[Game] Chapter 389-391

### Chapter 389: Sakura Nene, The Punishment After Causing Trouble

After being busy all morning, Ichin went out with Hazuki, Kō Yagami, and Rin Toyama for lunch. When they came back, during the lunch break, he sat comfortably in his office playing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2.

The moment he got the game from Nintendo, Ichin dove right in.

Although the Switch’s hardware power was limited, the game itself was truly outstanding. Within those limitations, Nintendo had pushed every aspect to its very best.

With the game set to release at the end of July, Ichin naturally kept quiet on social media about getting his hands on it early.

This kind of thing was best enjoyed alone in secret, and maybe later—once everyone else started playing—he could show off his save file.

Zelda really is too good… As expected of Nintendo’s flagship franchise.

At around one in the afternoon, Utaha finally arrived at the company.

“Ichin~ I’m back!”

Putting down his controller, Ichin looked at the girl walking into his office and smiled. “Welcome back. How was work?”

“Pretty smooth.”

Utaha stretched lazily as she sat down on the office sofa. “Publishing went as smoothly as always, and the translations for Volume One and Two of my novel into Chinese and English are also done. Next month, the overseas editions can finally be released.”

Her light novel career was, by now, sailing with the wind at its back. Ichin hardly had to worry about her at all.

Getting up from his chair, Ichin went over and sat beside her, letting Utaha lean into his chest.

“You ate lunch properly, right?”

“Of course.” She lifted a hand and playfully poked his cheek. “I went with Sonoko to a family restaurant. The pasta there was pretty good. What about you, Ichin?”

“I went out with Hazuki and the others, had some ramen.”

After chatting a little, Ichin encouraged the worn-out Utaha to rest in the office while he went over to the programming team to begin the afternoon’s work.

Utaha, however, didn’t nap. After a short rest, she got up and wandered out to chat with others.

The Dark Souls dev team was far too busy for her to bother, so she headed over to the BattleBlock Theater team instead.

Hazuki, who was in the middle of a discussion with the members about stage design, spotted her and smiled. “Utaha, finished with work?”

“Mm, all done.”

Nodding, Utaha walked up beside her and glanced at the contents on Hazuki’s monitor. “Designing a new stage?”

“Yep. Lots of stages to design for this game—it’s going to take quite some time.”

After explaining, Hazuki made a suggestion: “You’re free this afternoon, right? Want to try out one of the new stages we just designed? The good thing about this game is that every stage can be tested individually, so it’s really convenient.”

“Sure, I’ll give it a try.”

She wasn’t particularly skilled at platforming games, but no one could resist the temptation of experiencing a brand-new game.

So Utaha took a controller, sat down in front of one of the testing PCs, and began playing through the new stage—together with a very excited Sakura Nene.

Ten minutes later, cries for help from Sakura Nene echoed throughout the company.

Everyone in the art department looked up from their work to see Sakura Nene running frantically at the front, with Utaha chasing right behind her.

“I was wrong, Utaha! Please don’t!”

“Stop right there, I promise I won’t hit you!”

“Uwaaah! Somebody save me!!”

Kō Yagami pulled off her headphones, watching the two of them with curiosity. “Uh… what game are they playing?”

Beside her, Rin Toyama shook his head with a laugh. “No idea, but it sure looks entertaining.”

The chase quickly carried over to the programming team’s side.

Just then, the office door swung open. Ichin stepped out and immediately caught Nene by the collar, lifting her up. “Alright, what exactly is going on here?”

“Well done, Ichin!”

Utaha praised him cheerfully before turning her smiling gaze on Nene. “Didn’t I tell you to cooperate properly to clear the stage? So why did you have to stir up trouble? Come now, time to accept your punishment.”

“Uuuu, nooo! Ichin-kun, save me!”

Faced with her desperate plea, Ichin only spread his hands. “You’ve come to the wrong person for that. Did you forget? Utaha’s the boss’s wife. Who told you not to behave? Don’t worry, though—when she says punishment, she’s not going to do anything too cruel. Just listen and take it.”

