Capcom: Western developers start with the visuals

Capcom developers working on the new DmC Devil May Cry title with Ninja Theory have highlighted some of the cultural differences between Japanese and Western development,the biggest being the starting point.

"Given our experience, it seems like with the west and Ninja Theory they focus on the visuals stuff at the beginning and then build the gameplay on top of that," director Hideaki Itsuno told Siliconera.

"Whereas at Capcom Japan, we focus on the game logic and getting the systems down in the beginning then we gradually build the visuals on top of that. I think this speaks to the differences in the core of how western games are developed compared to games in Japan."

Itsuno added that the two development teams have found a "hybrid system" to allow for these cultural differences, but it hadn't been easy.

During the interview producer Motohide Eshiro also praised the UK developer's visual tech, and their environment deforming Malice mechanic, while Itsuno had taken a shine to the management structure which gave different members of the Ninja Theory development team responsiblity for different parts of the game.

"We take the opposite approach. We like to look as if we have given all of these people different responsibility, but in reality we are very, very concerned about the schedule. It actually makes it difficult to get one man or one woman's work tied that closely with the product on the Japan side."

DmC was announced in 2010 and is due for release next January.