Like a Dragon series technical director Yutaka Ito reckons new Ryu Ga Gotoku programmers are fortunate to work on the famously prolific Yakuza series.
In a wide-ranging interview with Automaton, Ito gave a bunch of insights into the internal mechanism that keeps Like a Dragon games releasing so consistently.
Ito explained that modern Like a Dragon games have somewhere between 40 and 50 programmers working on them, but they’re sectioned off into different areas of the game “be it adventure, battles, minigames or something else.” This creates a bunch of largely autonomous and specialized “modules” that program “using the method that best suits their needs.”
Ito said the main programmers on Yakuza games probably aren’t privy to exactly what each module is doing at any given time, but each one has its own section leader making sure everything goes according to plan. According to Ito, that’s “precisely how we’re able to make such large-scale games in the Like a Dragon series.”
Programming section manager Tomoaki Nakamura also chimed in with encouraging words for new programmers working with RGG. “If your name appears in a game’s end credits in your second year in the industry, and your next title is right around the corner, you might feel like sticking at it for another year. Last year’s newbies had their names come up in three games in a single year.”
That prompted this comment from Ito on the seemingly endlessly increasing development time on AAA games:
“Recent major titles tend to have long development cycles, so I think the new programmers at RGG Studio are blessed (laughs)”
Fortunately, I don’t have to throw any specific studio under the bus here in trying to assume which one Ito is referencing as AAA development is straight-up just taking longer across the board.
Speaking of which, The Witcher 4 dev says it takes 5-6 years to make a game after the idea’s conception – but isn’t saying when The Witcher 4 was thought up.