Chapter 28: Nebrania and a New Game

“Are you able to compose music too?”

Ras still had his fanboy feelings toward her, but he could not simply hire someone incapable of doing the job and pay them a salary because of that alone, so after ordering drinks and snacks, this was the first thing he asked.

“Of course. The song I was playing earlier was one I composed myself. I may not look it, but I even graduated from a music university.”

She widened her eyes enough for her gray pupils to become fully visible as she answered.

There was a reason she reacted somewhat defensively like that.

One of the stereotypes surrounding Dryads was that, in polite terms, they were “natural,” but more bluntly put, people viewed them as country bumpkins.

Nebrania, who had often been treated like some grass-smelling village girl, naturally could not help being sensitive about it.

Afterward, Ras asked how long it took her to compose a song, what genres she could handle, and similar questions.

Meanwhile, Nebrania asked where the company was located, what the working hours were like, and how much the salary would be if she joined.

“If I judge Miss Nebrania’s work ability to be satisfactory, then I’ll pay enough to properly match a university graduate’s salary.”

Ras then explained roughly how much Pana and Garazt currently earned.

Oh? That’s pretty decent.

Nebrania, who had been drifting from part-time job to part-time job, visibly became interested.

The money she earned at Dayalla was not particularly bad either, but dressing up constantly, singing songs that did not fit her taste, and dealing with all sorts of exhausting situations because her face had become recognizable had been weighing heavily on her mind lately.

In the end, they agreed that she would first spend several days visiting Ras’s office and trying out this “computer work.”

And so, the very next morning, Nebrania arrived at Meta Soft early in the day.

“Hello.”

Ras had been slightly worried, but fortunately, she removed the flashy piercings and appeared dressed politely in a blouse and long skirt like an ordinary office worker of this world while greeting both him and the other employees respectfully.

Even so, because Dryads were rare, she still received many curious looks.

“Ah, you’re here.”

Ras had already spoken with her beforehand about greetings and workplace behavior, but seeing that she even dressed properly made him feel both relieved and slightly disappointed.

Then ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠again, considering she had willingly worn outfits at Dayalla that fully catered to stereotypes about Dryads, she probably possessed perfectly solid social awareness already.

“This is Miss Nebrania, who’s here to handle sound work. Unless there are problems, she’ll probably be working with us from now on.”

“Hello.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Once again, Nebrania bowed politely like a proper newcomer while greeting her seniors.

After the introductions ended, Ras immediately brought her over to the computer and began teaching her how to use the sound program.

She struggled noticeably.

Operating the keyboard and mouse felt awkward, and she also seemed overwhelmed by all the information displayed on the screen.

Still, since she was young, adapting to unfamiliar machinery did not take her very long.

Though she stumbled slightly at first, she soon became capable of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠using it reasonably well.

Ah. So this changes the pitch, and this controls the width.

Nebrania had never been a top student, but because she possessed formal theory knowledge from music university, once she became somewhat accustomed to computers, she quickly grasped how the program functioned.

Before long, she was already reproducing simple melodies she knew through the computer itself.

Oooh...

Ras was deeply moved hearing a convincing melody emerge from the computer, while Nebrania herself found it fascinating that a machine could produce melodies automatically without anyone physically performing them.

The functions remained limited, and the sound quality itself was crude, but it was still incredibly interesting.

And so, the Dryad guitarist officially became Meta Soft’s sound designer.

“So? Is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this enough for me to work here?”

Three days later, after spending those days coming to work and producing sound effects and background music exactly as Ras requested, Nebrania casually asked this question while leaving the office alongside him after all the other employees had already gone home.

Ras, who had been locking the office door, reflexively glanced sideways at her.

But she had already said earlier that outside the office, she would not speak formally ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and would behave the same way she did around Sky Castle, and Ras had agreed to that.

Strictly speaking, despite appearances, she was actually in her mid-thirties, making her older than Ras no matter how one looked at it.

And somehow, the fact that she did not seem interested in putting on false pretenses around him actually pleased him.

“Yes. More than enough.”

“Really? Then I’ll keep coming in on the other days too.”

She grinned at Ras’s answer as she spoke.

By “other days,” she meant the days she normally performed at Dayalla.

In other words, she intended to quit there and become a full employee of Meta Soft instead.

Naturally, Ras welcomed that wholeheartedly.

Although only a short time had passed, she already proved herself highly capable, both through her professionalism as a music major and through the instincts she possessed as an active singer and guitarist.

And, admittedly, a little lingering fanboy affection still remained mixed into his feelings as well.

For a brief moment, it occurred to him that there actually was not that much sound work available at the moment.

Still, he already decided earlier that he would hire sound staff while thinking about the future.

And recently, after repeatedly attending performances, he came up with a new idea.

Why not create a game that focused heavily on music itself?

Ras no longer clung to the idea that he personally needed to make every game himself, and Garazt was already pulling his own weight perfectly well.

So he felt it might be fine to hand Land of Adventure 2 almost entirely over to the others and begin another new project simultaneously.

Ras thought about what sort of game would work best.

Since the game would focus heavily on music, it needed to save resources elsewhere, which meant complicated gameplay was unsuitable.

It would need to succeed through simple game mechanics instead.

If Ras had truly been born in this world, he probably would have agonized endlessly over the concept.

