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Genius Sorority discusses how The Denpa Men came to be, possible sequel localization
A portion of a Siliconera interview with Manabu Yamana, Genius Sonority President...
S: The Denpa Men was released this year on the eShop. Could you tell us a bit more about the concept of the game, your goals, and where you got your ideas from?
MY: The Denpa Men was conceived based on the concept of a game inciting a sense of novelty, that you can easily pick up and play, and that offers deep, immersive gameplay.
The first thing I consider when making a new product is the combination of a structure to arouse customer interest, and a fun game system. Novelty and surprise are necessary to create a structure that arouses customer interest.
For this, we focused on peculiarity and diversity in the real world. For example, things like barcodes, e-mail addresses, FeliCa data, latitude and longitude, music CD data, and Wi-Fi MAC addresses. This time, we adopted Wi-Fi MAC addresses, because they are recognizable on the 3DS and there is an abundance of them in existence, making it fun to walk around with a 3DS.
Ordinary wireless bases are often established at fixed positions, so for all the players enjoying this game, we made a structure that potentially allows lots of sharing in terms of the distinctiveness of locations. We felt this has a sense of mystery and fun, which is one of our main motives.
Our fun game system was optimized and polished, using existing RPG battles as reference, letting characters interact within the game based on MAC addresses, and an appropriately thought out RPG battle system with a large capacity for variety.
Establishing the characters obtained from radio waves (denpa) as creatures demarcated by and living in peculiar waves, they were named “the Denpa Men,” definitively stating both the structure and the game system in a single phrase. While aiming to arouse interest in our target customers, we conceived and put together visuals that wouldn’t turn off most consumers.
S: Are there plans from to continue releasing more games on the eShop as Genius Sonority?
MY: Yes, we are releasing Denpa Men 2 on the Japanese eShop, and next we intend to do localization aimed at overseas markets. (Note: This interview was conducted prior to the release of The Denpa Men 2.)
Full interview here
S: The Denpa Men was released this year on the eShop. Could you tell us a bit more about the concept of the game, your goals, and where you got your ideas from?
MY: The Denpa Men was conceived based on the concept of a game inciting a sense of novelty, that you can easily pick up and play, and that offers deep, immersive gameplay.
The first thing I consider when making a new product is the combination of a structure to arouse customer interest, and a fun game system. Novelty and surprise are necessary to create a structure that arouses customer interest.
For this, we focused on peculiarity and diversity in the real world. For example, things like barcodes, e-mail addresses, FeliCa data, latitude and longitude, music CD data, and Wi-Fi MAC addresses. This time, we adopted Wi-Fi MAC addresses, because they are recognizable on the 3DS and there is an abundance of them in existence, making it fun to walk around with a 3DS.
Ordinary wireless bases are often established at fixed positions, so for all the players enjoying this game, we made a structure that potentially allows lots of sharing in terms of the distinctiveness of locations. We felt this has a sense of mystery and fun, which is one of our main motives.
Our fun game system was optimized and polished, using existing RPG battles as reference, letting characters interact within the game based on MAC addresses, and an appropriately thought out RPG battle system with a large capacity for variety.
Establishing the characters obtained from radio waves (denpa) as creatures demarcated by and living in peculiar waves, they were named “the Denpa Men,” definitively stating both the structure and the game system in a single phrase. While aiming to arouse interest in our target customers, we conceived and put together visuals that wouldn’t turn off most consumers.
S: Are there plans from to continue releasing more games on the eShop as Genius Sonority?
MY: Yes, we are releasing Denpa Men 2 on the Japanese eShop, and next we intend to do localization aimed at overseas markets. (Note: This interview was conducted prior to the release of The Denpa Men 2.)