2023-09-26 08:51:07
Before my trip to the Tokyo Game Show, I was able to hear a story regarding an unusual game company. It was a story regarding a game company headed by a Frenchman. It may seem like a big deal in the global era, but the following story stimulated my interest in many ways. It was a new development company, and most of the employees were made up of multinational foreigners, not Japanese. The name of the game company we visited this time was Infinity Vector. If this is your first mission, you might recognize this game. This is the company that developed ‘Asolute Racing’, which is famous for its high quality among mobile racing games. Why did French CEO Julien Mairat establish a company in Japan? Is it because it is a gaming powerhouse? We went to Shibuya headquarters to hear why and what the future holds for Infiniti Vector. ▲ Julien Marierat, CEO of Infinity Vector Q. First, please briefly introduce yourself. = My name is Julien Marierat, CEO of Infinity Vector. It’s been over 10 years since I came to Japan, and before that I had many different jobs. Before founding Infinity Vector, I founded a small interior design company, and as you can see, it failed once (laughs). After that, I worked in web design for regarding 4 years, but I also liked games so much that I wanted to create games, so I joined a game company. Although I enjoyed working at a game company, there were some parts that didn’t suit me. What should I say? I guess it felt like I wasn’t able to fully utilize my potential. It must have been around that time. I thought it would be better to make my own game. Personally, I really like racing games like the Gran Turismo series, so I really wanted to make a game like this someday, and I wanted to do it before it was too late. So, I worked at the company and developed a prototype for regarding four years. On weekdays, I worked at work, and on holidays like Saturdays and Sundays, I made my own games at home. When I think regarding it now, it was something that changed my life, but I was young at the time, and even that was fun. ▲ ‘Asolute Racing’ was born from the desire to create my own game. However, there are many limitations to playing alone. Especially in the case of racing games, graphics and physics engines are very important, so there was a need to further improve these areas. At that time, the same company called it Lunch Pot. I had a colleague at lunch with me named Joshua, and I showed him the prototype and asked him if he wanted to build it together. I am currently working as a co-founder, and with that friend coming, the quality of the game has really improved. From the prototype, the framework of a proper game was established. Then, the game was finally completed and released, and I remember that the monthly sales at that time were as much as the company’s salary. Joshua and I were quite surprised when we saw that, and that’s when we decided to found Infinity Vector. In many ways, there were some things that did not fit the Japanese company style, so I suggested to Joshua that we should come together and start a company. He said it was good this time as well, so that’s how we founded the company. Q. Did you originally major in game development? = My major is design, but I also play music as a hobby. As an aside, we also created the BGM for our game ourselves.Q. I said it was fun, but I don’t think it would have been easy to develop while working at the company. = I don’t remember it being difficult or difficult at the time. However, obtaining a single car license was not easy. This is true for sports games, but also for car games, there is a world of difference between having players and vehicle licenses and not. In the beginning, I mightn’t use it because I didn’t have a license, but it was necessary to improve the quality of the game. But I need to know how to do it (laughs). I just blindly inquired with car companies, but fortunately Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda, etc. gave me permission to license it, so I was able to include it in the game. From then on, I think it was easy. As the number of licenses increased, other companies began to allow them, and thanks to that, we now have licenses from well-known automobile companies such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz.Q. I wonder if Korean cars are included. = Not yet, but personally, I really want to include them for the sake of Korean fans. Among them, there is one thing in particular that I want to include: Hyundai’s concept car Vision 74. Personally, I think it is a very attractive car with a design that reminds me of Drojan. Q. Is there a special reason you came to Japan? = It’s probably similar to other people, but I’ve loved games since I was young, especially Japanese games. I enjoyed games from Capcom, Square Enix, and Konami. Of course, I also liked comics. I especially liked Dragon Ball, so naturally I wanted to go to Japan, the country that created such things. At first, I came here for a trip, but as I wandered around, I realized that there was something interesting regarding Japan. I think it was from then on. I decided to settle down while looking for a job because I wanted to live here. However, this was not the reason for setting up a company in Japan. The establishment of a company can be said to have the exact opposite causal relationship. As mentioned earlier, we launched ‘Asolute Racing’ in parallel with our corporate work, and it was successful, so it was a natural case to establish it. Q. There are many cases where a game’s title or mission has its own meaning. What does Infinity Vector mean?