French Bread (game developer)


French Bread is a video game developer founded in 1995 as Watanabe Production. Originally a dōjin circle, French Bread became well known for their work in 2D fighting games, particularly the Melty Blood series. In recent years, they have also worked on other licensed-based fighting games such as Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax and their own original IP, Under Night In-Birth.

History

The studio was named Watanabe Seisakujo by a friend of Narita Nobuya, with whom he often played video games with after school. They initially developed desk accessories for Windows. Narita discovered dojin Windows action games and fighting games such as the Tokimeki Taisen and Moon Lights 2 that were ported from the X68000 home computer. He subsequently decided to develop his own project for Windows. It was initially conceived as an original work, but creating unique character designs and graphics proved difficult. Narita was later introduced to the visual novel To Heart and decided to develop his game as a derivative work. Characters for his project were sourced from To Heart, while the system mechanics were based on Asuka 120%, a game that served as an influence for Narita and his team. The Queen of Heart '98 was released on December 30, 1998 to positive critical reception from dojin gamers.
The Queen of Heart series sold about 100,000 copies, and Watanabe Seisakujo became one of the most popular dōjin game developer. This surfaced significant copyright concern. Some hobbyists also uploaded M.U.G.E.N characters whose data extracted from the game. Watanabe Seisakujo and Leaf received many inquiries about permission, although they had no relation to uploaders. Narita didn't hope a derivative work disturbed its original work and developer. He decided to stop creating unlicensed games, and start fresh with French-Bread. The circle name came from the dōjin circle which Narita belonged to before Watanabe Seisakujo.

Games developed

As Watanabe Seisakujo

As Soft Circle French-Bread

Arcade Games

Console Games