episode_0036

The ravings of Christian fundamentalists were fanning the flames that helped to overcome the chilly early winter weather.

Senator McCarthy, who was eventually dragged out after making racist remarks and falsely accusing him of being a devil worshipper during the hearing, was sued for defamation and racial discrimination. It was a bit of a hassle, but the amount of damages was so huge that I thought it was worth it.

The fact that he shot the protesters with a rifle was likened to the influence of Western movies that I mentioned at the hearing, and he was being ridiculed for doing it without playing a game. Fortunately, the person who was shot with the rifle was only slightly injured, but public opinion was once again inflamed, burning the firewood.

American Christian fundamentalists were forced to shut their mouths, and even among those who did not view games favorably, few were brave enough to speak out against the fiercely burning public opinion.

Doom… eventually sold over a million copies. The games and Doom mods that developers who turned their attention to the gaming industry were churning out were all being supplied through the pipeline, solidifying the game’s position.

And… the long-awaited recruitment results.

Two teams passed, one team made a two-line rhythm game on the computer, something like Muse vs. O, and the other team made an RPG game.

The rhythm game was somewhat predictable, but the overall quality was good so I gave it a pass, but the RPG was a bit unexpected. Who would have thought they would make Mother? The story is closer to Mother 2 though.

The existing JRPG framework was based on a casual theme and had a very simple structure. Although it was destroyed by the Atari Shock before it could be properly established.

The games made by the RPG team, or ‘Toby’ team, maintain the JRPG framework while using the most effective method.

Storytelling.

The story faithfully follows the line of the somewhat large-scale ‘children’s adventure film’ launched by Steven Spielberg, and is classic but touching enough.

“Night spot… Night spot…”

The rhythm game was released on Pipe with a slightly polished version (more precisely, closer to Muse Dae-O) and an increased number of songs. The price was set at around 5 dollars, and of course, it sold like crazy.

Mother… has been polished quite a bit. For some reason, I’ve been working on the annoying, annoying, annoying task of fixing the background music, including the music that seems to have What written in white letters with a picture on a black background, and the bugs that appear when you deviate from the linear game progression.

The person who coded it was a bit strange. I thought I had seen a lot of strange coding methods, but this was the first time I saw code where every single line was like that. But since the coding method could have been done normally, I let it go since it was intentionally twisted like that.

“So what do you do now?”

“I need to make a new game. I want to make something based on what Tobi Team made.”

If Mother comes out, there is something that should come out naturally.

Time has moved forward by almost 20 years… but now there are enough time zones that are already a bit skewed to worry about time being skewed.

When it comes to games that can firmly establish the culture of gaming in the public consciousness and become a masterpiece JRPG that will be talked about for centuries, there is only one game that can reliably fulfill that role.

***

Games can be broadly viewed as a collection of two elements: play and narrative.

Most games made so far tend to focus on the elements of play. Rhythm, bullet hell, FPS, etc… The original fun of play is more important than the narrative.

However, the more play becomes the main focus, the less immersive the game becomes. The immersion of a game is determined by the narrative, not the play. The moment you think, “Oh, well? I’ll just come back to life after I die anyways, right?” “, the immersion based on the narrative is broken.

In the first place, the game’s difficulty tends to get easier as it progresses. No matter how well the level is designed, the skill level of the player outside the game cannot be controlled.

So, is it not possible to have both narrative and play in one game?

No, it is not.

“Huh? Weren’t you just saying that narrative and play can’t be combined? “If you ask me that, I’ll ask you why you think they need to be combined.

Separating narrative from play. That’s the core of this game.

After getting hit hard in the back of the head once and pursuing the narrative to see the ending, I reset the game out of curiosity, pursued the game, and saw the ending once again.

It’s a bit of a stretch, but this is the gist of the game.

[Prove it… Prove that you are strong enough to survive.]

[You are filled with will!]

[You felt the guilt creep up your back.]

***

“The basic framework of the game will follow Mother.”

“Then isn’t it no different from Mother? It seems like Mother is at the limit of what can come out of the JRPG genre.”

“Cancel that, what you just said…!”

I’ll show you the extreme limits of metafiction JRPG…!

The development started like that under my leadership.

The base wasn’t a big problem since the code mostly came from Mother.

But the real problem is…

“If I go back here, the game will break?”

“Why are you going back there? Of course you should move forward.”

“Do you think all players will move as the creator intended?”

“…”

“Our goal is to predict every player action and turn it into a choice.”

“Why are you like that…”

“Didn’t I say that when I spoke to Tobi Team? We’re going to show you the best of JRPGs centered around metafiction.”

“In the end, you have to predict everything and roll fast…”

“Golden~Correct answer!”

