Little Cheese Works: Together, Our Possibilities Are Infinite [Award Winner Documentary #5] Part 1
■Takao Furukawa (right)
Having grown up with a passion for games, Furukawa managed titles at a game development company after finishing graduate school. He founded CooperLand in 2020 and primarily created escape games. The company was on the verge of bankruptcy when work on escape games was temporarily suspended to focus on developing Little Cheese Works, an entry for the First GYAAR Studio Indie Game Contest. The game won the Platinum Award in March 2023 and successfully obtained funding for development, allowing CooperLand to evade bankruptcy. Their company name has been changed to BUBBLE GUM, LLC.
■Akito Hatanaka (left)Hatanaka has been playing games ever since he can remember, and one day decided that he himself wanted to make games. He entered the game design department at university to learn about game production and was hired at a game development company. After working as a client engineer for three years, he started his own company with Furukawa. He has since received accolades after applying for the GYAAR Contest in the midst of developing tools for his company’s escape games.
Little Cheese Works is a thrilling multiplayer game where mice must cooperate to carry cheese without being detected by a cat. Each level is filled with hazards and it’s essential that players communicate with each other. Beware that the cat doesn’t just react to noise made by the mice, but also to the voice chat that players can use.
This game, which revolves around working together and playful banter, won the Platinum Award at the first GYAAR Studio Indie Game Contest. It was also well-received at the TOKYO GAME SHOW 2023 where strangers spontaneously teamed up to play the game together.
The people behind this game are the members of BUBBLE GUM, Takao Furukawa and Akito Hatanaka. Colleagues at a game development company, they became independent to take a chance on the contest and finished creating their game despite facing financial difficulties. They now live near GYAAR Studio Base, a production studio for award winners, and continue to develop their game there. We asked Furukawa and Hatanaka about their past and future endeavors.
■ Together, our possibilities are infinite: a fateful encounter leads to a partnership
―― Thank you very much for your time. I’d like to begin by asking how work is split between the two of you when developing your award-winning game, Little Cheese Works.
🔸Furukawa: My name is Furukawa and I’m the president of BUBBLE GUM. I’m in charge of the game design and other tasks besides engineering. Since I don’t specialize in art or CG, it’s also part of my job to find and assign people outside of the company who do.
🔹Hatanaka: I’m Hatanaka. As an engineer, I’m responsible for all of the engineering done in Unity for Little Cheese Works.
―― The game design and engineering are done within the company, while other parts are outsourced. BUBBLE GUM has released several escape game apps under the name CooperLand. How do you balance the development of Little Cheese Works with creating escape games?
🔸Furukawa: Sixty percent of our time is devoted to Little Cheese Works and the remaining forty percent is used for escape games. Since escape games are our main source of revenue, we’re trying to outsource their production as much as possible.
―― You’re in the process of creating a team that will enable you to constantly produce escape games.
🔸Furukawa: Right. We’re reaching out to CG designers and people who are skilled at creating puzzles on X (formerly Twitter) to work with us. We ask them to form a production team and develop our games based on a general framework that we’ve provided.
🔹Hatanaka: I’ve also created tools specifically for escape games so that they can be created without having to write any code. I’ve hardly touched any escape game-related programs for around six months.
―― How did the two of you get involved in game development?
🔹Hatanaka: For games that require programming, the escape games I’ve made with Furukawa were my first foray into game development. I created something akin to boardgames and played with them at school throughout elementary and high school. Our family didn’t have much money and couldn’t afford video games, so they were unattainable until I became an adult.
―― What kind of boardgames did you make?
🔸Furukawa: The game I made in elementary school was a take on Mario Party*. In high school, I was interested in creating an economy that solely revolved around IOUs so I made a boardgame based on that.
*Mario Party
A multiplayer party video game that’s been around since 1998. Structured as a boardgame peppered with minigames throughout, a maximum of 4–8 players can compete against each other in this classic party game. The latest title in the series Mario Party Superstars, contains 100 mini-games.
