Vol. 1, Issue 21 - Interview with Lawrence Schwedler
An interview with Lawrence Schwedler, the Audio Director of Pokémon Puzzle League on Nintendo 64, plus the latest Pokémon news and more mailbag contributions!
Welcome to Issue 21 of the Johto Times. This week, we are thrilled to share our interview with Lawrence Schwedler, the Audio Director for Pokémon Puzzle League, which was originally released on the Nintendo 64. It has since appeared on the Wii U Virtual Console and most recently, the Nintendo Switch Online service. Lawrence tells us about his time working on the game as part of Nintendo Software Technology (NST), how he translated iconic Pokémon series themes to work on the Nintendo 64, and how he might approach a modern version of the game.
News
Project Snorlax (Project Kabigon natively), is a social media project from The Pokémon Company in Japan, sharing Snorlax-focused content until the end of the month. It began on June 22nd, and has included short movies, and announcements of a new manga, a temporary Pokémon Center, and Snorlax coming to The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero DLC in Pokémon Scarlet & Violet.
Source: Pokémon
Feature: Interview with Lawrence Schwedler
We are very excited to share our interview with Lawrence Schwedler, who was the Audio Director for Pokémon Puzzle League for the Nintendo 64, and composed some original arrangements for the game. Lawrence worked at Nintendo Software Technology for over thirteen years, working on a wide variety of popular IP, such as Ridge Racer, Wave Race, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Metroid Prime Hunters and The Legend of Zelda (Collector’s Edition for GameCube).
It’s wonderful to be interviewing you Lawrence! Please take this opportunity to introduce yourself to our readers, and tell us about your connection to the Pokémon franchise!
Lawrence:
I was the audio director for Nintendo Software Technology in Redmond, Washington from 1999 to 2012. One of the first titles I worked on at NST was Pokémon Puzzle League for the N64.
During your time at NST, you worked on a variety of popular titles such as Wave Race, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Metroid Prime Hunters and Rhythm Heaven. How did you and NST get the opportunity to work on Pokémon Puzzle League and with the Pokémon licence?
Lawrence:
One of NST’s first projects was an unpublished puzzle fighter for the N64 called Panel de Pon. Shortly after I joined NST in 1999, Nintendo gave us permission to redesign Panel de Pon using the Pokémon franchise.
We collaborated with 4Kids Entertainment, the New York production company doing the English language localization of the Pokémon anime. They provided us with voice recordings of Pokémon and human characters, as well as MIDI files for music from the anime and from the 1999 soundtrack album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master. It was a blast.
The cut scenes were a great addition, I had forgotten about them until I played the game again recently. In regard to the audio assets, were you satisfied with what you received at the time, or was there content you wish you could have got that was not accessible to you?
Lawrence:
PPL was the first major console title I got to work on as NST’s audio director, and I had my hands full just trying to meet expectations. I do remember 4Kids being pretty good about sending us everything we asked for, including the original MIDI files for all the music from the TV shows, and all the cutscenes.
I'm curious to hear what it was like to work at NST as part of a larger team. Can you give us an insight into the working environment and the relationship you had with your colleagues?
Lawrence:
NST was the brainchild of its chairman, Claude Comair, who also founded DigiPen Institute of Technology, which was located next door. When I joined the studio in 1999 there were maybe 30 employees as I recall, many of whom were graduates of DigiPen’s original campus in Vancouver, B.C. It was a talented international team of programmers, artists, and designers, and it was a blast working with them. We had an NST soccer team that played against the team from DigiPen. In those days we worked long, long hours to prove ourselves to the parent company in Kyoto. I still hang out with many of the people I worked with back then.
What was it like to work with Nintendo in Japan or other partners on the Pokémon licence?
Lawrence:
As I recall, Nintendo was pretty particular about ensuring that we conformed to the guidelines of the Pokémon franchise, but I don’t remember having any trouble getting the audio work approved. My memory is that 4Kids gave us all the resources we asked for, including the source MIDI files from the composers, all the voice files we needed, and custom full-motion video cut scenes with voice acting. We also got to work with Nintendo of Europe, who provided localized German and French dialog for the SKUs for those countries.
Almost all of the music in Pokémon Puzzle League consisted of MIDI arrangements of larger orchestral themes heard in the Pokémon television series and movies. What was it like to translate them into a more legible format that could work for the Nintendo 64 while ensuring they sounded as good as possible?
