Chapter 46: Panchi Games’ Concerns
Chapter 46: Panchi Games’ Concerns
Well, this is about on the same level as what our own guys write.
No, to be honest, it was even more sophisticated than that. It almost felt as though the document had been drawn after seeing the actual machine in person. Considering that the planning department employees got paid salaries for producing proposals like this, if the product truly became a hit, paying royalties might not actually be unreasonable.
The lack of concrete numerical specifications was somewhat disappointing, but by comparing the silhouettes of the people drawn into the diagrams, it was not difficult to estimate roughly how large the machine would be.
“So? Does it seem decent?”
After reading the proposal in detail, Cheims handed it over to Ajabran as well. No matter how refined the proposal was, it was impossible to determine from that alone whether it would truly succeed. He personally thought it looked promising, but that was all, and he wanted more opinions.
“Hmm... it’s definitely creative, at least.”
Ajabran felt similarly. The ears atop his head twitched back and forth, openly revealing his conflicted thoughts.
“The fact that it’s an interactive experience game is certainly innovative, and it definitely seems capable of drawing attention. But the disadvantages are significant as well, so I can’t say with certainty that it will succeed the way this Ras person claims.”
For people unlike Ras, who had no knowledge of Earth’s history, this was only natural. Even if they knew it had succeeded on Earth, that would not necessarily guarantee success here.
Like everything else, success depended not only on the product itself but also on many external factors.
“The software and circuit boards could probably be modified from Beat Heater without too much trouble, but making these foot panels won’t be easy. They won’t just need to bear body weight but also withstand sudden impacts repeatedly, which means they’ll require considerable durability. At the same time, they’ll also need to detect pressure accurately...”
The development and manufacturing costs alone already seemed likely to be substantial. For a game in the same genre, such expenses were a considerable burden. If things went wrong, they might spend a fortune developing it only for existing users to simply divide themselves between the old and new games.
“The term ‘interactive experience game’ sounds good, but I’m not sure whether people will actually prefer moving their bodies around while playing. They might even feel burdened by all the attention they’d attract. And the machine itself becoming larger is another issue.”
“Right.”
Cheims had reached similar conclusions himself.
Still, it was difficult to give up because of the success story Ras had already shown. Cheims had investigated him personally, and shockingly enough, not a single one of Ras’s projects had failed from his very first game until now. No, more than that, every single one had been a massive success.
Of course, there were differences between PC games and arcade games, but they were still both games at the end of the day, so it was hard to imagine him suddenly suffering a major failure.
“And like he said in the proposal, this really is the perfect timing for a follow-up.”
Like the saying about striking while the iron was hot, Beat Heater was currently exploding in popularity, so they needed to hit people with another strong release before the excitement cooled if they wanted the momentum to last longer.
Originally, they had simply intended to make a sequel with slightly adjusted game design and additional songs. But after seeing this proposal, they realized that would no longer feel sufficient.
After agonizing over it for a long time, Cheims finally made his decision.
“Alright! Let’s trust him one more time.”
“Huh? So we’re making it?”
“Yeah. Now that I think about it, even if it doesn’t become a huge success, Beat Heater is popular enough right now that it’ll probably sell decently anyway. I think it’s worth trying. And our financial situation isn’t bad anymore, is it?”
Most of the arcade owners who initially rented the machines had switched to outright purchases, which resolved much of the instability. At this point, attempting something like this could no longer truly be called gambling. That was why he could confidently commit to it.
“Yes. Even if things go badly, we should still have enough left to survive.”
“Exactly. Then take this over to the development team.”
Cheims handed the proposal to Ajabran. After being left alone in the president’s office, he continued stroking his black beard thoughtfully despite already having made his decision.
He kept wondering whether this was truly the right choice and whether there was any way to reduce the risk further.
Should I tell that Ras guy to take responsibility and demand investment money from him? Since he guaranteed success, maybe he wouldn’t refuse completely if I asked... No. There are already royalties involved. If we squeeze even more profit out of him there, he won’t have much left even if the game succeeds.
As an individual, Cheims was actually a rather bold man. But as the president of a company who had already experienced standing at the edge of ruin once, he could not stop himself from worrying endlessly, even though he knew it was not productive.
After confirming through Barbal Soft that production of Pump had officially been approved, Ras decided to stop worrying about that side of things. Instead, he began focusing on gathering information about orphanages.
At times like this, he truly missed the internet. Instead of simply searching online a few times for information, he had to visit the library and dig through old newspapers and magazines.
Fortunately, it was vacation season, so he was not busy, and he quite liked the atmosphere of the library after returning there for the first time in a while.
After investing an entire day, Ras finally gained a rough understanding of orphanages in this world, or at least within the Republic of Smite.
From Ras’s perspective, this was a primitive era without Children’s Day and without bans on child labor, yet surprisingly, the concept of caring for orphans seemed well established. There were quite a few orphanages, and they appeared to operate fairly effectively.
The reason was religion. Translated literally into Earth terms, it would be something like the Church of Heaven. When Ras first heard the name, it sounded absurdly simplistic.
But there was a reason for that too. Unlike Earth, this world did not contain countless competing sects and denominations.
