I worked with Red Entertainment. There, I said it. I’m proud to have done so, even though it wasn’t for a long time.
I recently started playing a DS game called Nostalgia. The reason I decided to do a post on it is because I have had personally brush on the development two and a half years earlier, at least I am assuming so. An interesting assumption for sure.
To start, Nostalgia was a game originally dreamed up by the good people at Red Entertainment. It was developed by Matrix, and published by Tecmo. In North America, it was published by Ignition.
The key here is that it was originally thought up by Red Entertainment. Now, some of you figure collectors may remember the Shuraki series. Basically, no actual anime series or anything. Just an IP (Intellectual Property) of characters made into figures. Hugely successful.
Red Entertainment were also the ones that brought Sakura Taisen. Also a hugely popular IP. Red Entertainment is a company that creates original IPs, and takes these ideas to collaborate with various publishers to turn those ideas into a marketable, sell-able product.
That’s why their games are published and sometimes developed by Sega, or in Nostalgia’s case, Tecmo and developed by Matrix (they also developed the FF series for DS).
A little education on video game development processes for you – there are essentially two major players in game development: the developer and the publisher. The developer is sort of like the author of the book. They are the ones that create the game, from design, to programming to music to art, the whole thing. The publisher, like in book printing, is the one that foots the bill – pays for the development costs, advertising muscle, and of course, printing the game. It starts to get a little confusing for most people when the developer is also the publisher, for example, SquareEnix develops and publishes their own games, as well as Nintendo. In the example of JP version of Nostalgia, Matrix is the developer, and Tecmo is the publisher. So where does Red Entertainment fit into this?
Red Entertainment is an IP company. Having a game business strictly as an IP studio is rare. Basically, the IP company comes up with the idea, and then they go out and look for a developer who they think would be best to solidify that idea. They seek a publisher that they think would be most suitable to market and publish the game. Sometimes that can be based on financial factors, sometimes on target audience and other variables.
Nostalgia’s settings takes place in Europe, where Airships are the main form of transportation, magic is possible, and monsters and sky pirates terrorize the skies.
Red Entertainment also came up with Valkyria Chronicles. Now, I think at this point, you may realize a pattern/similarity between these games – they’re all steam-punk, alternate-reality Europe settings.
I was fortunate enough to had gotten a chance to work with Red Entertainment. (you can imagine how ecstatic I was, being a huge fan of their works).
At the time, the project was still in design refinement phase. My team’s task was to come up with a unique art style, and an intriguingly unique game design, roughly based on some of what Red had already established.
Now, for the sake of confidentiality, I won’t talk about the processes involved, or what the initial designs were and what sort of mechanics we put in. I won’t even refer to the purposes of the artwork that I’ve shown. Instead, I’ll simply touch on the similarities by bringing up the basis of Nostalgia, (since really, those are already public)
The very first thing I noticed that was similar when playing Nostalgia , is the initial story setup of the main character. His father is a famous adventurer or hunter of some sort. An unfortunate accident happens and his father is lost. The son, a brash, inexperienced and enthusiastic youth, decides to search for his father, meanwhile trying to fill his father’s big shoes.
The only clue his father left behind was his airship. The world of Nostalgia takes place in an alternate-reality of steam-punk technology, with the main form of transportation being airships. I thought this was cool. The setting was a little different in that Nostalgia actually takes place on Earth.
Other similarities I noticed that made it through the design process into Nostalgia was how weather affected combat in various ways (such as lowering accuracy), and upgrades that allow higher altitude. And of course, the potential love interest/female companion who’s gentle and nurturing, with some special status that makes her a key plot element. (it’s a bit typical JRPG, actually a bit Laputa).
Being the art lead on the project, I was responsible for coming up with a cohesive style that was slightly different from the initial works that were provided. You see, this project was dreamed up by Naoki Morita back in 1996, but was put aside with the success of Sakura Taisen. (this is probably why you see some similarities between Nostalgia, Sakura Taisen, and Valkyria Chronicles). When I got to work on the project, it was two and a half years ago.
Hearing that Red Entertainment was the one bringing this to the table, and knowing its history, I was incredibly excited. I basically bent over backwards to get myself as involved with the project as much as possible.
Some of the things I got to do were create concepts and guide the art style. Since I was the most versed in Japanese culture and entertainment at my studio, I was a good fit for this role.
