I've been meaning to be more proactive about posting here, and an impromptu you-gotta-sit-up-all-night-for-Reasons session gave me some time to go over a two-part interview I've had sitting for a few months, so here ya go: a translation of a discussion between IGN Japan's STG novice Konno & STG maniac Imai and the indie developer HEY, creator of the recently-released Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo 2.0 (Switch / PC), a new revision of one of my favourite doujin STG of the last decade, with a particular focus on communicating the appeal of STG, and danmaku STG in particular, to newcomers. I wanted to bash this out in one sitting, so I'm sure there's some sloppiness and/or STG-related nomenclature that I've bulldozed due to overfamiliarity, so if anything doesn't make sense or could use annotation, lmk... and yeah, I'll stick some images in there at some point as well. whatever, enjoy!
What kind of person is HEY? How did Mecha Ritz come to be?
Konno: Thanks for your time today!. To kick things off, could you please introduce yourself?
HEY: My name is HEY, and I'm a solo game developer. From drawing mecha-style pixel art to creating music using FM synth sounds, to making the games themselves using Shooting Game Builder and writing the story and text, I do most of the work on my own. My signature works are Mecha Ritz: Steel Rondo and Dezatopia, both of which are 2D shooting games; my aim is to make games that can be played from everyone from beginners to skilled veterans, while still cherishing the fun of arcade STG. By day, I work as a math teacher—I have a love for mathematics that's completely separate from games, and that's where I earn my living.
Konno: Please fill us in on the backstory behind the making of this game.
HEY: It started with a game-making tool for Sega Saturn called Dezaemon 2 that allowed people to easily create shooting games, which I started messing around with around 2012. The game itself was a danmaku STG in the vein of Mushihimesama. In the beginning, I had no artistic skill, so I constructed things that could be drawn using straight line tools. Before too long, someone got in contact with me and said, "Mecha Ritz is pretty neat!"
Imai: Nobody was really working with Dezaemon in 2012, right?
HEY: Right—I figured there was no pre-existing scene, so when I started making the game, I had no particular intention to show it to anyone. Ever since I was in grade school, I'd wanted to make a game, so I started doing it as a side-hobby; at the time, I was aiming at becoming a math teacher, so I wasn't planning on entering the game industry. When I started making the freeware version of Mecha Ritz in 2015, I chose to work with the free downloadable tool Shooting Game Builder; I didn't really know how to program, so I picked software that made it easy to make something. The free version of Mecha Ritz came together after half a year to a year of me poking around at it, and even now, it's uploaded to the website Freem! and can be freely downloaded and played. Compared to the latest version, the bullet patterns are fast and unforgiving, but the core elements of the game—the rank system, the FM music, etc—were all present in that initial version.
From there, I released a version via CD-R, labeled "1.5", which was first sold at Tokaigi in 2015; compared to the free version, it has more stages and music and was generally touched-up, and we also sold a soundtrack CD alongside the game.
At that time, I was introduced to Alvin-san of Hanaji Games, who's currently working with me as the publisher; at some point, he asked, "why don't we release the game on Steam?", and so the Steam version came out after the CD-R version.
Imai: The current 2.0 version contains hidden "B-route" stages alongside the main "A-route"; were those alt-stages present in the 1.5 version?
HEY: They existed to the same extent in the previous version, but some of those stages were lacking in quality, so they were changed for the 2.0 version and brought up to par. A lot of the people who played the 1.5 version told me it was interesting, but I still didn't think it was fit for general consumption: there were bugs, unfair sections and lopsided balance, so for the 2.0 version that we've just released, I wanted to polish it up and rebalance it so as to ensure everyone could play it with peace of mind, but it ended up taking longer than expected.
Imai: When did you start working on the 2.0 version?
HEY: While we were porting Dezatopia to Switch, the suggestion to also release Mecha Ritz on Switch came up, but I was reluctant to release the 1.5 version as-is, so I was able to secure the time to rebalance the game.
Imai: Is it fair to say that the 2.0 game is the most accommodating version of the game for all types of players?
