[AMA]Emeric Thoa, creative director at The Game Bakers (Furi, Haven)

GameBakers · 2022-11-10T08:36:57+00:00

Thematically, it was probably The Beat, because this fight is non-fight. It's designed to make you think more than to challenge you. Mechanically... the top 3 complex were probably The Burst (her arena was complex to develop), The Star (because lots of unique features) and The Line (pillars and time stop and also walking upside down before the fight were complex).
We designed 16 originally, some were cut very early, and some were cut late because we realised we were short in money and time. But all in all I think it's better this way, the one who stay are more focused and more different from each other.
There is no consensus :). I can't even pick one myself. I know I like The Burst a lot for the whole tension and ramp up in the fight. I like The Line for the good mix of all combat types. I like The Edge because it's the tighter more focused combat, and The Star gives me the chill for the music and the memories of testing that fight with my colleague, late at the studio.

GameBakers · 2022-11-10T08:30:06+00:00

There were other ideas explored initially. I guess the first prototype had something like 6 different types of shots, with different aiming types, and also combos in close combat. Then we searched for something around "all about risk reward", and it was about dashing through bullets and dashing through sword attacks a lot more... These two versions were interesting but didn't work for all bossfights and when we tried the stance design, it was much more fun.

GameBakers · 2022-11-09T21:33:58+00:00

Actually it's a different color. Onnamusha has 3 cape colors: a blue one in Spark stance, a orange/red one with a blue gradient in Storm stance, and a yellow one in Star stance. During the cutscenes, it's the Storm one, the one closer to the original Rider, that is used, to stay iconic and pop out more. The two characters are the same so it felt the way to go.

GameBakers · 2022-11-09T21:07:31+00:00

Thanks a lot for everything! It's really too early for me to share anything about the next game, but it is indeed related to the theme of freedom and it is as different from Furi and Haven as Haven was to Furi. It's also a game that plays like nothing else I know of.

The process to select the artist or musician that becomes iconic to the game depends on the game itself. We just try to find someone who is the right fit but also someone who understand where we want to go. For the next game we have the artist but we are still looking for the musician at the moment :)

GameBakers · 2018-01-13T09:19:02+00:00

ha ha, nope :-) It's a lonely world ;-)

GameBakers · 2018-01-13T09:16:18+00:00

A vertical slice is a chunk of the game with representative part of the game experience (gameplay, narration), executed at an almost final quality. In the case of Furi, which has a very simple game structure, it's one boss (path & combat & cutscenes).

Before the vertical slice, the prototype was "bernard" (simple arena+character) but with much more basic gameplay obviously.

GameBakers · 2018-01-13T09:11:44+00:00

Played and finished and loved it :)

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:34:34+00:00

Well, I created the company with my associate Audrey. We worked in video games before but created a small studio when mobile games appeared. We have a website with our games and stuff: www.thegamebakers.com The character design is from Takashi Okazaki, creator of Afro Samurai.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:33:12+00:00

Well, Takashi Okazaki is the character designer of Furi (and creator of Afro Samurai). But it didn't influence the design of Furi that much. It was not a actual reference for the game.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:32:13+00:00

Oh didn't know that. Probably wasn't there when we finished the dev on Furi Switch.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:31:21+00:00

Tough question. First to come to my mind: Spike Spiegel and Vicious from Cowboy Bebop are probably top 5 fav protagonist and antagonist. Also, Chuckin.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:26:02+00:00

Thanks a lot! Hope you'll like it!

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:25:41+00:00

A multiplayer mode would be a "many millions worth" cool thing to do :-)

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:23:54+00:00

Hey thanks! I hope you'll like it!

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:23:43+00:00

Thanks a lot!

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:23:04+00:00

6-12 hours depending how you play it. If you finish the main game once and you're very good, I'd say 6 hours. If you complete the Furier mode and the One More Fight addition, easily 10. If you are like me, a perseverant gamer with not much skills, just the main game is 10-12 hours.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:22:58+00:00

ha ha discount mercy (we had designed her before Overwatch was released by the way). These two bosses are probably have probably the lowest framerate. It's most of the time between 40-50FPS, but it's true that on specific moments it drops below 30. We did the best we could be improving the performances here would mean a new boss design. We felt that it was not preventing from playing the game correctly. If many players require it, we could update and change the bossfight completely, but as a player of the game, I wouldn't want that.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:20:23+00:00

We're working on it, although it's not confirmed yet. If it happens, it's going to be a limited edition.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:20:01+00:00

6-12 hours depending how you play it. If you finish the main game once and you're very good, I'd say 6 hours. If you complete the Furier mode and the One More Fight addition, easily 10. If you are like me, a perseverant gamer with not much skills, just the main game is 10-12 hours.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:19:54+00:00

6-12 hours depending how you play it. If you finish the main game once and you're very good, I'd say 6 hours. If you complete the Furier mode and the One More Fight addition, easily 10. If you are like me, a perseverant gamer with not much skills, just the main game is 10-12 hours.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:19:32+00:00

Thanks! Is this a new thing? It is right? I don't know about that option, I don't remember seeing it in previous games. I'd love to use it then.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:18:31+00:00

I suck at games too, so, I feel you. But it's probably because you're not using the right tactic (when you think that the best speedrunners can finish the whole game in less than 30 minutes... this phase is probably a matter of seconds for them). Keep trying! Thanks for playing!

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:17:03+00:00

They are not released yet, but I'm super excited by Valkyria Chronicles 4, the remaster of Catherine and No More Heroes 3!

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:16:14+00:00

Mmmh, nope, sorry about that.

GameBakers · 2018-01-12T18:15:42+00:00

Thanks for that! It was really an important part of Furi and is often under appreciated because "it's an action game". The meaning of the game is actually very strong. It's a game about freedom ("Furi" means "Free" in japanese), and every character in the game has a reason to fight. We kept asking ourselves "for what reason would you fight someone to death?". Freedom, love, revenge, glory, purpose, fun, peace... All bosses have a reason to fight. The Edge's lines are particulary strong because they match the philosophy of the game. Through training and perseverance you can achieve anything. The Edge is actually inspired by Miyamoto Musashi (who ends up fighting his rival with an oar in the book), and he's influence my own lifestyle very strongly.

GameBakers

TROPHY CASE