Cygames: The Company that Creates the Best Content
The Pursuit of Unrivaled Quality and Building an Organization that Leads Our Games to Success

Matsuura: Each project leaders meet with the executive team, including the president, twice a week. A key characteristic of our approach is the high frequency with which messages from the executive team are shared, as leaders convey these messages directly to their teams. This allows us to ensure timely dissemination of management's perspectives and strategies throughout the organization.

"THE PROJECT" also lays out a clear mindset for our work, with tenets like "The absolute will to make something good is the most important," and "On a hit project, everyone can feel it." When these words are deeply rooted in the organization, each member naturally acts in accordance with them. I believe this is what creates a powerful sense of unity across us, which ultimately allows us to achieve our ideal game development.

This mentality is exactly why we frequently "scrap and build" during development. It’s a common story: as we're developing a feature, we realize the current layout or game speed feels clunky or awkward. When that happens, we found that overhauling the entire thing—not just patching a small part—often leads to a major leap in quality. Although it often costs more, prioritizing quality is deeply ingrained in our culture. In Princess Connect! Re: Dive, for example, we rebuilt the UI over and over again.

Matsuura: We operate on the principle that you can't really find what needs to be improved until you can actually play the game. So at Cygames, our development approach is to build a prototype first. We then engage with it to discover ways to enhance the user experience, including usability and controls. This has led us to make bold changes, such as shifting the game screen of Umamusume: Pretty Derby from a horizontal to a vertical. We even rebuilt another game from two dimensions to three dimensions.

For both GRANBLUE FANTASY: Relink and Umamusume: Pretty Derby - Party Dash!, we continued to make refinements even after the games were ready to release. We fine-tuned them until the very end, adjusting rules and data and adding new features right up to the end to polish the quality as much as we could go.

Fujiko: I personally had an experience in character design where I redid the angle of an IP character's hand more than 10 times simply because it "didn't feel right." And for Umamusume: Pretty Derby, we obsessed over details down to the flick of an ear or the sway of a tail, all to ensure it would resonate with horse racing fans. Every character has fans, so our team members conducted thorough research. They interviewed people who love that character to gain the fans' perspective or delved deep into the source material themselves. Our goal is always to provide something that fans can truly say they "love."

─ What is the standard of quality at Cygames?

Fujiko: Our standard for quality is all about user satisfaction. That's our top priority. We hold internal review sessions where we can carefully watch players' genuine reactions, and we use their feedback as a benchmark. If there's still room for improvement, we don't spare time or cost—we stick to our "quality first" principle. The fact that we redesign the UI for Princess Connect! Re: Dive multiple times is a perfect example. We strive for an uncompromising level of perfection by continually asking, in every department, "Is this something users will be satisfied with?"

Matsuura: Our team members are avid gamers; they have an intuitive sense of the quality required for any given genre and titles. On top of that, there's a deep-seated drive to create something that not only surpasses the industry standard but also exceeds our own previous work. We are always focused on improving things and never letting quality slip.

Katsuya: As professional game developers, we have a strong desire to amaze players and create something no one has ever seen. However, we know it’s not just about chasing novelty. It’s critical that we carefully listen to and integrate feedback from both our users and our teams. I believe this attitude is what ultimately leads to quality that surpasses player expectations.

Fujiko: It's important to be "quality first," but it's just as important to execute within the constraints of limited resources. It's about finding the right balance between quality and resources, ensuring we don't look back with regrets. We believe that when every member on a project works together with this mindset, the result is the "best content" for players.

─ To achieve the highest quality, talent development is also essential. Coudl you tell us about the training initiatives at Cygames?

Katsuya: Every year, we host an internal conference called "CyStudy." The goal is to share the know-how accumulated within each project across the entire company and deepen everyone's expertise. Because it's an internal-only event, we can share highly sensitive knowledge. The sessions aren't limited to game development; they also cover introductions to different departments, internal tools, and services, making it incredibly valuable for our staff. All presentation slides and videos are accessible at any time, so even new hires can quickly access the company's vast knowledge base.

Matsuura: In addition to input-focused sessions, we also host an internal game jam to provide our staff with hands-on output experience. We issue an open call for participants, who then form teams and spend half a year developing a game from scratch, competing for the final product. Game development cycles have become longer, often taking years, which means our staff have fewer opportunities to experience a full release. So we started this contest to address that issue. The 2024 contest had 45 teams and around 600 staff members participating.
 

Fujiko: We focus not only on hard skills but also on developing soft skills, such as mindset, within each department. In the design department, for example, we proactively disseminate information through multiple approaches—including department-wide sharing sessions and regular meetings—to foster better communication and a shared understanding of our creative philosophies.

─ What are the key principles you focus on in management?

Katsuya: I believe that talent allocation and a system for swift problem-solving are crucial. For this reason, we have adopted a matrix-style organizational structure, managing our engineers along two axes: "project" and "department." Within a project, the project leader provides development support, while in the department, the manager fosters both technical and personal growth.

By adopting this dual-axis system, we have empowered our engineers to consult the appropriate person for various work-related issues, depending on the situation. This structure, which provides support from managers with different perspectives, leads to swift problem resolution, individual growth, and the strengthening of our overall organizational capabilities.

Fujiko: In the design department, our mission is to "visually convey the game's world." We ask all our staff to "pursue high quality and the best possible expression." While more specific expectations are set for each section, we universally emphasize balancing "skill improvement" with "effective team collaboration." Through this policy, we aim to cultivate designers who possess both advanced expertise and strong teamwork skills.

Matsuura: Since game directors are responsible for leading a game's development, our mission is to "create the best content," to align with our corporate vision. To help them broaden their perspectives and increase their input, we offer platforms for sharing knowledge and information, as well as fostering connections among them.

[Copyright Information ]
Umamusume: Pretty Derby,: © Cygames, Inc.
Princess Connect! Re:Dive: © Cygames, Inc.
GRANBLUE FANTASY: Relink: © Cygames, Inc.
Umamusume: Pretty Derby Party Dash!: © Cygames, Inc. Developed by ARC SYSTEM WORKS