HEY: Right, I think the 2.0 version, which is also available on Switch, is the most easy to play version. The initial version has a lot of rough edges, and while the 1.5 version was adjusted to be played by a wider range of characters, it still has quite a few rough spots; I don't think the character balance was particularly even.
How'd you like playing Mecha Ritz?
Imai: I don't really remember the free version, but this version felt very pick-up-and-play, and I felt that an experienced STG player could probably clear it right away.
HEY: As the game evolved from version to version, it might have become an easier clear for veterans. The B-route had been properly solidified for version 2.0, so the game was adjusted with the premise that the A-route might serve as the easier path.
Imai: If you're a skilled player, you can just play with the rank maxed out.
HEY: Right, it's designed so even really good players will be able to enjoy themselves.
Imai: (to Konno) As a STG novice, what did you enjoy about Mecha Ritz?
Konno: I really enjoyed the feeling of constant progression—your ship feels very powerful, and I was able to enjoy the fun of dodging enemy bullets on a razor's edge. When I played it for the first time, I thought the overall balance was very good in terms of being an entry-level game.
Imai: I don't think there's any other STG out there with a first play as smooth as this one.
Konno: I might be imagining things, but I liked that the game gave me the feeling of, "you're playing well, so you're making smooth progress".
HEY: You weren't imagining things (laughs). The game system is designed so that the amount of time required to defeat the boss fluctuates based on how you play, so that feeling's something that was intentionally designed around.
Konno: When it comes to clearing the A-route, I felt like staying within the bottom third of the screen was the best way to dodge enemy attacks, and it was surprisingly easy to avoid all the boss' attacks if you played conservatively, but once I was able to clear the game, if I tried to move further up the screen in order to increase my score, I'd be easily killed. (destroyed enemies give score bonuses based on proximity)
Imai: That's something this game handles very well: those with STG experience will naturally attack at close range, which allows you to get Double items that give both a bomb and a shield, and because they also give higher score bonuses, it's easy to earn extra lives, etc. The game has been tuned so that you can succeed even with that up-close play style, and it's balanced for both aggressive play and more conservative dodging-focused play. I felt like it was quite tough to dodge at the bottom of the screen in the initial free version, but the patterns in the 2.0 version aren't so rigid, and you can dodge them at first sight.
Konno: I feel like the game is balanced so that, so long as you pay attention and don't rush, you can improvise through even the heavier bullet patterns.
What's fun about danmaku STG?
Imai: Dezatopia's a horizontal STG, but Mecha Ritz is a conventional vertical danmaku STG. What do you think is fun and interesting about danmaku STG?
HEY: Existing games taught me most of the fun elements of danmaku STG—I'm a particularly big fan of CAVE, a long-established maker of STG, and I'm played their game so much that I can clear the first loop of most of them on a single coin. From those games, if you want to talk about the fun of danmaku, the first thing that comes to mind is how flashy they look—the big screen-filling attacks are beautiful to look at, and they make the bosses feel incredibly powerful. The brutality of the attacks are also great, and really get you pumped as you fight the enemies. The big hook is the feeling that comes from "threading the needle" through seemingly-insurmountable attacks and taking out formidable foes—it really makes you feel like you're in a warzone.
It's also interesting to experience, not just to look at; there are a lot of different types of danmaku patterns out there, right? "Aimed attacks", "fixed shots", "random bullets", etc. Conversely, "dodging" can be performed in a variety of ways with no clear, set-in-stone method: you can focus on micro-tapping left and right to narrowly avoid shots, or making sweeping, fixed-distance left/right movements to avoid certain bullet patterns, and little by little, you'll find yourself able to dodge "impossible" danmaku patterns at first glance. Once you've improved your skills to the point where you can clear the game, you can really immerse yourself in the feeling of mastery: it's not a case of being forced to endure the game like a chore, but one of proactively conquering and dominating the game. There are also games like Psyvariar and Giga Wing that fall under the "danmaku" umbrella but that allow the player interact with enemy bullets in other ways, and as a creator, I like that there's room for innovative and novel approaches beyond simply "dodging bullets".
Konno: In your intro, you said you wanted to uphold the fun of arcade STG— did you basically only play arcade STG, then?
