Chapter 13
Chapter 13
It was not as though Pana lacked caution.
But after taking one look at him, she realized that despite his large build, he was still just a young boy. And after thinking about it for a moment, she concluded that if this boy really was a criminal or a weirdo, then even working in an office instead of his home would not necessarily be any safer. At the same time, she resolved that if he tried anything suspicious, she would scream and run immediately.
“Then shall we start with the contract?”
Drawing upon memories from Earth, Ras had prepared an employment contract.
In truth, the Republic of Smite had no laws requiring such contracts. However, he prepared one anyway, partly because it made things feel more official, but mainly to protect his own rights.
It was not that he suspected the lady he had just met today, but games were products that could easily be stolen simply by copying a diskette. Preventing that physically was difficult, so he wanted to clearly establish the employment relationship in case something happened later.
“Ah. Okay.”
Since this was Pana’s first job, she did not think much of it. She simply assumed this was normal procedure and accepted the contract. She still read through it just in case, but after finding nothing disadvantageous, she signed her name without hesitation.
Afterward, the two headed to Ras’s apartment.
Although they said she would start work tomorrow, both of them were so nervous that they completely forgot about it. Ras was merely relieved that he had already purchased another computer in advance.
“This is the game our company made.”
Since Pana seemed nervous, and he also felt he had shown a somewhat sloppy side of himself, Ras wanted to demonstrate that his company was legitimate. He launched Tetris and showed it to her.
“Yes...”
But her reaction was lukewarm.
Pana had used a computer before at a university friend’s house and at least knew what games were, but her primary interest was manga. She simply was not very interested in games.
Still, she did find it somewhat fascinating that things on the screen moved whenever he touched the keyboard.
Ras felt slightly disappointed by her indifferent reaction, but he understood. Not everyone in Korea liked games either.
Still, since they would be making games together from now on, he hoped she would eventually develop some interest in them.
“One moment. This time, I’ll show you the program you’ll be using.”
He removed Tetris, inserted the Electronic Painter program into the slot, and launched it.
Ras glanced at Pana’s face before using the tools to create shapes and draw lines, sketching out something resembling a picture. Naturally, since he had almost no drawing ability, the result was clumsy and crude, but it was still technically a drawing, causing Pana’s eyes to widen with interest.
“You’ll be using this to draw the graphics, Ms. Pana.”
“Yes...”
Although it was an unfamiliar tool, she did not feel intimidated. She already worried plenty after hearing she would be drawing graphics for computer games. So now that she could actually see the process with her own eyes, some of her anxiety faded instead.
“Go ahead and try it.”
Seeing her interest, Ras thought this was a good opportunity to get her invested. He stepped aside to let her take the seat.
Pana looked slightly flustered, but since she also wanted to try it, and because this was something her boss was telling her to do, she awkwardly sat down in the chair.
“You click the shape tool and place it on the white area here. And this one draws a straight line automatically once you select the start and end points.”
Fortunately, she was not completely ignorant about computers, so there was no need to teach her how to use the keyboard and mouse. He could immediately begin explaining the program itself.
Ras felt somewhat pathetic teaching computer basics after hiring someone, but considering the era, it could not be helped.
That was how he chose to think about it.
After teaching her the rough basics, he told her to draw whatever she wanted.
Pana glanced at Ras cautiously and hesitated for a moment before deciding to draw the computer sitting directly in front of her.
First, she quickly constructed the framework using shapes and lines. Then she used the eraser tool to remove portions of the edges and outlines before using the mouse to add dots and lines that created shading and depth.
Although she fumbled awkwardly with the mouse and keyboard and moved slowly, an actual still-life drawing was unmistakably taking shape on the monitor.
Ras became convinced once again that hiring someone who could genuinely draw, even if they knew little about computers, was the correct decision.
If she could produce work like this, then the in-game illustrations should be promising as well.
Some time later, though the drawing was not entirely finished, it reached a fairly complete state. When Pana glanced back at him nervously, unsure what to do next, Ras lightly clapped his hands and praised her.
“You did well. You’re definitely a skilled artist.”
“Haha...”
Ras awkwardly smiled back at her before teaching her how to save the drawing.
For a moment, he wondered whether it was really necessary to use a diskette just for a test drawing, but since they were already doing this properly, he decided he might as well teach her how to switch diskettes too. Besides, even drawings like this could become useful data later.
He handed her a label sticker and pen.
“Write ‘Drawing Sample 1’ on it.”
“Yes.”
Watching her attach the label to the diskette, Ras thought that she seemed capable enough to improve naturally through work without requiring constant instruction.
“You’re much better than I expected, so let’s move straight into actual work.”
“...”
Though she tried to hide it, the corners of Pana’s mouth twitched upward at the continued praise. Perhaps because she was new to working life, she had a rather cute side to her.
Suppressing a small laugh internally, Ras thought for a moment about what task to assign first.
Starting with character creation seemed best.
“We need a character. Can you make a small sprite? About this big, but with all the key features still recognizable. You know knights, right? Wearing armor and carrying a sword and shield.”
Even as he spoke, Ras realized his explanation sounded somewhat abstract, but this was the best he could do with his own limited sense of imagery. For the missing parts, he would just have to trust Pana’s artistic instincts.
“Hmm... Like a pictogram?”
