Bringing together a mix of skilled individuals has always been a good way to produce something great! Avengers and Justice League are some popular choices most people will know of. Then in the music industry they are often referred to as "Super Groups" such as HELLYEAH. But what about the teams that produce games? There are some great games out there, and many by independent developers like Worms by Team 17. But what would we call a team put together from members from other, previously popular independent groups.
Well here we have Super Mega Team! Based in Japan, this team was put together by bringing individuals from other independent companies that worked on some popular products. The main two that started the group are the artists of games like Plants Vs Zombies, Worms and Scourge Project.
Enrique Corts and Mar Hernandez are the artists I am talking about. They worked together at Team 17 and Tragnarion Studios. They also had a hand in the Relentless Software making EyeToy and Buzz! games for Sony Entertainment. As far as the other members go, they recruited programmer Julio, an old co-worker at Tragnarion Studios. The other member recruited is Adrian, which they met three years ago from a separate studio they were not affiliated with.
Julio was the Q.A. Lead at Tragnarion Studios and had the skill set to be a programmer. Unfortunately, Tragnarion never gave him the opportunity, so he took the offer from Corts and Hernandez to join Super Mega Team. Adrian worked at a Spanish mobile game company and knew Unity 3D rather well. Adrian helped make the transition from Cocos2D engine so that they could create Rise & Shine on the Unity 3D engine.
All About Rise & Shine
This teams jump to console and PC is thanks to a partnership with Adult Swim Games which took interest in their team due to their development of the game Rise & Shine. The game project was started about three years ago and it is just about completed. It is expected to release on Xbox One and PC via Steam in January 2017.
Rise & Shine was created to be a "love letter" to the past games that we all know and loved. The story is expected to fun and unpredictable, but won't be one that will get you emotional. It is simply a 2D sidscroller that will bring some fresh gameplay elements in a strategic shooter style game.
Story
Rise is a kid living on Gamearth, the world where all the classic video game characters live. Suddenly, the planet gets invaded by the Space Grunts. Rise is accidentally given Shine, a legendary gun that is said to save Gamearth in tough times like this, and so together they have to survive the war.
"The story just drives the game forward a bit, but we are pretty sure nobody will give us an award for a super emotional story that's all the rage nowadays on indie games. This is your classic pop-corny summer movie kind of story. Fun and full of plot twists. Nothing less, nothing more." - Super Mega Team
Q&A with Enrique Corts
co-founder of Super Mega Team
Can we expect to see famous characters in Rise & Shine?
"They are not exactly the same characters. They are different in aspect and name. We could not have used exactly the same famous characters...haha. Also, there will be some cameos with a couple of Spanish indies (Love U To Bits and Moonlighter). You'll also be able to find lots of little Easter Eggs here and there."
Will Rise & Shine be your Debut game?
"No, First came Pro Zombie Soccer (Game of the Week and one of the Best Games of the Year 2010 on the App Store) and then later Supermagical (also Game of the Week and among the Best Games of 2012 on the App Store). Both projects were made for mobile platforms and both projects are 2D, story-based arcade games with a cartoon-style look, which are also some of the ingredients for Rise & Shine."
Will it be your debut game on console and PC?
"Yes. We always wanted to make the jump to PC and consoles. We didn't like where mobile gaming was going."
What do you mean you don't like where mobile game development is heading?
"When we saw a lot of companies spending far more money in marketing than on the game itself, then we thought that wasn't for us. Plus we are hardcore gamers at heart and wanted to make the jump to consoles and PC, where we felt we should be."
You left Team 17 after two years. Why is that?
"We simply needed a change and to try new things as artists. Team 17 is a great place to work on with a steady paycheck, but we needed to grow up as artists and try to get out of our comfort zone."
What about Tragnarion Studios? Why did you guys leave them?
"I worked there for more or less two years. I simply wanted to make the jump to being art director instead of lead artist and a company in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia offered me just that. We are pretty adventurous and took the job."
And what happened with the Malaysian company?
"The company only lasted for about 7 months, but once it closed, the iPhone was presented in society and I thought that was my cue to start my own little thing."
That must of been when you decided to create Super Mega Team. How did your team end up coming together?
"The whole team was working at the same company and then the first iPhone was announced. We saw the potential of the new market and we noticed just how cheap making games was again, compared to the huge investments you needed up to that point. It was like being back in the eighties and sitting in the bedroom coding again. So, we made our first game, Pro Zombie Soccer, in our free time and it sold well enough to leave our '9 to 5' jobs and focus on our own team full time."
How did you get the partnership with Adult Swim Games?
"Adult Swim Games are always on the look for new indie games. We started a development thread at TIG source forums with some Rise & Shine gifs as soon as we had a playable demo and Steve Gee, indie game hunter for Adult Swim Games is always there lurking. He contacted us with interest to try our demo and we got signed!"
Check out the Launch Trailer:
Some details on the previous work of Corts and Hernandez is that Pro Zombie Soccer is still available on Android, but Supermagical is not. The good news is that Supermagical should be available for the Playstation Vita in just a few months!
If you would like to follow the work of Super Mega Team, check out their Twitter and Facebook.