HEY: I didn't just play arcade games—I also played non-danmaku STG released for home consoles, and I also played famous doujin games on PC. That said, I feel like the arcade experience is the most interesting: I love putting in a coin and feeling the tension of trying not to run out of lives, so in that sense, I want to preserve the arcade style of play.
Konno: It just occurred to me that, when it comes to talking about the fun of arcade games, the size of the monitor might be a factor— nowadays, you can buy vertical monitors and play at home with a big full-screen display, but with a standard monitor, you'd be left with a tiny screen and a lot of blank space on either side, whereas the big vertical screens of an arcade cabinet offered a much richer experience.
Imai: In terms of actual size, those screens aren't particularly big by today's standards. However—and this is totally an arcade STG rat thing—but the classic angled vertical CRT setup is the optimal setup for STG.
HEY: I'm right with you! (laughs)
Imai: Any bigger, and you wouldn't be able to see anything, and the angled screen works well—basically, if you're being pushed to the bottom of the screen by a bullet pattern, then you can more easily see what you're doing because your ship's closer to you. Of course, that means the top of the screen is angled away, but that's fine: you're almost never making precise movements at the very top of the screen, except for the occasional boss. In that respect, there are times when you're not able to pull off tricks at home that you could do in the arcade.
HEY: A slight change in setup can have a big impact on how the game feels to play. I feel you on that.
Imai: Many STG developers consider the arcade experience to be the "authentic" one, so it's only natural that their games reflect that sensibility.
About the poster girl, Veloce
Imai: With regards to Veloce, the poster girl, I was reminded of Seseri from Espgaluda.
HEY: I didn't design Veloce; a designer named NANA is responsible for the graphics for Veloce and the between-stage cutscenes. As for the game's setting and story, I didn't really have anything in mind to start with, and the game started with a ship fighting against some geometric patterns I'd designed. From there, when I was thinking about how to approach the final boss, NANA suggested adding a girl, so I threw her in, and fleshed out the story later. In the beginning, I didn't have any of the backstory about the human race being exterminated, and by thinking about what kinds of stories we could write around a mysterious girl showing up at the end, we constructed something as we thought it through.
Imai: I think the images of Veloce and the story written in between each act is one of the big appealing elements of this game; I don't think this amount of story and text is something you could do in an arcade game.
HEY: I think it turned out well. At first, when this girl suddenly showed up, I was like, "...the hell is this?" (laughs) From the start, I was just making it for fun and if people are really bothered by seeing the characters show up like than then, well, whatever, I'm cool with it.
Imai: Right now, if you go looking for Mecha Ritz fan art, most of the drawings are of Veloce. Some might say there's not a whole lot else to draw (laughs), but people do very occasionally draw the bosses.
HEY: She really is the poster girl, huh?
The unspoken rules of danmaku STG, spelled out in the manual
Konno: I was pleasantly surprised to see that the manual offers a detailed description of the scoring systems and the mechanic of increasing your damage output by attacking enemies from up-close. How did you come up the idea of explaining all the mechanics via an in-game manual?
HEY: It's something that was originally distributed with the game as a readme file. It's not something I thought too much about; if anyone might come to me with a particular question, I figured it'd be best to just offer an explanation right from the jump. In the first place, I didn't think the readme was something that many people would read—I just felt that interested folk might read it and come away thinking, "ah, he really put a lot of thought into this..!"
Imai: Put another way, one might say that the typical STG don't do enough to explain themselves... there's no way somebody could figure out Ketsui all on their own. (laughs)
HEY: To be honest, I didn't get Ketsui, and there were a bunch of mechanics I had to look up on the internet. I suppose one could imitate that "no-info" approach as a stylistic choice, though.
Imai: That said, it's common sense in STG for attacks to do more damage when point-blanking—in fact, some people would feel slighted if point-blanking didn't do more damage—but I do think it's more user-friendly to explain them, rather than simply taking them for granted. Incidentally, the original reason behind point-blanking doing more damage in shooting games is that there used to be a limit to how many bullets could be on screen at once, so one could make bullets disappear faster by flying up close to enemies.
