Suda51 says Grasshopper staff are “funky in the head,” as he explains Romeo Is a Dead Man development

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If you’ve ever played a game directed by Suda51, you probably already feel like he thinks about game design in a completely different way than most people.

So it’s no surprise that the people who work with him at Grasshopper Manufacture share his values, he says.

I’m still pinching myself that we got to hang out with Suda51! During the press run for Romeo Is a Dead Man, we somehow convinced him to come to our office. It was the most wonderfully weird interview – we actually cooked him katsu curry while we talked! Seriously, how often does that happen?

It quickly becomes apparent that the game doesn’t have many minigames. You’ll find a few, like growing strange plants, completing Pac-Man-like mazes, and even making katsu curry, but the variety is limited.

The reason for this is that Suda51 has brought in the team behind Grasshopper, and they share his unique and unconventional style.

He mentioned that many of the people at Grasshopper were a little eccentric.

It seems like many creators feel pressured to be incredibly unconventional. They worry that if their ideas aren’t strange or unexpected, they won’t be approved, so they try to come up with something truly unique and unlike anything anyone else would imagine.

Someone suggested we have katsu curry, and the fun idea was that if I made it, it would give Romeo a boost when we ate it. I immediately thought that sounded great, and that’s how the whole thing started.

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Because Grasshopper had a small team with a wide range of skills, Romeo decided to incorporate many different art styles into the game, including realistic fight scenes, a pixel art world, and comic book-style storytelling.

We’re a smaller studio, not one of the big AAA developers,” Suda said. “Right now, our team is around 50 people.

We’re working with a limited budget, but fortunately, I have a lot of experience creating games with diverse art and visual styles.

When we started planning how to create the game and figure out the budget, I realized we didn’t need to focus solely on detailed 3D graphics. Instead, I suggested we combine different art styles, letting each team member contribute their strengths to create a unique look.

“That’s how we got that super cool-looking, super awesome game, Romeo Is a Dead Man.”

Romeo Is a Dead Man is out now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.

Authors

Alex RaisbeckGaming writer

Alex Raisbeck writes about video games for TopMob, covering both major releases and smaller independent titles. He’s also contributed to well-known gaming publications like VideoGamer, GamesRadar+, PC Gamer, and PCGamesN.

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2026-02-11 19:08