Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
In the last blog, I talked about how we're looking for different ways to communicate more about Lasengle, especially about our work ethic and company culture.
We have a diverse team at Lasengle so of course some are more used to this than others, but we all understand how important it is to communicate what's great about our company.
We're still working out the best way to do this, and timing. But whether we're great at interviews and public speaking, or still finding our voice, everyone at Lasengle is keen to contribute to getting the word out there. And in addition to my blog, you can find out more from updates on our website and by following us on X (formerly Twitter).
As part of this effort, we were recently interviewed by the website magazine Automaton. In this interview, Shin Yamane from our management team talks about how we're normalizing remote work at Lasengle, with 93% remote work take-up and keeping local-based employees' salaries on par with those in the city.
In this interview with Shin Yamane from our management team, he talks about how we're normalizing remote work at Lasengle, with 93% remote work take-up and keeping local-based employees' salaries on par with those in the city.
Click the link below to read the full interview (available in Japanese only).
We've also updated the stats on our Lasengle in Data page (as of Sept. 2022). Click the link below for information on remote working take-up and job role ratios (available in Japanese only).
If you're reading this and thinking "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. See all our latest openings here.
Look forward to reading your applications!
Next up, my featured game for blog #22, Dome Keeper.
Dome Keeper is a mining game where you're forced to test your mettle as you defend your facility against attack.
The game is set on a distant planet where you must defend your dome (your mining facility) from waves of alien attack. If the aliens destroy your dome, it's game over.
You can use the dome's weapons to annihilate the alien swarms and defend your dome. You can also strengthen the dome to make it more durable to attack, and upgrade your weapons to take out aliens more efficiently. To do this, you need resources--and these all have to be mined from underground beneath the dome.
Here's the catch: the dome weapons have to be operated from within the dome, but only you can mine the resources needed for upgrades. This means you end up rushing back and forth between the surface dome and your underground tunnels.
Dome Keeper cleverly builds on this game mechanic to ramp up the tension and excitement.
The deeper you dig, the less you can see what's happening at the dome on the surface, making it harder to tell when the aliens are approaching or attacking. But once you've dug up everything near the surface, you have no choice but to dig deeper.
The wider and deeper you dig, the better your chances of finding resources, but the longer it takes to get back to the surface. The more resources you carry, the slower you move, making it even harder to get back to your dome in time.
You can use upgrades to improve drilling and movement speeds, or lessen your carry weight. But all of these require resources, meaning less for improving your dome.
It's a real "robbing Peter to pay Paul'' situation, and I had a blast puzzling over the pros and cons of each decision. It was fun trying to figure out which order to upgrade the dome versus the character, while I tried to think about how I wanted to advance in the game.
Ideally, you'd be able to weigh up the risks and rewards, and have a clear idea of how much you can risk to maximize the payoff, to give you direction on what to prioritize and what to put off. But yeah, that's easier said than done.
One of my favorite aspects of the game was how it became a test of nerves. You want a big return so you take a big risk, and you keep digging just a bit more, just a little further, pushing it to its very limit, knowing that you risk losing it all. You're constantly battling with your greed for more resources, and the fear of your dome being destroyed.
Dome Keeper takes this thrill of pushing the limits and wrestling with tough decisions, and crams it into a game with simple controls and easy-to-grasp scenarios. It's a cool little game that just made me want to keep coming back over and over to test my nerve.
That's my take on Dome Keeper!
Thanks for reading.
The next game is calling my name so gotta go--till next time!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）