Hidden Leaf Games and VShojo will partner on VTuber game

Hidden Leaf Games and VShojo announced they will collaborate on an upcoming VTuber game.

Hidden Leaf Games was operating in secret today. And while it isn’t announcing its game yet, the company said it is going to collaborate with creators — in this case VTubers, or YouTube stars who are animated characters (sometimes driven by AI).

Bao Lam, president of Hidden Leaf Games, talked to me about the collaboration in an interview.

“We’re officially collaborating on a game,” Lam said. “We’re going to be making a game which will use the VTubers in the game. It will definitely go live sometime next year. But right now, we just saying we’re working together.”

Hidden Leaf Games shared that the title will be a player-versus-environment co-op game where players will be able to play as their favorite VTubers. VShojo is a talent agency for VTubers.

“Our development team is excited to collaborate with the VShojo management team and VTubers to create an authentic and fun gameplay experience for fans that will be enjoyed by the VTubers and their viewers alike.” said Lam. “The synergy of audiences between VTubers and games is natural and we’re excited to tap into the fandom to create new experiences for them. As a lifelong anime fan, working together with the VShojo team has been a fun and collaborative process.”

Hidden Leaf Games is a venture-backed indie game studio started in 2019 by David Li and Lam. Founded by former Riot Games and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds developers including Steve “Guinsoo” Feak, the company released its first title, Fangs, a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) brawler in 2022. That game wasn’t as successful as the company had hoped, Lam said. And now it’s moving to a new plan.

“After we released our last game, we realized that one of the big problems was that we didn’t have very good distribution channel. We didn’t find a big publisher who could spend money on marketing or distribution,” Lam said.

Hooking up with VTubers

VShojo was launched in November of 2020 and represents VTubers, who are content creators who use animated avatars as their public personas on live-streaming and video platforms. The trend originated in Japan with digital personalities, and has become a rising category of influencers worldwide.

“Hidden Leaf Games partnership with VShojo paints an incredible opportunity for the creator space. VTubers have so much potential to express themselves, so being able to build a game with our creators is an exciting opportunity for VShojo and our community,” said Justin Ignacio, CEO of VShojo, in a statement.

“We wanted to find authentic, native audiences that really love games, and VTubers came to mind for us,” said Lam. “So we reached out to Justin, who was also a VC-backed creator. And it made sense that they wanted to expand outside of content creation, and more using the intellectual property and brand in new ways with the audience.”

They had already done concerts and other events with fans who were very in tune with the VTubers. They had a solid base.

“Making an actual game with them was the next natural step for us,” Lam said. “There will be skins of them in the game and different outfits and weapons that are tied to their characters.”

Survival

Regarding the tough state of the industry, Lam said, “The strongest ships are the ones that can survive the storm. Hopefully we can do that and get something good out.”

The company has adjusted its strategy, as it isn’t as big a believer in free-to-play games anymore. But Lam is hopeful that small indie studios can still make an impact on the market with innovative gameplay, using skins for monetization.

Right now, all of the VTuber characters being used in the game will be operated by humans, not AI characters.

“But it’s something we can always introduce in the future,” Lam said. “In the live interactive media space, I haven’t seen AI influencers do well yet. They have done well in social media with AI influencers like Lil Miquela. I think it will take another couple of years before we see them with authentic personalities.”