Chapter 93: Brunyard Gamers and an Unexpected Export

Still, perhaps because it had only just been released, most players relied on quick single-hit attacks. Their hands quickly became tangled, causing the blocks to pile up chaotically without being cleared.

But then accidental chains would suddenly trigger and launch attacks at the opponent, and that aspect was incredibly fun.

“Waaah!”

Both for the people playing and for those watching.

To Thompson, the two players seemed about equally skilled, but the Orc uncle appeared slightly luckier. The Dwarf big sister grumbled in frustration and immediately tried to insert another coin, but after seeing the huge stack of coins piled near the slot, her shoulders slumped.

After standing there hesitating for a moment, she placed her own coin on top of the coin tower.

It seemed she intended to wait and get her revenge no matter what.

But that revenge never came.

The young man who played next defeated the Orc uncle after another similarly intense match.

People kept pouring in.

Those who had played stayed because it was fun. The spectators watching them grew curious. Then others were drawn in again by the cute game screen, exciting sounds, and effects. The place became as packed as a rush-hour bus.

“Ughhh...”

Thompson and Orlando were squeezed so badly by the crowd that groans escaped them unconsciously.

Even so, instead of backing away, the two searched for the most comfortable spot they could find and continued watching.

The game was entertaining even just to watch.

The dazzling magic created through chain ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠attacks flew back and forth between players while the cute blocks exploded with popping sounds, making it hard to look away.

And occasionally, truly skilled players appeared.

These were people who had played the PC version before or those naturally gifted with strong game sense. Watching them play was even more entertaining.

“Ooooh!”

When someone triggered five or six chain explosions at once, Thompson’s mouth practically fell open as he wondered how they were even doing that.

Some spectators even gasped in admiration without realizing it.

One Elf player maintained his seat by winning twelve matches in a row with overwhelming skill.

But this game required heavy mental focus, making it difficult to maintain concentration continuously.

And although his skill looked incredible by current standards, the actual gap between players was not all that huge yet, so eventually he lost and had to give up his seat.

Thompson endured for quite a long time.

But the more he watched, the harder it became to suppress the urge to play.

In the end, he took out a 10-piece coin and placed it on the coin tower.

Still, if simply watching could turn someone into an expert, practice would not exist.

Through game sense and concentration, Thompson somehow managed to defeat three people. But eventually, he lost and could only droop his shoulders in disappointment.

Even so, he did not blame the game.

He merely thought he needed to watch more, practice more, and become an expert himself.

Tetris 2 Arcade was a massive success.

First of all, the name value of the previous game alone drew attention. A huge initial shipment was distributed, and afterward, the word of mouth was excellent.

Some people said it was simpler than the original, but many actually preferred that. The cute characters were also popular.

Above all, the versus system was fantastic.

Players had already learned the joy of competing against one another through Fighters’ Club. Under those circumstances, it was only natural for them to become interested when a completely different genre of versus game appeared.

Once its popularity was proven, additional orders poured in.

However, it was not as explosive as Fighters’ Club had been.

Since the popularity of Fighters’ Club had not faded yet, many arcade owners did not feel the need to replace their boards immediately.

Even so, it sold well enough to easily be called a smash hit.

The Brunyard Federation, in particular, imported huge quantities.

Tetris was already highly popular there to begin with, then Tetris 2 came out with a Versus Mode, and rumors spread that it was becoming an enormous hit even in the Republic of Smite.

As a result, distributors placed orders recklessly without even thinking things through.

Thanks to that, several trains and buses heading toward the Brunyard Federation were loaded full of Tetris 2 boards.

At this point, Meta Soft’s influence no longer seemed questionable.

Ras rode this momentum and pushed Arcade Game Land’s expansion into the Brunyard Federation even further.

At the same time, he also launched the overseas expansion of Gamers, which he had long been preparing.

To do so, Gamers had to establish a management team as well.

But it was not made into anything particularly grand.

They simply created a small room inside the Gamers office and hired two managers responsible for accounting work and for supporting and managing the Brunyard branch.

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Yes!”

One was a young man whose specialty was Ruta Language, and the other was an Orc woman who had graduated from the journalism department of a prestigious university.

Both stood stiffly nervous in front of Ras.

That was unavoidable.

Ras had now become such a major figure that his name could easily be found in newspapers and magazines.

Ras regretted that he could not directly see their drive and spirit, but judging from their documents and interviews, they did seem to be capable people, so he decided to trust them.

And the two lived up to his expectations.

In only two weeks, they somehow managed to establish a respectable-looking magazine company.

Ras had thought it would be difficult for foreigners to obtain approval, even for something like a magazine company.

On top of that, there was the language barrier, and since it was a niche gaming magazine, he assumed finding people would also be difficult.

Yet they accomplished it brilliantly.

However, Ras was slightly mistaken about something.

His magazine, Gamers, already possessed a fair amount of recognition in the Brunyard Federation.

There was already a team specializing in translating it, and there were quite a number of regular subscribers the headquarters itself did not even know about.

Gamers had first attracted interest because it was created by Epek Ras. Then, after people managed to obtain copies, they found it far more entertaining than expected.

Of course, since this was not an era with the internet and copying costs were expensive, the number of Gamers fans in Brunyard was not huge.

