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Post by dareka on Jun 28, 2018 22:22:37 GMT -6
I few more tidbits of feedback after a bit more of playtime.
1. I would really appreciate a Japanese language option - not just the voices, but the text as well. Not sure it's possible at this point, but it's something I'd love to have.
2. So, I went back to the starting point in the Minerva, and seen Johannes there was really odd. I mean, you supposedly already made land. It might be funny if he quipped something about what he's doing there, but you can't even interact with him - he's just part of the furniture.
3. It was mentioned a lot in an earlier thread, but having the save room in the Minerva look exactly like those in the castle is a bit jarring.
4. PC games normally have lots of settings - not just graphical settings, but volume controls for voices, effects, BGM, etc. I know there's a strong possibility they'll be there for the retail version, I thought I'd mention it just in case.
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Post by dareka on Jun 28, 2018 15:00:34 GMT -6
Here are my impressions, having played it for around 2 and half hours.
OVERALL
I was really, really impressed with just about everything: music, gameplay, story, voice acting. Gameplay-wise, the enemies have far more interesting patterns of behaviour than in previous IGAvanias, which is something that adds a lot to the game. It just felt like the complete experience, and it feels just great. Can't wait for the game's release.
Now for the constructive feedback.
PLAY BALANCING
While HP for regular enemies felt just right, I had issues with the HP for both Vepar and Zangetsu.
Vepar was a push-over: I mean, I know she's the first boss, but you can basically spam regular attacks like a zombie and she's dead before you can even learn her attack patterns. It was a little underwhelming for such a visually imposing boss.
On the other hand, Zangetsu takes it another extreme: I had to learn every last nuance of his behavior through several very long tries before I could beat him. True, I was probably under-leveled, and it also had something to do with the fact that I avoided using potions and cheap attacks, but still... His attack patterns and the damage he deals are fine - he just has waaayyy too much HP in this build.
LOCKED DOORS
I don't know if some of the doors were locked simply because it's a demo, but it would be nice to get a little message saying you need a key to open it, or that it's locked for the demo, or what not. I just don't know at this point if I'm not supposed to go there, or if I'm missing a secret or something.
QUEST PROGRESS
It would be really nice if you could get a message telling you when you kill a monster that's on your quest, or at the very least that tells you that you've completed a quest once you're done "killing'em dead." It beats going to the menu screen, and if some people find it annoying, you could just add a toggle.
AESTHETICS
1. I was kind of hoping Miriam's character model would look a bit sharper than it did. The closeup is fine, but the in-game model looks a bit... washed out, maybe it's the textures, maybe it's the level of detail - I don't know, and it's a minor quibble.
2. Miriam's mouth... looks ugly, particularly when she speaks. Her lips are more clearly defined than any other character, and they feel too big. Always distracting when she talks.
3. Dominique's idle animation... I know you need something that loops, but her hands look like she's groping an invisible balloon. Creeps me out.
4. Anne ... her character model itself creeps me out.
5. The curtains inside the castle look fake, particularly because they don't move or blow in the wind or anything.
And that's about it for the moment!
EDIT: It's been already mentioned, but an option to select which cosmetic item to show for each slot would be greatly appreciated. Some items have really good specs but look awful (*cough* *dullahan mask* *cough*) and vice-versa, so this is definitely something that needs to be in the final game.
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Post by dareka on Jun 26, 2018 21:41:30 GMT -6
Personally, it was Miriam's model that bothered me, and not because of the lipsyinching, but because she has lips at all,so to speak.
Specifically, the shadow on her lower lip makes them stand out in a bad way. It doesn't look so bad on the guys, but on female character models, because they have finer features, it'll stand out like a sore thumb.
But yes, hand-drawn portraits would be nice...