The Heavenly Realm truly existed, and although the beings there differed somewhat from Earth’s concept of gods, divine-like entities undeniably existed. Since multiple beings inhabited the Four Realms, monotheism naturally did not exist. All religions simply differed in which existence among the Four Realms, particularly within the Heavenly Realm, they worshipped.
However, that did not necessarily mean the beliefs were directly connected to the gods themselves. The gods of the Heavenly Realm possessed stronger personalities than Spirits, but they were still profoundly indifferent beings. To Ras, it simply looked like humans were arbitrarily creating doctrines and following them on their own.
At the same time, though, it was not entirely unrelated either.
Since they were still sentient beings, they reacted when people reached out to them. Unlike Spirits, which resembled inorganic phenomena, the gods occasionally granted miracles at surprisingly low costs according to their own subjective whims. Religious sects then interpreted these miracles as signs of divine will and created doctrines accordingly. Human subjectivity played a large role, but there was still some connection.
And because these beings were capable of communication, they naturally interacted more often with those who believed in and thought about them frequently. Thus, even if neither the gods nor the followers truly cared about doctrine itself, simply belonging to the church increased the chances of witnessing miracles.
In any case, most doctrines revolved around universal morality. And since gods desired more followers, they wished for humanity to prosper. Naturally, this led to efforts being directed toward caring for children.
But all things had practical limits. Even within the Republic of Smite, one of the wealthier nations in this world, there were somehow far too many abandoned children.
Even with support from the churches, taking in and raising every child required even greater amounts of money. No matter how much goodwill existed, there was inevitably a point where they had to give up unless they intended to let all the children starve together.
It was tragic. But Ras was not the type of person with a savior complex, nor did he have any desire to reform reality and rescue every orphan in existence. He simply felt there might be a way to use this situation to his advantage.
While also doing some good in the process.
On top of that, magazines and newspapers had already begun criticizing games, saying children became so obsessed with them that they neglected studying or that games encouraged excessive violence and negatively affected mental health. It was about time to improve their image while also reducing taxes.
Ras began investigating nearby orphanages and their reputations.
The Brunyard Federation, neighboring the Republic of Smite.
Kamchan, who had just turned fifteen that year, hurried toward his room with excitement shining in his black eyes. In his hands was Civilization and War, the latest game his merchant father had brought back as a gift from the Republic of Smite.
Although the Brunyard Federation was considered the rival nation of the Republic of Smite, the hegemonic power of the Kanig Continent, that rivalry existed mostly in name. In terms of population, economy, and military power, Brunyard lagged behind in every category.
In fact, the federation itself had only been formed a century earlier because the surrounding nations could no longer withstand the endless border conflicts and desperately united together through frantic diplomacy.
Even that was not enough. They had only barely managed to create a balance of power by receiving aid from the Pluta Empire on the Gondwana Continent.
Afterward, by exhausting every possible method, they finally secured the decisive weapon known as the LCA. Fearing mutually assured destruction, the Republic of Smite requested an armistice, and only then was peace barely achieved. After enough time passed, the two nations were no longer friendly, but at least they had become neighboring countries where people and goods moved back and forth.
Because of this history, the Brunyard Federation simultaneously felt rivalry toward and admiration for the Republic of Smite.
As a result, the wealthy classes of Brunyard tended to enjoy Smite’s goods and culture.
To enjoy another nation’s culture, one needed to know its language. Thanks to the early education his parents gave him, Kamchan could speak the Republic of Smite’s Aran language almost like a native speaker.
Back then, it felt like such a pain.
Kamchan inserted the diskette into his computer while thinking that. When he was younger, he hated learning a language he never even used in daily conversation. But thanks to that, he could now enjoy games from the Republic of Smite without any difficulty, which made him grateful.
Another fortunate thing was that despite the poor relations between the countries, the Brunyard Federation was still primarily a human nation and therefore used the same computer language as the Republic of Smite.
Furthermore, when the computer market first emerged, Brunyard had not developed its own systems or operating systems but instead imported those from Smite.
Thus, even though Brunyard now manufactured its own computers, including the one Kamchan was currently using, they still followed the same standards. The OS was simply an imported version with the language changed, so there were no issues running software from the Republic of Smite.
As soon as the game launched, Kamchan already liked the very first line that appeared during race selection.
<Which race’s king will you become?>
The word king had lost much of its grandeur in modern times, but for boys, it still carried a special kind of excitement. Especially for teenage boys around what Earth would call middle-school second-year syndrome, when self-consciousness became excessive.
Then, after starting the game, the next line appeared: <Generating world.> That too filled him with a strange sense of anticipation.
After waiting a long time, the world finally appeared. To be honest, the graphics were unimpressive. But since he had played computer games many times before, he was used to that. What disappointed him slightly was that after calling him a king, the game only gave him a single unimpressive character called a Settler.
However, that disappointment vanished the moment he fiddled around and watched it transform into a castle.
Oh... so this is my castle?
And little by little, he learned how everything worked. He constructed buildings, hired heroes, assigned populations to gather resources, created units, and even organized armies.
This really is like running an entire nation?
Until now, every game he had played had only involved controlling a single character. But this was completely different. He was controlling an entire country, and the experience felt unbelievably fresh.