Just to clear this up from the start, ABA Games is Kenta Cho - one man, working on games in his spare time. This, in itself is nothing new; there have been plenty of games made by one person - though not many of them have been this good.

Certainly not good enough to be called ” true artistry” by the Escapist, or the maker named “one of today’s best independent game programmers” by Macworld Magazine.

At its best, Kenta Cho’s work is another level above what is often put out by entire independent developers. For the most part, he’s focused on shoot ‘em ups - or “shmups” - a genre that started (arguably) with Space Invaders in 1978, and has evolved over the years through games like R-Type, Tempest, Xevious and Ikaruga. Cho’s work embraces the games that have shaped the genre, while adding to them and expanding upon them.

The controls of the games are rock solid, especially for those with USB gamepads, and the sounds and music are stunning. The graphics are often vector based (like those in Asteroids and Space Wars) but are detailed and beautifully animated - without exception. But perhaps the most striking thing about the games is the obvious amount of care and work put into them. That these games are not, for one, commercial releases, and secondly, not a full time project for Cho, is astounding. These games are amongst the best that the independent games scene has to offer.

Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that Cho doesn’t make these games for an audience. “I only created games that I want to play,” He says. “And shared them with people who want to play.”

These are games aimed at gamers - in this sense, they hark back to the independent scene of the 80s, when developers like Matthew Smith made games like Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy because that’s what they wanted to play. As we move into a time where game’s budgets are moving well into the tens of millions, it’s heartening to see this spirit hasn’t died out.

Little Mathletics spoke to Kenta Cho via email about the history of ABA Games, the inspirations behind his work, and what’s still to come.

What’s the history of ABA Games?

I started my site, ABA Games, in 1997 to distribute my first Windows game Masashi-kun Hi!. After that, I’ve added small games to the site ramblingly for 9 years, and now there are (1, 2, 3 … about 50?) games for various platforms.

And you’ve done it all on your own? Graphics, music, programming and so on?

Yes, all games on my site are my personal work. I like to do all things by my own hand.

How are you managing to get games out at roughly one every six months?

Since I make it a rule not to think such as “I should release a next game till next two months”, it happens that my release cycle becomes about six months. But there is another rule with me that I’ll create a simple small game that can build in a short time. I get tired of keeping creating one game easily, this rule is quite important for me to create a whole complete game.

It must be interesting, releasing your games as freeware. How does it feel, knowing that people can download and enjoy your games for free?

It’s my pleasure to see people enjoying my games. I’ve not thought deeply about distributing my games for free. Also, if people want to know how they work, they can know it with the source code.

So you’re happy for people to take the source code and learn from it?

Yes. I want to enjoy more games that are created by amateur game developers. These games often are rough but have a very fresh idea in their gameplay.

There are few things that I can do for supporting people who want to create their own games, but I think releasing my code is one of the things.

Are all of your games written in D?

After A7Xpg, all my games are written in D.

D is not a very widely known programming language, though. How did you start using it?

My friend recommended me D when I wanted to switch from C to a better object-oriented language.

Since I was familiar with Java and D had a similar syntax with Java, I could switch to D easily.

Why D, rather than C or C++?

D has many good features such as mix-ins, associative arrays and contracts and it is still simple. Very fast D compiler also helps me to write codes without stress.

You’ve said in previous interviews that you consider the graphical style of your games to be “primitive”. Do you consider this to still be true?

I don’t think it is a problem that my graphical style is “primitive”. Since I don’t want to give a negative meaning to a word “primitive”, I might use a word such as simple, solid or plain.

Solid is certainly a good way to describe it, but certainly not plain. I think that your games often “glow”, graphically. Really, I suppose the genre dictates that solid graphics are the way to go - better to have something where you can see what’s happening rather than something where the action is obscured by overly flashy graphics, don’t you think?

OK, I’ll use a term ’solid’ for describing it. Thank you for your suggestion.

