The second one, we have full control over our IPs. There's that, and that's one of the core reasons we decided to self-publish. You're left wondering what could you have done if you had a little more time. That's all very prevalent among creators, but it's hard when you have no control over that stuff. There are a lot of times when we're like, if we just had a little bit more time we could have made something so much better, or we could do this or we could do that. You don't have the rights, and you have no control, and that can be really difficult sometimes. "Especially when you make a game you really like - you might really want to make a sequel because you loved what you did, you absolutely crushed it, but you have no control over that. Everything they say goes, and you have little input into how the game will come together. That's one part of the equation, but the two big reasons we made that shift, the first one was that when you take in contracts from a big publisher, you have to make a game in a set timeframe, you play by their rules.
"They dried up a bit compared to the past. "There's the factor of just getting those jobs from other big companies," says Aizu.
Why, I ask, was there that desire to make the shift towards self-publishing? We're not on the verge of collapse or anything like that! Especially since they're our own titles, you have that extra love and that extra power behind promoting and creating what is yours. That's how we're able to stay afloat, and stay in the black. So I guess the biggest difference in recent times is how we've shifted greatly to making our own titles, and promoting our own titles - going from a company that takes stuff in and puts it out to whoever paid us for it to a company that puts a lot of effort into promoting its own titles, creating its own titles and making that the centrepiece of our company. "They'd hire us to make the game, we'd make it and that'd be the end of it.
"Back in the day, we got pretty much all our work from other big triple-A companies," says Aizu. Mighty Gunvolt Burst, as with many Inti Creates games, has been tended to well post-release, with plenty of DLC support. It's worth it, though, as Inti Creates' games have been especially good of late - a result, I'd wager, of them moving towards self-published titles. Indeed, Inti Creates' workrate is staggering - in the Switch's short life so far, the studio has managed to put out three games - and it's a full-time job just keeping up with the developer's output.
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We put out a lot of games - and over the 21 years we're constantly learning to upgrade to make games as fast as we possibly can but still maintaining that quality people expect." "Another part of the equation is that, as a studio, one of the biggest focuses we have is to make the best products we possibly can, spending as little money as possible. There's a lot more care being put into what games we're making. I think that's been a big boon for Indies as a whole in Japan, it's got a lot better over the past few years as opposed to when a lot of studios would go for the cheapest option and call it a day. "In recent years, Japan has really stepped up its game in recognising and taking a lot more care into choosing who gets to develop their games, and recognising Indies and indie talent. We don't make any mobile games - we make only console games," president Takuya Aizu tells me during last month's Tokyo Game Show, before going into some of his own theories on how his studio has been able to endure. "The gaming landscape here in Japan is dominated by the mobile market. What's truly remarkable is that, despite the ever-changing and often turbulent backdrop of games development in Japan, Inti Creates has stuck fast to what it does best. With the continued absence of Treasure from the frontlines of games development, Inti Creates has quickly become a new favourite boutique Japanese developer. More recently, Inti Creates has carved out its own niche with an impressive run of action games on Nintendo platforms, the likes of Master Blaster Zero, Mighty Gunvolt Burst and the compilation of Azure Striker Gunvolt games securing the developer a place in my own heart. Or, indeed, to some of the games that are embedded deep within this developer's blood this is a studio, after all, formed from a team of Capcom veterans some 20 years ago, and that went on to make its name with the Mega Man Zero games at the turn of the century. Except, of course, when they do - such as with Inti Creates' lovingly crafted homages to 8-bit classics.