Interview mit Treasure (Ikaruga, Sin & Punishment)
With
Ikaruga a hot commodity (and shooters in general on our minds these days), we thought it was an excellent time to sit down with Masahito Maekawa, the president of Treasure, for a chat about the company's most recent effort, and a little game called
Sin and Punishment.
GMR: Is Ikaruga an actual sequel to Radiant Silvergun, or is it part of the RS Project, in that the RS Project is a name for all your original shooter games?
Treasure: Ikaruga is not what we can call a sequel to Radiant Silvergun, so there is not a real connection between these two titles. Of course, both are vertical shooting games, and both were developed first [as] arcade [titles] and then converted to consoles. But the concept of these two titles is quite different. Ikaruga is more focused on game system aspects and puzzle-like systems.
GMR: How many people from your team worked on Ikaruga?
Treasure: The core part of the team is three people, but several external people also helped us with development.
GMR: For how long was the game in development?
Treasure: About two years.
GMR: Which artist did the character designs for Ikaruga, and to what other Treasure games has he contributed?
Treasure: The person responsible for the character designs and the graphics of Ikaruga is Yasushi Suzuki. His design touch is fantastic and really unique. He was also in charge of the visual aspects for the Nintendo 64 title Sin and Punishment.
GMR: Are the ship designs in Ikaruga deliberately similar to the Silverguns in Radiant Silvergun, or is that merely coincidence?
Treasure: As you know, Ikaruga was developed after Radiant Silvergun, and that may be why there are some similar points in the two.
GMR: With Ikaruga, Gradius V, R-Type Final, and Do Don Pachi coming out, it seems shooters are making a comeback. But the producer of R-Type said R-Type Final would be the last in the series. Not many people are making shooters these days. Is the genre dying?
Treasure: Shooters are not as popular now as they were in the '80s and early '90s. That's a fact. However, this genre will not die. There are still numerous fans of these kinds of games. Ikaruga is now a great success not only in its GameCube version, but also in its arcade version. Besides, we at Treasure really love "2D system" shooting games. We have the know-how in this domain, and we know that all the fans expect some new titles that simultaneously use 2D traditional game systems and high-quality 3D graphics. That's why we will still continue developing those kinds of exciting games.
GMR: Are you planning another installment in the Radiant Silvergun/Ikaruga series?
Treasure: We can't announce anything now.
GMR: Sinc
e you guys seem to like the GameCube, and since Shigeru Miyamoto said that the GameCube was designed with N64 ports in mind, is there a chance you'll ever port Sin and Punishment to the GameCube? Yasushi Suzuki's art style looks great in 3D.
Treasure: It seems that a lot of people really enjoyed Sin and Punishment for the N64, and we are very happy about that. As far as GameCube is concerned, it's true we like the machine. We wanted Ikaruga to be played by as many game fans as possible, from young kids to adult gamers, and GameCube was the perfect platform to achieve such a goal. What's more, the hardware allowed us to achieve a version even better than the arcade original. However, I can't say if we plan to put Sin and Punishment on the GameCube or not.
Quelle: Gamers.com