When Will I Ever Finish This?
After finishing dinner with Yaruru and Ruru, I swallowed a yawn as I climbed the stairs. Before the meal, I had been thoroughly disgusted by Adel and Yaruru’s suggestion to keep talking, but now…
My stomach’s stuffed and I’m sleepy, so why are my eyes suddenly so wide awake?
It felt like the ideas in my head were throwing a tantrum, demanding to be turned into a game right this instant.
“Chase. You’re going to start making the game right now, aren’t you?”
“Yeah…”
Honestly, I wanted to. But the sight of Yaruru’s sparkling eyes made me hesitate.
“It’s super obvious, you know.”
Yaruru stared straight at my face while petting Ruru. Ruru had somehow already fallen asleep. Just moments ago she had been happily chomping away at meat pie, and now she was drooling and sleeping soundly.
…Do spirits get blood sugar spikes too?
“I was just… sorting through my thoughts.”
“Hmph. Doesn’t seem like it, you know.”
“…”
“Chase’s face gets weird whenever he finds something fun, you know.”
“Mm…”
“It’s a compliment, so you can smile, you know.”
I had no idea how that counted as praise…
The distance wasn’t far, yet the closer we got to the room, the slower Yaruru’s steps became.
What should I do?
Should I head inside and start working on the game, or keep talking with Yaruru? It felt like the kind of moment where choice prompts would appear in a game, but Yaruru spoke first.
“Umm. Then I’ll yield for today, you know.”
“Huh?”
“We’ll have plenty of time to talk about the game anyway, you know.”
“But Chase looks like he really wants to make it… so I’ll rest today too, you know.”
“…Got it. Then I’ll just start with the small stuff.”
Since Yaruru was being considerate, I decided to save the fun parts for later.
“Today I’ll probably just work on background music or some design.”
“Good idea, you know! …But.”
Yaruru held up one finger.
“Too sparkly isn’t good, you know.”
“What isn’t?”
“Um… it’s hard to put into words, you know…”
I stopped walking as Yaruru fell into thought.
“Ah!”
As if she had just remembered something, Yaruru grabbed Ruru’s limp front paw and shook it.
“There’s this kind too.”
Ruru flicked her tail in annoyance and let out another tiny snore.
“Like the water spirit the professor contracted—there are pretty big-sister types too, you know.”
“Hmm.”
Now I roughly understood what she was getting at, but I kept listening anyway.
“Not every spirit is pretty and cute, you know. If you make them all like that… people won’t get attached, you know.”
“…Why?”
“If they’re too perfect, it’s actually harder to feel attached, you know.”
“…”
As expected from an active spirit user and assistant to GameMakerChoa… Lady Yaruru occasionally landed devastatingly accurate remarks. The kind of wise words that made her usual peculiar speech style seem like nothing more than a deliberate concept.
“Anyway. Don’t make them too pretty. Everyone likes different things, you know.”
“…You’re right.”
“So I believe Chase will do great this time too, you know!”
Yaruru hugged Ruru tighter and waved at me.
…Not that it mattered, since it was only the next room over.
“Then I’ll think about it a little more, you know. Ruru might get sulky if she has to move around any more here, you know…”
“She’s sleeping while drooling, though?”
“…Ruru is more sensitive than you think, you know.”
“As expected of a spirit.”
“And don’t push yourself too hard, you know.”
At Yaruru’s encouragement, I was at a loss for words. Who was the one who said we had to finish the game before break ended again?
Seeing my expression, Yaruru let out a little “hehe” and disappeared into her room.
“Sigh.”
I exhaled deeply and closed the door. The surroundings instantly fell silent. The chatter of people drinking, the noisy clatter from the kitchen—everything vanished.
“Mm. Good thing I splurged on an expensive room after all.”
But the quiet didn’t feel particularly comfortable.
Rather—
If I don’t head to the mental space soon, Adel’s going to start nagging again.
Using Adel as an excuse, I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes right away.
Soon, the darkness before my eyes lit up with a blue glow.
