Published , by Donovan Erskine
Published , by Donovan Erskine
Hanako: Honor & Blade is a new online beat’em up from +MPact Games. Set in Feudal Japan, up to 24 players face off in melee combat, with a variety of weapons and abilities in their arsenal. Following its recent launch, we sat down with the co-founder of +MPact Games in order to learn more about the development of Hanako: Honor & Blade.
Greg Burke, our head of video here at Shacknews sat down with Matt Canei, co-founder of +MPact Games to talk in depth about Hanako: Honor & Blade. In the interview, the two talk about how Hanako: Honor & Blade originally started as a college project over a decade ago. “+MPact Games is a tiny indie studio that myself and my two partners started back in college. We kind of created it around Hanako, which was a college project that started way back in 2008.” While the game started as a very small-scale personal project, its success allowed the developers to branch off and expand on it.
Canei also talks about how he was inspired to make the game as a tribute to his mother after she passed away in 2007. “I was like, ‘alright I’m going to write this game, and it’s going to be a samurai war metaphor, where one clan represents her and the other represents the cancer that took her from me, and the who game is just going to be a metaphor for that battle.’” Canei explains that a lot of the game came from him trying to turn his grief into something positive.
The full interview with Matt Canei is a fascinating insight to the development of an incredibly personal project. It can be found over on the GamerHubTV YouTube channel, where you can check out more exclusive interviews with developers.