The future of Nintendo Lab's VR is not about the screen

In a hotel in front of Central Park, my 10-year-old son Alex and I are sitting in a room filled with cardboard and the man who dreamed everything is in the middle. Nintendo invited me and my son to interview Tsubasa Sakaguchi, director and software manager of Nintendo Labo, including the Labo VR kit, which has just been released.

The cardboard construction games mercurial for Nintendo Switch mix papercraft and programming to create seemingly impossible magic objects. Since Lab makes its surprising debut last year, Nintendo has created four different Labo kits, ranging from a robot backpack to a vehicle kit to the latest VR kit, which comes with its own protective goggles in which the switch can be inserted.

But what comes next? What does it mean? I came with questions, and Alex too. After that he helped me comment on Nintendo Labo and VR Lab Kit, Nintendo invited him to interview Sakaguchi as well, so I brought him with him for his first interview experience. I wrote my own questions and he wrote his own. These are the things we asked for and what we learned.

VR has always been part of the plan

Even though the Labo VR kit was the fourth version of Labo, Sakaguchi insists that he was always there from the start. "We actually had everything planned from the beginning … even in the [original] announcement video, if you look at it, everything is included, with the exception of virtual reality glasses. "

For Nintendo, the innovative part of Labo VR is not the screen, but the inputs. "In terms of virtual reality, there was research going on at Nintendo," says Sakaguchi. "We thought that combining it with a single controller would make a unique product of its kind … creating an entrance, as well as a physical return, the elasticity of the elastic or the wind that you feel It was a bit like climbing a mountain with other members of the team (…) we knew where the goal was at the top of the mountain, but we did not know how to get there. was an essay and a mistake. "

Sakaguchi remembers some of the challenges, like the included wind pedal that creates a breeze in some of the Labo VR games. "We knew we wanted to create wind, but we did not know how, so we had something that looked like a fan, or we had a little helix on the head to create the wind … at the very end, there was it's turned into this pedal. "

As for the reasons why the strange creations of elephants, birds, pedals, blasters and cameras of the first VR kit are particularly bizarre, Sakaguchi indicates that some ideas were expressed very early. "The fishing rod [from the first Labo Variety Kit] and the elephant [from Labo VR Kit]In fact, I imagined these two prototypes the same day. "The entries are essentially explorations of entry and return." Using the IR camera on the Joy-Con controllers, and then the IR band on the Elephant, the Toy -Con-same, we realized we could do 3D tracking. The physical feedback of the elephant nose, while being able to draw and create objects in a 360-degree space, we thought it would be a unique experience. "

Some of Labo's ideas about virtual reality go back to Wii Uand NintendoLand, of which Sakaguchi was the artistic director. My son realized that the Labo VR Blaster game reminded him of NintendoLand's Metroid Blast game, which used the GamePad as a removable screen that could see the world as a 2D version of virtual reality. "To develop Nintendo Labo, we also include what Nintendo has developed, and we are always trying to integrate that into the new software, and you're up to it."

Board games, magic and after?

I've been trying to ask Sakaguchi what other ideas might be hiding for Labo, but he keeps this information secret. However, questioned about the possibilities of Labo with board games or even magic kits – Nintendo has a long history of making magic props and playing cards – he smiles.

"It's actually a very interesting point you've raised." One of the team members has magic as a hobby, and he's actually created a magic game using So the thing was, whatever map you drew, the number would appear but I do not know at all how the mechanics work, because he never told me. "

Sakaguchi also saw some board game ideas: "There was a prototype in which we had a camera radiating from the bottom of a glass table and an IR band on the bottom of a pawn. you move your pawn on the board game, the infrared camera would recognize that. "

So what comes next? "Something that you feel you know and that is new, that overlapping point, is what we are always looking for, but because every day everything is evolving and everything is changing, that overlap is changing." J & # 39; I definitely have things in mind, new ideas, but if I mention it right away, someone could steal it. "

Sakaguchi looks at my son and laughs.

Alex's other questions to Sakaguchi follow below, along with his answers.

Q: Do you think Labo will be used in education?
It was actually something we did not really think about when we made Nintendo Labo. Our main goal is to create an entertainment. But in some American schools, Nintendo Labo is already used. When I hear about things like that, I am pleasantly surprised.

Why did you decide to do Labo?
The first inspiration was these two Joy-Cons. I decided to create something unique, but easy to understand for people.

So we tested different ways to use these two Joy-Con controllers, like placing the two Joy-Con controllers in a motorcycle handlebars or a fishing rod, or placing it on the head and body for a robot. I went to a DIY store and bought a package of supplies, then I created a prototype to understand how this accessory works.

Do you remember that there is a weight inside the robot's backpack? When we created the prototype, it was actually an energy drink inside, instead of a weight.

Why did you make cardboard with Labo?
I briefly talked about it just now, but we really had fun with trial and error. We came to the conclusion that cardboard was the best material to personalize objects or to draw and paint. And then, another thing was, to match these two elements together, something that seems very analog, like cardboard, and high tech, like the Joy-Con controllers, surprised many people. How did it work? We thought it was really fun too.

We wanted to bring joy to people of all ages so we thought that cardboard would be a good material to do it.

If I do something in the future, I want to make sure Alex is interviewing me.

Why not bend the plastic, to be more robust?
Although it is cardboard, we test it. With the Blaster, we shot thousands and thousands of times. And then, we also place it in a very damp room to make sure it's not wrinkled. So it's cardboard, but in reality it's really solid. You will be surprised at the strength of this material. Also, I have this idea of ​​"nothing will last forever". But we explain in detail the mechanisms of Labo and Toy-Con, so if you or someone want to make repairs, you can do it with other materials. Your father's tablet, if it breaks, it will not really tell you how you can fix it, but we make sure everyone knows how to fix everything in the Toy-Cons. I think you can do it.

How did you exploit the vibrations of Labo's first RC car?
You know when your phone is on the table and you set it up to vibrate, and sometimes it vibrates the table? Because we have two Joy-Con controllers, we do not have to go directly, we can also run it. During the prototype, we actually had a toothbrush glued to it. Of course, we thought we probably could not include a toothbrush in a product, so we had to come up with ideas on how to move it with cardboard.

I've also seen a Japanese user create an RC car with a tire that looks almost like a barrel of oil that moves. And one of the members of our team actually had the idea of, if you put a toothbrush on the bottom of a Joy-Con, and then place it on some kind of surface of tube, like a pillar, then the Joy-Con starts spinning in circles. We discovered this, like about a week before I left Japan. Do you know how steam engine trains work and convert top-down motion into wheel rotation? This developer has developed an inverse logic in which we can create a high-low motion from a circular motion. So she created a character who simply moves up and down, from that movement. I thought to bring it, but I could not put it in my suitcase.

My friend had a question that he really wanted to ask: do you think there will be a Splatoon 3?
(Laughs) Top secret. But please let your friend know, thanks for enjoying Splatoon as much.