In the second half of the interview with Japanese indie game developer Pon Pon Games, we talk about the indie dev scene in Tokyo and challenges facing Japanese developers in getting their products overseas.
An Interview with Pon Pon Games, Part 2
Interview by: Douglas Schules; Translation by: Douglas Schules
Daedalus Machine
You mentioned in our previous conversations that you were the only member of Pon Pon Games. Developing a game alone seems difficult, so how long did it take you to finish A Healer Only Lives Twice? Pon Pon Games It's pretty difficult to say exactly when game development started and ended but here's a general breakdown:
Based on the above, it took about 10 months in total. DM The time it takes to create a game is sometimes overlooked by new creators. Can you talk about what you wanted to include in this game, but had to take out? What kinds of mechanics (gameplay), abilities, and the like differ from what you first envisioned? PPG I wanted to put in an illustrated reference book where players could browse the abilities and shapes of the enemies they have met, like the Pokédex from the Pokémon games. At first, I wanted to make an endless run type game, where experience is earned until the player dies. I also wanted to have different colored slimes appear and have them use a special attack based on how they line up, kind of like in Puyo Puyo. Here's a prototype of what it looks like; the upper left replaces the score with experience.
DM
What recommendations do you have for people who want to design games? PPG Because the current threshold for both making games and releasing them have been lowered, I think it's best for aspiring developers to first use existing tools to make a small game and then promote it through social media. I've heard that it's easy to master the skills necessary for game development through Gamemaker:Studio (I haven't used it). Attending Game Jam also provides good opportunities to network and acquire information.
DM What problems or difficulties have you faced with respect to marketing the game? PPG Basically, I've left most of the marketing to both of the publishers I'm working with (Active Gaming Media and Media Scape), who are the professionals. Personally, I try as much as possible to increase my exposure by attending events both in and outside of Japan, such as Tokyo Game Show, Digital Games Expo, Busan Indie Connect, and Taipei Game Show. In addition to being seen directly by people there, there are times when media or blogs introduce me (and my products), which should be effective for increasing sales. DM Like many Japanese developers wanting to get their products overseas, you're also using Playism. What exactly do they do? PPG I think that, depending on the developer and title, the support that's necessary changes but, in general, they do the following:
DM To be successful in today's market, indie devs certainly need to put their games on multiple platforms. From a developers' point of view, is managing content across these platforms difficult? PPG Because of game development tools like Unity or Unreal Engine that are aimed at multiplatform development, the technical barriers seem to be lower than in the past. But even so, I think it's difficult to develop something for two or more platforms at the same time if they have completely different characteristics. Consider development:
DM The game has both English and Japanese translations. Many Japanese devs I've talked to use a service like Playism to help with localization. Was this your strategy? PPG Because A Healer Only Lives Twice doesn't have that much text to translate, and considering the logistics and expense involved when making these changes to a game, I decided to do the translation myself. First, I translated it into English myself. Then I sent that translation for correction to Wolfgame America. On the other hand, I relied on Playism to write any text not in the game itself, like the game description that's on the Steam store. Still, Playism did correct some of the in-game text. DM Can you describe the Indie game scene in Tokyo? PPG I'm only really able to talk about the scope of what I've seen, but I think that the Japanese Indie scene generally has the following types of people; of course, to some extent they overlap with each other and in recent years the lines between them have blurred:
In Tokyo, it seems that the proportion of people making doujin software is greater than other areas. Events just outside of Tokyo include Tokyo Game Show, Comiket, Digital Games Expo, Game Party Japan (Nico Nico Toukaigi), Tokyo Indie Fes, Indie Stream Fes, Hakurei Jinja Reitaisai, and Tokyo Locate Game Show, among others. Community events just outside Tokyo include Tokyo Indies, Picotachi, and Hotline Tokyo, among others. DM Which of these indie events or gatherings would you recommend that developers in Japan attend? PPG Tokyo Indies is really useful because you can get motivation from the other developers, and you can hear a lot of information that can't be found online.
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