The Hundred Line director explains why Too Kyo Games stays small and outsources development

Kazutaka Kodaka, director of The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, has explained his studio’s strategy of maintaining a lean team while outsourcing actual game production. Speaking at The Tenth Mosaic event in Tokyo, the Too Kyo Games founder noted that expanding their core staff to handle all development internally would require hiring up to fifty employees. He argued that such growth would force the company to accept projects they do not wish to make simply to cover operational costs.

Instead, Too Kyo Games focuses on planning and scenario writing, partnering with external developers like Media.Vision for The Hundred Line and Neilo for Shuten Order. This approach allowed the ten-person team to create original intellectual properties without the burden of full-scale in-house development. Kodaka humorously described this model as making games he enjoys using other people’s money.

Despite keeping the core team small, the development of The Hundred Line became a significant financial undertaking. The project initially utilized about 500 million yen in capital but ultimately exceeded one billion yen in total costs. Kodaka highlighted that this resulted in an investment of approximately 100 million yen per team member.