“That’s right, nothing too bad.”

Utaha’s tone softened, but her words didn’t. “It’s just some Oreos stuffed with wasabi. Very simple.”

“Uuuu, but I don’t wanna eat wasabi…”

But there was no helping it. Nobody intended to save Nene. On the contrary, everyone looked on with barely hidden amusement as Utaha dragged her off toward the neighboring dev team.

Eriri had been watching the whole scene play out. Only after the two disappeared from sight did she shake her head and sigh. “Honestly. I’m right here as a living example, yet Nene still hasn’t learned? Aoba, aren’t you going to help your childhood friend?”

Aoba, seated nearby, immediately shook her head. “Forget it, forget it. Better to let her learn her lesson. Besides, this is kind of fun to watch.”

She said it with a mischievous little smile.

At that moment, Ichin walked over and gave both Eriri and Aoba a light pat on the head. “How’s your work coming along?”

“Don’t worry, everything’s going smoothly. And stop patting my head! I still want to grow taller, you know!”

Eriri shot him a glare before opening up her finished files, displaying several newly completed monster models.

“These should be fine, right?”

“And I’ve got mine too!” Aoba quickly added.

After reviewing their work, Ichin nodded in satisfaction. “Mm, very well done. Once you finish the remaining ones, send them over to the programming team for a final check. But I doubt there’ll be any problems. Anyway, it’s one-thirty now—what do you two want for afternoon tea? Ice milk tea?”

“Yes!!”

The entire team chimed in agreement. With everyone on board, Ichin had HR place the order right away. After all, afternoon tea for the whole company would take a while to prepare and deliver.

An hour later, the iced milk teas arrived. Everyone happily sipped their drinks as they went on with their afternoon work.

Bringing some of the teas along with HR to the BattleBlock Theater dev team, Ichin spotted Sakura Nene slumped over her desk, face full of despair.

Oreos with wasabi—apparently the punishment worked wonders.

He couldn’t even imagine what kind of mischief that girl had pulled during testing to make Utaha punish her like that.

****

### Chapter 390: Akane Kosaka’s New Project, Summer Vacation Plans

After handing out the milk tea to everyone, Ichin carried a cup over to Sakura Nene’s desk.

“Here, Nene, yours.”

Hearing his voice, Nene finally lifted herself up, looking weak and pitiful. “Half my life is gone… I never want to touch wasabi again for the rest of my life.”

“What about when it comes with sashimi?”

“Then I just won’t eat sashimi anymore!”

Ichin chuckled, then glanced at Utaha. “What exactly did you put her through?”

Utaha smiled slyly. “Ichin, want to try it yourself?”

As she spoke, she picked up a plate from the desk beside her. On it sat several Oreo cookies—but instead of white cream, the filling between the biscuits was unmistakably bright green.

Obviously, wasabi.

“Forget it. Go find someone else to torture.”

Ichin rejected her without a second thought.

It wasn’t that he disliked wasabi, but the sheer amount stuffed into those cookies was definitely not something you could eat casually.

Once the deliveries were done, Ichin prepared to head back to his office. Utaha, having tested the new stage and properly punished the troublemaking Nene, also took her own milk tea and left with him, looping her arm around his as they walked out together.

Back in the office, Ichin leaned back comfortably into his chair and booted up his computer.

He had already made some progress on Dark Souls, so for the rest of today before work ended, he planned to work on The Binding of Isaac.

Just as he was about to begin, his phone buzzed.

It was a message from Akane Kosaka.

Akane Kosaka: Ichin-kun, our company is about to start development on a new game. How about your side?

Already starting on a new project? That’s quick.

Her company’s previous title, Phantom Epoch, had managed to reach the passing line. It had its flaws, of course, but the strengths were also clear. The story was safe and conventional, without any glaring faults, so the reviews had been fairly decent. Sales were reasonable too.

The only question was whether those shortcomings from the previous game would be improved in the new project.

As Ichin replied, Utaha leaned over curiously.

Ichin: Congratulations, Miss Kosaka. I didn’t expect your new project to kick off so soon. What genre this time? Over here, we’ve also already started work—and on three games at once.

