In a blog post on the Red Ash Kickstarter page, the game’s art director, Kazushi Ito, shares a message with fans looking forward to the game, and shares a little background on what he feels is special about the project. Ito has worked on titles like Mega Man Legends and Parasite Eve 2. Here’s what he says:
I’ve worked on developing games at various companies and settings up until now. Making games is so much work that it almost feels like the game becomes part of your own body. Yes, the development work itself can be tough, but it’s the other factors, both external and internal, that really give us a hard time.
For example, I can’t name names, but struggles for supremacy within a company have destroyed games, and certain people who have loud voices and not much else have turned entire workplaces into a mess. Just thinking about all that trouble in the past makes me really sad. Planning and developing games can feel a lot like the hatching of sea turtles: an intense struggle for survival where few make it out alive.
Because of development environments like that, it’s very difficult for creators to make the games they truly want to work on.
For this game, Inafune-san came to us and told us “Just make what you really want to make!” This is something nearly unheard of in the Japanese game development world of today. After receiving words like that, we decided to put our full effort into creating a wonderful game that will bring fun and joy to our players. It’s not often that we get a chance like this; it could even be once in a lifetime for me.
Red Ash is in development for PC. The Kickstarter campaign for the game will end in 17 days. It has amassed around $400,000 in funding so far—half its goal.
