Why Gunvolt And Mighty No. 9’s Developer Makes Games For Kids

Inti Creates, who are developing Azure Striker Gunvolt and Mighty No. 9, recently said to Siliconera that Gunvolt is aimed at children between the ages of 10 and 14. This isn’t something that’s new to the studio—the vast majority of Inti’s past projects have been games that are squarely aimed at a younger crowd, down to the Mega Man Zero series on GBA, the ZX series on Nintendo DS, and even games based on Doraemon and Crayon Shin-Chan.

So… why the focus on kids? Speaking with Siliconera, Inti Creates CEO Aizu explained that many staff members at Inti Creates decided to become game developers themselves after being influenced by games they played on Nintendo hardware as children.

“There are many staff members at Inti Creates who decided to become game developers after having played games on Nintendo’s hardware… actually most of them,” Aizu said, when I brought up Inti Create’s development history. “I believe that the games we played back when we were kids were timeless, and had a distinct fun factor to them that still remains in our memories today.”

Aizu continued, “Since a lot of children possess Nintendo’s handheld devices, our goal is to release a games for them that could perhaps leave lifelong memories. That’s the reason we make many titles on Nintendo’s handheld devices.”

That having been said, Inti Creates are open to exploring other platforms as well, as evidenced by Mighty No. 9, which is available for a wide range of consoles, as well as PC.

“I believe once Mighty No. 9 is released, it will be proof that Inti Creates can indeed develop for any platform out there,” Aizu said.

The difference, of course, is that, unlike Azure Striker Gunvolt, the Mighty No. 9 project isn’t being self-funded by Inti Creates. Inti owns Gunvolt and are publishing the game themselves, but Mighty No. 9 is being headed up by Keiji Inafune’s company, Comcept. However, that doesn’t mean Inti aren’t interested in creating more self-funded games for a wider range of platforms in the future.

“The times have changed, and I believe our next self-funded games could possibly be made for Steam, PS4 or Xbox One,” Aizu suggested. “Of course, we will also continue to develop 3DS games that we want children to play.”