History
After development for Super Mario Galaxy was completed in late 2007, two employees from Software Development Group No. 2 of the Nintendo EAD Tokyo branch, Yoshiaki Koizumi and Hideaki Shimizu, decided to collaborate together on a small side-project. Koizumi described the collaboration as something like an "afterschool project" for the pair, as they had no goal in mind other than creating something fun.
Shimizu had wanted to create a network for quite some time, so they experimented with potential network-based ideas for the Nintendo Wii. Unaware of that the Nintendo DSi was in development at the time, Shimizu created a prototype application that would transmit pictures he'd drawn on a Nintendo DS touch screen to a Nintendo Wii, where they would be displayed on a TV.
When Koizumi saw what Shimizu had made, he thought it would be interesting to use the application to create flipbook-style animations, so Shimizu immediately got to work and implemented the animation feature in just two days. They continued to rapidly implement other features that they found interesting, such as using the DS's internal microphone to record sound effects over the animation.
In April 2008, they decided to share their project with others in the office under the name "Flipnote Workshop", to a rather mixed reception. Koizumi noted that one of the programmers rejected the idea entirely because they couldn't imagine anyone being interested in making flipbook animations on a game console.
While on the train, Koizumi had the idea of making the application into a "notepad", so that people could use it to write down notes and share them with others or keep them for themselves. When he next saw Shimizu, he suggested that the application should be called "Ugoku Memochou" ("Moving Memo Pad"), or "Ugomemo" for short.
For a while they considered using the Nintendo DS's local wireless connection to let users share Flipnotes with their friends, but this didn't feel like it was enough. They wanted a way to share Flipnote creations with others, which lead them back to the software that Shimizu had originally developed for the Wii. The idea was to create a WiiWare application that could be used to load the Flipnote Studio app onto a DS via DS Download Play, users could create Flipnotes on the DS, and send them to the Wii. Once they were on the Wii, they could be shared with the whole world through an online bulletin board.
At this point, only a select few within Nintendo knew about the then in-development Nintendo DSi, until Takashi Tezuka came from Nintendo's Kyoto offices to talk about it. Koizumi and Shimizu immediately realised that the DSi was the perfect console for their project, so they presented it to Tezuka.
Tezuka found the concept very unique, however he thought that if the project wasn't completed soon, then its window of opportunity would be missed. He quickly arranged a meeting between himself, Koizumi, Shimizu, and Nintendo's CEO, Satoru Iwata, to discuss working with Nintendo's Network Development Department to implement the online service.
Iwata was worried about not being able to release Flipnote Studio until late 2009, as the Network Development Department was already involved in a number of different projects. After thinking about it, he excitedly suggested a collaboration with Hatena Co., Ltd, a Japanese company who provide various social web-based services in Japan. Hatena's Research and Development department had recently moved their offices to Kyoto, Japan; the same city that Nintendo Corporate Labs where located in, hence Iwata's suggestion.
A meeting was later held with Junya Kondo and Teppei Ninomiya from Hatena, where Koizumi gave a presentation about the project. During the presentation, he experienced some technical difficulties, so instead he asked if he could give them a simple demo of the app directly. This struck a chord with Kondo, because Hatena barely ever used presentation software, preferring instead to "show the real thing".
The earliest known screenshot of the app, from a demo at Nintendo's Autumn 2008 conference.
A team of three Hatena developers begin working on Flipnote Hatena, lead by Teppei Ninomiya.
After 3 months of work, Hatena held a press conference at the Marunouchi Building Conference Square to announce a new service that they had been developing in collaboration with Nintendo for an upcoming DSiWare application.
The conference began with Junya Kundo of Hatena presenting a brief overview of Hatena's existing services followed by a short introduction to Flipnote Hatena. He then passed over to Yoshiaki Koizumi of Nintendo for an explanation of Flipnote Studio and a promotional video.
Nintendo's Yoshiaki Koizumi introducing Flipnote Studio during the Flipnote Hatena press conference.
Kondo then returned to join Koizumi onstage for a live demonstration. Koizumi created a basic Flipnote to demonstrate the app's animation capabilities and Kondo uploaded it to Flipnote Hatena while talking about some of its community features.
Hatena's Junya Kundo demonstrating Flipnote Hatena on a Nintendo DSi.
After the demonstration, Kondo went on to talk about the Flipnote Hatena website for the PC and shared some details about its development and financing. He noted that Hatena hadn't actually taken any payment from Nintendo, instead he saw Flipnote Hatena as an opportunity to introduce a wider audience to Hatena's other services, with some revenue coming in from advertising and selling premium features.
A preview of the Flipnote Hatena website was released later that day, featuring sample Flipnotes mostly created by Hatena and Nintendo employees. An archived version can be found here.
An advertisement for Flipnote Studio, as seen in Shinjuku Station. This photo was taken on the day after release.
This update was provided for free though the Nintendo DSi Shop. It was still possible to continue using the old version until July 1, when updating to version 2 became required in order to use Flipnote Hatena. The main changes included:
- Additional sample Flipnotes
- "Advanced" toolset mode
- "Back up" feature to bulk-save all your Flipnotes to the SD card
- Significant improvements to the online functions of Flipnote Hatena
- An update to the DSi Menu icon
This update improved the internet communication in order to reduce the number of errors. In addition, Hatena ID registration became available for Flipnote Hatena.
This a photo was taken exactly when Flipnote Hatena went live at Hatena's offices in Kyoto, Japan. Source
TODO: more details of the western release, and various flipnote events like usomemo/foolipnote, zelda, etc
Flipnote Hatena users gradually began to leave the service after the Nintendo 3DS was released in 2011. As a result, development speed slowed down and the Flipnote Hatena team was downsized with staff being reassigned to other Hatena projects.
Sometime around April 2013 (?), the staff were made aware that the service would be closed down to make way for Flipnote Studio 3D, a Flipnote Studio sequel for the Nintendo 3DS that was in the later stages of development.
Eitaro Fukamachi (nitro_idiot), a developer who joined the Flipnote Hatena team in 2011, shared their thoughts about the sudden announcement via Twitter, saying "Even after a service is closed, the history will always remain"._
In a blog post, Fukamachi also shared an image of some of the remaining Flipnote Hatena staff, taken around the time that the service was closed on May 31, 2013. Pictured are nitro_idiot to the left, chira_rhythm55 (designer) in the middle, and takapiero (director) to the right.
On May 14th, the shutdown was announced in the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News.
TODO: shutdown events
PBSDS released the repo for hatena-server on Github, becoming the first fan-made Flipnote Hatena replacement server to go public.
Some internal changes at Hatena (unintentionally?) caused the Flipnote Hatena auth server (one of the last parts of the service left active) to cease functioning properly.