505 Games announced in a recent development update that WayForward, the team behind the Shantae series, will be joining the development team for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
The following is a statement from project lead Koji “IGA” Igarashi on WayForward’s contribution to the game’s development:
It’s me, IGA.
For this month’s update, we have an incredible support who will be joining the Bloodstained team. Can you guess who? It’s WayForward!
That’s right, WayForward, the makers of Shantae! As you may already know, they are top-tier when it comes to side-scrolling action games. There is even a staff member who previously worked on one of my projects, which is incredibly encouraging.
In consideration of their past achievements, WayForward will be helping the development team realize my vision for this game. Maybe I am even more excited than everyone else – with their help Bloodstained will become an even better game.
We also have some new enemy concept art to show you. This is Cyhyreath.
>Cyhyreath first appears to be crouching on the floor. Once the player approaches her, she will fly around and make a death shriek to attack the player.
It’s a traditional gothic horror design, and I think it’s lovely.
I was talking with the team just before writing this comment and, with WayForward’s help, they have been busy helping to improve the game and fix any bugs that pop up.
Speaking of which, there’s a really tough one that’s making the game crash that needs to be fixed before the game reaches everyone, so we are scything through them all.
Thank you, everyone, for your continued support!
It’ll be interesting to see how WayForward’s involvement will leave its mark on Bloodstained. The game itself will be launching on Nintendo Switch in 2019.
Source: Siliconera
As a day-one backer who has followed this project closely, I can’t help but be concerned over the timing of this development.
Had they brought WayForward onboard a while ago, I would have been completely enthusiastic. However the “late game” addition has me worried something just wasn’t working and they’re in need of an 11th-hour fix.
I hope my fears are unfounded.