Development Background Since the company's inception, Treasure had primarily been a developer of action and platform games for home consoles. Sega had repeatedly asked the company to develop an arcade game for them, but Treasure president Masato Maegawa was concerned the shrinking arcade business would be too risky from a business perspective and arcade goers would not appreciate the effort placed into their game. (Translation, archived) Despite this concern the team had wanted to develop a 2D arcade style shoot 'em up for some time. Much of the staff were fans of the genre, having grown up during the genre's golden age, but entering their careers after fighting games started filling arcades. Director Hiroshi Iuchi was especially passionate about starting the project. (Translation) Although the team was eager to develop the game, there were still concerns. Maegawa believed that the shoot 'em up genre was dying, and was risky from a sales perspective. Iuchi was also concerned there would be no place for a 2D shooter in an arcade space that was advancing more towards large and specialized 3D game machines. In the face of these concerns about commercial viability, the team felt they had a good concept and pushed forth.
Development Background Since the company's inception Treasure had primarily been a developer of action and platform games for home consoles Sega had repeatedly asked the company to develop an arcade game for them but Treasure president Masato Maegawa was concerned the shrinking arcade business would be too risky from a business perspective and arcade goers would not appreciate the effort placed into their game (Translation archived) Despite this concern the team had wanted to develop a 2D arcade style shoot 'em up for some time Much of the staff were fans of the genre having grown up during the genre's golden age but entering their careers after fighting games started filling arcades Director Hiroshi Iuchi was especially passionate about starting the project (Translation) Although the team was eager to develop the game there were still concerns Maegawa believed that the shoot 'em up genre was dying and was risky from a sales perspective Iuchi was also concerned there would be no place for a 2D shooter in an arcade space that was advancing more towards large and specialized 3D game machines In the face of these concerns about commercial viability the team felt they had a good concept and pushed forth