A visibility is very important for a shmup especially if it is a bullet-hell type shmup. But I think there is little relation between a solid graphics and a visibility. Have you seen a latest (and perhaps last) Dreamcast game, Under Defeat? It has great detailed graphics and too many smoke effects, but still has a high level of visibility. Important things are:

1) bullets should have a solid shape that can be seen easily and,

2) [bullets have] been drawn on a foreground layer.

Is there a connection between your style and your use of Simple DirectMedia Layer for the graphics?

There is no relation between my style and SDL. The application programming interface of SDL is simple, but a game using SDL can realize any graphical style, especially when it is used with OpenGL.

Do you think your own graphical style has improved?

I think I don’t have to ‘improve’ the graphics in my games. Instead, I should create a new graphical style that differs from the previous one. It is not easy to create a style without using a bitmap or a 3D model, but I think there is still another style I’ve never used.

What styles would you still like to try?

I like an old school game style such as low-res graphic and vector graphics. In Mu-cade, I tried to reproduce a package art of Vectrex games with OpenGL.

I haven’t ever come up with a new style, but I’ll try to get the idea from old games.

The music of your games is fairly distinctive - how do you go about producing that?

Many sampling CDs and a loop sequencer are tools I use. Since I’m not good at composing music, good sampling loops help me to create background music in my games.

Which games have influenced you?

Old Namco games very much influenced me. They have novel gameplay and great graphics and music. DigDug, Rally-X, Galaga, Metro Cross, Xevious, Assault and Motos, I have a special fondness for all of these.

As for graphics, Rez is the game most influenced me. Of course I like playing many shmups such as Ikaruga, Dodonpachi, Gradius and Darius.

Were the four game modes of rRootage (standard, IKA, PSY and GW modes) a way of paying tribute to the games that have influenced you?

Yes, and since these games have highly specific features, I think these features brings a good flavor to rRootage.

TUMIKI Fighters felt like something really fresh and interesting - what was the idea behind that?

I created TUMIKI Fighters inspired by Namco games, Phozon, Sky Kid and Katamari Damacy. Since I liked Phozon’s feature that the player (Chemic) changes its form dynamically during a gameplay, I tried to incorporate this feature into a shmup.

I think all of your games give the impression that you’re trying something different. Is this a result of you making games more for yourself than a target audience?

Yes, and games I can enjoy should have a good old 80’s gameplay. So I’ve borrowed many ideas from old games such as Phozon, Motos, Centipede and Tempest.

I’ve not paid so much attention for a target audience, but tried to make their gameplay simple, so people can enjoy it without being baffled by a complicated operation.

The games often get pretty difficult further in, though. Is that to offer something to hardcore shmup players, or is that simply the level that you yourself play at?

Since I created my games to play at myself, the level of difficulty is determined by the skill level of myself. Since most of the hardcore shmup players have a better skill than me, if I set the level for those people, it may become more difficult.

Do you have any tips, then?

Play continuously. One day you aren’t having any luck, another day you can do well.

Are you familiar with Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved on the Xbox 360’s Live Arcade?

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved may be the game I’ve played for the longest time on 360. Its simple but addictive gameplay and too many particles fascinate me. I like small games on the Xbox Live Arcade such as Mutant Storm, Smash TV and Feeding Frenzy. I was glad to hear the news that Namco would also provide their games on the Live Arcade.

Have you thought about the 360 as an avenue for releasing your games?

It would be nice. But to release my games as a product, they should be more sophisticated in graphics, sounds and gameplay.

What about the Nintendo Revolution? Gunroar is one of the titles mentioned a lot in discussions on independent content for the Virtual Console.

I like innovative user interfaces of the Revolution and the DS. It will be very nice if the Nintendo lets the development kit out to independent developers. I want to develop a game for these consoles.

I didn’t know that Nintendo intends to provide independent content on the Virtual Console. The best-case scenario for me is that they allow [developers] to distribute independent free games with a simple quality review.

Finally, what can we expect to see from you next?

As of the moment I don’t have any ideas for the next one. Since I have an interest in some new technologies such as ActionScript 3.0 and PhysX processor, I might try to use these technologies.

You can find Kenta Cho’s games free for download for Windows from his website here, or you can get the Linux versions here, or the Mac OS versions here or here.