Chapter 133: Arcade Empire

Ras was satisfied with entrusting development to Imiz Soft this time.

At first, it had felt somewhat awkward leaving development to another company. But thanks to the investment and shares, he was taking roughly half the profits anyway, so it was practically no different from outsourced work.

Being able to make the games he wanted without bearing the burden of operating a development team felt like getting paid without doing the work.

Still, since it was entrusted to an outside developer, there were aspects that required attention. Before handing over the planning document, Ras turned as many ideas inside it into patents as possible.

Zek from Imiz Soft did not seem particularly cunning, but one never knew. Even with a legitimate contract, dissatisfaction could arise when profits were being divided.

In any case, after resolving even matters like that, Ras could comfortably wait for the game to be developed.

Of course, just because this matter was settled did not mean he could rest comfortably. As the chairman of a large corporation, there was no end to the things Ras needed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠pay attention to.

And since his identity as the president of a game company was especially strong, he could not leave development teams idle. This concerned the Brunyad Development Team.

Their vacation should be over and everyone should have returned by now, so it was about time to begin a new project.

If they had been a development team at headquarters, he probably would have already decided what they would make before their vacation ended. But since they were out of sight, it was naturally harder to constantly keep them in mind. It was only while considering which development team to entrust with the side-scrolling game project inspired by Myth Wars that he remembered them.

Ras felt a bit belatedly alarmed. Of course, they were still being paid salaries, and with Bomb Special Forces’ success, bonuses had probably been distributed as well. But after their vacation ended, they had essentially been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠left waiting without any word, and there already seemed to be a slight atmosphere of anxiety and alienation from being so far from headquarters.

So he hurriedly began thinking about what game to have them develop. There was no shortage of options. Since Ras had been a hardcore gamer, he knew countless masterpiece games from the past.

However, since this was a distant development team that was hard to supervise constantly, and because they developed games for older computers rather than new models, it required some thought.

“Ras. Some documents arrived from the Brunyad Development Team.”

But before he could create and send over a planning document from his side, something arrived from theirs first.

“What is it?”

Ras accepted the documents while feeling puzzled and briefly worrying whether they had become so alienated that they were declaring independence.

But when he opened them, it was not what he had expected.

A planning document?

Come to think of it, these people had already failed once before and joined Ras’s company afterward. They were unlikely to talk about independence so casually. And since they themselves had once survived in the market as an independent company, they were not the type to sit around helplessly waiting like children just because headquarters had not contacted them.

Ras felt quite satisfied. Not because of the contents of the planning document, which he had not even examined yet, but because of the initiative shown by the development team itself. Originally, the development teams had been expanded so Ras could create the games he wanted, but no employer would dislike seeing hired employees seek out work on their own.

And after reading the planning document, he became satisfied again—no, genuinely surprised.

Most of it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ordinary, but among them was one particularly fresh and excellent idea.

Ten days earlier, at the Brunyad Development Team office in the Brunyad Federation.

Mallidon was clutching his head because of the assignment given by the president—or rather, the development team leader.

Recently, he had been thinking these were truly good times.

Back when they had been an independent development company, they had always been busy making games, yet profits were poor and they constantly feared the company might collapse at any moment.

But somehow, after luckily joining Meta Soft, the company chairman personally visited, provided clear planning, and immediately achieved success with it, followed by bonuses and even a long vacation.

And even after the vacation ended, they were not immediately worked to the bone again and instead had leisurely standby time. Some seniors, including the president, looked anxious, but salaries were still being paid, and it had not even been a full week, so Mallidon wondered what they were so worried about.

But the president could not endure the anxiety and started causing trouble.

“All right, everyone. Create planning documents and submit them.”

Since few people actually liked working, complaints immediately arose. Though they were closer to whining than genuine resistance.

Then Dnallin suddenly exploded and shouted out the anxiety he had been suppressing.

“No, I don’t think you all understand how serious this is! A development team constantly burns through money in real time! Don’t you remember me running around desperately trying to secure your salaries before?”

“...”

Even Mallidon, whose lips had jutted out in dissatisfaction, immediately closed his mouth at those words. After all, the reason the company—Hexa Soft—had collapsed and entered Meta Soft in the first place was essentially because the president had desperately searched for a way to continue paying salaries.

At that, anxiety rose in Mallidon as well. Of course, objectively speaking, there seemed no reason for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a development team that had just produced a hit title to be dismantled immediately.

But headquarters was extremely far away, and they knew little about the complicated circumstances of large corporations. There might be some other reason.

He absolutely could not give up the higher salary, the bonuses, and the sweet vacations granted after development ended. Having experienced those harsh old days himself, he felt that even more strongly.

So Mallidon seriously began creating a planning document in his own way.

But if planning were that easy, there would not be failing game companies in the world. And because he was someone who directly made games, there were even more things that got in the way.

Questions like what genres sold well in the market, development difficulty, not consuming too many resources in order to fit computer specifications, and avoiding concepts that only appealed within Brunyad and would be difficult to sell in the Republic of Smite where headquarters was located.