= Realistic graphics and physics engines are fundamentally important in racing games. So, as I was thinking regarding physics engines and physics, something called vector came to mind. However, when I tried to add just the vector, I felt a bit bored, so I added infinity to make it look more familiar, so it became an infinity vector (laughter). I tried thinking regarding other things, but this one was the best because it tasted good. And there is also a practical reason. It had to be unbranded, but fortunately Infinity Vector doesn’t have a domain or trademark, so I decided to go with this. Q. How many employees do you currently have? Personally, it feels somewhat foreign, but are there any Japanese people? = Currently, there are 17 people working here, and their nationalities range from French, American, Korean, Moroccan, Chinese, Swedish, New Zealand, Australian, and Japanese. You might say it’s a multinational company (laughter). Now, you might say that this is a characteristic of our company, but to be honest, recruiting was the hardest part. Since Joshua and I are both foreigners, it may have been difficult to find Japanese developers. And even if they did find a job, they often ended up not being able to adapt to the company because they spoke in English in the beginning. So, on the contrary, we started hiring mainly foreigners working in Japan, and now it seems that this has become a characteristic of Infinity Vector and its own culture. As an aside, I mainly use Japanese now. Q. If employees were of different nationalities, it might be difficult to communicate or cause disruption to work. Was there anything like that? = There was nothing like that. In terms of communication, since everyone came to Japan to work, we were able to communicate well in Japanese, and in a sense, everyone was free to change their thoughts, which made development efficient. I guess I should say that there are no stereotypes. I guess you might say my thoughts are flexible. ▲ “I think that the fact that our employees are multinational is in some way a culture and characteristic of Infinity Vector.” Q. You said you like racing games. What kind of games have you played most recently? = Now that I’m working as a developer and CEO of a company, I don’t enjoy games as much as I used to. Isn’t it more fun to make games now than to enjoy them? However, if there is a game that I play regularly, I really like StarCraft 2 and I am still playing it to this day. Q. I remember being surprised by the graphics, to the point where I wondered if this was really a game made with Unity, but I was curious regarding the secret to quality. = This was the part I paid the most attention to while developing ‘Asolute Racing’. The basic package provided by Unity had clear limitations. And the basic package was something everyone used, so it mightn’t be said to be a differentiator. So I wondered how I might improve the quality, and in the end I thought the only answer was shaders. The good news is that I already knew a bit regarding shaders. I worked in the graphics department at a previous game company, and although I mightn’t say I was the best in the company, I had the pride that I was as good as anyone else when it came to shaders. If you know shaders well, you can customize them as much as you want, so from then on, I studied shaders more, and I think the self-created shader that was created in that way can be said to be the secret to the quality of ‘Asolute Racing’. ▲ The secret to the quality of ‘Asolute Racing’ is the self-developed Shader Q. When it comes to graphics, there is still a perception that it is unreal. What do you think regarding this? = I am looking at it positively, but I have no intention of changing it right away. Because Unity has its own strengths. In particular, the fact that anyone can easily develop it is a big advantage, which is why I chose Unity when creating the prototype. Anyway, I may change to Unreal in my next project, but I think I need to consider the associated costs. Changing a familiar engine is a big problem. So, so far, I think I can say that I am only looking into it a little more personally. And although ‘Asolute Racing’ is famous as a racing game with excellent graphics, I do not think that graphics are everything in the game. Rather, it should be said that it is the fun of the game. You think that’s the most important thing, so you’re switching to Unreal simply because of the graphics? I try not to do that.Q. Six years have passed since the launch of ‘Asolute Racing’. Is it because it is