Transformers: Devastation Director Used Special Shading To Recreate 80s Anime Look

Kenji Saito of Platinum Games shared some interesting tweets about Transformers: Devastation.

The director of Metal Gear Rising revealed that they took some pains recreating the look of traditional 80s cel animation, even coining a new term: wakame.

Saito’s team developed an in-house shader, called the wakame shader, and used 1986’s Transformers The Movie as reference on how to shade properly.

While working on the game, Saito shared imparted even more inspiration to his team. When he found that the shading was not sufficient, Saito told the artists that the game needed more Bari. He was alluding to mecha director Masami Obari. Obari is most famous for Bubblegum Crisis but he also happened to have worked in Transformers, while under animation studio Ashi Production.

In the end, Transformers: Devastation’s shading isn’t as dark as that of Transformers The Movie, but of course, it didn’t have to be, so long as it looked convincingly 80s.

A few days ago, Saito revealed what anime he wanted to make a game for. Namely, he wants to make the games for either Kill La Kill or Berserk.

Transformers: Devastation will be releasing on 2015 on Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.