“It’s tricky to explain what our game is all about,” admits Oli Clarke Smith, the director at Promise Mascot Agency. “We’ve been referring to it as an open-world mascot management crime drama, which seemed straightforward to us, but it hasn’t quite captured the essence of the game yet.”
He continues, “Our game is essentially a full-fledged open-world RPG that combines management and creature collection elements. Once players get into it, they really connect with it and understand what we’ve built.” The talented team at Kaizen Game Works, known for their hit Paradise Killer, are revealing snippets of their upcoming 2025 release, and early fan feedback has been glowing.
The cast of quirky characters you’ll manage in Promise Mascot Agency includes an eclectic mix of mascots. Among them are sentient burial mounds, cats opposing pixelation in adult videos, and Mottsun, whose charm is undeniable. Clarke Smith, along with technical director Phil Crabtree and art director Rachel Noy from Kaizen’s British team, collaborated with renowned artists Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori from Japan. “We approached them with a blank slate because we had just wrapped up our previous project,” Clarke Smith explains. The Japanese collaboration brought fresh perspectives and cultural references they wouldn’t have discovered on their own.
Kaizen has always strived to maintain a unique signature for their games. By collaborating with others like Nakamura, they openly welcomed diverse insights and personal stories into their project. One such story involved Nakamura’s experience visiting a bar on Kyushu’s coast, the setting inspiration for PMA. As an “outsider,” she felt unwelcomed, an experience that lent authenticity to the atmosphere of the game’s town, Kaso-Machi. Noy shares that similar feelings of being an outsider can be felt closer to home, like when walking into a pub in Cornwall. “We watched a lot of Twin Peaks too,” she adds, “which heavily inspired us and made us eager to involve Swery.”
Not everything fit seamlessly into the game, though. Clarke Smith mentions that Nakamura and Mattori’s mascot designs had to conform to certain size and shape parameters for animation purposes. Still, they generally fit the overall game structure. Transitioning from the conceptual challenge of creating a mystery game to a management game felt more intuitive for the Kaizen team, Clarke Smith recalls. “It was different from when Phil and I started with Paradise Killer. Back then, it was just us figuring things out as we went along.”
Crabtree chimes in, “We carried over some systems from Paradise Killer. The existing code eased the burden, allowing more focus on design.” Initially, the team delved deep into the management aspect, crafting a complex calendar system for planning assignments. However, Crabtree notes, this didn’t suit the vibe they wanted—an engaging yet relaxed environment.
Managing your mascots involves sending them on assignments, where they might face unexpected challenges, ranging from obstacles to mischief-prone dogs. These scenarios stem from a “big old list of stupid things” the team devised while watching YouTube mascot fails. The aim was to create manageable hurdles with clear resolutions to keep players engaged.
Originally conceived as a mascot management sim akin to Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story, PMA evolved significantly. “We wanted a bigger project and were concerned about the longevity of a small-scale 2D game,” Clarke Smith explains. Along the way, certain features were axed, like loan systems and races with Michi and Pinky’s kei-truck—ideas they felt were unnecessary and overdone in the genre.
Looking ahead, Kaizen is cautiously optimistic about PMA’s launch this year. “For a small group, what we’ve accomplished is incredible,” Crabtree shares. He finds joy in the small, often overlooked details that persistently surprise him, just as they did with Paradise Killer. Noy is already feeling nostalgic, knowing the project will wrap up soon. “I love our characters so much, and I’m confident others will too,” she says.
Clarke Smith concludes with confidence, “We’ve built the game we envisioned. People loved the storytelling and characters in Paradise Killer, and those elements are present here. I’m confident that those who enjoy our style will genuinely appreciate this game.”
