Okabe Tells Yoko Taro He Builds Games Market-First
Okabe's account of a small team holding costs down while he reads Steam rankings daily is the working method behind ENDER LILIES, stated by the developer in the room rather than inferred from the games.
Reporting from 1 source: 4Gamer.net.
At The Tenth Mosaic, held September 22 and 23 at the Tokyo French Institute, Yoko Taro opened the festival in conversation with Keisuke Okabe, director of ENDER LILIES. Okabe said he came to games from doujin manga, was hired by Neverland Company, drew and wrote for a mobile project, and grew into directing. ENDER LILIES began as a Slack proposal, reached a three-month mockup, and shipped after three to four years with roughly 500 million yen.
Yoko Taro took the opening slot rather than the closing one, questioning Okabe about method for the length of a session. Okabe said he never planned on games: he drew manga on Pixiv and mixi, was pulled into a doujin project, and found he liked building with a team. That led him to Neverland Company, where a planning hire handled illustrations and scenario for a mobile title and slid into directing anyway. Yoko called him a person skilled at market analysis and asked which comes first, the wish to make a 2D action game or the market. The situation comes first, Okabe said, and he checks Steam rankings and new releases daily.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.