Stranger Than Heaven Director Calls Showbiz System 'a Real Challenge' for RGG Studio

The system requires protagonist Makoto Daito to build a business, find sources of inspiration for music and plan productions as a promoter. Abe said RGG began by asking what a promoter actually does, because players may know what a singer or a band does but not what a promoter does in the music industry. Research started from that question.

Abe said the studio at one point had “a small rhythm game,” but it “didn’t exactly match the feeling that you’re promoting a show,” so the team returned to the whiteboard to try different approaches. He said the process showed that a promoter is the person who brings in not just money but also inspiration and the whole vision of the show, an aspect the team wanted to put into the game.

In Stranger Than Heaven, players can walk around cities and interact with objects in the environment, such as a grandfather clock or a bonfire, collecting sounds as inspiration. Daito can take those samples and collaborate with a composer to create new music and plan a production for a singer and band.

Abe described inspiration sources as comparable to the “antennas” people develop in a job. “If you’re a musician, you always have this antenna for the music you’re hearing, and that can inspire people to create new stuff, and that was no different for Makoto as well,” he said. He added that this was why the system of finding inspiration and using it to create music came to life in the game.

Stranger Than Heaven is set for release on January 15, 2027, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC.