The follow-up development for this idea would be fairly simple. They could just develop it according to Ichin's memories of Salt and Sacrifice, and at the same time further refine the game's action system, so that in addition to having that Souls-like flavor, the combat would also feel even more refreshing and satisfying.
The third idea selected was a cooperative horror game themed around exorcising ghosts.
Ichin also had an impression of this game. In his memory, it was called Phasmophobia. By using a microphone, players could call out to the ghosts lurking in a house, and through their responses determine whether the entity inside was an ordinary spirit, a demon, or some other kind of malicious ghost. Each type of ghost had different ways to identify it, and the objectives weren't limited to just identification—there were also tasks like exorcism and the like. It was quite interesting.
The gameplay proposed in the idea was roughly along those lines, though the details regarding ghost identification and the cooperative mechanics weren't very clearly thought out yet.
But that wasn't really a problem. As long as the initial idea existed, with so many people in the company brainstorming together, they would definitely be able to flesh it out into a genuinely fun game.
Besides, horror games were a field the company had never touched before. This time, it might be worth giving it a try.
All three new projects were relatively small in scale, but each of them was very interesting. The first two were similar to games they had already worked on before—like Slay the Spire, Hollow Knight, and Dark Souls—so the development difficulty wouldn't be too high.
If there was one that would truly be challenging, it would be the multiplayer cooperative horror game like Phasmophobia. Even then, the real difficulty would likely lie in voice interaction and how the ghosts responded to it, which would require some serious research.
If they actually managed to develop it, at the very least it would need to support Chinese, English, and Japanese for normal voice usage. Later on, they would probably have to add other widely used languages like French and German as well.
After all, a multiplayer cooperative game like this wouldn't just be aimed at Asia alone.
Once the meeting ended, there was no rush to start on these three selected ideas. Even if they were going to begin development, it would have to wait until GARO was finished. Right now, they were still short on manpower.
After leaving the conference room and returning to the office, besides Utaha and Yukino, Hazuki, Umiko, and Yagami Kō also came upstairs together.
After everyone sat down, Utaha said with a smile, "These three selected ideas are really quite good, especially the last one—the ghost-exorcising horror game."
Leaning back on the sofa, Yagami Kō said with an eager look on her face, "That idea really is nice. It reminds me of a lot of ghost-exorcism movies I've seen before—holding a Bible, candles, that sort of thing, searching through a house for hidden evil spirits. Ichin, out of the three ideas, which one are we developing first?"
Ichin thought for a moment before replying, "Personally, I think that while developing the first card-based roguelike game, we can also work on one more at the same time. With our current manpower, two is the absolute limit. After all, the follow-up development tasks for APEX over in China are still quite heavy, and they're also tinkering with new project proposals on their own, planning to show them to me later, so we can't really spare any people. But if we manage to recruit some good new hires later on, we could try developing three at once. For now, let's tentatively go with two—the card game and the side-scrolling Souls-like action game. As for the last one, we don't have experience making horror games, so we'll need to prepare more on all fronts. Kō, if you're interested, you can research it more in your spare time and join in when the time comes."
Yagami Kō happily raised her hand. "No problem! I can give it a try! When you hold the project planning meeting for that game, Ichin, make sure to include me!"
After thinking for a bit, Umiko said, "Yeah, I can give it a try too. The voice interaction and ghost mechanics you mentioned just now do sound a bit tricky. I've never really researched that before either."
Hazuki smiled and shook her head. "I can join the first two projects, but for the last one, you guys will be enough. I'm fine watching horror movies, but if you ask me to actually play a horror game, I really can't handle it."
There were quite a few people like that—watching horror movies was fine, but when it came to personally controlling a character in a game, they'd jump at every little scare.
After chatting for a while, the three of them headed back to continue their work. Ichin also stayed in the office, taking care of tasks that didn't require him to go downstairs and approving some submitted documents.
As for Utaha and Yukino, the two of them huddled together, whispering to each other. Ichin had his headphones on, so he didn't hear what they were saying.
Seeing Utaha pull out her laptop and type away nonstop, he guessed they were probably discussing her new book.
They stayed busy like that until 11:30 in the morning, when the office door suddenly flew open.
"Hahaha, I'm back!"
Haruno ran in, her face full of excitement.
Ichin looked up, took off his headphones, and said, "Welcome back, Haruno-nee. And also… you forgot to knock again."
"Hehe, sorry, sorry. I got a bit too excited." Sticking out her tongue, Haruno turned to look at Yukino sitting on the sofa and opened her arms wide.
"Yukino~~ Big sis is back! Let me give you a hug!"
But the moment she pounced forward, Yukino easily dodged, leaving Haruno sprawled face-first onto the sofa.
Looking at her sister, Yukino's eyes were filled with deep helplessness. "Sis, you're not a child anymore. Please be a bit more composed."
"Ehh~~~ I just missed you, that's all. You won't even let your big sister hug you—how stingy."
Puffing out her cheeks, Haruno looked toward Utaha sitting next to Yukino, only for Utaha to immediately wrap an arm around Yukino from behind and say with a smile, "Sorry, Haruno-san, I can't handle your enthusiasm. Why don't you go hug Ichin instead?"
"Hehe! That works!"
Haruno really did spring back up at once, ran over to Ichin, and hugged him tightly.
Facing Haruno's sudden attack, Ichin said with a blank expression, "Haruno-nee, hugging is fine, but don't rub your face all over me. And keep your hands where they belong."
He grabbed the hand she had placed on his chest and pushed away the head pressed against his face.
"Haruno-nee, did something irritate you or what?"
"It's not really that I was irritated. I was just cooped up at home for way too long, and now that I've finally escaped, I guess I'm letting myself go a bit. Probably."
Ruffling Ichin's hair, Haruno said with a smile, "Even though the atmosphere at home is a lot better than before, you know what my mother's personality is like, Ichin. There's no way to really relax at home. All I could do was bury myself in work, then follow my parents around visiting elders and business partners, and on top of that get grilled about my love life. It was exhausting! Sigh… If I'd known, I would've dragged Yukino along and not let her come back yesterday. At least she could've helped me share some of the firepower."
The moment Haruno said that, Yukino's expression instantly turned cold.
As expected, not letting her hug earlier had been the right decision. This sister of hers never had good intentions in her head.
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