honey tea

IM SO HAPPY WITH THE S7 ANNOUNCEMENT

As usual, GenDesign have greeted us with their yearly new year’s message, and it even has a little hint of humor this time.

“Happy New Year!

We look forward to working with you in the New Year!

We at genDESIGN are currently working hard on a new project while experiencing the birth pains! (note: the online translator mentions either birth pains/birth troubles: not sure exactly which but I think we all get the idea lol)

We are also looking for people who can help us get through this together.

In particular, we are urgently looking for [QA (quality control)] and [sound programmer] positions!”

Although the image in the card seems simple, upon closer inspection there are a few things to unpack: the frame around the image closely resembles a console, there’s a small compass-like element, and the most interesting: a “75” at the bottom left. Curiously, their logo features a long line that makes it look like a progress bar, which is at about 3/4 of the way through — so 75%! The funny mention to “birth pain” is also curious… one would think this baby game is about to see the light of day!

Could this be an easter egg that tells us Game 4 is entering the last quarter of its development? Only 2024 will tell!

Some elements look strangely placed but one could definitely see the entire picture as a game HUD (whether the 75 is intentional or just to make it look more complete is a different story, I have my own theory as you can see lol)

And after looking into said HUD we see:

the compass thing is pointing north to 5 glowing points (enemies? treasures? points of interest? sounds very exploration-ish to me!)

there's not one, not two, but three different gauges (health, stamina... perhaps the one with the up/down arrows is something else?)

the one that's intruiguing me the most: at the top center, there's something that looks like text/a logo purposefully cut in half so you can't make it out.

and last but not least: a dragon like creature akin to the loading screens in The Last Guardian, since 2024 is the year of the dragon!

The thing that's cut off or mirrored at the top of the screen I didn't notice. It looks like Japanese text so could even be the game's logo maybe.

Something that caught my eye is the left and right side of the image have one big circle and four little ones, which resembles the configuration of modern gaming handhelds. It makes me wonder if one or more of the mechs in this game will be ride-able, with the controls the character is using displayed in the HUD like that. Those could also be elements that are used by the designers to see what buttons are being pressed during QA and stuff, that will end up being hidden in the actual game itself - the "75" meter is right over one of them, so something there is definitely not where it's supposed to be.

Care / Hidden

The Court Wizard and His Apprentice (it's his first day, be nice.)

赤とんぼ

Red dragonflies in the sunset,

I watched them from someone’s back, that one time.

Mulberries in a mountain field,

We gathered them in a small basket.

In the end, it doesn't matter whether you're a youkai or human... All that really counts is that they're important to you.