ROCKFISH Games has spent a decade sending players into deep space. Its compass, it turns out, points toward Tokyo.

Somewhere in all of us is the kid who stayed up past bedtime for just one more level, who knew the soundtrack better than the multiplication tables, and who looked up at the night sky and wondered what it would be like to fly through it. At ROCKFISH Games, that kid never left the building.

From a studio in Hamburg, a team of 40 developers and artists builds EVERSPACE, an award-winning series that drops players into the cockpit of a nimble fighter ship and lets them loose among asteroid fields, orbital stations and alien worlds. The studio is independent, crowdfunded by its fans, and remarkably open about its work, sharing builds with players long before release.

Its inspirations come largely from Japan. Anime, mecha classics and Japanese games run through EVERSPACE 2, from missile swarms that salute the legendary Itano Circus of Macross to ramen billboards glowing over a space city. ROCKFISH now keeps a small office in Tokyo, counts Japan among its strongest markets and calls Tokyo Game Show one of its favorite stops on the calendar.

We spoke with CEO and co-founder Michael Schade about independence, community, and why the road to the stars runs through Japan.

Bridges: Could you introduce ROCKFISH Games, including its origins, how the company has developed and the kinds of games it creates today?

Schade: ROCKFISH Games is a mid-sized development studio based in Hamburg, Germany 100% owned by myself and my co-founder, Christian Lohr. We are a team of 40 developers and artists mostly in Germany, but with a few team members scattered around the world in Canada, the UK, and Japan.

We founded the studio ten years ago after departing our former studio alongside a small team of talented developers. Previously, we were best known for creating the popular Galaxy on Fire series on mobile, which naturally led to our continuation in making stellar space games.

Our EVERSPACE games are an award-winning series of space adventures putting players in the pilot seat of small fighter ships. We focus on action-forward moment-to-moment combat and exploration through deep space, orbital, and planetary environments in a science fiction universe where it feels like anything could happen. We like to blend gameplay genres, incorporate deep RPG mechanics, and create systematic gameplay that allows players to discover their own playstyle. The team excels at making fast-paced spaceship combat games and it makes sense, for now, to keep making titles that our community expects of us.

As an independent studio based in Hamburg, how does that independence influence the games you create, the decisions you make and the relationship you maintain with your player community?

Independence has been vital to ROCKFISH Games’ success so far. Our EVERSPACE series was born from a cancelled project and being able to pivot towards a game 100% owned by the studio has allowed us to find success as an independent publisher of our own games.

As we have no shareholders, we can be more flexible than some other studios—namely if what we’re working on does not meet our quality standards, delaying a game or update release or holding off to add a feature the team is particularly passionate about can be done without having to negotiate with a partner. We don’t have the safety net of being under the umbrella of an owner group or publisher, so our successes and any failures are our own.

Our community is the reason ROCKFISH Games exists. Both of our games so far have been crowdfunded, and we see ongoing support for our projects from space game fans around the world in the way of DLC purchases and word-of-mouth marketing on social media.

One of the reasons we’ve been able to see so much support is the culture of transparent development fostered at the studio. We believe in sharing what we’re working on, while we’re making it. Once a project is announced, we put gameplay in front of players through prototypes, Steam Early Access, and developer streams sharing the latest build.

Japan has one of the world’s most influential gaming and science-fiction cultures. What does the Japanese market mean to ROCKFISH Games, and how do you approach localization and engagement with Japanese players?

As a studio packed with science fiction and anime fans, creative works from Japan are a massive inspiration in the games we create. In EVERSPACE 2, there are nods to the Itano Circus from Macross, anime ramen ad billboards in a space city, and many other elements inspired by Japanese film, TV, and games.

We believe quality localization is vital for games in Asian markets. In addition to investing in translation via reputable services, we take and implement feedback from native speakers to ensure we supply the best quality localization as possible.

We aim to please communities of space game players around the globe and one of the best ways to do that is to speak their language. It’s not well known, but we maintain a small office in Japan to employ our Product Marketing Manager who is based in Tokyo. In addition to his marketing duties, Jeremy engages with Japanese players on social media through the EVERSPACE brand account

As the studio looks toward its next chapter, how would you like the EVERSPACE universe and ROCKFISH Games’ presence in Japan and across Asia to develop?

We believe Japan is a very important part of the future of the EVERSPACE series—not only is the country in our top ten sales regions, we often see strong interest in our games and DLCs from Japanese gaming media. Tokyo Game Show remains one of the studio’s favorite trade shows to attend in the world.

We see Japan as a strong foundation in creating interest and communities in the rest of Asia. With EVERSPACE 2, marketing efforts in Japan would often create spikes of interest in surrounding regions. We hope that efforts with future titles will help bear fruit in China, South Korea, and other countries who look to Japan with interest.