Azure Striker Gunvolt is a self-funded and self-published project being developed by Inti Creates. The studio owns the Gunvolt I.P., is making the game on its own money, and will self-publish it in both Japan and North America. However, Gunvolt isn’t Inti Create’s only self-funded project.
Speaking with Siliconera Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu revealed that the studio is working on a second self-funded title as well.
“We are running five projects [at the moment], And there is one project, apart from Gunvolt, that uses self-funding,” Aizu shared with us. “However,” he added, “that may change in the future—whether we finance it entirely ourselves or not.”
“We also run projects in cooperation [with other companies]. If Gunvolt succeeds, we can increase our self-published projects. So please support Inti Creates!”
I asked Aizu how much of Inti Create’s staff the studio dedicates to original development and how much it keeps reserved for games being developed and funded by other publishers, such as Bandai Namco and the like. Inti has 85 employees, and keeping everyone busy can sometimes be a challenge.
“At first, we make a prototype with a small number of people, and then increase the staff assigned to it at the production stage,” Aizu said, speaking to original development. “On the other hand, most games for publishers make use of a great number of people from the beginning. Thus, when making games for publishers, the staff ratio increases.”
“If Gunvolt or Mighty No. 9 is a hit, I think that we may increase the ratio of our staff assigned to original development to half. But at the same time, we won’t stop development for publishers.”