The Game Maker's First Upload
Whether it was thanks to Adam's abundant experience making games under his old high-nic or the absurdly overpowered tool called Deus Ex Machina, the game finished far faster than expected.
“It’s done after just one night.”
I stared carefully at the completed product I had created. For something made in a single day, the result wasn’t half bad.
Well then, time for a test run?
{Tap Space Bar}
Pressing the space bar started the game. Along with the script, the game began in earnest.
The controls were simple. Move with the left and right buttons, jump with the space bar. Use items with the up arrow, and input commands with the A and S keys to defeat enemies. It was structured much like the typical Flash games you could play by connecting to the internet.
The protagonist was a hero wielding a sword and shield—the classic hero character straight out of a fantasy novel.
In my past life I would’ve definitely complained that this lacks any distinguishing features.
Since it was filled with the usual tropes, it could be called a predictable development… but so what? There was no one left in this world who would call it predictable anyway. From fantasy to modern slice-of-life, even trashy dramas—every genre here was basically a blue ocean.
“The support program really is excellent.”
As expected, I, who had been a developer rather than an illustrator, had no connection to drawing. Even though it was only dot graphics, the fact that I could produce illustrations like this was all thanks to the support. I never imagined it would even teach me how to draw.
I simply followed what the application told me, sketching lines here and there. Besides, none of the Constellations here were incapable of such things either. True to their title as goddesses of the arts, every Constellation knew how to draw.
“Now then, the real question is where to upload this…”
That was the biggest problem. No matter how casually I had thrown this game together in a single day, I couldn’t just release it anywhere. If I wasn’t careful, I might end up like the rumors said—caught by the city’s censors and suffering something terrible…
Ah, no. It clearly wouldn’t get caught by the censors. Among the one-eyed majority that made up normal society, there was no way anyone would even look at something like this. Social influence? When no one paid any attention in the first place, how could such a thing exist?
If I uploaded it to an ordinary site, it would obviously be left alone without receiving a single bit of interest. And that went against the system’s desired spirit of “preservation.”
“In that case, there’s only one place left.”
The place I had originally intended to use. I would spread it through the so-called “dark web”—sites not authorized by the government.
“…Why do you always choose such violent wording?”
That aside, just like last time, I wondered what kind of being this Constellation was to say things like that so casually. Even if I had researched myths and legends extensively for data collection, the Muses of art in Greek mythology numbered nine. Aside from the eldest, Calliope—who was also famous as a VTuber—it was hard to say any of them had significant roles in the myths, so recognizing all of them was nearly impossible.
Besides, I had no intention of committing any crimes anyway. After all, the dark web in this world held a very different meaning from my past life.
“Well… there are places where real crimes happen. But the place I’m going isn’t one of them.”
The dark web, also known as the Abyss Web. In my past life, the term referred to networks that required access permissions or could only be reached through specific devices. In this world, however, it simply meant all internet sites operated by hands other than the government’s.
If you compared it to my past life, even Google or iVer would be considered dark web here.
Regardless of scale, if the government wasn’t the one directly developing and operating it, that was all that mattered. In short, it was similar to how in a certain pirate manga, any ship without permission was considered a pirate ship.
Of course, there were still real criminals inside, but those kinds of lunatics existed everywhere. It wasn’t a problem unique to this place. In the first place, those sorts of people were asleep in depths far deeper than the dark web.
Because of that, as long as it didn’t threaten the survival of society, the government didn’t particularly restrict use of the dark web. It was simply that, aside from “mutants” like me, no one used it, so it had naturally become isolated.
“Ah, is that so?”
Well, thinking about it, this was something like magic. There might be something attached that couldn’t be tracked with science and technology… Though of course, IQ tracking was impossible anyway.
Still, since the other Constellations agreed, tracking should be avoidable enough. With that worry out of the way—
“Then, shall we begin connecting?”
I immediately entered the dark web address into the site window. The place I was connecting to now was the most active location within the dark web. Even so, because the number of people was absolutely smaller than government sites, activity was sparse, and the connection speed was noticeably faster than the light web.
The writing was completely raw, unlike the usual stiff style. It felt just like the galleries from my past life.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen this too…”
At the same time, I felt something heating up inside my chest. The gallery. I wasn’t one of those high-nics or ju-ttaks who practically lived there, but I still remembered visiting a few times to check user needs. Back then, that culture had felt unfamiliar in many ways…
Now even this feels welcome.
Yeah, I had been living while only looking at too stiff a world. Ah, I love this—writing that’s so honest about its own desires.
“Now I need to spread the game here…”
I couldn’t just upload it. Even on the dark web, there were rules. After all, without any rules, who knew what strange things might get posted? Since criminals existed even among dark web users, getting permission from the ju-ttak had to come first.
Inhale… Usually they approve right away if you apply…
It wasn’t harmful, so I wasn’t worried… but this wasn’t something I could speed up myself, so I figured I should just talk to them and see what happened.
With that thought, I left a message in the inquiry tab.
-Ding!
Not long after, a reply arrived.
“Aha.”
Well, it would be strange to just hand out approval to some unknown floating nickname. If they approved the wrong person and something went wrong, the operator might end up taking all the responsibility. Just like in my past life, getting hacked in this world wasn’t simply a matter of personal information leaking.
“Then what should I use for a name…”
Using my real name felt a bit unsafe. There was no telling what kind of people might be here. So I had to automatically choose something other than my real name…
I’d like it to have at least some meaning, though.
After pondering for a while, I typed a word into the keyboard.
[GM]
GM. It was an abbreviation for several words, but the meaning I would use was “Game Maker.” Another meaning was “Game Master,” so it was the perfect alias for me right now.
Anyway, after setting the nickname, I went back to the operator.
Not long after, another reply arrived.
Great, success. With the permission finally granted, I quickly sent the file to Hacking Master.
…She won’t tear into it, right?
Well, I hadn’t embedded any harmful code, so it should be fine.
A little while later—
A message arrived from the operator.