Chapter 184: Imiz Soft’s New Game
Ras leisurely rode to work in Radmi’s car again today, then checked the reports piled on his desk one by one.
Oh?
Then he found an additional order from the Orc Empire among them, and his expression instantly brightened. He had been wondering how things were going after their first transaction last time.
The Orc Empire still did not even have an airport, so one had to go there by ship, which made it difficult to send someone to check. Because of that, Ras had even wondered whether he should buy a separate airship for company use.
Unlike airplanes, airships could land as long as there was a wide, flat space. Of course, since there was no airport, finding a way to refill the gas separately would be troublesome. But they could send it ahead by ship, or even load it onto the airship itself.
Unlike airships operated by airlines, it would not carry many passengers anyway, so it should be possible to load enough gas for one landing and takeoff. Of course, it would cost a lot of money.
“Did something good happen?”
Ella, who was handling her own work, suddenly looked back and noticed Ras smiling.
“Yeah. An additional order came in from the Orc Empire.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
The reason she said “that’s a relief” instead of “that’s good” was because they had clashed with the IP Management Team before over making an Orc Empire-language version of the cards.
Since they were entering the Orc Empire anyway, Ras had pushed the work forward, thinking that even if another order did not come in right away, they would sell them there someday, so printing them in advance would not be a loss.
However, Georg had shown reluctance. That was only natural, since they were already struggling to print enough cards for domestic sales.
On top of that, they were also planning to export to Brunyad soon, so they were debating whether to expand their factories or outsource production through OEM in Brunyad for local supply. Considering domestic production capacity, shipping costs, and possible backlash from the local market, OEM seemed better, but factory management would not be easy, so it was difficult to choose one side.
Factory management was an important issue. It would be extremely troublesome if someone secretly diverted valuable specific cards. Of course, if such a thing happened, they could impose penalties or sue, but this world was too exclusionary toward foreign countries, so even in such a clear case, they could not be certain whether proper legal punishment would be possible.
In any case, Ras pushed his will through and printed a large quantity of the Orc Empire version.
They would probably buy the Republic of Smite version as before, but this was the early stage of distribution. They had to maximize new player influx somehow. But if the cards were in a foreign language, interest would inevitably decline.
Ras had worried about this point even after their first export last time. Of course, he had used plenty of pictures and numbers in his own way. But if the text could not be read, the exact effect of the cards could not be understood.
What if they interpret them completely differently and play in some weird way?
They might use health recovery as attack magic, or they might interpret the graveyard count as life. No, before that, he was not even sure whether they knew the rules properly. If strange local rules appeared for no reason, it would become a headache. But it was something happening far across the sea, where sending people was difficult, so there was no particular method.
After thinking for a moment, Ras wrote in the blank space on the order form, mentioning a future international tournament and asking them to follow the official rules.
Then he roughly checked the rest of the order form and immediately approved it.
There was nothing in particular to revise. Of course, he had included an item about price adjustment last time, but that had not been meant for the very next transaction, meaning this current transaction.
If they raised the price right after the first transaction, it would not be easy for the other side to accept. Furthermore, since the transaction volume had increased significantly compared to the first deal, normally one would offer a further discount, not raise the price.
It was an option he had included for later, when the market over there had settled to some extent and the Orc Empire’s economy had grown enough for its purchasing power to rise further.
After approving the order form, Ras placed it on top of the document pile and imagined MTC spreading through the Orc Empire.
“You’re smiling again.”
Ella looked at him with a smiling voice. At that, Ras brought a hand to his mouth with an awkward expression. It seemed he had been smiling without realizing it.
A few days after processing the Orc Empire’s additional order, another piece of good news arrived. Imiz Soft had completed its game.
It was the side-scrolling action game using the Myth Wars IP. When they previously brought the alpha version and demonstrated it, it had been full of bugs and had many shortcomings, so Ras had pointed out an enormous number of issues. Apparently, they had fixed all of them.
Only two months had passed since then, so he felt a little suspicious, but Zek, the president of Imiz Soft, might be somewhat boastful, yet he was not the type to lie outright. That made Ras look forward to the completed version he would bring.
“Ugh... I thought I was going to die.”
The Imiz Soft development room was full of corpses. Not real corpses, but the remains of development team members wrung dry to the very end by the continuous crunch mode.
This was not an especially unusual sight. Game developers other than Meta Soft were usually like this.
In truth, this could not be helped. Development was ultimately work done by pouring manpower into it. Manpower meant funding, and game development was not the kind of business where the amount of effort invested guaranteed an equal amount of money in return.
Thanks to the myth Meta Soft had shown, there were now more positive views toward the game industry, so more funding flowed into game developers than before. But either way, the amount was still limited.
Yet to succeed, the game’s quality had to be raised. At the very least, it had to be higher than that of other competitors. Since funds were limited but the quality of the result had to be improved, the only method left was to grind people down and pour them in.
