Schildmaid MX: From Western Europe to Japan, With Shooting Love

Exhibiting a Western made Indie Shmup at Tokyo Game Show 2024

Every indie developer knows how tough it is to get people to pay attention to your game in today’s oversaturated market. Now imagine if you have developed a game in a genre that is wholly unfashionable to the larger gaming populace in 2024, like let’s say a 2D autoscrolling shooter / shmup / STG… A genre that has many a video game influencer or content creator politely decline your review code offers. Any dev would jump at the chance to fly out to Japan, where this genre enjoys a more deeply rooted fondness, to showcase the Nintendo Switch port of their game at one of the major tradeshows in the world. So that is what we did when we got this opportunity for our indie shmup Schildmaid MX.

Who me? My name is Michiel. I’m the game designer for Schildmaid MX. The game’s programmer, Hans, and I form dev outfit HitP Studio together. Schildmaid MX (ver. 2.0) has been out on Steam since March 2023. And for the upcoming console ports we’ve partnered with Hong Kong based niche game publisher eastasiasoft.

Shooting Stars

Rewinding a bit, Hans has lived in Japan for a couple of years and travels there very regularly. He’s been trying to get me to join him on one of these trips for ages now and at least one of these plans had already fallen through when a certain worldwide pandemic made the airline company cancel our tickets (funnily enough, the same event also caused us to start working on Schildmaid MX). But in 2024 the (shooting) stars seemed aligned and we started planning to travel to Japan around the time of Tokyo Game Show. So we could include a visit to the event in our trip. And during this planning phase we suddenly thought to ask Nils at eastasiasoft if he and his team were also going to be present at TGS. Nils confirmed this and before we truly realized it, a Nintendo Switch demo of Schildmaid MX was given space at eastasiasoft’s booth in the indie area, next to 2 other games: Maiden Cops and Starlight Legacy. And we were going to be there for 2 to 3 days of the event as well!

So Japan then

Fast forward to mid September 2024 and I find myself on a plane from Amsterdam to Tokyo, ready to join Hans, who is already there. I’ll spare you most of the typical Japan first timer impressions, but I will say that I count myself very lucky to have been in the company of a friend who is intimately familiar with the country (and language!) and who was able to let me experience some of the local culture and social life beyond the regular tourist traps. Japan felt diametrically opposed to everything that is familiar to me in many ways, as well as strangely familiar at the same time, as there is so much there that comprises my collection of interests, with the gaming culture (arcades! vintage gaming shops!) at the center of it all. And I’ve made some amazing new friends there too.

Tokyo Game Show Day 1 - Special Encounters

After almost 2 weeks of travel through various prefectures in Central Japan, exploring, adventuring and lots of food, drinks and games, it was time to get serious like Terry Bogard. Early morning on September 26, Hans and I headed out to the Makuhari Messe halls in Chiba for the first day of Tokyo Game Show. We met Nils, Arthur, Josh and Andreas of eastasiasoft for the first time in real life, right there at the train station, received our exhibitor passes from them and made our way to their/our booth in the indie game area. The area was dominated by laptops, but the 3 eastasiasoft games were all presented on decently sized OLED monitors. What’s more, our publishing partner had also created some cool merch for our game.

The first 2 days of TGS are relatively quiet and reserved for press and game industry folk. After this, 2 days follow where the show floor is open to the general public. There wasn’t a lot going on in our hall on day 1 that first morning and we had some time to walk around and check out other booths, both from other indie devs, as well as the big publishers. The people that stopped by our booth and tried out Schildmaid MX were often middle aged men and it became a bit of a running joke that we had that whole demographic on lock. Schildmaid very likely reminded them of the games they had enjoyed in their youth, such as Gradius. So picture this, then… fairly early on a friendly looking gentleman wearing a blue cap stopped by our booth, took some pictures and picked up the controller. Hans was conversing with him in Japanese while he played and asked if he liked shmups.

With a faint smile on his face he answered: “I have made a few.”

All excited, I couldn’t help but press Hans: “Ask him which ones!”

The man started listing: “Border Down, Under Defeat…”

Voice cracking, I added on: “Strania? Senko no Ronde?”

He nodded, smile widening. It was none other than shmup development legend and studio G.rev’s head Hiroyuki Maruyama. So at this point I’m fanboying out!

