Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
Before I talk about the featured game, I want to share some of the things we're doing to improve the working environment at Lasengle.
I've talked a couple of times about the flexible working setup at Lasengle. Our team gets to pick between two work options: Home Style and Office Style. In other words, they can choose to work from home or the office. There are a bunch of other benefits available for employees, and you can learn more about those here (in Japanese only).
Our office is in Tokyo. I never thought I'd ever be able to run the company from my hometown in Osaka, but with the recent changes we've made, it doesn't seem so far-fetched. Maybe with a little bit of planning, I could be one of those digital nomad CEOs, working from anywhere, any place. That'd be pretty cool--although, for now, working from Osaka would be good enough!
In fact, our management lead, Shin Yamane, was recently interviewed about how we can use tech tools to improve the office environment. In the interview he talks about how we're using iPads at Lasengle to aid communication, without having a negative impact on game development projects. Here's the iPads ready for shipping.
We've also added people to the team from outside Tokyo, including a new member from Fukuoka (just to be clear, they're working with Home Style, not commuting seven hours every day!).
As I see it, we shouldn't have to limit ourselves to people who live in Tokyo. I want Lasengle to be a gaming company where people can work with us wherever they're based--Tokyo or Toronto, Eastern Japan or Eastern Europe. And I'm going to keep working with the team on our tech to make that happen.
But, I also get how important it is to meet face-to face. Which is why we're working on creating an office space and culture that brings people together.
So, if your heart is screaming "Let me make games already!", then check out our careers page and give us a shout. You won't regret it!
And now for something else you won't regret (or you might, if horror's not your thing!), my featured game for blog #11,Carrion.
!!!CONTENT WARNING!!!
Carrion is a horror game and it's also got some pretty gory visuals, so if that's not your thing, best to sit this one out.
If not, and you're down with creepy, then read on!
!!!PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!
Carrion is a side-view action puzzler.
You wake up trapped in a research facility as a creature of unknown origin, a tentacled, nightmarish monster. And I'm not kidding, this creature is the stuff of nightmares: a bloody, slimy mass of wriggling tentacles and fanged mouths. Definitely not something you'd want to get up close and personal with.
It's impossible to know which way is up and which is down, but, as this blob of horror, you move around the environment, sticking to ceilings, squishing into air vents and slithering across the lab floor.
The game's controls are fairly straightforward. You use the creature's arms (or legs, who can tell?), to grab onto things and pull you around the environment. You can stick to any surface so gravity's not a problem, giving you complete freedom of movement.
As the creature, your goal is to escape the lab that's been your prison. Which, despite being a gravity-defying monster, is easier said than done. You've got to dodge research staff, combat units, robots, and drones. The lab is a maze of doors, switches, and sensors--most only activated for humans (which, spoiler alert, you're definitely not). With all these obstacles, breaking out is no walk in the park.
So, what's a poor creature to do?
The trick is to channel your inner horror movie villain. You slink silently through the narrow air ducts in the ceiling, hide in wait behind a vent until an unsuspecting scientist or guard walks by. You drop quietly behind them and...bamb! You grab them with your tentacles, rip them in two and devour them instantly, turning the place into a bloodbath--and give your HP a health boost with a nutritious meal of biomass (I did warn you it was gory!).
Just like horror movies, there are numerous ways you can terrify your victims. Silently creeping up on your prey, letting the dread build up, before jumping in for the violent attack. Or you can go for a full-on assault, grabbing humans and drones with your tentacles, smashing them repeatedly against the walls until they've been mushed to a messy pulp. Yep, this game is not for the light-hearted!
But, as Carrion is essentially an action puzzler (no, really, it is!), rampaging wildly into a room full of enemies will likely get you shredded into a bullet-ridden mess pretty quickly (yep, even more of a mess than you already are!).
To beat the puzzles, you have to get crafty like a true horror movie villain: "What's the best way to outsmart these guys?", "How can I draw them out to pick them off one by one?", "I'm gonna have to annihilate the whole lot of them in one go...but how?". Then you get to play out your horror movie scenarios, crawling silently through the vents to creep up on your victim, or blasting through doors and going berserk in a crowd. It's awesome.
Even though the lab's layout, rooms, and corridors aren't randomly generated, getting around the maps and mechanisms with only the creature's abilities means each run requires some clever thinking. And that's why I was grateful for the generous amount of save points, so I could quickly jump back in and try again.
As for the story, the creature in Carrion doesn't really talk, and there's no narrative scenes, but you find just enough clues to piece together what's going on as you play. The ending shows you what happens right after the creature escapes, but what happens next is deliberately vague, leaving the creature's ultimate destiny up to the player's imagination.
In the same way, maybe because it's pixel art, the gore-drenched horror of the scenes became a very real picture in my head, so be warned!
To wrap up, Carrion is a game where you get to move across ceilings, walls and floor like a creepy parkour pro. You experience the rush of being on the reverse end of a stealth scare. You can play puzzles with just the right amount of difficulty to feel challenged without feeling frustrated, and attack with punishing attack power to mercilessly annihilate enemies.
Carrion is a great game to act out the villain and indulge in your dark side, without inflicting actual harm on anyone living.
That's my take on Carrion.
Thanks for reading.
The next game is calling my name so gotta go--till next time!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）