HOSHINO

It's overlapping previous question, but could you tell me about your job once again?
You had been a designer for a prize game before you went freelance, didn't you?

ISHII

I was working a bit, for designing the prize game appearance at the game company OHIRA GIKEN IND.which was located in Gifu.

HOSHINO

You can write scripts despite being a designer.
How did you learn the scriptwriting?

ISHII

I had a personal hobby of programming a long time ago.
On X68000, I made games by assembler and stuff like that.

HOSHINO

You belong to the X68000 generation and you also draw pixel art.
Having experience with assembler, those generations like you are open to scriptwriting.

ISHII

But I couldn't understand it at first.

HOSHINO

How about C?

ISHII

I learned up to C.

HOSHINO

It was OK to manage pointers.

ISHII

My assembler experience helped to understand pointers.
But when I started scriptwriting, object-oriented programming has become popular without even noticing.
So I couldn't understand it at the beginning.

But I got used to today's programming and scriptwriting now, and I can't even remember how I did for programming a long time ago.
I wonder how I did without object-oriented.

HOSHINO

(laughs)
There is a generation who experienced all the things on PCs.
They can draw pictures, they can program, they develop by themselves on a routine basis.

And then, after being freelance, you belong to ROBOT(ROBOT Communications Inc.).
Do you have any reason for quitting freelance?

ISHII

No, not particular. While I was working on freelance basis, there was a position for me before I knew it.(laughs)

HOSHINO

The position for you was prepared before you knew it.(laughs)
How were you working when you were freelance?

ISHII

I didn't start working as a freelancer at once after quitting the previous company.
I was in a muddle right after quitting.

HOSHINO

In a muddle.(laughs)
Were you in a muddle at Gifu?

ISHII

I came to Tokyo after quitting.
At that time, FLASH was not popular and there were not much web games.
So there were not many jobs for such things.

HOSHINO

Have you worked for creating contents by using FLASH or, Director at that time?

ISHII

No, not really.(laughs)
As I develop some sort of things, I often got offerings of work.
In the beginning, I developed small games for the bound-in CDROM which was usually an appendix to erotic magazines.

HOSHINO

Somewhat, felt like "multimedia".(laughs)

ISHII

Yeah, felt like "multimedia".(laughs)

HOSHINO

Using Director at that time, weren't you?

ISHII

Yes. I used Director.
It was the glory days of Director.

HOSHINO

What made you use Director?

ISHII

I had a chance to use Director at the vocational school.
I thought it interesting and bought it.

HOSHINO

Then it guided you to the job.
What kind of contents do you create for the daytime job now?
What is the platform?

ISHII

Most of my work is now creating FLASH for mobile phones on our company's portal site.
And there are some works by commissioning and some secret job.

HOSHINO

Secret job.(laughs)
How many people usually work for mobile phone content?

ISHII

Most of the time, a mobile phone content is made by one person.
For from three days to two weeks by one person.

HOSHINO

Does the production time include planning?

ISHII

It includes planning.
Planning is through developing.

HOSHINO

We tend to think that FLASH for mobile is easy to develop, but actually, it's pretty hard for one person both to draw pictures and to write scripts.

Have you had any difficulties for the machine dependence?
How about the difference of the screen?

ISHII

Most of the time, screen size is OK for 240x240 these days.
Sound is the hard part.
Sound is different depending on machines.
It's bothering.

HOSHINO

Do you feel same kind of accomplishment on your job?

ISHII

I feel my personal accomplishment, plus, accomplishment as a producer.(laughs)

HOSHINO

(laughs)
Does the game content tip over?

ISHII

Maybe it's more strict as a producer.(laughs)
I tend to feel "it's must be OK to accomplish" pretty soon.

HOSHINO

(laughs)
So you create your contents besides your daytime job.
How much time do you have for your personal work?

ISHII

Time..., Most of my time dedicates to the daytime job.

HOSHINO

How often can you take time off?
It's getting realistic.(laughs)

ISHII

I can't take much off. Sometimes, I have to help my friends on my day off.

HOSHINO

So you are developing your works in rather limited time, aren't you?
Then, don't you feel tough or tired?

ISHII

Well, but sometime, I concentrate and create my personal work rather than my job.

HOSHINO

You can't help but develop.(laughs)
What motivate you to create your personal works even though you create numbers of contents as your job?

ISHII

Well, I think it must be the response from users.
Responses make me feel happy.
The contents of my business usually can't have many responses.

HOSHINO

I see. Some official game portal sites don't have a scheme for users to submit responses.
Do you feel anxious for your work's quality if you can't get many responses?

ISHII

I can feel a good grip for my business.
The perfection level is very high and they are developed perfectly.

HOSHINO

Ah huh. You want more praise to the perfectly-developed contents.(laughs)

ISHII

Praise up more.(laughs)
You don't have to act like that, but there are actually well developed games like zip-jan-solitia.

HOSHINO

I got addicted to the game the other day.(laughs)

ISHII

The music producer was Mr. ITOKEN.
He composed the music.
The size of "zip-jan-solitia" is 3MB, of which 90 % is sound files.(laughs)
Those files are not much compressed to prevent deterioration.

HOSHINO

Ah, huh. You mean, also for sounds.
Those are created with a great care including for sounds.
For example, it has good character introduction on the title screen, and peeking out the underneath tiles.
Also it has well-balanced producing with the game element.

By the way, in the talk about "HOSHI SAGA", you said that basically you don't have trials by users.
How do you suppose users?

ISHII

I had developed for myself a long time ago.
All those games were so difficult because they were developed for me.
I started to make them easier around "HOSHI SAGA".
It's rather hard to develop them to be too easy for me.

HOSHINO

You have observed the reaction from users and it became like that.
Actually, those cat games were hard to complete.
Those games were developed for yourself a long time ago, but now for whom?

ISHII

For all over the world.

HOSHINO

I see.
I felt your very good attitude through the games that those games should be completed anyhow.
Now I understand why I felt like that. Because you made them for all the people, not for limited users.

"For all over the world". Very nice.

(Interviewer: 0stage, HOSHINO Ken'ichi)

Links
- Adobe FLASH product information
- Adobe Director product information
- i Zoo Keeper
- "zip-jan-solitia"
- itoken-web.com
- "HOSHI SAGA"
- Wikipedia X68000
- Wikipedia C
- ROBOT Communications Inc.
- OHIRA GIKEN IND.
- NEKOGAMES
- NEKOGAMES.COM

Buy at Amazon
- Adobe Flash related products
- Adobe Director related products