Interview de Micky Albert (Super Chain Crusher Horizon)

Pour toute discussion d'ordre général sur les shoots et les topics impossible à ranger ailleurs =)
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Mickey
King Fossile
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Inscription : 28 févr. 2004, 00:08

C'est ici que ça se passe : http://www.shmup.com/index.php?id=896

Et c'est sur ce topic qu'on en parle !

Version UK pour nos amis anglophones :

1 - Can you please present yourself and detail your background? What led you to develop video games?

I was born on 1971. I started programing when I was in 4th grade. My first computer was a MZ-80. It didn’t even have color display.
When I was in elementary school, I wanted to design airplanes. I wanted to use the MZ-80 to compute aerodynamics. Then one day I played a video game called “Dig Dug” by NAMCO. I was inspired by it so much that I began developing video games.
In 8th grade, I started to work part time as a programmer, and in 9th grade, published my first game.


2 - Can you present your company?

In the Winter of my 9th grade year, I started my own company, “MNM Software.” Because under the Japanese law a minor cannot set up a company, I waited until I turned 20 to register the company.
I developed “Shuffle Pack Cafe” for Broder Bund Japan, and “Slap Fight MD” for ToaPlan. I designed the gameplay and developed sound driver for “Street of Rage 2,” and I published my first number 1 sales ranking title, “Star Wars Attack On The Death Star” on ’91 from my company. It was a happy time.
But then I got sick. At the worst moment, my weight went down all the way to 36kg, and I had to close down the office.
I returned to work when I was 24 years old, and changed the name of the company to current Mindware. I wanted to make a game-changing game, and not the game for the mass. Besides the SCCH, we have published numerous other interesting games like “MaBoshi’s Arcade” and “Flame Tail.”
Please check the past titles and interviews below.

http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php ... o_Ichikawa
http://gdri.smspower.org/wiki/index.php/Mindware


3 - Let's talk about Super Chain Crusher Horizon (SCCH), the "biggest shmup ever developed" with a "hyper-high-definition" of 3200 x 800. Why so many pixels?

SCCH’s biggest attraction is the “long chained explosion;” To make best use of this characteristic, it was important to make the screen horizontally long.
Also, as far as I know, the number of downloadable games on Internet is so large, that most games go down unnoticed. SCCH’s “crazy” 3200-by-800-resolution has massive-impact among the gamers’.
For these reasons, I decided to go with this idea despite the concerns within the company.
Everyone in the development team opposed making the SCCH with the largest ever 3200-by-800-resolution. I had to make an elaborate proposal to convince them, even though I’m the CEO and the largest shareholder.


4 - SCCH has a big brother, Chain Crusher, released in 2011 on XBLA. Why did you decide to make an extended version of your game?

SCCH had three big brothers:
Shot(May.2011 Petitcom),
Chain Crusher(Aug.2011 XBOX LIG),
and Chain Crusher Enchanced Version(Dec.2011 XBOX LIG).
Tadashi Ito, who programed all the Chain Crusher series on Petitcom, originally programmed Shot in his holidays. He made it as an extension of his hobby, but ended up producing it for DSi for download.
Shot was a very simple shooting game with no boss; if you missed enemy, they accumulated in the left side of the screen as in Chain Crusher, and the explosion of an enemy would trigger the chain explosion.
At that time, we were between the projects, so decided on publishing it.
When we finished the CCEV project, we decided on making the chain explosion even more prominent. This is how we came about the idea of having 3200-by-800 resolution.


5 - Enemies don't shoot, that's very rare in a shooting game! Why did you decide to adopt this type of gameplay?

As far as I know, there is only one shooting game in which the enemy doesn’t shoot, and that’s “Moon Cresta.” We kept the characteristics of the original game, Shot. The shooting game with non-firing enemy is super rare, so I wanted to make this characteristic evolve. Mindware has been the maker of unique games since the beginning, for this is our philosophy. The non-firing enemy accentuates SCCH’s uniqueness.
 

6 - Can you share with us your experience with digital video game download service?

I made CC, CCEV for XBOX LIG for download, but this experience didn’t prepare me for SCCH at all. Moreover, SCCH is on DESURA, PLAYISM, and GMG, but it’s so different on STEAM. It’s very difficult.
SCCH passed the STEAM Greenlight on November 2013, but its release was on September 2014. It was difficult to adapt to STEAM API, and we had to deal with it during another big project.
 

7 - You also contribute to the writing of "Shooting Gameside"?

I keep a serialized articles titled “Why did shooting game died out?” In the early stage of video game history, shooting game was the only type of game, and therefore it is natural for its share to decrease as other genres developed. However, I think the shooting game as a genre is too weak now. I write about shooting game in the context of larger society, not in the context of video game industry.
The articles get mixed reception. I even had a 30 minutes talk show in 2012. It was a great success.


8 - What's your point of view concerning the evolution and the future of shooting games? Do you plan to develop other shooting games in a near future?

When the shooting games were played in arcade, the game makers had to keep the playing time for each coin spent short. This is the biggest reason the popularity of shooting games has declined.
On the other hand, downloading games has become very common, and made it easier to throw in new ideas.
It’s always good to have standards and classics, but a genre always need new ideas to stay fresh. Compare to 10 years ago, companies and persons who can publish games have increased dramatically.
For these reasons, new types of shooting games and old classics have been published in various platforms lately, and I believe that there is a good chance that shooting games will see a rise in popularity again.

At Mindware, we are developing a completely new kind of game right now.
Whether it will be published through us, or through other big names like we have throughout our history, I don’t know. It’s already at the playable stage though.
Most of the developing members are veterans who have been in the center of things for game titles that has over 3 million sales record.
Veterans with many achievements are great, but I would also love to have the translator for this interview, KATIE SE7EN, a DJ/Composer who has experience playing in Ibiza.


9 - I think SSCH will be on sale very soon?

It is on 50% off Mystery Midweek sale for three days from February 10th. Please try this super unique game!

10 - Do you have a final word to adress to the members of the shmup community?

It is said that shooting game has been dying out since the mid 90's. Nowadays, however, 2D games are becoming fresh again because 3D games are so common, in the market that no longer centers around the arcade.
We are going to keep publishing games with new and unique ideas.
In the game where we don't have to kill people, let's kick some alien butts and keep the shooting game genre alive!
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