Tomoya Tomita Interview Questions 1. So, first things first. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself? Who are you? I was engaged in the sound production of the game for a long time Is old "NES Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III - The Manhattan Project", The most new work is "WiiU Yoshi's Woolly World" and "3DS Poochy and Yoshi's Woolly World" Sound effects and music,Recording of the voice, And I am sometimes in charge with sound program, all one I was playing drums in the band when I was a student Sometimes I played the guitar. After that, I had a hobby of making music with a synthesizer by myself I learned it by self taught 2. And how did you first get started with video games? What was your first console? I wanted to make music one's work, and I entered Konami luckily. It is GameBoy first to have been in charge It is "MSX" afterwards Then I was in charge mainly on a game machine of Nintendo 3. Are there any games you really liked over the years? I like games so many. When If I had to choose... Half-Life, Skyrim,Gears of war... Horizon Zero Dawn was excellent recently 4. What games did you think had amazing soundtracks? Any that inspired your own work? It's an old story, but "(NES) Solstice" was shocking 5. How did you get interested in composing music? That I was making a phrase by free playing the guitar. I think that it was the first time 6. Did you ever want to use your music skills for other media? Like say, film soundtracks, TV soundtracks or just as a musician selling CDs? Of course I am interested in all of them. Someone please introduce me :) Actually,I am making music with women living in the UK Tara Dion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V745AVLuz34&t= 7. Onto the games industry side now. How did you get first get started composing music for video games? Firstly I will try to understand the project Then check the artwork of the character and the background I imagine what kind of sound is ringing there And I will make a prototype of music and sound effect Then discuss the direction of the sound with the director 8. It seems you originally started at Konami back in 1988. How did that come about? How did you get a job as a composer at the company? I was looking for work without job. At that time Konami's recruitment articles were published in music magazines I got a job with that. I might have been lucky. 9. What was it like working there? What was it like working on games in the Castlevania and Goemon series? Nooooo! It was very tough.The working environment was the worst We worked almost at work except at bedtime Especially the production of "Goemon" was very tough each time The hard days continued for a long time as I could hardly go home. I do not want to recall:) 10. Either way, you eventually moved over to GoodFeel to compose music for their games. What inspired that move? I was away from sound production during the last few years at Konami So I decided to leave the Konami Then he joined the company knowing that the "Gemon" team woke up the company 11. Was it very different working at GoodFeel compared to Konami? Yes, because the sound staff was me alone I managed to control everything myself I was able to work very freely I did not have a long meeting, and I was able to use all the time for sound production 12. Once you were there, it seems like your first project was composing music for Wario Land Shake It. So what inspired the soundtrack for that game? Was there a certain feel you were going for? I was nervous because I did not write composition for a long time But once it began it was a fun job. The music production tool is evolving I was surprised and felt pleasure 13. It was also the first game you worked alongside Minako Hamano on. How did you two decide what songs each of you would be composing? I did not work with her Three songs arrived from Nintendo "This is Wario's song". I think that was the song she made 14. Did you take any inspiration from past Wario Land games when creating the soundtrack for Shake It? Of course, I studied the trend by playing past works 15. What about from other media? Cause the train levels certainly seem to have a Western feel to the music… Of course, when I make music there is influence of every media 16. Out of all the songs you composed for the game, which would you say is your favourite and why? I like most of the music I made Maybe some songs are not so：） and Why? I do not understand：） 17. Any song you’d do differently if you were redoing the soundtrack today? Editor Note: In other words, are there any songs you may not have been 100% pleased with? No, However, there may be places you want to fix some 18. Finally on the topic of the game, were there any songs you were working on that didn’t make it into the game? Perhaps because the level or boss they were meant for got scrapped? Of course there is something like that But,It's not that much 19. You were also working on a series with a bit more of… a consistent style to its music. Did Nintendo give you any ‘guidelines’ for how Kirby music should sound? No, " Kirby’s Epic Yarn" was originally supposed to be the original New character game So I was able to make music freely. Changed to Kirby several months before the game is completed 20. The music in Epic Yarn is good all round, but are there any songs you’re especially proud of there? Thank you,Most songs are favorite When If I had to choose "Rainbow Falls" "Big-Bean Vine" etc... 21. There were also some lovely remixes of older Kirby songs there too. So what was it like making them? What was it like creating remixes of songs from games like Kirby’s Adventure and Kirby Super Star? Old Kirby song I have not remade They made by "HAL Laboratory" Since the character was changed to Kirby, the final area was to use their songs 22. Moving onto Yoshi’s Woolly World now. What was the design process behind the soundtrack there? How did you make it feel different to Epic Yarn, despite both games have a similar look and feel? In Kirby I built music mainly on the piano At Yoshi I tried to build music mainly on acoustic guitar And I thought that the atmosphere of the song should be more gentle 23. Did you take any inspiration from past Yoshi games when composing the music? Of course, I played some past Yoshi 24. And I know this is a bit overdone by now, but what’s your favourite song from Yarn Yoshi? I like most songs When If I had to choose "Clawdaddy Beach" "Title Screen" 25. Yarn Yoshi was later ported to the 3DS, under the name Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World. What was it like working on that version? Were there any things changed on the music front? Changing the sound effect was the main work because there was not enough memory available Music is remastered for 3DS There are new songs on the stage of Poochy I have not written it 26. In 2016, you left GoodFeel to become a freelance composer. So, what prompted that decision? What inspired you to strike out on your own? The office of Kobe which I was working was closed I left company in preference to living with my family 27. Have you worked on any interesting indie games since then? Unfortunately not yet 28. How about other projects? Unfortunately not yet 29. What's your current project at the moment? Unfortunately not yet Someone please give me a job 30. That leads me to a related question, namely remixes and covers. What are your thoughts on the fan made remixes and covers of the songs you’ve composed? I am very happy that people like the songs that I made Especially it is nice to play on Musical instrument 31. Are there any you think are especially awesome? Yes 32. Finally, what advice would you give anyone wanting to get started as a video game composer? Game music when I started my career was somewhat unique The performance of the gaming machine was low, and there were various restrictions Now we can use streaming data I think that the difference with other media has disappeared Please study to be able to write various types of music