This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they ve taken to make their games. This time, Katana Zero [official site].

When a game s cutscene begins and the dialogue starts spooling, I can t help it. My phone comes out and I m scrolling. From being active I ve suddenly become passive, and rather than stay engaged, my brain impulsively turns to Twitter, Reddit, anything, to feed its pathetic desire for reward through light interaction.

But I don t during Katana Zero s cutscenes. When this action game halts its razor-fine combat to tell you its story, I sit forward. That s down to its interrupt system, which lets me choose whether I want to hear NPCs out, or whether I want to tell them to shut up. I honestly hope more games adopt the interrupt system, if nothing else because it just feels like a much better way to tell stories, developer Justin Stander tells me. It s less reading and more doing. (more…)