''Viva Piñata'' is a video game franchise created and produced by

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000 ...

and Rare. The series' first game, ''

Viva Piñata ''Viva Piñata'' is a video game franchise created and produced by Xbox Game Studios and Rare (company), Rare. The series' first game, ''Viva Piñata (video game), Viva Piñata'' (2006), was conceived as a mobile gardening game before Rare (comp ...

'' (2006), was conceived as a mobile gardening game before Rare was acquired by Microsoft. It was released on

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

. It launched alongside an

animated series An animated series is a set of Animation, animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can ...

produced by

4Kids 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (formerly known as Leisure Concepts, Inc. and later known as 4Licensing Corporation) was an American licensing company. The company was previously also a film and television production company that produced English- dub ...

. The game received two console sequels: '' Viva Piñata: Party Animals'' (2007) and '' Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise'' (2008), as well as a handheld release, '' Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise'' (2008), for the Nintendo DS.

Development

Rare co-founder

Tim Stamper Brothers Tim and Chris Stamper are British entrepreneurs who founded the video game companies Ultimate Play the Game and Rare. They first worked together on arcade conversion kits, which were licensed to companies, but later became developer ...

conceptualized a gardening game for the handheld

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Compact operating system that has some of the abilities of modern desktop PCs. The name was introduced by Microsoft in 200 ...

platform around 2002. A small (three-person) team began work on a simple prototype while Rare was still affiliated with Nintendo, prior to its

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

acquisition. The game's development transferred to the original

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by th ...

and, ultimately, to the

for its graphics capabilities. Rare wanted its animals to have a unified style, which was how the game's concept artist arrived at the

piñata A piñata (, ) is a container, often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth, that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. Piñatas are commonly associated with Mexico. The idea of breaking a container filled ...

concept. The idea was exciting to Rare, as piñatas were not commonplace in England. The connection between piñatas and candy-filled insides led to new gameplay directions. The ''Viva Piñata'' team was a model for productivity and regular output within Rare and

. Though compared to the 12-person teams behind earlier Rare games, the company's

development teams consisted of 50 to 60 people. The ''Viva Piñata'' team included about 50 people at its zenith. Microsoft also transitioned its development teams to use the company's XNA package to streamline and reduce duplication in engineering efforts. Microsoft pressured the ''Viva Piñata'' development team to keep the game's themes kid-friendly, as the parent company planned for the game and resulting franchise to increase the market appeal of their

. In 2006, a Microsoft Games executive called the game its most important franchise, but its reception was tepid. As Rare released the original ''Viva Piñata'' for the

in 2006, its development team saw it as incomplete. The developers had cut partial ideas from the release in order to meet their deadlines. Rare's

Gregg Mayles Gregg Mayles (born 29 April) is a British video game designer currently working for video game company Rare as creative director. He is one of the longest-serving members of the company, having worked there since 1989. Career Mayles began h ...

said that the game sold well and steadily on par with their expectations and Xbox's Phil Spencer added that the game was considered a success inside the company. The team incorporated player feedback and worked towards a "more definitive version" of the original. Mayles left the team to work on '' Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts'' and Justin Cook became the team's lead designer. The sequel was built atop the original and the developers re-used many of the tools from the original game's development. In both the sequel and the original, the development team volunteered to record the sounds used for the piñatas. One of the team's new ideas was "Piñata Vision", a feature that detects printed cards via the

Xbox camera Xbox Live Vision is a webcam accessory that was developed as an accessory for the Xbox 360 video game console. It was announced at E3 2006 and was released in North America on September 19, 2006, Europe and Asia on October 2, 2006, and Japan on ...

to change the in-game environment (e.g., adding piñatas or altering the weather). Near the time of the sequel's release, Rare's Mayles figured that the team would likely not have enough new gameplay ideas to warrant a sequel to ''Trouble in Paradise'', though Cook said that he would work on the game's shop interface had he more time. The games were later re-released on the 2015 compilation of Rare games, '' Rare Replay'', but the server that handled their piñata sharing features had been shut down by that time. In-between the two series releases, Krome released '' Viva Piñata: Party Animals''. In early 2007, a Microsoft Games executive had expressed interest in continuing the series onto the Nintendo DS platform. Rare had attempted to make ''Trouble in Paradise'' camera features work with ''Pocket Paradise'', but chose instead to release the games on time.

Games

* ''

'' (2006) * '' Viva Piñata: Party Animals'' (2007) * '' Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise'' (2008) * '' Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise'' (2008)

Animated series

''Viva Piñata'' was planned as a larger intellectual property. 4Kids TV had agreed to make a ''Viva Piñata'' cartoon before the game was released. 4Kids selected the series out of several Microsoft properties offered. 4Kids also handled the series merchandising. The cartoon is tied very closely to the game, and its animations are based on the game's own 3D character models. Its episodes are approved by Rare's

for their applicability to the game. The cartoon was also designed to give viewers tips on how to interact with the in-game piñatas. The animated series' storyline later influenced the plot of ''Trouble in Paradise''.

Development

Games

Animated series

References

Further reading