―― An economy based on IOUs is an unusual idea.
🔹Hatanaka: My parents’ jobs involved similar work, and I was also influenced by Momotaro Dentetsu* and Naniwa Kin’yudo*. I found it strange and intriguing that a piece of paper could be substituted for money over a limited period of 120 days.
*Momotaro Dentetsu
A boardgame-style video game series created in 1988. Become the president of a railway company and travel around the country to purchase properties and increase your assets. A multiplayer party game that effortlessly incorporates geographic and economic elements.*Naniwa Kin’yudo
A manga series by Yuji Aoki. Witness the drama surrounding people in debt through protagonist Haibara who starts his new job as a loan shark. This work had a tremendous impact due to its distinctive artwork and narrative that confronts the dark side of humanity.
―― How about you, Hatanaka-san?
🔹Hatanaka: I was creating games as part of a team while studying programming in the game design department at university. We applied to the Amateur Division of the Japan Game Awards: 2016 and made it to the final round but didn’t win. We were up against a tough opponent, a game called ElecHead* which can still be purchased on Steam and Nintendo Switch.
*ElecHead
Control a robot that has the ability to send electric currents into whatever it touches and activate the surrounding devices to clear your path. The game won numerous awards for how it incorporated the simple concept of electricity into its stage design.
―― What were your formative experiences with video games?
🔸Furukawa: Mario Party 2 was the first game that my parents bought me. I obsessively explored every nook and cranny of the game since I didn’t have any friends back then. I was convinced no one knew more about the game than I did.
―― Did Mario Party 2 influence Little Cheese Works becoming a multiplayer party game?
🔸Furukawa: My memories of playing Mario Party 2 are directly linked to my desire for something like a group of friends united by video games. I envision a group of people hanging out together while playing games when creating Little Cheese Works, which I think is partially my attempt to experience what I missed out on in my childhood.
―― What were your formative experience with video games, Hatanaka-san?
🔹Hatanaka: So many games have influenced me. I first started playing titles like Pokémon Stadium* and Super Smash Bros.* on the Nintendo 64 and Nintendo GameCube. Playing Sonic Adventure 2: Battle* was what made me realize that I wanted to learn how to create my own games.
*Pokémon Stadium
Made in 1998 for the Nintendo 64. Players can import their Pokémon from the first Pokémon game into the Game Boy to compete in battles based on official tournament rules. It also includes unique features like the participants of real-life tournaments making in-game cameos.
*Super Smash Bros.
Made in 1999. Revel in battles where unseen worlds collide, like Mario from Super Mario Brothers fighting Pikachu from Pokémon. The rules are simple: knock your opponent off-screen to win. Players must instantly assess several combat elements to triumph in these battles that arise in complex terrain.
*Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
Made in 2001. Zoom through a 3D-world as Sonic the Hedgehog, the fastest hedgehog in history. Along with the high-speed action which is a hallmark of the series, the story of Sonic’s escape from military capture and his pursuit of mysterious hedgehog Shadow gained traction at the time.
―― What was it about Sonic Adventure 2: Battle that inspired you to pursue game development?
🔹Hatanaka: I was hooked on its narrative and production, along with how fun and satisfying the game feel was. It drove me to believe that I could build a similar world. Sonic Adventure 2: Battle sets itself apart with just its opening scene. Typically, the screen fades in from black and the characters are sort of standing around. But this game starts with a helicopter in the sky, making you wonder what’s going on. Before long, the door breaks and Sonic jumps out of the helicopter. He uses the door of the helicopter like a skateboard to descend into the city and gameplay begins as he swiftly slides down a slope. It was like a scene in a movie. Being pulled into a game like that was so memorable and it inspired me to create something similar.
―― You had a desire to conceive your own world by combining things like game design, elements that induce emotion and motivation, immersive directional techniques, and worldbuilding.
