Animation Studio Khara and telecommunications company Dwango announced on Friday that they jointly established a new game company named βακα (vaka) on February 15. The goal of the company is to support the development of indie games and to promote media related to these games inside and outside Japan.
The game company has begun recruiting editors, web and app directors, and overseas publishers. "Den Fami Nico Game Magazine" is also accepting applications for a "rookie of the year" indie game award that will commemorate the establishment of the company.
The name of the company is the Greek word for cotton, which the company is using to mean packing or filling material. The company notes that there has been an explosion of content platforms in recent years, and it is considering what should "fill" these platforms.
Khara founder Hideaki Anno (director of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shin Godzilla) and Dwango"s director and chief technology officer Nobuo Kawakami are serving as board members for the new company. Daichi Satō is the company"s representative director.
The management members of Dwango"s "Den Fami Nico Game Magazine" website, which serializes indie games, will be central to the new company. The website"s titles include Satsuriku no Tenshi (pictured below) and Higyaku no Noel.
The Satsuriku no Tenshi "psycho horror adventure game" by Hoshikuzu KRNKRN"s (Makoto Sanada) has had free serial releases on the "Den Fami Nico Game Magazine" website. The game is available in English on Steam under the title Angels of Death. The game has inspired a manga adaptation that Yen Press is releasing in North America, and an anime adaptation is in the works. Related books have more than 1.2 million copies in print.
[Via Net Lab]
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