In a revealing conversation with Time Extension, programmer and translator Richard Honeywood detailed the “second-party agreement” Nintendo offered Digital Eden. The deal was simple: Nintendo would provide full funding and technical assistance from HAL Laboratory—then led by the future Nintendo president Satoru Iwata—provided the studio developed exclusively for their hardware.
While Honeywood recalls that Iwata was incredibly supportive, treating the developers like an extension of his own team, the corporate side of Nintendo was far more ruthless. “The feedback we received for every game pitch was essentially, ‘This is terrible. Scrap it and start over,'” Honeywood notes.
He describes this bluntness as surprising, especially within Japanese corporate culture. “It was a total shock. We were presenting to Shigeru Miyamoto, a man we considered a deity. They would sometimes pick out a single idea they liked, tell us they might use it for a different project, and then demand we throw the rest away. This happened every single month.”
Initially, Nintendo wanted a shooter similar to Raiden, but Digital Eden was eager to explore new territory. They proposed a non-violent action game featuring children battling with water balloons and squirt guns—a concept that shares a striking spiritual DNA with the modern-day Splatoon.
Nintendo allowed them to pursue the idea for a time, but as milestones loomed, the tone shifted. “It became clear they were tightening the leash,” Honeywood explains. “They told us that if we didn’t have a marketable prototype soon, the funding would be cut off.”
This grueling cycle of rejection lasted for two years. “After the first few months of learning the tech, the rest of the time was spent presenting new proofs of concept every month, only to have them politely but thoroughly dismantled. It was a deeply demoralizing experience.”
Curious about the N64’s legacy? Check out our list of the best N64 games of all time.
