VERACITY IN GAMING
VERACITY IN GAMING
Final Fantasy creator looks back on Square’s genius programmer Nasir Gebelli
Final Fantasy series creator Hironobu Sakaguchi looks back on Nasir Gebelli, the talented programmer who worked on Square's NES games.
Exclusive: Visions of Mana’s directors talk about the high-speed, hands-on game development process that’s only possible at a hybrid studio
Visions of Mana directors Ryosuke Yoshida and Kenji Ozawa reveal how Ouka Studios advantageously combines Japanese and Chinese ways of developing games.
Tekken’s quirky character voice lines were a way to entice console gamers, Harada reveals
Tekken director explains how the fighting game series developed unique characters such as Lili, Dragunov and Bryan
How can indie devs stay afloat amidst game industry cutbacks?
Mass layoffs and risk-averse publishers; it's hard for indie devs to get funding in the current game industry climate. We examine solutions and successes.
Are Japan’s console and mobile game markets shrinking in favor of PC games? Developers discuss
Japanese developers offer their views on the state of Japan's video game industry, including the decline of the mobile and console markets.
ByAmber V
Can a video game without “stress” be entertaining? Users discuss tendency towards eliminating stress from games
A Japanese developer's musings on how "stress" (and a lack of it) affects games has caused discourse on the topic in the gaming community.
- ByAmber V
Chinese Unity has advanced features not available globally – miHoYo and other local partners may be why
Tuanjie, the Chinese version of Unity, contains a Nanite-like virtual geometry system not found in the global version. This may be the influence of miHoYo and other partners of Unity China.
Japanese dev names the real enemy of all game developers – insufficient memory
A recent post by a Japanese programmer about one persistent difficulty haunting developers over the decades has gone viral.
My annual income is under $300 – Japanese dev on the harsh reality of indie creators
Japanese indie developer comments on the harsh reality of being an independent creator, reporting an annual income of less than 300$.
- ByAmber V
The Exit 8 dev reveals how he made a top-selling Steam game in UE5 in 9 months
In a recent interview, Kotake Create, the developer of the Steam hit "anomaly spotting game" The Exit 8, reveals details about his creative process and how the game came to be.
- ByAmber V
RPG Maker XP is available for free on Steam for a limited time
As part of a limited time campaign, RPG Maker XP will be available for free on Steam until February 20 (JST). Newer RPG Maker titles are available at discounts.
- ByAmber V
Resident Evil 1 director Shinji Mikami was against jump scares, but sequels did not follow his ideals
Reminiscing about Resident Evil 1's development, Capcom veteran Hideki Kamiya recently revealed that director Shinji Mikami had some rules about creating fear in the player.
Why are one-time purchase mobile games getting rarer? Japanese dev explains
Japanese developer explains why the mobile game market is seeing less and less of one-time purchase game releases, in favor of free-to-play games with frequent microtransactions.
- ByAmber V
How did the niche gem Suzuki Bakuhatsu come to be? The producer explains the bizarre bomb disposal game’s origin
Takehiro Ando reveals how the PlayStation 1's quirkiest Japanese puzzle game ended up featuring cute models, weird bombs and a robot anime parody
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth dev shows off game’s C++ code, other Japanese devs join the trend
Yutaka Ito, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio’s Technical Manager, shared a snippet of the actual source code of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, garnering a huge response and starting a trend among devs.
- ByAmber V
Japanese game developer Level-5 reveals how they use generative AI like Stable Diffusion
Ni no Kuni and Professor Layton developer Level-5 demonstrate exactly how they use generative AI to assist game development and promotion.
This Steam Dev Cheat Sheet includes tips on how to improve your sales
Veteran game developer Matt Hackett has created a “Steam Dev Cheat Sheet” that offers tips for releasing a game on Steam. The sheet has caught the attention of many fellow developers.
Is there a homogenization of character sizes in Japanese games? Developers weigh in
A tweet posted by an illustrator points out differences between character designs in older Japanese games compared to more recent ones. A number of experienced game developers and character designers chimed in on the subject.
A classic PS1 game masked loading times by having the protagonist trip and fall
A Twitter user introduced how Doki Doki Poyatchio, a Japan-exclusive PlayStation 1 RPG released in 1998, handled loading data. The character in the game would fall down and the game would load while they were getting up.
What game developers want the public to know about making games
Many gamers are knowledgeable about the released games they’ve played, but how much do they know about how they were made? PushDustIn, who runs PR at the Kyoto-based VR/AR game developer CharacterBank, took to Twitter to poll game developers about what they wished the public knew about making games.
Translators in Japan discuss the importance of LQA in video games
Japanese game translator Yosei Muto recently took to Twitter to discuss the importance of LQA in the game development process. The series of tweets drew responses from game developers, translators, and others who are informed about the industry.
One indie game developer saw surprising sales numbers on Nintendo Switch and spoke about their success
Japanese indie game developer Hikari Itsuki recently took to Twitter to say that the Nintendo Switch version of their new game Magic Potion Millionaire sold “startlingly well.” Just how well did it sell and what was the reason behind the success? We reached out to Itsuki to find out.