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Post by dareka on Jun 25, 2018 13:40:05 GMT -6
dareka Pure Miriam If we're talking common elements, I'd say that multi-winged imagery would be a better candidate, as it can be fit into multiple contexts better than a couch. Add in the particle effects, and it would be easily recognizable regardless of what Miriam sits on. One of the benefits of using 3D models over 2D sprites is that animations are relatively cheap(particularly when multiple costumes are involved). While most places in the castle could have a standardized save room, some - such as the ones I mentioned before - might warrant more thematic substitutions. The winged imagery could work too, but it would have to be a bit brighter, or a different color, I think, because it would need to stand out. But if it did, winged imagery + something to sit on could also work. Also, I'm not too big on those magically sealed doors. It's just a common door that requires you do wave your arm in front of it to open (also, why the arm? Miriam is literally stuffed with magical crystal energy so if nothing else the door should detect magic as soon as she approaches, behave like a modern automatic door and just open). Just make it a normal door and don't interrupt the action unnecessarily OR give it some other purpose. You know, I hadn't thought about this before, but I think you're right that there's not much of a purpose to the action. I think they might use it for important doors further into the game, to give it some more drama... this would then be an action you'd only have to execute once. That's the only reason I can think of for it being in there.
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Post by dareka on Jun 25, 2018 10:45:30 GMT -6
Enkeria Context sensitive save rooms would be fantastic. I actually think it would be interesting if they played on the whole wine glass thing from SotN and gave her a drink at each save point. On the Galleon, maybe there's a bottle of rum at a table with a stool, perhaps some other rooms have wine or tea, or what have you. A chapel area might have her pray, and that Japanese area might have a shrine where she cleanses herself. Something to give each area some character. If it's a save room, you'll want to have a common indicator that it's a save point, so keeping the red couch everywhere would probably be best, even if it's kind of jarring in some of the settings. Also, at this points, if the devs weren't contemplating this from the start, we'll be lucky if we get a different room for the galleon... they could save this kind of thing for the sequel, though, which would be infinitely cheaper to make.
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Post by dareka on Jun 25, 2018 0:30:35 GMT -6
Speaking of the save rooms Miriam should have a few different animations of relaxing on the couch, including one where she's sprawled out and sleeping for a "save and quit game" option. It'd also be cool if her reaction on reaching the couch differed according to her HP ... basically collapsing on it if her HP is low, quickly sitting on it if it's full... but all this is probably asking for a bit too much, at this point. Gotta leave something for the sequel!
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Post by dareka on Jun 24, 2018 15:51:02 GMT -6
I thought the same thing regarding the save points. I figured they could keep the big red couch as an indicator that you're at a save point and make the rest fit in a little better with the area you happen to be in. Great idea about the red couch thing. Details like that are the kind of things that make a game memorable, that make it feel special.
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Post by dareka on Jun 24, 2018 12:27:27 GMT -6
We are 100% agreed on Miriam. The voice actress is doing a phenomenal job, and she comes across as really commanding and daring, while the model seems sorta coy by comparison. " I'll wipe the deck with them!" is one of my favorite lines so far. With the right GIF, it has pretty good meme potential. Notice how they also changed her idle posture in the menu screen: no she has her hand against her hip, in a daring, aloof manner, instead of ... I dunno, the previous one looked like something an japanese idol "singer" would do. I watched the Vepar fight and I have to say that, design-wise, I prefer the new look even more now that I've seen it in motion. I have to say, though, that the boss fight itself got a bit worse, it makes no sense to be able to hit the boss in the background and the tentacle attack is very weird to read :/ I can't wait to see how the fights plays pad in hand later this week. I personally found the mechanics more interesting, but ... yeah, that's my one complaint. You're able to hit the boss in the background, even though it can only hit you with the water stream. Makes no sense. If she's in the background, you shouldn't be able to hit her, and she shouldn't be able to hit you; if she's in the foreground, you should be able to hit her, and she should be able to hit you. There are a lot of good things going on in this demo. The voice acting. The save room. The gameplay itself looks spot on (have to wait to actually play it to see how it FEELS, however). Agreed... but, personally, while I loved the save room, it felt odd to wander into what looks like part of the castle in galleon, of all places. I mean, supposedly you haven't even gotten to the castle yet, and there it is. Personally, I think places outside the castle should have their own save room.
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Post by dareka on Jun 23, 2018 19:26:11 GMT -6
lovelydumpling Vita's one of my favorite consoles, actually. Bought in Japan on day one, have spent countless hours on it ever since. If Bloodstained would have arrived earlier in the system's life-cycle (made from the ground up for the system), it would have been great for the system and maybe even profitable, too ( see: Dragon's Crown). Right now, the Switch is probably the game's best chance to find an audience beyond backers, so I'm pretty sure they'll commit resources to that version in particular. As for the Vita version... lemme stress that I want to be wrong, but ... I've never seen anyone pull off down-scaling a game to lower spec machine that's practically on it's way out. I've been hoping since the day they announced it that they would cancel the Vita version and offer a refund like they did with the Wii U, but... *sigh* ... doesn't look like it'll happen ... I just hope we don't end up with the "delay forever and then cancel once everyone's forgotten the game ever existed" pattern. Anyone know how those 3DS and Vita versions of Mighty No. 9 are coming along, by the way? ... no hands?
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Post by dareka on Jun 22, 2018 16:48:27 GMT -6
I absolutely voted in favor of taking time to make a polished game, and I'm okay with 2019, even second half of 2019, but push too much beyond that and it becomes something of an issue. I'll always favor quality over a rushed release, but there does come a tipping point in the scales where it reaches "okay, I didn't say I was willing to wait until I'm a decade older." Let's hope BS never has to cross that particular benchmark of absurdity. Based on what I've seen of the game so far, I'd actually be very surprised if it came before late 2019. There's a lot of substance there, but the "tweaking" seems like it still has a substantial way to go. Then again, I'm not a game developer, so I have no idea how to estimate these things. Based on the information available, I actually do think the main game on the lead platform will be done by late 2018 - early 2019. Summer 2019 would be the farthest I'd be willing to bet. What I'm not so sure of are the Switch and particularly the Vita versions. They said a month ago they just began porting... and what that means is that any potential delays caused by the porting process (in order to make a simultaneous launch) have yet to be factored into the release date they're currently contemplating. The way game development works is you have a lead platform - in this case, the PC - and all the rest. Once the game engine and assets are done on the lead platform, development on the other platforms begins in earnest. The PS4 and Xbox One should not present much of a problem, as the two are essentially PCs - all you need to do is recompile and optimize... but even with UE4 Engine support, it would be very naive to think the Switch and the Vita versions will go smoothly. They'll likely require adapting the assets and major coding tweaks and debugging. And while a Switch version might essentially just require reworking some of the shaders and lowering the texture resolution (best case scenario, of course - overall memory management might also be an issue, not to mention UE4 features which are not supported), the Vita version... I honestly have no idea how they intend to do it (Yes, I know Armature promised to port UE4 to Vita for the game - the problem's that 1) UE4 was not created with something like Vita in mind, and 2) there has to be a game engine on top of that, and it's an engine developed on the PC, and not a Vita dev kit). That was the biggest mistake they made during the Kickstarter, in my opinion: promising a Vita version. It's not that it can't be done, it's that it's very difficult to do using assets and a game engine made for current generation hardware. When games are released for the PS4 and Vita by smaller publishers (such as Inti Creates), you'll notice they're essentially Vita games with a higher resolution and shadow maps on the PS4. This is not the case for Bloostained. Big publishers can give themselves the luxury of optimizing the assets for each hardware, but ... with a game with so many features, on such a tight budget ... I dunno ... I, personally, would be flabbergasted if they got a decent looking, playing, fully featured Vita version completed at all, let alone released on the same date as the others. I'd love to be wrong, obviously, but if I were a betting man, I'd bet they'll can the Vita version as soon as it becomes evident that the money required to make a proper port won't offset what little earnings would result from publishing it.
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Post by dareka on Jun 22, 2018 12:08:19 GMT -6
Waiting until the last minute sounds pretty justifiable to me. There was likely an agreement made by a team, after a discussion, whether the demo should be released or not. They would have needed progress updates on the bug fixes found at E3, approval from more influential members of the team, and spend time preparing the update. I'd guess they were betting on the bugs being resolved but barely missed the deadline. A delay always sucks until the game is released. Then nobody cares about it... ...unless it was made at the very last minute. Then it leaves a bad taste in many peoples' mouth. Especially if you do two delays in a row...after being coy about the release date at E3. It's all about how you go about doing things. Hardly anyone was upset when they switched developers and initially delayed the game: but now imagine if they'd been quiet about it until the end of 2017 and suddenly announced it then. Reaction would not have been the same, even if the end result was the same. IMO, one of the biggest mistakes they made with MN9 was waiting until the last minute to delay, without ever providing a good reason for it. They also had other PR issues. And Bloodstained was avoiding this very aptly up until this point. So it's not the delay per se, it's communication. And if the developers were debating until the last minute whether to delay or not, that itself is a misstep that they need to recognize and avoid in the future. The moment you decide to fix unforseen bugs before release, you either delay or announce the possibility of a delay. Fixing bugs is never something that goes according to plan: sometimes they're fixed in a day, sometimes you can spend days or weeks chasing them. Even if you know what the bug is, what you don't ever know is if fixing it will cause other bugs or not. It's a very easy mistake to make: you're afraid of players' reaction if you delay, so you don't announce a delay and pray that you'll be able to make it...but when you're not able to make it, the backlash is worse than if you had announced the delay in the first place. At any rate, it's a minor misstep in the grand scheme of things, but if they're not careful, things could spiral into a bad PR pattern like it did with MN9. And I'm saying this not to criticize per se, but to provide feedback to the team as a backer and end-user, in hopes that the team is able to avoid this kind of situation.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 15:56:04 GMT -6
@ikai Yeah, for what it's worth, I honestly don't think that'll be the case. The problem with Curse of the Moon wasn't even 505 and ArtPlay's fault, really - it was Inti deciding they didn't want to take a risk with the game being on gog. So, I think ArtPlay and 505 will come through... and hopefully, I'm right.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 15:15:13 GMT -6
Take all the time you need... But don't you dare, last minute before final product's official release (ROTN final), announce a Steam exclusive version on PC! Then, the trainwreck is going to happen, just right there. I would personally be very surprised if they managed to release all versions at the same time. My prediction is that porting the game to different platforms will either cause a delay of a simultaneous launch, or ... some platforms will be delayed.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 15:09:30 GMT -6
An annoyance that should have been communicated earlier. This wasn't a build server going up in flames or lightning strike causing a blackout or something else suddenly destructive, from the sound of it. This was a dev delay that we could have at least received a warning about. But it is an understandable delay. What use are bug reports about bugs that are already being fixed, after all? Which is why I don't get the doom and gloom about the delay. It was a communications screw-up, but not the wrong decision overall. What's with the sudden "Oh this campaign is going up in smoke, MAN THE LIFEBOATS" attitude? Just some natural frustration from people because of the delay. The problem's really just managing expectations: they had trouble with the backer codes for Curse of the Moon, didn't announce neither a release date nor a release window during E3, and now this. Everybody was waiting for the backer update to download the game, and instead they got a message telling them it had been delayed a week. On their own, they're minor missteps - but taken together, some people's frustration boiled over. If they'd gotten the Curse of the Moon thing right, had given a firm release date (even if it's 2019), and delayed the demo beforehand, this would probably have not been a problem.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 13:26:01 GMT -6
Again, obviously they could have handled the announcement better, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a train wreck, just yet. Hey now, I said it was only a bit of a train wreck. This is like a train jumped the tracks and caused some damage to the cars but nobody was hurt. MN9 was the train blew up, everyone on board died, and the explosion took out a city block. But only before what was after the explosion plunged off a canyon, taking Inafune's career along for the drop. Yeah, that sounds about right.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 12:59:18 GMT -6
lovelydumpling I mean, I'm sure they'll eventually add icons. They're calling it a Beta, but it's more like a pre-alpha build where the first hour of the game will be more polished than what you'd expect from a pre-alpha build. I'm sure they'll add blinking, too. As for the item not vanishing... I dunno, but probably not. It's a staple of these kinds of games, mainly to put some pressure on the player to grab the item before it vanishes. I dunno if it would really affect the game much for most people, but I'm not sure it's something they'll go out of the box with.