“Argh, that son of a bitch.”
Azem was not an ordinary employee but a business partner, so he knew these circumstances. Even if he cursed Zek, the president, he did not truly resent him.
Still, his heart felt at ease. While that lunatic had been hounding them like mad during development, Azem had seriously wanted to kill him, but thanks to that, they fixed all the bugs they had not dared to touch and fully improved every problem.
Thinking about it, Zek really was an incredible bastard. If it were Azem, he could not have done things like that guy, nor could he have produced such results.
Moreover, even though Zek had suffered just as much as they had, he was perfectly fine as he took the completed version and headed to Meta Soft.
Damn it, do well.
Azem glanced at the entrance of the development room where Zek had rushed out, sent him a silent cheer in his heart, then collapsed onto his desk and fell asleep as if fainting.
“Phew...”
After getting out of the taxi, Zek looked up at the massive Meta Building and let out a sigh. He had always felt nervous whenever he came to Meta Soft, but after Meta Soft moved its headquarters here, he became even more nervous.
It was probably because of the pressure given off by this enormous building. He checked the bag containing the game, then smoothed his hair and clothes once with his hands before heading toward the entrance.
“What brings you here?”
At the entrance stood a muscular Orc in a suit. When Zek approached, the Orc blocked his way and asked in a polite voice. This time, since Zek had already come here a few times, he was not greatly flustered and stopped in place, but the first time, he had been terribly intimidated.
“Ah, yes. I’m from Imiz Soft.”
“Yes. Confirmed.”
The guard did not state the purpose of his question, but Imiz Soft was a name on the important list he remembered, and the business card Zek showed matched as well, so he stepped aside with a polite attitude.
Zek bowed his head to him and went inside. It gave him the feeling of being respected, so it did not feel bad. However, after several days of crunch mode, he was worn down, and his nervousness over showing the completed version made it impossible for him to keep that impression in his head for long.
So even when he entered the elevator, which was still rare in this world, he did not find it as interesting or fascinating as before. He simply stared blankly at the changing numbers above.
“Welcome.”
When he got off on the seventh floor and entered the room where the QA Team was located, an employee who recognized Zek’s face called the chairman, and Zek saw a familiar face rise from his seat and walk toward him.
“Ah, yes. How have you been?”
Ras was still young, but he had run a company for quite some time, so he was able to finish the greeting without being flustered by Zek’s overly deferential attitude.
Then he immediately received the completed version Zek brought and began testing it.
They’re definitely good at this side of things.
Ras had seen it last time as well, but he admired the opening illustration again. He did not know about everything else, but their character and graphic skills were truly good. It was flashy enough to instantly catch people’s eyes. The proportion of female characters was so high that it did feel somewhat commercially focused, but Ras did not view that negatively.
A game fundamentally had meaning only if it sold. And it did not merely attract attention with its illustrations; the game itself was also fun enough.
“The sense of speed has definitely improved.”
Ras nodded as he watched the female swordsman selected by a QA Team employee perform consecutive rapier thrusts according to the command.
At that, Zek recalled how he had agonized for days because the system’s limits made it difficult to express speed, then finally managed to solve it through a trick. It was not anything incredible. Instead of fully coloring every sprite, they inserted silhouettes for some parts and added comic-like expressions.
Considering all that hardship, Ras’s reaction was far too calm, but Zek merely felt relieved.
“Oh, this is cool.”
The QA employee selected and used a spell, then exclaimed in admiration. It was freezing magic, and the moment it was used, the screen stopped, only the player character moved, and a flashy effect unfolded.
In truth, this was a method they had been forced to devise because of resource limits. If the game screen continued moving while they added the magic effect at the same time, it would not run at all, so they stopped the screen instead. But this actually produced the effect of emphasizing the magic.
In the alpha version, they had not done it this way but had used a method that dropped frames. As a result, the magic that should have been the flashiest looked awkward, and even then, resource shortages caused errors and other chaos, so Ras had strongly criticized that part.
Testing continued after that.
The QA employees were quite nervous at first, but before long, they were able to enjoy the game. Previously, something kept going wrong, so they had been busy pointing it out. But now that the game progressed without any major problems, they began falling into the fun the game was designed to create.
This is fun.
Kapcha, one of the QA employees, enjoyed watching his female knight block the charge of a giant wolf with a large shield.
At first, he felt that it lacked depth compared to role-playing games, but its strong characterization, speedy pacing, and flashy action gave it a brisk sense of fun.
Aside from a few spells that could be used as items, the female knight could only use items like throwing daggers or shooting arrows. Because of that, he had been slightly dissatisfied that he had to test a warrior character, but after playing for a while, he found this had its own fun too.
First of all, he liked that the basic attack was powerful.
Mages had strong magic, but the number of times they could use it was limited, so most of the time they had to rely on basic attacks. Swinging a staff was neither cool nor very powerful.