HEY: That's right. However, in Mecha Ritz, we intentionally made close-range attacks do more damage; it's not a mere byproduct of the game system. To give one example, the BLUE ship's lasers are designed to have a larger blast radius and do significantly more damage at close range. I thought it'd be a shame if people didn't notice things like this, so I thought I should offer a detailed explanation, hence the manual.
Imai: I took it as a given that the game wouldn't explain anything; from now on, I think games should make an effort to explain them properly. It also hit me that I didn't properly understand that mechanic until it was laid out like that... I think that mechanic of adding extra damage to point-blank attacks is the perfect example of high-risk, high-reward game design: it's a high-risk tactic, but offers a high return by allowing one to quickly destroy enemies.
HEY: That's right. It's something that's been around since the dawn of STG, but I think it's an interesting wrinkle.
Rank of varying difficulty & abundant item drops
Konno: Personally, I think the fact that the item drops, attack strength and score all change depending on your proximity to the enemy is the most interesting part of the game.
Imai: Do you feel like you made such an effort to explain things in the manual because you really wanted to stress the importance of attacking up-close?
HEY: I wasn't consciously thinking in those terms, but in a lot of STG, the players hold down the shot button the entire time, and I didn't want to do that—item carriers won't attack, so I wanted players to learn to move up on them without shooting and integrate that into the game.
Imai: When I play, I don't remember the positions of the item carriers, so I stay up high and destroy them as quickly as I can. When I think about what I enjoy the most about this game, my big impression is that I like that the game incentivises destroying enemies quickly, whether for items or score, and even bombing is advantageous.
HEY: With regards to bombs, I wanted the player to think openly about "how should I spend my resources?", and I made the game give out a lot of bombs so as to suggest, "there are a ton of 'em, so I should definitely use 'em!" Even so, beginners tend not to use them that often, but the game's designed so that if you use all the bombs you're given, you'll be able to clear the game.
Konno: The game drops a lot of bombs and shields, huh?
HEY: One of the big reasons why is because we settled on the final game balance by having a lot of people play-testing. At the beginning of development, the game didn't even have shields, but many of the people who tested the game told me it was really tough... when I tested the game myself, I knew it inside-out to the point where I wouldn't make mistakes, and so I didn't have a true sense of how the difficulty felt. As I listened to the opinions of the testers, I came to understand that my perception of the game was different to that of other players, and from there I added elements to bring down the difficulty.
Imai: The system that gives you two items for point-blanking the carrier reminds me of ChoRenSha68K.
HEY: People make that comparison a lot, but I haven't actually played it, so I can't claim it as an influence, but I do see the similarity.
Imai: I feel a similarity inasmuch as both games let you take a risk for the hope of reaping good items. ChoRenSha68k's not a conventional danmaku STG, but I do feel the gameplay is comparable to Mecha Ritz in the sense that you'll be quickly overwhelmed if you don't stay on top of enemies and take them out right away.
Konno: The difficulty's connected to a system called "rank", right?
HEY: The main reason I added the "rank" system was because I wanted the game to have a nice, moderate level of difficulty, and I also wanted beginners to be able to play—I thought that if the difficulty level of the game would automatically adjust to the skill level of the player with something akin to AI, then everyone could enjoy an even playing field.
Imai: Did you make a point of including a visible rank display, given that rank values are typically invisible in other STG?
HEY: I don't think I thought too hard about it in the beginning: I added it so I could see those values myself during development, and as the game progressed, I figured, maybe it's fine if I just leave it there? I'm still at a point where I haven't decided whether it's good or bad.
Imai: It's not something that will matter to casual players, but for those who've sunk some time into the game, they can use it to judge their skill, like, "what's it at now?"
HEY: Right. I don't think there's anything wrong with showing people data they can use as a reference.
Imai: That kind of useful, easy-to-visualise info makes me think of M2's ShotTriggers series. When the original free version of Mecha Ritz was released and people saw that it had a rank system, some people were negative about it; I was a little unsure myself, probably because I so strongly associate "rank" with Battle Garegga.
HEY: If you come at it from that lens, that's bound to happen. If you have such misunderstandings, play this game, and then you'll realize that various games offer various different implementations of rank.