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Post by dareka on Jun 21, 2018 12:51:26 GMT -6
Personally, I'm not very much bothered by this at all, though I agree waiting until the last minute was bad PR. The nanosecond they had a sliver of a doubt as to whether or not the release date would be met, they should have officially delayed it. Transparency is one of the things that's most valued by the community, after all, and even if the reason is that they were working over time not to delay the game... it'll leave a bad taste in people's mouth. Now they don't know if they should be excited for the release next week, because they might wait until the last minute to delay it again. Sorry, Angel-Corlux , this is one area where your credibility is being hurt. You've been promising a deluge of awesome information since late last year, and said deluge has been a trickle, at best. Obviously, I have no doubt that when you made your promises, you were sincere; but it never materialized, so when you tell me again that it's coming, I won't really be excited, because I've been let down before. I must add that I still love you guys and support you 100%. I've no doubt that this is simply the result of the difficulty in handling a project like this, but I've worked in game development, so I can relate; most of the people here haven't. DELAYED FOR ANOTHER WEEK!What a surprise... you can sum up this kick starter with the word delay. Very disappointed. When the release date for bloodstained is announced I'm gonna add a few more weeks to it because... DELAYED. Actually, I think delay would sum up pretty much all videogame kickstarters. It's something backers should be very aware of. The thing is, delays are FAR more common in game development than people realize. So are major shake ups in development. I worked on one big game that got delayed over a year and a half from it's original release date and the public was never the wiser. Neither do they know that the original director was removed from the project and literally half the features ended up on the chopping block. Why did they never find out? Because they weren't doing regular updates like you do in a Kickstarter. They just waited all they could, announced a release date, and then pulled staff from pretty much all the other projects to finish the game in time. The other projects were, again, obviously delayed because of it - but people never found out. Oh, and the game was released to glowing reviews. Why do they wait until the last possible minute to tell people things are gonna be delayed? I'm not impressed by how the kickstarter has been for the last couple of months. I am very disappointed and expect the main game delayed even when they announce a release date and when it is they're gonna wait until the last minute again to say it is. Unbelievable. Very believable, actually, because they don't share our perspective. The dev team and the publisher know what's coming, how things are going, and we don't. So it doesn't sting them as much - or fan reaction might sting so much that they'll avoid delaying it at any cost, until they realize at the last second that no, it won't be on time. Also, this Kickstarter thing is still relatively new, and so is the PR behind it. What 505 needs to realize is that backers are very forgiving when you level with them; but do something that looks like you're toying with them (even if that was not the intention, obviously), and all that positive feeling turns to an equal amount of hate. And I'd absolutely hate for that to happen to this project. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to tell us. I'm still excited for the game but this campaign has been a bit of a train wreck. Again, obviously they could have handled the announcement better, but I wouldn't go as far as calling it a train wreck, just yet. For train wreck, see MN9
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Post by dareka on Jun 20, 2018 11:31:56 GMT -6
I haven't really thought this through, so I don't know if I'm saying something stupid but ... why not just add a generic icon that tells you that you don't have that particular item yet, when it's not in your inventory?
This would have the advantages of...
1. Building anticipation for the drop. Maybe it's something really good, maybe it's not; you don't know until you pick it up, but you know you don't have it!
2. Doesn't require leaving the loot indefinitely. The problem with leaving loot indefinitely is that it does kind of kill some of the excitement of getting the item. Sometimes they drop in a place that's difficult to get to without getting hit by another enemy, so you need to take a risk to get it before it disappears. It might feel like a risk not worth taking if you don't know if it's a new item or not, but if you know you don't have it... well, that might make the risk worth it.
