Back into Aba games: Titanion and the MTV interview with Kenta Cho

(tags game, Windows, open-source, freeware, shmup, interview, English)

Kenta Cho (aka "Saba" or 長健太) of Aba Games released Titanion last month, an open-source high-quality Windows shmup in the style of Galaga crossed with Mushihime-sama. I've got to say that it comes pretty close to dethroning my other favorite game from Aba games, Parsec47. Almost, but not quite. But other people who love that Cave feeling of disappearing bullets when you turn up the tension should download this immediately. Cho mashes the idea of antagonizing your enemy (instead of the other way around) with a "capture beam", into releasing lovely oh so 2000s danmaku curtain bullet fire, while creating a level memorizable blast fest. He even adds a hit rate stat, something that Galaga fans should appreciate. This is another masterpiece that should attract the "Classic" and "Modern" shmupper alike.

But the big meat of this post is the linkage to the Kenta Cho interview in English by MTV Japan and reporter Stephen Totilo (thanks insert credit). Look for "Multiplayer: Best Of The Rest, 2006 ? The Kenta Cho Interview" on date "12.18.06" (2006/12/18) for the text and video (click on "click here to see the footage", if this link doesn't take you there). A good quote: "I create the games that I want to play. And if some people want to enjoy my games, I give my game and code to those people." (emphasis mine)

I think in the video they were hinting to Cho about that hobbyist level Xbox 360 game development environment called XNA Game Studio Express. I think what they wanted to say is that perhaps he could start writing games there, if not at the commercial level. I don't see it being likely, and I'm not just saying that because of the interview.

Have you seen how he produces his games lately? Most of them are created with the programming language D by Digital Mars and utilizes OpenGL and SDL, two open-source frameworks for graphics and music/sound, respectively. I go into more detail in "PSP got rRootage" and "Geometry Wars knockoffs hit the PC". None of this stuff is supported by Microsoft's Xbox 360 tools. I don't doubt that he can go back to "archaic" C++ and program whatever he wants, it's just that I think he likes working with and evangelizing D. (BTW, D hasn't reached "1.0" status yet, but just like Cho's games reach maturity at "0.2", it's no big deal.)

I was totally surprised to see him being interviewed in English. Do they give him that fawning level of respect in Japanese? I hope so.