{"id":65506,"date":"2026-04-21T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65506"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:20:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T09:20:57","slug":"harvestella-creator-daisuke-taka-is-developing-a-brand-new-game-at-his-new-company-we-ask-him-whats-hes-been-up-to-for-the-past-2-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/harvestella-creator-daisuke-taka-is-developing-a-brand-new-game-at-his-new-company-we-ask-him-whats-hes-been-up-to-for-the-past-2-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvestella\u00a0and Another Eden creator Daisuke Taka\u00a0is\u00a0developing a brand-new game at his new company.\u00a0We ask him\u00a0what\u2019s\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0been up to\u00a0for the past 2 years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Game creator Daisuke Taka founded&nbsp;his own company&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/impachi.games\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Impachi<\/a>&nbsp;in January 2026.&nbsp;Highly regarded for his unique approach to game development and attention to&nbsp;storytelling,&nbsp;Taka&nbsp;previously&nbsp;worked as the early producer for GREE\u2019s&nbsp;Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and&nbsp;Space, and&nbsp;is best known for his successful run at Square Enix, where he served as the producer of&nbsp;Harvestellla.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon\u00a0hearing of\u00a0Impachi\u2019s\u00a0establishment,\u00a0AUTOMATON\u00a0conducted an interview with Taka,\u00a0who serves as the company\u2019s\u00a0representative director.\u00a0He talked to us at\u00a0length\u00a0about his\u00a0career, what he did in the two years since leaving his\u00a0previous\u00a0job, what kind of company\u00a0Impachi\u00a0is, and whether\u00a0he&#8217;s\u00a0making games.\u00a0This is Part 1 of a two-part interview. Be sure to <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/harvestella-and-another-eden-creator-daisuke-takas-upcoming-game-is-a-4x-roguelike-deck-builder-with-robust-storytelling-he-tells-us-why-hes-making-it-for\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">check out Part 2 too<\/a>, which focuses more closely on Impachi&#8217;s in-progress game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"the-two-year-gap-was-a-period-of-input\">The two-year gap was a period&nbsp;of&nbsp;\u201cinput\u201d&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Please introduce yourself.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Daisuke Taka (Taka hereafter&nbsp;Taka):<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I\u2019m&nbsp;Daisuke Taka.&nbsp;As for my age&#8230;&nbsp;I&nbsp;tend to&nbsp;look younger than I&nbsp;am, so maybe&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;better&nbsp;I&nbsp;keep quiet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"492\" height=\"739\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 492px) 100vw, 492px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-001jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65511\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-001jpg.jpg 492w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-001jpg-253x380.jpg 253w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015&nbsp;(laughs)&nbsp;That&#8217;s true, you do look&nbsp;quite&nbsp;young.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yeah, so&nbsp;I think&nbsp;I\u2019ll&nbsp;keep my age a&nbsp;secret (laughs).&nbsp;As for my career, I&nbsp;started out&nbsp;working as a web engineer for about 12 years, and around that time, mobile games, which combined web technology with gaming, began to&nbsp;emerge.&nbsp;When&nbsp;mixi&#8217;s&nbsp;games&nbsp;launched, I&nbsp;saw&nbsp;it as a fantastic environment where my web skills and my love for games came together, so I switched careers to the game industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After that, I&nbsp;briefly&nbsp;joined&nbsp;gumi,&nbsp;then moved&nbsp;to Sega where I worked as&nbsp;a&nbsp;producer&nbsp;on&nbsp;Puyopuyo!! Quest. Later, at GREE\u2019s Wright Flyer Studios, I worked as&nbsp;the&nbsp;producer and director on Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space, and after that, I moved to Square Enix, where I was&nbsp;the&nbsp;producer of&nbsp;Harvestella.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ultimately, I&nbsp;spent six years at Square&nbsp;Enix. Although&nbsp;Harvestella&nbsp;was the only game I released, it was the longest period of my career as a game creator.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2014You&#8217;ve&nbsp;worked on&nbsp;quite a few&nbsp;projects.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>The thing is, around the time&nbsp;Harvestella&nbsp;was released, the entire Japanese game industry suddenly fell into a slump.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The COVID-19 pandemic had brought extremely high demand, but then it ended and things suddenly became&nbsp;very&nbsp;difficult&nbsp;for us.