Most people have a dream that they hope to achieve at some point in their life. For some people, that dream is never fulfilled because nothing ever pushes them to pursue it. Others come to a point where they realize they can either be miserable every day, or just go for it and see what happens. Studio Koba was created by Eduardo in the pursuit of creating his dream game: Narita Boy. Take a look into what the development process has been, as well as what makes this different from anything else you’ve played.
To start things off, it appears the team has quite an extensive background in games, as well as whatever their respective field is in the development of Narita Boy. How did this motley crew come together?
Eduardo is the father of Narita Boy. All the game’s ideas and art came from him. Eduardo and his Japanese wife Chie moved from Tokyo to Spain to develop Narita Boy. Eduardo is from Barcelona, but is now in his parent’s holiday house in a very small village near Madrid.
To express the world of Narita Boy, the music is very important. Luckily, he has a brother who is a professional musician. When creating the trailers for Kickstarter, they worked very closely.
When it came to hosting the campaign on Kickstarter, Chie joined the team. She prepared the campaign page and website with Eduardo. She had worked for an online marketing agency in Tokyo, and then became a freelance worker for marketing research and producing events. Now she’s focusing more hours into Studio Koba’s work than other projects.
We had some people in mind to work with for the development of it. One person that we were sure we’d work with from the beginning was Eduardo’s old time friend Juan for the animation. Eduardo and Juan had worked together in the past for several other projects. They know how they work together, which is always good.
As for the coder, we didn’t know anyone personally. The coder is the muscle of every game, so picking the right person is very important! We met several candidates, all of which were skilled coders. But they were missing the passion for retro games and 80’s/90’s cultures. Luckily, we ended up finding Manuel. He played 80’s and 90’s games a lot like Eduardo did. He is a true geek for retro games and writing code, as coding is his hobby.
He also has the same passion for working as Eduardo. Eduardo works days, nights, and weekends, and it is not rare that Manuel works until morning. Of course their bodies are tired, but they are happy to create what they love and believe in. We didn’t want someone who works 8 hours/day with weekends, holidays, and vacations. Most of the applicants did not back our game, but Manuel did. That alone tells us that he believed in the game, as he showed love for Narita Boy even before he applied.
The good thing about our team is we work for the passion of it and share the same dream, which is creating this wonderful game. We aren’t working just for money; Narita Boy is our baby.
It’s always great to see someone with a vision branch off and decide to fulfill their dream. What made Eduardo decide to do it now?
Something that Eduardo loves a lot is storytelling. The game serves as a platform to express his imagination. When he started working in Japan, he expected a lot with hopes of contributing to games and improving his skills with new challenges. Sadly, working at the companies in Tokyo didn’t pan out in the way he expected. He felt that he could contribute much more to the games, and it was frustrating to him. He felt it was a waste of his time as an artist. After working at two video game companies, he knew what he had to do. He decided to create his own project instead of looking for someone else’s. He had the ideas in his head, so now was the best time to finally develop his own awesome creation.
Sooner or later he would create his own project. The frustrations pushed him to start it sooner. If he was working for a company with satisfaction as an artist, he would not have started Narita Boy yet.
Being that this game has been Eduardo’s dream project, how long has it been developing in his mind?
After he left the last company, he was sure that he would like to make his own game. He had many ideas, but wasn’t sure which one he should take. He worked on a few ideas, and one day he had a stroke of inspiration. The dots of ideas were connected suddenly and they became a single story. That was the moment Narita Boy was born.
How long was the game worked on prior to going to Kickstarter with it?
The concept of Narita Boy came in April 2016. Since then he’s worked on the story and visual design. After a few months he had most of the story and key character designs ready. All the materials were ready to create the trailer by November 2016. From there it took 2 months to get the trailer and the Kickstarter campaign ready.
How was the team’s experience with Kickstarter? Was it everyone’s first time using it?
That is a very interesting question. Yes, it was a first time experience for everyone. Eduardo and Chie worked together to create the campaign. Chie got involved after all the materials were ready to create the trailer. Eduardo kept saying that he needed help, but she didn’t know where to start as she had never done this before.
We learned that we should prepare the campaign much earlier, as it was done in such a hurry. We were lucky to reach our goal with the way we approached it, but we understand that was not the best way to run the campaign. We met another Spanish Kickstarter campaign that was fulfilled at an event recently. We were amazed by how they prepared for the campaign. If we were to do another one, it would involve a lot more preparation.
For reference, we posted many videos to motivate people in backing our project. We published this video when we reached the goal. And this one was posted on the last day of the campaign.
As a community manager, would you prefer to go the crowd funded route again in the future, or would you prefer to stick with a publisher?
Ideally, we don’t want to host another campaign for future games. If publishers are interested in our work, we would like to go with a publisher.
