Brand new, mysterious shmup from Compile Heart

[Steven]

I'm not really worried about this game too much with M2 around. They'll do a good job, and it will be interested to see who they get to make the game. For GG Aleste 3 they got Namiki and a bunch of other cool people, I think some of them from Raizing or Compile, and that game turned out really great, so I'm expecting/hoping for GG Aleste 3 quality or even better for this.

[cfx]

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[BrianC]

Touhou Spell Carnival will likely be developed primarily by Sting, as Compile Heart typically uses them for anything in the strategy/tactics genre. Those have varied from pretty good games to apparently terrible ones as with Steven's experience with Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord.

Sting also has a history with Compile, but I'm not sure how many of the former Compile staff members are still left.

[Steven]

I doubt many of the Compile staff are still at Compile Heart. Niitani is at Compile Maru, which I had never heard of until now, Toyama is at Taito, and I have no idea what happened to the rest of them. Wikipedia (not the best source, but it's what I have for now) suggests that the STG devs moved over to Milestone, and we all know how that turned out. Who made RS34? The president is Masubuchi Yoshito, but I don't know where he came from. I imagine some of the Milestone guys might have moved over there, but who knows.

[BrianC]

I'm more curious if they are still with Sting, which started out making PCE shmups, but lately had joint projects with Compile Heart. Looks Takeshi Santō and Shōji Yamada are still there and have credits on some Compile games.

[cfx]

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[BrianC]

The new Madou Monogatari game is also listing Sting as a developer, so I wonder if and of the Compile people who may still be there are ones that previously worked on those games?

Takeshi Santō and Shōji Yamada worked on shooters, the former with sound and the latter with graphics, though the former is the president of Sting and the latter is credited as the designer for Zanac x Zanac (which came out after some Sting games he worked on). Santō also worked on sound for Golvellius and Guardian Legend.