Watching him send the message, Utaha smiled. “Isn’t it a bit careless to just announce it like that?”

“It’s just the number of projects, not the details. Nothing sensitive there. And if she were to leak it, she’d be tarnishing her own reputation. She wouldn’t do that.”

Putting his phone aside, Ichin got back to sketching monsters for Isaac.

Utaha wrinkled her nose as he quickly designed a pixel-art boss that looked like a giant blob of meat. “Ichin, can’t you make something a little more pleasant to look at?”

“That’s just the style of this game. Don’t make it hard on me. Actually, if you don’t like these kinds of grotesque designs, then you probably won’t like Dark Souls much either.”

After all, while Dark Souls had many cool, imposing humanoid enemies clad in armor, it also featured plenty of unsettling creatures—giant rats, sludge monsters, and the like.

Utaha already knew that. She had seen some of Ichin’s draft designs before, and many of those monsters had failed to interest her.

“That’s fine. I can just play Battle Block Theater. And if not, well, there’s always Zelda.”

With that, she picked up Ichin’s Switch and flopped onto the sofa to play.

For Isaac, the real challenge lay in designing the countless items and monsters. The systems themselves posed no difficulty for Ichin.

He figured that if he worked on it for two hours every night at home, within a week or two he could build the basic framework. After that, it would just be a matter of filling it with content—monsters, items, and most importantly, balancing the synergies and stats.

In Isaac, the combinations of items could lead to all sorts of outcomes. Some combos made the character absurdly powerful, while others could cripple them completely.

Ichin remembered one run where he accidentally picked up an item he didn’t want, which turned his bullets into useless sprays of mist. Combined with zero damage boosts, the run became unwinnable, and he had to restart.

Fine-tuning those interactions would take time. There also needed to be a large enough pool of items to keep the game fun.

After working for a while, his phone buzzed again—another message from Akane.

Akane Kosaka: After hearing your thoughts on our last game, we held several meetings. The new project will still be an RPG, but this time we’re dropping the open-world concept. We’ll be making it as a traditional Japanese RPG instead. Still, Ichin-kun, you’re the impressive one. Starting three projects at once—I wouldn’t dare. I’m looking forward to your new games.

“Abandoning open world? That’s actually a wise move.”

Reading her message, Ichin nodded.

Open worlds could attract players, but building them properly was far from easy. Filling a vast world with NPCs, monsters, and side quests consumed immense resources. And as the map grew larger, both the cost and the difficulty grew exponentially.

That was why Ichin himself hadn’t touched open-world design yet.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to—it was that if he ever did, it would have to be done right. For now, he still needed to accumulate technical expertise and nurture his team further.

Glancing at the calendar on his desk, Ichin murmured, “It’s already July. I wonder if I can finish The Binding of Isaac before summer break ends.”

The rest of his summer vacation was strictly planned out.

From Monday to Friday, daytime would be for work—overseeing the three projects in progress. At night, two hours at home would be dedicated to developing Isaac.

On weekends, one day would be reserved for Utaha: going on a date, eating out, or watching a movie together. The other day would be spent either gathering with Kō and the others, or simply staying home and diving deeper into his game development.

***

### Chapter 391: Lightning-Fast Development, The Binding of Isaac Release

At the end of August, the whole company went on a team-building trip to Hokkaido, enjoying a good break.

When they came back, in the last few days before school started, Ichin finally finished balancing the numbers system for The Binding of Isaac. He even personally handled the small amount of voice acting the game required, pulling in a few coworkers to record the lines.

After testing was complete, he packed everything up and uploaded it to Steam and Epic for review.

As for the Switch version, that would need to come later—it still required some platform-specific adaptation.

Stretching his arms, Ichin let out a deep breath, a smile spreading across his face. “Finally done.”

Utaha, lying on the bed playing on the Switch, immediately set the console aside and hurried over to him.

“Ichin, it’s really finished?”

“Yep, all done. My efficiency’s not bad, huh?”

He spoke with obvious pride.

