Fall Guys' update plan had always been very stable. Aside from regularly rolling out new stage maps, a wide variety of skins with different themes and features were continually being released as well.
Then there was the seasonal battle pass, which offered all kinds of rewards, including exclusive pass-only skins.
The game's popularity wasn't as explosive as it had been at launch anymore, but it was still holding steady at a very respectable level. When combining the online numbers across all platforms, there were still at least thirty thousand players online every day.
Relying on this stable player base, Fall Guys had managed to secure several more IP collaborations, with plans to roll out one collaboration per quarter.
As long as they kept polishing their online operations and retention strategies, even if the game didn't last three to five years, there was no need to worry about its popularity for at least the next two years.
On top of that, running a discount every quarter to attract players who hadn't tried the game yet would easily bring in new blood and keep the popularity going without much effort.
Fall Guys and Apex—two long-term live-service games of different genres—actually shared very similar operational strategies.
First was content, second was anti-cheat. As for Apex, there was one extra aspect: numerical balance between the various weapons in the game. Each season required slight adjustments, giving underused weapons more chances to shine and rotating the care package weapons.
After playing with the Fall Guys team for half an hour and fully experiencing the new stages, Utaha and Yukino finally headed over to the GARO team where Ichin was.
Although this side was developing a tokusatsu adaptation game, there were just as many female staff members. The moment Utaha arrived, she was surrounded by quite a few girls who had also watched last night's TV episode.
Utaha and Yukino exchanged a glance. There was nothing they could do but chat with everyone about the show first.
Yukino, meanwhile, went straight over to Ichin.
In the programming team, Ichin was checking the AI for the final boss that Gokou Ruri had just finished. After the earlier test, some issues had come up that needed to be identified and adjusted.
Seeing Ruri standing beside Ichin, looking a little nervous, Yukino walked over and quietly asked, "What's wrong?"
"Ah, Yukino."
Glancing at her, Gokou Ruri said, "He's checking the AI I made for the final boss. This is my first time designing AI for a game's final boss, and after the test just now, there really were some problems. I'm wondering if there are a lot of mistakes."
Ichin's eyes swept over lines of code as he spoke, "You don't need to worry too much about that. I've already looked through the first third, and there aren't any major issues. You're not a newbie anymore, Ruri—basic mistakes aren't likely. But since this is the final boss, there are some problems with the trigger conditions for certain skills. Come take a look—like here."
Ruri leaned in and immediately saw the spots Ichin pointed out. She quickly pulled out her small notebook and wrote down each issue number one by one.
"Here, here, and here. Especially this part—when you set the trigger distance for the boss's ultimate move, the value's a bit too large. That causes it to overlap with the previous two normal skills, which ends up increasing the frequency of this ultimate. I know you want the most flashy move to show up a couple more times, but listen to me—shrink the distance first, and lower the probability a bit too."
Gokou Ruri nodded. "Got it. I'll go make the changes right away."
After sending Ruri off to revise it, Ichin looked at Yukino, who had been standing quietly to the side. "Just you? Where's Utaha?"
Pointing outside, Yukino said, "She got surrounded by everyone. They're asking about the TV drama."
"So that's how it is." Ichin nodded in realization. When he'd come over earlier, he'd been stopped by people too—they were just waiting for Utaha to arrive.
A few minutes later, Utaha finally managed to break free from the crowd of girls and came over to Ichin.
"Ichin, is there still a lot of work to do?"
Ichin shook his head. "Not really. It's just that I'm mainly responsible for the programming here, so I have to check things more carefully. But the basics are pretty much done—I can hand off the remaining stuff to others. Why, do you need me for something?"
Utaha smiled. "Not exactly. But I just got a message from Akane Kosaka—she wants to collaborate with me."
"Hm? Akane Kosaka?"
Ichin was a little surprised. He hadn't expected to hear that name again after some time.
Previously, Akane's team had developed a mystery-style game that turned out quite well, with solid sales on Steam.
He'd assumed she would continue developing new games, but he hadn't expected her to seek a collaboration with Utaha instead.
Ichin nodded. "What do you think?"
"I'm actually pretty interested," Utaha said. "After all, your current projects don't really need me right now, do they?" She waved her phone. "So I replied and asked her to come over here. I want to see what kind of project she's planning."
"Sure. If she wants to come, let her. I'm curious too."
Akane Kosaka had always been quite generous when it came to collaborators, and Ichin didn't mind Utaha working with her. After all, Akane was a seasoned veteran in the industry, with several highly popular and high-selling light novels under her belt. Utaha could definitely learn something from interacting with her.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, Akane Kosaka arrived.
After heading up to the top floor and meeting Ichin and Utaha, Akane smiled and said, "Every time I see your company's building, Ichin-kun, I can't help but feel envious."
Leading her into his office, Ichin said, "If you wanted to, Miss Kosaka, it wouldn't be hard for your company to get an office building like this too, right?"
"It's definitely possible," Akane replied, "but it would seriously tie up the company's funds, so I'm not considering it for now."
After Akane sat down, an assistant soon brought over a cup of coffee. She had visited several times before, and Ichin already knew her preferences.
Taking a sip, Akane Kosaka opened the document folder she had brought with her, pulled out a stack of materials, and handed them to Utaha.
"Here you go, Utako Kasumi-sensei. This is our company's new project. Take a look—if you're interested, we'd like to invite you to join as the scriptwriter. Ichin-kun, you won't object, right?"
Sitting in his chair, Ichin shrugged and said calmly, "Our projects here are already set, and we don't need Utaha's help for now. I usually don't interfere with her own career plans either—I've always supported her doing what she likes. As long as your project gets her approval, I have no problem with it."
Hearing this, Akane nodded confidently and turned her gaze to Utaha.
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