Level-5 CEO details Professor Layton's creation, names, puzzles and series' future
The following comes from Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino...
"We wanted to offer two intelligent characters who could bounce ideas off each other. When I saw the illustrations I temporarily named them Professor Layton and Luke. The names seemed to fit perfectly and before I knew it they'd stuck. The characters stayed just as I had conceived them at the beginning."
On puzzle design
"To this day we design the puzzles via a process we call 'Puzzle Camp'. The puzzle team, headed by Professor Tago, and the game development team spend several days' together away designing puzzles. We are all extremely passionate about the puzzles and often our discussions become pretty heated. Math-based puzzles are especially tricky as it is easy to see them as something right out of say a calculus class. We use descriptive text and illustrations to make these puzzles look and feel interesting - even at a glance, they rely heavily on a flash of inspiration."
On continuing the Layton series
"I don't plan on letting Layton end here. While Hershel Layton's personal story is now finished, we intend to continue on with the challenge of adding more unique Professor Layton titles to the overall series."
Link
"We wanted to offer two intelligent characters who could bounce ideas off each other. When I saw the illustrations I temporarily named them Professor Layton and Luke. The names seemed to fit perfectly and before I knew it they'd stuck. The characters stayed just as I had conceived them at the beginning."
On puzzle design
"To this day we design the puzzles via a process we call 'Puzzle Camp'. The puzzle team, headed by Professor Tago, and the game development team spend several days' together away designing puzzles. We are all extremely passionate about the puzzles and often our discussions become pretty heated. Math-based puzzles are especially tricky as it is easy to see them as something right out of say a calculus class. We use descriptive text and illustrations to make these puzzles look and feel interesting - even at a glance, they rely heavily on a flash of inspiration."
On continuing the Layton series
"I don't plan on letting Layton end here. While Hershel Layton's personal story is now finished, we intend to continue on with the challenge of adding more unique Professor Layton titles to the overall series."
Link
