Promise Mascot Agency Celebrates Its Development Journey as Creators Prepare to Pass the Baton

“I think it’s tricky to really pin down what the game is,” shares Oli Clarke Smith, director at Promise Mascot Agency, as we chatted.

“That’s been one of our main challenges,” he continues. “We’ve been describing it as an open-world mascot management crime drama, which makes total sense to us, but I suppose it doesn’t fully capture the game’s essence for everyone else.”

He elaborates, “What we’ve designed is a complete open-world RPG with elements of management and creature collection. When players grasp it, they’ve really connected with it.” Over at Kaizen Game Works, the creators behind Paradise Killer, the team has been teased into revealing more about their upcoming 2025 release. Fortunately, the early feedback from their fans affectionately dubbed as a “band of freaks” has been overwhelmingly positive.

Let me introduce you to this eccentric gang—the mascots in the game. We’re talking sentient burial mounds, outspoken cats against adult video censorship, and delightful characters like Mottsun, who looks like the coolest thing ever. As you dive into Promise Mascot Agency, you’ll be guiding these quirky mascots through their adventures. The creative team, including Clarke Smith, technical director Phil Crabtree, and art director Rachel Noy from the UK, teamed up with Japanese artists Ikumi Nakamura and Mai Mattori to bring these characters to life.

“When we first approached [Ikumi Nakamura and team], we had just wrapped up our previous game,” Clarke Smith recounts. “We barely had an idea laid out for Promise Mascot Agency. Working with someone from Japan was crucial for us since the game’s setting is there. Their insights brought forth mascots with nuances and cultural references we’d never achieve on our own.”

While the desire was to have a distinct Kaizen feel, they encouraged their collaborators to put their twist on ideas. This approach introduced rich, lived experiences into the game’s development. Clarke Smith recalls an instance where Nakamura shared a story about visiting a bar on the real-life coast of Kyushu, influencing Kaso-Machi’s ambiance in the game.

Drawing from local experiences, Noy explains, there’s a relatable feeling of being an outsider, like “walking into a pub in Cornwall while holidaying.” Oh, and if you’ve noticed a taste of Twin Peaks, you’re spot on—that was another big inspiration for the team. “It’s partly why we were keen to get Swery involved.”

Now, not everything smoothly transitioned. For instance, the mascot designs had to fit certain animations, which meant some adjustments from Nakamura and Mattori’s original creations. But as Clarke Smith points out, “We were able to incorporate much of it, even if not everything fit structurally.”

Developing Promise Mascot Agency posed unique challenges compared to their previous work. “Back when we started with Paradise Killer, it was just Phil and me figuring things out,” Clarke Smith notes. Shifting from a mystery game to management wasn’t seamless, but their process matured this time around. Still, he admits, it was the toughest project yet, though communication became more intuitive over time.

“Building on systems we had in Paradise Killer,” Crabtree adds, “meant some groundwork was laid. Most of it was adapting what’s there for a new purpose, which allowed room for design exploration.” Initially, they’d envisioned a meticulous management system, akin to handling juggling assignments across days. However, as Crabtree highlights, they soon realized it didn’t mesh with the intended relaxed, vibrant world setting.

As the game design evolved, so did their list of humorous mascot challenges—doors and playful dogs among them—all inspired by hilarious YouTube mascot fails. famous clips like Funassyi fleeing explosions served as inspiration., Although the team needed to ensure these scenarios were feasible in scripting and provided clear player intervention opportunities.

Noy’s original idea was a mascot management sim, reminiscent of Kairosoft’s Game Dev Story, but the team wanted something more ambitious. As Clarke Smith puts it, “We worried about the commercial potential of a small-scale 2D sim, so we aimed bigger.”

Along the way, certain features didn’t make the cut, like loans or planned checkpoint races with Michi and Pinky’s kei-truck, even if the concept of “cool drift cars going down Japan’s mountains” remains tempting for possible future expansions.

Before they can delve into expansions or tie-ins, the team is focused on the initial launch of Promise Mascot Agency. “For a small team, what we’ve achieved is quite substantial,” Crabtree reflects. Despite countless sessions of revisiting and refining the game’s opening hours, he still finds unexpected joys in the smallest details, similar to his late-stage experiences with Paradise Killer.

Noy adds, “I’ve grown so fond of our characters. It’s bittersweet to think we’ll move on soon, but I believe others will fall in love with them just as I have.” There’s an undercurrent of nervous anticipation, as the team hopes players resonate with their vision for Promise Mascot Agency.

“We’ve crafted the game we wanted to make,” Clarke Smith concludes with confidence. “Given how people embraced the writing and characters in Paradise Killer, we’re hopeful that those who liked it will find something to love in this one too.”