Editing Border Down (section)

==Development==
''Border Down'' was developed and published by [[G.rev]], a team founded by producer Hiroyuki Maruyama with the explicit purpose to develop a shoot 'em up.<ref name=":0" /> The team consisted of five ex-[[Taito]] employees: three programmers, one designer, and Maruyama himself.<ref name=":0" /> After founding the company in July 2000, he first needed to build [[Financial capital|capital]] and give his team an opportunity to learn the skills and techniques to develop a shooter.<ref name=":0" /> They were able to gather most of the funds through producing their first game, ''Doki Doki Idol Star Seeker'' (2001), a puzzle game for the [[Sega]]'s [[SEGA NAOMI|NAOMI]] arcade board.<ref name=":0" /> The remaining amount was accumulated through freelance work, including subcontract work with [[Treasure (company)|Treasure]] on two shooters, ''[[Ikaruga]]'' (2001) and ''[[Gradius V]]'' (2004).<ref name=":0" /> ''Ikaruga'' gave G.rev the key experience of programming for NAOMI hardware.<ref name=":0">{{cite magazine|date=17 July 2008|title=The Making of: Border Down|magazine=Retro Gamer|issue=53|pages=70–73}}</ref>

The initial concept for ''Border Down'' took root with Maruyama before he founded G.rev. He was heavily inspired by Taito's shooter ''[[Metal Black (video game)|Metal Black]]'' (1991), specifically the game's "Beam Level" system.<ref name=":0" /> He also borrowed ideas from his experiences with producing ''[[G-Darius]]'' (1997) with Taito, particularly the game's branching level system which inspired the border system in ''Border Down''. With a parallel world system like this, the team would not need to develop as many distinct levels. This was one of the few parts of his original concept that was kept in the final game.<ref name=":0" /> For visual inspiration, Maruyama pulled from [[Kim Stanley Robinson]]'s science fiction novel ''[[Red Mars]]''.<ref name=":0" /> Character design was handled by artist Tsukasa Kado.<ref name="AeroGardenNostalgia">{{cite web|last=Kado|first=Tsukasa|url=http://www1.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~sakabon/work.html|title=WORK LIST|website=空中庭園ノスタルジア|language=ja|access-date=2025-03-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250322164012/http://www1.u-netsurf.ne.jp/~sakabon/work.html|archive-date=2025-03-22|url-status=live}}</ref> The music was composed by Yasuhisa Watanabe, who also composed the music to ''Metal Black'' and was the only member of the staff who had worked on the 1991 shooter.<ref name=":0" />

The team had to cut a significant amount of material due to lack of funds. In particular Maruyama wanted to flesh out the ending and opening cinematics. They also had plans for more visual flair, including background details and explosion effects, but had to cut about a third of these ideas because of the NAOMI's graphical limitations.<ref name=":0" /> They commissioned help for extra sound and design work.<ref name=":0" /> In [[Game One]]{{'}}s 2006 French [[TV documentary]] ''Japon: Histoire du Shooting Game'', Maruyama said that all he wanted was to make ''Border Down'' and would have been happy if G.rev collapsed afterwards.<ref name="GOJapon">{{cite AV media|last1=Pilot|first1=Alex|last2=Ruchet|first2=Sébastien|date=2006|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc69PzQt5Bo|title=Japon: Histoire du Shooting Game|trans-title=Japan: History of the Shooting Game|work=[[Game One]]|medium=[[YouTube]]|series=Japon|language=fr|location=France|publisher=[[MTV Networks France]]|time=22m44s|access-date=2021-01-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211228213214/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc69PzQt5Bo|archive-date=28 December 2021|url-status=bot: unknown}} ([http://shmup.canalblog.com/ Transcription and translation] by CanalBlog. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421112948/http://shmup.canalblog.com/ |date=2014-04-21 }}).</ref>