Princess Maker K

Source: プリンセスメーカー 4 娘さん、デザイン中 ●カレンちゃん写真集 スタンバイ中だ号

Remnants of a lost entry in Takami Akai's Princess Maker series.

While the game was often referred to as "Princess Maker 4" while it was in planning, that was a working title. Were it to have been finished, it is likely that this game would have been given its own subtitle, like "Princess Maker: Faery Tales Come True" on the PlayStation. References to this game as "Princess Maker 4" are preserved where the game is specifically named as such in Ninelives' prerelease materials.

Some elements appeared in the 1999 Macromedia Director 6 quiz game Princess Maker Q, directed by Jun Tamaya ( 玉谷 純 ), as a preview of things to come.

Though initially hoped to have been released in the Spring of 2001 despite a badly delayed and eventually cancelled demo, it was not. That year, Takami Akai returned to Gainax as a director of the board after running Ninelives since 1994.

Ninelives was initially established with Akai's frequent Gainax computer game collaborator Jun Tamaya to create the third Princess Maker game and handle planning for a small number of PlayStation exclusives like Cellophanes. However, Tamaya returned to Gainax to join the Evangelion digital content group, doing art for the Eva and Friends games in late 1999 that were based off a mahjong engine sold to Gainax.

Eventually Tamaya would direct a Princess Maker-inspired Evangelion game called "Ayanami Raising Project", shipping within Princess Maker 4's intended launch window of May 2001 with Takami Akai receiving a supervisor credit.

In subsequent years, a GeneX developed "Princess Maker 4" would surface with some of the soundtrack found in Princess Maker Q, but not the concept or characters. Princess Maker 5 reused the initial concept of the original Princess Maker 4, yet ignored many of the characters and ideas shopped in Princess Maker Q and Takami Akai's doujin works.

Akai later acknowledged these events in a 2024 interview lacking specifics. Stating that he hit a big wall and could not finish Princess Maker 4 with his lack of expertise, requiring him to step down as the game's producer. He expressed gratitude for those who made the GeneX Princess Maker 4 on his behalf.

In 2023, a Korean developer founded by an NCSoft executive known as "D-Zard" acquired the rights to make a new Princess Maker game from Takami Akai's Yonago Gainax. This game will feature the daughter of the defunct Princess Maker 4, and it currently carries the title of Princess Maker Karen. It's unclear how much inspiration they plan to take from the cancelled title.