Square Enix finally put up the English translation of their financial call (the actual spoken statements, not the slide).
This was one of the more interesting notes, where they bragged about how they bucked the trend and had PS2/PS3 era console devs make a successful mobile game.
For reference this is the game: http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/sukurugarusutoraikazu/
Edit:
One of the notable staff members is detailed by duckroll below:
This was one of the more interesting notes, where they bragged about how they bucked the trend and had PS2/PS3 era console devs make a successful mobile game.
Square Enix said:“SCHOOLGIRL STRIKERS” was a title developed entirely by our internal development team, which resulted in a huge success and contributed greatly in the Period. This internal development team is comprised mainly of seasoned developers from the PS2 and PS3 era. Having this team succeed in F2P development was a big milestone for the Company. Some people say that developing F2P titles would be a major challenge for console developers, however this success has stimulated our internal development teams and veteran developers, and I believe this was a considerable achievement.
Source: http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/library/docs/141106/page05.htmlAs for smart devices and PC browser games, “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS SUPER LIGHT” and “SCHOOLGIRL STRIKERS” have constantly ranked in the top 20 of application game sales, making significant contribution to the overall profit.
For reference this is the game: http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/sukurugarusutoraikazu/
Edit:
One of the notable staff members is detailed by duckroll below:
One of the "seasoned developers" mentioned is Koji Sugimoto. He's a prolific programmer at Square Enix who has been in the company for ages. These days he mainly does 3D engine programming. He's responsible for the 3D tech which powers their best looking PSP games - Crisis Core, 3rd Birthday, and Type-0.
He did a presentation on the client engine for Schoolgirl Strikers earlier this year: http://connect.jp.square-enix.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/SQEX_DevCon_sugimoto.pdf
The main points about the client code is that it's supposed to be very small and very efficient. The small download size allows interested players to get into the game very quickly, and it also conserves battery use. It's apparently also a very efficient engine on the technical end.
As far as I can tell, this is the main staff for the game. I've known about Sugimoto's involvement previously because I was looking at something else months ago related to that, but the rest I just pulled from JP Wikipedia.
Producer: Toshinori Mizumachi (FFXI PlayOnline Programmer, FFXIV Planner)
Director/Script: Takanari Ishiyama (FFXIIRW Co-Director, Blood of Bahamut Director)
Character Design: Gen Kobayashi (The World Ends with You, SaGa2 DS, SaGa3 DS)
Client Programmer: Koji Sugimoto (Threads of Fate Director/Programmer, FFX Main Programmer, Crisis Core/The 3rd Birthday/FF Type-0 3D Engine Programmer)