We had many sleepless nights because of the pressure and worries before and during the campaign. Luckily, we reached our goal. It was an amazing feeling; however, there is still a lot of pressure with the commitment to all the backers. During and after the campaign, we received several offers from publishers. If we had it before preparing the campaign, we might have gone with a publisher.
The good thing about Kickstarter is hearing all the feedback. It motivates us a looooooot! Luckily, the feedback is mostly positive, which makes us feel we are working in the right direction. It is always very nice to meet people who know us or that are backers. If we go with a publisher, we won’t meet people like we do now. We really appreciate all of our backers that have chosen to support us.
The trailers all appear to be on a CRT type of screen with the appropriate distortion of the imagery. Is this how it’ll look in the final game? Is this a visual filter used, or is there a lot more to the design of this type of aesthetic?
You can take the filter off in the game. We liked the feeling of that filter for the trailer – it gives a more retro feel. But for playing, you can take off.
What software is being used for the development of Narita Boy? Why did the team choose this route for game development?
We use Unity, because it is a standard and powerful language for developing games.
There is an interesting juxtaposition between what appears to be real life and the digital world – kind of like how someone wants to see the world versus what it really is. How big of a role will the interdimensional planes play in the story, and how many different dimensions can we expect to explore?
We have 2 dimensions: one is the digital kingdom while the other is the real world, which takes place in the 80’s. The boy comes from the real world, but he goes to the digital kingdom as the Narita Boy, the legendary hero of video games. Narita Boy travels between the digital kingdom and 80’s.
About how long do you think this game will last?
The game will likely last about 4 hours.
Does December 2018 seem like a pretty safe launch window?
We are trying our best to meet the deadline. To be honest with your readers, the quality of the game is more important to us than the deadline. We never want to release the game if we are not happy with the quality. Let’s hope we don’t have too many bugs.
What makes Narita Boy unique from anything else on the market?
Eduardo is making the game that he wants to play and enjoy. This isn’t being made for a person that may like it. If you are trying to be liked by everyone, you become nobody. To be unique, you only have to listen to your heart.
Studio Koba supports Eduardo in making his game. He listens to the team, but Narita Boy’s decisions are made by Eduardo only. That is important in making a unique game. Everyone has different opinions on taste and what they like. You will never be able to make everyone happy.
If you start changing the game in anticipation of more people liking it, then you lose the uniqueness. If you want to make a unique game, artistic decisions shouldn’t be decided by a team’s vote or by what more people will like. Take for instance a movie director like David Lynch – his movies are unlike anyone else’s. You don’t think he tries to be loved by everyone, right? Remarkable movie directors follow their instinct and tastes, not what market research says. That’s the same at Studio Koba. The team respects Eduardo’s decisions and Eduardo follows his instinct.
What kind of experience are you hoping for people to get out of this? Is there anything you hope they take away from it?
Firstly, we want them to enjoy the experience! We are putting every effort into the mechanics so that it’s fun to play.
Later on we hope people connect to their childhood. For the younger generation that didn’t experience the 80’s and 90’s, we hope they discover a new love for the retro feel and those cultures! Small items you see in the game will connect you the time period.
Finally, we hope this game speaks to your heart. Narita Boy is a story driven game so even when you aren’t playing the game, we’d like for the player to keep imagining the world of Narita Boy. We are trying to make the characters attractive and interesting.
What are your top 3 games of all time, and your top 3 from the last 5 years?
This answer is from Eduardo.
Top 3 of all time:
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars
Final Fight
The Secret of Monkey Island
Top 3 last 5 years:
Hotline Miami
Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP
Fez
What would your advice be for someone that has never made a game before, but wants to start?
Take action! Move your hands!
If you are waiting to be perfect and for the right opportunity, the project will never be started. Of course, you might fail, but you can learn from it and do better next time. Keep moving!
When we were preparing the Kickstarter campaign, Kickstarter advised us to wait until we reached 4000 followers on Facebook. We started it anyway. In that sense, we were foolish. We are not the best example of how to perform a Kickstarter. But as result of not listening, we are happy that we could start developing our dream game.
If you could only choose one band/musician to listen to for the rest of your life, who would you choose?
It is difficult to choose one for the rest of my life. I am sure I would get bored with only having one.
Do you have a favorite rodent?
Mickey Mouse??
I am sorry, are you asking what kind of mouse we like??
Anything else we haven’t touched on you’d like the readers to know?
If any of your readers backed Narita Boy, thank you so much for your support to make our dream project happen.
If this is your first time hearing about Narita Boy, sign-up for our mailing list on our pre-order page (service provided by BackerKit).
Thank you so much for your interest and support for Narita Booooooy!!!
Thank you so much to Chie for the very in-depth answers to all of our questions, as well as Eduardo for his interjections. If you feel so inclined to follow along with Studio Koba’s work, you can visit the official website, as well as their Facebook page and Twitter. For more on Narita Boy, make sure to check back as we’ll be sure to continue covering it as news emerges.