Nintendo has published a deep-dive into the making of its shock new hardware, the interactive alarm clock Alarmo, and explained why it avoided adding game-like elements to the device.
While Alarmo features characters from across Nintendo’s video game franchises who encourage you to wake up, it does not include anything you’d call gameplay. In a just-published Ask the Developer Vol. 14, Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, producer Yosuke Tamori, of Nintendo’s Entertainment Planning & Development Department, and director Tetsuya Akama, of the Technology Development Department, explained why.
It turns out Nintendo considered adding game-like elements but ultimately decided against it because the company didn’t want to encourage users to, for example, wake up early or just not wake up at all.
“If we implemented game-like elements, it can be assumed that users would continue to play with it in bed,” Tamori said. “In that case, it might end up disturbing their sleep instead. We didn't want to create that kind of situation because we wanted users to wake up refreshed. So we decided early on to exclude such playable elements.”
Akama added that Nintendo hopes people will use Alarmo for a long time, and because of that it was concerned about the impact game-like elements might have had on users.
“For example, if we were to create a system in which you receive a reward every time you wake up, it may motivate you to wake up as long as you’re still receiving the reward,” he explained. “But if we create that system, once the rewards stop, you may lose your motivation to wake up.
“What's worse, once you get used to that system, you might even start to think, ‘Well, if there’s no reward, then I don’t need to get up.’ We concluded that it would be best to remove game-like elements to encourage users to continue using it for a long time. Also, there were comments from the development team like, ‘Let’s not give users more tasks to do.’ "
This was all part of a philosophy not to be overly pushy with Alarmo, the pair said, so there are no gold medals for waking up earlier than the alarm time or bronze medals for waking up later. Rather, Nintendo wants Alarmo to be something that gently supports users. “We hope that Alarmo will stand in a place where people will casually use it for a long time,” Tamori said.
Indeed, it sounds like Nintendo has perhaps overly ambitious hopes for Alarmo’s influence on the way people sleep across the world.
Akama said he hopes Alarmo “will establish a new convention for waking up.” “You wake up, enjoy listening to the game world for a while, and just by getting out of bed, a fanfare will play automatically and the alarm will stop,” he continued. “I hope that being able to change how waking up that day feels by choosing a different alarm sound will become a global standard in the future.
“Just as touch screens and automatic doors are commonplace for today's generation, I'd be excited to see a new generation that's grown up with Alarmo and thinks of an alarm clock as something that makes a sound when you roll over, and stops automatically when you get out of bed.”
Alarmo is due out early 2025 priced $99.99, but Nintendo Switch Online members in the U.S. and Canada can buy it right now via the My Nintendo Store.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