To be honest, this time, I had to do so much work that I got tired of it. Even I didn’t expect the progress to be moderately small. In terms of the amount of work, it’s almost more than SimCity.

The only good thing is that there are now a few more developers. There are now four more people who know how to code. One of them is almost a complete beginner, but it’s still fun to teach, so it’s okay.

Actually, the part I was most worried about was the art team. Photoshop had never been distributed before, so it was the first thing they had to get used to when they joined our company. Fortunately, thanks to the intuitive design, they were able to adapt more smoothly than expected.

Still, somehow the game’s completion was drawing near.

Developers were people who became lazy as development neared completion, and authors were serious about hiding something secretly.

“It’s fun to find Easter eggs. Since this game is special, isn’t it also considered content?”

“Ah, I thought of something while doing Easter eggs. Whoever put my head behind the final boss of Doom, please come forward and put your head in there.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Kim Jeong-jun, Im Jin-bae, Park Seung-hyeop, and Han Yu-seop all ran out at the same time and struck the dogeza with a dull sound.

“I’m sorryh …

“No… If you’re going to put something like that in, at least say something… I’m fine as long as it passes inspection, right? ”

“But… if you look at the shit we roll, you can just sit there and do nothing, and you’ll have nothing to say…”

Kim Jeong-jun closed his mouth when he saw my murderous atmosphere.

“I’m sorry…..”

Hmm. It’s a sight that clearly shows remorse for one’s mistakes. It’s really nice to see.

“Okay, let’s do it.”

I left my big head on it. I even did some dubbing.

***

“Really… this is a masterpiece.”

“You said it was a masterpiece that would be talked about for centuries, right?”

“There’s not much left until the century is over.”

“Be quiet!”

“Even we can’t keep up with this level. It’s not for nothing that they call him the god of games.”

“Now all that’s left is the release.”

“Oh, by the way, I didn’t hear the name of the game.”

“It’s our tradition. We put the game name at the very end.”

“I’ve already thought of a title.”

“Oh, what is it?”

“[Undertale]”

***

One man here is severely addicted to KIN.

When a game was uploaded to Pipes under the name of KIN studio for the first time in a long while, the man paid his $10 like water and shouted “Shut up and take my money!”

And the guy who finally gets the game fully downloaded and starts playing it, enduring the insanely slow download speeds.

When I first started playing the game… I was a little surprised. In a bad way.

That makes sense, since it wasn’t much different from the Mother that Toby’s team had created.

The output, which followed the existing JRPG framework, did not satisfy his desire for something innovative like Doom.

But who is he? “Proud KIN fanatic”

The man continued playing the game without leaving, saying he just wanted to enjoy the story.

The NPC I met for the first time, Toriel.

“Huh? You weren’t trying to kill me?”

The man who killed Toriel because he couldn’t show mercy due to the suddenly increased damage was led to think that he couldn’t have saved Toriel because of his guilt.

After clearing the regular route, the man was once again led to make the final choice that Flowey had mentioned: “Not killing a single person”.

And, the last of the fire salute.

[You can’t move. Nothing happens.]

[You struggled. Nothing happened.]

[You tried to load a save file. Nothing happened.]

[It seems impossible to load the game.]

[…]

[but…]

[Perhaps, with the little strength you have…]

[I think I can bring up something else…]

A BGM with a higher pitch and the option to summon the monsters that have been your friends until now appeared before your eyes.

Every time he called his friends, the words of encouragement they gave him stirred something in his heart.

The thing that was throbbing inside my chest as if it would burst overflowed through my reddened nose and eyes.

That’s how the man became the main character, Frisk.

A few days later, he turned the game back on to feel that excitement again.

But this time, the root of all evil, Flowey, welcomed him from the start.

So he was given the choice, no, he was led to reset.

He rode the annihilation route, which was the complete opposite of the fire salute, and enjoyed the game to the fullest.

Although he had a bit of a hard time in the final battle with Sans, he eventually overcame his confusion and succeeded in killing Sans.

He still felt a little guilty, but that was okay.

The game ended perfectly, leaving only silence behind.

Even the man who initially underestimated the game was no longer there, and only one man who had become a bully remained.

***

Undertale has received the highest ratings of all time.

[A masterpiece of the century that dispels negative views on games]

[It broke through the limitations of 2D. It brought the outside of the game into the game and impressed everyone.]

[The greatest participatory art of the 20th century]

Even art critics joined in to define games as “participatory art”.

Naturally, sales were comparable to Doom’s. Even though they paid their employees crazy bonuses, they were overflowing with money!

And KIN even installed an engine on the ship and released the source code that forms the basis of Undertale, and released a tool called [tale maker] for free.

As the first fully open source game engine was released to the world, it was only natural that even non-professional developers would jump into game development.

The game was finally coming into the light.