All the company employees played it and as they did so, they naturally said things like, “I got the most!” I felt like that was proof of sharing the same space, same time and same game. Iwata: It would be difficult, physically, for 100 people to communicate in perfect synchronisation, but what was really important was that fun experience of resonance in the same area. We thought the technology would follow along, so we set a goal and talked about what we could do to accomplish it – which may be why it went well. There was a problem with time lags, but we wanted to place importance on how fun it would be if 100 people played. Iwata: But wasn’t doing that quite difficult?
I was attracted to the words “one hundred people” more than anything and thought, “We’ve got to do it!” Unno: At first, I too thought, “100 people? That's crazy!” (laughs) It’s a form of gameplay in which people gather in the same field and take on various missions without disrupting the flow of the main game. The proposal said 100 people should be able to play through the Entralink, which really interested me. That was when the idea of Funfest Missions came up. Takao Unno: First, I had the whole staff think about what we could do with the theme of resonance.
On the creation of Funfest Missions, the conversation between Iwata and Game Freak's Takao Unno goes as follows: The Iwata Asks session is with Pokemon developer Game Freak, and discusses many topics surrounding the series, such as inspiration for the games, the popularity of the Pokemon World Championships and the creation of Funfest Missions - which allow 100 players to communicate simultaneously online. Pokemon Black & White 2 launched last week to stellar reviews - check out all the scores here - and both games are the focus of Nitnendo's latest instalment of 'Iwata Asks' in which the company president Satoru Iwata asks developers questions regarding their game, including the issue of 100-player multiplayer missions.