Even he was surprised by his own speed. Back when he developed Slay the Spire, it had taken nearly three months to complete. But this time, in just a month and a half, he had managed to finish The Binding of Isaac.

Of course, this was only the base game—not including Rebirth or any of the later DLCs. Adding those would take at least another month and a half.

Utaha looked at his smiling face in amazement. “That really is fast. How come this time was so quick?”

“It’s mostly the art style,” Ichin explained. “This one’s pixel art, which I’m way more comfortable with. Unlike Slay the Spire, where I spent ages just drawing characters and monsters. Art was never my strongest suit.”

“So that’s why.”

Her gaze drifted to the already-uploaded game package on his computer. “So when will it release?”

“Let me think…”

Ichin quickly estimated the review times and checked the calendar. “Let’s go with September 1st. I’ll use these next couple days to double-check everything in case there are tweaks to make.”

With that, he opened Bilibili and posted an announcement.

Since the game was finished, it was time to let the players know.

> Hello everyone, we just got back from a company trip, and during my spare time I wrapped up development on a solo project. The game is called *The Binding of Isaac*—a small pixel-style, top-down shooter. The art is deliberately dark, so those interested can check it out once the Steam and Epic pages go live. I’ll also post a short trailer later. It’ll release on Steam, Epic, and Switch. The Switch port isn’t finished yet, so that version will come a bit later. The PC release is scheduled for September 1st, priced at 35 yuan. Please look forward to it!

Within minutes of posting, discussions exploded.

Most players had already cleared Persona over the summer. Some were replaying it, but many were searching for something new, wondering when the next announcement would drop.

No one expected Ichin to suddenly appear at the end of August with a completely new game—developed solo, no less.

Even if it was “just” a small pixel game, Slay the Spire had been small too—and look how huge that turned out. So curiosity was instantly hooked.

An hour later, Ichin uploaded a short promo video for Isaac.

The trailer showed exactly what he described: dark style, dungeon crawling, top-down pixel shooting. It wasn’t a huge project, but the footage was undeniably intriguing.

> The protagonist looks kinda cute at first, but wait—his bullets are TEARS?

> Not only that, but as the video goes on, he just keeps getting uglier!

> True, but the uglier he got, the bigger the bullets became—and the stronger the damage. So it’s basically: I got uglier, but I also got stronger?

> Okay, I’m interested now.

> And at that price? Sure, I’ll try it. Steam has refunds anyway.

Just like that, discussion and hype spread quickly.

On September 1st, the game officially launched.

Thanks to the fanbase built up from his previous three titles, even this small-scale release shot straight into the top sellers on Steam’s China region, and sales in other regions weren’t bad either.

Some players held off, waiting for the Switch release since the game looked perfect for handheld mode.

On September 3rd, the Switch version cleared review at lightning speed, and the port was released immediately.

Although Isaac was a solo-developed game, its polish was remarkable. Bugs were rare, and on Switch it ran flawlessly at 60 FPS.

Despite being under a gigabyte in size, the amount of content shocked players.

The collection menu had pages of items marked with question marks, waiting to be unlocked. There were also 10 playable characters—only Isaac available at the start, with the rest requiring unlocks.

After five days on sale, no one on any forum had managed to unlock everything. At best, they had unlocked all the characters, but many items were still hidden.

Replayability was insane. With so many items, every run produced different combinations, leading to wildly different outcomes.

Once streamers picked it up, the hype grew even further.

And at just 35 yuan—barely the price of two cups of milk tea—players had no hesitation trying it out.

At the office, Hazuki looked at the game’s Steam page showing a 93% positive rating and sighed in admiration. “As expected of you, Ichin. Even a summer side project reaches this level.”

Ichin sipped his coffee and smiled. “It’s only because it’s a small game. If it were any bigger, I couldn’t have done it solo. By the way, Hazuki, your team’s development has reached a good stage, right?”

Closing Steam, Hazuki nodded. “That’s right. The action system and framework are finished, and we’ve already designed a good number of stages.”

“Perfect. Then let’s put up a demo build on Steam.”

***