Earlier this year at the Game Developers Conference, I spoke with Redacted Studios president David Robinson about the upcoming Afro Samurai 2. It was a lengthy conversation, in part because I enjoyed the original

Being episodic allows us the flexibility with development to experiment more with some crazy ideas.

David Robinson

Unity has been the team's saving grace; Afro Samurai 2 is being made by less than a dozen people working on a shoestring budget, so utilizing every potential resource is vital. Says Robinson, "That's where the Unity Store has also been a lifesaver for us. It's cool. We sell some bottles and cans we collected from the neighbor's trash, and boom! We can afford that plugin that saves us three weeks' programmer time we didn't have in the first place. I wasn't a fan of Unity before I became an indie. Now, it's literally the oxygen we breathe. No shit. Pardon my language. Engines make me emotional."

Robinson is an emotional guy in general, actually, clearly excited by his game, his studio, and the partnerships he's created. Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA is again on board as Music Director; American Sniper co-author Jim DeFelice is penning the story. I haven't yet played Afro Samurai 2 myself, save for a few moments of button-mashing at GDC. But when a designer is this enthusiastic, the joy is contagious. "What carries us is the passion for making games and telling stories we think fans want to see, play, and hopefully buy," says Robinson. From almost anyone else, I'd dismiss this statement as typical public-relations-speak. When Robinson says it, I wholeheartedly believe it.