&nbsp;I think there&nbsp;are&nbsp;several factors&nbsp;that&nbsp;contributed to&nbsp;this. Soaring development costs, increasingly long dev&nbsp;cycles, and an oversupply of games.&nbsp;All of these factors combined have made&nbsp;an environment&nbsp;where&nbsp;creating new games itself&nbsp;is&nbsp;quite risky.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, major game companies&nbsp;possess&nbsp;large IPs that they need to&nbsp;keep&nbsp;selling, and the atmosphere in the industry made it difficult to create new IPs in the mid-range market, which is my specialty. As a result, I ended up leaving the company amicably through&nbsp;a &#8220;constructive dissolution.&#8221; It was the friendliest departure of my life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015What did you do after that?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I played games. During my time as a salaried worker, I&nbsp;didn&#8217;t&nbsp;have much time to keep up with the&nbsp;latest&nbsp;trends&nbsp;in gaming, so I played a lot of indie games.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015So,&nbsp;you&nbsp;entered&nbsp;a&nbsp;kind&nbsp;of&nbsp;&#8220;period of input&#8221; after you left your job.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Well, when&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;focused on work,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;hard to&nbsp;find the time to&nbsp;play games&#8230; and once I start playing, I really&nbsp;can&#8217;t&nbsp;stop.&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;end up playing for 18 hours at a time, so I tried to restrain myself, but after leaving my job, I decided to just do whatever I liked.&nbsp;That&#8217;s&nbsp;why I played indie games&nbsp;nonstop.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Catching up with trends is important&nbsp;for you too I assume.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I make games for a living, but&nbsp;I&nbsp;love&nbsp;playing them&nbsp;too of course, so&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;both a&nbsp;form of&nbsp;input for&nbsp;new trends&nbsp;and a&nbsp;way to relieve&nbsp;stress.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015By the way, what&nbsp;kind of games have you played? Are there any titles that&nbsp;left&nbsp;a&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;strong&nbsp;impression on you?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>If I had to pick an indie game that&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;played for over&nbsp;1,000 hours, it would be Against the Storm. I was really impressed by that game;&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;truly amazing. Not only the&nbsp;game&nbsp;mechanics,&nbsp;but the way the carefully crafted world is woven throughout the entire game, or rather, the way&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;structured, is&nbsp;truly wonderful.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a game that could stand on its own based on&nbsp;its&nbsp;mechanics alone, but the characters, worldbuilding, atmosphere, and graphic style are all so well-done, I was&nbsp;genuinely&nbsp;surprised that&nbsp;there&nbsp;are&nbsp;indie studios&nbsp;capable of making&nbsp;something&nbsp;so polished.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015<\/strong><strong>I had the impression that you were a creator who prioritized storytelling, so I was surprised to hear that you pay close attention to mechanics too.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Another example is Slay the Spire. The mechanics there are fantastic, of course, but&nbsp;I think the balance&nbsp;is truly divine, too. While the game&#8217;s success is certainly due to its interesting mechanics,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;mainly about&nbsp;the balance for me.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It has&nbsp;replayability, and even though&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;random,&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;still a way for each card to survive. Even with a terrible draw or pick, a skilled player might still be able to make something of it.&nbsp;There&#8217;s&nbsp;at least a 0.1% chance of success, and&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;truly wonderful&nbsp;how they left that possibility.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015How many hours do you have in&nbsp;Slay the Spire?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I&#8217;ve&nbsp;played for about&nbsp;1,000 hours. Of course,&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;also played Slay the Spire 2, and&nbsp;I&#8217;ve&nbsp;managed to reach Ascension 10 with all the characters.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another game that really impressed me was&nbsp;Inscryption. I&nbsp;actually&nbsp;struggled&nbsp;with how to rate it after finishing&nbsp;it, but&nbsp;Act 1 was just too&nbsp;fun. I think&nbsp;that&nbsp;may be why my impression of the game was all over the place.