Harvest Moon inspired by violent videogames

Harvest Moon creator Yasuhiro Wada has revealed the driving inspiration for his charming, non-threatening, family friendly games — violence. According to the developer, the wealth of violent videogames on the market drives him to provide something different, and that’s why Harvest Moon exists. 

“I wouldn’t deny the violent games out there, but rather, I actually get influenced by them to create something very different,” he told Gamasutra. “Because there are violent games with killing and war, that kind of shapes the identity for what I create. It’s healthy to bring much variety to games. If the only things you see are violent games, then it won’t be any fun.”

That’s a very positive attitude to have, far more useful to the industry than Spector’s “We need to stop making them” approach. If you think there’s too much of something, make something else. Thumbs up for Wada on this one.