{"rewrite":{"id":"r_908c73a11db0e50f99032595","clusterId":"c_36a7a30edad0847c7a0799d4","slug":"okabe-tells-yoko-taro-he-builds-games-market-first","model":"deepseek-v4-1-flash","headline":"Okabe Tells Yoko Taro He Builds Games Market-First","summary":"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.","whyItMatters":"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.","webCardHtml":"\u003cp\u003eYoko 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.\u003c/p\u003e","blueskyPost":"Yoko Taro opened The Tenth Mosaic by asking Okabe how ENDER LILIES got made. Answer: market first. Okabe checks Steam rankings and new releases daily, and says the team's cost control came from staying small.","twitterPost":"At The Tenth Mosaic, Yoko Taro asked Okabe whether the wish to make a 2D action game or the market comes first. Okabe: the situation comes first. He reads Steam rankings daily, and ENDER LILIES ran 3 to 4 years on a small team.","threadsPost":null,"newsletterBlurb":"The Tenth Mosaic ran September 22 and 23 at the Tokyo French Institute, and the opening talk put Yoko Taro in the questioner's chair opposite Keisuke Okabe. Okabe traced how he went from posting manga on Pixiv and mixi to a doujin game, then to Neverland Company, and finally to directing ENDER LILIES off a Slack proposal. The practical part: a core team of about 10, one scenario writer and one programmer, three to four years of development, and a budget Yoko called extremely low.","attributionJson":"[{\"source\":\"4Gamer.net\",\"url\":\"https://www.4gamer.net/games/529/G052929/20261005007/\",\"title\":\"How Does a Game Become \\\"That Person's Work\\\"? Keisuke Okabe's \\\"Stress-Driven Creation\\\" and Why Terrible Things Happen in Yoko Taro's Stories [The Tenth Mosaic]\"}]","lintFlagsJson":null,"lintHits":0,"costUsd":0,"inputTokens":4683,"outputTokens":687,"status":"published","repairAttempts":0,"nextRepairAt":null,"factsAttemptedAt":1791338827,"createdAt":"2026-10-07T02:01:34.000Z","publishedAt":"2026-10-07T02:06:05.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T02:06:05.000Z"},"cluster":{"id":"c_36a7a30edad0847c7a0799d4","canonicalTitle":"ゲームはどうすれば“その人の作品”になるのか。岡部佳祐氏の「ストレスものづくり」と，ヨコオタロウ氏の物語に“ひどいこと”が起きる理由［The Tenth Mosaic］","representativeArticleId":"a_25573e19751f5454e1c08623","sourceCount":1,"writtenSourceCount":1,"writeAttempts":0,"isSolo":false,"entitiesJson":"{\"anime_titles\":[],\"manga_titles\":[],\"work_titles\":[\"NieR\",\"ENDER LILIES\"],\"studios\":[],\"people\":[\"Yoko Taro\",\"Keisuke Okabe\"],\"type\":\"op_ed\",\"domain\":\"games\",\"is_roundup\":false}","contentType":"news","status":"published","firstSeenAt":"2026-10-07T01:00:00.000Z","lastSeenAt":"2026-10-07T03:30:00.000Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-07T03:38:31.000Z"},"attribution":[{"source":"4Gamer.net","url":"https://www.4gamer.net/games/872/G087218/20261005015/","title":"「制約」と「自分の弱さ」から作家性は生まれる。「Öoo」の生高橋氏，「ダレカレ」のyona氏が語るインディーゲーム開発［The Tenth Mosaic］"}],"entities":{"anime_titles":[],"manga_titles":[],"work_titles":["NieR","ENDER LILIES"],"studios":[],"people":["Yoko Taro","Keisuke Okabe"],"type":"op_ed","domain":"games","is_roundup":false},"keyFacts":null}