Game Developer in the World of Anime

Chapter 613 613: September, Before the Tokyo Game Show

Ichin's cooking skills went without saying. Especially today, every dish he made was one of his specialties. Haruno, who had already been starving, immediately entered full-on eating mode and quickly wiped out all the food on the table.

After taking a sip of the oolong tea Ichin poured for her, Haruno let out a completely unrestrained burp.

"Satisfied, satisfied~~~"

Sitting nearby, Ichin said with a smile, "Haruno-nee, you came back and worked overtime until this late on the very first day. That must've been tough."

"It can't be helped, there's just too much to do. And Mom also closed a business deal these past few days, so I had to handle some of that today too. That just made things even busier. Being able to come back at this time is already pretty good, you know?"

Rubbing her stomach, Haruno estimated aloud, "After eating this much… Ichin, remember to wake me up for exercise tomorrow morning. I don't want to gain weight."

Ichin shrugged.

"I can do that, but I don't think you'll actually get up in the morning."

"Whether I get up or not is another matter. At least we should try first."

Good grief. So she didn't even have confidence in herself. Earlier she had sounded so certain.

And the facts proved that Haruno really couldn't get up. She didn't slowly crawl out of bed until breakfast was already prepared the next morning, and she ended up being the last one to leave the house.

Fortunately, she was the boss, so being a few minutes late wasn't really a problem.

Time passed little by little. July, August, and finally September arrived.

Ichin and Utaha stepped into their second semester of university. Graduation was only half a year away. Meanwhile, the Tokyo Game Show would also begin in the middle of this month. The release date of Tales of Berseria was scheduled right after the Tokyo Game Show, making it the perfect opportunity for one final round of promotion during the event.

This time, Ichin would also be attending the venue in person to participate in the live broadcast segment.

Although the company still hadn't reached the scale of what could be called a top-tier major studio, every game released over the past two years had been impossible for competitors to ignore.

In particular, Slay the Spire and Dark Souls had each directly sparked the popularity of entirely new game genres.

After Slay the Spire launched, several roguelike deck-building games inspired by its mechanics gradually appeared over the following years. Not every one of them was successful, but since the development costs for this type of game were relatively low, as long as the developers didn't slack off during development, the profits were usually still decent.

As for Dark Souls, that went without saying.

Although it didn't adopt the open-world style that had become popular in recent years, its intricate interconnected map design, dark atmosphere, unique fragmented storytelling, and its signature difficulty combined with harsh death penalties made players who liked it completely obsessed.

Later on, some indie games began imitating this style, and both players and developers eventually gave this category a unified name.

Soulslike games.

Of course, while many imitators had appeared, no game had yet managed to achieve the same effect as Dark Souls. That wasn't something easy to replicate.

Unfortunately, time didn't allow it. Otherwise, Ichin would have loved to announce Salt and Sanctuary at the Tokyo Game Show to show both players and developers what a proper game of that genre should look like.

For now, besides Tales of Berseria, the other titles that needed promotion were Monster Train, along with newly prepared promotional PVs, plus upcoming content announcements for Fall Guys, GARO, and Apex.

One upcoming release.

Three already released games.

And one game currently in development.

The lineup was quite solid.

As for the announcement of Salt and Sanctuary, that would have to wait until The Game Awards.

If they pushed hard enough, they might even be able to put together a simple PV for Bloodborne as well.

Counting it all up like this, the plans for the next few months were basically settled.

Inside the office, Ichin looked at the several senior members of the development teams sitting on the sofa and chairs and said with a smile,

"So, for this year's Tokyo Game Show, which of you would like to go on stage with me? The organizers said they'd like me to bring one or two developers from our company. We'll give a fairly detailed introduction and explanation of Tales of Berseria, and there will also be a live gameplay stream with the voice actors on site."

As he spoke, Ichin's gaze mainly landed on Hazuki, Kō Yagami, and Rin Toyama.

These three had been the main leaders during the development of the Tales of Berseria project.

Kō Yagami raised her hand immediately.

"I'll pass. I don't want to participate in this kind of event!"

Hazuki smiled and said, "That won't do. This is the Tokyo Game Show, which is extremely important for promoting our game, and the release is only five days away. We absolutely can't miss such a good opportunity. How about we vote? Everyone writes down the names of two people on their phone. How about that?"

Hazuki herself didn't mind. Even if she was chosen, she would happily go. It wasn't difficult for her.

What she really wanted was to see Kō go on stage.

Kō was about to say something else, but Ichin directly made the decision.

"OK, we'll follow Hazuki's suggestion. Let's vote. The two people with the most votes will go with me. I won't vote myself. I'll count the votes."

"Yay! Let's start!"

Hajime Shinoda shouted happily as she took out her phone and quickly typed in two names.

The others didn't take long either. A little over a minute later, everyone had finished voting.

Seeing everyone stop typing, Ichin clapped his hands.

"Alright, everyone turn your phone screens on."

Everyone unlocked their phones together. Looking at the names displayed on each screen, Ichin smiled.

"Hmm. Judging by how often certain names appear, I don't think we even need to count the votes. Congratulations, Kō and Rin."

Among all the names, Kō Yagami and Rin Toyama appeared the most frequently, followed closely by Hazuki.

Seeing that she hadn't been selected, Hazuki showed a disappointed expression and said with a smile,

"Oh my, what a pity. Then you'd better do your best at the event, Kō~~"

"Seriously?"

Kō couldn't believe it. She checked everyone's phones one by one, and only then had to accept the outcome.

"Why did all of you vote for me?!"

Iijima Yun picked up her phone and smiled.

"Because Kō-senpai is really the most suitable choice. After all, you're the main art director of the game, and Rin-senpai handles overall coordination and understands every aspect of the project. Compared to us, it's much more appropriate for the two of you to go with Ichin. We'll be cheering you on from in front of the screens!"

As Yun finished explaining, everyone else nodded in agreement.

Ichin snapped his fingers with a smile.

"Then it's settled. Rin, remember to pick a nice outfit for Kō when the time comes. I'll also give you half a day off beforehand so you can get your hair done, and we'll give Kō a proper makeover. Her current look definitely can't go on stage."

Rin accepted the task happily and gave Ichin a serious salute.

"Leave it to me!"

As for Kō, she was already completely lifeless at this point.

...

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