The initial requested designs for the airships and whatnot harkened to the 1940’s type of designs, like biplanes, blimps, propeller based planes etc. not unlike those seen in Range Murata’s Last Exile, or Studio Ghibli’s Laputa. It looks like the style was carried over into Nostalgia, and refined quite nicely too.
I’m only about 3 or 4 hours into Nostalgia at the moment, but the final gameplay outcome of Nostalgia compared to the initial designs are by and large, quite different. Nostalgia consists mostly of JRPG elements, while the title I worked on… well, didn’t.
Perhaps those features may appear in a sequel, or a completely other game. Who knows? All I can really say is that it was an incredibly fun experience having to had worked with Red Entertainment, even if it was only briefly.
In other news, Mice Heist broke top 50 in the Action category of the App Store! I’m pretty happy and excited about that! However, this isn’t quite enough to have staying power. Please do support me and help me pay my mortgage!
Do check it out. There’s more information on the game at this link:
https://www.trickshotgames.com/?p=159
Apologies for the late blog post (I missed Friday) but things have come up that forced me to push to Wednesday instead. That’s okay though, since I used to post on Wednesdays.
I’m opening myself up to business again for freelance work. So if you or anyone you know needs work done, anywhere from illustrations to business cards, let me know. I have to pay for my mortgage. 😀
Ningyo and Ninjovee mentioned previously that there’s been a lot of intense drilling going on at radiantdreamer. Well, it’s not over yet. I do have one more article related to that, but I have that planned for a future post. It’s one that’s very applicable to figure collectors, and will benefit for sure!
Wow, you worked with Red and was involved with Nostalgia? I’m jealous. I still haven’t picked up Nostalgia since
1) Backlog is still over 70 games long
2) Kinda shying away from getting new JRPGs
3) Ignition made me angry with Muramasa’s barebones localization
but I’ll probably end up picking the game up someday since I do like steampunk. As an aspiring game developer myself, it’s always interesting to see behind the scenes details about games.
As for Mice Heist…I don’t have an iPad, iPhone, iPod, or iAnything. Or Apple anything, for that matter. That means I can’t play, huh? ;_;
I did work with Red, and I’d like to think that I was involved with Nostalgia, since the similarities can’t be just coincidence. The end result that is Nostalgia is quite different from the initial design doc, but it’s not to say I couldn’t recognize it when I saw it.
I know what you mean by backlog. I’ve found it completely pointless now to catalog my backlog based on the number of games, since each game varies. It made a lot more sense to me when I started cataloging by estimated hours. I was better able to prioritize, and decide which games to basically give up on.
I didn’t see any problems with Muramasa’s localization. I think it was great. What sort of issues did you have with it?
So far, I’m finding Nostalgia to be the typical JRPG… but more traditional. If you like old school, then yeah, this is right up your alley. I personally have since moved away from the typical JRPG formula, and prefer more interesting approaches. (I was spoiled by The World Ends With You’s incredibly flexible game design).
Yeah, Mice Heist is currently for Apple products only for now. We may do an Android version if things go according to plan. 🙂
I totally remember when you were working on the concepts for the game. I wanted to participate in the project so badly too, but I was busy with other stuff. At that time I had pretty noobish skills and my game industry level was kinda lowly too, so I didn’t think much of it and was excited to see all the art being done. The art that I saw everyone do though was amazing and it would’ve been so good to work on the game.
Now that you mention it, I did see the trailer a long time ago and thought it was eerily familiar. I probably won’t play it though since I’m kinda bored with JRPGs at the moment.
Congrats on the release of Mice Heist! You were right about hard mode PWNing me. I could barely last in medium difficulty!
Mice Heist really has the potential to do really well. It has a simple gameplay mechanic, but with the variety of mice that come at you it stays fresh and challenging. The catchy music really reminds me of old school games.
Ha ha wow, those were the days, eh? I hope I didn’t work you like a dog too much. 😛
I tell ya, there were definitely both good and bad from that project (much like any project of course). So I can’t say that you actually missed out or not.
When I first saw the Nostalgia trailer, I was pretty surprised too. Finding out that it was Red Entertainment sort of confirmed my assumption. Nostalgia so far has been… typical. Is all I can say about it right now. It doesn’t deviate from the traditional formula. It makes it a solid game though. But I can understand how it can be boring.
