![]() ![]() I'm a video game director and also a music director. (By the way, if you're keen to know more about Project Phoenix, then Reddit user reboot_the_PC has the most incredible write-up regarding its failure.) It will feature interviews from developers around the world, not just Japan. The full interview will be available in The Untold History of Game Developers Volume 5, which I'm hoping to complete this year. What follows is an abridged version for online publishing – I have edited it as lightly as possible, since I do not want anyone accusing me of magnifying Yura's claims through selective quoting. The full uncut interview ran to 12,000 words. I would later ask them not to use footage from this. On the day, I had a Tokyo film crew with me, who were producing a documentary on crowdfunding in Japan. That ship had already sailed by the time I sat down in Yura's Tokyo apartment in 2013. Even though I never published the interview until now, at no point could I have changed its course or saved people from investing money. My first Untold History book came out late 2014, when Project Phoenix still had momentum. However, I would like to absolve myself of any responsibility. Hiroaki Yura, Tokyo, November 2013 - Image: John Szczepaniak Now I feel sorry for the backers who coughed up $10,000 apiece for higher reward tiers. As of 26th March 2019, the project seems abandoned, with no further updates. He had a wife and kids, and I hoped somehow they'd pull through. I never published the interview, but I felt sorry for the guy. ![]() Plus, they were already planning three additional Kickstarters despite only just starting this one. The musicians may have been world-renowned, but nobody seemed to be steering the actual gameplay part of the game. ![]() For a game this complex, the only "gameplay designers" were a guy with minor credits on a few titles and a guy who did QA on L.A. Hiroaki Yuri might be an extremely talented orchestral musician, but it was apparent he would struggle to manage this project. It took place in Tokyo on 13th November 2013 and was the only interview I never published – reading it will reveal why.Īpart from a few very astute points regarding corporate culture in Japan, the nearly two-hour conversation was a train wreck of hubris and delusion by someone who meant well but was clearly out of their depth. 9 eventually saw release, while Yura's Project Phoenix did not – it was an ambitious action-JPRG which promised much on its budget of over a million dollars and would feature input from legends of the Japanese games industry – including Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.īelow is my interview with Hiroaki Yura, conducted in Japan for my trilogy of books. 9 was funded, Hiroaki Yura's Project Phoenix was funded (to the tune of $1,014,600), and my own The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers was funded. In the summer of 2013, there was a surge of successful Kickstarter video game-related projects. ![]()
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