ALL NOVEL Chapter 35
We, having finished character planning, began the serious development of the fighting game.
Before we started, I gathered everyone from our Irene School related to game development in the expanded lab and said,
“Now, before we seriously start developing the game, I want to distribute the tasks.”
“Weren’t you just going to whip something up like usual?”
Looks like Jiren is finally trying to get me killed.
Until now, making games had been faster when I did it alone since the scale was manageable.
But from now on, that was going to change.
I had exceeded the range that I could just poke around and create by myself.
“First, I went through the task list with Karen, and here’s what we have.”
I handed Jiren the list of fighting game tasks that Karen and I had sorted out.
Jiren began reading through the task list one by one.
“Let’s see… Character control interface system, skill command system, hit detection system, defense system, health gauge system, 10 background stages fitting the character concept, graphic resources for 10 character types, character balancing, story cutscenes, etc…”
The more he read, the darker Jiren’s expression became.
I could tell he was starting to realize that the scale of the game we were making was on a different level.
“How would you feel if I told you to do all this by yourself?”
“Well… I’d probably die, right?”
“You see it too, don’t you?”
Thus, for this game development, all the capable individuals from our Irene School were fully mobilized.
Me, the Master, Jiren, Karen, Noirin, Julia, and even Lauren were brought in.
Lauren was a cute little 16-year-old priestess with green pigtails, one year younger than Noirin.
She had always shown a keen interest in game development, particularly excelling in graphics, producing several artworks for me.
“Yuren oppa! I made a real Super Thomas with video magic! How cool is it?”
“Wow! Did you make this, Lauren?”
“Yes!”
The picture Lauren produced was, simply put, an 8-head tall Super Thomas pixel character.
It seemed she also had a talent for imagining Japanese-style anime aesthetics.
Perhaps the various illustrations I showed her from my past life during our gaming sessions led to this early learning outcome.
To think such a brilliant talent was growing up…
“Approved!”
“Huh? What’s approved?”
“Noirin, teach Lauren how to handle the Boyer game engine.”
“Got it, Yuren oppa.”
“Huh? Boyer? Yuren oppa? Noirin oppa? Why do you look so scary?”
From that day on, Lauren began preparing to become the future art star of our school, her first time being involved this way.
I believe in you, Lauren!
Show us beautiful and cool fighting characters that we can enjoy for the next 20 years.
Considering the popularity of the Street Fight 2 characters, 20 years isn’t an exaggeration.
“More importantly, Yuren! Why am I included!?”
Julia couldn’t handle the combat system development alone, so I just threw her into the mix.
As it happened, she also had some skill in Void Magic and could handle the Boyer game engine, so Juel would be assigned tasks without any hesitation.
“I’ll pay you.”
“But!”
“I’ll pay you well.”
“……….”
Julia seemed to be in a dilemma.
She liked money, but I guess the tough time she had working on the crystal ball project was still fresh in her mind.
“What about your date with Zephia?”
“Oh! Got it! I can do it!”
With Julia’s agreement, all the workers, or rather, everyone was now ready for action.
Now it was time to crank up the engine.
Including myself, that is.
*
“Is this the place where they make game magic or whatever?”
“Not where games have been made until now, but it is where we will be making the next game.”
With the construction of the new Irene School building, the lab had seen significant expansion.
In the center, a large black crystal was installed to display the Void magic currently in development, with high-quality magic scrolls made of silk and ink made from unicorn blood, and so forth.
The best magical tools needed for the development set were arranged in each place.
Seeing this, memories of the game development studio from my previous life floated back to me.
Is it becoming similar just because the jobs are alike?
Apollo, my martial arts advisor, asked as he took in the scene.
“Fascinating! Do all schools work like this when creating magic?”
“Hmm… I wouldn’t think so, but it looks like that’s how it will be from now on.”
“What kind of strange talk is this?”
In magical schools, the development of magic relied heavily on a few geniuses.
Suddenly those with skills would just come in and make things, which was the usual way of magic development I had observed until now.
But game development was different.
There was so much to do that many people needed to work together, leading naturally to a setting like the one in our Irene School lab.
“Anyway, Apollo, I’d like your feedback on the impact and martial arts accuracy of the characters we’re creating.”
“Ha ha ha! Understood! So all I have to do is kick your butts, right?”
“Well… that’s correct.”
