Chapter 189: Experimental Project and Shopping for a Private Aircraft
Moreover, game developers were specialists, and among specialists, this field had an extremely narrow talent pool. Those who had already produced several hit games together were truly important talents.
There was no reason to do something so stupid when they were not lacking money or time. Even on Earth, famous IT companies focused heavily on employee welfare not because they especially valued human rights. It was because it was efficient.
At first, Ras considered simply extending the development period. But he quickly decided that was not the answer. If development dragged on too long, motivation could fall, and they could lose direction.
So instead, he decided to pour in a large amount of manpower. Of course, that did not mean hiring more employees. They could not just fire everyone after development ended, and they could not continue making games with workloads this massive forever.
“Casual Team 1 will only develop the World Event System.”
Ras decided to assign two teams. The reason he had brought this heavy project to a team that originally specialized in casual games was precisely because of this.
“Ah. Yes.”
Dure wore a complicated expression.
First, he felt relief that he had avoided a road to hell, along with satisfaction from finally understanding why a completely non-casual game had been brought to the Casual Team in the first place.
Then he felt slightly disappointed that this was not a full project but a joint development effort, though that thought soon changed.
In truth, although he led the Casual Team, he did not particularly like the word casual. It was not that he disliked casual games. He was not arrogant enough to discriminate based on the type of game he developed. And from Tetris 2 to Bubble Bubble and Gun & Magic, these were precious titles that had helped him make a name for himself in the industry.
He simply disliked the feeling that his team was viewed as a place that only made casual games. Dure suddenly recalled Gun & Magic, the game they had developed just before this.
Honestly, Gun & Magic wasn’t really a casual game either.
That was why, despite how difficult it had been, he had been highly motivated while developing Gun & Magic, seeing it as a chance to erase the casual label. In fact, when he first heard it was a gun-shooting game, he had imagined the light types commonly released by other companies.
And now, although only partially, they would be developing something akin to a strategy game. If they finished successfully, he felt he might even be able to make a proposal and completely cast off the name Casual.
“Each village and city should slowly increase or decrease in population, and their internal image should change accordingly.”
Because of that, even if the other team members did not, Dure listened with such concentration that it seemed he would not miss a single word of Ras’s explanation. He intended to complete it with the highest quality possible.
Ras inwardly felt relieved at Casual Team 1’s fairly positive atmosphere. Since this was not a full project but only part of one, he had worried they might lose motivation.
From his perspective, he was entrusting the World Event System to Casual Team 1 because he believed in their development ability. Casual Team 2 had actually finished their vacation and returned first, yet he had deliberately come here because Team 1’s development capabilities were somewhat superior.
It had not been intentional, but by successfully developing Gun & Magic, which was somewhat distant from the casual genre, they had proven that the upper limit of their abilities was higher than Ras had originally thought.
That did not mean casual games were easier to make than other games. The lightness of casual games was something felt by the players and had nothing to do with development difficulty or workload.
A few days after the meeting with Casual Team 1 ended, Ras finally visited Development Team 1, whose vacation had just ended.
“This is a new project.”
The team members, whose faces still glowed with the shine brought by a pleasant vacation and bonus pay, immediately formed awkward smiles. They had all joined the company willingly, took pride in the hit games they had made so far, and mostly liked making games, but there was no office worker who actually liked working, so it was an unavoidable reaction.
And as Ras began explaining the project in detail, some of them moved beyond awkwardness into outright shock.
Development Team 1 had existed since Meta Soft’s earliest days, so they had experience developing games with a small elite workforce. Compared to other teams, they were better at estimating overall development scale.
That was why they could easily grasp how enormous this project was.
Garazt, who could be considered one of the founding members, felt extremely conflicted. First of all, the project itself was fantastic. To him, who dreamed of virtual reality, a game where the world itself changed as though alive without any predetermined scenario, and where one could freely explore without being assigned any mission, felt like something one step closer to that ideal.
But it was obvious that programmers would be squeezed the most brutally to implement it. And he himself was both a programmer and the overall supervisor of those programmers.
That meant pain and responsibility had already been reserved for him.
Seeing his team members’ expressions changing from moment to moment, Ras found himself having mischievous thoughts. But it would also be troublesome if they fled saying they could not do it. Smiling, he raised one hand to gather everyone’s attention.
“Don’t worry too much. This project will be carried out jointly with Casual Team 1.”
At that, sighs of relief could be heard here and there. Ras let out a quiet chuckle.
“Since this is a game designed for the new computer currently in development anyway, we’ll have plenty of time. Don’t feel too pressured. Just work as you normally do.”
This project could be called experimental in many ways, including development difficulty, gameplay, and required specifications. And it was something they could only attempt at this point in time.
After all, once the new computer, different from previous models, was introduced, users would likely expect similar innovation from the software too. In other words, they would probably become more open-minded toward unfamiliar things.
