| | Sudeki's Anime Roots
These days, anime is everywhere. Your local video store has it. Your local bookstore has it. Your local toy store is practically crawling with it. Ask any two fourth-graders which Pokemon is the best, and you’ll probably start a fight. Go to the mall on any given Saturday, and you won’t be able to swing a cat without hitting somebody in a Dragonball t-shirt. Anime is no longer the exclusive territory of tech-industry geeks, outcast college students, and a handful of 40-year-olds who fondly remember Speed Racer.
The Japanese have a term for exports that become insanely popular in the western world: “Japan-cool.” Anime is Japan-cool right now, and so are anime-style video games. So, really, it was only a matter of time until a western game company, staffed by anime-addicted developers, would be inspired to create their own version of the popular genre. And thus, Sudeki™ was born.
At first, the game concept tended more towards the “cute” end of the scale, with character artwork reminiscent of Zelda andFinal Fantasy IX. But, as the design developed, the visual scheme was refined, eventually becoming the unique blend of action-style anime and decidedly western humor that you’ll see in the finished game.
We cornered the Climax team between episodes of Cowboy Bebop and FLCL to ask about their hybrid brainchild and how it has evolved.
Xbox.com: The current popularity of anime and Manga in the western world is practically staggering. From translated versions of source work to spin-off products of all types, the last two years have seen an astonishing boom in Japanese entertainment. But, games aren't developed overnight, and so theSudeki concept predates this mass-market rush towards all things large-eyed and spiky-haired. Why did you decide to use anime as a starting point for your game?
Blue hair and big … eyes. It must be anime.
Designer Eamon Murtagh: We started by looking at games that we loved in the RPG market, and it was definitely the game mindset that carried most sway. After all, we’re not making a film or a graphic novel. However, we soon found that there were a host of related products we loved, such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and, more recently, Spirited Away. The anime influence grew through our research, and it also evolved as we went along. With so many strong-minded people working together, Sudeki developed its own identity, and that is very important to us.
Xbox.com: While Sudeki's anime inspiration is obvious, we understand that you don't plan to make an "anime-style game." What will distinguish this project from the flood of imported Japanese RPGs?
Murtagh: I think we’ll stand out from the crowd because of who we are and where we made the game. It’s definitely a story that is told in a western way. The humor, the references, the very language we use all mean that Sudeki is very much our game—it’s not an impersonation of a Japanese game.
Lead Designer Tuomas Pririnen: Sudekialso has real-time combat within a western story, and the characters are clearly western, regardless of their anime traits.
Register to get the full interview.
By Eva Minyon |
