After handing out the milk tea to everyone, Ichin carried a cup over to Sakura Nene's desk.
"Here, Nene, yours."
Hearing his voice, Nene finally lifted herself up, looking weak and pitiful. "Half my life is gone… I never want to touch wasabi again for the rest of my life."
"What about when it comes with sashimi?"
"Then I just won't eat sashimi anymore!"
Ichin chuckled, then glanced at Utaha. "What exactly did you put her through?"
Utaha smiled slyly. "Ichin, want to try it yourself?"
As she spoke, she picked up a plate from the desk beside her. On it sat several Oreo cookies—but instead of white cream, the filling between the biscuits was unmistakably bright green.
Obviously, wasabi.
"Forget it. Go find someone else to torture."
Ichin rejected her without a second thought.
It wasn't that he disliked wasabi, but the sheer amount stuffed into those cookies was definitely not something you could eat casually.
Once the deliveries were done, Ichin prepared to head back to his office. Utaha, having tested the new stage and properly punished the troublemaking Nene, also took her own milk tea and left with him, looping her arm around his as they walked out together.
Back in the office, Ichin leaned back comfortably into his chair and booted up his computer.
He had already made some progress on Dark Souls, so for the rest of today before work ended, he planned to work on The Binding of Isaac.
Just as he was about to begin, his phone buzzed.
It was a message from Akane Kosaka.
Akane Kosaka: Ichin-kun, our company is about to start development on a new game. How about your side?
Already starting on a new project? That's quick.
Her company's previous title, Phantom Epoch, had managed to reach the passing line. It had its flaws, of course, but the strengths were also clear. The story was safe and conventional, without any glaring faults, so the reviews had been fairly decent. Sales were reasonable too.
The only question was whether those shortcomings from the previous game would be improved in the new project.
As Ichin replied, Utaha leaned over curiously.
Ichin: Congratulations, Miss Kosaka. I didn't expect your new project to kick off so soon. What genre this time? Over here, we've also already started work—and on three games at once.
Watching him send the message, Utaha smiled. "Isn't it a bit careless to just announce it like that?"
"It's just the number of projects, not the details. Nothing sensitive there. And if she were to leak it, she'd be tarnishing her own reputation. She wouldn't do that."
Putting his phone aside, Ichin got back to sketching monsters for Isaac.
Utaha wrinkled her nose as he quickly designed a pixel-art boss that looked like a giant blob of meat. "Ichin, can't you make something a little more pleasant to look at?"
"That's just the style of this game. Don't make it hard on me. Actually, if you don't like these kinds of grotesque designs, then you probably won't like Dark Souls much either."
After all, while Dark Souls had many cool, imposing humanoid enemies clad in armor, it also featured plenty of unsettling creatures—giant rats, sludge monsters, and the like.
Utaha already knew that. She had seen some of Ichin's draft designs before, and many of those monsters had failed to interest her.
"That's fine. I can just play Battle Block Theater. And if not, well, there's always Zelda."
With that, she picked up Ichin's Switch and flopped onto the sofa to play.
For Isaac, the real challenge lay in designing the countless items and monsters. The systems themselves posed no difficulty for Ichin.
He figured that if he worked on it for two hours every night at home, within a week or two he could build the basic framework. After that, it would just be a matter of filling it with content—monsters, items, and most importantly, balancing the synergies and stats.
In Isaac, the combinations of items could lead to all sorts of outcomes. Some combos made the character absurdly powerful, while others could cripple them completely.
Ichin remembered one run where he accidentally picked up an item he didn't want, which turned his bullets into useless sprays of mist. Combined with zero damage boosts, the run became unwinnable, and he had to restart.
Fine-tuning those interactions would take time. There also needed to be a large enough pool of items to keep the game fun.
After working for a while, his phone buzzed again—another message from Akane.
Akane Kosaka: After hearing your thoughts on our last game, we held several meetings. The new project will still be an RPG, but this time we're dropping the open-world concept. We'll be making it as a traditional Japanese RPG instead. Still, Ichin-kun, you're the impressive one. Starting three projects at once—I wouldn't dare. I'm looking forward to your new games.
"Abandoning open world? That's actually a wise move."
Reading her message, Ichin nodded.
Open worlds could attract players, but building them properly was far from easy. Filling a vast world with NPCs, monsters, and side quests consumed immense resources. And as the map grew larger, both the cost and the difficulty grew exponentially.
That was why Ichin himself hadn't touched open-world design yet.
It wasn't that he didn't want to—it was that if he ever did, it would have to be done right. For now, he still needed to accumulate technical expertise and nurture his team further.
Glancing at the calendar on his desk, Ichin murmured, "It's already July. I wonder if I can finish The Binding of Isaac before summer break ends."
The rest of his summer vacation was strictly planned out.
From Monday to Friday, daytime would be for work—overseeing the three projects in progress. At night, two hours at home would be dedicated to developing Isaac.
On weekends, one day would be reserved for Utaha: going on a date, eating out, or watching a movie together. The other day would be spent either gathering with Kō and the others, or simply staying home and diving deeper into his game development.
*