How Zen Studios became a successful indie game studio and cranked out KickBeat (interview)

Four developers, three years, and a lot of passion. That’s what it took to create the innovative rhythm-based fighting game KickBeat. The kung fu title debuts on Sept. 4 on the PlayStation Vita, and it is the latest title from Zen Studios, an indie game studio based in Budapest, Hungary.

Zen is one of those rarities in the game industry: an indie game development studio that has had a number of repeat hits. It has worked on numerous hit games such as Capcom’s Street Fighter and Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden. It has branched out into its own original titles such as Pinball FX2, one of the best-selling games on Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. And last year it debuted Star Wars Pinball, the first Star Wars pinball game to hit the game machines in decades.