“Why are you so late!”
Before I could even open my eyes to the words that came pouring out as if she had been waiting, I pressed my fingers firmly against my brow.
“I really thought you went to sleep!”
“Seriously… it only took an hour to eat and come back.”
“One minute felt like a year! So I’ve been waiting for sixty years!”
“…”
For a split second, “grandma” almost slipped out of my mouth, but I managed to hold it back with superhuman patience.
Wait. If we’re only going by birth year, Adel really is a grandma, isn’t she…?
“Chase. You’re not thinking something weird, are you?”
“Ah, yeah. Haha. I was just thinking about where to start.”
At my excuse, Adel spun around me with sparkling eyes.
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘so’?”
“As expected, Chase is shy, huh? Saying no with words while… hehe.”
“…Should I just go to sleep?”
“No, sorry! What are we making? Where do we start? How far are we going? I’ll stay right by your side the whole time! Is there anything I can help with?”
“Breathe while you talk.”
“Huhu. Fun fact—spirits don’t actually need to breathe~”
It was a truly terrible thing to say.
After calming Adel down for a moment, I waved my hand and pulled up the status window panel.
But the moment I tried to start working on the game, the conversation I’d just had with Yaruru echoed in my ears again.
“If they’re too perfect, you actually get less attached…”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“…Adel.”
“Yeah?”
“Yaruru said not every spirit has to be pretty and cute. Especially not in the game we’re making.”
“Whaaaat?!”
A reaction on par with Yaruru’s. Adel’s eyes went wide as she jumped nearly two meters straight up in place.
When she landed again, she looked up at me with an expression of pure disbelief.
“What do you mean by that? Does that mean a pretty, cute, and lovely spirit like me won’t be popular?”
“…That’s not it. Anyway, something being good and something you get attached to might be two different things.”
“Ehh.”
At Adel’s still-skeptical reaction, I simply shrugged.
Explaining it with words probably won’t work.
Sometimes actions speak louder than words. I was actually looking forward to the moment Adel would play the game herself.
“Let’s start by working on the background music.”
I pulled out a few tracks I’d made earlier and played them.
“This one’s too fast. This one’s too monotonous and…”
Kieeeeee————
“Ack! Why is this still here?”
“Hik! Chase, were you planning to use this in Northern Defense? The filename says Northern Defense BGM semi-final_unedited 023.”
“…I must’ve forgotten to delete it.”
After hurriedly deleting the BGM that sounded like a demonic beast crawling out of hell, I gave up on recycling and decided to start from scratch.
I layered notes onto the melody that had come to mind, erased them, then added more. I brought in all sorts of sound effects and instrument samples…
“Huu… This is it! But nothing usable is coming out.”
If it was too cozy, it made me sleepy. If it was too mysterious, it felt distant.
“How about this one?”
“You’d fall asleep holding the panel after five minutes.”
“Then how about this?”
“Too childish.”
Even that seemed entertaining to Adel, and we had already exchanged hundreds of comments. It felt like her patience was finally running out.
“Ugh— This one!”
“Hmm. Not bad… but it doesn’t have any soul. Still, it could work for the early parts.”
“…You’re really picky.”
“Hmph. I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Fortunately, I managed to produce a few decent tracks right before Adel exploded.
The egg design was similar.
In this game, spirits don’t appear right from the start. Since it’s a raising sim about bonding with spirits, wouldn’t it be better to begin with an egg where you have no idea what will hatch?
From a systems perspective, it’s important time to gather player data and determine their reactions.
…Honestly, this is just because of my own lack of development skill.
What? Why would spirits come from eggs? Isn’t that lore-breaking?
Lore matters. But sometimes fun is everything.
…To make people say things like that, even the spirit egg design turned out to be a tricky task.
If it was too flashy, players wouldn’t want to touch it from the beginning. If I emphasized luxury too much, they’d get overly attached right away. And if I made it completely plain?
Good for a twist, but it might not leave an impression.
