Seiji, at his home in Nantes, April 8, 2021 – J. Urbach/ 20 Minutes
- For three years, Seiji and his dad have started designing video games for the Nes console.
- The most successful, Kubo 3, has even been sold to enthusiasts and collectors, while the Japanese version will be released in a few days.
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If he had not kept his mask throughout our meeting (except for the photo), we could easily have thought we were in the 90s. Because at 8 years old, rare are the children who still have fun in front of the Nes, this vintage Nintendo game console that will make today’s quads nostalgic. In Nantes, Seiji is even stronger because the character in 2D that the little boy makes move thanks to his rectangular controller is entirely out of his imagination. After a launch in France and the United States at the end of last year (the 150 cartridges produced were sold, at a price of 35 euros, especially to collectors and enthusiasts), its own game, Kubo 3, will be available in Japan. in a few days. He has already received the first orders.
Schooled in CE2, the boy became the boss of SJ Games about three years ago. His dad, an IT developer, was interested in retrogaming at the time and discovered a software package, Nes Maker, which made it possible to “easily create new games” for the legendary console. “I drew Kubo on a piece of paper, a green-skinned cowboy that people mistook for a turtle,” smiles Seiji, who keeps everything in pockets. On the computer, I then drew it in pixels, in lots of different positions so that it could come to life. “Little by little, the boy invents monsters to beat, obstacles to avoid, decorative elements that he assembles” like Lego “, to create a whole universe. After Kubo 1 in the forest, and a second episode in the desert, it’s decided: version 3 will allow the turtle-cowboy to go around the planet!
Real teamwork
For a year, weekends and holidays, sometimes two or three hours in a row, the pair puts everything in focus, screen after screen. The aim of the game ? “We must find the four crystals to be able to save the inhabitants of the village, kidnapped by an evil mole,” announces Seiji. He and his dad, aged 41, assure that it is a real teamwork, which has the added merit of being “an activity that brings us together”. “I guided him and helped him with the technique, especially with the code,” says Seiji’s father, who obviously also takes care of communication and even marketing. I let him manage all the creation and animation part. “Confinement allows you to get down to the bottom of it, until you meet a
video game studio.
Locacious and resourceful, little Seiji is also tenacious since he is not discouraged, “despite a somewhat complicated home stretch”. After asking his mother, Japanese, for the translation of his game on Famicom (the equivalent of the Nes), he dreams today of a Kubo 4, which he will develop on his new Ipad, financed by first sales. And the guy, who also practices football, origami and the piano, does not intend to stop there. On the subject of his professional future, he confides that he has already “thought about it several times”… “In fact, I hesitate a lot,” says the schoolboy. It will be a creator of games… or an inventor! “
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