the game was expensive and few units were made.
AI: Well its most important for the game to be interesting. In the case of Gyakuten Saiban, which you mentioned before, I thought it was a really good concept, and I wanted lots of people to be able to play it, because I knew it would be popular and well-received. With Steel Battalion though, yeah, it was a huge risk. But I made a presentation and basically said, if we dont do this now, well never be able to put something like this out. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we wanted to be able to create something that had never been seen before. So it was kind of like rallying the troops around the idea, and getting people into the idea of doing this project that couldnt be done by anyone else. But naturally the bookkeeping people were still saying Stop!
--
...and lots more.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061023/sheffield_01.shtml
--
GS: When you joined Capcom, what kind of game did you want to make?
AI: Well when I was at SNK, I looked in Famitsu and saw that Capcom was hiring for Resident Evil, and thought man, Id love to work on the next Resident Evil if I could get out of here. I really wanted to work on the series. But during the interview, they asked if I would want to be on any other teams, and if there was anything else I was interested in, and I said no. Just Resident Evil.
GS: Which was that?
AI: It was Resident Evil 3. And I actually did get on the Resident Evil 3 team, but when I joined there was a Resident Evil 1.5 project, which actually became Resident Evil 3. When the PS2 came out, the Resident Evil 3 teams name was changed to the Resident Evil 4 team. That didnt go so well, so we thought what can we do with this, and Devil May Cry was the result. So I never wound up being involved in a released Resident Evil game.
...
GS: Can you explain the collaboration with Clover, Nudemaker and Grasshopper that happened early in Clovers career? This was around the time of Steel Battalion and all of that.
AI: Nudemaker and Grasshopper were two companies that resulted from the death of Human. They started doing their own things. Steel Battalion was something we were working on with the Nudemaker team while they were still at Human, before they were even Nudemaker. They were kind of freelance heroic game designers, and as we were making the game, they decided to form their own company. We decided we liked them and wanted to work with them, so that was the partnership there.
In Grasshoppers case, we really respected Goichi Suda (Suda51), hes a genius designer. So even though we werent sure how things would work if we ever collaborated on a project, we look forward to everything he makes.
GS: Is that how the Killer 7 collaboration with Capcom came about?
AI: So Killer 7 was a design document that was brought to Shinji Mikami by Goichi Suda and Grasshopper. We didnt send them staff or anything like that, Suda simply wanted Mikami to produce his game. In the case of Nudemaker, it was a collaboration and mixing of both of our staff.
--
Also some hints on the difficulties felt by the principals at Clover:
--
GS: With these sorts of things, how do you convince them its good for the company? Either from a creativity or business standpoint, especially in the case of a game like Steel Battalion where the game was expensive and few units were made.
AI: Well its most important for the game to be interesting. In the case of Gyakuten Saiban, which you mentioned before, I thought it was a really good concept, and I wanted lots of people to be able to play it, because I knew it would be popular and well-received. With Steel Battalion though, yeah, it was a huge risk. But I made a presentation and basically said, if we dont do this now, well never be able to put something like this out. Its a once in a lifetime opportunity, and we wanted to be able to create something that had never been seen before. So it was kind of like rallying the troops around the idea, and getting people into the idea of doing this project that couldnt be done by anyone else. But naturally the bookkeeping people were still saying Stop!
--
...and lots more.