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Robinson: I thought for months about what type of game Afro should be: straight brawler, adventure, etc. But the action-platform genre just seemed to stand out as the best way to show off Afro's moves, artistic styling, and his bad-ass side. Coming from a long history of developing games in the same genre -- Crash Bandicoot, the Soul Reaver franchise, GEX 2 and GEX 3 -- I wanted to explore some of the gameplay we never got to try in those franchises.

Crispy Gamer: Were there any other games that influenced Afro's gameplay?

Robinson: As a team, we looked at a lot of games for inspiration, too many to count: Onimusha, Tomb Raider, Ninja Gaiden, God of War just to name a few. For years I have wanted to create a game that emulated the experiences I had when playing Soul Reaver. It was just a rollercoaster. Its story was amazing for the time, and the technology, with levels that morphed in real-time, has still not been repeated or matched for innovation. It made a huge impression on me.

Early in Afro's genesis I called an old friend, Paul Gardner, who I had worked with in my Crash Bandicoot days. I knew he was an amazing writer and designer, and I needed someone I could trust to really twist up Afro into something cool as a story. After some begging he moved from the United Kingdom to work on the game and we pounded out the basic gameplay archetype together.

Crispy Gamer: Did you ever experiment with a different genre? Afro Samurai Kart Racing could've been funny.

Robinson: No. We were solely focused on our original vision.

Crispy Gamer: Visually speaking, the game looks a lot like the anime. How hard was it to get the game to look like that?

Robinson: Oh man, it definitely had its challenges. But I have been lucky to have such a great team; guys like lead artists Russell Campbell and Bryan Johnston and lead programmer Danny Chan, all of whom worked through months and months of long nights to pull it off.

Crispy Gamer: Was there any thought to not doing that, to instead go for a more naturalistic style?

Robinson: Absolutely. We had plenty of styles that we went through, but they just didn't work out.

Crispy Gamer: How closely does the plot of the game follow the plot of the anime? Does it include any incidents from the as-yet-unaired second season?

Robinson: We tried to hit all the most important scenes in the series we knew the fans would want to play. Beyond that, we tried to strike out on our own and create some interesting new adventures for Afro, to give the game some flavor -- though the game also alludes to some of the events that will unfold in the next season of the anime.

Crispy Gamer: So who came up with those new scenarios? Was it "Afro" creator Takashi Okazaki?

Robinson: After careful consultation with Okazaki-san and the series' creative director, Eric Calderon, our design director Paul Gardner created the story and wrote the script for the game, which includes the new stuff we are introducing.

Crispy Gamer: Who else from the show worked on the game? Did you get the cast into the game?