A Mindful Game Developer – Yutaka Takazaki

Many people might not heard about “Yutaka Takazaki” but most people would recognize The mobile game “Travel Frog.” Yutaka Takazaki is the project manager of the game company “Hit-Point” which is the developer of “Travel Frog”. There is very little information about him on the internet because Hit-Point focuses more on the team’s integrity.

Once in an interview, the host asked him, “why do you think the game is so popular right now?” He answered, “to be honest, I do not know why this game is so popular.” However, looking back, this is a game that meets modern people’s minimalist design requirements and socializing in the two-dimensional world. This game breaks through the language barrier. When only the Japanese version was available, it was already among the top 3 downloaded games in the app store for many countries. The lovely way of making frogs sending postcards from traveling introduces the beauty of Japan and gives users the satisfaction of “waiting and gaining.”

Post card from the Travel Frog

Takazaki is also the project manager of “Neko Atsume”: “The Japanese app has already logged more than 5.5 million downloads since it was launched in October 2014″. Neko Atsume” and “Travel Frog” are both popular idle games. The overall style is “free-minded”; the tone is warm and lovely; all the instructions are simple, and players can choose whether they want to spend money on game items or not. It just happens to be utterly consistent with the modern lifestyle.

Style of Neko Atsume

Takasaki talks about “freshness.”
In an interview, Takasaki once said that “we do not have an urgent and persistent pursuit of maintaining downloads for a long time.” Furthermore, he also states that “First of all, we gained many players, and our company’s reputation has expanded. Second, there are efforts to expand the direction. At present, many players feel that they don’t want to play again after playing for a while. They are tired, but when they reopen the APP after a long time, they play again. At some point, they will find freshness, and we want to provide this freshness.”

In conclusion, a game’s success is not only trying to meet the long-term goals of the generation but, most notably: to study the target user’s preferences.

Bibliogrpy

Webster, Andrew. “The Creators of Neko Atsume Are Back with a Game about an Adventuring Frog.” The Verge, The Verge, 5 Jan. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/1/5/16849628/tabikaeru-journey-frog-hit-point-neko-atsume-iphone-android. 

Luu, Chieu, et al. “’Neko Atsume’ Is the Addicting App Where You Feed Cats.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 July 2015, edition.cnn.com/2015/07/03/asia/neko-atsume-japan-cat-game/index.html. 

Byford, Sam. “Cute Cult Cat-Collecting App Neko Atsume Is Finally in English.” The Verge, 30 Oct. 2015, www.theverge.com/2015/10/30/9641008/neko-atsume-english-version-available. 

Murai, Shusuke. “Japanese Cat-Collecting Game Is Apps’ Meow.” The Japan Times, www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/29/business/tech/japanese-cat-collecting-game-is-apps-meow/. 

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4 thoughts on “A Mindful Game Developer – Yutaka Takazaki

  1. I love travel Frog, thank you let me know about the relationship between Japanese traditional aesthetics and the game design.

  2. I didn’t know Travel frog’s creator was the same person who made Neko Atsume. I think his success derive from the unification of the language barrier

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