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[Game] Chapter 239: The Official Announcement Date
🕑 Added 2025-05-30 03:20:37 +0000 UTCIchin wasn’t trying to keep things secret—he genuinely couldn’t make an announcement before the game reached a certain stage of development.
It was early April now. If they aimed for the E3 Game Expo, which takes place at the end of June, it’d be too soon. That just wasn’t going to work.
Cologne?
The Gamescom event in Cologne would be held at the end of August, which gave them nearly five months. If the studio had five more months of development time, Persona could probably start revealing some information to the public—at the very least, they could release a PV (promotional video) and set a tentative release window.
“Funny how fate works... Gamescom again, huh? Just like last year.”
“Hm? What about Gamescom?”
Ichin’s murmuring was overheard by Utaha. She looked up curiously. “Are you talking about participating in a game show?”
“Yeah, I’m thinking about when to officially announce the new game,” Ichin explained. “E3 is just too soon. Gamescom is a better fit. But the funny thing is, we also went to Gamescom last year. Just made me a bit nostalgic.”
“Oh, I see.”
Hearing Ichin’s thoughts, Utaha couldn’t help but smile. “Isn’t that a good thing? As long as you announce it, it doesn’t matter where.”
“Exactly. As long as we make it public. These expos all have more than enough visibility.”
Ichin let out a breath. If he wanted to officially unveil Persona at Gamescom in a few months, he really had to step up his game.
At 8 PM that evening, Ichin logged into his Bilibili account and posted an update.
> “About the new game—don’t worry, everyone. My studio has just expanded its team, and the new game is now in full development. I can’t give you a release date just yet, but I can promise that we’ll make an official announcement within the next six months. Please be patient. In the meantime, if you’re itching to play something, go enjoy some other games.”
Within minutes, comments began pouring in.
Most of the people following the account were hardcore gamers—many had played Hollow Knight or Slay the Spire—and they were very curious about what kind of game this studio would develop next.
Some fans started analyzing past release patterns to make predictions.
> “After Slay the Spire was released, Hollow Knight came out about six months later. Now it’s been several months since Hollow Knight dropped in November, and all we know is that the new game started development right after that. No other info has been released. Now the studio’s expanding and saying the announcement will be within six months, but no release date yet. Is it reasonable to assume this guy is planning something big? Like, AAA-level big?”
That comment quickly shot to the top with tons of likes and replies. Some sharp-eyed fans even pieced together more clues.
> “Actually, there were some subtle hints. I remember them mentioning concerns about frame rates and graphics on the Switch platform—that already told me this wouldn’t be a small game. The art style alone is probably going to be very different from their last two titles. But still... this was a studio known for small, high-quality indie games. Are they really ready to make the jump to something on a larger scale?”
Fresh out of the shower, Ichin saw that top comment right away as soon as he glanced at the replies.
After scrolling through the comments, Ichin gave it some thought, then liked the top comment and manually pinned it.
While he was at it, he left a reply as well:
> “Your guess isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t call what we’re making now a AAA game. I’m just making a fun game that I want to play. Whether it counts as AAA or not doesn’t matter—what matters is that it’s fun.”
After posting the reply, Ichin closed his profile page and put on a video to relax. When Utaha came back from her shower, the two of them started discussing the game’s script together.
Utaha had nearly finished writing the main story for Persona. Since this was her first time working on a script for a game like this, there were quite a few parts that needed Ichin’s input. As the person who wrote the original outline, he helped her refine the finer details.
As she tweaked the dialogue she’d written, Utaha commented, “Game scripts really are quite different from novels.”
“There are definitely differences,” Ichin replied with a chuckle, sitting beside her. “But once you get used to it, it’s totally manageable. It all comes down to the writer’s skill.”
“You haven’t even been writing light novels for that long, Utaha, so there’s no need to rush. You’ve got real talent. As time goes on, your screenwriting will only get better.”
Ichin was genuinely surprised by how quickly Utaha had grown as a new scriptwriter. Throughout the process, there were many moments where she instinctively knew how to handle scenes without needing much input from him.
Still, having just one writer like Utaha clearly wouldn’t be enough in the long run. Ichin was already thinking about whether he should bring in a few more experienced writers from the industry for future projects.
Persona had a modern-day setting, so Utaha didn’t have much trouble with it. But if they were to develop a fantasy-themed game down the line, she’d have to approach the entire narrative structure differently.
It’s like asking a romance drama writer to write a war film script—if they can’t adjust, you might end up with a weird story about the main couple falling in love in the middle of a battlefield.
But talented writers aren’t easy to find either. Maybe he’d have to look around domestically. If that didn’t work out, he’d just write it himself.
He might not be as skilled as Utaha when it came to creative writing, but Ichin was confident in his ability to learn. If he could teach himself music composition in a short time, writing a script wouldn’t be impossible. After all, he had already completed the outline for Persona on his own.
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On Wednesday afternoon, after finishing their classes, Ichin and Utaha headed to the studio. Eriri and Yukino came along as well.
Well, it was mostly Eriri’s idea—Yukino had originally planned to read in the Service Club room, but she couldn’t talk Eriri out of it, so she ended up tagging along.
The new recruits who passed the interviews had already been notified and would start officially tomorrow. However, Kuroneko (Ruri Gokou) had already completed her onboarding yesterday, so she was currently hard at work at her desk.
Snagging a bag of chips from Aoba, Ichin opened it and munched as he made his way to the programming team.
Inside, everyone had their headphones on, fully focused on their work. Aside from Umiko, no one even noticed Ichin had walked in.
After bribing Umiko with a few chips, Ichin strolled through the programmers' area, eventually stopping behind Kuroneko.
On her screen, she was working on a dart-throwing mini-game for the project—part of a practical test Umiko had assigned to assess her skills.
...
