Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
One of the things we've noticed when interviewing for new roles is how often people say, "Really? You do that? That's so cool!" when they learn about this or that initiative at Lasengle.
I mean, it's great and all, because there's nothing better than giving someone a nice surprise. But, on the other hand, it means we need to work harder at letting you all know what's great about working at Lasengle.
If you want to know a little more about us, here's a couple of places to start. I talk a lot in my blog about what we're doing at Lasengle, especially about our flexible working setup and remote working take-up. We've also got a whole page listing of interviews with Lasengle team members (available in Japanese only) which can help you get a bunch of different perspectives.
There's also a couple of questions that keep coming up in interviews, and I think it'd be helpful to answer them here too. Things like:: "At Lasengle, can I propose and make a brand new, completely original game from scratch?" or "Do you only make mobile games?" and "Do you only accept proposals for free-to-play games?".
There's really just one answer to these. At Lasengle, we're all headed for the same goal, but we know that there's more than one path to get there. As long as we understand that, we can keep trying new things and make awesome games together!
At Lasengle, we love mobile games and free-to-play games, but we're also into games for other devices, paid games and totally brand new original games built from the ground up. And as for project budgets and scale, I'm not gonna get into the nitty-gritty numbers here, but big, medium, small--it's all good!
Whether you want to create games with a huge budget and team, or go solo with your ideas on a little project, we've got the environment for you to take on those challenges.
And to make sure no one's left thinking, "I wanna give it a shot, but I've never launched a project from scratch, and no idea where to start," or "I have no clue how to turn my ideas into a plan or budget," or "Who do I even talk to about this?", not to worry! We've got a whole department dedicated to launching new projects.
This means that anyone, anytime can pitch their original ideas, create the game, and sell and operate the service. And when I say "anyone," I mean literally anyone on the Lasengle team. You don't need experience as a producer or director, and it doesn't matter what your job title is.
I know it's never easy to kickstart a project, but expecting people to come up with new game ideas without providing the right environment, budget, or someone to consult with just doesn't make any sense. That's why I've made it a company-wide initiative to create an environment where new game development can really thrive.
What we have at Lasengle is the same goal, which is to keep putting out amazing new games. To make that happen, it's up to me and everyone on the team to develop and maintain an organization and company culture where we can focus on our goal, take action, and keep on growing.
So, if your inner-voice is shouting "Me! Me! I'm up for the challenge! Let's make awesome games together!" and if anything in our job listing sparks even a little interest, then visit our Careers page and give Lasengle a go. You can see all our latest openings here.
Look forward to reading your applications!
Moving on, my featured game for blog #21, Rollerdrome.
Back when I was young, roller skating was all the rage
In Japan, the fad was triggered by a roller-skating boy band (yeah, for real!), and many of us bought our skates hoping to look half as cool--only to find out the hard way just how tricky it is to sing and dance while zipping around on roller skates.
It wasn't just about singing and dancing. We played tag, messed around with water guns, firecrackers, and air guns all while roller skating. I'll bet it was the same wherever you grew up, with a few customized elements depending on your neighborhood.
But whatever way we played it back then, there's no way we'd get away with it today. Hardly any of us wore helmets. We were always getting told off for playing on the road or in parking lots. Simpler and way more dangerous times, eh?
Rollerdrome is a third-person action shooter where you take down enemies while roller skating.
It's set in 2030, when people are obsessed with a blood sport called Rollerdrome. You play as a contestant, and your goal is to be league champion. As the contestant, you skate around the drome while shooting and defeating enemies which is a lot of fun, but about as tough as it sounds. The main action revolves around roller skating, and the game is designed with the idea that you need to keep moving.
In every stage, it's generally you vs a horde of enemies. This means if you stop skating, you'll end up dead in the crossfire. Not only that, but you need to pull off tricks to replenish ammo, and the only way to recover HP is by picking up items dropped by defeated enemies. So yeah, stopping is not an option!
To get through the stages, you have to defeat enemies but you also need to complete challenges. Things like pulling off a particular trick, or defeating an enemy while doing a trick.
If you've ever tried singing, dancing and roller skating at the same time, then you'll have some idea of how tough it is to do all of that non-stop, in real-time, while also dodging enemy attacks, nailing tricks to restock your ammo, aiming and taking out enemies, pulling off specific moves--and doing it all while on skates. Sure, there's no singing involved, but you get the picture!
Because of this, the game mechanics are designed around a skate-to-survive concept. Whether this mechanic appeals to you ( or drives you crazy with frustration) is going to affect your overall impression of Rollerdrome. The good news is, it looks like the developers understood this when they made the game.
The settings menu has a broad lineup of Assists which let you enable options like Invincibility, Infinite Ammo, No Challenges Required, giving you more control over how you want to play and the experience you'll have. It's like they're saying, "We cooked it just how we like it but if it's not quite your taste, feel free to adjust the flavor and dig in!"
If you were ever told as a kid "Stop that now before someone gets killed!", because you were playing roller-skating tag with water pistols, then Rollerdrome is a chance for you to relive that experience--and for it to be totally okay if someone does get killed (because it's kinda the whole purpose of the game).
Remember all those crazy plans and cool ideas you dreamed up as a kid, all the things you couldn't make happen because you were too young, or the grown-ups just wouldn't let you? Well, Rollerdrome is a chance to live out those fantasies as a grown-up, even better, you get to do it with people from all over the world.
That's my take on Rollerdrome!
Thanks for reading.
The next game is calling my name so gotta go--till next time!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）