Anyway, those are my two cents.
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Post by dareka on Jun 18, 2018 18:44:10 GMT -6
akahige ovenkittyHe did say in the other interview I translated this week (it's from an article from a month ago) that they're doing a lot of "porting" right now - so that could apply to the Vita version as well. I'm getting the game on steam, but I'm very curious about the Vita version, too - scaling the game down to the Vita's specs is sure to be quite challenging.
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Post by dareka on Jun 18, 2018 2:30:45 GMT -6
This was when Curse of the Moon was just announced - so it's about a month old. That said... it's really good... really insightful. Answers a lot of questions I've seen people ask. Highly recommended. Link to the original article (Japanese) GSJ> Game Spark Japan IGA> ... you know who. GSJ: First, tell us how the announcement of “Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon” at this year’s BitSummit came about. IGA: After looking into several alternatives, we settled on leaving both development and publishing of “Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon” to Inti Creates. And so, Inti Creates told us they’d like to make the announcement at BitSummit. GSJ: So, we understand you’re supervising the story and lore, but could you offer us a more specific description of your involvement? IGA: When we first reached our original Kickstarter goal, we said we’d do an 8 bit version as a stretch goal. Since “Ritual of the Night” is an exploration-based game, I specifically requested the 8-bit version be a linear action game. Also, since it would be boring if the two games shared the same main character, I also told them to make Zangetsu the main character. So the idea was, let’s make it a story set 10 years earlier with Zangetsu as the main character. As far as the gameplay’s concerned, 2D games are Inti’s specialty, so I left it entirely up to them. For their part, Inti presented an idea for how they wanted to make the game. Personally, I feel the story should serve to realize the gameplay idea you’re pursuing, and not the other way around; and so we had a big problem, because setting the game 10 years earlier wouldn’t work with their idea. Like, the characters wouldn’t feel or act this way 10 years earlier. What we ended up with, then, is a story that’s closely connected to the main game. That said, you don’t need to play the main game to enjoy the story – we made it so that it stands on its own. We made it so that when people play the main game later, they’ll go “oh, they’re talking about this or that.” It was this kind of story related refinements that I worked on and supervised. GSJ: So it was Inti’s idea to have you switch between four different characters? IGA: That’s right. GSJ: So why did you decide on making a 8 bit style game during the Kickstarter campaign? IGA: There was one big reason in particular, and it’s that we launched the Kickstarter campaign for “Ritual of the Night” without a 3DS version. If we can’t do a 3DS version of the main game, why don’t we just make an 8-bit version, I thought, and that’s how it all began. Castlevania, the series I worked on before, has seen several outings on the DS and 3DS, so I figured there must be quite a few fans of my work on 3DS. I felt they needed some love, and that was my way of giving it. GSJ: Since the game is going on sale in two weeks, it was a pretty sudden announcement. Will Kickstarter backers get the game on the launch date, as well? IGA: We have to wait for the download codes to be published, so while some people will get then on the 24th, there might be some who receive them a bit later. We’ll be trying to get them to backers as soon as possible. GSJ: I’m sure many people would like to know how “Ritual of the Night” is coming along. IGA: We’re nearing the final phase of development, and the graphic assets are almost all done. What we’re doing right now is putting them all into the game, porting it to different platforms, etc. GSJ: What would you like to work on once “Ritual of the Night” is finished? IGA: Our company’s called ArtPlay, and it wasn’t created to work exclusively on dedicated gaming platforms. I mean, I left Konami to work on games for dedicated gaming platforms, but my belief is that, as an entertainment medium, games don’t have to be limited to a specific platform; so the idea’s to work on smarphones, as well. Of course, “Ritual of the Night” being a major property of ours, I have every intention of making it into a franchise. If the opportunity presents itself, I’d like to add more games for dedicated gaming platforms to our portfolio, and there’s no shortage of things I’d like to do, but we’re a small company. So we’ll be looking for partners, and if we manage to find them, fans will have a lot