Sigono and Shueisha Video games lately launched OPUS: Prism Peak worldwide for Nintendo Swap 2, Nintendo Swap, and PC. I had an opportunity to have a chat with Sigono producer Brian Lee concerning the latest launch, challenges concerned with the multi-platform launch, the opportunity of a Swap 2 bodily launch for OPUS: Prism Peak, future plans, how the group approaches new tasks, the narrative, espresso, and way more.
Nintendo Insider: For these unaware, inform us slightly bit about your self and what you do at Sigono.
Brian Lee: I’m Brian Lee, the producer at Sigono. My function is actually to bridge the hole between artistic imaginative and prescient and a tangible, shippable product. This entails overseeing every part from manufacturing planning and script coordination to artwork, music, engineering, and publishing. My aim is to make sure that even after the various sensible compromises of growth, the sport’s core emotional coronary heart stays intact. Since Sigono is a small group, all of us put on many hats; I see myself because the one retaining our course clear whereas supporting the non-public, honest particulars that make our work distinctive.
Nintendo Insider: It has now been over 10 years because you launched Opus: The Day We Discovered Earth. That is additionally how I found Sigono. How has the group grown since then?
Brian Lee: After we made OPUS: The Day We Discovered Earth, we have been a really younger group attempting to specific an emotion that felt a lot bigger than our manufacturing scale. Over the previous decade, we haven’t simply grown in headcount and technical functionality, however in confidence as nicely. Each OPUS title has taught us one thing new: how you can inform an emotional story with restricted sources, how you can construct extra cohesive worlds, how you can marry gameplay with narrative, and how you can collaborate with worldwide companions. OPUS: Prism Peak is maybe the clearest reflection of this development—it demanded extra from each division, but we labored arduous to retain the identical intimacy and sincerity present in our very first recreation.
Nintendo Insider: It appears like every undertaking you launch is bigger in scope than the prior one, and Prism Peak is a large step up in manufacturing values. What learnings from Echo of Starsong did you carry into Prism Peak?
Brian Lee: OPUS: Echo of Starsong taught us {that a} highly effective resonance happens when the world-building, character relationships, music, and mechanics all level towards the identical emotional theme. In OPUS: Prism Peak, we needed “pictures” to play that very same function. It’s not only a mechanic; it’s a manner of seeing, remembering, lacking, and reconnecting. Starsong additionally taught us the significance of pacing. A grand emotional story wants quiet areas to breathe, nevertheless it additionally wants a transparent sense of momentum. We spent a whole lot of time in Prism Peak discovering the correct stability between exploration, reflection, and narrative development.
Nintendo Insider: After I interviewed Sigono again in 2022, Prism Peak had the momentary title “Venture Mountain”. How was it growing the sport throughout covid?
Brian Lee: The scenario in Taiwan was considerably distinctive, and we have been comparatively shielded from essentially the most extreme impacts of the pandemic. Moreover, throughout that interval, OPUS: Prism Peak was nonetheless in its very early conceptual phases, so we hadn’t but entered full-scale growth.
Nintendo Insider: When did Shueisha Video games get entangled and the way has it been working with them?
Brian Lee: Shueisha Video games joined us throughout the early growth of OPUS: Prism Peak. Because the undertaking started taking form, we acquired curiosity from a number of worldwide publishers. We finally selected to accomplice with Shueisha Video games due to their profound respect for artistic freedom and the substantial growth sources they provided. It’s been a really supportive partnership.
Nintendo Insider: Whereas I anticipated a PC model at launch, it’s good to see a Swap 2 model. How was it engaged on each Swap consoles?
Brian Lee: It has been each an thrilling and a extremely difficult endeavor. OPUS: Prism Peak is our most visually bold undertaking up to now, so bringing it to consoles required vital trade-offs in optimization, reminiscence administration, loading instances, and controls. Supporting two generations of Swap {hardware} meant we couldn’t deal with them as the identical platform. Porting to the unique Swap was significantly arduous; for a small group like ours, becoming this stage of visible constancy into {hardware} from seven or eight years in the past was a large process. We’ve discovered rather a lot by way of this course of and are dedicated to constantly enhancing the expertise post-launch.
Nintendo Insider: Proper now, the Swap 2 model has a whole lot of technical points. What are your plans to handle the audio bugs, efficiency points, and cargo instances?
