And after like five minutes, I still wasnРІР‚в„ўt dead.

So I did everything wrong: I ran out, I stood in front of the cops and let them pummel me with bullets.

РІР‚СљI think I was playing Payday, and I just wanted to see how fast it would take to die. The main drive behind Katana Zero is the desire to make killing feel satisfying Because thatРІР‚в„ўs one thing I found really annoying. I wanted it to be that if you try to die, then it should be easy. РІР‚СљOne of the big things was that enemies needed to feel as powerful as you are РІР‚вЂњР’В otherwise, thereРІР‚в„ўs no satisfaction in beating it. StanderРІР‚в„ўs urge to make killing feel exciting was born out of a frustration with modern games that he felt were too forgiving to players in pursuit of a power fantasy. I really wanted the player to feel that way, so a lot of the design pillars were focused around making the player feel badass mostly by making the challenge feel justified РІР‚вЂњ so the success was earned.РІР‚Сњ ItРІР‚в„ўs sort of like this John Wick or Korean-revenge-thriller feeling where your main character is still just a person, but theyРІР‚в„ўre also this incredible badass. On top of that, it was trying to capture this feeling in Korean revenge thrillers where the main character is super fragile, but also goes out there and kills a lot of people. It really nailed making killing feel good, and a lot of that was about the one-hit kills. РІР‚СљIt was more like an adaptation of Samurai Gunn, which I felt was an extremely satisfying game. Actually, I only played the game once, and it was several years prior РІР‚вЂњ I didnРІР‚в„ўt remember a lot of it, though apparently some parts of it stuck with me. РІР‚СљA lot of people say Hotline Miami, that seems to be the big one. We bring up the often-cited link to Dennaton GamesРІР‚в„ў Hotline Miami, as both games feature a similar live/die/repeat cycle, but Stander puts that one to rest. Katana ZeroРІР‚в„ўs inspirations may come as a surprise to many. That was definitely a big part of it: I had a story I wanted to tell.РІР‚Сњ Because I think first and foremost, Katana Zero is a storytelling game. I guess the idea was that I wanted to make something more narratively-driven, that paid homage to all my favourite storytelling tropes and expanded on them in my own way. So I ended up going for a computer science degree, but IРІР‚в„ўd always been making games as a kid. РІР‚СљI was really into making movies and I wanted to go to film school, but my parents didnРІР‚в„ўt think that was a proper plan for college. Of course, Katana ZeroРІР‚в„ўs origins arenРІР‚в„ўt born entirely from the realities of capitalism, as Stander explains: So I guess Katana Zero came out of this desire to make a much bigger, justifiably-sold commercial game.РІР‚Сњ It really drove the point to me that if I wanted to really have a career in video games, I would have to make something that was sold. And after that game, he continued to make a lot of freeware games, and they also didnРІР‚в„ўt get much attention. Cavanagh had a very similar situation to me РІР‚вЂњ before that he made a bunch of freeware games, and they didnРІР‚в„ўt get anywhere near the same attention as VVVVVV. РІР‚СљI had seen Terry CavanaghРІР‚в„ўs game, VVVVVV come out and it made me realise that everyone really cares about a game when itРІР‚в„ўs being sold. While Stander had received praise for his work, he realised that to really break into game development heРІР‚в„ўd have to move out of the freeware space. Prior to Katana Zero, Stander had mostly worked on smaller, freeware titles, such as Pause Ahead and the critically acclaimed Tower of Heaven, both still available to be played via the Askiisoft website. StanderРІР‚в„ўs Cuphead rivalry aside, itРІР‚в„ўs an excellent result for his first commercially-released game. I mean, I definitely canРІР‚в„ўt complain, but it was a little bit annoying looking at the Switch store everyday to see where itРІР‚в„ўs at and it was always number two after Cuphead,РІР‚Сњ he told MCV/DEVELOP. This remarkable success saw the indie title jump to second place for the Switch storeРІР‚в„ўs top sellers РІР‚вЂњ beaten only by CupheadРІР‚в„ўs Switch release on the same day, much to StanderРІР‚в„ўs (good natured) irritation: РІР‚СљIt actually would have been the top seller on Switch for that entire month but Cuphead coming out stopped that. Coming from developer Askiisoft, Justin StanderРІР‚в„ўs one-man team, the game surged to prominence, selling 100,000 copies on Switch alone in its first week of release. Katana Zero felt like it burst suddenly from the shadows with its launch in April last year.

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