In around 1985, Erikawa was developing various games with her husband
Yōichi Erikawa. But the games in those days were all targeted to males. Erikawa thought it was strange that games aimed at women did not exist. There were almost no female staff in Koei at that point. Therefore, she started to recruit women as staff members, leading to an all-female development group within Koei, forming the Ruby Party team. The first product of this team was the game
Angelique in 1994. However, the team Ruby Party did not develop the game by itself.
Yōichi Erikawa and his mainly male developing staff at
Koei helped with the completion of
Angelique. After the release of
Angelique, Ruby Party has developed many otome games and planned various related projects such as OVAs, drama CDs, music CDs, anime, and live events. Ruby Party has since become one of the most influential developers of
otome game visual novels and
dating sims, as the
Angelique series pioneered the
otome game genre.
Harukanaru Toki no Naka de had become a major hit for Ruby Party, spawning multiple sequels and an
anime television series. 2003's ''
La Corda d'Oro had also become an international success for Ruby Party, also spawning multiple anime adaptions and sequels. A manga series based on it was picked up by Viz'' for
English language publishing. In 2021, Ruby Party released
Buddy Mission Bond, published by
Nintendo. They were approached by Nintendo during the development of the
Nintendo Switch, who were looking to diversify the line-up of games for their upcoming
video game console. The project was greenlit by Nintendo in 2016. At the time,
Buddy Mission Bond was intended to be a traditional Ruby Party otome game, however during the game's development, the scale of the project continuously grew, until it went beyond its initial goal. Unlike Ruby Party's usual output,
Buddy Mission Bond aimed for a wider appeal. Mei Erikawa said that it was a collaborative effort with Nintendo, as it wasn't an otome game, citing their inspiration to be
shounen manga, and that the development was challenge for the team, which had never worked in that genre before.
Name "Ruby Party" was named after the fact that the jewel
ruby is considered to be the queen of jewelry, and it symbolizes passion and genuine love. == Products ==