Semnat Studios talk about their first project for WiiWare in an exclusive interview released to Wiitalia.

Wiitalia: Please Daniel, introduce yourself and the Semnat Studios to Wiitalia readers.

Coleman: Hello, I’m the co-owner of Semnat Studios along with Robert DeMaria, our programmer. Ian Bowie is also a member of our team, and Raymond Gramke provides music. We all have normal day jobs and have been making games on the side for several years, hoping to finally make it a full-time job if Eduardo is a success on WiiWare. We’re a very small developer and this is our big chance, what we’ve been working towards for so long. My title is game director, artist, and co-level designer. Ian did animations and also works heavily on level design.

Eduardo the Samurai Toaster per Nintendo Wii

Wiitalia: Which individual competences and training do you have?

Coleman: Our game design training comes from working non-stop on games for the last five years. Just experimenting, failing, learning, trying again, et cetera. On the art side, I’m a part-time drawing major at a university here. Robert got a computer science degree, and both Ray and Ian got degrees from the University of Advancing Technology.

Wiitalia: Which are, if they have been, your previous works as Semnat Studios?

Coleman: Eduardo will be the first game we finish and release. We’ve worked on various projects that we now refer to as prototypes, and those experiences helped make this final, full version of Eduardo. We’ve worked on three other versions of Eduardo on PC before starting on this Wii game.

Wiitalia: Finally Eduardo the Samurai Toaster has been officially announced by your website, but how and when the idea for this game has born?

Coleman:  Over four years ago I came up with the idea for Eduardo the Magical Toaster, which went through a redesign in the second version of the game and became Eduardo the Samurai Toaster. The idea came from randomness, an email I sent to Robert. It changed drastically over the years, the only remaining concepts being the basic enemy and character ideas and the idea of using pastry enemies as projectiles.

Wiitalia: From the screenshots we know it is a 2D side-scrolling game, but to what specific genre belongs it?

Coleman: It is a run ‘n gun shooter similar to games like Gunstar Heroes, Contra, and Metal Slug.

Wiitalia: How have you conceived the bizarre idea of a toaster as the main character? Tell us about the vegetable enemies and the other odd elements scattered everywhere in the game.

Coleman: It was just a silly, random idea. The enemies came about naturally after the toaster idea was thought up. I guess it made sense to have food products as enemies if you’re a toaster. With such a silly idea as that, I just tried to have as much fun with the little world we created. The killer bee is based on the main character from the movie “Branded to Kill”, and there are various “Rocketeer” references in there as well. The scooter we have came out because we’re such huge fans of the tv show “Arrested Development”. It is my little nod to GOB.