Brian Lee: We’re absolutely conscious of those points and have made them our high precedence. The efficiency fixes have already been accomplished; we’re at the moment simply ready by way of Nintendo’s certification course of, which takes a little bit of time. As for the opposite bugs, the group is actively gathering experiences and reproducing points internally to organize updates for audio stability and cargo instances. Some fixes may be applied shortly, whereas others require extra rigorous testing since they contain a number of methods. We sincerely apologize to the gamers affected, and we’re devoted to creating the Swap 2 model the smoothest solution to expertise OPUS: Prism Peak.
Nintendo Insider: I’ve been having fun with Prism Peak on PC, however I used to be questioning if there are plans so as to add extra save slots? It appears like it might be good to have that choice for individuals who miss some images within the playthrough.
Brian Lee: Sure! We’ve already pushed an replace for the PC model to handle this, and it will likely be coming to the Swap variations sooner or later. That is suggestions we utterly perceive. We would like gamers to watch the world intently, however we don’t need the concern of lacking a single picture to show right into a supply of frustration. Enhancing save administration and the comfort of replaying sections is certainly an space the place we will do higher—particularly in making it simpler for gamers to revisit content material and full their collections. We would like the pictures system to evoke curiosity, not anxiousness.
Nintendo Insider: Talking of images, how did you provide you with the idea for Prism Peak in comparison with Echo of Starsong?
Brian Lee: OPUS: Echo of Starsong was about “listening”—listening to songs, following indicators, and traversing the cosmos by way of sound. OPUS: Prism Peak begins from a special sense: “seeing.” We needed to discover what it actually means to see one thing, particularly when that one thing belongs to your previous. Pictures is an ideal match for this theme as a result of a photograph can concurrently be proof, a reminiscence, a chunk of artwork, or perhaps a type of escape. For Eugen, the digicam is his occupation and his manner of difficult the world, nevertheless it’s additionally a barrier between him and the individuals he loves. The guts of the sport lies in how you can actually see your self and others amidst that contradiction.
Nintendo Insider: Emotional tales are a staple in Sigono video games. While you begin a brand new undertaking, do you first work on the general narrative earlier than attending to the gameplay loop?
Brian Lee: Normally, the very first thing to emerge isn’t the plot, however an emotional “query.” We begin by asking: What feeling do we wish gamers to hold with them after the sport ends? From there, the narrative and gameplay develop in tandem. If you happen to solely write the story first, the gameplay can really feel like mere ornament; should you solely design the loop first, the emotion may not have a spot to land. Our aim is at all times to make sure that the participant’s actions and the story’s themes are talking the identical language.
Nintendo Insider: How was it juggling three completely different voiceover choices for Prism Peak?
Brian Lee: It was a large enterprise for our group. Voice performing utterly adjustments the rhythm of a scene, and every language brings its personal distinctive emotional texture. We needed to be extraordinarily meticulous with casting, course, timing, and localization to make sure the characters felt honest in each model. It was troublesome, nevertheless it made the world really feel way more full. Listening to Eugen and the opposite characters exist naturally in numerous languages has been a really shifting expertise for us.
Nintendo Insider: Are there any plans for a Swap 2 bodily launch?
Brian Lee: We might like to see a bodily launch if the correct alternative arises. OPUS gamers usually place a excessive worth on collectibility and wish to preserve our works as a part of their everlasting collections, so we absolutely perceive the attraction. Whereas we don’t have something official to announce right now, it’s undoubtedly a course we hope to guage with our companions.
Nintendo Insider: You beforehand instructed me that you’d like to carry Prism Peak (Venture Mountain) to iOS finally. Are there nonetheless plans to try this?
Brian Lee: We nonetheless love the thought. Sigono has deep roots with cell gamers, lots of whom first found the OPUS sequence on iOS. Nonetheless, OPUS: Prism Peak is far bigger and extra technically demanding than our earlier titles. If we carry it to cell, we need to make sure the expertise feels native and optimized relatively than only a easy port. We don’t have a timeline to announce but, however iOS stays a platform we care about deeply.
Nintendo Insider: I’d like to additionally see Echo of Starsong get a Swap 2 patch. Are there any plans to try this?
Brian Lee: It’s great to listen to that gamers have that expectation. OPUS: Echo of Starsong stays extremely vital to us, and we wish as many individuals as attainable to expertise it in the easiest way attainable. Proper now, our absolute precedence is post-launch help for Prism Peak, however we are going to proceed to guage what we will do for our earlier titles on new {hardware}.
Nintendo Insider: Going again to Prism Peak, I’m floored by the way you managed to intertwine Eugene’s phases of life with a glimpse into how wonderful pictures is as a complete. What challenges did you run into when engaged on guaranteeing the journey gameplay moments don’t take away from the narrative move?