In truth, although Ras acted relaxed, he also felt anxious. Unlike previous works, this project contained many of his own original ideas.
There was not absolutely no game that inspired it, but previously, he had copied eighty to ninety percent directly and only changed a small part. This time, however, at least fifty percent of it came from Ras’s own creativity.
For reference, the game that inspired it was Lunatic Dawn.
“This game will make heavy use of random generation for dungeons, field tactical screens, and so on. In addition, a great deal of character and world data will also be generated, so hard disk usage will be mandatory.”
Since Ras was aiming for ultimate freedom, he intended to make standardized walkthroughs impossible. To achieve that, he planned to randomly generate many elements.
If players could say that something was in a certain map, move in a set way, or exploit a certain character with a fixed strategy, then the idea of a free adventure would become meaningless.
This also had the effect of reducing package size, since less data needed to be prepared in advance. Ras desperately wanted to keep it under twenty megabytes, so he had to use every method available.
As a result, generated and saved data would increase, but the Meta Computer was scheduled to come with Meta Hardware’s newest eighty-megabyte hard disk by default, so it would not be a major issue.
“If you think of Sea King, it’ll be easy to understand character field movement.”
Rather than controlling movement directly with the keyboard, players would input a destination name or coordinates beforehand, or select a point with the keyboard. Then movement would proceed according to terrain conditions and movement speed while consuming food, making it feel closer to a simulation game than a typical role-playing game.
After finishing the explanation of the plan, Ras unconsciously smacked his lips.
In truth, there were even more systems he wanted to include. But due to limitations in workload and capacity, he had no choice but to stop here.
What disappointed him most was the scenario editing function.
The concept was infinite freedom without a predetermined story, but there would surely be players dissatisfied with that. So he had wanted a system where players could freely insert events and character dialogue, then create and enjoy their own role-playing games within this game.
But with the workload already overflowing, making such a tool was impossible. No, even if they somehow managed to create it, the package size would obviously increase enormously.
Thus, Ras had no choice but to promise himself a sequel someday. He did not know when, but once CDs were developed and hard disk capacities increased dramatically, the burden they currently faced would disappear.
After emphasizing cooperation with Casual Team 1 one last time, Ras left the development room. He felt something like a stinging gaze at his back, but he did not care much.
When he had first stopped participating directly in development, he had felt awkward and uncomfortable, but now he was simply happy that the games he wanted were being made even without him personally enduring that hell. Ras thought he needed to work even harder to make money.
Recently, Ras had purchased an airship. It was not the recreational one he had wanted before, but something practical meant for overseas business purposes. Even so, he was still interested enough to personally visit an airship manufacturer in the central desert.
The company was called Vesica.
“...When are they getting here?”
“Huh? Isn’t that it?”
Ras shifted his gaze toward the end of the desert road Ella pointed at.
After driving through the bleak desert for several hours, they finally arrived at a place that looked similar to an airport at first glance. The difference was that there were few people, and huge buildings that looked like factories or warehouses were scattered around.
After examining several models there, Ras bought a small eight-passenger model. Though small still meant nearly fifty meters in size.
The deciding factor was speed. After all, the purpose was not transporting products but carrying a small number of personnel for contracts and market investigations.
Ras did not know how fast airships on Earth had been, but this one was faster than expected. It could reach 180 kilometers per hour and maintain 150 kilometers per hour consistently over long-distance travel.
It was probably thanks to magic technology. The price, however, was more expensive than expected. It cost 9.5 million Del. Even that was only after a Management Team employee named Reditio bargained intensely for a long time. Originally, they had asked for 10.4 million Del.
Ras rode it when returning to Caymes City, and it was better than expected.
“It reminds me of when we went to Brunyard before.”
“You’re right.”
Ella said this while pressed against the window, looking at the ground gradually growing farther away. It shook slightly more than back then, but the sensation of floating was definitely the same. Ras smiled as he looked at Ella.
And even the desert, which had been tiresome to look at, felt different when viewed from the sky.
This flight could be considered a service provided by Vesica. The person piloting the airship was also a Vesica employee with a proper license, and even the flight permission had been received under Vesica’s name.
The airship landed on a plot of land prepared beforehand by Meta Co., Ltd. on the outskirts of Caymes City. Airships also required gas charging facilities, but unlike airplanes, they did not require massive runways, so facility costs were not that excessive.
And under Ras’s instructions, the Management Team had already secured all operating personnel and completed the necessary administrative procedures, so once the acquisition was finalized, they immediately sent people to the Orc Empire for market research.
It was not that Ras intended to abandon Tadalo and directly conquer the Orc Empire himself, but it was a market with great future potential, and nobody knew what the future held, so information was necessary.
Footnotes
Translator’s Notes
Lunatic Dawn (ルナティックドーン) — Japanese open-world role-playing game series developed by Artdink, first released in 1992. Known for its unusually high freedom, procedurally generated elements, and simulation-style adventuring systems.