Lawrence:
Because of limited storage, all of the music in the game is produced by MIDI files played at runtime that trigger virtual instrument samples. I had to build those sample banks based on the instruments needed for each composition. I built a custom sample bank for each instrument that was as small as it could possibly be.
For example, each virtual instrument contained only those pitches required for the range of notes used in the composition. I also tried to find the lowest sample rate possible that still sounded ok for the instrument. I enjoyed the advantages of MIDI, such as the ability to change tempo or key on the fly.
Were there any tracks in particular that were difficult to translate?
Lawrence:
The orchestral arrangements were the hardest. Some instruments sound ok when they’re sampled, such as harp, piano, bass, and drums; others suck, such as strings, brass, sax, and guitar.
We will certainly be coming on to that in a moment! During the development of Puzzle League, are you aware of anything that had to be scrapped due to time constraints, either from the sound department or the game as a whole?
Lawrence:
Not that I recall, but that was 23 years ago, so I could be wrong. I would imagine some ideas came up during the design phase that had to be abandoned due to technical or budget constraints, but that happens on most game projects.
Since you worked with those audio samples over a long period of time, we were wondering, do you have a favourite Pokémon, or character from the series?
Lawrence:
I always thought Mewtwo was the most badass Pokémon – maybe because I got to write an original musical theme for him in PPL :)
That’s a great segway into my next question, because there is one track in the game that you yourself composed: Mewtwo’s theme. To hear it, players need to reach the very end of the game on a higher difficulty level. What are you able to tell us about how that theme came to be?
Lawrence:
For whatever reason, 4Kids was unable to give us any music for Mewtwo, so I was excited to be able to write some original music for the game. I knew I had to make a custom sample bank, so I decided to record a series of licks on my electric guitar and build a piece of music around them.
It’s just a little groove, but I liked that it sounded different from anything else in the game, because Mewtwo is such a special character. There are also a couple of other pieces of my original compositions in the game – maybe Misty’s theme, and one or two others that I can’t remember.
I was amazed to learn that live recorded guitar was used in Mewtwo's theme! Do you still have that guitar?
Lawrence:
I do! I just used it last night to record some parts for a game I’m working on. I’ll send you a photo – it’s an American-made Strat that I bought at Guitar Center in Hollywood a long time ago. As you can see, I modded it with a Roland GK-2A MIDI pickup so I could use it as a MIDI controller instead of using a keyboard.
It looks to be in great condition after all these years! If you had the opportunity to work on the game again today with modern day technology (e.g. a remaster), can you tell us how you might approach it?
Lawrence:
The music would all be recordings of real instruments or state-of-the-art virtual instruments, and it would be fun to try some adaptive music design to make the music seamlessly transform to support the gameplay. Perhaps there would be more Pokemon and human voice recordings for greater variety.
What did you learn from working on Pokémon Puzzle League that you have found helpful over the course of your career?
Lawrence:
Working within limitations imposed by technology or budget can force you to be creative in ways that might not occur to you if you have unlimited resources. I think this is a philosophy that Nintendo has used, as evidenced by the success of the Switch. The platform may not compete with the technical specifications of PlayStation or Xbox, but its games focus instead on how to bring a new experience to players with creative design.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with us Lawrence! Do you have any words directly for fans of the game?
Lawrence:
Thank you for playing! We couldn’t do it without you :)
We would like to thank Lawrence for taking the time out to speak to us about Pokémon Puzzle League. We are forever grateful to him and the team at NST for their work on creating some cherished memories for many Pokémon fans. At the time of writing, Pokémon Puzzle League is available to play for Nintendo Switch owners via the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass.
Mailbag
Want to be a part of our newsletter? You’re welcome to submit content including (but not limited to) questions, fanart, short stories, your cherished memories, photographs of your collection, and anything else you think you want us to see. This week, we received a piece of Pokémon fanart from Poké Trainer Theo!
I really like Nessa in terms of her design when she was first introduced as a Gym Leader which is why I was inspired to make artworks of her. I actually have a really hard time with the pose I gave her and have to look up a lot of references just to get it right. I’m not really the type of person who really does background that well but I at least did the best that I can with it.
Poké Trainer Theo, Philippines
Thank you for sharing your fanart with us, Theo! Nessa was a very popular character from the Pokémon Sword & Shield games, so we understand why you would want to draw her. We think you did a fantastic job, and hope that you keep up the great work!
Super cool! Pokemon Puzzle League was an awesome game.