If you were at all unconvinced about the amount of inventiveness in indie games, you’d do well to look at Hizoka T Ohkuba’s Warning Forever. Like bullet hell shmups, but don’t want to go through the drag of fighting your way through levels to get up to the bosses? This is the game for you. Much like Kenta Cho’s work, the graphics are understated vectors, with sprites used for explosions, and some of the weaponry, which gives the game a clean, stylised look that fits the stripped back nature of the gameplay - your ship only has one mode of fire, though this can be aimed in any direction.

The game features a number of modes - there’s the default 180 second mode, in which you lose 20 seconds for a death, but gain 30 for beating a boss; no lives, no continues, just a clock in the corner. There’s the three ship mode, in which you begin with three lives, and gain one for every 100 pieces blasted off the construction kit style bosses. There’s the five minute attack, which brings a certain kamikaze element into the game, or there’s its opposite - the sudden death mode, with just one ship. However, the genius lies in the enemies themselves. Each boss will learn from the movements and attacks of the player - if you attack the front of a boss, the next one will feature more defense there. If you die from a homing missile attack, the next boss will use more of these. It’s possible to mould the bosses to your will, but only to a degree - the positioning of the weaponry is, for the most part, randomised, so that almost every game is different. It’s thrilling, difficult, and more than a little bit awe inspiring.

Warning Forever first came out in 2001, but the final revision - version 1.7 - only came out last year. While we won’t be seeing any more improvments to this game, Hizoka has hinted at a new project on its way soon - Little Mathletics spoke to him via email (which was then translated) about this, Warning Forever and his passion for games.

What’s your background as a gamer?

The Family Computer (or NES) was becoming very popular around the time I was in elementary school, and I used to play that everyday with a friend. Since then, I’ve also owned a Super Famicom, a Mega Drive , a Sega Saturn and a PlayStation 2. My favourite is still the Saturn, because I like games that can be played for a brief period of time, like action games or shooting games. I’m not a very big fan of RPGs or simulations.

What’s your favourite game?

I’m not sure whether it was sold outside of Japan , but Gunstar Heroes by Treasure is my favourite. Playing this game was when I thought I would like to become a game programmer. The movement of the characters and production of the game is brilliant, which makes you realise that the programmers must have had a great technical knowledge of the Mega Drive . The enormous bosses amazed me – they looked like living things as they ran about.

Where did the idea for Warning Forever come from?

The thing I like about the game is that there’s that thrill of fighting bosses who get more and more enormous – it’s refreshing. But with most games, that process of getting to the boss itself is just boring. So, I tried to make a game with just boss fights. But because I’m fickle, it wasn’t possible for me to design the many bosses, and think about their individual movements – my previous game, Shooters Solitude is only one stage, and I grew tired designing that as it was. As a result, it became a game where the boss evolves automatically.

How does the boss evolution work?

The evolution of the boss is decided according to the first stage of the game, depending on what part of the boss you destroy first. Vertically, there’s three types of evolution, and then there’s also three for the front and rear sections, which brings it to nine base evolutions in total. Even then because the attack method and positions and types of artillery each time is different, it seems like a different enemy. Position and type of the enemy’s weapons are decided randomly, though some types of weapons will become more prevalent, according to the actions of the player.

Why did you decide to implement the boss evolution in the way you did?

Before the evolution was randomised, it was difficult to give variation to the shape of the boss, but since it was randomised it’s become easier for the boss to change into strange shapes. The programming has been altered three times prior to the current version of the game.

What’s your background as a programmer?

From when I was a child, my father used a PC for work, so I was brought up with the PC as a toy. I learnt to program from a book, and by the time I was 10 years old, I was compiling programs on my own. After that, I went and studied information engineering at university, and now I work as a programmer for a games company.

How good at this style of game are you?

Simple games like Warning Forever - something that I can play briefly - I can play well, but basically I am not excessively skilful at the genre. I can’t clear most popular shooting games.

Do you get a lot of feedback from gamers about Warning Forever?

I do. I get a lot of mail from people all over the world – in fact, the mail from people outside Japan outnumbers the mail from Japan . It’s delightful. A lot of is regarding a function that they would like added to the game, but regrettably there’s no schedule to improve Warning Forever above what it is.

What can we expect to see from you next?

I’m working on a follow-up now, but it’s been slow recently because I’ve been busy with my job. I’m aiming to get it finished sometime this year, but I’m sure you’ll understand if it doesn’t get done. Knowing that I’m a fan of the retro type 2D games, like Warning Forever, you would think that would be what I’m making, but the next one will be an action game in 3D. It will be like Warning Forever in the way that it will be simple, and you will be able to play it at any time.

You can find Hizoka’s site here.