Edelweiss game developer

Astebreed is an action shoot 'em up game. The player controls a mech with several attack options being that of a blade attack, a blade dash attack, a spread shot of 'bullets', two different lock-on functions, and a special "ex-attack".

Online: Now

About

You might have already seen our impressions of Heroland. I likewise had the opportunity to interview Edelweiss themselves — Director Nal and CG Artist Koichi — with the assistance of a translator. We discussed the improbable inspirations for the game, the challenges of developing as such a small team, and a desire to spread a love of rice around the world. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Seka

What is my age:	29
Tint of my iris:	Clear gray eyes
Sex:	I am girl

This is Koichi from Edelweiss. I handled the graphics except for animation and effectsworld-building, story, and some of the planning and adjustment of the RPG elements in Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin.

I quit my company job in to start working in earnest at Edelweiss while occasionally doing freelance work on the side. Sakuna ended up becoming a large-scale project that took a whopping five and a half years to complete.

Game developers spend a long time working on each of their titles. Although I wish could release a game after less than a year of work, it inevitably takes us several years to make a game that achieves a certain level of quality and length. This time I maintained a healthy level of motivation for about two years, but after that I relied on the passion of my colleagues, the positive reactions of players, and my own admiration for other games to sustain me as I continued walking through the darkness.

I finally saw something like the light at the end of the tunnel in the latter half of I feel very guilty about this, but if we had released a game riddled with regrets, neither we nor the players would feel happy with the result. Doing so would have rendered my decision to quit my corporate job meaningless.

I feel relieved that I somehow survived that period of anguish to successfully complete the game. But enough talking in the abstract. Favorite Character I want to say the entire main cast, but I think Sakuna and Kokorowa turned out particularly well.

The resulting visuals turned out quite well in comparison to the actual specs. Favorite Part of the Story I feel I had greater freedom when writing the characters in the sidequests, perhaps because I did not have to agonize over them as much as I did the main story scenes.

I particularly enjoyed creating the events with Kokorowa. Two wonderful individuals, the artist Ryota Murayama and composer Hiroyuki Oshima, helped make Sakuna infinitely more appealing. For more information about Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin: www.