iNiS' Yano Confirms Xbox 360 Project, Engine Development

Author: by Staff

As part of an in-depth interview published today on Gamasutra, iNiS co-founder Keiichi Yano (Elite Beat Agents) has confirmed that the company is working on an unspecified project for the Xbox 360. Though best known for its rhythm games such as Gitarooman for PlayStation 2 and the Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan series for Nintendo DS, Tokyo-based developer Yano attended Microsoft's recent developer-centric GameFest event in Seattle, where Gamasutra quizzed him. When asked why he was at the event, Yano mentioned: "That's probably the biggest question I can't answer, but I guess there is an obvious answer, and a not-so-obvious answer. We've always been Xbox developers. A lot of people don't know this, but we've been doing graphics engines and game engines on 360 for awhile now." Indeed, the company's nFactor 2 graphics engine, which is listed on iNiS' official website as being Xbox 360, PC and Wii compatible, is public knowledge, with Yano mentioning of it: "It's cross-platform right now. It's just really continuing on that vector -- that was really the main reason I was here." He further explained of the nFactor 2 project (a 2005-era engine demo for which is pictured above) that "...it's basically our rendering engine and our game development platform. It encompasses the main rendering engine, and the tools surrounding it. It's really our basis for creating all the games that we build." However, when if there were Xbox 360 games that iNiS itself is in development on, Yano guardedly confirmed: "Yeah. We are currently working on a title. I can't really get into it more than, 'Yes, we're working on something!'" No further details on publisher or genre were available for the game. The full interview with Yano is now available on Gamasutra, and includes his thoughts on the sudden popularity of the rhythm genre, issues in internationalizing game appeal, and the best places to get advice on development technique, among other topics.