Today, November 7, 2026, is one of the most important days in the history of Basajaun Games. There are three big reasons why, and this is the third among them, but also the most important one. We have just announced KIROL: THE INFLUENCE OF THE HELL KING, the first original project developed by Basajaun Games. Turns out translating other people’s games was just a secondary activity all along!
This project was born in 2020, just a couple of months after COVID-19 exploded, although I’d been thinking about it since 2017 or 2018. What began as a simple proof of concept that a former work colleague and I could use to showcase our abilities while job hunting has evolved and transformed into something with its own soul that means so much to me (and to many other members of the team.)
There’s a lot to say about this game; way too much for a single blog post. Therefore, I’ll periodically post development diaries on this site and, for those who may find it easier, on the game’s official Tumblr blog too. But, today, on the day of the announcement, I will only focus on some of the key points of the project.
The game
KIROL: THE INFLUENCE OF THE HELL KING is a turn-based role-playing and sports game developed by Basajaun Games, where a bunch of completely ordinary people are asked to fulfill a task that nobody else feels like taking care of: save the planet from the Hell King, an invading being from another world.
Use abilities taken straight from sports (soccer, aizkolaritza, golf…) to fight off monsters and solve puzzles as you explore peculiar nooks and crannies from all around the world and fix the problems that arise there.
The mere presence of the Hell King in our planet causes several catastrophes and paranormal incidents. It’s in the hands of these completely ordinary people to solve all these issues and banish the Hell King from Earth. However, they will soon find out that no horrible creature or extravagant being is as dangerous as the problems they were already carrying from home…
- Fight strange and diverse monsters using an innovative control system derived from sports games.
- Travel the world as you try to nullify the influence of the Hell King.
- A tactical and dynamic turn-based fight system: the effectiveness of every action depends on your own skill.
- Every enemy has multiple different forms: hit them on their weak points to trigger their transformation and gain advantage in battle.
- Rich story based on characters from all kinds of backgrounds and with an emphasis on humor.
- A soundtrack full of K-pop, with songs performed by idols that have debuted in Korea!
If you work for a news outlet and you need more info (or if you’re simply curious), I recommend taking a look at the press kit.
The artstyle
I’d like to take a moment to shout out the magnificent artists that work hard to make KIROL: THE INFLUENCE OF THE HELL KING possible. Anyone who’s read the website’s About Us page will know that Basajaun Games is an international team, but I don’t think anything showcases this better than the incredible art team I’m lucky to work with.
In no particular order:
Fiona Chor-Kay Chan, better known as Miyukiko, is the Australian artist who drew the cover art and designed the main characters, as well as part of their equipment. Miyu and I have been friends for half of my life and she knows better than most people what my tastes are like, so I think (and I hope) that helped her figure out what kind of designs I would end up liking. I’ll show you some of her original designs in future development diaries, but you can tell by the cover art that she’s an incredible artist. Thanks, Miyu!
The game’s logo was made by Pedro Iglesias Fernández, a Galician illustrator and composer who, just like Miyu, has been a friend of mine for half of my life. Pedro is also the person behind the logo of the studio. Despite the few and shoddy instructions I gave him, he was able to pull off an amazing work whenever it was needed, and I hope to be able to work with for some kind of musical collab too soon. 🙏 Thanks, Pedro!
The main enemy designer is Gorka Fujimoto, an artist from Mungia, former colleague of mine from my days working at Delirium Studios, and a great friend who has supported this project since the very beginning. Even though he’s mainly a 3D artist, I’ve always deeply admired the incredible illustrations of monsters he creates and we’ve had fun more than once during work hours raving about and imagining creatures straight out of the worst of nightmares (and some, straight out of strangely funny dreams.) Now, I’m extremely lucky to be able to work with him to create all sorts of monsters, each more grotesque and/or original than the last. Thanks, Gorka!
The person behind most of the pixel art you’ll see in the screenshots we’ve published is Franciso José Navarro Díaz (pipasdefranilla), an exceptional Sevillian artist who has worked on titles such as Broken Alliance. Fran and I have also been friends for half of our lives, and he was the first person I reached out to when I started thinking about the possibility of pushing this project forward. His style and his killer pixel art makes the game stand out and I’m super happy to be able to work with him. Thanks, Fran!
Riina Kauppinen, Dominique Schippers (Maki), Ikuska Gassmann and Zuzene Gabiña are also worth mentioning. They’ve all done a bit of everything and have helped me with lots of different tasks: concept art, pixel art, animation, interfaces, enemy design, equipment… It’s thanks to them that we’ve been able to announce the game today. Both Ikuska and Zuzene are Basque, but Rii is Finnish and Maki is American-German. I’m particularly thrilled to work with Rii and Maki, not only because I deeply admire them as artists, but because, once again, we’ve been friends for half of our lives. I’m starting to notice a pattern here… 🤔 Thanks to all four of them!
