Nintendo Executive Officer of the Entertainment Planning and Development Division Takashi Tezuka has been with the company since 1984. He has served as Director and Producer on 2D games in the Super Mario series, 2D games in The Legend of Zelda series, and he's produced the Yoshi series, Animal Crossing series, and Flipnote Studio for Nintendo DSi. Etsunobu Ebisu, meanwhile, is the Executive Vice President of Good-Feel Co., Ltd, the developer behind Yoshi's Crafted World . Both answered a handful of IGN's questions about the brand-new Yoshi-starring platformer, which releases tomorrow.

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Where did the idea to have the "flip side" of the stage come from? Did it come along later in the design process or was it part of the idea from the very beginning?

Good-Feel Executive Vice President Etsunobu Ebisu

Yoshi's Crafted World uses the Unreal Engine, which is different from most Nintendo titles that utilize in-house technology. What went into that decision and how has it benefited the game's development?

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The worlds and stages all have specific crafted-material themes. Which has been your favorite to work on?

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Are there any plans for post-release content, similar to how Super Mario Odyssey got updates like the Luigi minigame? Additional costumes, perhaps?

Nintendo Executive Officer of the Entertainment Planning & Development Division Takashi Tezuka

Please tell me there are plans for a felt-fabric Yoshi amiibo (perhaps a plushy, in the vein of the Mega Yarn Yoshi amiibo ) planned for the release of this game!

Our interview is presented below, but first, check out our review of Yoshi's Crafted World, which, as you can see, we quite enjoyed!: We had the idea of creating “flip sides” of the stages from the very beginning. This was something we’d decided on even before we gave the game world its “crafted” motif.When the topic of creating a Yoshi title for Nintendo Switch first came up, I started thinking about how best to introduce the world to a traditional series like Yoshi, for a system with such a new concept. Nintendo Switch is a console that’s fun to play on your own, but is also fun to take outside and play with your friends.So, what should that mean for a Yoshi game on Nintendo Switch? The Yoshi series has traditionally featured 2D action games where Yoshi clears stages by proceeding from left to right. When we thought of playing that type of game with other people, we wondered if we could create a new style of gameplay by having players line two Nintendo Switch systems up back to back and play that way. That was our first idea. The two players would be playing the front side and flip side of the same stage, and so they’d each be seeing different things. We thought this would encourage players to communicate about what they were seeing on their respective sides of the stage, and that this would be a new type of multiplayer experience.Once we started considering the motif that would fit best with this concept, we landed on the idea of a “crafted” look. Viewing crafts from their flip sides would let you see how they were put together, and then the communication between the front and back side players would become part of the gameplay strategy. However, we wanted to make sure that this game would be fun to play in single-player mode as well. This was when we decided on a strategy of making sure the front side stages were really well thought out, and that the flip sides of those stages would then add to their value. We ended up having to leave behind our idea for simultaneous front and flip side co-op play as a result, but playing through the flip side of stages you’ve already cleared adds to the fun by increasing replayability, and underscores the crafted nature of the game world. We also implemented multiplayer with the same ideas in mind.: As our theme for this game was “crafted,” we set out to give the game a look and feel of something a child might create by hand. However, creating this sort of aesthetic was very difficult, and we had a hard time nailing the look we wanted at the beginning of development. You really need to get the details right when trying to make crumpled up paper or paint splotches look convincing in a game, and players also need to be able to tell at a glance what type of materials they’re seeing on-screen. Unreal Engine made it easy to make adjustments to the visuals, and allowed us to produce textures we were satisfied with. And when it comes to making these crafted objects feel real, their physical properties are every bit as important as aesthetics. The physics engine the Unreal Engine makes use of also proved handy for accomplishing this goal.: The first stage, Rail-Yard Run, was designed to serve as a sort of benchmark for all the stages to come, and I think it’s one of the strongest examples of the crafted feel we were going for. Aside from that, I think the courses that take place outside are fun as they’re “put together” using different materials. Acorns and tree branches are used as craft materials in Acorn Forest, and sand is used as material in Dino Desert. The Shogun’s Castle stage also has a lot of uniquely crafted devices and contraptions which make it both fun to look at and play. I really can’t limit my answer to a single stage, so I encourage you to try a bunch of them and discover what you think is most fun about them for yourself.: We poured every last drop of effort and energy into the game itself, so my hope is that you’ll thoroughly enjoy this charming crafted world we’ve created.: We don’t have any plans to release amiibo. However, I think it would be possible to actually create many of the crafted gizmos and devices that show up in the game yourself. This gets a bit into a discussion of game design, but for the purposes of playing through the world of the game, we envisioned Yoshi to be about two or three inches tall. Then we thought about the type of craft materials and components we could use to fit that scale. The milk cartons, candy boxes, and lids for bottles that you see in the game are all things we made up, but their size and design are based on their real-world corollaries. Some players might really enjoy creating their own collection of craftwork contraptions. Also, paying close attention to all the objects and materials being used while you play will help you appreciate the unique look and feel of this game to its fullest.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan , catch him on Unlocked , and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.