Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

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KBZ
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Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by KBZ »

Dream-storming recently interviewed Hiroshi Kimura.

I don't think it was posted on here yet so here goes.

The interview is in french, but I've done my best to translate.

http://dream-storming.blogspot.com/2009 ... cteur.html
Interview with Hiroshi Kimura, Director of Milestone Inc. by Molokh of Dream-Storming

Milestone Inc, is a studio that has given a second life to the Dreamcast.
From them. we've received 3 shmups that weren't able to make it big, but
were able to bring something a little different: Chaos Field, Radirgy and
Karous. Today the studio continues to release games on the Wii and DS.
Director M. Kimura honoured us by answering our (many) questions.


Dream-Storming: How did Milestone come to be created?


Hiroshi Kimura: Partly because we are all shmup fans, and I had some original shmup
projects I wanted pursue.


DS: Why did you choose shmups?


HK: Shmups are considered our national specialty. It isn't the easiest road to take, but I intend to continue with it.


DS: Why have you chosen the Naomi for developing your games?


HK: We've always thought of it as a remarkable platform that enables us to use all of our experience.


DS: With all the newer systems that have come out, why do you continue to program for the Naomi?


HK: It's a platform that is easy to program for and gives excellent results. However, it's true that it is time to consider a next gen platform that we could use in the future.


DS: There's a great difference in the graphical style between Chaos Field and Radirgy/Karous/Illvelo. For what reasons did things evolve this way?


HK: Other enterprises use 3D in their productions, so we were looking for that mark of originality that could serve us well. We found this in a method we call "Toon rendering". The ideas from Mr. Matsumoto (programmer and director of development) and Mr. Nagata (composer in sound department) were big influences in our choices.


DS: You have supported the Dreamcast, and released games after its end. Why?


HK: To be precise, we were the last to develop for the Dreamcast. News of the ceasing of production hit when we had already finished porting Chaos Field. For Radirgy and Karous, the porting was easy to do and there were still plenty of potential buyers to convince us to put a Dreamcast version up for sale.


DS: We would like to know if the Dreamcast and Shmup fans supported you, and whether or not the dreamcast ports made decent sales.


HK: I think that an impression of whether or not something sold well will vary person to person, but I believe they did well.


DS: What was the situation with shmups in Japan at the time when you were releasing Chaos Field and Radirgy?


HK: It was a time when other genres were slowly but surely taking their part of the market. Even before so, shmups enjoyed steady sales but were beginning to take a hit in light of the progression of other genres.


DS: Certain Japanese developers say that today's shmups are not at their best. What do you think of the genre's current state and its future?


HK: It could be that this is a transitional period. The genre has past a period of maturity and has begun to slowly decline. However, even though video games will follow the state of the market, ideas and imagination can change the course of things. I believe that if we create games with seriousness, there will be a future for shmups.


DS: You have ported Illvello and older titles onto the Wii while other developers seem to release shmups for the xbox 360 or ps2. What are the reasons for your choices?


HK: Like with the Naomi, we considered the abilities of the team members and the state of the market.


DS: The name Milestone is often associated with shmups. Today, you develop games in other genres, where are you positioning yourselves in the years to come?


HK: I'm very happy that you considered us as shmup developers. I intend to continue developing the games our fans enjoy. On another side, we're always looking to develop fun apps that can keep us fresh in the video game scene. You can count on us to surprise you.
Last edited by KBZ on Mon Mar 25, 2013 7:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Kiken
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by Kiken »

Interesting read. It really should be in the main forum. Milestone really should consider doing additional ports of IllVelo and Radirgy Noa (everything up until IllVelo had been multi-platform release).
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BulletMagnet
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by BulletMagnet »

Kiken wrote:It really should be in the main forum.
Eh, technically off-topic was probably appropriate, but he talks mostly about shmups here, so why not.
Lynx Winters
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by Lynx Winters »

Taking bets on how long before THE shows up to rant about the "last DC developers" answer.
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MathU
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by MathU »

Kiken wrote:Interesting read. It really should be in the main forum. Milestone really should consider doing additional ports of IllVelo and Radirgy Noa (everything up until IllVelo had been multi-platform release).
Yeah, and I wish so many other shooters weren't only on the 360. Exclusively seems to have characterized shooter porting for this console generation. :cry:
Of course, that's just an opinion.
Always seeking netplay fans to play emulated arcade games with.
KBZ
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by KBZ »

I was going to post it here but went offtopic at the last second. Oh well, here it belongs then.

So I guess their next arcade platform is going to be Naomi2.... I wish.

I hope they keep it up anyway. I've always enjoyed the creativity they bring to the genre.
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No_not_like_Quake
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by No_not_like_Quake »

Thanks for posting this.
PC Engine Fan X!
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

It's interesting to learn straight from Milestone that they were the very last official DC game developer/publisher before Sega pulled the plug on it's 128-bit console.

And did Milestone hint at what new shmup title that they're currently working on?

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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dark
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Re: Interview with Hiroshi Kimura of Milestone

Post by dark »

DS: You have supported the Dreamcast, and released games after its end. Why?


HK: To be precise, we were the last to develop for the Dreamcast. News of the ceasing of production hit when we had already finished porting Chaos Field. For Radirgy and Karous, the porting was easy to do and there were still plenty of potential buyers to convince us to put a Dreamcast version up for sale.
This can't possibly be true! Dreamcast was officially announced to be discontinued in 2001. Milestone the company did not even form until 2003 and Chaos Field was not released for either Naomi or Dreamcast until 2004.


As an epilogue of sorts to this interview:
In March 2013, Hiroshi Kimura, the president of MileStone, was arrested for violations of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act for his activities while selling shares of a new company called MS Bio Energy. Both companies closed as a result.
What an unusual and interesting story to this guy and his company. I still think the original three milestone games on dreamcast are interesting and Karous was a good official send off for the system.
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