Hey everyone, TEZ OKANO aka. "Zorge Ichizo" here. I’ve been locked away for the past two months straight, grinding like a madman on my upcoming game, "DAWNCAR". It’s a racing game styled entirely after the MZ-700. For those who don't know, the MZ-700 was a beautifully hellish 8-bit PC from back in the day. It couldn’t even handle proper pixel graphics. You had to draw everything using 8x8 Lego-like "character graphics" in a whopping 8 digital colors... And yep, I bet 90% of you just closed this tab right there. In short, I've been pouring my soul into a game that only absolute maniacs and beautifully broken people would ever enjoy. But I believed. I truly believed that out of 7 billion people on Earth, there must be at least 10,000 crazy old-school gamers who still love the MZ-700. I pushed forward with that pure faith, and now the game is almost finished. We are launching on Steam. In that market, success depends entirely on "Wishlists"—that magical metric where people say, "I might not buy it immediately, but hey, I'm interested." It's basically the ultimate gauge for pre-order hype. So, with the game nearly ready, I finally checked my developer dashboard today. The total number of wishlists was... "231" 231 people out of 7 billion. I'm literally losing money just breathing next to this project. Last year, I released "The Girl From Gunma Kai," which was an MSX-style game—another glorious pixel-hellscape—but even that launch wasn't this brutal! MZ-700, you've disappointed me... Is this all the power you have?! So, I’m launching a one-month promo campaign starting right now. To everyone who ever screamed "Nothing is impossible for the MZ-700!": it’s time to back up that talk. Go hit that wishlist button. You don’t even have to buy it right away. Even if you just buy it to let it sit in your Steam backlog forever, at least give me that wishlist click. Target: 1,000 Wishlists! Seriously, we can at least hit 1,000. No matter how faint the embers of the MZ-700 are today, there must be at least that many glorious old fools still alive and kicking. Spread the word! Tell your friends, "Hey, look, a new character-graphics racing game!" They'll probably think you've lost your mind. I’m looking for accomplices. Nothing is impossible for the MZ-700! Let's reach 1,000 wishlists! Honestly, 1,000 is still chump change, but it's a hell of a lot better than 231. 231 is just a disgrace to the legacy of the machine. If we actually hit 1,000, I'll throw in some special bonus content! Also, a brand-new Steam demo should be playable in just a few days!! Let's all go down together in a blaze of MZ-700 glory! 👇 STEAM URL IS IN THE REPLY BELOW! 👇

Tez Okano is a man with VISION. He makes really FUN games with ACTUAL retro game audio-visual flavor that you can't get anywhere else. Surely there's more love to give towards other retro systems that isn't NES, SNES or MD/Genesis, right? Do me a favor and wishlist Dawncar!!

「キャラグラの新作！」 期待しかない！ #キャラグラだらけの世界のために x.com/i/status/2066146477467…

Good job!

To all HGA followers, we have some unfortunate news to share.

我々が所属する旧ナツメアタリの老舗ゲーム開発部門「WEGGAMES」 @weggames_info が公式Xアカウントを始めました！ ぜひフォローをお願いします！

WEGGAMESには、創業メンバーを中心に構成された少数精鋭チーム「TENGO PROJECT」があります。 TENGO PROJECTでは、過去に手掛けた作品のセルフリメイクをはじめ、培ってきたノウハウを活かしたゲーム開発に取り組んでいます。 こだわりを込めて制作したタイトルを、ぜひ遊んでみてください。 winning-ent.co.jp/tengo-proj…

Tako no Himitsu just reached 20k wishlists! Thank you all so much! Stay tuned for month announcement arround the game ✨ #gamedev #pixelart #wishlistwednesdays

ようやく少しは遊べる感触になってきました。おそらく史上最速スクロールスピードのレースゲームです。それがどんなものか、ぜひご期待ください！ store.steampowered.com/app/4…

Thanks!

For the past several months, I have been challenging myself to develop what I call an "artless game." It utilizes character graphics—essentially a puzzle composed of 8×8 dot units—meaning I cannot even manipulate individual pixels. It was something I had always wanted to attempt, but to be completely honest, it has been quite exhausting. While I hope to return to art-driven work soon, I am currently entirely consumed by the endless debugging of this game. I would be delighted if you would take the time to play it. Steam Wishlist store.steampowered.com/app/4… Free Trial Version (5 stages playable) huga-studio.booth.pm/items/8… huga-studio.itch.io/dawncar-…

Even for Thunder Force VI, a project that significantly damaged my reputation, I was highly motivated and drafted numerous conceptual image boards. The outcome is well known to everyone, and I will leave the final judgment to you. However, it proves that merely presenting a vision does not guarantee success; game development is a complex and delicate endeavor. Nonetheless, I remain convinced that those who direct the work of others must first visualize and draw it themselves.

None of what I envisioned here was ultimately realized. Yet, I continue to draw. Visualizing ideas beforehand to filter them out yields a far superior outcome compared to creating things aimlessly. Quite a few people have kindly praised the scenario of Omega Factor, which is actually the result of trimming away about 30% of the content. In truth, an even more dramatic climax had been prepared, but we unfortunately ran out of time.

I invariably prepare a vast number of conceptual image boards prior to entering the development phase of a game. I am convinced that this is the superior approach. Naturally, it is usually a success if even 30% of what is depicted is realized in the final game. However, presenting a concrete and clear vision ultimately leads to reduced development time, as it prevents any hesitation regarding our direction. Recently, I have not been drafting to this extent. This is because I now create the artwork for my own games myself. While this eliminates any ambiguity, it is admittedly quite a time-consuming process.