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1130\" height=\"635\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1130px) 100vw, 1130px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-002.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-002.jpg 1130w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-002-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-002-768x432.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1125\" height=\"632\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1125px) 100vw, 1125px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65513\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-003.jpg 1125w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-003-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-003-768x431.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015True,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a fun game, but&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;very difficult&nbsp;to describe what exactly makes it entertaining.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>It&#8217;s&nbsp;extremely well-made,&nbsp;but&nbsp;there are also parts that&nbsp;aren&#8217;t&nbsp;so solid.&nbsp;However, that kind of&nbsp;imbalance&nbsp;is part of the charm of indie&nbsp;games&nbsp;too,&nbsp;in my opinion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"two-years-of-intensive-ai-research-but-we-don-t-use-it-for-art\">Two years of intensive AI research. But&nbsp;we&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;use it for art&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Besides playing games, what else were you&nbsp;up to during your 2-year break?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I spent two years intensively researching AI. Come to think of it, when I left Square&nbsp;Enix, I generated and sent my farewell email using&nbsp;ChatGPT.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Wow,&nbsp;I bet the people who read your resignation email were&nbsp;surprised.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I&nbsp;actually included a note saying, &#8220;This text was generated using&nbsp;ChatGPT,&#8221; so it was fine.&nbsp;There was a huge&nbsp;uproar about it&nbsp;within the company.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015That&#8217;s intense.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>It made waves even in other departments,&nbsp;and people were asking to see it. I heard people still talk about&nbsp;it to this day, so it seems to have become quite a&nbsp;hot&nbsp;topic.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>AI is commonplace now, but back then, it&nbsp;wasn&#8217;t&nbsp;common for&nbsp;regular&nbsp;people to use it.&nbsp;Using&nbsp;ChatGPT&nbsp;to generate text, or anything like that,&nbsp;wasn&#8217;t&nbsp;really normal&nbsp;within the company at the time, so&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;probably&nbsp;why it became such a big thing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015You&#8217;re&nbsp;a&nbsp;lot more unhinged&nbsp;than I thought.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Well, since I was the one leaving, there was no way I could get in trouble&nbsp;for&nbsp;it&nbsp;(laughs).&nbsp;After that, I did some thorough research in various directions on how to link AI to game development and how it could be put to use.&nbsp;I thought that&nbsp;maybe by&nbsp;using AI, I could start developing new games in a much more compact way.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"564\" height=\"763\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 564px) 100vw, 564px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-004.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-004.jpg 564w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-004-281x380.jpg 281w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015AI technology has its uses, but I think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;also a delicate topic. Announcing that&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;using generative AI could have negative consequences. What are your thoughts on that?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes,&nbsp;we&#8217;re&nbsp;not simply using everything&nbsp;as&nbsp;is. Initially, I thought we could entrust all elements to generative AI.&nbsp;But ultimately, I&nbsp;felt that the images and sounds generated by AI&nbsp;weren&#8217;t&nbsp;quite reaching the quality I was looking for.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015I see, so&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;not pleased with&nbsp;the output when it comes to art?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>At least with its current performance, AI is not at the level&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;looking for. Last year, there was considerable progress in image generation. In April 2025,&nbsp;ChatGPT&#8217;s&nbsp;image generation capabilities improved significantly, and in October, Gemini&#8217;s Nano Banana evolved to generate much more consistent graphics. But since then, there&nbsp;hasn&#8217;t&nbsp;been as much progress as&nbsp;I&#8217;d&nbsp;hoped. I felt it would be difficult to use AI images as&nbsp;in-game assets.