“It’s really challenging to communicate what this game truly is,” Oli Clarke Smith, the director at Promise Mascot Agency, shares with me.
“We’ve tried explaining it as an ‘open-world mascot management crime drama,’ which sounded perfect to us, but I don’t think it captures the full essence of the game.”
Smith elaborates that their game is a vast open-world RPG with elements of management and creature collecting. The catch is, once players get their hands on it, they instantly understand and appreciate its unique blend. The team at Kaizen Game Works, known for Paradise Killer, has been gradually releasing more information about their upcoming 2025 title. The reception from early reviews has been overwhelmingly positive, especially for their quirky cast of characters.
This batch of oddball mascots includes sentient burial mounds, cats that protest against adult video pixelation, and characters like Mottsun, enchanting players with his distinctive design. These mascots are central to the gameplay in Promise Mascot Agency. Most of them were crafted through a collaborative effort between Kaizen’s team, composed of Clarke Smith, technical director Phil Crabtree, art director Rachel Noy, and the Japanese talents of former Tango Gameworks artist Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori.
“We approached her with no preconceived designs,” Clarke Smith says. “We knew we wanted to partner with someone from Japan, given the game is set there despite us being a Western team. The mascots she and Mai Mattori delivered were things we could never have created on our own, dipping into cultural nuances we wouldn’t have naturally tapped into.”
While Kaizen is committed to maintaining its unique studio identity, their collaborations with Nakamura and others are open-ended. The mindset is, “Here’s the concept – put your unique twist on it,” which brings in diverse perspectives and experiences. For instance, Nakamura detailed a visit to a bar on Japan’s Kyushu coast, an experience that inspired the game’s setting in Kaso-Machi. Their story of her being seen as an ‘outsider’ informed the game’s atmosphere. This idea of feeling like an outsider resonates with the team, as Noy points out. She compares it to walking into a pub in Cornwall and being the odd one out.
“We also drew inspiration from watching a lot of Twin Peaks,” she adds, a series that significantly shaped their desire to involve Swery in the project.
Adapting Nakamura and Mattori’s mascot designs to fit the game’s requirements was a journey. Clarke Smith mentions that not every idea made the cut intact but emphasizes their commitment to integrating as much as possible.
Transitioning from their first game, Paradise Killer, to this new project was a radical shift for Kaizen. “Back then, it was just Phil and me figuring out the game development process,” Clarke Smith recalls. “Shifting from a mystery game to a management one was a major shift, but our newfound experience made the process smoother, even though it’s been the most complex game I’ve worked on.”
Crabtree highlights how they repurposed systems from Paradise Killer to save time and focus on design. Originally, the team conceptualized a deeply complex management system with a detailed calendar that seemed too rigid for the game’s chill, inviting world. “The management is more subtle now,” Crabtree explains. “It enhances the narrative without being overpowering.”
Managing the mascots comes with its own set of challenges. Characters face various amusing hurdles inspired by real-life mascot mishaps. “These challenges,” explains Crabtree, “stem from hours of YouTube research on mascot failures. We opted for events that were easier to program and had a clear, engaging bail resolution.”
Noy shares how the game evolved from her initial vision—a simulation management reminiscent of Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story—into something with much grander ambitions. Features like loans and street races were considered but ultimately scrapped as the game’s vision became clearer.
As the game gears up for release, the team feels both proud and anticipatory about their achievements. “For a small team, what we’ve done is significant,” Crabtree notes. “There are so many little surprises in the game that still manage to make me smile, even after playing the beginning multiple times.”
Noy acknowledges an emotional attachment to the characters they’ve created. “I’m going to miss working on them, but I believe players will feel the same connection I do.”
Despite the usual pre-launch nerves, they are confident. “We’ve crafted a game that embodies the qualities players loved about Paradise Killer: its writing and its vibrant characters. If that appealed to you, you’re going to love this game just as much,” Clarke Smith concludes.
