Do you remember our review of an awesome game about a small metal submarine, a bunch of cybernetic marine life, and well, deadly enemies? If so, this is an interview you need to check out!
If you have yet to check out our review of Earth Atlantis, you can do so here!
Before we start we’d like to thank the Pixel Perfex Team for participating in our interview and for answering all of our geeky questions! Thanks Guys!
…and without further ado, our interview begins…
The Interview
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us about Earth Atlantis! Could you kick-start this interview by telling us a little about your studio, yourself, and what drew you into the gaming industry?
My name is Anucha Aribarg. I am the director of Earth Atlantis. I have been working in the game industry for more than 15 years and am also teaching game developing in a university. ☺ Pixel Perfex is my own design studio working on character design and CG production, but I also love making games.
Ok, let’s start talking about Earth Atlantis… What are the highlights of your latest release?
Earth Atlantis was chosen by Nintendo for a timely exclusive title on the Nintendo Switch in 2017. The game was also featured on Summer Nindie Showcase 2017 video. As a Nintendo fan myself, I am so proud of it.
Also, Earth Atlantis won the grand prize (Vermilion Gate Award) at the 5th BitSummit event in Japan. It’s the biggest indie game event in Japan.
What was the core idea or inspiration behind Earth Atlantis? And perhaps more importantly, where do you find inspiration for your games in general?
I love side-scrolling space shooters. I enjoyed classic shooters like Gradius and R-Type so much. Unfortunately, this genre is dying – or is perhaps already dead. I always feel that “boss battles” are the most enjoyable part of all space shooting games. That’s why Earth Atlantis is all about boss battles/hunting.
Also, just like most gamers nowadays, I do enjoy non-linear games, and I love the freedom of open world style games. I cannot say Earth Atlantis is an ‘open world’ game because the world size is not that big, but I did try to give the game the same feeling. (Metroidvania Style)
How long was Earth Atlantis in development for? And are there any interesting and/or exciting moments or experiences you would like to share with us from that time?
10+ years ago I sketched a picture of a space-submarine ship with some futuristic mechanical sea monsters, and I kept thinking about that idea for quite some time. It was because of that I came up with the game’s sketch-drawing visuals.
I spent many years trying to make it into a real game. The biggest roadblock was how to make the game look exactly like an old drawing image. At first, I thought I could hand-draw everything, but after I did a couple of animation tests I found that it was impossible to make a game that way, and so the project was abandoned. Many years later, I tried to revive the project with pre-rendered 3D graphics. The look was perfect but the graphic data was too big. The project put was on-hold again.
Four years ago, when I started playing with Unity, I found that I might be able to make it happen with low-poly 3D models and a drawing-style shader. Now, we are entering the final phase of the production. It was a very long journey!
What software, developer-tools, or black-magic(?) did you use when making Earth Atlantis? Is there anything you would like to share with the developers who read Edamame Reviews?
We used Unity3D which is a common game developing engine – nothing is special really. However, our black magic is probably the fact that that we were crazy enough to spend so many years working on a single idea and never gave up.
Is there any secret “developer-advice” you can give our lucky players who read this interview?
2 Secret tips ☺
– There are 3 extra ships to unlock in the game. You need to find and destroy them in order to unlock them. Here is the secret on how to find them. Each time you beat one boss, the ship will randomly appear somewhere at the bottom area for the map – sometimes they appear at the area that you cannot access at the time). Find them and beat them.
– to get 100% completion you need to beat all 9 special events. There are 2 occasions/locations in the game where a horde of small enemies can appear. These events appear randomly at these 2 locations.
What can we expect to see in Earth Atlantis or from Pixel Perfex in the not so distant future? What do we have to look forward to next?
We want to make an online-multiplayer open-world version of Earth Atlantis where players can hunt gigantic sea-monsters together with friends. However, we are also thinking about something totally different that still takes place in the world of Earth Atlantis. It’s probably not a shooting game anymore.
Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to our awesome team of Writers, Developers, and Patrons who keep Edamame Reviews up and running?
Thank you so much for giving me a chance to talk about Earth Atlantis. The game is perhaps far from perfect but I strongly hope that you will find it unique and interesting.
Please support and keep Edamame Reviews up and running because it is definitely one of the awesome places to find great game reviews.
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