Q-Games
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Q-Games is a small to medium games developer based in Kyoto, Japan. It has a mixture of foreigners and Japanese nationals on staff and works closely with both Nintendo and Sony.
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[edit] Foundation
It was founded by Dylan Cuthbert [1], who previously worked at Argonaut Software and helped create the original Star Fox for Nintendo. He also developed Star Fox 2 to completion before heading off to work at Sony America to make Blasto on the PlayStation. After this Dylan moved back to Japan to work at Sony Japan, where, in early 1999, he developed the Duck in a Bath technical demo (Ducks demo) that showcased the PS2's power to early developers and publishers [2]. Following that, he developed Piposaru 2001 (Ape Escape 2001) and then left Sony to start Q-Games Ltd. in Kyoto in September 2001.
[edit] History
The first few years were spent accumulating staff and developing behind-doors technology projects for a number of clients including Sony and Microsoft. At E3 2004, they showed two graphic technology demos [3] [4] for the PlayStation Portable and then internally began development on two games for the Game Boy Advance and the Nintendo DS. These titles have since been announced as Digidrive (part of the bit Generations series of puzzle games for the Game Boy Advance) and Star Fox Command respectively. Both have since been released.
[edit] Other Projects
As well as games development, Q-Games still develops technology directly with Sony Japan for the PlayStation 3. The PS3's XMB (Cross Media Bar) interface, background and music visualisers were developed by Q-Games and they are credited with 3D Graphics Technology in the About PS3 section of the PS3's OS.
[edit] Sources
- Chris Kohler's book Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life - Chapter 6.
- An Interview on Gamasutra.com with Q-Games(English)
- Dylan Cuthbert's profile on N-Sider.com(English)
[edit] External links
- Q-Games Offical Website(Japanese)