"Is this about the profit split?" Aoki Haruhi asked.
The investors weren't fools. They weren't just providing angel funding to let him make a game. If it failed, they'd lose their money, but if it succeeded, they'd naturally want a share of the profits. Standard practice dictated that the party with the larger investment would take the lion's share—a 70/30 or even 80/20 split was likely.
The smaller portion would go to Pokeni.
This raised the stakes for the game itself. Without reaching a certain sales threshold, Pokeni might not even make money despite securing the investment.
Of course, the same applied to the investors. DUN was investing 70 million yen, and they naturally expected to recoup their investment.
"Hmm... I'm quite lenient when it comes to the profit split," Tsuda Nao said with a smile. "How about a 50/50 split? Since this is our first collaboration, I want to earn your company's trust."
Huh?
Everyone present, including Ishino Mika and Senkawa Hiroichi, was stunned by this proposal.
An investor willing to split the profits 50/50 was practically an angel.
This President was either truly pitifully naive or genuinely had unwavering confidence in Pokeni's product, a level of conviction that rivaled Aoki Haruhi's own.
Aoki Haruhi was left speechless.
"However, the condition I mentioned isn't the one you're thinking of," Tsuda Nao continued. "I have only one request for your company's work:
Please, by all means, make it a Galgame."
Nani?!
The news struck Aoki Haruhi like a bolt from the clear sky, even more shocking than the earlier 50/50 split.
Galgame, also known as Bishōjo Game, is a type of interactive video game where players can interact with animated bishōjo (beautiful girls). While originally targeting Japanese men, all-ages Galgames have since expanded their audience to include both genders.
Most Galgames are visual novels (VNGs), but interactive Galgames also exist.
In simple terms, it's an interactive dating simulation game with beautiful girls.
Bishōjo Games emerged soon after the personal computer was invented.
In 1982, Koei Corporation of Japan released Night Life, a Bishōjo Game.
Early galgames weren't very popular.
While these games differed significantly from the Bishōjo Games of the early 21st century, they were the earliest recorded examples of their kind.
Early galgames carried a strong blue stigma, but this didn't mean all galgames were blue games.
They could also be pure, innocent love stories.
However, in 1990, they still carried a negative stigma.
When Tsuda Nao requested that Onmyōji be turned into a galgame, Aoki Haruhi was stunned.
How could this be?!
Aoki Haruhi instinctively resisted.
Onmyōji was the result of countless days of painstaking work by him and Ishino. Its soul was the Chinese Paladin!
Just imagine turning the Chinese Paladin into a galgame—would that be appropriate?
Even if it were made into a pure dating sim where players could pursue girls, players would still inevitably make certain associations.
It wasn't just Aoki Haruhi who was stunned; Ishino Mika beside him was equally dumbfounded. She blinked her wide eyes, struggling to imagine what Onmyōji would look like as a galgame.
Aoki Haruhi suppressed his shock and cleared his throat in response. "President Tsuda, if I may be blunt, I don't believe this game is suitable for a galgame. Our story and character settings are rooted in pure romance, while the core gameplay revolves around turn-based combat. The true heart of the game lies in the conflict between humans and yokai, and the clash between destiny and duty."
"Turning it into a galgame would skew its focus," he continued.
Hmm, hmm.
Ishino, standing nearby, nodded repeatedly without speaking.
Tsuda Nao smiled at Aoki Haruhi, waiting until he finished. "But that's precisely what I find so appealing about it," she said.
"I'm not sure how much you know about DUN, President Qing. DUN is currently a major entertainment company. Besides children's toys and anime merchandise, our primary revenue in recent years has come from the blue industry.
Because of this, we've conducted extensive research into the blue market and its future potential.
DUN's goal is clear: to invest in a galgame. We've been searching for the right project, and when I saw your proposal, I knew I'd found the answer I was looking for."
Tsuda Nao was telling the truth. She had reviewed numerous proposals recently, finding most of them utterly mediocre.
Galgames had been around for quite some time, yet most games on the market were still essentially fast-food products, akin to early AV films. The male protagonist would simply approach a girl, and she'd immediately agree to play cards with him, no process, no subtlety, just crude and lacking any sense of artistry.
While blue content was driven by primal instincts, today's audiences and players had grown weary of such blunt, in-your-face approaches.
As the president of a blue company, Tsuda Nao understood this perfectly.
When she saw Pokeni's proposal, Tsuda Nao felt a surge of excitement. This was precisely the answer she had been searching for.
Looking into Aoki Haruhi's eyes, Tsuda Nao said, "Love is the most beautiful experience in life. I want your game to let players feel what it's like to fall in love."
Aoki Haruhi felt Tsuda Nao had been surprisingly lenient for not directly demanding that Onmyōji be turned into a blue game.
Ishino and Chikawa listened, their faces flushing crimson. They felt ashamed, having never tasted the joy of love themselves.
To Aoki Haruhi, this very purity was what allowed Ishino to create such moving works.
"The romantic elements in your story are deeply touching. This game could redefine the galgame genre, but the question is whether you have the ability to pull it off."
Tsuda Nao had her own considerations.
The feeling of love was something she struggled to convey effectively in film and television, or to make audiences experience perfectly.
Could it be possible to achieve this through a game?
Tsuda Nao expressed great anticipation for this possibility.
Pokeni's Onmyōji might just be the key to unlocking that sacred door in the gaming world.
Damn it!
That damn woman!
She understands men's desires so well.
Her arguments nearly convinced Aoki Haruhi. He knew she was right. Two years later, in 1992, a company called elf would release Classmates, a game that elevated the entire galgame genre to heights it never should have reached.
Before Classmates, the galgame market was essentially a free-for-all. People craved simple, crude thrills. But Classmates moved players with its pure romance and, through its meticulously crafted character development for each heroine, allowed them to experience genuine courtship.
First love, then blue—that formula became a classic, laying the foundation for future galgames.
That Tsuda Nao could foresee this so early could only mean her business acumen was razor-sharp.
Yet Aoki Haruhi genuinely didn't want to do this. For one thing, if Pokeni's breakout hit was a galgame, the company—including its president and himself as producer—would be forever branded. It would be difficult to escape that stigma, and he wasn't sure if a future transition would succeed.
More importantly, he truly cherished Onmyōji. He didn't want such a brilliant game to be tainted by anything else.
Even if galgames could be normalized, stripped of any blue elements, the era's stigma would always cast a shadow.
And this woman was pushing him toward an abyss of damnation.