Although they said they were going back, there were still about ten days left.
After school, when they returned to the studio, Ichin told everyone about going back at the end of the month.
"Going back to China for the Spring Festival, huh? You actually managed to get a whole week off, and the two of you together, no less." Umiko looked at Ichin and couldn't help commenting, "I bet Hiratsuka-sensei didn't look too happy when she found out, right? I mean, she's been on so many matchmaking dates and still hasn't succeeded—she's still single."
Ichin recalled Hiratsuka Shizuka's expression that morning and chuckled. "Yeah, she didn't look too pleased. When she heard I was taking time off to bring Utaha back with me, she grumpily shooed me away. Still, she did help sort out the leave for me in the end. Honestly, we should avoid bringing up the whole 'single' topic in front of her again. I'm really worried that if we do it a few more times, she might actually cry."
"Yeah yeah, totally!"
Hazuki chimed in confidently from the side, "It's not like being single is Shizuka's fault. Let's just not rub it in. If there's a chance, we should help her find a decent guy. Then again... maybe we're not the best people to say that. We don't exactly have a ton of guys in our social circle. Maybe we should ask Ms. Sayuri for help?"
Shinoda placed her hands behind her head and said in confusion, "But isn't being single kind of nice? I don't get why Hiratsuka-sensei keeps going to mixers and blind dates. Isn't that exhausting?"
Sitting next to her, Iijima Yun scoffed, "You can say that now, but let's see what happens when you hit 30. I bet your family will start nagging you non-stop."
"But isn't Hiratsuka-sensei not even 30 yet?"
Can we _not_ keep poking at Hiratsuka-sensei's sore spots?
She's already tired. She just wants to find a boyfriend and quietly be a teacher!
Ichin shook his head helplessly. "Alright, Yun, enough. Everyone here, one way or another, is going to go through the same thing. For now, let's just focus on work."
As he spoke, Ichin opened his laptop and booked flight tickets for himself and Utaha for next Friday. They could head straight to the airport after class in the afternoon—perfect timing.
Hazuki leaned over for a peek. "Booked the tickets? Do you want me to take you two to the airport?"
"No need," Ichin said with a smile. "Utaha and I can just take a taxi. We'll still need you to hold down the fort here at the studio. Besides, if you help us out, the others will definitely want to tag along too. No need for all that trouble—we'll be back in just a week."
"Going to China, huh... That's so nice. I want to go too."
Hearing Shinoda's words, Ichin smiled. "Sure, when summer comes, I'll take everyone on a vacation. Last year we went to Izu—this year let's go to China. There are tons of fun places to visit."
"Yay!!!"
Shinoda raised her hands in excitement. "Can we go see pandas?"
"Can't you see them in Tokyo too?"
"But there aren't as many!"
Of course, Ichin wouldn't say no. Taking everyone to Sichuan was already in the plans. "No problem. I'll take you all there. But just know—during summer break, there's going to be a huge crowd. So be mentally prepared."
Vacations are always crowded, and that's doubly true for panda bases, which are packed even on normal days.
After chatting for a while about the mid-year trip that was still half a year away, everyone finally returned to their work.
Once Ichin received a partially completed set of models from Lily, he immediately began expanding the original test version based on the completed map segments.
After all, he was trying to bring _Persona_ to the Nintendo Switch, so a fully fleshed-out demo was absolutely necessary.
He planned to complete part of the demo now, then leave the rest to the studio team. By the time he returned after the New Year, the Switch-compatible demo should be just about finished, ready to present to Nintendo for negotiations about launching on their platform.
Although _Slay the Spire_ and _Hollow Knight_ had both sold well on the Switch, their genres were more aligned with niche indie titles, and thus the promotional support from Nintendo was limited.
But _Persona_—Ichin intended for it to become the flagship title of the studio, so everything had to be done perfectly across the board.
Naturally, that included securing strong marketing resources.
Domestically, with the studio's account on Bilibili and potential promotional campaigns in collaboration with the platform, they should be covered. But for overseas markets, relying on themselves alone wouldn't be enough—they needed a reliable partner.
And in that regard, Nintendo was an excellent choice.
What's that? You suggest Sony?
Ichin had long given up on playing ball with Sony.
Right now, the Nintendo Switch was the studio's main target platform. As long as they did solid optimization work on the PC side as well, there shouldn't be an issue. Since _Persona_ was a turn-based RPG, it didn't require extremely high performance, meaning they wouldn't need to significantly downgrade the visuals for the Switch version.
Looking at the current workload, Ichin pulled up the development schedule, then called Umiko, Kō Yagami, Rin Toyama, and Hazuki over to the lounge area.
Once everyone had gathered, Ichin pointed at the schedule in front of him and said, "Rin, adjust next week's work plan. Let's prioritize completing the demo. The focus will be on two key areas—first, part of the map and battle for the first palace; second, the map of the real-world area, Shinjuku. Let's make sure both of these sections are done well. Character movement is already functioning fine—what's left is filling in the battle systems and other unfinished mechanics. Kō, Umiko, you two okay with that?"
Umiko nodded calmly. "Don't worry. I've already planned things out. The modeling for the main cast is done. Hatsu is currently working on the animations—we should be able to complete three to four characters this week."
Kō Yagami added confidently, "The Persona models for each protagonist are almost finished too. We'll start designing their unique battle animations afterward. We should be able to recreate the combat visuals from your original concept."
"Great, sounds like we're on track. That puts me at ease." Ichin nodded. "Let's make sure this demo is well-polished. It'll be shown to Nintendo, so the Switch version will be our main focus. Let's aim for 60 FPS in optimization. Even if we can't hit that, we absolutely must stay above 30 FPS. Umiko, I'll keep my phone on and reachable while I'm away—if any issues come up, contact me directly. We're short on programmers as it is, so don't let problems pile up."
"Got it," Umiko replied.
With the shift in work priorities decided, everyone returned to their tasks and resumed development.
...
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