Ryukishi07's Production Journal is an online record of his progress and ideas as he was developing Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Umineko no Naku Koro ni. This page contains the entries related to Umineko. Originally translated by rockmor and sourced from here.
Transcript
30/08/2006
At the moment, we are thinking about the structure of the next title with the aim for next Summer to release.
Recently, the foundation for the setting has started to establish.
(In Higurashi, for example, that foundation was the village of Hinamizawa and the 3 rules).
I think it will take a bit more time to be completely established.
Characters are difficult too.
There were quite a few characters with vivid personalities in Higurashi, and I am worried if I will be able to make new characters distinctive enough.
09/09/2006
Perhaps, the title Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is much more well-known than our circle’s or my own name. Coming from that, I thought that maybe it will be a good idea to take “Naku Koro ni” part for the next title, so it will be more obvious that it’s a continuation of Higurashi.
The name that I kinda haphazardly came up with is Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
My thinking process was: “Because the first game was about a remote village in the mountains, maybe the next one should be about a solitary island”, so the title was just put on sloppily.
The crying of umineko is “nya-nya”, isn’t it? I wonder, in which month they cry. And speaking of it, while higurashi crying is very striking and make a strong impression, what about that nya-nyaing, I wonder… *bitter laugh*
Title is a very important thing. I should think about it more deeply.
Just recently we had the first meeting about the setting of the next game with Yatazakura.
There were phrases like “The first one is a village, the second one is the island… Wait, it’s Siren!” Or “It was the same way with Kamaitachi 1 and 2, wasn’t it?”.
We are thinking about setting as a gameboard, on which we will later put everything else.
We are going to go shooting again, and the best way is to take photos in the environment close to the setting of the game (color of the leaves always exposes the truth the most…).
We are planning to go on a shooting trip somewhere next month. That means that the setting for the new game will be ready in September, I guess?..
Cicadas are probably going to cry, as usual, so we have to rebuild the sound environment from scratch to distance from Higurashi.
I hope we will be able to find as iconic sound for the environment as higurashi or cicada crying…
“Nya-nya-nya”…Yeah, maybe “Umineko no Naku Koro ni” won’t do after all *sweat*
Another thing that I am not sure about is the difficulty. …Also known as “hostility”.
Usually, in such games, in order to fix the bad usability, developers make a game more and more appealing to the masses and rounding off the edges, which often leaves me dissatisfied. (Though I of course accept the point of making a game more user-friendly and deep).
And exactly because of that I am thinking of upping the difficulty way more than it was in Higurashi.
The goal is 0% of the right answers.
…I am not going to make an awkward situation when I receive a comment where someone suddenly figures out the rule X after the release of the first arc happen again.
How do you like this catch copy for the next game?
“Is the reasoning possible, is it impossible?”
Does the golden witch exist?
Would anyone able to escape from witch’s curse?
The more you doubt that the culprit is a human, the more there new facts that will laugh at you.
The golden witch will laugh at your efforts to uncover the truth and will tear them up..!
“Umineko no Naku Koro ni” (title screen and a sound effect!)
(A line on the fading out screen)
“…Hey, our guest. Are you still… reasoning?”
Seagulls, crying “nya-nya-nya” and the words “coming soon”.
…Maybe “nya-nya” is no good after all.
All the above is of course just how I want it to be, not an announcement.
…Ah, I want to start working on it sooner… orz
20/10/2006
Recently, 07th made a trip to a certain island of Izu archipelagos for shooting.
Probably, some of the photos we took will be used in the next title, so I finally have a feeling that the production has begun. It reminds me of the time when we went to Shirakawa-go to take photos for Higurashi.
But is the island really the right choice? There are also possibilities of peninsula or promontory, so the question is still in the air.
The gameboard for Umineko no Naku Koro ni (temporal name) is coming along little by little, and I am thinking about what pieces I will put on its surface.
If I succeed in giving those pieces interesting roles, they will move by themselves, and the story will flow naturally by its own.
The ease of dealing with a piece changes depending on whether it’s interesting or not, so, perhaps, it’s the most crucial part of the construction. (“Interesting” doesn’t always mean that everything has to be novel and eccentric. It’s also about how freely a piece can move on a gameboard, and how interesting its movements are).
By the way, a serious thing happened when we came to the island.
Umineko didn’t cry!
Our temporal title is already in danger. Well, it’s a fictional setting, so even though they didn’t cry in a real place, it’s okay if they would do it there, I guess…
Sources
- Original website: http://07th-expansion.net/kyu/Cgi/clip/clip.cgi
- Translation: https://0707toshokan.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/when-they-dont-cry/