Chapter 102: Zek’s Prototype Demonstration
Chapter 102: Zek’s Prototype Demonstration
“Hey, you bastard!”
Seeing Zek completely ignore his protests yet again, Azem exploded once more. It felt like the only way to fix that hopeless personality of his was to smack him upside the head.
Of course, the bigger reason was simply to vent some of this frustration.
Just then, the telephone rang.
“Huh? Wait a second!”
Feeling threatened by Azem’s glaring eyes, Zek seized the opportunity and immediately picked up the receiver. Then, after confirming who was on the other end, his expression turned serious. He raised a palm toward Azem.
Who is it?
Azem still looked furious, but instead of charging over, he mouthed the question.
Zek covered the receiver with his palm for a moment and answered.
“Our investor. Meta Soft.”
Relieved that Azem and Truban’s outburst had settled down, he continued speaking with Ras for a while.
“Yes? Yes, yes. Of course that’s possible! I’ll come visit soon. Yes. Absolutely!”
Every employee in Imiz Soft watched Zek as he spoke. They did not know what the conversation was about, but just from listening to Zek’s responses, they felt something ominous.
And as soon as he finished the call and put down the receiver, Azem immediately growled out a question.
“What’d he say?”
“Hm? Ah! Everyone! We now need to produce a runnable prototype within three days! Let’s all do our best!”
“You bastard!!”
Azem and Truban exploded in rage and rushed over to choke Zek by the neck.
But the president had already spoken to the investor, so there was no way to take it back now.
As a result, Imiz Soft entered an even harsher crunch mode for the next three days.
(Translator’s Note: Stereotypical “crunch mode” (크런치모드) — Industry slang in game development referring to periods of excessive overtime and intense work pressure near deadlines. The term became widely associated with problematic labor practices in the global game industry during the late 1990s and 2000s.)
And three days later, Ras welcomed Zek into the Meta Soft office.
“Welcome.”
“Thank you for having me.”
After exchanging greetings and a handshake, they immediately began the prototype demonstration. There was not really much else to discuss. If this project succeeded and their relationship continued, they would gradually build familiarity, but for now, they were merely an investor and a rookie developer who had yet to produce results.
Zek launched the game and glanced sideways at Ras while the opening sequence played.
It was one of the parts they had put a great deal of effort into.
The story borrowed ideas from classical mythology, following a protagonist who descended from the heavens and underwent trials according to divine revelations. But unlike the classical premise, the illustrations of the characters were dazzling, filled with intense colors and absolutely lacking any traditional feeling.
Various races, monsters, and legendary beings said to exist within the Four Realms all appeared, but the female characters in particular were extremely attractive, just like the illustrations they had shown before.
Moreover, if they had used the same realistic art style as before, it might have looked awkward. Instead, they adopted the cartoon-like style Ras had pioneered within the game industry, emphasizing distinctive traits.
Large eyes, simple mouths that easily expressed emotion, and facial outlines without overly sharp contours.
An angel with long blonde hair clad in armor, an Elf with green hair standing proudly atop a tree while holding a bow, a beautiful Nymph with water-blue hair standing atop the waves she herself created…
Without realizing it, Ras nodded while looking at the female characters.
Watching that reaction, Zek clenched the hands behind his back tightly.
Of course, the female characters were not the only impressive part. There were wild male characters, intellectual-looking characters, aloof wolf-like characters, and even actual wolf-headed Beastmen. The monsters as well were not merely grotesque; they carried an intimidating yet cool atmosphere.
Then the game itself began, and they checked the in-game characters.
They looked good.
Naturally, they could not use the illustrations directly, so they painstakingly recreated them in pixel art, and the quality was impressive. Until now, Ras had thought Meta Soft’s technology and skill were unrivaled, but this side was no joke either. The direction felt different, but it had its own charm.
Of course, judging solely from static sprites would have been premature, so Ras proceeded into the game.
“Uh, the other parts haven’t been implemented yet, so there’s only one menu option.”
However, there were no Story Mode or Versus Mode options. There was only a menu called Random Battle, which briefly confused Ras until Zek hurriedly explained with an apologetic expression.
They had intended to add a story mode at least, but time simply had not allowed it. So instead, they temporarily created a Random Mode that summoned AI opponents for battles.
“Yes, well. The important parts are the characters and the battles.”
Ras was slightly disappointed because the setting itself was unique enough to make him curious about the story, but Meta Soft had never fully implemented everything in its own prototypes either, so he let it pass.
There were quite a lot of characters, though not all had been implemented. Around five were selectable.
Fortunately, the red-haired female fire mage Ras wanted to try was available.
When the match began, both characters struck poses and delivered lines. Unlike Fighters’ Club, which had been a boxing game, this featured unique fantasy characters, so this sort of presentation seemed necessary.
Ras smiled in satisfaction as he watched the red-haired female mage, dressed in fluttering clothes with quite a lot of exposed skin, strike an arrogant yet intense pose. Even the final motion where she stretched out her hand to point at the opponent felt perfect.
Honestly, unlike the illustrations, the pixel-art version of the character initially felt lacking. But once the character moved while properly capturing those traits, the imagination came alive again, and the charm resurfaced.