&nbsp;So, in the company I recently launched, we&#8217;ve decided not to use generative AI for images and music at this time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Your works&nbsp;tend to&nbsp;be permeated&nbsp;with a&nbsp;unique atmosphere,&nbsp;which I imagine is hard to convey without powerful visuals.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>That&#8217;s&nbsp;true. However, I believe that even without powerful visuals,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;possible to create interesting games with a small development team. But to reach the &#8220;new kind of indie that transcends indie&#8221; that&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;aiming for,&nbsp;I think the current quality&nbsp;isn&#8217;t&nbsp;quite enough.&nbsp;Regarding&nbsp;AI,&nbsp;I&#8217;m&nbsp;using Claude Code for general coding, organizing game design documents,&nbsp;developing&nbsp;and researching marketing plans,&nbsp;and also&nbsp;for general administrative tasks, 24\/7.&nbsp;It&#8217;s&nbsp;an excellent partner that never&nbsp;complains (laughs).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015So,&nbsp;with all that in mind,&nbsp;you&#8217;ve&nbsp;established&nbsp;a new company and are focusing on&nbsp;game&nbsp;development there.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes. I&nbsp;established&nbsp;a company called&nbsp;Impachi&nbsp;in January of this year.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Between&nbsp;leaving your&nbsp;previous&nbsp;job and&nbsp;establishing&nbsp;Impachi, you&nbsp;weren&#8217;t&nbsp;making a living&nbsp;through&nbsp;freelance projects?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yeah, basically, I&nbsp;lived a modest life on my own savings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015It\u2019s&nbsp;impressive&nbsp;that you&nbsp;were able to&nbsp;live off your savings for two years.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Maybe I just don&#8217;t think ahead, but I feel like I have to do&nbsp;the things&nbsp;I&#8217;m interested in right now.&nbsp;Also, I think taking on big projects&nbsp;isn\u2019t&nbsp;really my&nbsp;thing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015You\u2019re&nbsp;quite free-spirited,&nbsp;I assume there&nbsp;are also&nbsp;some things you&nbsp;can&#8217;t&nbsp;really say when&nbsp;you&#8217;re&nbsp;employed by a company&#8230;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes,&nbsp;I can say everything I want and take responsibility for it myself&nbsp;now, so I think&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a&nbsp;really good&nbsp;environment for me.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1029\" height=\"647\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1029px) 100vw, 1029px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-005.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-005.jpg 1029w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-005-380x239.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-005-768x483.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"impachi-is-going-for-all-or-nothing\">Impachi&nbsp;is going for \u201call or nothing\u201d&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Moving on, please tell&nbsp;me&nbsp;about&nbsp;your&nbsp;company.&nbsp;Is&nbsp;Impachi&nbsp;a studio where you develop games with other staff members besides yourself?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong><br>That&#8217;s&nbsp;right. There are three members, including myself. First, we have&nbsp;Furumoto, our CTO (Chief Technology Officer)&nbsp;and board director.&nbsp;He&#8217;s&nbsp;the lead engineer, and he&nbsp;was in charge of&nbsp;the&nbsp;early stages&nbsp;of development for Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space.&nbsp;After that, he worked in development and as an executive officer at various companies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The other&nbsp;member&nbsp;is&nbsp;Uemura, a game designer. He&nbsp;was in charge of&nbsp;balancing&nbsp;in&nbsp;Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space and&nbsp;Harvestella. We also&nbsp;have some external staff&nbsp;assisting&nbsp;with the art side of things.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;re planning to&nbsp;self-publish, and we have no external investment.&nbsp;We&nbsp;haven\u2019t&nbsp;brought in any venture capital, and we&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;have a parent company.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015So&nbsp;there&#8217;s&nbsp;no&nbsp;large Chinese company backing you&nbsp;or anything like that.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Yes, that&#8217;s absolutely not the case.&nbsp;We started this as a&nbsp;purely&nbsp;domestic company.&nbsp;In fact, it would definitely be possible&nbsp;for us&nbsp;to raise capital and create something on a much larger scale, but we&nbsp;consider it&nbsp;enough to just make a living.