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[Game] Chapter 30: Inspiration Found Here
🕑 Added 2024-11-21 16:33:28 +0000 UTCFor most students, Golden Week is the time to stay up late playing games and sleep until they naturally wake up in the morning.
However, for Ichin, who is both a student and an independent game developer, Golden Week was a rare opportunity to fully concentrate on game development.
After getting up in the morning, Ichin checked the game's sales data. With the increase in livestreams of Slay the Spire on foreign platforms, its sales in overseas markets had also started to rise.
However, the domestic sales were increasing even more rapidly. Given that it was currently the Labor Day holiday in the country, students and office workers had more free time to relax and explore new games. As a result, the game's total sales exceeded the 100,000 mark in just a few days.
This was a number Ichin couldn’t have imagined when he first launched the game, but it seemed he had underestimated its potential. Since the game had only been released at the end of April, the revenue for this month would only include a portion of the total earnings.
However, if the current trend continued, his earnings in May would be quite substantial.
With enough revenue, Ichin would be able to hire a few people to help with the development of new games, and even the subsequent updates and maintenance of Slay the Spire would become more manageable and efficient.
Humming a tune with his headphones on, Ichin happily resumed his game development work. At that moment, a notification for a new email popped up in the bottom right corner of his computer screen.
When he opened it, he was surprised to see that it was from WeGame, Tencent’s gaming platform. They wanted to discuss the possibility of releasing Slay the Spire on their platform.
Ichin hadn’t expected this to happen so quickly. He originally thought that domestic platforms would only approach him after he had developed his second game.
“WeGame, huh? Not really interested. The process of getting a license for it takes too long. It’s just not worth it,” he muttered, scratching his head. Ichin then proceeded to politely decline the offer in his reply, citing his current overseas studies and solo game development as reasons.
Just as he sent the email, ready to return to working on the card sets for Defect, the doorbell rang.
“It’s probably Kasumigaoka again. My parents didn’t mention sending anything over.”
As for his parents visiting, that was even more unlikely. Considering the flight schedule, they wouldn’t be able to arrive until the afternoon.
When he opened the door, it was indeed Kasumigaoka Utaha.
Seeing her holding a laptop, Ichin asked, “What’s up?”
Utaha nodded. “I’ve got something to trouble you with. I’d like to do some writing at your place.”
“Write? Here?” Ichin was a bit confused but still invited her in.
Once inside, Utaha explained, “My parents are off having their own couple’s getaway, leaving me alone at home. It’s kind of lonely by myself, so I thought I’d come here. Would that bother you?”
Although that’s what she said, the truth was that Utaha had been alone at home writing plenty of times before. The suggestion to visit Ichin was actually from her mother, Mrs. Kasumigaoka, who had said something like this to her before leaving:
“Didn’t Ichin-kun give you some advice for your novel? It’s the holidays now, and you’re both creators, so why not go over and work together to inspire each other?”
After saying that, her parents had happily left without even preparing lunch or dinner for her.
Upon hearing Utaha’s explanation, Ichin shook his head and glanced at his living room. “It won’t bother me. Where would you like to work? I don’t use the living room.”
“Can I work in your room?” Utaha asked, adding, “I thought we could discuss some novel-related ideas as well.”
“My room? Sure, as long as you don’t mind.”
Utaha had already visited his room before, and even, to his surprise, inspected under his bed once. Since Ichin didn’t have anything to hide, he led her straight to his bedroom.
“How about this small table? I need to use the computer desk,” Ichin suggested, placing a small folding table onto the carpet.
Utaha didn’t mind at all. She set her laptop on the small table, plugged in the power cord, and sat down on the carpet.
“This will work just fine,” she said.
“Alright then. If sitting like this gets uncomfortable, just let me know. I’ll prepare some drinks for you. What would you like?” Ichin asked.
“Coffee, please.”
Ichin went to brew some coffee and brought back a few snacks along with it. Returning to the room, he handed them over.
“Here you go, coffee and some snacks.”
“Thank you,” Utaha replied, giving him a bright smile before diving into her writing.
Seeing Utaha fully immersed in her work, Ichin put on his headphones and resumed his development tasks. The game's main framework had already been built, so the subsequent work on Defect and The Watcher would be much more manageable, as it was mostly a matter of following the established plan.
In fact, Ichin had already thought of implementing a creative workshop feature when he started the game’s development, allowing players to create and upload various mods to the game. In his previous life, he’d played many interesting mods, some featuring parodies of anime characters or creative card effects that were comprehensive enough to form their own systems.
“Once Defect is updated and launched, I can open up the creative workshop,” he mused.
Both Ichin and Utaha shared a common trait—they were extremely focused once they got into their respective work. So much so that they became entirely oblivious to the passage of time or the outside world.
In no time, over an hour had passed, and it was already 11:30 a.m.
Having only eaten a bit of bread in the morning, followed by a cup of coffee, Ichin naturally began to feel hungry. He stopped what he was doing, rubbed his eyes, and turned his chair towards Utaha, who was still typing away.
Sitting in seiza for too long could be tiring, so Utaha had shifted into a side-sitting position. As Ichin turned around, he happened to catch a glimpse of her legs and feet wrapped in black stockings.
“Okay, eyes up!” he quickly thought to himself.
After glancing away, Ichin spoke up, “It’s almost noon. What do you want to do for lunch?”
“Lunch?” Utaha echoed, snapping back to reality and checking the time on her laptop. “Wow, it’s already this late? Should we order takeout?”
When she was home alone on weekends, Utaha often relied on takeout for meals.
Ichin thought about it. If he were alone, he wouldn’t mind, but since there was a guest, he couldn’t let them both just eat takeout.
After considering for a moment, he stood up and said, “How about this? You take a break, and I’ll prepare lunch.”
Watching him walk out of the room, Utaha pondered for a moment, then saved her document and got up to follow him.
…
Comments
Hrea_
Some mad wife and husband energy right here
Hrea_
Ty for the chapter
