Creator of viral Japanese convenience store game says it’s much more than Supermarket Simulator
Nagai IndustriesDexerto spoke to the creator of inKONBINI, an upcoming indie game where you run a small Japanese convenience store in the 1990s, and it has all the warm fuzziness you’d expect, which is exactly what they were going for.
When we shared a glimpse of inKONBINI on X last year, it captured the hearts of millions, going viral on social media. The reaction and instant spread of the game following Dexerto’s post was a boost for the development team.
“It was a big surprise to me,” creator Dima Shen said. “It was kind of a second bump of popularity for the game. That post brought 30,000 wishlists in one day. So I owe you a beer or coffee.”
Since then, the dev team at Nagai Industries (its name references classic 90s Dreamcast game Shenmue) has been hard at work bringing its vision to life.
The game doesn’t feature a story with global ramifications, nor is it heavy on intricate mechanics that require skill and precision to execute. Its ambition is to be the polar opposite – focused on small moments, fleeting encounters with strangers, and wrapped up in a blanket of relaxed, rhythmic gameplay.
Speaking with Shen, the studio’s founder, we unravelled the purpose of this project and how the team is looking to pull it off.
A cozy week in Japan
On the surface, there’s plenty of appeal in running a convenience store in a quaint Japanese town, but Shen is keen to point out that this is more than a sim. “One of my biggest fears is people think it’s a supermarket simulator and not a story-driven game,” he explained.
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Makoto, the protagonist, serves more as an avatar than a defined character. Shen offered Mass Effect’s Commander Shepard as a comparison, someone the player can define along the course of the journey. Instead of focusing on Makoto’s backstory and motivations, it’s more about ostensibly insignificant interactions with customers. Holding conversations with them, learning of their troubles or pleasures, and then moving on.
In life, we cannot control “big events that happen around us,” as the game’s creator stressed. “We control small things, and by paying attention to them, it makes our lives better. We become better human beings.”
Nagai IndustriesDon’t be mistaken, however, there is still a great deal to interact with in a gameplay sense. In fact, “the most challenging part of the last year was creating all the packages,” Shen said with a laugh.
With over 200 unique items in the game, they all required their own designs to come to life on the shelves. Given interacting with these items is the core function of inKONBINI, they had to be richly detailed and so devs took considerable time getting it right, even if it meant starting over once or twice.
It’s an unconventional team, too – Shen told us one of the artists didn’t even use a computer, and drew everything by hand.
“I asked a Japanese journalist I know if he could recommend someone. He recommended his wife, a designer working in book publishing. That person is more than 60 years old and they didn’t use a computer. They drew everything by hand. We took the drawings, digitized them, and created a new font, which allowed us to create 200 unique packaging designs.
“I think after working on inKONBINI they bought a computer,” he added.
Through these items, which Shen considers to be “characters” in their own right, the game comes alive. “One of the innovations of inKONBINI is we implemented this organizational gameplay and connected it with branching dialogue with the characters.
“Customers react to changes in the environment and that triggers certain types of dialogue you could miss if you place objects in different positions. When speaking to them, you realize even those small things matter.”
When stacking shelves, this means it’s essential to consider where particular items are placed, as well as how they’re presented. Some customers may like your choices, others may have some feedback. All of it helps open up the real purpose of the game: to engage with others and connect on a meaningful level, even if that connection is fleeting.
Striving for the pinnacle of comfort
Overall, the aim is to instill a sense of calm and joy. You can’t ‘fail’ so to speak, and running your Aunt’s convenience store isn’t a hugely demanding process. What’s most important is being snug, a feeling Nagai Industries has been working tirelessly to capture.
“I saw this famous convenience store, a Lawson in front of Mount Fuji. I was like ‘Yes! This is the place.’ When I think about going there, I feel good.” It’s that feeling inKONBINI hopes to replicate for players around the globe.
“I hope I create a nice thing to have, a comfort game when you feel sad or bored. When something unpleasant is happening in your life, you can just take this game and it feels good. Like watching Home Alone over the holidays.”
One idea Shen kept coming back to during our conversation was the idea of ‘mono no aware.’ This Japanese concept is often used to define an awareness of life’s impermanence, that everything we experience is here and gone in a flash. Like with the changing of the seasons, there’s a certain beauty and even comfort in being mindful of this.
“There’s nothing permanent in life. I wanted to capture that atmosphere which I’ve only encountered in Japanese media.”
Listing the likes of Studio Ghibli’s Only Yesterday, and Netflix’s Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories, along with newer products in the gaming industry like Coffee Talk and Unpacking, these inspirations helped guide what inKONBINI is trying to be.
The very first playable chunk of the game is briefly available now through Steam as part of LudoNarraCon. You’ll only fully understand what the team is hoping to bring to the masses when the final product is ready though.
As for when that might be, Shen joked inKONIBI will launch the “same day as GTA 6. It will be our Barbie and Oppenheimer.”