But there were definitely people interested in it, which was why they were able to recruit staff so quickly after posting advertisements looking for local reporters.

Producing the Brunyard version of the magazine also was not very difficult.

Several of the people they hired, including Editor-in-Chief Tobtron, were experienced professionals, and unlike the headquarters during its founding, they already had a sample magazine to use as a reference.

Namely, the headquarters’ own magazine.

Furthermore, Ras allowed them to translate and reuse some of the headquarters’ articles.

Things like strategy guides and manga did not contain information restricted by time anyway.

Thanks to that, Brunyard Gamers was able to produce a content-rich magazine right from the beginning.

The response was not bad either.

There was already a subscriber base Ras himself did not know about, and even beyond that, Meta Soft’s name had become so famous that many people had at least heard of Gamers.

Moreover, gaming magazines themselves were simply good content.

Very good.

Ras was highly satisfied after hearing that Brunyard Gamers had successfully established itself.

Even while handling overseas operations, Ras did not forget to pay attention to game development.

Bubble Bobble’s development, for example, had already progressed considerably.

“Is this a dinosaur?”

Ras was startled when the Casual Team unexpectedly brought in a draft design resembling the original game’s character.

At the same time, he was puzzled.

He wondered why they had chosen such a niche motif.

“It isn’t. This is a dragon.”

Ondaraba firmly denied Ras’s words.

She looked small and weak in appearance, but when working, she gave off a very sharp and decisive impression.

“The character needs to shoot bubbles, but if it uses a separate tool, we felt it wouldn’t be very intuitive. And if it fires directly from its body, the mouth is the easiest thing for people to associate with. Then, when we thought about animals or monsters that shoot things from their mouths, we ended up with this dragon.”

After hearing the explanation for why they chose a dragon, Ras found it convincing.

“And dragons already appeared in Tetris 2 as well.”

That additional explanation reminded Ras of the inactive blocks that were probably still falling in Arcade Game Land arcades even now.

Well, dragons were indeed commonly used characters in this world.

Rather than forcing something fresh, it might actually be better to use something familiar.

It was a little disappointing that it lacked originality, but from Ras’s perspective, reproducing it properly was almost refreshing.

Besides, the other draft designs were not very good either.

There were characters that looked like giant squirrels or pig-sheep hybrids, probably taken from the manga characters in Gamers. There were also boys and girls wearing futuristic-looking clothes while holding bizarre guns.

They were impressive in their own way, but they could not compare to the dragon.

In ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the end, Ras chose the dragon just like in the original.

And since things had turned out this way, he actively gave his opinions to make it even closer to the original game’s feel.

Ondaraba had already tried to make the dragon cute in her own way.

However, this was still a world unfamiliar with cartoon-like expressions. Her drawings felt somewhat more realistic.

Once the design was decided, development proceeded quickly.

The game was simple from the beginning, after all.

Ras occasionally visited the development room, pointing out awkward ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠elements and correcting details the planning documents could not fully explain, such as input response speed and character movement.

Of course, aside from Bubble Bobble, he also continued paying attention to Project “Spirit.”

Garazt handled the systems side well on his own, while Ras focused mainly on the character designs.

First of all, Aspa worked extremely hard.

He gathered countless books, added his own creativity to existing spirit imagery, and carefully described detailed appearances in writing.

Then he continuously exchanged opinions with the Graphics Team and turned those descriptions into visual designs, and the results were good.

Every day, Ras slowly examined the spirit images submitted for approval.

Honestly, not every spirit looked cool.

But each one definitely possessed its own unique character, and every now and then, there were designs that truly felt like they could become the “main” mascot-type spirit.

That was exactly the kind of feeling Ras wanted.

Still, something felt lacking.

It was not because of the development team’s work.

Rather, as someone who possessed memories from Earth, Ras simply found it disappointing that Pokémon did not exist in this world.

Ras thought about it for a long time.

Originally, he planned to leave everything to the development team and simply observe.

But in the end, this time he decided to personally participate in the designs as well.

He simply could not let go of his memories of Pikachu, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur.

With clumsy skills, Ras roughly sketched designs himself, carefully wrote down their characteristics in detail, and received help from the design team.

“Huh? President, you’re participating too?”

Pana widened her eyes behind her thick glasses in surprise.

Still, she did not think it strange beyond that.

After all, every member of the development team was participating in the character designs for this project anyway.

Even Diska, who normally handled miscellaneous tasks, had submitted planning documents.

And surprisingly, they were fairly good.

Since Ras planned to create at least two hundred species anyway, he accepted Diska’s proposals as well.

Aspa took the characters approved by Ras and diligently created detailed settings for them.

Attributes, species values, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠individual values, special skills, and so on.

Of course, the numbers Aspa decided on would not become final automatically. They planned to confirm everything through meetings while considering game balance.

Since versus battles were the core content, it needed to be handled carefully.

Especially because network battles between players were also planned.

Whenever new designs were completed, the Graphics Team diligently created the dot graphics.

Fortunately, the in-game illustrations only required front and back sprites.

In any case, the spirits were steadily being created one by one like this.

Meanwhile, Tetris 2’s popularity continued growing until it reached its peak.

Ras confirmed this through Arcade Game Land’s sales indicators, arcade board sales numbers, and articles in magazines and newspapers.

It felt like it was finally time to prepare a tournament.