Even so, the egg conceived by a spirit was basically the game’s first impression.
Just eye-catching enough. Just enough to plant a little anticipation.
…Through dozens of variations.
“Waaah— I’ve seen lots of game development before, but this is really hard work.”
“…Adel, thanks for at least understanding that.”
I was tired and worn out now. Leaving the grueling labor to my future self, I pushed the panel window aside and let out a sigh.
“There really is no end to the problems, huh.”
What I faced next was the biggest hurdle of all.
The spirits themselves.
“Oh.”
Seeing my expression, Adel covered her mouth with both hands.
“What do we do…”
“Adel, move your hands?”
“Hehe. You can do it!”
After a brief round of tag as Adel scurried away, I sat back down and looked through the drafts.
“Hmm— This is a problem.”
“Why? They all look pretty.”
“Like I said earlier, that’s exactly the problem.”
The drafts weren’t bad. In fact, they all possessed the mysterious atmosphere and beauty you’d expect from spirits.
The issue was…
They all look exactly like spirits.
Admiration and longing could be bought, but beautiful appearances made attachment difficult.
I broke up the neat outlines and removed the cleanly falling eye lines.
Adel looked horrified at first, but after staring for a while, she tilted her head.
“Something… it’s a little less pretty than before, but it feels more friendly?”
“Yeah. That’s exactly what I want.”
The moment the words left my mouth, my fingers began moving faster.
“Wait a second! It’s not fair for only us to enjoy this! I’m supposed to be your assistant, so shouldn’t you let me help? More importantly, if you’ve been doing this alone until now, weren’t you lonely—”
“…”
Adel opened a popup window next to my panel.
“What are you suddenly doing?”
“Hmph. Since Chase doesn’t care, I have to take care of it myself.”
“Ah.”
Come to think of it, I had told Yaruru I would only be doing small tasks today. Seeing the familiar nickname pop up on screen, I paused my work on the panel.
More surprising was that Adel had been the one to contact Yaruru first.
…Maybe she was just lacking conversation partners?
Yaruru’s reply came back almost instantly.
“See? Told you.”
“Why…?”
Adel tapped away at the popup window with question marks floating above her head. Because of that, Yaruru’s message got pushed up and out of view. It took a while to calm Adel down before I could read the reply.
After reading Yaruru’s reply, Adel froze completely. Even the question mark that had been floating above her head disappeared.
“…Adel?”
“…”
Looking at her expression, now tinged with moisture, I suddenly recalled something she had once said to me.
“That’s right! The thing that made me was my friend!”
“…”
Come to think of it, I still didn’t know much about Adel. What abilities she had, what kind of past she carried.
“…Yaruru and Chase are right about this.”
“You okay?”
“Huh? Yeah! As expected, a spirit user’s eye for these things is on another level. Should I call it amazing, or should I be jealous? Why can’t spirits become spirit users themselves?”
Adel quickly recovered her usual energy. I simply nodded and continued working.
Rather than starting as something already lovable…
It was fine to begin a little ambiguous, a little imperfect. Instead, the goal was for players to gradually reach out, become curious about everything, and start caring without even realizing it.
“…My head knows that, but it’s still hard.”
“You can do it! I’ll cheer you on from right beside you!”
Adel bounced around me, throwing in all sorts of encouragement. Meanwhile, Yaruru’s replies grew fewer and farther between until only one final message arrived.
After smiling at the message, I expanded the status window panel as wide as it would go.
Then—
“……Huh.”
Until just now, I hadn’t noticed because I’d been focused on each individual spirit. But when I spread everything out, the same feeling I’d had while making Northern Defense came rushing back.
One spirit, dozens of expressions. Dozens of spirits, hundreds of gestures. Countless interactions they displayed in place.
And still untouched—things that existed only in my head.
“I probably shouldn’t say this, but…”
Faced with that overwhelming scale, any romantic notions about creation completely vanished.
“Hold on.”
“When will I ever finish all this?”
“…”
Exactly.