🔹Hatanaka: Exactly. It’s through video games that I learned about multidisciplinary art forms that integrate many different elements. It’s fascinating to see the diverse collection of the parts that make up a game, and that this can change depending on how the user plays the game. They’re interesting not just because they react to you when you play them, but because they’re also a complex accumulation of various components that can be gleaned from art, context, and fascinating universes. I believe that video games have been pursuing something beyond what we now call interactive media for a much longer period of time. That’s why I love them so much.
―― With all of those experiences in mind, how did you choose what company to work for?
🔸Furukawa: Truth be told, I interviewed for jobs based on how high their salaries were. I ended up with offers from a game development company and an e-commerce company and chose the game development job because it seemed more interesting. That’s where I met Akito (Hatanaka).
🔹Hatanaka: I wasn’t very interested in finding a job at all. I figured I wouldn’t last anywhere and would eventually think of a way to become independent since I wanted to make my own games. That being the case, I wanted to work somewhere that paid well. I only applied to around five companies and happened to receive an offer from one of them, which led to meeting Takao (Furukawa).
―― How did the two of you meet after being hired at the same company?
🔸Furukawa: As part of our training, we had to create a game within one to two months straight after joining the company. I was impressed with what Akito was creating at the time, approached him, and suggested we make our own games without telling the company.
🔹Hatanaka: Although Takao and I were on different teams during training, I was astounded by the game he’d made. Frankly, I felt that if the two of us worked together, our possibilities would be infinite. He reached out just when I was hoping he would, so I accepted his offer without hesitation.
―― Could you tell me about the game you made, Furukawa-san?
🔹Hatanaka: The one about UFOs, right?
🔸Furukawa: It was a super out-there game where the player throws small buckets in the air to prevent crushing the dreams of their grandfather who believes in UFOs (laughs).
―― I’m already intrigued.
🔸Furukawa: I was extremely passionate about the game. It was during this time that I sensed Akito might be on the same wavelength as me. He wasn’t sitting through training just for the sake of it. There was something wild about him.
―― You then approached Hatanaka-san and started making games together, later becoming independent to start your own company. How did you reach the decision to quit your jobs?
🔸Furukawa: A few years had passed since our days in training, and Akito was about to be promoted. I was anxious that he might stop making games with me if things didn’t progress, so I invited him out for yakiniku that night and proposed we leave the company together. “Give me two years,” I said. “If we don’t achieve anything within that time it’ll be clear that I don’t have what it takes, and I’ll leave the industry.” I knew that I’d regret giving up without trying. That’s why I wanted to quit my job and exert myself for two years. We then founded BUBBLE GUM and achieved a reasonable amount of success, which is why we’re still working together today.
―― What a dramatic turn of events. I can see how passionate you are about this. You then started making escape games, did any issues arise after starting your company?
🔹Hatanaka: Although our first game was created with 3D graphics, we made the decision to use 2D graphics going forward. Most escape game apps tend to use 2D illustrations and images that look 3D. So we initially decided to go with 3D graphics, but ran into a number of problems. Since 3D graphics are rendered in real time, the game won’t run as effectively on devices with lower specifications. Furthermore, when placing objects in the game that would serve as clues, the position and distance between objects and the camera made it difficult to determine how the objects would look. There was a possibility that the game would visually suffer from poor readability.
―― Am I correct in assuming that these issues can be solved with 2D graphics?
🔹Hatanaka: Yes. 2D graphics can be displayed on low-spec devices without changing how in-game objects look. With that being the case, we decided to scrap what we’d created so far in 3D.
―― Did you have any disagreements about destroying something you’d already started making?
🔸Furukawa: We did (laughs).
🔹Hatanaka: We were about to make our second 3D game, so we did fight over that decision. Ultimately though, switching to 2D graphics was for the best since it solved many issues. In the end, the only escape game that utilized 3D graphics was the first one we made, Escape Game: Tropical Seaside Resort*.
*Escape Game: Tropical Seaside Resort
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id1620491470
―― Having played this game myself, I had no idea you had faced such a challenge.
