Chapter 32. Here's to Prestigious Academy Becoming a Big Hit!
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A week later, Urobuchi Gen submitted his completed new Onmyoji 2 script to Kiyoshi Yuuma.
After reading it, Kiyoshi Yuuma was full of praise.
"Mm-hmm, this is exactly the flavor I was looking for."
But after finishing it, he also felt a sudden urge to strangle Urobuchi Gen.
Still, this was the right feeling!
"I truly believe Onmyoji 2 will successfully carry the flag of the Onmyoji series," Kiyoshi Yuuma said with great confidence.
As long as this release could land successfully, the future would be full of promise.
"Thank you very much for your recognition, President. I'll work even harder," Urobuchi replied.
With Kiyoshi Yuuma's affirmation, the young man was filled with boundless motivation.
"Ganbatte!"
…
Since the script was finalized, everything else became much easier to handle.
Onmyoji 2 didn't require new music composers. As it was part of the same series, they could directly reuse the soundtrack from Onmyoji 1.
That would also help strengthen memory recall and awaken the fond memories players had from playing the first game.
As for Prestigious Academy, being a lightweight simulation management game, it didn't need someone like Shirakawa Atsushi. Some cheerful, casual electronic background music would be more than enough.
In other words, the current outsourced resources were fully sufficient for Pokeni's development needs.
However…
Just thinking about Shirakawa Atsushi left Kiyoshi Yuuma feeling somewhat disappointed.
If that guy had joined Pokeni back then, the company's biggest weakness would have been filled.
But there was no point dwelling on it now. All they could do was keep moving forward.
Hopefully, in the future, they'd be able to poach some other brilliant musical genius.
Actually, Maeda Jun wasn't a bad option either. Although known as the "Tear-Jerking Devil," he was incredibly gifted not just in scriptwriting, but also in music and illustration. Unfortunately, the kid was still too young—it'd be a while before he'd be ready.
…
In the period that followed, Pokeni entered an intense development phase.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was already September.
Although Onmyoji 2 was still in production, Prestigious Academy had been completed.
After nearly two weeks of internal testing, there were no major bugs on the surface, meaning Prestigious Academy was ready for release.
"Yoshi! Now let's use this game to carve out a new chapter in history!" Kiyoshi Yuuma kissed the cartridge sample in his hand, then raised it high above his head.
Everyone applauded and congratulated him.
"Ah~ I didn't expect this day to come so quickly."
"Yeah, we finished development in less than three months."
"It's mostly thanks to the President. He quickly set the direction and content for the game, and with fast asset production, there was no delay at all."
In game development, as long as there's no rework or discarded content, the pace can be extremely fast.
Kiyoshi Yuuma was very familiar with Kairosoft's games, so copying the style was smooth and efficient.
The whole development process ran like a high-speed highway.
And before the project even started, Kiyoshi Yuuma had instructed the programmers to build the game as a modifiable template—essentially creating a basic Simulation Management Game Editor.
The benefit of this was easy future reskinning.
For example, after finishing Prestigious Academy, they could make a few changes and release something like CD City Tycoon on the same base.
For the battle-hardened Kiyoshi Yuuma, this kind of thing was second nature.
"Mm, as expected of the President. The character designs are just too clever."
"Of course. After all, the President is the legendary producer who made history in the galgame industry."
"It's true. Even though it's a pixel-style game, Prestigious Academy looks incredibly pleasant. The characters are cute, silly in a good way, and really stand out from other games on the market."
"I've tried it myself and I couldn't stop playing. Once you get into it, Prestigious Academy is genuinely fun."
"Eh~ if that's the case, then we really have a shot at success."
…
Hearing the team's discussion, Kiyoshi Yuuma took a sip of his coffee and smiled subtly.
Victory was inevitable. After all, Prestigious Academy had already been market-tested in his previous life, earning Kairosoft a good reputation.
Being 20 years ahead of the current time—how could this game not become a hit?
While he was quietly chuckling to himself, Prestigious Academy's writer and planner, Mika Ishino, quietly walked over to him.
"President~ Yesterday we double-checked the list of game developers and found that under the 'Producer' section, the name listed was Kiyoshi Yuuma."
"So we were afraid there might've been a mistake and came to ask you directly," she said carefully, looking at Kiyoshi Yuuma. "Aren't we using Tsubaki Furuhara this time?"
"No!" Kiyoshi Yuuma nodded firmly. "Since this is a new beginning, of course I'm discarding the Tsubaki Furuhara pseudonym."
"Pseudonym?" Mika Ishino tilted her head in confusion.
The President was making up strange terms again.
"Mm… It just means pen name," Kiyoshi Yuuma explained.
"Oh." Ishino nodded in understanding.
After all, working on galgames had never really been her preference. Back then, she also hadn't wanted Onmyoji—such a great title—to be made into a simple galgame.
If it had been her, she wouldn't want to have the "former galgame scriptwriter" stigma hanging over her either, right?
Thinking about it that way—
It seemed the President had planned ahead when he used the pen name Tsubaki Furuhara back then.
"Eh? President, you're so sneaky," Ishino finally realized, wrinkling her nose.
"That's not sneaky—it's just a way of protecting myself."
"If I'd known, I would've used a pen name too. Something like Aoi Michiko, maybe."
"Hah?" Kiyoshi Yuuma burst out laughing. "Your frowny face is so cute, Ishino."
"Hmph~ I don't believe you."
Though she said that, the smile at the corner of her lips couldn't be hidden.
"Then why are you using Kiyoshi Yuuma again now, President?"
"Well, that's because…" Kiyoshi Yuuma chuckled softly, "I have full confidence in Prestigious Academy!"
Think about it—this was the title meant to build his reputation.
If Prestigious Academy takes off, then Kiyoshi Yuuma will be known as the pioneer of simulation management games.
It's not that similar games hadn't existed before, but Prestigious Academy was more systematic, with a distinctive charm of its own.
It would surely bring a fresh experience to players.
"Ah~ That's great. Then I'll also use Mika Ishino as my name in the script credits!"
"Of course."
"Here's to Prestigious Academy becoming a big hit!" Mika Ishino raised her little fists with determination.