to look forward to. GSJ: So what’s currently the scale of the “Ritual of the Night” project, in terms of developers? IGA: We’re working with other companies for “Ritual of the Night,” so between 20 to 30 people are working on it - a mid-scale development team. The truth is we’re just 6 people at ArtPlay, and almost all of them are working on “Ritual of the Night.” GSJ: Could you tell us about the reasons development is behind your original schedule? IGA: There’s lots of reasons. We’d set up a project schedule based on the original scale of the Kickstarter pitch, but crowdfunding went too well, so that we ended up with a lot of additional content. When it comes to content, there’s tasks you can do in parallel, and tasks you need to do in order, and the content we promised ended up needing to be done in order. That was a big reason. Also, getting the game’s visuals right also ended up taking longer than I expected, so that was another reason. GSJ: Let’s talk about the Kickstarter promotional video. It’s obvious a lot of work went into it. How did you go about creating it? IGA: There’s lots of different “magic” in there. Several companies worked on it, putting themselves on the line in the process– for which I’m grateful. They worked on it with the knowledge that if the Kickstarter failed, all of us lost. GSJ: That’s pretty amazing! IGA: It really is! So the video wasn’t something I’d actually paid them to do – the idea was that a successful Kickstarter would give us quite a bit of cash. So if it failed, all of the companies involved would have been left to wipe our own tears. They were willing to undergo that risk for me. I’m often asked “could we do the same kind of Kickstarter campaign?”, but it’s not the way you normally do it, so I’m not sure there’s many people who could pull it off. The way you normally do it is you build a prototype, show the protoype, and say “we need this amount of money to finish it, so we’re asking for your help.” If the prototype’s promising, you back the project. The way I did it – and not just me, but Inafune-san and Yuu Suzuki-san – we basicallly just made a poster and headed off to the trenches. Our collaborators were sure we’d succeed anyway, so they joined our campaign. That doesn’t mean there was lots of money in it for them even if we succeeded, so I’m truly grateful. GSJ: So lots of different people joined your cause because they believed you’d deliver. IGA: That’s what it boils down to. And they had lots of know-how. A Kickstarter campaign’s target is a North American audience. You could say they knew what a North American audience wanted, or better yet, that they were part of the very audience I was trying to reach. They would offer feedback like “we’d really love it if you did this or that.” I think they themselves felt confident in the Kickstarter’s success. GSJ: So how did you feel when their efforts bared fruit with the campaign? IGA: I hand’t really put a lot of thought into the stretch goals, so I remember thinking “what am I gonna do, what am I gonna do! I gotta think of stretch goals.” (*smiles*). I was all so crazy, so much so that I still have trouble believing it really happened. I was obviously surprised when we cleared the funding goal on the first day. I did a Twitch stream for several hours, and was still in the middle of it when we cleared the goal, you know. GSJ: Are the 5.5 million dollars the campaign brought in enough of a budget for the game’s development? IGA: If the full amount went into the game’s development, it’s not really that small of a budget. That said, when you factor in the quality of modern day graphics, it falls just a bit short. The problem is that we can’t use all of the Kickstarter funds for the game’s development. As I said before, we had to pay our campaign partners, and also create the rewards, so those are two additional costs. Therefore, the game’s actual budget ends up being less that what backers might think. It’s definitely not enough to complete the game, so we looked for a publisher and found one in 505 Games, and they’re helping us fund development. GSJ: And now I’d like to ask you for a word to the fans eagerly anticipating “Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night” and “Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.” IGA: With regards to “Ritual of the Night”, we’re doing our best to create a game that lives up to your expectations – you won’t be disappointed. As for “Curse of the Moon,” it’s very close to being released, and I feel it’s a 2D action game that’ll make everyone fell more than just nostalgia – it’ll remind you what a satisfying experience they are in the first place. “Curse of the Moon” will help you build anticipation for “Ritual of the Night,” and it’s almost here. GSJ: Thank you for the interview.
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