You know his games. If you're hardcore, you know his famed cowboy hat and hair. And you probably know his nickname. Koji "IGA" Igarashi is the brilliant mind driving the Castlevania franchise during its current resurgence of popularity (and steady flow of releases). On the heels of his GDC keynote on the differences between producing 2D and 3D games, we took a trip down the peninsula to Konami's headquarters for a very brief one-on-one with the man himself about the state of Castlevania.

GameSpy: What are the biggest challenges you've faced in bringing Castlevania to handhelds?
IGA: One of the biggest challenges in regard to developing for the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood (Dracula X Chronicles)) is in the display. Before, we developed the game for a TV. Because of the PSP's monitor, you have to make it brighter and crisper to look good on that screen. We've noticed that in older games, we really have to rework it to look better on the PSP. As for the DS, they're closer to TV monitors than the PSP, so for an action game developer like myself, I feel that it's easier to develop games for the DS. Honestly, the only major difference that we encounter on the DS is in the screen size, because it is just a little bit shorter than a TV's ratio.

With console games, gamers know that they're going to be sitting and playing for a while. Therefore, the pacing of save points is different. This particularly happens in Japan, but most handheld gamers play on the train. When the train comes, you have to cancel the game, and of course, we don't want people to have to lose their progress, so we find that we have to include as many save points as possible.
GameSpy: Can you give us a preview of what we can expect from your GDC keynote?
IGA: So as you know, we've worked with both 2D games and 3D games in the past with the Castlevania series. With the handhelds, we've been specifically looking hard to ensure we deliver the right quality. At GDC, I want to talk about what's different in developing a 2D game versus the process of creating a 3D game. And also compared, as you know, the 2D market is not a major market in the industry anymore. I will talk about the good points and bad points of working within this medium.

GameSpy: After the Rondo remake, where do you feel that series can go? There's been Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, and now this remake. Are you concerned that constant annual updates are going to be exhausting for the franchise?
IGA: As you know, we've delivered three titles in roughly one year's time, and they've been fresh, new games. In the twenty-one year history of the series, we've explored a variety of stories within the timeline. The history and time restriction restricts us from delivering newer stories, and there are so many that we've filled it out already. It's very hard to squeeze [a new one] in. That's one of the problems with Castlevania. As you know, we're wishing to create and provide a new Castlevania experience for gamers. We know that we have old fans who've followed the franchise for years, and while I'm happy about that, we're also doing our best to reach new fans with this renaissance of handheld games. We're doing our best to come up with as many Castlevania ideas as possible, and I'd eventually like to explore next-gen possibilities. But I've realized that handheld has dramatically expanded in the past two years, so I'd still very much like to look upon the potential and opportunities there.
GameSpy: Funny you mention next-gen; that dovetails into my next question. Of the next-gen consoles, which one have you seen that you would personally like to develop games on first?
IGA: Don't you think that we're facing a rare moment in which the current situation is a little bit chaotic? It's very early in the life of these new consoles for me to make a judgment. I have something in my mind, but I can't tell you right now, but I can tell you that with handheld games, it requires a much shorter period of production time. With a console, it takes a long while, so I have to be careful about predicting the future of next-gen, and who's going to win the war and that kind of thing. I need time to think about which next-gen console I'm going to pick.
GameSpy: So, gamers are going to wait at least a couple of years, then?
IGA: Probably two to three years.
GameSpy: In the vein of what you mentioned about introducing new audiences to Castlevania, how do you feel about Capcom's remakes of Resident Evil, or Kojima's remake of Metal Gear Solid? Would you remake the original chapters of Castlevania in 3D for gamers who've never played the originals?
IGA: Now that we have Virtual Console and Xbox Live Arcade, and thanks to digital distribution, I feel that those are the best avenues to introduce classic games to new fans of the series. The idea of updated graphics and a distributed boxed game doesn't appeal to me. I'd rather just make another brand-new game than try to remake old games. But if gamers would really, really like me to make some remakes of old Castlevania games, I guess I wouldn't rule it out.