“A pictogram? What’s that?”
“You know. The kinds of images used on road signs or restroom symbols.”
The unfamiliar technical term left Ras confused, while Pana nervously fiddled with her fingers before finally managing to explain with examples.
“No, not like that. I want the features to be exaggerated, but still look cool or cute. More like manga.”
Ras struggled for quite a while trying to explain the feeling of game character designs before finally managing to phrase it like that.
Working together with another person immediately made him realize why communication skills were so important.
Fortunately, this explanation perfectly suited Pana, who was an aspiring manga artist.
After thinking briefly, she took out a notebook and drew what she understood from his explanation before showing it to him.
The drawing was definitely manga-style. It resembled the satirical cartoons found in nineteenth- or early twentieth-century newspapers. The head was especially exaggerated in size, making the facial expressions extremely vivid.
“Hmm. It’s well drawn, but it’s a little different from what I’m looking for. The face doesn’t need to be this large. The expressions don’t need to show much either. Just enough to distinguish the facial features.”
Ras tried his best to convey the feeling of super-deformed characters.
Fortunately, Pana understood immediately, and her next drawing came much closer. Still, something felt lacking.
“The head shape feels right, but simplify the hair more. Computers probably won’t be able to handle details like this. And make the arms and legs shorter. But still try to keep it looking as cool as possible.”
“Yes!”
After making adjustments for quite a while, they finally reached the stage where she could begin actual computer work.
Even then, the result was not immediately approved.
Ras worried slightly about Pana’s mental state, but he could not accept something lacking just because he felt bad.
“You’re doing well. I think it’ll work if you just adjust it a little more.”
So he tried to speak as gently and encouragingly as possible.
Either it worked, or Pana naturally had nerves of steel, because she showed absolutely no signs of being discouraged and simply continued adjusting things according to Ras’s requests.
What Ras did not know was that Pana was not merely an art student. She was a woman stubborn enough to repeatedly apply to become a manga artist, suffer rejection after rejection, and still continue charging forward without ever giving up.
Requests for revisions like this were nothing to her.
“Good work.”
By the time evening approached, Ras finally let Pana go home.
Fortunately, the character reached the quality level Ras wanted. There were still aspects he found somewhat lacking, but that was less because of Pana’s skill and more because of the limitations of 8-bit computers.
The next day, Ras worried slightly that Pana might have run away.
Fortunately, she arrived at his apartment right on time.
He instructed her to begin creating sprite animations for the knight character they made yesterday.
“The character needs to move.”
“Yes.”
There was no need for lengthy explanations. Pana was an art college student, and as an aspiring manga artist, she was also interested in animation, so she already understood the basic principles behind animated movement.
While Pana worked on the graphics, Ras created the internal systems for the characters.
First, he established the stats, following a familiar style: Strength, Agility, Vitality, Intelligence, and Luck as the base attributes.
Then he added Health Points, Attack Power, Magic Attack Power, Critical Chance, Evasion Rate, Accuracy, Defense, Magic Defense, Speed, and other values influenced by base stats, equipment, and skills.
The era’s technological limitations meant he could not provide flashy graphics, but he intended to fully compensate for that by making character growth through detailed stats highly enjoyable.
The combat system followed a classic approach.
Only the enemies appeared on-screen, and characters acted one at a time in turns.
The turn order system worked by adding each character’s Speed value to their personal Turn Gauge. Whichever character reached the highest value acted first, after which one point was subtracted from that character’s Turn Gauge.
However, while the game’s appearance belonged to this era, many of the systems Ras implemented were far more advanced and inspired by games he knew from Earth.
For example, he introduced passive skills, skill points, and skill levels.
Still, he did not blindly imitate Earth’s systems.
For instance, he chose not to include a skill tree. He judged that system suited real-time games with fewer usable skills, not turn-based games.
Ras tried to introduce as many variables as possible. He wanted players to feel strong gameplay depth despite the simplistic graphics.
First, he added elemental attributes and made magic attacks require casting time. Instead of activating instantly, spells would only trigger after the required number of turns passed.
He also implemented a variety of buffs and status effects.
These not only influenced stats, but also interacted heavily with the Turn Gauge system.
Effects like Slow reduced Turn Gauge gain, while Freeze prevented characters from taking turns entirely and merely deducted their gauge points instead. Conversely, effects like Haste and Time Stop could produce appropriately dramatic results.
Ras thought carefully about creating a wide variety of skills.
At first, he only considered magic, but then warrior combat felt far too dull. So he added physical skills as well.
In truth, however, aside from class restrictions, these abilities were practically no different from magic.
Since powerful attacks could not be free, he made physical skills consume magical power too. And simply varying damage numbers was not interesting enough, so he added effects like Bleeding and Stun, along with penalties such as reduced accuracy or even self-inflicted damage.
But those same types of effects already existed in magic as well.
There were some distinctions with buff-type abilities, however. Priest and mage buffs could be cast on others, while certain warrior buffs could only be used on oneself.
As for skill names, Ras shamelessly borrowed everything he remembered from games on Earth.
Since RPGs did not even exist in this world, and magic itself was real here, people apparently did not care much about intellectual property rights regarding fictional spells and techniques from novels or stories. In that regard, things were surprisingly unrestricted.