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, speaking personally, I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;really want to make large-scale games. I&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;want the amount of content to increase simply by increasing the number of personnel; I want to compete on&nbsp;core&nbsp;game&nbsp;mechanics.&nbsp;We&#8217;re&nbsp;a small team&nbsp;that\u2019s&nbsp;working steadily, and at first, we might not get any attention, but we want to grow together.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015So&nbsp;you\u2019re&nbsp;ready to&nbsp;challenge the scene&nbsp;slowly&nbsp;and&nbsp;steadily.&nbsp;That\u2019s&nbsp;interesting.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>We&#8217;re&nbsp;looking forward to&nbsp;gamers\u2019 support.&nbsp;By the way, the&nbsp;company name &#8220;Impachi&#8221; comes from the saying &#8220;all or nothing&#8221; (Japanese:&nbsp;<em>ichi&nbsp;ka&nbsp;bachi&nbsp;ka<\/em>,&nbsp;literally:&nbsp;&#8220;one or eight&#8221;).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015That&#8217;s a great company name!<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>(laughs) Well,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;about being ready to take on new challenges, but also my birthday is January 8, so it has a double meaning. Also, I like mahjong, and when you win a dealer&#8217;s&nbsp;haneman&nbsp;(18,000 points),&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;called &#8220;impachi.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you&nbsp;score&nbsp;an&nbsp;impachi, you usually win that game. If you like mahjong, you naturally want to&nbsp;win&nbsp;a&nbsp;yakuman, but you don&#8217;t get&nbsp;those&nbsp;very often. So, even though&nbsp;scoring an&nbsp;impachi&nbsp;is a challenge&nbsp;too,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;something you can do with a bit more consistency. We want to consistently be pushing out hits worth 18,000 points, so&nbsp;that&#8217;s&nbsp;how we&nbsp;came up with&nbsp;the company name.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Is 18,000 points enough&nbsp;for you?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>18,000 points is fine. A&nbsp;dealer&#8217;s&nbsp;baiman&nbsp;(24,000 points) is a bit&#8230; well,&nbsp;let\u2019s&nbsp;just say&nbsp;it&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;appear very often.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015(laughs)<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Even if you try to&nbsp;score&nbsp;a dealer&#8217;s&nbsp;baiman,&nbsp;you can just end up wasting your time and&nbsp;getting&nbsp;beaten by 1,000 or 2,000 points by&nbsp;another player. But if&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;just a&nbsp;dealer&#8217;s&nbsp;haneman,&nbsp;your&nbsp;opponents&nbsp;probably&nbsp;won&#8217;t&nbsp;fight you for it, and you can build a solid hand, so&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;a realistic challenge.&nbsp;That said,&nbsp;it&#8217;s&nbsp;also a gamble, so&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;a delicate balance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Do you have any desire to hit the jackpot with a successful product?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>Ultimately, it&#8217;s&nbsp;not about profit. My primary goal is to deliver&nbsp;a good&nbsp;game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015By the way, was&nbsp;there a reason you decided&nbsp;to go public about the&nbsp;company&#8217;s establishment at this time?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>A reason?&nbsp;I wonder&#8230;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Oh,&nbsp;there&nbsp;wasn&#8217;t&nbsp;any&nbsp;special reason&nbsp;behind it?<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Taka:<\/strong>&nbsp;<br>I&nbsp;just&nbsp;thought it would be&nbsp;a good idea&nbsp;to announce it, but I felt it would be a waste to just say, &#8220;Right,&nbsp;I&#8217;ve established a company.&#8221;&nbsp;That&#8217;s&nbsp;why I thought it would be a good opportunity to get an interview and&nbsp;reached&nbsp;out to you.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1055\" height=\"705\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1055px) 100vw, 1055px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-006-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-65517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-006-1.jpg 1055w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-006-1-380x254.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260421-65506-006-1-768x513.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2015Thank you very much.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can visit Impachi\u2019s official homepage, which went live today,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/impachi.games\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We talk to Harvestella producer Daisuke Taka following his departure from Square Enix and the establishment of his new company Impachi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - 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