A Japanese game studio based in Osaka is currently developing a side-scrolling platformer Bat Boy. The game is reminiscent of classic NES titles and takes inspiration from likes of Mega Man and Ninja Gaiden. However, the company wasn't always designing games. Instead, when Sina Faroughi, an artist looking for a career in game development, joined the company, it was creating toys. Fortunately for the game dev hopeful, the company took employee's wishes to heart.

X PLUS was founded in 1986 and started later developing toys and figurines based on popular Kaiju monsters and Shonen-Ric characters. It is an official manufacturer and retailer of world-famous brands including Godzilla, Dragon Ball, and Ultraman. When Faroughi moved to Japan, he was hoping to find a game studio to employ his artistic skills. Instead, he joined the toy company X PLUS as a graphic designer. Little did he know at the time that the company would be more than willing to embrace his dreams. Game Rant spoke to Faroughi about his and X PLUS' journey to becoming video game developers and how Bat Boy came to be.

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Figurine Maker Became Bat Boy Studio

x plus nes platformer side-scroller

Faroughi joined the company in 2017, shortly after moving to Japan. With an art background and 18 months of experience in game development, he was hoping to start making his mark on Japan's legendary video game scene. Osaka has strong roots in game development and is one of the most important technology and video game hubs in Japan. The likes of Capcom and Konami have come from the city of Osaka.

"One day I brought up the idea to make games at X PLUS, to my surprise luckily the company wasn’t against trying something new."

Not long after joining X PLUS, the urge to be part of video game development became so powerful that Faroughi decided to take his idea to his superiors. Luckily, and to his surprise, the company and his coworkers at X PLUS wanted to invest in the idea. Faroughi decided to contact some of his prior game development acquaintances in Japan, ones he had worked or studied with. As a result, the company set up a small video game team in 2018 and started developing its first classic NES-like platformer.

Since 2018, X PLUS has been creating classic platformers with slight twists. The company's first game, Smelter, saw the light of day in 2019. Following the 2D strategic platformer, X PLUS released a 3D platformer with a rolling mechanic, Super Sami Roll, and cute casual 2D beat 'em up, Echolocaution. The fourth game and the current project, Bat Boy is a classic NES side-scroller with inspirations from Mega Man and an original story revolving around Japan's popular sport, baseball.

Collaboration and Growth Made Bat Boy Possible

x plus nes platformer side-scroller

Faroughi and his coworkers have been developing games for around four years now, and the small X PLUS team has made important partnerships. Throughout the journey as a new indie game development team, it has collaborated with another developer from Osaka, Sonzai Games. Sonzai Games has been a crucial help in game and level design, as well as some programming work. In fact, it was Sergio Matta from Sonzai Games who came up with the unique baseball-related storyline.

"The idea originally came from Sonzai Games. X PLUS actually has lots of golf fans to be honest with you!"

The collaboration between the developers isn't necessarily a new thing in the game industry, but for these independent studios it is all about sharing ideas and connecting with each other. Both have passions for game development and design but in small teams, like the still fairly freshly launched X PLUS gaming division, not every corner of the complex business of game development is necessarily mastered. Matta's and his team's work has been invaluable to X PLUS, and it shows in the unique product.

While the gameplay makes it clear that this is a game by admirers of the great NES platformers, the story is far from ordinary. The alternative universe version of Tokyo called Stratoss, the kidnapped baseball team, and the classic evil villain, Lord Vicious, is a combination never seen before. It perfectly compliments the extraordinary story of Faroughi and X PLUS, and how they came to build a game studio in the first place.

Bat Boy is aiming for an early 2023 release on PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The game will appear as part of IndieLand 2022 on Tuesday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m. PST.

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