Nintendo has been cagey on who exactly is developing Donkey Kong Bananza, but the interview did finally reveal several of the people who have been working on this ambitious adventure.

Kenta Motokura

The director of Super Mario 3D World and Super Mario Odyssey, Motokura serves as a producer on Donkey Kong Bananza. “I crafted the game’s concept and set the direction for the overall structure and player controls,” Motokura added.

Kazuya Takahashi

Having previously worked “on a broad spectrum of games,” Takahashi is one of the directors on Donkey Kong Bananza and he says he gave direction on the game design and worked on the level design, cut scenes, and text creation.

Wataru Tanaka

Tanaka was involved in the development of several 3D Mario games, and as the programming director of Donkey Kong Bananza, he provided direction on the processing performance and utilization of system functions for Switch 2, as well as enemy behaviour.

Daisuke Watanabe

The art director of the Super Mario Galaxy games and a design lead on Super Mario 3D World, Watanabe oversaw Donkey Kong Bananza’s overall art direction.

Naoto Kubo

The sound director for Donkey Kong Bananza, Kubo composed the music for Super Mario Maker and led sound development on Super Mario Odyssey. Kubo added that he coordinated overall sound development on Bananza and also composed some of its music.