But thanks to his memories, one perfect answer immediately came to mind.

A rhythm game!

Not merely a passing trend, rhythm games had become an entire genre on Earth and were still loved by many people right up until the moment Ras arrived in this world.

Part of him wanted to invent something completely original instead, but once the idea of a rhythm game lodged itself into his mind, nothing else would come to him anymore.

Eventually, Ras gave up resisting and immediately began planning.

First, since rhythm games themselves came in many varieties, he needed to decide what style to use.

Naturally, he immediately excluded the flashy 3D VR rhythm games from his memories.

The first thing he thought of instead was the drum-beating rhythm game, mainly because it was one of the few rhythm games he had been somewhat decent at.

But after thinking about it more carefully, he realized that while rhythm games themselves might become familiar eventually, using drums as the central gameplay mechanic probably was not ideal in a world where such instruments were not especially familiar.

For the first attempt, it seemed better to create the simplest and most intuitive style possible.

Several buttons would exist, and when notes fell from top to bottom, the player would press the corresponding buttons at the correct timing.

The earliest rhythm games Ras remembered had all looked something like that.

Ras thought deeply about what exactly made rhythm games enjoyable.

And the conclusion he reached was that compared to other games, they provided extremely rapid immediate feedback and endless praise.

And those two elements were tightly connected.

All the player did was press buttons, yet the game constantly showered them with praise like Perfect, Good, and Nice.

And that praise did not feel empty because both the visuals and sound effects reinforced it.

That created a satisfying feeling, repeated continuously in rapid intervals until the music ended.

At the same time, it was also the mechanism that immersed players into the game itself.

Keeping this point firmly in mind, Ras tried recalling as many gimmicks as possible from the rhythm games he had previously played and inserted them into the planning document.

At the same time, he also made sure to investigate whether similar games already existed on the market.

There is one. Melody Runner?

After all, music was something humanity—or rather intelligent species in general—had enjoyed for ages, so the idea of incorporating rhythm into games itself was hardly difficult to imagine.

Still, after looking into Melody Runner, Ras felt quietly relieved.

It certainly utilized rhythm, but it resembled a piano learning program more than an actual game.

The game displayed piano keys, and when notes descended toward them, players pressed the matching timing to naturally produce piano sounds as though they were performing the song themselves.

The most impressive part was that if players continued without mistakes, the shadow-like character standing above the piano keys gradually ran faster and faster.

Then, after clearing the full song, the screen shifted to show the character breaking through a finish-line ribbon while displaying the score.

It had received fairly positive reviews and sold reasonably well.

Ras actually thought that was perfect.

There were enough differences that nobody could realistically accuse him of copying it.

And since players already existed who were familiar with rhythm-based gameplay, they would probably accept Ras’s rhythm game much more easily.

After finishing the planning phase, Ras moved on to designing the logic.

Honestly, that part itself was not difficult.

When a player pressed a button, the game simply needed to determine where the note currently was and then output the appropriate score, judgment, visual effect, and sound effect.

The truly difficult part was creating a program that automatically placed notes according to the music itself.

More than anything, Ras lacked musical knowledge.

And since this was supposed to be a rhythm game, it needed at least ten songs minimum.

Manually placing every note one by one for all of them would be absurdly exhausting.

Not only that, but he also planned to release additional songs later and potentially create entirely new rhythm game series in the future.

So no matter how painful it became, he needed to solve the problem now.

Ras went to the library to search for books, stood behind Nebrania while she created melodies using the sound software, observed her closely, and constantly asked questions while searching for a solution.

Eventually, he somehow managed to construct the logic.

The program automatically determined note placement intervals and key assignments according to the height and spacing of the waveforms within the music file itself.

However, directly matching every waveform one-to-one created far too many notes, so he also needed to add functionality allowing ratio adjustments instead.

Ras spent nearly two full weeks obsessing over this problem.

Still, thanks to that effort, once a music file was inserted, the program could now automatically generate note patterns.

Though technically speaking, it was not fully automatic.

If the program mapped notes exactly according to the waveforms, some sections became overcrowded with notes while others contained almost none at all.

Because of that, manual adjustments remained necessary to maintain proper tension and pacing, and sometimes notes still needed to be manually inserted.

As a result, the note-editing program gradually evolved into something resembling a highly specialized professional tool.

Ras decided that was actually for the best and polished the UI neatly.

With a tool like this, other people could use it easily too.

After that, the graphics work itself was not difficult.

There might eventually be additional animations or illustrations, but for now, the game only required a few boxes, notes, and effects.

At first, Pana looked troubled when he requested new assets because she assumed they were for another major game project, but after quickly finishing the work, she even asked him whether that really was all he needed.

Still, the melodies themselves—the most important part of the game—remained a problem.

Ras had already been worrying about that since before the note editor was even complete.

“What songs should we use?”

Ras muttered while rubbing his chin.

Since music itself formed the identity of the game, it was an incredibly important issue.

“Wouldn’t it be fine to just use famous songs? The kinds that play often on the radio or TV.”

Nebrania answered casually without much thought.

Since the core team for this project consisted of only the two of them, they were currently sitting across from each other at the conference table exchanging ideas.

“That would probably be difficult.”

Ras smiled bitterly while forming a circle with his thumb and index finger.