At Bandai Namco Studios, the GEMini program groups new graduate employees together to learn hands-on and create games. In 2022, four titles — HOOK & KAIJU, ENDRAYS, EXCYCLE, and Shigeru Planet — were created and released for free on Steam*.
Part Two features the other two teams in the GEMini program.
About the Games
EXCYCLE
Drag your friends into this mischievous four-player unicycle racing game! Get your unicycle rolling with the mouse wheel and cruise your way through hazardous obstacles and racetracks.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2213570/
Shigeru Planet
Shigeru Planet is a chatter-plant propagation simulator in the form of a time trial, where you must race against the clock and spawn as many chatter-plants as you can by operating a UFO. Delight in the company of the bizarre yet endearing chatter-plants, while strategizing as best you can to populate the planet and aim for a high score!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2213590/
Meet the Developers
*Members of the EXCYCLE team are marked in pink and members of the Shigeru Planet team are marked in green.
■ Great work on GEMini 2022! What are some parts of your games that you put extra work in or that you would like people to pay attention to?
Kimura : We went through quite a bit of trial and error with the character behaviors. There was a lot of time and effort put into finding the right balance between capturing the unicycle feel and making it work as a racing game, as well as finetuning how the game synchs with other players and mechanics. We put a lot of work into parts that are less noticeable.
Tsuboi : We aimed to design the sound in a way that it gets stuck in players’ heads, specifically with the character’s dialogue which was in Pyoro language. Additionally, we chose to use dissonance and goofy sound effects to capture the instability and thrill of riding a unicycle. Incorporating interactive music for each stage was another thing we focused on doing when implementing sound in the game.
Kannan : We carefully designed it so that the gameplay changes depending on which UFO stat the player decides to enhance first. We made it so if you strengthen its attack power you will naturally want to fight enemies, and if you strengthen its agility you will naturally want to roam around and collect the evolution genomes. We hope that players will try out boosting different UFO stats and find new strategies.
Nagata : I’d like people to notice the effort put into the sound design, such as giving the background music an interactive treatment and Shigeru’s dialogue. Try listening to the in-game background music, where the vibes change when player goes into the menu, and where various sounds start to overlap more and more to hype up the player as they progress through the latter half of the game.
■ You can really tell that a lot of attention was paid to the details of the games. Was there a trial-and-error process leading up to finalizing the contents of the games?
Ishihara : We first verbalized and organized our thoughts to reach a common understanding of how each element would play into each other. This includes action, where we tried to make it fun to ride around alone while also providing different strategies when you race with other players, as well as the controls, stages, and mechanics that accentuate the unique characteristics of unicycles.
Ikeda : The unicycles and stage mechanics influence each other, so we went back and forth many times to discuss them and improve on each other’s implementation.
Tsubame : We also tried a few different things when it came to character voices and ultimately figured out the optimal approach for our game in terms of technology as well as design. We went through a meticulous trial-and-error process that started with creating versions of the game with and without dialogue, then moved on to preparing different versions of the dialogue, deciding the randomization format, limiting the number of playbacks, and then adding reverb and equalization to the voices. In the end, we roped in a large group of sound team members and were able to record a wide variety of voices to create a very lively game.
Kuramochi : In order to be able to immediately respond to the designers’ requests to try out various designs, we compromised on some of the programming and prioritized speed.
■ I can see that each team has overcome many obstacles to create their game together. Now that the games have been released to the public, has there been any player feedback that stood out to you?
Nagaoka : I was glad to see that there were players who played our game for almost two hours.
Minami : I was overjoyed to see someone describe it as “pop and adorbs,” which is exactly what we intended.
Ikeda : The text that the team came up with together seemed to make many players laugh and giggle and that brought me a sense of accomplishment. There were also players who played the game repeatedly for about an hour, which both reassured me and gave me confidence in my own skills as a game designer that I was able to build replayability in the game.
Ito : There were times I really lost track of whether the game is fun or not anymore after playing through it so much to make adjustments and debug, so it made me very happy to see the positive feedback. I’ve been enjoying the reviews and streams and I’m very glad to see that while players are enjoying the game as we intended, some are aiming for higher rankings with strategies that we did not even think of.
■ Teamwork is indispensable in creating games that people can become passionate about. Are there any memorable moments that you can share from production about the interpersonal relationships within the teams?
Sugimoto : Each team member was passionate about wanting to create a quality game, and our meetings were very enthusiastic with everyone eager to share their thoughts and ideas.
Tsuboi : Everyone had a strong sense of individuality and commitment to their craft, and each day was very fulfilling. We asked team members to do some of the character voices, I was so grateful to them for how much care they took recording them despite being very busy. (The acting was great, just like pro voice actors!) I also remember discussing with the artists for hours to come up with the script for the characters.
Mukaida : One of my team’s strengths was the clear division of roles among the engineers, which allowed each of us to focus on our own tasks.
Ikejiri : The vibes were great from the start. It was an environment where people were free to ask for advice and just chat, so I was able to get help when I got stuck or needed to confirm the specs without any pressure. We were using the group’s name here and there on the tools we used during development, and I had a great time from start to finish.
■ What is a fun or interesting memory you want to share about GEMini 2022 in general?
Wanami : I have fond memories of how an idea that had only existed in my head was put into motion by the team members and became a fun game with its own look and sound. It’s one of the reasons I’m glad to have joined a video game company.
Jumonji : When we were finalizing the online features, I was concerned that the experience we wanted to deliver did not match the ideas floating around at the time. I brought that up and the engineers were very proactive about giving new ideas and solutions, it was amazing.
■ A once in a lifetime experience. Lastly, please tell us your aspirations for the future after experiencing GEMini 2022.
Hosoya : I want to put what I learned about working in a team to use and make it my motto to be easy to work with! My goal is to become a creator that people can depend on and want to work with.
Gunji : This was a reminder to me how fascinating infrastructure and servers are, and I hope to keep in mind how fascinating and enjoyable my work is as I collaborate with everyone else to create enjoyable gameplay!
Jumonji : I would like to continue to tap into this experience to create more games that resonate with people, whether it’s for work at the company or a personal production.
■ Thank you very much!
©Bandai Namco Studios Inc. Published by Phoenixx Inc.
（*1）©2022 Valve Corporation. Steam and the Steam logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of Valve Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
