Interview – Kaizen Game Works talks tiny trucks and Japanese drinks

The demo of Promise Mascot Agency has left me with the taste of, mmm, hot game. Cruisin’ the Kyūshū countryside pim… er, scouting mascots is double the pleasure, double the fun. Thankfully, I don’t have long to wait since it’s out on April 10, 2025.

Actually, that feels like forever. So, to help pass the time, I spoke with the folks of Kaizen Game Works: Game Director, Oli Clarke Smith, Art Director, Rachel Noy, and Technical Director Phil Crabtree.

This interview was conducted over email. I have edited none of it, because that would be too much work. This is raw, uncensored Kaizen Game Works.

You’ve probably answered this question a dozen times, but where did the idea of leasing mascots from the comfort of your kei truck come from?

OLI: The original idea for the game came from our art director, Rachel. She wanted to make a Kairosoft-like about managing Japanese mascots. We wanted to make a big ol’ open world narrative game as that is what we like playing (Yakuza, Persona 4 etc), and so we wanted to take on the challenge of doing a simulation style game mashed up with open world exploration. We decided to base it around the kei truck because kei trucks rule, and Rachel had made a portfolio piece of a kei truck in rural Japan and that seemed like a great fit. We also really like a Youtube channel where a dude drives out to rest stops in Japan to eat vending machine food. So we wanted to capture that feeling of driving through the Japanese countryside.

RACHEL: We’re really into both kei trucks and the world of mascots, so they went in the game. Our games are big combinations of influences and things that we really enjoy that we hope other people will come to enjoy too.

PHIL: Driving around in a kei truck was one of the first decisions we made on the game. As soon as it was suggested I knew I’d love the idea, especially as we knew that a part of the game is driving around the countryside hills as you watch the sunset. It seems like such a nice escape and I really wanted that to be part of Promise Mascot Agency. At one point we did discuss you having to return to the agency to do a lot of the management, but it very quickly felt like we were just asking you to drive back and fourth, and whilst friction in games can be cool, this was just too much. Allowing you to manage the agency from the truck let players get more immersed in the world and have time to explore.

Am I allowed to say that the player is “pimping mascots?”

OLI: I would really rather you didn’t. Pimping has a lot of negative connotations with power imbalance. Michi is helping mascots that have been outcast by society to find their place in the world, and achieve their dreams. He has his own motivations and goals, but he has been brought up to value family above all else, and the mascots are his new family.

RACHEL: I prefer the term, “scouting”! As Oli said, mascots and humans struggle with a bit of a power imbalance from unsavory people in our game, but Michi and Pinky☆ are trying to put that right with the way they are running their business together. The mascots are all legit employees with contracts, they all enter the agency willingly, and they can leave at any time if they’ve had enough!

Is there a story behind how Kaizen Game Works was formed? I know the core team is like, what, three of you?

OLI: Phil (our technical director) and I formed Kaizen in 2018. We’ve known each other for 25 years and used to be in a punk band and skateboard together. We always used to play Dreamcast and PS2 games together, and go to a lot of punk shows. We both ended up working in the games industry, and made an iOS game in our spare time in 2011. After that, we always wanted to work together again and took the plunge in 2018 to make Paradise Killer. Rachel helped out with part of PK and after we had secured funding for PMA, we could bring her on full time. Now we are a team of three directly employed by Kaizen, but we work with a larger team of freelancers all over the world on an ad hoc or full time basis.

Is there a technical detail in Promise Mascot Agency that is really cool, but you think few people are going to notice?

OLI: I think it is really easy to not notice how much work has been done to make it easy to drive around a physics based truck. We treat the truck as a vehicle at all times, and everything is physically simulated with it. We have to take some liberties with reality since it is a video game, and we added a lot of extra features to allow you to throw the truck down mountains, drift through housing areas and then fly through the air. We employ a lot of ‘recovery’ code to keep the truck treading a line between reacting like a real truck would to falling down a cliff, and keeping the player in ‘the zone’ of playing without becoming frustrated. Our hope is that the player never notices these things as it just feels right.

RACHEL: I really like what Phil did to make the music slow down when you’re in the UI, it creates a really odd, dreamy feeling that perfectly matches the game. It’s not strictly a technical thing, but I also want to shout out the 2D artwork done by our lead 2D artist Inko Ai Takita, some of the little details she’s put into the 2D illustrations are really thoughtful.

PHIL: I like that we subtly change parts of the world as you progress through the game. As it happens over your whole playsession you might not actually notice it while playing, but the world does take on a different feel from when you start to when you finish. I also really like the watercolour style shadowing we have in the game. If you look round the edges of the shadows you get a slightly darker border, as though it were paint. Along with some of the banding we use in lighting, they really add to the world but I’m not sure people are going to notice them as individual elements unless it’s pointed out.

