“It’s not easy to encapsulate what this game is all about,” Oli Clarke Smith, director of Promise Mascot Agency, confesses to me.
He continues, “We’ve been referring to it—and we still do—as an open-world mascot management crime drama. It made total sense to us, but I’m not sure it fully captures the essence of what we’ve created.”
The game is a rich open-world RPG fused with management and creature-collecting aspects. Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive once players grasp its uniqueness. As Kaizen Game Works, known for Paradise Killer, unveils more about their ambitious 2025 release, they’ve seen that initial reviews of what Clarke Smith calls their “band of freaks” are encouragingly positive.
This eclectic group forms the game’s mascots – from sentient burial mounds to quirky cats opposed to video censorship, culminating in delightful figures like Mottsun, arguably the pinnacle of cuteness you’ll encounter while managing these mascots in Promise Mascot Agency. These characters were birthed from the collaborative effort of Kaizen’s small British team led by Clarke Smith, technical director Phil Crabtree, and art director Rachel Noy, alongside Japanese creatives Ikumi Nakamura, a former Tango Gameworks artist, and Mai Mattori.
“At first, we approached her almost empty-handed,” Clarke Smith shares, reflecting on their partnership with Nakamura. “We had just wrapped up our previous project and wanted to establish something fresh with Promise Mascot Agency. To authentically incorporate Japanese settings as a Western team, teaming up with someone native was crucial. The mascots they returned to us were something beyond our imagination, integrating cultural nuances we would have otherwise missed.”
Kaizen Games is eager to maintain a distinct identity in their works, and their collaboration with Nakamura epitomizes this philosophy. “We give a broad idea of our vision, encouraging each collaborator to infuse their unique perspective,” Clarke Smith explains. Nakamura’s tales, like an experience in southern Japan’s Kyushu, where locals were wary of outsiders, enriched the game’s setting, Kaso-Machi, with genuine dynamism and mood.
Being British, the team brought their own experiences to the mix, too. Noy shared how visiting a remote pub in Cornwall could invoke that same feeling of being an outsider, parallel to Twin Peaks’ intrigue and why they sought involvement from Swery.
During development, some elements like mascot designs required adaptations. “The designs needed uniformity to ensure universal animation compatibility,” Clarke Smith notes. While not everything fit the game’s structure neatly, most elements did, enabling creative integration.
Developing this expansive game proved a different beast compared to their earlier work. “With Paradise Killer, it was just Phil and me blazing a new trail in game creation,” reflects Clarke Smith. “The leap from mystery to management game was substantial, yet our process flowed more smoothly this time.” Despite these gains, it remains his most challenging project to date, although internal communication has reached a more fluid, intuitive state.
Crabtree adds, “We carried certain systems over from Paradise Killer, streamlining development time for new features. This allowed us more freedom to focus on design.” Initially, the management aspect was extensively detailed, involving a calendar-like system of task juggling. However, they found it clashed with the relaxed game environment that emphasized character engagement and a rich world.
“We managed to simplify this intricate management system while retaining underlying complexity,” Crabtree says with relief. It required attention but wasn’t burdensome, maintaining focus on interaction rather than systems.
The team’s inspiration for comical yet plausible mascot hurdles came after deep-diving into YouTube clips of mascot mishaps. Remarks like “a big old list of stupid things that could happen” from Crabtree show their joy in playful, yet manageable, challenges in gameplay.
Noy’s original pitch of a mascot management sim akin to Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story evolved significantly. Clarke Smith explains concerns about sustainability from a business perspective with a smaller, simulation-based game. Some ideas, like loans or checkpoint races with kei-trucks, were re-evaluated or set aside, realizing not every open-world feature was necessary or suitable for their vision.
Unused concepts linger as potential inspiration for extras or collaborations, perhaps in the vein of an Initial D DLC, Noy muses about the appeal of “cool drift cars in Japan.”
As they near Promise Mascot Agency’s launch, Kaizen feels optimistic. “For a team our size, our achievement is substantial,” Crabtree acknowledges. Despite repeated playthroughs for technical polish, the game continues to hold delightful surprises akin to those in Paradise Killer, offering a sense of déjà vu with added fidelity this time.
Noy echoes the sentiment, attached deeply to their lovingly-crafted characters, hopeful others will share that affection. While any launch carries anticipation, Kaizen’s prior success boosts confidence in their ability to meet player expectations.
“We’ve created the game we intended,” Clarke Smith asserts. “Given the positive reception of Paradise Killer’s narrative and characters, we are confident that fans will find similar enjoyment in Promise Mascot Agency.”
