[LEVEL UP KL 2019] “One way to win in a global race is culture,” Metronomik’s Wan Hazmer says

Previously, we mentioned that locally-developed NO STRAIGHT ROADS would be seeing an early 2020 release. We didn’t get a specific launch date, but we did get a few minutes of Metronomik’s CEO, Wan Hazmer’s time for some questions!

NO STRAIGHT ROADS has a distinctive feature in that the game has the voice talent of Malaysians. He mentions how Japan and America have their standards in production value and graphics. Yes, the studio would like to reach that, but also to understand that culture is the main asset. “‘Local’ sometimes means ‘bad quality’,” he says, in regards to Malaysian perception. “Comments from overseas on our YouTube video said they didn’t mind the voices, or loved the accent.”

Wan Hazmer touches on crunch, since he himself has worked till late. “Crunch on a game means it has over-scoped,” he explains. “My job as a director is to take a look at the game every two weeks, and we see what we can add or take out.” He doesn’t believe crunch is the right way to do things, but that it’s been ingrained to be thought as the standard.

With NO STRAIGHT ROADS being a musically based game, we asked how many tracks will be in the game. Wan Hazmer gives examples, stating there would be three for a boss. He coyly hints about additional unannounced composers, and that there’s “too many” tracks.

Wan Hazmer asks us to look forward to seeing more of NO STRAIGHT ROADS and the local development scene at LEVEL UP KL 2019! You can also check out a previous encounter with Wan Hazmer here.

NO STRAIGHT ROADS

Publisher: Sold Out Games

Developer: Metronomik

Release Date: 2020-08-25

Epic Games Store, Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4

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