For those not completely familiar with G.rev (if so, change that!), mr. Maruyama was also a key developer on G Darius at Taito, before he formed his own company with the aim to ensure that shoot ‘em ups would continue to be made in the future. Under the G.rev label he has directed and produced shining shmup examples that always manage to introduce fresh angles and ideas to the genre. And let’s not forget that he and his team assisted Treasure on legendary games Ikaruga and Gradius V. If I had bothered to look up what the person behind this name I revered looked like, I might even have recognized him before he started listing off those games. Unbelievable.

What was crazier than this chance encounter and mr. Maruyama actually playing our game was that he even told us he was a bit impressed by it. And that he could tell by playing that it was made by people who understand the genre. He also tweeted something very similar to his followers, we later found.

Before we started working on Schildmaid MX, I was always hesitant to simply go and make a shmup as I knew I would be entering the arena where genre masters such as mr. Maruyama display their fine tuned and honed craft. So these kind words feel incredibly validating and make for the greatest compliment our game has ever received.

Later that day, while I was strolling around the venue, Hans met bass player Kyo-Ji of Fantom Iris, a band that has created music for shmups like Raiden III Mikado Remix and Aka to Blue. Kyo-Ji turned out to be a true genre enthusiast and a Mikado game center regular and he was full of praise for Schildmaid MX, both to Hans and on Twitter. He and Hans exchanged contact details and we have continued to talk since.

All in all, this was as amazing a start of the event we could have wished for. And we celebrated it with simple-yet-fulfilling sustenance at a nearby Cafe Gusto with the eastasiasoft team, for that authentic Japanese family restaurant experience. Afterwards, we headed back to our place in West Tokyo.

Tokyo Game Show Day 2 - Help from a Friend

On the second day of Tokyo Game Show we met at the Makuhari Messe station again, this time to hand over an exhibitor pass to our friend Masa, better known as expert STG player and Hellsinker world record holder twilightex. Masa had helped us out with testing Schildmaid MX and with localizing the game to Japanese. We met earlier during our stay and started hanging out frequently since. And he joined us on day 2 of the event.

We had learned 2 things from the first day of TGS:

1. The convenience store just outside our hall was going to be absolutely pillaged and emptied come mid-day.

2. The larger crowds would only make their way from the big publisher booths to the indie area in the afternoon.

I’m proud to say we acted on that knowledge. So we grabbed our onigiri and sandwiches before we headed out on the show floor and I sent Hans and Masa out to enjoy the event in the morning hours so they could man the booth in the afternoon while I would take my turn to walk around and look for games and booths that would interest me. I was especially keen on getting a hands on with the new Mega Drive shmup Earthion, developed by legendary VGM composer Yuzo Koshiro and Team Ancient. As before, the morning was pretty quiet for us and I took my leave from the booth after Masa and Hans had returned and I devoured my convenience store lunch.

And guess what? I did indeed manage to track down what I’m sure was the only upcoming game release presented on a good ol’ CRT TV on the show, somewhere on the large booth of toy distributor Happinet. It was extremely cool to play a modern Mega Drive game build that pushes the hardware this hard and I look very much forward to its eventual release.

Making my way back to our booth, Hans messaged me saying that he was beyond tired and that he was on his way back to West Tokyo. Also, apparently I had missed out on an ex-Treasure programmer playing our game and giving it praise, damn! That afternoon, Masa and I also spoke with some other noteworthy people that tried out Schildmaid MX:

• a 3D modeler who had worked with Arc System Works on titles such as Dragonball FighterZ;

• a friendly young journalist for Nikkei Business who seemed more interested in my opinions as an ex-Nintendo employee (!);

• a senior developer at FromSoftware with a deep-seated love for shmups/STG.

Throughout all this, Masa’s help was incredible: expertly and enthusiastically getting Japanese players of our demo up to speed on the unusual mechanics and nuances of Schildmaid MX and interpreting whenever I was part of the conversation. Plus he’s just a great dude to hang out with, period.

Tokyo Game Show Day 3 - STG Never Die

The third day of Tokyo Game Show went a bit different. Hans had a goodbye party with his local friends the night before. The party had ran into the early morning hours and he was pretty exhausted, physically and mentally. So he tapped out. And Masa had to look after his tortured feet a bit, due to an unfortunate choice of footwear the day before, and would join me in the afternoon. But in the morning, as far as HitP Studio and friends’ presence at the eastasiasoft booth was concerned, it was just me.

Day 3 was also the first of the 2 days where the show floor is open to the general public. And the difference was immediately noticeable with absolutely jam packed trains and the station for Makuhari Messe being completely overloaded with visitors to the event.

