Donkey Kong Bananza: The Hilarious Burger Prototype & Voxel Tech Secrets
The development of Donkey Kong Bananza, the latest installment in Nintendo’s beloved franchise, wasn’t a straightforward path. It was a journey paved with experimentation, a willingness to embrace the unexpected, and, surprisingly, a virtual bacon burger. A recent discussion with the game’s producer, Kenta Motokura, and programmer, Tatsuya Kurihara, revealed the fascinating process behind fusing voxel technology with 3D action platforming, and the lengths the team went to in order to create a truly destructible world for the Nintendo Switch 2.
The duo spoke at the Game Developers Conference earlier this month, detailing their approach to “Constructive Destruction” in Donkey Kong Bananza. Their talk, as reported by IGN, highlighted the game’s innovative leverage of voxels – volumetric pixels – allowing players to dismantle nearly everything in their path. But the road to this level of destruction was filled with prototypes, some more…appetizing than others.
From Super Mario Odyssey to a Destructible Jungle
Both Motokura and Kurihara brought experience from the development of Super Mario Odyssey to Donkey Kong Bananza. Motokura, who directed Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey, served as producer for the new Donkey Kong title, shaping the game’s concept and overall design. As detailed in Nintendo’s “Ask the Developer” series, his previous function on Donkey Kong Jungle Beat also informed his approach. The team leveraged lessons learned from Odyssey, particularly the challenge of anticipating how players would interact with the game world, and applied them to a new set of possibilities offered by voxel technology.
The core idea, according to Motokura, was to give players freedom. “We seek the player to be able to freely destroy and freely enjoy the game,” he explained in a post-talk interview with IGN. This meant designing levels not to restrict players, but to anticipate their creativity – and potential for chaos. “Unlike a lot of previous game design that we’ve experienced, there’s a lot that we can’t anticipate about the player experience,” Motokura noted. The team focused on creating a “play space” that encouraged exploration and destruction, even if it meant relinquishing some control over how players navigated the environment.
The Bacon Burger Prototype and the Pursuit of Destruction
The journey to this design philosophy wasn’t always linear. The team explored numerous prototypes, testing the limits of what was possible with the new technology. One particularly memorable experiment involved a giant, delicious-looking bacon burger. Although the burger itself didn’t make it into the final game, it sparked a conversation about different forms of destruction and how they could be integrated into the gameplay. “I especially thought that the bacon on the hamburger looked really good,” Motokura confessed, revealing a personal fondness for American-style bacon.
This experimentation led to the development of unique voxel interactions, like the dissolving salt that neutralizes acid and the “Switcheroo Goo” that allows for dynamic level manipulation. Kurihara explained that these ideas stemmed from a desire to move beyond simple punching and breaking, exploring alternative ways to interact with the environment. “We were looking for other ways of destruction,” he said, leading to the creation of mechanics that allowed players to dissolve obstacles and create new pathways.
The Technical Hurdles of a Destructible World
Creating a fully destructible world presented significant technical challenges. The game’s canyon layer alone contains over 300 million voxels, and maintaining consistency as players altered the landscape required substantial processing power. As IGN reported, the Nintendo Switch 2’s increased bandwidth was crucial in enabling the game to remember player-induced changes over extended periods.
Kurihara detailed the complexities of managing voxel data, including density, wetness, and material properties. These properties determined how voxels reacted to different interactions, creating a diverse and engaging destruction experience. The team also had to account for unexpected player behavior, such as using terrain jumps to access unintended areas. “It’s getting extremely hard to keep players from going all over the place,” Motokura admitted, acknowledging the ingenuity of the player base.
Learning from Speedrunners and Sandbox Explorers
The developers actively observed how players interacted with the game, learning from speedrunners who discovered exploits and unconventional strategies. “Sometimes We find sequence breaks in game that you can, once you learn about them, design around so that there is a gameplay experience on the other side of that sequence break,” Motokura explained. They also drew inspiration from observing children playing in sandboxes, noting how they interacted with the material and the importance of moisture in creating a satisfying tactile experience.
“I did spend quite a bit of time taking a look at sandboxes in parks and watching people experience that,” Motokura shared. “And so, one thing that I took away from that was how wet the sand is and whether you can dig in it. So moisture became one of those data points that we wanted to express.” This attention to detail, informed by real-world observation, contributed to the game’s immersive and dynamic environment.
What’s Next for the Bananza Team?
While Motokura and Kurihara remained tight-lipped about future projects, they emphasized the ongoing exchange of knowledge and technology within Nintendo. They indicated that lessons learned from Donkey Kong Bananza could inform future game development, but remained coy about specific applications. The team’s commitment to experimentation and player-driven design suggests that their next endeavor will likely be just as innovative and engaging as their latest adventure with Donkey Kong.