Websites, internal tools, games, web services. The price is set for people who want to try one thing first.
We work with people anywhere. We're based in Japan, so if you're in another time zone, expect about a day of lag on each exchange. We reply within two business days either way.
We settle the price case by case. In every case you pay nothing until you have seen the finished work, and nothing at all if you decide not to use it.
Things we built that are running now. We only show the ones the owner agreed to.
Site for a group that connects people fostering rescued cats with people hoping to adopt. It lists the adoption event dates, how the adoption process works, and the cats currently looking for homes. The photographs were supplied by the group.
An internal tool that translates a whole Excel game script in one pass. It writes the translation into the next column, taking the character's gender into account. Glossaries can be registered per language.
A phone app where one user talks one to one with an AI character. It has a login and saves the conversation history. Of the three, it is the only one where the third-party costs add up to a real figure.
Running costs vary a lot with what we build. Across the three above they range from ¥0 to about ¥13,000 a month. The third breaks down as roughly ¥3,000 a month for hosting and roughly ¥10,000 a month for AI usage; AI usage is billed on what is actually used, so it rises as more people use the app. The store's annual fee comes on top of that. We always tell you the figures before you sign anything.
The price depends on what you are building. We settle it case by case.
| Building a website |
Talking it through, design, code, images and illustration, and putting it online.
You pay after you have seen the finished build. The source code and the account details are handed over once you do. |
$10one-time |
|---|---|---|
| Building a game |
The same work as a website.
The price moves with the number of screens and how much has to happen on them. We fix it before we start. |
$10–$100one-time |
| Building a tool or service |
The same work as a website.
The price moves with the number of screens and how much the thing has to do. We fix it before we start. |
$10–$50one-time |
| Keeping it running |
Starts the month after launch. Text and image changes, broken layouts, anything that stops working.
Stop any month. The site stays up when you do. |
$10per month |
| Adding something later |
For anything you want after launch. One more page, one more feature.
If the additions add up and the project changes scale, we say so at that point. |
$10–$50per item |
| Third-party services |
Hosting, domain, email delivery, payments, AI usage, app store annual fees.
These are billed in your name and you pay each provider directly. Nothing routes through us, so there is no markup. |
At costpaid by you |
Why these prices are higher than on our Japanese pages
Our Japanese pages list the same work at ¥1,000 for a website, ¥1,000 to ¥10,000 for a game, and ¥1,000 to ¥5,000 for a tool or service. Every price above sits higher than that. Working in English takes us longer — the conversations, the copy, the testing — and the prices reflect that. Everything else is identical.
What the third-party services run to
For a small site, hosting runs to about ¥0 to ¥1,000 a month and a domain to about ¥1,500 a year. Logins, outgoing email and AI usage push that up. For a phone app the stores charge on top of that: $99 a year for the App Store and $25 once for Google Play. You pay all of these directly. We give you the monthly figure before you sign anything.
The price only works if we hold the scope. We tell you where you stand while we are still talking.
Figure on one to five screens.
We take on phone apps too. The store's annual fee is paid by you, and you create the account yourself. Going back through review costs you nothing extra, however many times it takes.
We are not discounting. We build differently.
Design, code, copy, illustration: we work through all of it with AI. Work that used to take days takes hours, and that goes straight into the price. We test what comes out and fix it before it reaches you.
The same person talks to you, builds it, and puts it online. No internal handover documents, no subcontractors to brief.
On large projects, most of the time goes into estimates and scope negotiation. Capping the size removes that time entirely. The trade is that we cannot take big work.
This is half the reason. We want to be in on what people want to make, so the price is set where the first step is easy to take.
For something small, about a week from first message to launch.
Send us what you have in mind. Half-formed is fine. We tell you in that reply whether it is something we can take on.
Within two business days. Add a day if you're in another time zone.
We settle what goes in and what stays out, and tell you what the third-party services will cost each month. We write the agreed scope down and send it to you. Nothing is payable at this point.
1 to 2 days
You see the screens while they are being built, and we change what is wrong. Nothing gets revealed for the first time at the end.
3 days to 2 weeks (an internal tool can be done in a few hours)
Use it. Click through it. If it is not what you wanted, we fix it. When you are satisfied, that is when you pay the $10. If you do not want it, you owe nothing.
1 to 3 days
Once the payment clears, we set up hosting and the domain in your name and launch. You get the admin logins and all of the source code.
For a phone app, the store's review takes a few days to a week. That time is not counted in the build estimate.
1 day
$10 a month from the following month. Write to us when something needs changing. Stop it the month you no longer need it.
Ongoing
Run by Interactive Studio Inc. One person handles the conversation and the build.
Representative, Interactive Studio Inc. / runs First Step
Interactive Studio Inc. is a game development company. It has released more than 350 titles.
When I started a business of my own, not being an engineer got in the way. I knew what I wanted to build and had no way to build it. Being able to put up a site or a service from just an idea would have saved me a lot.
AI can cover that part now, but getting to the point where you can use it well is still a long way. I started First Step to take on that part for people.
The same person handles the conversation, the build, and the maintenance after launch. Nothing is subcontracted.
Games the company made. These are not examples of this service.
What you pay us is the build price and $10 a month after that. A website is $10, a game runs from $10 to $100, and a tool or service from $10 to $50; we fix it at the consultation. Third-party services — hosting, the domain — cost extra, and you pay those providers directly. We give you the monthly figure before you sign anything, so it does not grow later.
We tell you at the consultation, once we know what you are building. A website is $10, a game runs from $10 to $100, and a tool or service runs from $10 to $50. Where it lands in that range depends on the number of screens and how much the thing has to do.
The price is fixed before we start. It does not go up while we are building.
No. Look at the finished build first, then decide. We have little to show yet, so rather than ask you to trust us, we would rather you judge the thing itself. You pay after you check the build and before we launch it and hand everything over.
Yes. Change it yourself or hand it to another firm. Hosting and the domain are in your name, so the site keeps running whether or not you keep working with us.
We reply within two business days, the same as our Japanese clients get. What the distance costs you is rhythm: if you are eight or more hours away, each exchange tends to land the next day. A build that takes a week here can take closer to two. We work in English by writing, not by calling, so nobody has to be awake at 3am.
We test it and fix it before it reaches you. Compared with code designed line by line, the fine detail is lighter. It is not the right choice for heavy processing or anything that has to be exactly right. We say so while we are still talking, and turn the work down.
Text and image changes, broken layouts, and anything that stops working. A new feature is $10 to $50 on top. When a third-party service has an outage, sometimes all either of us can do is wait for them.
We generate them with AI and keep regenerating until they match what you had in mind. If you already have a logo, photographs, or your own drawings, we use those. Neither costs extra.
If it is not what you wanted, or it turns out less useful than you hoped, you owe nothing. We stop there. We will hand over the half-built version if you want it, though usually it is easier for both of us to end it with nothing left over. After launch, you can stop the monthly maintenance at any time.
We take on apps for the App Store and Google Play. You create the store account yourself and pay the annual fee directly: $99 a year for the App Store, $25 once for Google Play. If review sends the app back, dealing with that stays inside the $10 a month, however many times it happens.
If an OS version update stops the app working, the repair is inside the $10 a month as well. If an OS change means the app has to be rebuilt, that is a new build at $10. We tell you which of the two it is before we start, so you can turn it down.
A few hours and up for an internal tool, a few days for a one-page site, one to two weeks for something with features. We run three projects at a time, so when we are full you wait for a slot. We tell you when we can start while we are still talking.
Half-formed is fine. Nothing happens if we say no.