To the delight of indie game fans everywhere, Undertale creator Toby Fox has hosted the first ever interview with game developer Kikiyama, best known for being the visionary behind the indie RPG Maker horror Yume Nikki. Initially published in this week's Famitsu, the interview has been translated into English today by fan translator chart and shared in full to chart's Toby Fox's Secret Base fan site on Neocities.
This interview with Kikiyama is reportedly the first of its kind. With no social media presence, no history of public appearances, and no known method of contact, Kikiyama has largely remained an elusive individual since the release of Yume Nikki for Windows in 2004. With the goal of maintaining the mystery surrounding the developer, the interview hosted by Toby Fox consists solely of yes/no questions, although there is one humorous multiple-choice question thrown in at the end there regarding the chain restaurant Denny's.
While Kikiyama's answers strictly range between "yes," "no," and "rice casserole with 3 types of cheese & shrimp," each question asked by Toby Fox is accompanied by a short note explaining his reason for asking it. For example, when asking if Kikiyama has ever listened to albums by Aphex Twin, Fox adds that his reason for asking is that he's always wondered if Aphex Twin's atmospheric music may have inspired the soundscapes of Yume Nikki. (The answer, in any case, is simply "no".)
In answering these questions (however tacitly), Kikiyama has finally shed some light on their development process, which has remained an enigma to fans until now. Fox asks if Kikiyama would tend to sketch creature designs and scenes on paper before using them in the game (yes), as well as whether Kikiyama had worked with the RPG Maker engine prior to developing Yume Nikki (no).
First developed in the year 2000, with newer versions released over successive years, RPG Maker is a free engine that today is considered one of the key tenements of indie game development. Since its inception, it has been used to power such underground darlings as Ib, To The Moon, and Corpse Party - games which, as Toby Fox points out in the introduction to the interview, may have never come into existence were it not for Yume Nikki. Upon its launch in 2004, Yume Nikki all but birthed the RPG Maker horror genre.
A surreal game that takes players on a virtual tour through the world of dreams, Yume Nikki has no defined objectives, obstacles, battle system, or game over screens. It is currently available for PC via Steam, with a 2018 remake titled Yume Nikki -Dream Diary- also available on Steam as well as Nintendo Switch. Toby Fox is currently working on the Undertale prequel Deltarune, with the first two chapters available on Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Mac at the time of writing.