The development of the game Onmyoji took less than three months from conception to completion, an almost unbelievable feat even by the standards of China's hyper-competitive gaming industry.
Typically, game development cycles range from six months to a year, and some, like Red Dead Redemption 2, require a decade of meticulous refinement.
Several factors contributed to Onmyoji's rapid development:
First, the project plan was exceptionally well-structured. With Aoki Haruhi overseeing it, all design requirements were quickly finalized and handed off to programmers, virtually eliminating rework.
Second, the foundation laid by Heart of the Sword saved significant time on developing core program logic.
The most time-consuming part was actually the art, as each character had to be redesigned from scratch.
However, Aoki Haruhi believed that prioritizing quality would ultimately pay off.
Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo
7:00 PM
Quintessence
A renowned French restaurant in the Tokyo area.
"Cheers!" Tsuda Nao exclaimed, raising her wine glass with a cheerful voice.
"Cheers!" The others echoed in unison.
Their faces flushed as they drained their glasses of red wine.
Today, Tsuda Nao had abandoned her usual sharp and minimalist style, opting instead for a deep-V black evening gown. The slender straps highlighted her distinct collarbones and long, elegant neck, while the form-fitting dress perfectly accentuated her S-shaped curves.
Her décolletage was particularly striking, like a massive black hole that drew everyone's gaze into its depths.
To her left sat Aoki Haruhi, also dressed to the nines in a white suit with meticulously styled hair.
Across from them sat three middle-aged men, slightly overweight.
Though they might have seemed unremarkable—even a bit like "greasy uncles"—they were actually prominent game cartridge distributors in the Tokyo region.
Pokeni had already signed a restrictive contract with Nintendo, agreeing to pay a royalty of 2,000 yen for every game cartridge produced. The game had passed review and rating, earning a 16+ age rating.
With Onmyoji completed, the game was essentially ready to go.
The next step was the release, which followed naturally.
In 1990, even with the internet's existence, online access was far from widespread, let alone the concept of "online downloads." The very distinction between online and offline was blurred.
Game sales at the time relied primarily on physical stores, also known as distributors.
There were a few large, nationwide distributors, along with regional primary distributors. These distributors typically procured games directly from manufacturers and then sold them to smaller distributors, ultimately reaching individual game shops.
DUN had its own distribution channels, but these had previously been limited to video stores. While they could now sell games through these channels, the effectiveness was far inferior to dedicated game stores.
To address this, Tsuda Nao arranged a dinner, bringing Aoki Haruhi along, and invited several key distributors from Tokyo.
"Ah, Pokeni... I've never heard of this company. I wonder if it's any good. But since President Tsuda is vouching for them, let's pre-order 300 sets to try it out."
The bald-headed middle-aged man seated in the middle smiled and glanced down at the exquisitely packaged game cartridge sample in his hand, blinking twice.
To be honest, the cover art on the cartridge looked quite nice.
But he had no idea how the actual game content would turn out.
If it weren't for President Tsuda's face, he wouldn't have come to this dinner at all.
He'd never heard of Pokeni, so they must not have made any impressive games before.
"That's not enough!" Tsuda Nao puffed out her cheeks in mock anger, glaring at him. "President Hattori, you're being so stingy! Just 300 sets with my endorsement? I won't ask you for favors again!"
"Haha, if you say so, then let's add 500 more. I need to try it out first, after all. If sales really take off like Nao-chan says, I'll order ten times that amount without hesitation."
Aoki Haruhi, sitting nearby, frowned deeply.
Damn it!
Don't underestimate me.
Meanwhile...
"What?! Pokeni's game is already this far along?"
When Shigeru Kobayashi, President of Blue-wings, heard that Pokeni's Onmyoji was nearing release, he couldn't sit still.
The game industry is a tough business, especially in Tokyo where the number of surviving game companies is dwindling. Pokeni, being a rival, was no exception.
News spread like wildfire.
While their competitor's game was already finished and about to go on sale, their own team had only just finalized Mizutani's new script outline.
They'd only designed a few character designs, and the art team was still experimenting with different styles for the concept art.
The only silver lining was that the programming team was making decent progress, with the core framework mostly complete.
Didn't Mizutani himself say that a good game needs at least a year or two of refinement?
Even Aoyama Hideo, the lead artist they'd recently hired specifically for this game's art and character design, echoed that sentiment. So how could their competitor have finished already while they were still just getting started?
Mizutani himself wasn't entirely sure why.
He had reviewed Pokeni's proposal thoroughly, even knowing it inside and out. It was precisely because of this comprehensive understanding that he had assessed their small galgame—which was, in fact, not so small—and deemed it impossible to complete so quickly.
Yet the current progress was truly embarrassing, making him hesitant to boast to the new president.
"There's no problem," Aoyama Hideo said. "Releasing Pokeni now doesn't guarantee success. They might just be trying to make a quick buck."
The president wasn't entirely convinced. "But I've heard their posters are quite striking, and their character designs and original art show very high quality."
Tatsuya Mizutani's mouth twitched violently.
Their progress had actually been quite promising until the president brought in this Aoyama as lead artist, claiming he was a renowned original art master in the industry and his involvement would double their efficiency.
Having a talented lead artist was certainly something to celebrate, but this Aoyama Hideo was truly too arrogant.
Riding high on the success of his previous games and his industry reputation, he had become completely full of himself.
He constantly interfered with Mizutani's plans and even expressed strong dissatisfaction with the established "pure + seductive" art style.
As a result of Aoyama's intervention, the entire game's art direction underwent a complete 180-degree overhaul, and they still hadn't settled on a final style.
The most frustrating thing was that after Tatsuya Mizutani joined the new company, President Kobayashi had promised to promote him to producer, but he hadn't kept his word. He said they would reconsider after the project's success.
Mizutani didn't mind at first. Although Street Flirt for Blue Games didn't have an official producer, he was the lead planner and was effectively doing the producer's job anyway.
He was willing to accept the title without the substance.
The problem was that without a formal title, Aoyama, this "great Buddha," was unwilling to listen to him, which was quite frustrating.
Tatsuya Mizutani was also growing increasingly uneasy about the project.
But asking him to admit defeat was impossible. After all, he had brought many of the core team members for the Street Flirt project from Pokeni. If they didn't get better development opportunities at the new company, wouldn't all the trouble of switching jobs have been for nothing?
So Mizutani had to put on a brave face. "Games are like men," he declared. "The ones that are rushed out quickly are rarely any good.
The saying 'slow work makes fine art' holds true. Everything needs time to be polished.
That's the spirit of craftsmanship.
In such a short time, I don't believe Pokeni can produce anything worthwhile."
"Exactly! I completely agree with Mizutani," Aoyama chimed in from the side.
Mizutani looked up, staring blankly at the mustachioed man in front of him.
Nani?!
This guy is actually being so cooperative?!
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