🔹Hatanaka: Although the outstanding graphics were one of the main selling points of the game, user ratings were low since it performed poorly on some devices. This meant that we had to go through the trouble of reducing the quality of textures and 3D models that the designers had already created.
―― That must have been a difficult decision to make. Most people would struggle to let go of something they’ve already put a lot of time and effort into creating.
🔹Hatanaka I can’t thank Takao enough for making the switch to 2D graphics. We then created six games in the Penguin series that began with Escape Game: Penguin and Polar Bear’s Great Adventure in Egypt*. However, we realized that if we didn’t leave the production of these games to someone else, we wouldn’t have the capacity to work on the games we truly wanted to make. So we developed tools, automated our process, and outsourced our staff, which is how we were able to start making Little Cheese Works.
*Escape Game: Penguin and Polar Bear’s Great Adventure in Egypt
https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id1635575649
🔸Furukawa: We’re still struggling to establish a production team for our escape games.
―― I played many of your escape games and enjoyed the variety of puzzles they contained. Some of them were based on physics, like needing to drink from a color-changing cup to adjust its temperature, allowing a clue to appear on the cup. Other puzzles took advantage of specific smartphone features like shaking your phone to open a bottle of soda. What led you to create escape games? Did you always have an interest in them?
🔸Furukawa: We thought escape games would allow us to develop our skills and generate a certain amount of revenue. Our situation was that we succeeded in establishing our company, but were likely to go bankrupt in three months due to our lack of funds. We needed to make some money within the gaming industry and hold on for dear life. We made our games by studying how puzzles were constructed and by imitating other games up until the Penguin series began, since our team only consisted of Akito and myself at the time. Because of that, our games weren’t rated very highly.
🔹Hatanaka: We’ve been trying to improve our subsequent games by commissioning designs to other people whose forte is creating puzzles, and their reviews have been getting better.
―― The market for free-to-play escape game apps is fiercely competitive. Did you struggle with anything when developing your escape games?
🔹Hatanaka: Takao played around 1,000 escape games to research the market prior to production. Thanks to that our early works were the fruits of our labor, filled with the knowledge and experiences that we’d gained up until that point. I feel like this is still relevant to how we create our games despite having a different team now.
―― It sounds like you made careful preparations before embarking on your new endeavor. With a production team in place for creating escape games, concerns about funding were resolved which is where Little Cheese Works began. Did you approach this project differently to creating free-to-play apps in terms of the production process and your mindset?
🔸Furukawa: When it comes to escape games, we’ve found that the less we interfere the better. Our part in the process involves looking at what the CG designers have created and providing our expectations on how to structure and expand their design so that it follows current trends. In a way, the game is out of our hands. With Little Cheese Works though, we’re very particular about every detail as we consider the user experience we want to provide. We’ll give extremely specific instructions in terms of character design, like asking the tape in a particular area to be positioned a millimeter higher and for the beacon light to shine slightly brighter. We request dozens of edits from the designers, which means that we’re inconveniencing a lot of people as we create this game.
🔹Hatanaka: For free-to-play apps, we have to be mindful of elements outside of the game itself like running ads and steering users to leave a review. The differences between Android and iOS, and the specifications across varying devices are also a challenge to tackle. With at least 16,000 types of Android devices in circulation, it’s necessary to consider aspects like support, optimization, screen sizes, and so on. Little Cheese Works is easier to tackle in a sense since we don’t have to think about these things.
―― Securing enough income to support yourself is essential if you want to pursue game development as a working adult. I feel like I’ve gotten a glimpse into the reality of creating indie games.
(Continued in Part 2…)
*In Part 2, we asked them about the support offered to award winners and advice for those interested in applying to the second GYAAR Contest!
▼ Little Cheese Works
An action co-op game, where two or more mice must carry the cheese to the goal without being spotted by the cat! You can converse through voice chat, but the slightest noise will wake up the cat. Let’s hold our breath and carry the cheese quietly so that the cat won’t find it! Will these mice be able to overcome the myriad of obstacles that stand in their way and lead a peaceful life?
Steam Store: Little Cheese Works
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