Mineko's Night Market devs say Game Pass is "an honor that we don’t take lightly"

The beautiful social sim Mineko's Night Market launches for Xbox and Game Pass today — we spoke to Meowza Games all about the gameplay, achievement design, and more!

Heidi Nicholas

Published 26 Oct 2023

Mineko's Night Market is almost here: it launches for Xbox today and joins Xbox Game Pass as a day-one addition. We've been looking forward to this gorgeous social sim adventure game for some time, and had quite a few questions: luckily, Meowza Games co-founder Brent Kobayashi was kind enough to answer everything we wanted to know about Mineko's Night Market's gameplay, achievement design, story and more!

What is Mineko's Night Market?

Mineko’s Night Market is a social sim adventure game inspired by Japanese culture. It’s developed by Meowza Games and published by Humble Games.

When does Mineko's Night Market launch for Xbox, and will it be on Game Pass?

If this looks like your kind of thing, then you’re in luck — Mineko's Night Market launches for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and Xbox Game Pass today!

“Growing up playing a lot of games ourselves, you never really imagine the possibility that one day one of the biggest platforms in games would recognize and give a game you made the chance to be showcased to their massive player base,” Kobayashi says about having Mineko’s Night Market come to Xbox Game Pass on day one. “It’s an honor that we don’t take lightly and we are extremely appreciative of the opportunity.”

What’s it about?

We play as Mineko herself, who moves to a village on an island below Mount Fugu. “In the early days, Mt Fugu Island was home to the burgeoning textile industry. Many of the crops grown around the island were focused on developing material for fabric exports,” Kobayashi says. “Due to natural causes and infestation, the industry fell to decline and those who continued to survive were thought to be blessed by the mythological Sun Cat, Nikko. As time passed, the lore of Nikko began to dwindle until recently some folks around the island began to purport sightings of him. Mineko, who has just arrived on the island with her dad, is immediately thrust into the mystery surrounding his sightings by an exuberant local youth heck-bent on involving anyone who would listen to his theories.” We’ll be working to revitalise the village and uncover its mysteries.

How does Mineko's Night Market play?

The island and its inhabitants have fallen on hard times, and we’ll be gathering resources, crafting items, and selling them at the Night Market while attempting to restore the village to something like its better days. All of this comes in addition to taking on jobs, solving puzzles, making friends with the villagers, exploring the island and, of course, appreciating all of the game’s many cats.

“The player will be free to explore at their desired pace. The Night Market takes place every in-game week (Saturdays) which gives ample time for the player to gather resources to craft goods to sell at the market,” Kobayashi explains. Crafting items involves mini-games at Mineko’s work bench, and you’ll then need to haggle with people at the Night Market to get the best prices. “Additionally, the player can also sell most other items they discover around the island at their market booth if they desire. The player can also donate these items to one of several museums that open up in the village. And there will always be a villager or two that may be seeking the player’s help with something.”

On top of this, the Night Market will have its own games such as cat racing, parades, sumo-suit wrestling, and more. “Through the Night Market games and events, the player will have the chance to receive rare items and trophies that would otherwise be unattainable in the world. The market is also a place where the player can learn some history of the island and the market itself through a series of interactive plays.”

What’s the world like?

Mineko’s Night Market celebrates Japanese culture, and we asked what prompted this focus and a Japanese-inspired setting. “I am Japanese-Canadian born in Vancouver, Canada, to two Japanese-born parents,” Kobayashi says. “Growing up, I was often exposed to Japanese media and culture including visits to the local Powell Street Festival, an annual festival of Japanese food and culture. As I grew older, I was able to reflect more on my love of the culture and ultimately seemed like a fitting backdrop for a game.”

Interestingly, along with the cosier aspects of exploring, resource gathering, and crafting, we’ll also have some evasion to do due to the presence of mysterious Agents on the island. “Many of the locations in the game will be filled with hostile antagonists so the player will have to use various techniques, items, and know-how to bypass them before the locations are available for resource collecting.”

One aspect of Mineko’s Night Market that’s stood out since the game was announced is its beautiful art style. “We were always drawn towards the hand-painted look of backgrounds of cartoons like Doraemon (1979), Samurai Jack, and Song of the Sea, and we’ve also loved the art in children’s books, especially those of the style of Mary Blair,” Kobayashi explains. “We felt that these inspirations that led to the art style of Mineko’s Night Market lent towards a more child-like naivety, something mirrored in the character of Mineko herself.”

Any news on the Mineko's Night Market achievements?

We don’t yet have the Mineko's Night Market achievements, but we’ll be sure to update here when we do! In the meantime, Kobayashi gave us an idea of the team’s achievement design process. “As a game that featured a lot of items to collect and locations to visit, coming up with achievements felt like a natural course of game design for our title. We wanted to not just spend the focus of achievements on any particular feature, but rather ones that encompass many aspects of gameplay including achievements tied to storyline progression, success in minigames, and items collected throughout the player’s adventures.”

As for what makes for an ideal achievement list, Kobayashi says, “We tend to prefer achievements that players will experience throughout their natural course of play, while also peppering in a few harder-to-achieve awards. Our goal was to strike a balance between allowing the player to experience the story at a natural pace while also feeling like they’re progressing through the achievements in the game that tie directly back to progressing through the narrative and the various events themselves.”

Mineko’s Night Market is a game we’ve been looking forward to for a long time, and once it’s out on Xbox Game Pass today, it will have at last arrived on all platforms. “We hope people have a pleasant experience getting to know the characters and the elements of our little world we created and embrace not just the culture of the game but the various real world references that helped form what Mineko’s Night Market ultimately became,” Kobayashi concludes.

Mineko's Night Market is out for Xbox and Game Pass today, with all those other upcoming Game Pass games to look forward to too!

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Written by Heidi Nicholas

Heidi tends to lean towards indie games, RPGs, and open-world games on Xbox, and when not playing Disney Dreamlight Valley, happily installs every new wholesome game that appears on Xbox Game Pass, before diving back into favorites like The Witcher 3. She's looking forward to Age of Mythology Retold, Everwild, Fable, and Avowed on the Xbox horizon. Heidi graduated with an MA in English Literature before joining the TrueAchievements team.