Unreal Fighter showcased a new future in 3D to gamers and became a hit even in the Empire.
For Jirens, a hardcore gamer craving a new fighting game after Legend Fighter, Unreal Fighter was like a refreshing rain after a drought.
Though it lacked flashy techniques utilizing magical powers like projectile spells, the game’s emphasis on pure, bare-knuckle combat gave it a unique personality, providing joy to gamers and earning its title as the best hit fighting game after Legend Fighter.
With sales soaring higher than ever, Burnell Gilbert’s grin could have split his face in two.
“Hahaha! Yes, Dean, I’ve heard Unreal Fighter has topped the sales ranking in Zephia! Hahahahahaha!!!”
Burnell Gilbert was on the phone with Dean Einhardt in his room, sharing the joyous news.
The records set by Unreal Fighter were not just about claiming the number one spot in sales for the month.
The Magus Society succeeded in turning yet another fighting game into an independent IP, following Speed Rabbit.
Until now, the only games displaying such new fun and high quality had been those released by the Edward Consortium’s Irene School.
But this time, the Magus Society had caught up.
This led to various discussions among gamers.
Isn’t the future going to be dominated by the Magus Society’s games?
Feeling the urgency in the air, the two responsible executives began paddling desperately.
“Yes, I understand we are preparing for the release as planned. Yes, please continue supplying games.”
Already, the Magus Society and Gilbert Consortium had made all necessary preparations.
Speed Rabbit Turbo, Speed Rabbit 2, King of Beasts 2, Silver Axe, Unreal Fighter Plus, and more.
They planned to release games with just a bit of additional content and characters every two weeks starting next month.
To that end, the Magus Society mobilized all teams and professors, while the Gilbert Consortium poured all its resources into creating a Crystal Ball production line.
“God’s blessings will be upon us, the Gilbert Consortium and the Magus Society! Hahaha! We look forward to your continued support, Dean.”
It goes without saying, but the Gilbert Consortium had no intention of relying on the Magus Society forever.
Now that it had been verified that magical engineering suited game development, it was merely a matter of analyzing and learning.
Though it wouldn’t be easy for a while, Burnell had a rough idea of how to proceed, having gone through this sort of thing before.
Stealing away magical engineering technology over the next year or two would be possible.
During that time, he would seize the game market from the Edward Consortium with the Magus Society’s games.
Once he was capable of independent game development, he would cut ties with the Magus Society and plan to own the entire Empire’s vast game market, which Burnell firmly believed would succeed.
That’s why he was willing to invest heavily in creating a game Crystal Ball production line.
Not for the sake of making magical engineering games, but for his future games from the Gilbert Consortium.
With that, Burnell sipped wine, smiling triumphantly in his office.
It seemed like everything was going well.
*
I heard the news a few days after Unreal Fighter was released.
“What the hell is wrong with these guys!?”
My mouth spouted profanities upon seeing the game release schedule for Gilbert and the magical engineering folks from Sylvia.
The information that Speed Rabbit Turbo, Speed Rabbit 2, King of Beasts 2, Silver Axe, Unreal Fighter Plus, and so many more would be released in rapid succession shocked me.
Though it seemed excessive to milk the cow, I understood the trend from my previous life, where popular games were released in diverse series, especially since I had released Super Thomas 2.
However, the biggest issue was that these games were set to be released every two weeks.
Considering the game development structure in this other world, such a schedule was nonsensical.
“Yuren, is such an impossible schedule really feasible?”
“If they are making decent games, it’s absolutely impossible!!!”
Sylvia had come to me bright and early for an objective opinion upon receiving this information.
She said the Edward Consortium was in a crisis because the news made them feel like they would lose the game market they had worked so hard to build to the Gilbert Consortium.
“However, if they enhance production efficiency with magical engineering and funnel in labor, wouldn’t it be possible?”
“It might be doable just for making them, but the real problem is the quality of the games.”
I wasn’t an expert on magical engineering, but I had seen it before and somewhat understood the magic involved.
Sure, initial preparations would take longer, but if all was set, it would certainly allow for much faster game production using magical engineering.
But that was only in terms of production.
“Hold on, everyone, stay put.”
I hurriedly returned to my lab and grabbed a magical engineering rune stone to help illustrate the current situation.
Without saying a word, I had also prepared to research game development using magical engineering.
The first-time priests and Sylvia (excluding the Master) looked amazed as I demonstrated a platformer game spell I made on the spot.
“Alright! This is a game created with magical engineering, what do you think?”
“It just looks like Super Thomas.”
“Correct! I tried to transplant Super Thomas using magical engineering to see if I could improve it. Now, let’s…”
I took out the protagonist’s rune stone from Super Thomas and swapped it for the Kuma rune stone and executed it again.
Kuma started running and jumping in place of Super Thomas.
“So! How does it look now?”
“Um…Isn’t it just Super Thomas with Kuma substituted in?”
“Yes, so do we call this game Super Thomas or a different title?”
“Even if the characters change… Ah!? Could this be what magical engineering does?”
“Exactly, this is how magical engineering can churn out games efficiently.”
Magical engineering is not a technique for suddenly creating fun games by the truckload.
It specializes in making it easier to modify and improve already established magic.
But there was also a problem.
For the foundational structure, which could be considered the basic system of a game, even magical engineering required manual work, and additional tasks were needed to link with rune stones.
If changes were required in such foundational structures, it would be far more difficult than conventional magic game development, resulting in considerably more work.
In other words, it wasn’t that games made with magical engineering were top-notch.
It was the game developers behind Speed Rabbit and Unreal Fighter who stood out.
“There’s definitely a need for magical engineering in games; when churning out combat content, nothing quite matches it. Still, I’m planning to incorporate it into the next game as well.”
With the battles in Eternal Fantasy now perfectly complete, it’s the content generation that’s next, and magical engineering suited that aspect very well.
Having already made some headway with the magical engineering framework, I was also thinking about officially incorporating it in the future.
“But do people truly want that when they buy games? Do they desire mass-produced products where only the character changes from similar games? I definitely don’t think so.”
I still remember that day vividly.
With the money I had saved up from my part-time job, I’d excitedly headed to buy a game.
Curious about what new game would entertain me, I stopped by the game shop.
The reason I and every gamer could hold such expectations was that games promised enjoyment and a new world waiting beyond reality.
Another world created by a creator.
We spent a fortune to indulge in that world, never to waste money on a patchwork of half-baked thoughts!
“I don’t know who came up with this plan, but if they view games as a mere cash cow, ‘God of Games’ will rain down divine retribution on that fool—oh, and it’ll be terribly painful.”
After finding success with games in this other world, I had a hunch such days would come.
Humans are creatures of greed.
I believed there simply wouldn’t be anyone who wouldn’t crave a stake in a business with such popularity and profitability.
But I was very well aware of how that greed’s end would likely turn out.
A massive shock was approaching, ready to strike the game industry in this other world.