I came across something quite nostalgic, so I would like to share it with you.This is the conceptual image board from the initial development phase of "Astro Boy: Omega Factor." It already depicts scenes such as the opening descent sequence and Pook, inspired by Seven Force. Since these are my own drawings that were ultimately not utilized in the game, I believe it is safe to share them now. At the time, having previously created "SEGAGAGA," I was viewed as a rather unconventional creator. Therefore, I drafted these in meticulous detail to ensure that everyone at Treasure could fully comprehend my vision.

I've been completely absorbed in it for the past two months, and DAWNCAR (Windows Steam version) has finally come together. It's starting to take shape, but it's still riddled with bugs. Still, it's playable, so I'm launching a public bug-testing campaign! This is a super-realistic racing game I made purely for my own tastes — the game I always wanted to play. It's something no one has ever seen before! The biggest twist? The cars don't race "upward" — they race downward. It's basically an extension of the old BASIC games I played 40 years ago (you know who you are). I'm even using the same MZ-700 character graphics that couldn't display the original dot art back then! This is a brand-new game born from love and pure insanity! It perfectly reproduces... perfectly reproduces the physics of a real F1 race, which means you can run over lions on the track and smash evil giant mechs to pieces with a super cutter! You can play 5 out of 15 stages for free! I want to make this game as fun as possible, so please give it a try and let me know what you think! In short: This is a public bug check! If you want to play more, there's also a version with all stages (and even more bugs). Just say the word and I'll send it over! I'll be selling it on Steam eventually, so if you like it, please buy it later! For now, add it to your Wishlist! ▼ Steam Wishlist store.steampowered.com/app/4… ▼ Free Trial Version (5 stages playable) BOOTH huga-studio.booth.pm/items/8… itchio huga-studio.itch.io/dawncar-… Even if you don't like it, feel free to buy it anyway and add it to your backlog! [Promotion time!] The slightly mad company HUGA, now in its 12th year of operation — please support us! huga-studio.com We also sell various things on BOOTH (including the soundtrack!) huga-studio.booth.pm If you’re interested, check out my previous weird masterpiece: "The Girl from Gunma Prefecture - Revised" store.steampowered.com/app/3… And this: the world's first serious dot-pixel movie, made with ridiculous sincerity final-re-quest.com

ゲームに大事なのは、いかに見たことも聞いたこともない突飛な新しいアイディアを盛り込んであるかだとオレは思うのな。 ゲームとは本来そういうものだったから。 「なんじゃこれは！」とまず思いたい。 けど、もうゲームは昔からそこにあるものになって、古いものを大事に磨くとか愛でるとか、そういうのが大事になって、別に新しいことを見せなくてもいいんだ。 いいんだけど、オレは見たいしやりたいんだ。 人生短いんだから。 というわけで見たことも聞いたこともない新作を作っている。売れるかどうかわからんが、とりあえずなんかスゴイぞ。そこだけは保証する。

えーご無沙汰お待ちしております。ゾルゲ市蔵です。 ここ二か月ほどかかりきりになっていた 「DAWNCAR（Windows Steam版）」が ようやく形になってきました。 なってきましたけど、まだバグだらけです。 けど一応遊べるので、ここは派手にぶちまけて世間の印象を聞いてみようと思った次第！ オレが遊びたかった、オレの趣味だけで作った、 誰も見たことがない超リアルレースゲームだ！ 何が見たことがないって、車が上じゃなくて「下」に向かって走るんだ。 40年前のBASIC遊びをそのまま拡張してるからな（わかるやつだけわかれ）！ その時使ってたドット絵すら表示できないMZ-700のスペックのままやってるからな！ 愛と狂気のニューゲームだ！ 本日より、itch.ioとBOOTHにて先行体験版（バグ有り）を公開する！ 本格的なＦ１レースの挙動を完全再現……を完全再現しているので コース上のライオンを踏み潰したり、スーパーカッターで悪の巨大マシンを粉砕したりできるぞ！ タダで全15面中の5面が遊べる！どうか遊んでみて意見をくれ！ 要するに公開バグチェックだ！ 言うと直ったり直らなかったりするぞ！ 特にランキング周りは怪しいが気にするな、そのうち直るだろう。 こんなバカなゲームはもうどこにも売ってないだろ？ だからオレが作るんだ！ そのうちSteamで売るから気に入ったら買え！ まずはウィッシュリストに登録だ！ ▼ Steamウィッシュリスト登録はこちら！ store.steampowered.com/app/4… ▼ 先行体験版（無料・5面までプレイ可）のダウンロードはこちら！ BOOTH huga-studio.booth.pm/items/8… itchio huga-studio.itch.io/dawncar-… 気に入らなくても買っていいぞ！ 積みゲーに加えろ！ ［以下、宣伝だ！］ 地味に創業12年の発狂カンパニー・ヒューガをよろしく！ huga-studio.com/ BOOTHでもいろいろ売っている（サントラとかもあるぞ） huga-studio.booth.pm/ 頭のおかしな前作「群馬県から来た少女・改」もよかったら買え！ store.steampowered.com/app/3… なぜか大真面目に作った世界初のドット絵映画はこれだ！ final-re-quest.com/