Game Developer in the World of Anime

During the New Year holidays, after making a visit to the Yukinoshita household in Chiba, Ichin and everyone who was available headed out together to Rin Toyama's hometown in Aichi Prefecture, where they enjoyed a four-day trip.

After returning to Tokyo and resting for two more days, it was almost time to get back to work.

That night, after taking a shower and checking the time, Ichin turned on his computer, opened his webcam, and launched his streaming software.

He had already posted a stream preview earlier in the day, and now it was just about time to go live.

Holding their cat, Peppa, Utaha watched Ichin setting everything up and asked, "Ichin, are you about to stream?"

"Yeah, I already sent out the announcement. I'll just stream for an hour or two. It's been a while since I've shown my face—might as well chat with everyone a bit." After adjusting the webcam, Ichin added, "Wanna join me, Utaha?"

"Nope, I'll go watch TV in the living room and chat with everyone in the group instead. You handle the stream."

Utaha wasn't particularly interested in streaming and turned him down without hesitation. She picked up the cat and left the bedroom.

Watching the door close, Ichin smiled and shook his head. "Tch, not even a little tempted, huh? Oh well, streaming solo's not a problem."

Then, seeing the time was just right, he started the stream.

Ichin was always punctual with his streams—he'd open the stream five to ten minutes before the official start, then begin once enough people had joined.

But today was clearly different. Since it was a Friday, just five minutes after going live, the chat was already flooding with messages.

Seeing the fast-scrolling chat, Ichin turned on his camera and microphone.

"Alright, alright, stop spamming—I'm here. Good evening, everyone. Long time no see. As promised, I'm back with a stream."

Taking a sip of juice from a nearby glass, Ichin said, "No rush. Let's wait for a few more people to show up before we get into the main content. For now, let's just chat casually. How was everyone's New Year's?"

The chat filled with responses like "lying around at home," "playing games," and even a few "working overtime" messages, making Ichin smile.

"Looks like everyone had a fulfilling holiday, huh? Me? Same as last year—I didn't go back to China for New Year's. Planning to return for Spring Festival instead. Over here in Japan, it's been busy lately with Lunar New Year approaching. The streets, especially in Tokyo, are packed. So aside from hanging out in Tokyo on the first day, I went to Aichi Prefecture with some colleagues and friends to visit another colleague's hometown. We just got back today."

Then someone in chat asked about his studies.

Which made sense—ever since some of his personal details had been revealed, everyone who followed him knew he was still in high school.

"No need to worry about my academics. I've always done well in school, and I've already received my acceptance to the University of Tokyo. Starting in April, I'll be entering their Computer Science program."

Immediately, the chat exploded with "666" and "Humblebrag lol."

"I'm not bragging, really," Ichin said with a laugh. "If I've got the grades, of course I'm going to aim for the best collage possible. I saw someone ask—if my grades are so good, why not go back to China for university? Well, I did consider it. But first of all, my career is here. Even though we've also set up a studio in Shanghai, the main base is still in Japan. And secondly—my girlfriend is also attending Todai, so naturally I want to study here too. For me, the location doesn't matter much—what matters are the other factors."

"As for the boss lady? She's in the living room, watching TV and playing with the cat. She doesn't want to be on camera. Yes, we adopted a cat—an orange tabby. So far, we're lucky he hasn't turned into a chonky orange loaf."

After answering some casual viewer questions, Ichin saw the stream's viewership pass 300,000. He decided it was time to get into the main event.

"Okay, we've got enough people now. Let's start the planned content for today. Even though you've all probably seen PV3 already—it dropped at the end of last month—I'm going to play it again here so I can explain things more clearly."

Then he replayed the now 3-million-views PV3 on stream.

After it finished, he didn't close the video but dragged the progress bar back to the beginning.

"Alright, now that we've seen it again, let me give you some behind-the-scenes commentary on what you just saw."

He moved the progress bar slightly, revealing a 2D cutscene.

"This is the opening of the PV—the main characters are running down from a pyramid, clearly fleeing from something. I can't give away too much, but right here, you'll notice Ann throws Morgana out. This connects to one of Morgana's special abilities. I'll keep the details under wraps for now—it's a fun one. I'm sure you all noticed from the PV that this cat is no ordinary feline."

Next was a subway scene featuring the protagonist, accompanied by news footage of a subway accident.

"This is the protagonist commuting between areas. Besides the usual map-based fast travel, you can also physically enter subway stations and ride the trains. Of course, unlike real life, while there is an action for scanning a ticket, it won't actually deduct money. During transitions between areas, you'll see scenes like this one—of the protagonist riding the train. The news about the subway accident ties into the game's story. It's not just background fluff—it's plot-relevant."

He scrubbed the video forward a few seconds, showing the protagonist standing in a packed subway car as the doors closed and the train departed.

"And this—this shirtless, giant humanoid monster is a story-related boss. I won't say more about it. I hope you'll experience that part of the story for yourselves in-game."

That felt like a whole lot of words without saying much.

Sure, plot spoilers had to be avoided, but couldn't he say something more solid?

"Alright, alright," Ichin chuckled. "Let's leave the plot aside. I'll talk about something I can reveal—like the new protagonist team members. I'll share a bit about them, including their voice actors. I'm sure that's something you're all curious about."

He jumped to another timestamp on the video. A male character appeared, awakening a Persona with a distinct ukiyo-e art style.

"This is one of the new party members—his name is Yusuke Kitagawa, an art student with a special talent in painting. His Persona is Goemon Ishikawa. I won't explain the name—you can look it up later if you're interested. As for his voice actor, it's none other than the one everyone affectionately calls 'the squad leader': Tomokazu Sugita."

With that as a segue, Ichin began sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the voice recording sessions, giving the stream an even more relaxed and engaging vibe.

***

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