Ohayo Gozaimasu!
May has been a busy month for our Spoons, with the team hard at work on enemy and combat design, and the start of the Indie Game Lab Japon incubation program!
©Institut Français du Japon
Along with three other French indie devs, one lucky person on our team was flown to Japan for three weeks of playtests, meetings, masterclasses and design sessions organized by mentors from renowned Japanese publisher Kodansha.
We received feedback on Dust to Dust’s prototype from Kodansha’s Creators Lab devs, Tokyo Indies people, and Fairy Tail’s creator Hiro Mashima (!!!), before taking part in BitSummit, the incredible indie game convention in Kyoto last weekend.
©Institut Français du Japon
It felt good to see how many people enjoyed switching between our sneaky ghost gameplay and impactful possession mode! The build was hard, but some of you like a challenge, and if you’d played Death’s Door or Kingdom Hearts, you knew where we were going!
We’ll keep this edge, simplify inputs, and keep improving the game feel while making sure the overall experience is more accessible than our beloved Hollow Knight and Silksong.
©Unlimited Spoons
We are grateful to the partners that made this programme possible - Le Centre National du Cinéma et de l'Image Animée (CNC), L'Institut Français du Japon, Game CréaLab - for us and the creators of No Space for Salad (cozy local co-op), Last Moon (classic Zelda-like adventure) and The Hearts of Paris (art nouveau, Ace-Attorney-like matchmaking game).
Also, special kudos to the creators of Zhen and Light Odyssey, whom we met at the convention.
Go check out their demos!
These are two games with very cool action and graphics and a camera similar to ours.
©Unlimited Spoons
One more week to enjoy Japan, meet even more people, and prepare for our next in-person playtest session.
We hope this unique experience is just the start of more collaborations abroad, and that we’ll get the chance to return to BitSummit with the rest of the team!