Recently, WayForward announced their new Nintendo Switch exclusive title, Vitamin Connection. I was lucky enough to speak with the game’s director James Montagna about this fantastic voyage of a game.

QC: How did development on Vitamin Connection first get started?

JM: Vitamin Connection was born of the desire to create a love letter to Nintendo Switch as a console. The moment we got our hands on early Switch hardware, I was immediately fascinated by the Joy-Con my mind was racing with ideas right away! But when the system launched, I noticed there weren’t many games that used every feature of this unique new controller to the fullest. After dreaming up what sort of gameplay could embody the spirit of Switch best, I requested to create a prototype. WayForward assembled a small team, and we rallied behind the vision of presenting players with a “Switch-exclusive experience,” quickly getting to work developing the game that would become Vitamin Connection.

QC: So what games did you draw inspiration from when designing Vitamin Connection?

JM: There’s a lot! But early on, I expressed an aspiration to my team to approach this as the Jet Set Radio and Katamari Damacy of a new generation. At first glance, those games are very different from one another, and both clearly different from Vitamin Connection. However, they each share a distinct core concept among other games, a strong visual identity, and an emphasis on music, with a soundtrack that stands alone as a master work. These tenets guided us all throughout development, and resulted in the experience we eventually landed on. Besides these games, I think the WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven series probably have a touch of influence on everything I do.

QC: Could you tell us a little bit about the game’s story?

JM: Vitamin Connection has a two-tier story which I like to refer to as the macro story vs. the micro story. They run independently of each other, but feed into each other with increasing significance as the game progresses.

Our story takes place in, uh…well, we usually just refer to it as the retrofuture! A family living somewhere in America named the Sable family receives this package from their overseas relative that works in a laboratory creating pharmaceutical goods. The package contains a prototype of their new vitamin capsule. At first the family doesn’t really think much of it, but when they start falling under the weather, they try taking the capsule. That’s where the macro story turns into the micro story! Inside the capsule are Vita-Boy & Mina-Girl, co-pilots of the Capsule Ship, who embark on a journey to fend off the bacteria monster threat. Along the way they end up helping each member of the family, meeting new friends that assist them in their mission, and eventually…the macro and micro stories escalate dramatically — you’ll have to play it to find out how out-of-hand it gets!

QC: So this game uses the Switch’s Gyroscope as part of its gameplay. What made you guys want to dabble with motion controls again after so many other developers have left them behind?

JM: Personally, I try not to focus too hard on what other creators are trending towards, so I hadn’t put thought into the idea that folks aren’t doing much with motion controls these days. But I suppose you’re right. I wonder why that is?

In our case, motion controls just felt right for the concept, so there was never any question about it. Vitamin Connection is a game that focuses on satisfying and tactile feedback. I still remember one late night working on the prototype, going back and forth with our lead programmer to get the feel just right. I knew we were onto something when the motion controls and HD Rumble started working in tandem to create a ratcheting kick as I rotated the Joy-Con. After that, it was the pulling and snapping feeling as you cut through ribbons…if it weren’t for experimenting with things like motion control and HD Rumble, we would have never discovered these satisfying sensations.

QC: Could you shed some details about some of the sub-games?

JM: Sure! In Vitamin Connection, Sub-Games are these brief gameplay segments which you have along the course of the main narrative that deviate from the core gameplay with their own unique twists. In the story, you’re completing them to heal different parts of the body. You can also play them individually, as little game experiences in their own right, and each one has its own unique title screen.

One of the Sub-Games is called Dance Festival, which was inspired by my own personal experience with “Bon Odori,” a folk dance typically performed at a Japanese festival. In the real-life Bon Odori, everybody that wants to participate forms a ring-shaped line and performs dance moves to the music in unison, gradually traveling clockwise around this big scaffold. (If you don’t know the moves, you can fudge it by copying other people, and you’ll quickly learn since the steps repeat over and over through the song.) For Vitamin Connection, the player is placed among other Capsule Ships, and performs a loop of dance steps synchronized with the music by tilting the controller, clapping, and taking “steps” forward and backward. I think this Sub-Game captures the experience of real Bon Odori pretty well, actually!

Another Sub-Game is called Escaper. I have to admit this one was inspired by my own real-life experiences too. I was helping a buddy of mine move out of a house, and we were working together to carry large pieces of furniture through narrow hallways and down a spiral of stairs. Adorning the walls were these expensive canvas paintings, and we were trying to be extra-careful not to bump the walls and damage the paintings while carefully maneuvering enormous, heavy, and oddly-shaped furniture. We might have left a single scuff… Anyway… In Vitamin Connection, there’s three different forms of Escaper that have the Capsule Ship taking bizarre shapes. If playing with a friend, you’ll have to coordinate between each other to rotate and move the shapes, working to escape various narrow and winding mazes without bumping the walls!

