"That was something that was decided at the very beginning, to only have Ark. Well, there’s also Yomi who you control inside Pandora’s Box. Because the player is alone in the story, we figured there should only be one character the player controls. That also makes it easier for you to empathize with the protagonist. One advantage was that since limiting the characters increases the memory available, we were able to do more complex and detailed movements and animation for Ark that we couldn’t do in the previous two titles. The controls are a step-up in that regard, I think."

"Yeah. Actually western animation was one of the things that influenced me to get into the game industry in the first place. I really admire the sensibility of Looney Toons, where you never know what’s going to happen next. Watching them inspires me to hone my own skills. The difference between games and animation, though, is that in animation the artist directs how the scene moves and unfolds, whereas in games, that control is given over to the players. But I think that’s actually a strength for gaming and could lead to even more interesting scenes, which is something I want to explore more."

"It’s just my personal taste. There’s a director named Terry Gilliam, who creates these fantastic, magical worlds that take place in the real world. He’ll do things like add an artificial sun to a normal, everyday scene. While I was designing Dynamite Headdy, I thought that kind of world would be cool, so we made a few mock-ups in that style. After seeing it in-game, I thought it looked great, so we doubled down and tried to make that a visual theme for the whole game. At this point in the development it might look really lame if we only went half-way with that aesthetic. There’s a bunch of other cool things we still plan to add, too."

"I had been thinking I wanted the character to use some part of his body when he attacked, and throwing his head was something new, and would make an impact on players. I made him a puppet because puppets are easy to deform and manipulate, whereas a living creature that detached it’s head would be weird, I thought."