Imai: The concept of rank has a long history, and even classic STG had systems where the enemy patterns would adjust based on the actions of the player—since 1986's Zanac, at least. Back then, rank was an hidden parameter that was invisible to the player, and it was implemented in arcades games to regulate how much play time a player would get from one coin... once they put in a 100-yen coin and started playing, the idea was to regulate the game so that they'd die around the third stage. Whether the rank is designed to work in favor of the player or the arcade operator differs from game to game, but it's rare that games don't use it in some way.
HEY: That's right; there's a lot of rank systems out there.
Konno: From the beginner's perspective, if a game has a rank system, it's better if it's visible.
Imai: Arcade games were once designed around hidden information, with strategies and secrets spreading from player to player via word of mouth; The Tower of Druaga is a famous example, but this trend also spread to STG, and even Xevious was subject to urban legends like, "this is how to defeat Bacula!", and hoarding or not disclosing such info was also in vogue. However, that concept is one that was optimized for the broader arcade ecosystem, and I don't think it's optimal for current players who play at home. There aren't many new STG released nowadays, so my impression is that doujin and indie STG devs tend to design game systems that are easy to understand.
HEY: One has to think about how to impart that info, too—if I made a tutorial-style explanation, it'd be difficult to explain all the systems in a simple way and only cover the basics, so I didn't implement it. I figured that a manual had the perk of allowing players to read any part of the explanation at any time, so I went with the manual.
7 colours of player-ship, each with their own traits, from beginners to score-chasers
Konno: Please tell us about the mecha! The manual outlines the differences between the 7 standard mecha, and it clearly states that there are 14 total ships—I've only unlocked the base versions of the 7 standard colour mecha, but how do I access "DASH" alt-versions of each colour?
HEY: The game's designed to tally the number of bonuses and the number of clears reached with a specific mecha, and when a certain number is met, it'll unlock the next mecha.
Konno: What's also impressive is that each of the mecha are unique, and no matter which one I picked, there were none that felt unviable—once you put a little time into them, every one of them gives off the impression of being strong. Among them, PURPLE charges by grazing bullets, and when it hits max charge it emits a wave that covers the entire screen, and I feel like it's designed for intermediate-to-advanced players. Why did you include such a gimmick?
HEY: The PURPLE mecha's a callback to a game called Psyvariar—in that game, grazing bullets adds to a gauge and makes your ship invincible every time it levels up, so I used it as a reference. I was sure that the risk/return framework of moving closer to the bullets would definitely be interesting, so I wanted to incorporate it into the game; I was also curious about how it might fight with Mecha Ritz specifically, so I added that ship and it felt fun, so I formally implemented it. I wasn't thinking about it in terms of being for beginners or experienced players—if anything, it was something I was adding for STG fans.
Imai: It definitely comes across as a wink to the fans, and something that those in the know would immediately recognise as a reference to Psyvariar. I feel that ship in this game is an interesting combo, because if the rank's too low, you can't get the most out of this ship, can you?
HEY: Right—if the rank's too low, your ship isn't very powerful, and there aren't a lot of bullets.
Imai: That it actively pushes you to raise your rank makes it somewhat difficult to play, but it's an interesting wrinkle that sets it apart from the other mecha. Are there any other points of references for the other mecha?
HEY: As you can probably guess, the RED and BLUE mecha are consciously CAVE-like, with the wide shot and concentrated shot. There are various different homages to the STG I've played, but none of them match up 1:1—if I mimicked them exactly, it'd screw with the game balance, and I think people would be better off just playing the originals.
Konno: The AQUA mecha also stands out: it has the tricky side-shots that bounce off walls, and the main shot, which also has the ability to cancel enemy bullets, is quite powerful. It might initially look tough to use, but the high power of the standard shot makes it very strong and easy to get ahead. Every ship has a strong point, and I feel they were balanced so that even newcomers would find them easy to use. Once I actually played the game, I realised there was a lot of freedom in the mecha I could use.
HEY: AQUA is really over-tuned. Reflection was added for the 2.0 version, and the ship was initially designed for the purpose of adding mecha that departed from the archetype set by the RED/BLUE ships. In the 1.0 version, I deliberately did not add any of those gimmicks as I wasn't into cancelling enemy bullets with the standard shot, and I wanted people to bomb in order to get out of a squeeze. In order to break from the established order, I added the AQUA ship, which could cancel bullets with the standard shot.