Finally, the person behind the in-game portraits is none other than the Uruguayan artist Lucía Martínez Galdona, best known online as Lumaga. Lu the author of the webcomic Four Leaf, of the book/comic El grupo Domak, and has previously worked on titles such as Skullgirls. I’ve been a fan of hers since the Deviantart days and it’s truly an honour to be able to work with her and be her friend (although, in this case, we haven’t been friends for half of our lives–things were one-directional for many years 😂) Thanks, Lu!
In fact, this last image is a great segway into another important topic…
The music
The game’s main theme, Tximista argiak, is performed by Aoyagi Sumire. Known artistically as MiRe, she’s a Japanese idol and former member of the K-pop group TRI.BE.
Tximista argiak voices the values that KIROL aims to represent: multiculturality (the song features five different languages!), passion, comradeship and the fight against systemic injustice.
This is the first song MiRe has recorded as a solo artist and the beginning of a new stage of her career. And, on top of that, she makes a special cameo in the game and she even made her debut as a voice actress! (And yes, we asked her to speak in Spanish and Basque. You’re welcome.)
The song was recorded last year in Yamanashi, Japan; to be more precise, at Leiki Ueda‘s studio, who was also in charge of the mix (and he also appears in the game!) Much like the rest of the soundtrack, this song was composed by my dearly beloved Crescendo, who made one of the games I’ve had the pleasure of localizing into Spanish and Basque: Ciao Nonna.
I wrote most of the lyrics myself, although Cre contributed a killer 30-second rap section that MiRe performed brilliantly. But, most importantly, Cre gave me the moral support I needed during the entire writing process so I wouldn’t melt into a puddle out of shame. There’s something about music and poetry that makes it very embarrassing to share… And I wasn’t even talking about myself. I sure have thin skin.
Also, the recording couldn’t have come at a better time. Around that time, NHK was getting ready to record a special about MiRe. The people from NHK reached out to me and asked for my permission to film the recording session, and I was enthusiastic about the idea. From the beginning, I was very happy to think that this small project may help MiRe’s career in some minuscule way, but appearing on Japan’s national television made that goal seem a lot more legitimate. It was a very curious experience, although, with so many people cramped inside the studio, it was hard to get some BTS material for later…!
I want to formally apologise to Iguchi-san, because I limited him so much in order to keep this project a secret that he wasn’t able to use almost anything even though they spent so many hours filming… 😅 Though I’m still sad that they interview they did with MiRe at the studio wasn’t aired. It was great and MiRe did a fantastic job keeping the professional secret.
Way before I ever reached out to MiRe, I tried working directly with TRI.BE. Sadly, back then, it wasn’t possible, and the group announced their disbandment soon after. Being able to work with MiRe (and with the rest of the team, of course) despite all isn’t just an immense honour, but truly a dream come true.
Despite all, I’m a massive fan of the group and its members, and I’d love to be able to work with SongSun, HyunBin and all the others in the future. I’m trying really hard to be able to achieve that, so please stay tuned! I’m hoping to put together a soundtrack full of a kind of K-pop you’ve never seen before!
But, for now, I can say that our plan is to officially release Tximista argiak sometime before the end of the year. You’ll be able to listen to it on streaming platforms like Spotify or YouTube, and the single will also be available for purchase on Bandcamp. Proceedings go directly to MiRe and Cre, so please show it a lot of love!
How you can help us
Finishing this project is no easy feat. So far, I’ve been paying for everything from my own pocket using the money I earned from translating games, but that’s not sustainable in the long run, sadly. It took us six years to announce it precisely due to how slow the process has been due to my lack of money! 😅 We’ll most likely need to run a crowdfunding campaign of some sort to fund the game, but that’s still a ways off.
In the meantime, one of the most direct ways to support us is through Ko-fi. All donations will help me pay the amazing illustrators, musicians and programmers that make KIROL exist. For now, the account only supports one-time donations, but, if there’s an interest to see more about our creative process and how we put together the art or the K-pop collabs, we’ll prepare a monthly suscription system with exclusive content.
And if you also develop games or you know someone who does, hire me to translate your games into Spanish or Basque! You’ll get something in return and we’ll be able to keep doing our thing without starving to death. To see a full list of the games I’ve worked on as a translator, please check out the Projects page of this website.
More news
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there are three reasons why November 7 has turned out to be so special. If you want to find out what the other two are, take a look at the other two articles that have been published today: the first one is about PANIK, the first Spanish game I’ve had a chance to localize into Basque since Basajaun Games was created (blog post only available in Spanish and Basque), and the second, about the fantastic Looking Inward, the first classic-style RPG that has ever been localized into Basque. By the way, Looking Inward‘s developer is also the main programmer of KIROL!
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