(Was previously titled Kakeru 乗数, Multi 360, and Multiply. It was prototyped in Global Game Jam 2018, 2021, and 2023.)

Kakeru: Next Level 乗数 -- "The Ultimate Score Multiplier Game" -- is a multi-directional multiplayer shmup based on an outrageous score multiplier.

Kakeru: Next Level 乗数 prototype.
The Ultimate Score Multiplier Game.

Description:

Multi-directional multiplayer shoot ‘em up based on an outrageous score multiplier.

• Multidirectional
• Arena
• Score multiplier for everything :)
• 4X Multiplayer
• Concentrate on “multi”.
• Multiple weapons? No.

 

Technology:

• Unity
• MonoGame
• C#

Kakeru is coded in our proprietary Kakeru game engine, developed using C#/MonoGame, the cross-platform implementation of Microsoft XNA. MonoGame is the same technology we used to port our XNA-coded Score Rush (Xbox 360) to  Score Rush Extended (PS4/Xbox One).

 

Release Platform:

Target Platform:

• PC (itch.io)
• PC (Steam)

Possible Platforms (if target platform is successful):

• Xbox One / Xbox Series X
• PlayStation 4 / PlayStation 5
• Nintendo Switch

 

First screenshots:

Blog post: First Kakeru Screenshots

Player bullets, hit sparks, and enemy explosions.

More explosions.

This is not really fair.

2,000 enemies.

These screenshots were from testing of our new screenshot recorder built in to the Kakeru engine.

 

What's In A Name?

Where did the title, "Kakeru 乗数" come from? I want to give credit to the process and people involved:

Was original titled "Multiply" and then "Multi 360", both working titles I was not happy with. On a trip to Global Game Jam 2020 I spoke with Myke Wills of N163LPH03N1X, a game development friend of ours, about reworking the title. He is known for creating awesome game titles: Devastation, Deity's Bane, Destiny Venture, Extinction, BioRealm, HellFire, and later on that day, Rehabilitation. Based on the shoot 'em up genre of the game, our successes in Japan, and our Japanese subtitles such as Score Rush Extended 撃点, I mentioned I wanted to explore Japanese names. I shared a method to create cool English tiltes, which is to translate a first attempt, such as "Multiply", from Engilsh to Japanese to English to present new posibilites and explore Japanese translations:

It turns out "multiply" survives the English > Japanese > English translation process and comes back as "multiply". However, when Myke translated "multiply" to Japanese he noticed it resulted in "Kakeru", which was the closest English pronounciation of the Japanese translation! What a cool name! Better results than my proposed method! I loved it immediately! He found more but I settled on "Kakeru". Afterwards on my own, I settled on "乗数" as the Japanese title, which means "multiplier":

• Kakeru (how multiply in Japanese is pronounced using English)
• 乗数 (means multiplier in Japanese)

That said, the concentration and marketing on "multi" could be lost:

• multiplayer
• multidirectional
• multipliers

2023-AUG-24 Update:

I was thinking about going the "next level" in my life, part of it connected to the reboot of Xona Games, and it fit the game concept as well. So that's where the sub-title came from.

 

Name Changes:

From first to last:

• Multiply
• Multi 360
• Kakeru 乗数
• Kakeru: Next Level 乗数

 

History + Philosophy:

Kakeru: Next Level 乗数 was first designed by Matthew Doucette on October 29th, 2008! The philosophy was, "Everything is a multiplier. Multiple Everything." The tagline was, "The Ultimate Score Multiplier Game". It was prototyped at Global Game Jam 2018, the way many of our prototypes are. Check out our Global Game Jam profiles: Multi 360 + Xonatron (Matthew Doucette).

 

Contact Us:

Let us know what you think. More coming soon!

 

That is all.