The opponent was a gigantic Ogre. It was represented quite large, but since this was still a fighting game, they obviously could not use its actual five-meter height. It simply felt “big enough,” probably around three meters tall.
Ras moved the joystick around experimentally, and the responsiveness and actions felt good.
There were a few slightly awkward parts here and there, but considering it was a prototype, they were more than tolerable. While Ras nodded in approval, Zek stood behind him biting his lips nervously.
Fortunately, Ras had chosen one of the better-polished characters—the female mage—but since they had not completely tested everything yet, Zek worried something might suddenly break.
Thankfully, no problems appeared no matter how much Ras jumped around, attacked wildly, and entered command inputs.
The female mage was, naturally, a mage, and fitting her color theme, she specialized in fire magic. Most of her normal attacks also involved simple magic. Even punches and kicks had been replaced by magical attacks.
After all, though she carried a short jeweled staff, she was still a slender female mage. It would have been too unrealistic for punches and kicks from her physical strength to deal similar impact to monsters or massively muscular warriors.
In any case, once he started firing magic everywhere, the visuals were undeniably flashy. But she was not the sort of character who endlessly spammed projectiles from afar. That would have resulted in boring gameplay where players simply stayed at a distance throwing attacks.
Even though they were magic attacks, most had short range, so although she looked like a mage, her combat style was not fundamentally different from the other characters.
Afterward, Ras selected and tested the other characters too, but perhaps because it was still a prototype, some had noticeably lower completion quality. The Orc warrior especially felt choppy, as though the animation frames kept skipping.
At first Ras thought it was simply because of the heavy physique, but after playing more, he realized it was just unfinished.
“We’re already in the process of fixing that issue!”
“Yes. Understood.”
Whenever something came up, Zek actively explained it. One could call it making excuses, but whether or not someone understood their own problems was important. Ras evaluated him fairly positively.
“Good. The completion level is still lacking, but it’s fun. Please continue developing it well.”
“Ah! Yes! Thank you!”
Perhaps not as relieved as Zek, but Ras also felt relieved. He had not gone so far as to think they would take the investment money and run, but there had still been some anxiety. Managing a development team himself and entrusting everything entirely to someone else’s abilities were completely different matters.
But seeing a mid-stage result better than expected today made him feel as though he had received a surprise gift. If more companies could produce results at this level, increasing investment shares in outside developers might actually be worthwhile.
The management team had already been recommending exactly that.
These days, both the computer industry and the game market were booming enormously. Saying it himself felt somewhat embarrassing, but Ras had played an extremely large role in that.
Creating innovative, high-quality games accelerated computer adoption, and even the next-generation Hammer 1 Computer could be said to have been based on his ideas. Furthermore, he had created the original versions of several killer-title arcade games, established a nationwide arcade franchise, and even held national game tournaments, continuously drawing people in.
Of course, these changes and advancements would have come eventually even without him.
But nobody could deny that he had accelerated them.
In any case, once the market became active, everyone eagerly opened their wallets. As a result, as long as a game was at least decent, sales were practically guaranteed. In other words, profits were guaranteed.
From the management team’s perspective, it was only natural that they judged investing that money into software companies to be better than challenging the far riskier manufacturing industry.
Of course, Ras did not think that way.
From the perspective of someone who had seen Earth’s history, throwing away the chance to become a giant was too wasteful. Therefore, investment into hardware would continue and increase even further.
Still, perhaps increasing investments into development studios should also be considered positively.
And something happened that strengthened that thought even further.
“When is this thing going to be finished?”
Ella wandered around the massive construction site in admiration before turning to ask Ras. Ever since the land purchase for the company headquarters had finished successfully and construction began, Ras had started visiting occasionally to inspect it.
That did not mean entering the construction site itself. That would only be a nuisance and not help the construction at all. So instead, he merely drove to nearby elevated areas and looked down from there.
And honestly, even that alone felt satisfying enough. He had no desire to breathe in the dust of the actual site.
“A little over a year.”
“Seriously? It looks enormous though. How many floors is it?”
Judging from the vast land packed with heavy machinery and workers, Ella tilted her head and asked again, unable to believe it was anything small.
“Yeah. It’s four hundred pyeong and ten floors tall. So it’s not exactly small.”
“Wow… But that can really be built in just a year?”
Ella imagined the scale of the building and stared with her mouth hanging open in surprise. Even if there were skyscrapers over one hundred floors tall in the capital, those were truly exceptional cases. In a provincial city like Kames City, even ten-story buildings were not particularly common.
The tallest building here was the thirty-story Tron Landmark, but even that was considered an extreme exception.
“That’s what they say.”
Ras answered with a pleased smile at Ella’s reaction. They were spending an enormous amount of money, but even though the building itself had not risen yet, simply seeing construction underway made him feel strangely fulfilled.
And he felt it had truly been the right decision to begin construction.
The businesses he had launched recently were growing rapidly, and the spaces they currently rented were already starting to feel crowded.
In any case, after refreshing himself, he headed toward the electronics store he frequented.