“Ha ha ha! That’s my specialty, so don’t worry!”
Thus, once Jiren and Noirin had implemented the character skills, Apollo would review them, setting up the character team.
And for the systems…
“Yuren? Is this how it’s done?”
“Perfect! Master! You are indeed the Master!”
“Hehe!”
The foundation systems for the fighting game were handled by the Master and me.
No, nearly everything was created by the Master.
This was my first time making game magic, but the Master’s level was truly different.
It felt like when I had worked with brilliant developers like John X. Mack in my past life.
Even if I spoke in a vague manner, he comprehended immediately and implemented it with mind-blowing quality.
…But I still had some pride, so I planned to later check the code and study it a bit.
In the graphics department, our promising candidate Lauren was doing splendidly.
Lauren was producing illustrations for the planned characters superbly.
The sexy Dark Elf character ‘Alicia’
The ‘Ryo’ and ‘Kan’ characters fitting well in this other world despite wearing a martial arts uniform,
And even Felicia, the white cat character from Capmo, resembling ‘Blanc’.
Along with our protagonist, the broom-headed imperial army character ‘Karuga’, she nailed it perfectly.
However, there was one problem.
“Yuren oppa, I made the character Curie; can you take a look?”
“Let’s see… Wait! What is this!?”
Lauren presented the Curie character filling the Ethical position, but Curie’s thighs… were too skinny.
“Lauren, everything is great, but let’s pump Curie’s thighs a bit more.”
“Thighs?”
“Yeah, Curie’s thighs are life!”
“Hmm… okay.”
The Curie character, designed in the image of Yu-ri, turned out beautifully.
In eastern-style clothing of the Kingdom of Ra, with blue clothes and a stunning Oriental beauty face—it was all on point.
But her thighs were too natural, and it also didn’t feel like Yu-ri.
A little while later, Lauren returned with a revised sketch.
“Yuren oppa, how about this size for Curie’s thighs?”
Lauren’s second draft had made Curie’s thighs a bit bigger.
Like she’d just finished squats and pumped up her muscles.
But it still wasn’t enough.
“Not enough! This is nowhere near Yu-ri, or rather, Curie’s thighs!”
“W-What about this size?”
“Still! Not enough! Just a little more!!”
Draft revisions 2, 3, 4, and 5 piled up.
I understood Lauren’s feelings.
Going any larger would make it look too unnatural.
But that was precisely what made Yu-ri’s charm, in my opinion.
Eventually, the final draft came.
There it was—the thighs I recognized.
“Alright! This is the size of thighs Yuren oppa was looking for, right?”
“Yes, this is necessary to inherit Yu-ri’s position.”
With that, the character I poured my heart into—Curie—was completed, and the graphic resources for the characters were nearly finished.
No matter how many times I looked, those thighs were breathtaking.
*
And with the last developer, Julia, we were working on the story and sound.
I was drafting the story while Karen helped write it to some extent before we integrated it into the game.
As for the sound, I was pulling ideas straight from my head and putting them into the game.
Both tasks were labor-intensive and required meticulous handling, and I was seeking Julia’s assistance throughout.
“Yuren, this is tough! When does the story and sound work end!?”
After a week of work, Julia started her usual whining.
Actually, considering it was Julia, a week was a long time for her to hold up.
“Hmm… For 10 character types, about 28 sound effects for each character and around 7 story cutscenes, I’d say… around 2 months.”
“Two… two months!?”
Although we didn’t need the story for the demo version a month later, I anticipated that the final work would take roughly that long.
Julia was petrified with horror, and I gave her a gentle smile.
“Don’t worry too much, Julia, I’ll be here with you.”
I surely wore a kind smile, but somehow, Julia seemed to feel fear and bolted without looking back.
“Oh no! I’m going to run away!!”
“Where to!!!”
Whoosh!!!
With the experience of learning martial arts, I used Yudra’s vines to snatch Julia’s ankle.
Julia was dragged to me, screaming.
But I had no intention of letting go.
Because…
“You said it, the right of the winner is to treat the loser as they please, right?”
“No! Let me go! Yuren!!”
“Now, come on, Julia, we have a mountain of work to do.”
I carried the squealing Julia over my shoulder and headed for the lab.
“Aaaah! Grandpa! Please save me!!!”
Julia’s hollow screams filled the research lab of the Irene School.
It was a typical scene of game development, just like any other day.