QC: The game’s physical edition is currently up for pre-order on Limited Run Games as part of their WayForward Day event. How did that (WayForward Day) come about?

JM: If I’m not mistaken, I think WayForward Day was entirely the idea of the crew at Limited Run Games, and I’m really honored to have us featured this way.

About Limited Run Games, we showed them the prototype of Vitamin Connection, and it was their enthusiasm about what we were doing that got the ball rolling and encouraged us to actually go all-in on creating this game. So I’m especially thankful to them for believing in our concept. You might have seen that they’re offering a Collector’s Edition that features plushies of Vita-Boy & Mina-Girl; it’s unusual for a brand new property to get merch like that right off the bat! But that’s Limited Run Games for you. I hope the plushies help Vita-Boy & Mina-Girl become beloved characters for players everywhere.

QC: I notice the family’s dog will be part of the game’s story. Can you in some way, pet the dog?

JM: Cristina Vee, who did casting, voice acting, and voice direction in Vitamin Connection was the first person to ask me this question. We agreed that brushing a dog from the inside can still count as petting. Beyond that, without spoiling anything, it’s actually a plot point in the game where a certain character wants the opportunity to pet a dog. Will they get to pet the dog!? You’ll have to play and find out!

QC: What genre of game would you put Vitamin Connection into?

JM: That’s a tough one. I don’t know. Action? That’s a vague descriptor though, isn’t it? It definitely has rhythm elements in the Sub-Games. A few people have compared Vitamin Connection to titles in the shoot-’em-up genre, but I’m not sure there’s been any real consensus on the development side regarding this topic.

Truth be told, I don’t typically worry very much about things like genre. After making something, if it happens to fit in a category that helps people understand the game, that’s cool with me. If we declare we’re making some specific genre of game from the outset, it could be a bit restrictive for the design process and limit the possibilities of what the game can be.

QC: I’ve only heard a small amount of the game’s music from the trailer and early gameplay previews, but what I’ve heard I absolutely love. Could you tell us a little bit more about the music and what we can expect to hear?

JM: Thank you! There’s a lot to cover on this topic, but I’ll attempt to keep my answer succinct. We accidentally made what might be the most ambitious WayForward soundtrack of all time. Minute for minute, it has the most vocal tracks, and I believe it has the most music of anything we’ve ever created. I say accidentally because…this was not really a conscious accomplishment on our part. The Vitamin Connection music crew is headed up by my good friends at Mint Potion, who fell in love with the world of Vitamin Connection and were inspired to go wild with lots of ideas. They also enlisted the help of a lot of incredible guest talent from around the world. This turned Vitamin Connection into an international collaboration project, and is a major reason why we decided to offer the game in both English and Japanese language for all players.

Regarding style, the goal was to offer a variety of music, and not stick to what you might typically hear from a video game. With the goal of standing beside the soundtrack to Katamari or Jet Set Radio, this was a must. There’s a lot of Shibuya-kei, future bass, and even several hip-hop tracks. The list goes on and on, but I won’t say too much since I’d like players to be surprised by what they hear.

One last note…Vitamin Connection features what we call “6-channel audio.” Without getting into the technical side of it, what that means for us is, when a player moves the ship around and fires the Vitamin Beam, they are dynamically altering the music. This, of course, made the soundtrack a lot more challenging to create, but the effect is really beautiful and immersive, so I hope players will enjoy making music incidentally as they journey through the world of Vitamin Connection.

I did the opposite of keeping my answer succinct…

QC: Additionally I know LRG is selling the game’s soundtrack on CD as part of the Collector’s Edition, but several other WayForward games in the past have had their soundtracks released on Vinyl. Are there any current plays for Vitamin Connection to get that same treatment?

JM: Is that something you’d like to see? Some of the tracks in the game were inspired by music I discovered by digging through dusty bins of vinyl in Japanese record stores, so hearing the soundtrack in that format would feel right at home. There’s some challenges with how we translate the 6-channel audio to stereo, as well as the sheer amount of music, but thankfully the WayForward publishing crew has expressed an interest in seeing this happen too, so we’ll look into it. Fingers crossed!

QC: Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say to the readers?



JM: There’s two ways to play through the game: Journey Together, and Solo Journey. My favorite way to play is sharing the experience with someone else, so I hope you’ll give that a shot. Thank you for your interest in Vitamin Connection!