Konno: From your point of view as the developer, which ships are easiest for newcomers?
HEY: RED and BLUE are for newcomers, and I want players who want a more conventional experience to choose one of those mecha. During development, I spent the most time making sure those two ships were just right.
The alt-versions of each mecha are generally a little more complex and not suited for beginners, but I think even new players can have fun with the standard 7 colour mecha outside of RED and BLUE, such as GREEN's charge-up gimmick. YELLOW has a fixed-range that requires you to be reasonably close to enemies, so I guess it's more of an intermediate-level ship, but once you starting getting in close, it proves to be very powerful. PURPLE's another intermediate-level ship, but the feeling of grazing is really fun, so I want everyone to give it a shot at least once. I think of AQUA as more of a "gag" ship, but there are quite a few people out there who genuinely like using it.
Konno: AQUA struck me as a joke, but when I tried using it, I noticed it was actually pretty strong.
HEY: I've tuned all the mecha to the point that I'm able to clear the game with every one of them, and AQUA's bullet-cancelling shot is strong against bosses; towards the end of the game, it really comes into its own.
Imai: Do score-chasers prefer a particular ship?
HEY: Scorers prefer GREY, which was implemented for the first time in the 2.0 version. It uses a bunch of round objects called "friends" that come out and attack in clusters. The "friends" also cancel bullets, so they're a little complex, but the ship was tuned so that you can really feel how powerful it is once you overcome that initial hurdle—at first, one tends not to understand how it works and is like, "what even is this?", but if you stick with it, you'll discover that it's abnormally strong. I deliberately tuned it to be that strong, but I think a lot of people never notice, so it's a ship suited to intermediate-level players and scorers.
To add a little more about the mecha, there's one ship that even beginners can chase scores with: the alt-version of the RED mecha, RED DASH. With the standard RED mecha, the laser reached the full length of the screen, but RED DASH's laser is designed to expand at the mid-range and then dissipate, so the focal point of the ship only extends to the mid-range, but it matches the game's scoring system and is the most adept at tearing through the cores that are destroyed at close range, so I hope people try it out. Once you've put a little time into the game, I want you to give this ship a shot.
Why are there no continues?
Konno: Why aren't there any continues in this game?
HEY: It's based on the arcade game experience. I sometimes play home shooting games with continues, but when I'm able to infinitely continue, I feel like it diminishes the anticipation for seeing what's next, and it robs the game of tension. The tension of limited retries is what drives the player to get better, little by little, and when you beat the game, it feels like you won on the seat of your pants! It was crucial that there were no continues in order for players to get that experience that they can feel with every fibre of their being. That was a really important concept for this game.
Imai: For people who enjoy STG, playing that way is second nature, and something that one doesn't even question. It's not just a question of being able to progress, either—I think that people who aren't given the experience of playing for a "1-coin" clear aren't going to enjoy STG at all. I do struggle to understand what make it so different to other high-difficulty action games like Dark Souls... or to put it another way, I sometimes wonder if it'd be possible to make an interesting STG, even with some sort of checkpoint system.
HEY: I think it'd have a different flavour. For example, the home versions of R-TYPE that I played as a child had instant respawn, and I'd somehow managed to memorise all the movements and figure out some sort of strategy, so I can understand how that might be fun.
Imai: I guess the key is to offer a series of experiences where the player's engaged for 20~30 minutes at a stretch without continuing—it has to be completely uninterrupted.
HEY: I want people to feel the weight of potentially screwing up without being able to checkpoint or continue—both the immense sorrow and the immense joy. I guess it's because that's how I always felt playing these games.
Imai: I think the reason many players want continues is because they feel like, if they were to die on stage 4, then they'd have the hassle of replaying through stages 1 to 3, and I do get that—to some, it comes across as the mere repetition of a simple task. However, STG players refine their strategy on each playthrough so that their mastery of stages 1-3 becomes more comprehensive, while also establishing the challenge of reacting on the fly to the later stages. I think one's awareness of the "no-continue" playstyle will shift depending on whether or not they grasp how to play in this way. There are points where it's more beneficial to start over rather than continue, even. That said, if you think this is nothing more than mindless repetition, then you'll certainly find it dull.
