During March, several teams had successfully completed their developnt cycles. The two main teams finishing their work this month were Team NIWA from Japan and Team Tempest from the USA. Both teams had spent the past months polishing their projects to et ZAGE's quality standards.
Team NIWA had completed developnt of Final Fantasy VIII for ZEPS 3, focusing on optimizing the ga for the console hardware and ensuring the performance and visuals matched ZAGE's expectations. anwhile, Team Tempest had finished developing Castle Wolfenstein for PC.
Both titles were scheduled to release at the end of the month, launching alongside several other ZAGE titles including Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Mafia, and Fallout 2. Together, these releases were expected to create a strong lineup for ZAGE's March catalogue.
So Zaboru decided to give a new task to Team NIWA. The team was widely known as a group of specialists in JRPG developnt, and most of their previous projects had been within that genre. However, this ti Zaboru intentionally chose not to assign them another JRPG. Instead, he wanted to challenge the team with sothing slightly different. The new project he gave them was related to the Zelda franchise, specifically The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
Zaboru was confident in the capabilities of all ZAGE teams, even when they were asked to work on genres they were not traditionally known for. In his view, strong developers should be able to adapt and grow when given new challenges. Fortunately, Team NIWA was not completely unfamiliar with the Zelda series. In fact, several mbers of the team had previously contributed to the developnt of the first Legend of Zelda ga on ZEPS 3, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Ti. Because of that experience, Zaboru believed the team already understood the design philosophy behind the franchise.
Majora's Mask would still require careful work, however. The ga carried a darker atmosphere compared to many other Zelda titles and relied heavily on ti chanics and world interactions. Zaboru wanted the team to focus on creating a rich world of Termina.
To ensure the developers had enough ti to polish the ga properly, Zaboru gave them a developnt window of 10 months. If everything progressed smoothly, the project should be completed by January 2001.
Next for Team Tempest, Zaboru planned for them to develop the sequel to Age of Empire, Age of Empire 2. In this world, the first ZAGE Age of Empire was roughly equivalent to a simplified version of Age of Empire II from Zaboru's previous life. Because of that, the new Age of Empire 2 would be designed as a much larger evolution of the formula. Zaboru planned for the ga to combine the strong historical gaplay of Age of Empires II with several advanced chanics and systems inspired by Age of Empires III.
This ant the ga would include deeper civilization identities, improved economic chanics, and more varied battlefield strategies while still preserving the classic large‑scale dieval warfare that made the series so popular. Zaboru also intended to introduce better unit balancing, improved AI behavior, and larger campaign storytelling so players could experience historical conflicts in a more imrsive way.
In addition, several quality‑of‑life improvents would be added, including smoother pathfinding, more responsive controls, and better visual presentation to take advantage of this world modern PC hardware. Zaboru believed that combining the best elents from both Age of Empires II and III would create a strategy ga that felt both familiar and significantly more advanced than its predecessor Age of Empire 2 in his previous life.
With these goals in mind, Zaboru scheduled the project for release in March 2001, giving Team Tempest enough ti to refine the chanics and polish the experience before launch.
Next, Zaboru had already begun expanding the existing ZAGE teams, especially Team Tempest. He planned for this team not only to develop full gas but also to handle expansion packs in the future, allowing ZAGE titles to grow over ti rather than ending support shortly after release. One of the main reasons Zaboru decided to start this strategy now was because Steam was already live. With a digital platform available, distributing expansion packs or DLC had beco much easier compared to the past when gas had to be sold physically. Instead of producing new discs, additional content could simply be uploaded to Steam and downloaded directly by players. Because of this, Zaboru believed expansion content would beco an important part of the future ga industry. It was a powerful way to keep players engaged while also extending the lifespan of successful gas.
For their first assignnt under this new direction, Team Tempest would begin working on the Warcraft III expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Since the core systems of Warcraft III were already well established, the expansion would mainly focus on adding new campaigns, additional units, improved balance, and several gaplay features that could deepen the strategic experience for players. Because the developnt scope was smaller than a full ga, Zaboru did not expect the project to take too long.
Based on the current developnt schedule, Zaboru estimated that the expansion could be completed and released by July of this year. He also decided that the price would remain relatively affordable, ensuring that most players who owned the base ga could easily purchase the expansion through Steam and continue enjoying the world of Warcraft without feeling pressured by a high cost.
Aside from this, Zaboru was also closely monitoring the progress of the China offices, which were still in the middle of their recruitnt phase. The hiring process was moving steadily, though it would still take so ti before the office beca fully operational. Based on the current progress, Zaboru expected the recruitnt stage to be completed soti around June or July.
