Kodaka and Takada Trace "Psycho Pop" From Danganronpa to Hundred Line at The Tenth Mosaic
Kodaka's account that he keeps development external so he does not have to take work he dislikes, and that he took on his own IP with Hundred Line, is the clearest statement of how Too Kyo Games is organized and why its output looks the way it does.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
At The Tenth Mosaic in Tokyo on September 22 and 23, Too Kyo Games CEO Kazutaka Kodaka and music producer Masafumi Takada discussed how they work together, from Danganronpa through Rain Code and Hundred Line. Kodaka said Danganronpa sold about 30,000 copies in its first week and grew over roughly half a year, and described why he keeps development outside the studio.
The talk covered the pair's first job together: Takada was freelancing at the time, having left Grasshopper Manufacture for Tango Gameworks, and got a one-page proposal. Kodaka said the request for the class trial track was about a single line, and Takada recalled that the theme song took him roughly a month of second-guessing.
The proposal document carried only one description of the game: psycho pop. Kodaka also explained why his studio does not develop its own titles. Taking on development would mean growing to around 50 people, and then taking jobs he does not want in order to keep the staff paid. That arrangement is why Hundred Line, which he described as unreasonable, was the attempt at holding his own IP.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.