For the next installment of our developer interviews, we go behind the scenes with Pixel, the legendary creator of Cave Story and Kero Blaster. We at Playism have always been incredibly proud of our association with Kero Blaster and Pixel Studios, and were grateful for the time that Pixel was able to give to us for this interview.
The workspace of Pixel. Simple and clean, like great pixel art.
1. Hi Pixel. Thank you for talking with us today. To start with, could you please introduce yourself for those who are reading this?
It's a pleasure.
I'm currently renting a room in an incubation facility in Kyoto where I continue working on game development.
I work six days a week, arriving around noon and working into the night taking breaks along the way.
Ms. Kawanaka commutes here and she handles things like the level design and schedule management for Kero Blaster.
Pixel's rest space. A great place to unwind and reflect.
2. What gave you the idea to create Kero Blaster?
It has taken four years to arrive at Kero Blaster's current form with the additional "Zangyou Mode".
Our original aim was to create a 2D platformer for iPhone.
Every level of Kero Blaster is meticulously designed to perfection.
3. I'm told that Cave Story started the indie scene. What is your opinion of this?
No comment.
Before we can even go to screen, these sketches serve for the game's outline.
4. You've created Cave Story, Pink Hour, Pink Heaven, and now Kero Blaster. What kind of experiences did you gain from these? Say, technology, way of thinking, or any other memorable episode, etc?
Many things changed when I started getting help from people for developing Kero Blaster. Before, I was handling almost everything myself. Then, people were creating stages and objectively evaluating work as soon as it was finished. Over a period of several days in which I was grappling with some bugs, I was able to see new areas come to fruition.
I don't remember this scene in the game. Still, everyone looks happy.
5. Would you be able to tell us what your favorite part of Kero Blaster is?
After much trial and error, the virtual controller for the iPhone version turned out really well.
Naturally it can't compete with an analogue controller, but it's optimized for playing Kero Blaster and I'm rather pleased with it.
6. Since Kero Blaster was recently release on Steam, you must still be busy with working on improving user's experience. Can you share us your plan once you settle with this?
Kero Blaster is currently available on iPhone and PC.
I'm now considering porting it for the mainstream market.
Even the soundtrack is carefully composed, note by note, to match the game.
7. What is your dream?
I do not have any dreams.
8. Do you have a PLAYISM game that you recommend/love?
I am hoping PLAYISM will translate "Undertale" so I can play it in Japanese.
That way everyone in Japan can cry for new reasons!
9. Do you have a message for everyone reading this?
As you can see Kero Blaster is visually a rough, pixel art game.
If watching the trailer or images of the game makes you feel a certain way, I would be very happy if you would give the game a try.
A huge thanks to Pixel for taking time out of his schedule for us! If you're interested, Kero Blaster is currently available from Playism, Steam and on the App Store.