HEY: I don't think this game is so tough that it'll force anyone to quit—if you make proper use of the bombs and shield, you should at least be able to clear the A-route. Even newcomers have been able to clear the B-route. I think the difficulty level has been sufficiently balanced.
Knowing how to use bombs is the key to strategy!
Imai: If you feel like being unable to continue is making things too difficult, I'd suggest you first make a point of using all your bombs. I think this is comparable to the habit of clearing an RPG with a full stock of elixirs, and the reason that happens is because there's a save system; since restarting offers a remedy in and of itself, you end up not using your valuable items in the end. In this game, bombs and shields almost serve as continues, so first things first, I want people to make sure they use all their bombs before they die. "Don't fall with your arms full!" is also an important life lesson!
everyone: (laughs)
HEY: Even people who are good at games can tend to play that way, so if you make sure not to hold anything back, you can surely clear the game.
Imai: STG players are always thinking about whether or not to use a bomb at any given moment, but how precious you are about that decision changes when you have 8~10 bombs in stock vs. only having one bomb in stock. There's an expression called "kime-bomb", and it refers to the situations in which you absolutely need to bomb to survive. If the time to "kime-bomb" is 100%, then 0% represents the complete opposite, ie a state where one can definitely avoid enemy bullets. A good player is one who's able to recognize when they're at 50%, 70%, 80% or any other point between those two stages; they're someone who's able to properly gauge their own level of danger. It's important to have different danger responses relative to the position of the danmaku patterns and your ship; one typical example is bombing when you're pushed to the edge.
HEY: Right. Put simply, it's about being someone who recognises how to use bombs in a good way.
Imai: Having those various tactics for using bombs is fun, and even though STG can be very minimalistic, mechanically-speaking, they also give players a lot to consider, which is what makes them so interesting. It's hard to get that across to the outside, though. (laughs)
HEY: I do hope that message is getting across. We have to try and get people to understand these things.
Imai: True, but I wonder if there isn't more we could be doing to explain them. What do mid-level players who clear games without ever pursuing score-play think? There have been a lot of interesting fighting game videos recently that verbalise the ideas of neutral and spacing, and STG has that too—for example, all beginners beeline for the very bottom of the screen, but hanging out that low is a high-risk situation, and one ought to treat that area of the screen as an escape route. I feel like that's something that warrants explanation, because nobody's properly explained that before.
HEY: That's certainly true. When I was at the point of testing the game with various people, I asked genuine beginners with no interest in the game—friends of friends and so on—to try it out, and when I watched their replays, they really were glued to the bottom of the screen, continuously lasers and only moving left/right. That really stuck with me, so I shaped the game system in a way that would encourage players to actively move up into the screen.
50 test players?! An exquisite balance borne from careful adjustment
Konno: This game is exhilarating from top to bottom, and through it I was able to experience the excitement of "weaving through bullet patterns by the thinnest of margins", which is one of the most thrilling aspects of danmaku STG. The game balance seems extremely well-tuned; did you spend a lot of time adjusting it?
HEY: I made a lot of adjustments. I think that building the framework for a STG is easy; if the time spent building the framework is a 1, then the time spent fine-tuning is a 9. As for what that actually entails... when an enemy appears on-screen, when and how soon should the next enemy appear? What kind of bullet should they shoot? What kind of danmaku patterns should the boss shoot? How should bullet speed be affected by rank? etc etc. The basic idea is that you're trying to shape the game into something interesting according to your own sensibilities. From there, there are many other things that have to be taken into account, such as collecting a wide array of feedback, understanding the feelings of the test players and making judgments based on replays. It takes a lot of time; in terms of the overall development period, I probably spent 30% of that time fine-tuning the game. That said, there's also a lot of catching and fixing bugs that goes on, which is very tough, so it might be accurate to say that addressing bugs and balancing the game accounted for the majority of development.
Imai: How did you recruit test players?
