Throw everything and eat everything in Studio Evil’s newest, wackiest, and craziest IP, Super Cane Magic Zero. Who wrote the laugh-out-loud dialogue? Why does Studio Evil keep switching game genres? All this and more is answered in our exclusive, one-on-one interview with CEO of Studio Evil, Luca Marchetti at Tokyo Game Show 2018. Luca was an absolute gentleman and a pleasure to interview and his explanation of the game and Studio Evil’s philosophy of game development is something for all companies to behold.
The full video of the interview can be viewed below, and the dialogue can be read below the video:
Interview.
*Interviewer dialogue is shown in BOLD
*Interviewee Luca Marchetti’s dialogue is shown in italics
To start things off, some of the dialogue for this game is hilarious and by hilarious I mean absolutely crazy but crazy in the best way possible. Making a game actually funny is no easy task, so where or how did you get the idea or inspiration for the comedic heart of this game?
- Who wrote the dialogue?
The game is based on characters and stories coming from an Italian cartoonist known as Sio(Simone). He is pretty well known in Italy but pretty much unknown outside of Italy. He has this strange kind of nonsense humor and strange characters and each character has some kind of weird power. So, we started with him. Of course, the story has nothing to do with his comic book; it’s totally new. We had lunch with him and played other games and step by step we came up with the story. He is the main dialogue writer of the game.
This game reminds me of the traditional action arcade games or couch co-op beat-em-up games I used to play as a kid. Games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Castle Crashers and so on. So what games inspired you or what games did you draw ideas from to make SCMZ?
Well to make this game the inspiration started from mainly two different games. One was the first Zelda, back to the 2D Zeldas when you had to move and enter into [each area], the flat RPGs. The other one, I don’t want people to compare it to our game, but the other [inspiration] was Diablo. It was one of the first action-RPGs with real action and the action mechanics from our game comes from Diablo.
Super Cane Magic Zero looks like a game which is better when played with friends. At the moment, the game will be released on PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. With that in mind, does the game have cross-play compatibility?
Actually, the game is local co-op or local versus only. We will look to add some new parts of the story, some new characters, some new arenas, but for now, online co-op is not an option.
Well, we’ll cross our fingers for that in the future. When I was young I grew up with games like Final Fantasy 8, Pokémon, Super Mario and these games inspired me to become a video games journalist. As a gamer yourself and a developer, what were some games that inspired you to pursue a career in video games? What about them did you like so much? What games do you and your team play together to take a load off?
Well, I’m a little older than you, but my favorite game designer of all time is Peter Molyneux. I grew up playing Populous and Magic Carpet and then Fable and Black & White. All these games were the inspiration for me to start my career as a game developer. As a development team, at our BBQ parties or when we meet at someone’s department we tend to stick to Nintendo usually, so Smash Bros. and Splatoon and probably Mario Kart is one of the all-time favorites for us. We are pretty competitive when we play together.
I took a look at your site and the games you’ve released in the past: The Fading, Relive, and Syder Arcade, these games are all vastly different from one another. I found that quite interesting, so does your company develop anything and everything or are you looking to ground yourself in the industry in a specific genre?
Well, you’re pointing out one of our biggest problems. We love to make games and we love to make the games we would like to play. That’s the philosophy we have. I know it would be smart to start with some kind of game genre and stick with it and go on and make new games to achieve a better experience. But we love a lot of different kind of games and we love to try out a new genre. We made a shoot-em-up game and it was pretty successful; it was a good game. Then we moved to a 3D adventure and then a 2D action-RPG because it’s fun. That’s the only motivation.
Changing the topic a bit here, in North American media sometimes video games have been said to cause violence in children and young adults. I’m strongly against that and my question for you is: do you think video games are good or bad for children and why?
Well in Europe and Italy it’s the same; the press is always talking about games which are “bad” or violent. I should ask: is a book “good” or “bad”? I mean a video game is a form of media. It’s a way to communicate. It’s not only for kids. It’s a product for adults or for kids. I’m a father, so I have a six-year-old child. While I like GTA 5, I would not let my children play this kind of game of course until they reach eighteen. That’s why we have these systems like PEGI 18. So, video games are not a “bad” product; they just tell stories. Sometimes the stories can be hard. Sometimes the stories can be bad in a good way. But you just have to understand which kind of game you’re playing. Once you understand, you must watch your kids and if you let them use the products made for their age it’s totally fine and games can change lives for the better.
Lastly, with Super Cane Magic Zero released, do you have any plans at all yet for your next project?
We don’t have a real plan, but we have a lot of ideas. Usually, at the office at lunchtime, we have some pitches and we have a lot of prototypes and things we would like to do. So we will see which prototype we like the most after this game and produce it.
Well, thank you very much, Luca and congrats on all your success.
What do you think of Super Cane Magic Zero? Let us and our readers know in the comments below.