Originally, Zaboru had considered naming the China team Team Dynasty, the sa na used by the Korean team. His initial idea was for both the China and Korea branches to share a unified identity because the two offices would often collaborate and divide large developnt tasks between them. However, after thinking about it more carefully, he decided against using the sa na. Zaboru believed that giving each region its own identity would help the teams build stronger internal culture and pride in their work.
Zaboru also had much larger plans for the China branch compared to so of the other regional offices. The building itself was slightly larger than the ZAGE Korea office, which ant it could support a much bigger workforce. Because of that, Zaboru intended for the China team to eventually function more like Team OMNI in London—a highly versatile developnt hub capable of handling many different types of projects.
In the long term, Zaboru hoped the China office could expand into multiple specialized teams, each focusing on different genres or technical areas. However, since the office was still new and recruitnt was ongoing, he believed that starting with a single developnt team was the most practical approach. Once the team gained experience and the workforce grew larger, the branch could gradually expand into several teams in the future.
anwhile, under ZAGE's new internal rule that allowed developers to freely submit their own project ideas, an interesting proposal finally appeared. The request ca from none other than Shigeru Miyamoto, who was currently the head of Team NOVA. Miyamoto proposed creating a sequel to Mario 64 for ZEPS 3. According to him, the idea had been forming in his mind for quite so ti. Shigeru had always held a deep affection for Mario as a character and believed there were still many gaplay possibilities that had not yet been explored since the first Mario 64 release. He wanted to build upon the foundation of the original ga while pushing the platforming design even further.
Just as Zaboru had requested in the new rule system, Miyamoto kept the detailed design of the project mostly secret. Instead of presenting a full design docunt from the beginning, Miyamoto preferred to develop the ideas internally within Team NOVA first. Zaboru would only be allowed to play early builds of the ga later, once the prototype had reached a playable state. This thod allowed the developers to experint freely without being restricted too early by outside opinions.
Miyamoto explained that many of his best ideas often appeared during the process of iteration. Sotis a chanic that seed simple at first could grow into the main identity of the ga after weeks of testing. Because of that, he believed it was better for Zaboru to experience the ga directly rather than read about it on paper.
Miyamoto asked Zaboru to trust him on this approach. He assured him that Team NOVA would work carefully and that the final result would not disappoint. His goal was to create sothing that could stand proudly beside the original Mario 64 while also introducing new ideas that would surprise players.
However, Miyamoto also requested a developnt period of two years. The reason was simple: Team NOVA already had several responsibilities assigned by Zaboru, and so expansion projects were still ongoing within the studio. Their manpower was limited, and the team preferred to focus on quality rather than rushing the project. According to Miyamoto, a Mario title required careful level design, constant gaplay testing, and repeated iteration before it could reach the standard he expected. If they rushed the developnt, the ga might lose the charm and creativity that defined the series. Therefore, taking the full two years would ensure the ga could be properly refined before release.
Zaboru himself felt a surge of excitent when hearing the proposal. For him, this project carried a special aning. It would beco the first major sequel of a famous ga that did not exist in his previous life. That alone made the idea fascinating. Even though in this world Shigeru Miyamoto was not the original creator of Mario, Zaboru knew very well how talented Miyamoto truly was. In his previous life, Miyamoto had proven countless tis that he possessed incredible design instincts when it ca to gaplay and creativity.
Because of that, Zaboru did not hesitate for long. He approved the project and trusted Miyamoto's vision. Based on the two‑year developnt request, Zaboru expected the sequel to be ready for release around March 2002, giving Team NOVA enough ti to experint, refine chanics, and create another morable Mario adventure for the ZEPS 3.
In the near future, Zaboru planned to change the way he guided his developers. In the past, when he assigned a project, he usually provided a full outline—drafts, design direction, story concepts, and sotis even gaplay structure—leaving the developers mostly responsible for executing the idea. However, Zaboru now wanted to shift toward a more creative approach. Instead of giving complete instructions, he would begin offering only core ideas and allow the developers themselves to expand them into full projects.
For example, he might simply say sothing like, "Make a Deadpool ga." From there, the developnt team would be responsible for imagining the gaplay style, the tone of the story, the chanics, and the overall design direction. Zaboru would still participate in discussions and give feedback when necessary, but the main creative process would belong to the team itself.
He believed this approach would encourage stronger creativity among the developers. By giving them room to experint and think independently, they could produce ideas that were sotis even better than what he originally imagined. Zaboru understood that great gas were often born from passionate teams who had the freedom to explore their own vision, and he wanted ZAGE to beco a place where that kind of creativity could grow. Besides, he knows all ZAGE Developers are talented. That shows whenever they work there will be ideas that co from them.
Now it was already the end of March, just before the release of the ZAGE March gas. At the mont, however, Zaboru was spending ti with his family as they attended the premiere of Finding Nemo.
To be continue
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