Brian Lee: The most important problem was making “commentary” really feel significant relatively than like a chore. Balancing the variety of predominant and aspect targets was a continuing course of. Pictures may be very meditative and quiet, but when dealt with poorly in a recreation, it could actually simply flip right into a “guidelines” fashion of accumulating. We tried to anchor each picture to reminiscences, characters, or particular areas, in order that taking an image appears like “noticing” one thing relatively than simply “accumulating an object.” We additionally consistently tweaked the pacing to present gamers sufficient freedom to discover with out shedding the thread of the emotional narrative.
Nintendo Insider: Did you at all times intend on having Prism Peak really feel like a beautiful set of sandbox areas to study pictures and replicate on one’s personal life?
Brian Lee: Sure, that was the intention from the very starting—to create a world filled with surprises and secrets and techniques that felt like a spot you would wander with your personal eyes. We didn’t need pictures to be only a puzzle-solving software; we needed gamers to decelerate, experiment with composition, and maybe notice that how they select to view a spot truly displays one thing about themselves. That sandbox feeling comes from that intention: it’s not about complete open-world freedom, however about giving gamers sufficient house to uncover the that means between the scenes and characters, making their consideration really feel rewarding.
Nintendo Insider: Now that you simply simply launched a recreation on 3 platforms, what are your plans as a studio?
Brian Lee: Before everything, we’re absolutely dedicated to supporting OPUS: Prism Peak post-launch. For us, the discharge is only the start of a brand new journey the place we lastly get to see how gamers join with the expertise, and we’ll be arduous at work optimizing based mostly on their suggestions.
Past that, Sigono’s mission stays unchanged: we need to proceed creating honest, emotional, and maybe surprising tales. Whereas our group has grown, we’re decided to maintain that “small group” spirit—the sort that permits us to remain private and experimental. We’re excited to discover much more atypical recreation ideas sooner or later, together with tasks exterior the OPUS sequence.
In tandem with our personal growth, we’re additionally increasing our horizons by supporting different proficient creators. We’ve lately determined to spend money on and publish “Venture Salon” by Secure Flight Video games (the group behind Some Goodbyes We Made). This partnership was born from our shared obsession with narrative; Secure Flight Video games simply received the Grand Narrative Award at IndieCade 2025, a significant achievement for a Taiwanese group.
Having spent years navigating the challenges of getting narrative video games seen, we need to share our sources and apply the identical excessive requirements we have now for our personal video games to assist this extremely proficient, but low-profile, group attain a worldwide viewers. Whether or not by way of our personal titles or these we help, we need to preserve bringing shifting narrative experiences to the world.
Nintendo Insider: Are you able to touch upon once you began engaged on the Swap 2 model of Prism Peak?
Brian Lee: We started evaluating the Swap 2 model as quickly as the chance turned possible for the undertaking and our companions. Since OPUS: Prism Peak was designed with greater visible objectives than our earlier work, we have been enthusiastic about what the brand new {hardware} may provide. Nonetheless, it required a devoted growth effort; it wasn’t one thing that might be achieved by way of a easy, computerized improve.
Nintendo Insider: What made you launch it as a standalone launch and never a Nintendo Swap 2 Version cross-gen title?
Brian Lee: This choice concerned many issues throughout manufacturing, platform administration, and publishing. We needed every model to be introduced clearly to gamers and supported based on its particular technical necessities. For a small group, readability is important—it helps us handle expectations, updates, and communication extra successfully. After shut dialogue with our companions, we selected the publishing construction we felt finest suited OPUS: Prism Peak.
Nintendo Insider: Are there any plans so as to add touchscreen and mouse controls to the Swap 2 launch?
Brian Lee: We completely perceive why gamers would anticipate this, particularly since OPUS: Prism Peak is so centered on pictures and commentary—contact or mouse controls would really feel very pure. Presently, our focus is on guaranteeing general stability and efficiency enhancements. As soon as the core expertise is extra strong, extra management choices are undoubtedly one thing we will consider for the longer term.
Nintendo Insider: How do you want your espresso? Go into as a lot element as attainable.
Brian Lee: I’ve reached that age the place espresso disrupts my sleep, so I’ve needed to let it go. But when I may nonetheless indulge, I’d select a medium roast—one thing with that signature acidity and a touch of bitterness. It’s not simply concerning the taste profile, although. It’s concerning the nostalgia—these college nights spent lingering in a campus café till closing. I didn’t know the very first thing about espresso again then, however the environment stays vivid: the workers, the proprietor, and the countless conversations with associates. For me, that espresso isn’t only a drink; it’s the style of a reminiscence I can’t fairly contact anymore.
