Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
The other day, we launched a new page with a bunch of data about our team at Lasengle (up-to-date at time of posting). It includes things like number of employees, average age, role ratios, remote vs office work ratios, to hopefully give you insight into our working culture and environment
A lot of people we interview for roles ask about our remote work setup. You can learn about that here, find out more about our flexible working style here, and see what employee benefits we offer here, including remote work allowance.
Did you check out the data? What did you think? Are we what you expected or did it paint a different picture?
And if I told you that I love data, what would you think of me then? "Weird. Who likes numbers??!" or maybe "Typical. Just like a CEO. Always looking at the numbers." Well, I guess you wouldn't be too far off the mark. I do like looking at numbers (and I might be a bit weird), but maybe not for the reasons you think.
Numbers and data are a great way for checking if your gut feeling or idea was right. They also help you tweak your idea if you are a little off. So, I see numbers as pretty key to game development.
When you want to measure numbers, what do you use? Well, the most basic tool is a ruler, right? Otherwise known as a "yardstick"--yeah, I get that it's a bit of an old-fashioned term but it works better for this analogy so roll with it (trust me, it'll all make sense).
Ok, so, we all have our own yardsticks, right? No, I'm not talking about the ones in your tool shed. I mean metaphorical yardsticks, ones you've created through experiences, and use to evaluate decisions in your life.
And these yardsticks have a different kind of "Made in" stamp. Things like:
Made in My Game History, Made in My Childhood, Made in My Classroom, Made in My Career. Or you might have Made in My Gut Feeling, Made in My Imagination, Made in My Dream Games. And then there's the other side of life: Made in Epic Failures or Made in Skeletons in the Closet (great title for a game).
When it comes to gaming, there are two yardsticks that we always need to keep handy. One helps us evaluate the subjective (imagination, gut feeling), and the other helps us evaluate the objective (data, rationales). We need to make sure we're always using and updating these yardsticks as we develop games.
To put it another way, when making games, you need to be able to evaluate something from both a personal, relative perspective and also from a fact-based, absolute perspective. Using both of these yardsticks to evaluate is how you make a game that can appeal to more people.
And the more "yardsticks" people bring to Lasengle, the more we can build a creative vibe where we can evolve and develop a yardstick completely unique to us.
If that appeals to you, then gather up all your yardsticks and come and join us! (I'm still talking about metaphorical yardsticks here. Please don't bring your actual yardsticks to work.)
Visit here to see all our current openings. Look forward to reading your applications!
Next up, my featured game for blog #15, Orbital Bullet.
Orbital Bullet is a side-scrolling shooter, with a twist: the 360° wrap-around design.
In Orbital Bullet, each stage is a circular platform, so if you keep running you'll end right back where you started. And it's not just the platform that goes around: bullets wrap around the entire stage, looping like an ace pitcher's curveball. Imagine drawing a circle with a compass, and instead of a pencil mark, it's the player, enemy and bullets that are making up the circumference, and you get the idea.
This game mechanic gets interesting when attacking enemies who have certain traits. Say, you have an enemy who can't be attacked from the front. Usually, you'd jump over and shoot from behind. But in Orbital Bullet, you just turn to face the other way and send your bullet round the circle, so it ends up in the back of your enemy--boomerang attack! This adds an extra layer to weapon selection and attack strategies which I enjoyed.
The controls are pretty easy to master. Once you get used to it, you can play at a good pace--moving right or left around the circular stage while jumping, dodging, and maneuvering around enemies.
Despite the smooth controls, the pace you clear stages varies drastically. Weapons are culled from random drops and the skill tree changes with every run, so how quickly you can clear will depend on the random combo of skills and weapons you get at the start of the run.
Sometimes I'd get a run where everything clicked, so I'd recklessly blaze through the stage, feeling invincible...only to mess up and game over. Then, in the next run, I'd get a rubbish weapon and skill combo, and all I'd be thinking is "Gaah! Why'd I waste that awesome setup with such a rookie mistake??!" and pray that the game would give me another run like that soon.
Orbital Bullet also has a permanent skill tree, where you can unlock boosts to strengthen your character over time, and individual skill trees for each of the four classes. So even if you die, not everything is wasted, which makes jumping right back in real easy.
If I messed up or the setup wasn't great I'd think "Next run, that's when it's all gonna work out my way!" and I'd load up for another run. And then another, and another, and...Yeah, it's an easy game to get hooked on!
If you were one of those kids who believed boomerangs were the best weapon ever, or if you've ever wondered "If a person with superhuman strength threw something with superhuman force, would it circle the earth and hit them on the back of the head?", then you'll definitely get a kick out of Orbital Bullet.
That's my take on Orbital Bullet!
Thanks for reading.
The next game is calling my name so gotta go--till next time!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）