Recently, Japanese outlet GameMakers held a lengthy interview with TomozoP, the video game developer behind numerous popular (and wacky titles) such as the butt-controlled Nintendo Switch fighting game Ketsu Battler and the “one and only tofu action game” The Strongest TOFU.
Active both as an independent developer and as part of the game company KAYAC, TomozouP has worked on over a 100 different projects over the past 10 years. However, keeping fresh ideas consistently flowing isn’t always easy, and in the interview, the developer admits to facing a big creator’s block during the production of The Strongest TOFU. So, in a slightly unusual move, TomozoP decided to become a certified Tofu Meister in order to overcome the standstill.
The Strongest TOFU started out as a submission to the First GYAAR Studio Indie Game Contest held by Bandai Namco Entertainment and Bandai Namco Studios, where it was selected for an award. As a love letter to Nintendo’s action games like Super Mario Galaxy, it took TomozoP only about a month to flesh out the concept and prepare around 80% of the game elements. However, things didn’t go as smoothly when the time came to expand The Strongest TOFU into a full-priced title.
“Midway through development, I felt stuck when it came to level design, and I was stuck having created less than 10 stages in half a year,” TomozoP said. He explained that there were three key factors that helped him break out of the rut and keep the creative juices flowing. One was having the publisher Phoenixx get involved with managing development, and the second one was getting a dedicated composer (Nagamatsu Ryo; who worked on numerous Nintendo titles like the Mario Kart and Splatoon series) to work on the BGM.
The third came with the realization that “despite trying to make a game about tofu, I knew almost nothing about tofu.” This led TomozoP to get an actual Tofu Meister Certificate. “It helped me tie all of the stages to the process of how tofu is made, including the tofu trivia as well. At that point, it felt like all of the pieces had fallen into place. This is something I hadn’t put in the plan for the game, and just as Yanase (Yohei, Senior Advocate at Unity Technologies Japan) said, I’m sure that it’s an idea that could never come from a game company.”
According to an X post from last year, TomozoP got the idea to become a certified Tofu Meister after playing the agriculture-inspired action RPG Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin. “I was deeply impressed by it, and it made me think that I need to go above and beyond in order to truly face the concept.”
The Strongest TOFU is available to play on the Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam, and it currently holds a Very Positive review score on the platform.
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