Kirby’s “perfectly round” design wasn’t a good fit for 3D according to HAL Laboratory

3D platformer Kirby and the Forgotten Land’s development got off to a rocky start at HAL Laboratory because Kirby is just too darn round. Transitioning the pink puffball from 2D to 3D, as it turns out, was a nuisance for the development team. Thankfully, some clever tricks ensured the game saw the light of day.

In an “ask the developer” interview, HAL Laboratory director Tatsuya Kamiyama explained that creating a 3D Kirby game was a challenge. Kamiyama claimed, “the first challenge… was that Kirby’s character design was not a perfect fit for full 3D gameplay.” He added that because “Kirby’s silhouette is perfectly round… it can be hard to tell which direction he’s facing at a glance.”

After some trial and error, the development team was able to transition Kirby onto a 3D plane thanks to some in-game trickery. Kamiyama explains that “if it looks like an attack ‘should’ hit on-screen… it does connect – even if it was going to narrowly miss.” Kirby has an aim-assist, confirmed. Classic copy abilities were redesigned from the ground up, too, to help make the move to 3D feel more natural.

“Fuzzy Landing” is another development trick that HAL employed to get Kirby clicking in 3D. When you press the A button to jump again when landing, the game “treats Kirby as if he’s already landed if the A Button is pressed at a close distance to the ground.” This helped remove instances of Kirby fluttering when you think he’s landed when wanting to jump again.

A lot of thought went into creating the first fully-3D mainline Kirby game. The attention to detail was worth it based on the fun demo and has led the development team to want to try “many new things” in 2D and 3D in future Kirby games.