Has anyone approached you for the movie rights to Promise Mascot Agency?

OLI: Not yet, but #kaizenyachtquest continues UNABATED and we will happily accept a novelty sized cheque for the rights. Call me!

If you could remake any classic video game regardless of who owns the rights, would you do it, and what would you choose?

OLI: Kind of a remake, kind of not, I love the Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex PS2 game. I want to revisit some of the ideas that had, but turn it into a four player coop Hitman-like. You all take on different roles of Section 9 and stealth, hack, and shoot your way through some non-linear cyber terrorism levels.

For an actual remake, I want to do a Shinobido remake. It is a very ambitious ninja game on PS2 by the original Tenchu team. Lots of great ideas, like a non-linear story, playing factions off against each other and systemic playground levels. I’d rather Acquire do the remake themselves, but if they don’t want to, CALL ME.

PHIL: A new Zombie Revenge would be excellent! There’s a lot of cool stuff in that game, but there’s plenty of room to do something new. If we were going to do a remake then I think we’d need to make sure we have enough license to put our own stamp on it, and add something to the experience.

What advice would you give to smaller developers who are struggling to be noticed?

OLI: Don’t follow a trend (we have enough pixel art metroidvanias, thanks), learn how to ship a game, and develop a wide knowledge/taste in things.

When I say learn how to ship a game, I worked in a few different game studios before starting Kaizen, and consider it my mentorship (despite being in lead positions). As an indie developer, you are under the gun of budget, and you need to learn how to triage your game design for what is important, manage working with partners, deliver builds etc, etc.

With regards to having a wide knowledge, I have interviewed a lot of young designers who only play multiplayer games while hanging out in discord. You need to play everything, read lots of books, listen to a lot of different podcasts, and watch things that aren’t the MCU. You need to be able to have some knowledge about a lot of things so that you can respond to any input, feedback and problems that arise.

RACHEL: I was going to say what Oli said. Widen your reference points and don’t be afraid to look beyond games! Follow those internet rabbit holes! Sometimes the weirdest little fact you read on a Wikipedia once, or this artist that you bookmarked, or a pin on Pinterest that you found can spark so many fresh ideas. Most of the reference for Paradise Killer and Promise Mascot Agency didn’t come from games, but we tried to figure out how to incorporate them into a game. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I know our games aren’t to everyone’s taste, but we really try hard to stay true to our reference points rather than what people think a typical game should be like.

PHIL: You’ve got to know what you want to make. If you’re struggling to think of an idea, or if the primary reason you’ve chosen a concept is because the data says it’s got a good chance of selling then you’re going to struggle to stand out. There’s nothing wrong with looking at trends, or what people are buying, but you have to make something that has it’s own voice that people can attach to. Similarly you need to really trust your audience. Experiences which are easy to engage with don’t always leave an impression because the player hasn’t had to do any discovery or learning in order to “master” the game.

What’s your favourite drink that you can get in Japan, but is impossible to find anywhere else?

OLI: For me it is Dakara Green. Dakara Green is a water infused with lots of vitamins. It tastes great and gives you a good energy boost without being an energy drink.

RACHEL: The first ever taste of Mets Litchi I had when I was dehydrated from walking along a really long tarmac path in the Tokyo suburbs for ages on a sunny day. The feeling of finding that vending machine was like in the cartoons when you see someone imagine a mirage of water in the desert. The taste of it was incredible, I’ve never felt so refreshed. I’ve had it since both in Japan and in the UK, and it’s still good, but it just didn’t hit in the same way. 

PHIL: CC Lemon! The more lemon crammed in there, the better!

CLOSING THOUGHTS

For me, it’s Ambasa, which is, like, a milk-based soda. I tried it while visiting the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu in Nikko, and thought it was incredible. Like a less-sweet cream soda, if I recall correctly (this was 2014). I’ve never been able to find it in my neck of the woods.

I don’t disagree with anything they say about standing out as an indie developer. I get a lot of emails about titles seeking coverage, but I’m only one person, and, while I’d love to play everything, I have to pick my battles. So, when I’m figuring out what to pick next, I gravitate towards stuff I haven’t seen before. I often say that my favourite games are the ones I haven’t played before. That’s not a sure way to reach escape velocity, but you’re not going to win any races by doing the speed limit.

Thanks to Kaizen Game Works for speaking to Maximum Utmost. Promise Mascot Agency is out on April 10, 2025 for PC and consoles.