Inside the Bizarre World of Promise Mascot Agency: An Exclusive Interview with Kaizen Game Works

In a gaming landscape filled with predictable blockbusters, some titles dare to be different.

Promise Mascot Agency is one of those games, blending open-world exploration, mascot management, and a crime drama narrative into a truly unique experience.

We had a chance to speak with Oli Clarke Smith, Game Director at Kaizen Game Works, to talk about Promise Mascot Agency’s wild success, its recent update, and the inspirations behind its wonderfully bizarre world.

Hi, please could you introduce yourself. What is your role at Kaizen Game Works and on Promise Mascot Agency?

I’m Oli Clarke Smith, game director at Kaizen. I’m responsible for the overall vision and direction for the game, and I also write the dialogue, implement a lot of the design, model the environment, animate, etc, etc. 

Kaizen is a small team, so none of us stay in our lanes, and we all take on roles outside of our disciplines.

For those who are yet to get stuck into the unique world of Promise Mascot Agency, could you briefly explain what they’re missing out on?

They’re missing out on the game of the year. Straight up. PMA is an open world RPG, where a disgraced yakuza lieutenant is exiled to a cursed town that will kill him, in order to resurrect a bankrupt mascot agency. In order to pay off his debt, he needs to recruit mascots, send them out to work, and then help them find their way in life.

How did the initial idea come about, and what inspired the unusual concoction of open-world exploration, mascot management, and crime drama?

Our art director, Rachel, wanted to make a 2D Kairosoft-like about managing mascots. Phil (tech director) and I wanted to take what we’d learned about open world narrative design on Paradise Killer and make a bigger game. The crime drama aspect came about because we needed a story to put in a pitch deck, and I just bashed it in, intending to change it later. We ended up enjoying it and it never changed.

What was the creative process behind designing the utterly fascinating environment of Kaso-Machi and its inhabitants? Were any of its locations specifically influenced by real places?

We were fortunate enough to partner with Ikumi Nakamura at the start of production. 

She produced a large art bible for us, and concepted this depopulated town, that was being left behind. Rachel also wanted to pursue this theme, and we developed Kaso-Machi into a cursed rural town. 

Lots of locations draw on reference from real places, but one that stands out is Bar Itai. That is based on a bar that Nakamura-san visited when she was exploring Kyushu, where the game is set.

The mascot recruitment and job system is very bizarre, in a good way. Did you have a lot of fun letting your imaginations run wild for the mascot designs? What led to the inception of such silly jobs?

Nakamura-san and Rachel really went to town on the mascot designs! They contain a lot of very unique Japanese references and jokes.

We knew we had to include the physical humour of the mascots and so we needed to have jobs that would offer opportunities for slapstick. We started off with a classic mascot fail of getting stuck in a door, but we really value silliness in games, so we created wackier ones. We never want to create serious or gritty real world games, we want to get silly. That allows us to escalate in funny ways, like starting out with a mascot being chased by a dog, and ending up with them being chased by a nightmare mountain spirit.

How did you feel when Promise Mascot Agency was unleashed into the gaming world? Were you expecting it to be so well received? 

NOPE!

We didn’t expect to get the review scores that we did. We didn’t think people would take to the game in the way that they did. The game together in the last 18 months and it was hard for us to be confident in some of it because it had taken so long to prove. We’re very happy though. I think it hit at the right time. 

The world is a festering hell pit where all of our institutions have failed us, so we must rely on each other. That’s a core theme of the game; the power of community, friendship and acceptance.

In hindsight, is there anything you had to cut or change drastically during the development stage that you wish could have made it into the final game?

Fortunately there wasn’t. The time trials in the Prepare to Grind update were implemented to a prototype quality during dev but we cut them. They were such a tertiary feature that it didn’t feel bad, but it was great to bring them back.

So, let’s talk about the new “Prepare to Grind” free update – what are the key new features and improvements can players expect to find?

We’ve got time trials! We’ve got a truck upgrade that lets you do skateboard style grinding! We’ve got new heroes! We’ve got collaborations with some very cool indie games! We’ve got new nail art for Pinky! We’ve got a very small new bit of story! We’ve got the much requested music track skip! We’ve got a load of bug fixes and QOL improvements! 

Please run, don’t walk, to your closest digital storefront and check it out!

You’ve collaborated with a selection of ‘Hot Indie Bangers’ for new hero cards, so could you tell us more about those?

We’ve made some cool friends in the industry over the last few years, and when the time came to add more hero cards, we reached out to our pals to see if they wanted to be featured. I think Unbeatable is going to be one of the games of the year and we’re so happy they said yes to working with us. The folks who made Sorry We’re Closed are delightful, so we wanted to partner with them. I was lucky enough to get an early demo of Tanuki Pon’s Summer in a hotel room in Kabukicho last year, and had a great evening out with the designer, Liam, so we wanted to include Pon.

As someone who critiqued (sorry!) the monetary demands of the main story, the introduction of a difficulty setting for it is a welcome one. Just how influential has player feedback been in sculpting this update as a whole?

We keep track of everything players are saying about the game. Before release, we didn’t realise how difficult some people would find the game. That’s our fault, so we’re happy to be able to include the difficulty modes. 

Looking at what players were saying, we saw that people just wanted a reason to spend more time in the world, so we added the grinding upgrade to give them something new to master, and the time trials to provide a repeatable challenge. 

Also, we added a button to skip the music tracks. We didn’t realise how many people would want that.

Do you have plans to release any more updates in the future? And looking beyond Promise Mascot Agency, what’s next for Kaizen Game Works?

We currently don’t have any more updates planned for PMA as we need to secure funding for our next game. 

We’re starting to spin up prototype work on the next project, and it is very different from PMA. I think it is going to be something people are very excited to see from us. We’re tackling a new genre for us, and have some ambitious stuff planned.

And finally, if you had to pick one mascot as your new best friend, who would it be and why?

Pinky! She has a lot of issues, but if you promise to stick by her, she’ll stick by you.

With its bizarre premise, unforgettable characters, and a community-focused spirit, Promise Mascot Agency is a game that truly stands out. It’s clear that Kaizen Game Works is a team that values creativity and listening to its fans. 

As they move on to their next ambitious project, one thing is certain: whatever they create will be anything but boring.

Huge thanks go out to Oli for giving us some time, and the opportunity to find out more about the development process for PMA. 

You can pick up the game from the usual digital stores right now, playable on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC. We’ll send you the way of the Xbox Store.

And if you need a review, our 4.5/5 scored thoughts surrounding Promise Mascot Agency on Xbox are up and live.