Even so, the masses generally made their way to the big publisher halls first, so manning our part of the booth in the morning was doable. I had learned a few Japanese phrases and words from eastasiasoft’s Andreas and Masa to invite passers-by to play Schildmaid MX and I managed to have simple conversations in English with bits of Japanese sprinkled in. Around 2 pm a rejuvenated Masa joined me and we were all set to engage with the larger crowds.

Where we had come to think Schildmaid MX largely appealed to the middle aged men demographic, day 3 taught us different. Indeed, a lot of younger Japanese gamers ranging from late teens to thirty-somethings, male and female, appeared to be curious to try out our game. We saw it happen often where initial befuddlement would be replaced with smiles and cries of “Omoshiroi!” (=“This is fun!”). And when one person would start playing, it would usually draw some onlookers and even little queues of people awaiting their turn to play. As a matter of fact, there were hardly moments where Schildmaid MX was left unplayed. Not only was it great to witness this level of interest in the Nintendo Switch port of our game, it also filled me with hope for the future of the oldest and most enduring genre of video games.

But this wasn’t all that there was to TGS Day 3 for us. Sometime in the afternoon, a middle aged couple sat down for a moment on the folding chairs next to our booth. I was talking to a teenager playing our game, so I didn’t pay them much mind initially. But when the young player left, the man walked up to me and pointed at one of our social media posts and then at me, asking: “You?” Then I saw his Raging Blitz t-shirt and I realized it was veteran video game developer Penpe! Masa had actually introduced me to him. This was after their stream collaboration on Spanish language STG community luminary Hauser’s Shmup Fest Relay 2023 event.

Mr. Penpe was already creating games in the SNES/Super Famicom and PlayStation 1 era and in 2023 released the completely free and super fun doujin shoot ‘em up Raging Blitz. We started DMing with the help of Google Translate on Twitter and I sent him a Steam key for Schildmaid MX last year, curious as to what he would think of it. He has continued to say very nice things about it since. I had told him I was going to be in Japan in this time period and he had expressed interest in visiting Tokyo Game Show. But he doesn’t live very close by, so I was not expecting him to show up. And here he was, telling me via the translate app on his phone and Masa’s interpreting that he and his wife had come out all the way to Chiba to meet me and Hans! And they had brought gifts!

The gifts were a CD with Penpe’s self-composed remixed soundtrack for Raging Blitz, titled “combat airspace”, a napkin with Raging Blitz art on it and a very special PlayStation 1 game he had made for Enix before the Square merger: Segare Ijiri. This title was never released overseas and Masa told me it is widely known in Japan and even made mr. Penpe a bit famous. Marketed as a “baka” (= “stupid/silly”) game, it is a funny, strange and wildly creative puzzle adventure game in which you string Japanese sentences together to see bewildering animations play out and trigger seemingly random events to progress in the game world (yes, I have played it since).

I was incredibly touched by mr. and mrs. Penpe’s visit and presents and I scrambled to grab some Schildmaid MX merch together, as well as my last unopened pack of Dutch stroopwafels. The couple stayed with us for some time and we communicated to the best of our abilities. I keep thinking back to our meeting with great fondness and I hope we can meet again in the future. I’m really honored to have made friends like them.

Tokyo Game Show Day 4 - To Be Continued

So the final day of TGS, then, huh? Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about there anymore, from my perspective. Hans flew back to Germany early on that Sunday and I packed up and tidied up our apartment before checking out at 11 in the morning. My flight back to the Netherlands would depart close to 10 pm. So I had a little bit of time to spend with Masa in Tokyo before I headed out to Haneda airport with my luggage and enough time to check in and get to the gate. It was up to the eastasiasoft guys to hold down the fort on day 4. During the day Nils did send me a picture from the show floor, saying that things were getting busy again around Schildmaid MX.

So what was the effect of showcasing our game at Tokyo Game Show? That is of course incredibly difficult to gauge. Getting some more visibility for the thing you have made doesn’t hurt at the very least. But more than anything, it was the pure experience of witnessing people in Japan playing and enjoying our first game and getting (positive!) feedback from developers and industry folks there that we look up to that made the whole thing so amazing and absolutely worth it. It was also great to meet up with previously online-only friends. And to meet the people behind the company that will publish Schildmaid MX to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5 and Xbox Series X|S and hang out with them.

So again a massive shout out to Nils, Arthur, Josh and Andreas of eastasiasoft for having us and giving a humble indie shmup like Schildmaid MX space on their booth at such a major and exciting trade show. For me personally, this long awaited trip to Japan and participating in the event with our game has been a real highlight of my life. If that isn’t something worthwhile, then what is?