a successful racing game? I think the next game will also be a racing game. = The new game currently scheduled for global release is also a racing game. However, it is not ‘Asolute Racing 2’. It is a type of racing management game with a genre called drag racing. Customizing the car is simple at its core, but the unique fun of the racing genre is also not lost on. Meanwhile, within the company, there is a strong desire for various genres and new works. I have a friend who is a Korean employee, and he even says he wants to create a different genre. And this is the same for me too. We are working on several projects internally, and our ultimate goal is to become a beloved gaming company that releases games of various genres like Capcom or Sega. Q. Speaking of various genres, genres like RPG or action adventure come to mind. As the volume of the game needs to be large, the size of the development team seems to require a long development period. It will not be an easy challenge. = We aim to reduce the risk in that area. The bigger the company and the longer the development period for the game, the greater the risk. This happened to me at a previous company. A game that had been in development for 2-3 years was released, but sales were not as high as expected, so the service was terminated following 6 months. I remember feeling a little sad watching that. We all worked hard for over 2 years, but they abandoned it following 6 months due to low sales. I felt sorry for the employees who created it. Perhaps because of my memories of that time, I decided not to make our game like that. Of course, we are still going through the process of finding this answer, but the immediate task is to shorten the development period to regarding a year and establish a process so that it can be ok even if it is medium or simple. Q. Reducing the development period to regarding one year seems like it would require some groundbreaking idea. = That’s not necessarily true. In the case of systems other than games, there are many parts that are commonly used. Making it every time would be cumbersome and time consuming. I think that if we make that part into a tool, the time required for full-scale game development can be greatly reduced.Q. Speaking of ‘Assolute Racing 2’, do you have any thoughts on releasing it on console? = I’m thinking regarding it. Personally, I was very upset because there were still many shortcomings compared to AAA racing games, but if I make a sequel, I plan to improve the quality even more. And if that happens, we may consider releasing it on other platforms as well. Q. ‘Asolute Racing’ seems to be targeting North America and Europe. Are there any plans to develop a new game targeting Asian countries such as Japan or Korea? = Of course, I want to make a lot of games. In the past, it was difficult because the scale was small, but now that the company has grown, I think it is possible. I can’t reveal the details here, but there are actually projects under development, so please show your interest. Q. There are many cases where game companies that used to make single package games for PC or consoles are making mobile games, but there seems to be little opposition. There are places that try it sometimes, but should I call it know-how? I’ve seen a lot of cases where that’s lacking. What do you think regarding this? = In the end, I think it’s important to know what the core of the game is. For example, graphics would be a representative example, but a game with good graphics does not necessarily mean that it is a fun game. In fact, improving graphic quality is not that difficult. Taking ‘Asolute Racing’ as an example, the graphics have been adjusted for mobile use, so you can easily increase the quality by sliding options. It may not be as good as a AAA racing game, but it can be of higher quality. But that doesn’t make the game any more fun. Graphics are also important, but they themselves do not provide fun to the game. Personally, when I look at recent AAA game companies, they seem to focus too much on graphics. In fact, if you look at the user ratings, there are many games that are flashy but not fun. Looking at that, games from the PS2 era were very fun, but these days, I sometimes wonder why that is so. I think it’s because there’s nothing better than graphics to attract attention. At this point, I think we need to look back at the core, not just the graphics. On the other hand, it’s also our goal. The graphics may be lacking compared to other games, but I am confident that the fun will be on par with major game companies. ▲ “Graphics are an important factor, but ultimately the game must be fun.” Q. Lastly, please say a word for Korean ‘Assolute Racing’ fans. = As mentioned earlier, we are preparing to include Korean cars. We ask for your continued interest in ‘Assolute Racing’. As a side note, Infiniti Vector is still recruiting staff. If there are any Korean developers working in Japan who would like to work together, I would definitely like them to join us. thank you
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