Of course, a planning document that ignored development limitations entirely was also meaningless. But if one thought of limitations first, imagination became restricted. First, they needed to think freely about what would be fun no matter what, then later adapt it to reality.

After realizing this, Mallidon began thinking about what would be fun, and strangely enough, he ended up thinking about Ras, the chairman of Meta Soft.

He envied the wealthy man who operated such an enormous company, and also thought how nice it must be for him to simply have other people make games instead of agonizing over them himself.

Naturally, this made him think of Ras’s businesses.

And among Meta Soft’s businesses, the most famous was obviously Arcade Game Land. Of course, Meta Soft itself was famous too, but people tended to value what they could physically see, and Arcade Game Land stood prominently in busy districts, making it impossible to ignore.

Moreover, so many people used it that even those who never visited arcades still inevitably heard stories about them.

Mallidon himself was one of the people who loved Arcade Game Land.

He even dreamed that one day, after earning lots of money, he would bring arcade machines into his house and create a personal arcade. In truth, many game lovers probably shared such dreams.

Naturally, he could not help envying Ras, who owned a massive worldwide arcade empire called Arcade Game Land.

But how did he think of something like that and create it?

As his imagination continued, it eventually reached the real Arcade Game Land itself. Thoughts of how it had first been created and how it was currently operated came to mind.

Then he suddenly wondered what it would be like to turn something like that into a game.

The idea came because he remembered enjoying not only the combat content in Sea King and Civilization and War, but also the management and operational aspects.

Couldn’t management itself be enjoyable even without combat?

And the more he researched Arcade Game Land through libraries and newspapers, the stronger that thought became. Seeing its tremendous growth speed made him think that simply watching his own company expand like that would be fun in itself.

Unexpectedly, there were also many things one had to pay attention to in operating an arcade. Most importantly, whenever a new game appeared, one had to decide how many machines to bring in and how to arrange them. And since customers crowded the place constantly, handling trouble was also important.

He felt that weaving those elements together into a game could definitely create enjoyment.

So he began carefully organizing those thoughts into a planning document.

That planning document was what reached Ras’s hands.

“Oh... a management simulation? A tycoon game.”

To Ras, that was immediately what it felt like, but in this world where such a thing did not yet exist, it could truly be considered a creative game.

Ras stared at the name Mallidon written at the front of the document for quite a while. If it had merely been a rough planning document with nothing but ideas, that would have been one thing, but it thoroughly and structurally explained how to turn those ideas into a game and make them enjoyable.

Of course, it might still be too early to get excited since it was only a planning document, but perhaps he had discovered this world’s Sid Meier.

(Translator’s Note: Sid Meier — American-Canadian game designer best known for creating the Civilization series and pioneering influential strategy and simulation game design.)

No, since the man was already his employee, perhaps it was more accurate to say he had already acquired him.

Ras looked through the other planning documents as well. They were all decent in their own ways, but none left as strong an impression as Arcade Empire.

Originally, since Dungeons & Dragons was now being made and side-scrolling action games had once dominated arcades, he had planned to create another slightly different side-scrolling action game.

Something like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, where you rode cars and shot dinosaurs, or perhaps something like Final Fight, using Fighters’ Club—an IP belonging to Meta Soft itself—to create a side-scrolling action game featuring fighting game characters.

(Translator’s Note: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs — 1993 arcade side-scrolling beat ’em up developed by Capcom, based on the American comic Xenozoic Tales. The game became famous for combining melee combat, firearms, vehicles, and dinosaur enemies.)

(Translator’s Note: Final Fight — 1989 side-scrolling beat ’em up arcade game developed by Capcom, widely regarded as one of the foundational classics of the genre.)

But because the development team had shown enthusiasm by sending over such a good planning document, there was no longer any need for that.

Ras immediately approved the planning document. He even decided to give a small bonus to Mallidon, the person who had written it.

Not only that, he planned to publicize this widely throughout the company. Ras enjoyed making the games he wanted to create, but he also wanted unexpected god-tier games born from the creativity of people in this world.

And so, the Brunyad Development Team began development of the world’s first management simulation game.

Even while Ras focused on games, the other businesses were also running busily according to the instructions already given.

And the PC communication side in particular was becoming increasingly popular, especially because there was a major event: the world’s first online contest. This event had a nature that was easy for both users and the development team to understand, making it easy to focus on.

Of course, reading novels through PC communication was not something familiar.

But the greatest content of PC communication was text, and one of the traditionally successful forms of text had always been novels. So even without thinking deeply about it, it was easy to understand that serializing and reading novels through PC communication was not difficult at all.

Arrof was a young Gnome aspiring novelist.

Originally, he had no interest in computers or games, but after hearing about the online contest and first experiencing computers and PC communication, he became completely immersed in the online world.

It was only natural. He had endlessly entered contests and submitted manuscripts to publishers because he wanted to show his creative works to the public, so being able to communicate in real time with an unspecified number of people through PC communication moved him deeply.

At first, he simply clumsily typed and uploaded works he had written long ago, but after learning what his problems were through readers’ reactions, he had already begun planning an entirely new work.