On medium difficulty, I could reach about stage 50 before I start to have difficulty. I get taken down at around stage 3 on Hard. lol! Glad you’re enjoying the game! The Canadian app store rankings are pretty weak right now though. Not nearly as strong as US ranking, though that’s steadily falling at this point.
Cycling through themes like no tomorrow!
Ahem. I’m definitely all for grunge, but doesn’t the header lack that personalized Radiant Dreamer touch? Just sayin’.
I think I’m understanding the relationship between devs, publishers and IP companies. So they’re basically purely conceptual, IP companies? This is why I’m not going anywhere near the businesses and economics.
Hoh, Sakura Taisen, really! The fact that it’s named ‘Nostalgia’ is what captures me. It really is Laputa-ish, making that a perfect title of sorts. That, and I can’t complain when there’s a blimp with a massive sword for a masthead.
So I’ll head over to pirateba- kidding. I’ll go count out the piggy bank, but don’t expect too much to be in there.
Grats on Mice Heist; and I’m always up for more drilling. Though that depends on who gets drilled and who does the drilling, but I’m sure you won’t abuse your powers.
Well, it was mostly because I didn’t really like the theme I ended up with. Radiantdreamer needed a change, but nothing really worked. I agree that the header seems a little generic without my mascot there, but it’ll have to do for now until something better comes along. I’ll see if I can get Melody back in there somehow though. I do miss her. 🙂
Yes, Red Entertainment is purely an IP company. Typically, it’s only the developer and publisher in the picture – usually the publisher has an idea, or license, or IP, and they try to find a developer who they think will be able to develop the game. Sometimes, a developer might have an interesting IP that they want to find a publisher to make it happen (publishers are the ones with all the $$$). Of course, the people that have the money are the ones in power and make decisions. They can sometimes damage a great IP idea due to things like office politics, or simply bad decisions (not to say that happens all the time. Just that it can). It’s probably even more troublesome when an IP company is also involved. There’s definitely some careful planning and empowerment involved to keep things sane.
It’s a lot more flexible when the developer is also the publisher (like Nintendo or SquareEnix).
I think it’s called Nostalgia because it’s supposed to be about the past, but the gameplay has made it unintentionally fitting, since it’s such a traditional RPG formula. (A bit too traditional).
It’s $29.99 at EBGames, I believe. Read the reviews. IGN nails it pretty well. I’d rate it 7/10 as well.
The next time I post about drilling, it’ll be about causing some damage. 🙂
You are so lucky to be able to have worked with a company that you love!
Also congratulations on the iphone game getting a spot in the top 50! Although I don’t have an iphone, I did just as promised and convinced my friend to buy it! x)
Thanks lostty! I hope your friend let you try the game out. ^_^
Working with Red Entertainment was… interesting. There were obvious language and cultural differences, and layers of management also filters the message differently. But I’m glad that we managed to get the general idea across that they liked.
It was unfortunate that the project had to be cut short due to various reasons I can’t disclose. I would have loved to have worked on Nostalgia from beginning to end.
It must be nice to work for a company involving games. Currently working as a CG instructor in a secondary school but my ultimate goal is also to work for a game company. So currently right now wana make use of spare time to build up a proper portfolio to ensure my position. Singapore is a small country so my number of choices is quite limited, maybe will look into oversea opportunity too. XD
Oh! Good to hear that you’re trying to get into a game company! While your choices are limited (if you’re looking to work for a bigger company), the industry in Singapore is growing very quickly. Your chances are still pretty good.
One thing that I’ve found really helped, is if you actually had experience doing a game project. See if you can collaborate with a couple of programmers and designers to create a small game. That will look great in anyone’s portfolio and shows that you’ve had experience through the game dev process.
Thanks for the advice. Ill try ask whether my programmer friends interested or not. If not maybe ill do the ZUN style, creating his own Touhou games. XD
OOoh you were a part of Nostalgia? Even if it is just the initial part, still cool ^^ I saw Nostalgia in stores and I remember hearing something about it, but the gameplay does look different than the videos I’ve seen before with airship fighting. I wonder if it was another RPG that I saw and not Nostalgia… Let me know how it is when you’re far into it.