Hey there! I'm Yoshinori Ono, CEO at Lasengle.
Welcome to my blog and thanks for dropping by!
In my last blog, I mentioned how one of the team was interviewed by the website magazine Automaton. The interview was part of a series featuring some of the key decision makers at Lasengle, including me.
It's been a while since I did an interview like this, and I appreciated the chance to talk in depth about how Lasengle started, our development philosophy, and where we're headed next.
If you have time to spare, check out the interviews below. If nothing else, I hope it tells you something about Lasengle and gets you interested to learn more.
■ Part 1
Shin Yamane from our management team talks about how we're normalizing remote at Lasengle, with 93% remote work take-up and keeping local-based employees' salaries on a par those in the city (interview available in Japanese only):
https://automaton-media.com/articles/hiring/20221006-221552/
■ Part 2
Four key leaders at Lasengle talk about our recruitment drive, where we've come from as a company, where we're headed and our plans for FGO ((interview available in Japanese only):
https://automaton-media.com/articles/hiring/20221020-223196/
■ Part 3
Four creators at Lasengle discuss our goal to create a new signature title at Lasengle, and the kind of talent we're looking for to help us tackle the challenges ahead (interview available in Japanese only):
https://automaton-media.com/articles/hiring/20221027-224067/
■ Part 4
"Interview with Yoshinori Ono: Why he became president of Lasengle and insights into the future of FGO developers"
https://automaton-media.com/en/interviews/20221219-17179/
If you read these interviews and think "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 #23, Unpacking.
Unpacking celebrated its first anniversary on November 2, 2022. According to data on the game's X (formerly Twitter) account, it has sold over 1 million copies and been played in 185 countries.
Unpacking is a puzzle game where you unpack boxes after moving in.
You open the boxes, take out the items, and place them in your new room. Books go on the bookshelf, clothes go in the closet, the computer goes on the desk, and when you're done, a photo is taken, and you move on to the next stage--a new room.
You start off in a child's room, and move through apartments, dorms, shared rooms, and more, with the puzzle complexity increasing to match the life stages of the owner of the belongings.
Unpacking is a puzzle game, but it's not the kind that has you racking your brains for hours, or getting excited when you finally work out the answer. The developers call it a "Zen puzzle game" and I couldn't think of a better way to describe it. You're focused, but it's more like a meditative state than a tense concentration so the game has a relaxing, almost therapeutic effect.
The puzzles are fairly simple and there's more than one solution. There's also a very vivid story which is told despite the minimal text elements. It even gets a bit emotional toward the end.
The favorite stuffed animal from childhood. The souvenir from a graduation trip. The updated gaming consoles and games. As I unpacked each item from the boxes, I could sense the invisible female protagonist, and it brought back memories of my own life stages--even if the items in my rooms were different.
The theme of moving house is something most people can relate to. Coupled with the intuitive gameplay, which needs hardly any text, it's no wonder Unpacking is a hugely popular game, played by so many people around the world,
It's also a really fun game to watch streamed. It's amazing how many different ways there are to unpack the rooms, and how much this tells you about the player's personality. In one stage, I dumped the bag on the bedroom floor, which was perfectly ordinary for me, but as far as the game was concerned it hadn't been "unpacked" so I had to move it before I could clear the stage.
There's also a lot of freedom in how you stack things like dishes, or how you arrange books on a shelf. Sometimes I'd clear the stage and be thinking, "There's no way my family would let me get away with this at home!"
The pixel graphics in Unpacking means that items are simplified and depending on your age, you might not know what some are. I guess it goes without saying that I had no trouble working out what the pixelated retro game consoles were, and having these in the game was a real nice feeling of nostalgia.
I did spend ages walking around confused with a green and yellow pixelated rectangle. I tried it on the bed, then on a bookshelf, before I finally realized what it was: a bag of dish sponges! If anyone had been watching me play, they'd sure have got a kick out of my crazy attempts to unpack this item!
That's my take on Unpacking!
Thanks for reading.
The next game is calling my name so gotta go--till next time!
Yoshinori X（Twitter）