Danganronpa creators are apparently in debt over new Switch game

Too Kyo Games, the studio behind The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy, says it took out a loan and remains in debt because of the project, according to Nintendo Life and Automaton West.

The Hundred Line is a collaboration between Danganronpa series writer Kazutaka Kodaka and Zero Escape creator Kotaro Uchikoshi, announced for 2025 release on Nintendo Switch and PC, published by Aniplex. Development began shortly after Too Kyo Games' 2017 formation, per the coverage.

The reporting does not specify the size of the loan or the studio's total debt figure; those numbers were not disclosed in the retrieved coverage.

How the budget grew

The game was originally conceived as an "indie-scale" project, but after an early publishing deal fell through, the team made radical changes that required significantly more investment, according to Nintendo Life. Kodaka said that even if Too Kyo Games' members had sold all their personal shares in the company, it would not have raised enough capital to cover development — leading the studio to take out a loan instead.

The framing

"We have invested all our money and human resources into this game, and in a sense, it is an epic indie game," Kodaka said, according to Nintendo Life's reporting. Automaton West reported that Kodaka, speaking through laughter, said the studio's members are "risking their lives" for the title even though it has left the company in debt.

What it signals

The Hundred Line is Too Kyo Games' first fully in-house original IP, rather than a work-for-hire collaboration, which raised the financial stakes of a scope increase that a contracted project would not have exposed the studio to directly. Kodaka's account illustrates a common trap for small studios chasing creative ambition without a locked publishing deal: the same decision to expand scope that can make a game distinctive is the one that can leave its founders personally on the hook for the difference.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by Nintendo Life and Automaton West. It restores a story originally published on this site in June 2024; figures are as reported at the time.