The Biggest Game Dev You've Never Heard Of 85
simoniker writes "Japan-based game developer Tose has 1,000 employees, and has created 1,100 game SKUs since 1979 (including Final Fantasy GBA versions, though they can't mention it in this interview!), but they're basically unknown, because they're 'game development ninjas', and 'refuse to put [their] names on the game'. Odd stuff."
Best response ever (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Best response ever (Score:3, Funny)
Prease, prease, we velly good deveroper.
Not that unusual (Score:3, Interesting)
It's surprising how much is available when you just ask the right way.
Being at the right place at the right time and simply asking "can I help out" can really get you places.
Second best response ever (Score:2, Interesting)
GS: And you work across all tools?
SC: Pretty much. And everything we use is legally licensed, even in China.
Game development ninjas? (Score:5, Funny)
I for one dig that.
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:1)
Umm, wrong site.
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
No, he's thinking of this website....particularly "fact" #3:
http://www.realultimatepower.net/ninja/ninja2.htm [realultimatepower.net]
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:1)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Sorry
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2, Informative)
The Wikipedia page on ninjas [wikipedia.org] is pretty good. Certainly gives a better notion of what a ninja was.
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:1)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Wow...you sure can take a joke seriously.
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Re:Game development ninjas? (Score:2)
Japanese vs American attitudes (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Japanese vs American attitudes (Score:5, Informative)
Arguably, that's because they weren't getting any money for their work. If the devs were paid what they were worth, I can assure you that they wouldn't have complained as much.
What's funny is that Todd Frye (the creator of Atari Pacman for the 2600) got both money in the form of royalties [erasmatazz.com] AND fame for his work on PacMan! Even more amusing is that it was a rushed translation, and Mr. Frye didn't like PacMan! Some people have all the luck.
Go Figure.
Interesting but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interesting but... (Score:1)
Oh, and there != their. \\grammar nazi
Re:Interesting but... (Score:2)
Am I wrong here (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't design the house (architect), don't pay for it (home owner), but 9-5 mondays to fridays, look at the specs and build it.
Otherwise, all of their moves, like not insisting on retaining the IP, make no sense.
Re:Am I wrong here (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Am I wrong here (Score:1)
You said:
They're still developing the game, but they're given a set of requirements and develop the game according to those requirements.
he said
look at the specs and build it.
What fucking world of trinary logic do you hail from?
I swear I want to flip out right now, and that wouldbe awesome. And by awesome I mean, fuck it, you know. Sweet.
Re:Am I wrong here (Score:2)
They don't want to spend massive time negotiating and dealing with legal squables so they can be working full time at a constant rate.
I bet another aspect of their business is not trying to have everyone put in their ideas all the time, if people just do what they're told the management can realize their vision really fast.
An interesting concept of development.
Re:Am I wrong here (Score:2)
Otherwise, all of their moves, like not insisting on retaining the IP, make no sense.
Yes, you are wrong here. :) For a company that does not publish games retaining related intellectual property rights would be silly. What would they do with the IP if they are not in the game publishing business? Not retaining IP means they can charge more money.
Also, I'd say 1100 games in 27 years proves that they do know how to operate a business.
Not sure about these guys... (Score:3, Funny)
Scary (Score:4, Insightful)
We try to act behind the scenes, and we follow our clients' desires, instructions and everything, so our policy is not to have a vision. In our company, we follow the customer's vision.
Programming for these guys must be loads of fun. Yikes.
Re:Scary (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Scary (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Scary (Score:2)
I started to laugh.
More than half the class raised their hand.
They would probably love this place. I switched to pscyhology.
Re:Scary (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Scary (Score:2)
Fair chance he's wrong if he were to try it, but on the other hand, difficult to underestimate the soul-sucking ability of cubes, especially given the permanent lack of tangible accomplishment associated with them. It's pretty much impossible to create anything real (non-virtual) in a cube farm.
Re:Scary (Score:4, Interesting)
To be fair, the first time I was a CS major in the early 90s, I didn't really see where the Internet wave was going to take us, myself. Sure, I'd been online since 1983, but somehow it never seemed real to me that I would truly be able to telecommute like this. When I went back to school in the late 90s, I had missed the crest of the wave, when many were able to get rich for doing almost nothing, but I now had the attainable goal in mind of finding a non-geographically-fixed job.
I recently re-watched James Burke's The Day the Universe Changed, made in 1985, and found it a little eerie how well he described my current working conditions in the first episode.
Re:Scary (Score:2)
So you're probably self employed and work out of a tiny office, maybe attached to the side of your house. And you probably don't make much money. Or you don't work as a psychologist.
Personally, I like working out of a nice air-conditioned office and being well-paid. And if I'm ambitious, I can work for a startup company or start my own or become a specialist in something and work as a consultant (though that would generally require a lot of travel).
I know a bigger one... (Score:2, Funny)
He's actually the biggest game dev I know, but nobody's heard of him...
me too! (Score:1)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:1)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:5, Funny)
"ME SO SOLLY! AH SO!"
Dude, it's the twenty-first century. Can we try to show a LITTLE respect for foreign cultures?
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:1, Offtopic)
OK, let me see if I have the SlashDot speech code down.
"All your X are belong to us." (Poor grammar.)
+1 Funny
"...are berong to us." (Poor pronunciation.)
-1 Troll
Look about right?
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Spoken like a true white male middle-class American 20-to-30-year-old.
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:1)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:2)
Re:Mission accomprished (Score:1)
Well, if you're sorry, stop calling me an asshole!
At least they have history (Score:3, Funny)
Could we get a look at their portfolio? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:but of course (Score:1)
Re:but of course (Score:2)
Then totally flip out and kill you.
AH, that explains it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:AH, that explains it! (Score:1)
Re:AH, that explains it! (Score:1)
Credits (Score:2, Interesting)
I really think it can help a lot in making the team feel more like a unit and reduce work related stress.
Re:Credits (Score:1)
Re:Credits (Score:1)
Re:Credits (Score:2)
Game development turtles: (Score:3, Funny)
Which is best? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Which is best? (Score:1)
Fresh and amusing excerpts from TFA... (Score:3, Funny)
GS: How come we've never heard of you until right now?
KS: Well we're based in Kyoto, right? So we're ninja. You can't find us!
KS: Our policy is not to have a vision.
KS: We just beg them.
GS: Seems like when you've made 1,100 games you shouldn't have to beg.
GS: What's your stock value?
SC: It's about 16 dollars now. We've had better days.