HEY: I found them by sorting through my acquaintances—people I met through the Dezaemon scene, friends from work, etc. I made no distinction between "good" or "bad" players; if I could get a friend of a friend to try it out, I would. I didn't keep count, but I think I had roughly 40~50 people play it, including their replay data where possible.
Imai: Did you make any changes based on their feedback?
HEY: Yes, I stressed that if I came across any feedback or opinions that I found worthwhile, I wouldn't hesitate to make changes.
Imai: My impression after playing the game is that most of the work went into the fine-tuning of the game.
HEY: There are many other areas of the game that could've used that focus (laughs). The goal for this version of the game was to ensure that the balance was rock-solid.
Imai: What were the main elements that were tweaked as a result of feedback from testers? Stuff like the bullet speed and endurance of the enemies?
HEY: That's the bulk of it, but also things like scroll speed, length of invulnerability windows and the presence/absence of revenge bullets. The other big factor is the degree to which they'll increase or decrease during play.
Self-taught BGM earworms; "does this sound feel good?" is what matters
Imai: This game is characterised by music written using FM synth, but did the music exist prior to the game?
HEY: For about four years, starting in 2008, I really wanted to make music, so I just started doing it. This was during my college days—at the time, I thought making a game would be impossible, so I thought I'd turn my hand to something simpler and try making music. There was a tool for DS called KORG DS-10 that was very easy to use; I'm self-taught, but I'd use that tool to recreate music that I liked on a daily basis, and and I feel like I gradually learned how to make music. However, I haven't learned any specialised music knowledge, so I'm not adhering to theory or following proper chord progressions, etc.
Imai:. Ah, I see. I get the impression that you're like, "how does this work?", and rather than follow any set structure, it's a case of creating distinct, easy-to-grasp musical phrases and then layering over them.
HEY: My favourite genre of music is techno, so rather than chord progressions, I'm more focused on whether something intuitively sounds good to my ear; I feel like the incorporation of chord progressions was something I only started developing later on. In the beginning, I only made minimal loop-based music.
Imai: Your music is full of so many phrases, so your imagination must me amazing. I think you're able to come up with a lot of really catch phrases.
HEY: At some point, I was somehow able to come up with melodies and chord progressions. In the beginning, I couldn't figure out how to do that, and that was frustrating: it was like, there are so many cool songs out there, so why can't I make any?
Imai: In terms of musical direction, there are a lot of key phrases, and you're very particular about the thematic timing of your phrases.
HEY: Yeah, that's a reflection of what I've picked up from listening to games and various other things.
Imai: Did you write any new music for this release?
HEY: For the 2.0 version, the music for the 4th and 5th stages was rewritten.
Imai: The st.5 tune is a medley of past tunes, and it has an Ikaruga-esque vibe. It's a banger!
HEY: Medleys still kick ass, huh? I figured I better throw one in.
What I want to make from now, and the fun of STG
Imai: Are there any games you want to make in the future?
HEY: First and foremost, I want to continue making STG! I haven't even started making the next game I'm thinking about, but I'd like to break away from the retro vibe of my other works. I'd like to make something a little breezier, like a high-resolution game or something with a widescreen horizontal format. Part of that comes from not having made anything new in a long time, so I want to try to make use of all the know-how I've accumulated to make something quickly.
Imai: For a while, people were whispering here and there that there was nobody left making STG, but the genre has lived on in its own small way via doujin and indie devs. In recent years, we've been getting remasters of most of the old classics on Switch, and more and more people have been using tools like Shooting Game Builder to make games, and I get the impression that the number of devs has increased since Mecha Ritz 1.0 was released on Freem. What do you feel are the perks and fun parts of making STG as a solo dev?
HEY: The fun part is the feeling of discovering a new frontier, all on your own; it's a feeling you can't experience by simply playing games. Getting your game to a point where it's hassle-free for a large audience is a lot of work, but just creating the basic parts of moving your ship, having enemies appear and adding bullets to dodge is really fun, so you have nothing to lose by just trying it for yourself. Finally, looking from a broader perspective, there's something primordial about STG: I think they're timeless and something that anybody can enjoy, and no matter what happens, I don't think they'll ever disappear. I hope more and more people will be able to experience them in the future.
