NOVEL WEB Chapter 1
– The Last Scream of the Ancient Game Company
– The Ugly Struggle of a Dying Star
All we received in response to our company’s announcement of a new game development was laughter.
It’s not surprising; a company that had been scraping by for over ten years with outdated games claiming they’ll develop a visual novel is bound to get ridiculed.
But this time, it’s different.
An unprecedented open-world project merging a visual novel with an RPG.
If this fails, our company is finished.
“Wow, this is something!”
“Our kids can do this, but why haven’t they until now?”
“Stop making useless stuff and just focus on pixel art, huh?”
The development team came up with something amazing.
They developed a unique physics engine for hunting and action—much more polished than I expected.
Swinging a sword doesn’t just drain a monster’s HP; it can actually leave injuries and sever body parts.
Pretty realistic, huh?
I thought we were just a bunch of pixel-art slaves because we’d lost so many talented developers to new startups, but I was surprised.
I’ll be writing the story for the visual novel part.
Since I claimed to have played the most of this genre in the company, I was suddenly put in charge.
In my whole life, I’ve only played two visual novels, and now I’m in charge of writing one.
The ominous vibe is already creeping in, but watching the development team pull an all-nighter today gave me courage.
“Hey, everything’s great, but isn’t this kind of unrealistic?”
“What do you mean?”
“You meet the Priestess in the morning. The Witch for lunch. The Frost Duchess for dinner. And none of them suspect infidelity?”
“······.”
Problem number one for the ancient company.
Finding realism in odd places.
Who on earth wants to play a visual novel and suspect their heroine of cheating?
Nobody wants to sit down to heal and end up having a brain freeze from irritating experiences.
“That’s how visual novels are. So we tend to remove elements that tire out the user as much as possible…”
“Do we really have to copy what other visual novels do? We’re making our own game, not just imitating others. Originality is great, isn’t it?”
“······.”
Problem number two for the ancient company.
Being innovative in useless places.
What were they doing until they had to use their innovative spirit just before going bankrupt?
“Besides, doing it this way increases the difficulty of, of the harem… what was it?”
“Are you talking about harem?”
“Yeah. Harem. That’s gonna increase the difficulty. Kids these days love challenging games, right? Am I wrong?”
“That’s correct…”
Skreech
Time to completely revise the story.
Unlike the pure love route where all the time is dedicated to one heroine, the harem route has much more variability.
The more time dedicated to the heroine decreases, leading to increasing suspicion, which translates into dialogue and actions.
If suspicion peaks, the heroine might even turn into a mental wreck.
– You said you loved me! You said you loved me! But why can’t you tell me where you went?!
I scribbled the lines while wondering if this was right.
Is this a visual novel or a horror game? I can’t tell.
Still, I decided to put a positive spin on this.
After all, users can enjoy the pure love route like in other visual novels.
And limited to the harem route, they might get to experience a unique mixture of horror game vibes, which should appeal to those who enjoy this kind of thing.
“Whatever, let’s just do it.”
With that, we pushed ahead.
The story was completed in no time, and the so-called ‘realistic’ lines began to roll in.
Users will need to think a bit to reach the harem ending now.
They can show a monster’s horn they prepared beforehand as an excuse to the heroine asking where they’ve been hunting.
“Wow, this sounds plausible.”
“I’m glad we went for an open-world style.”
As the game’s development progressed, the company atmosphere improved.
Although the frequent late-night work left everyone looking a bit worn out.
Hunting raises levels, and as the protagonist grows stronger, they protect the heroine and gradually become closer.
As reputation rises from slaying monsters, the heroine starts to show interest and approaches first.
And when you team up with a heroine who has potential in a specific dungeon, the difficulty that once seemed hellish can drop drastically.
Visual novel and RPG.
At first, I thought they didn’t mix at all, but seeing this, they seemed harmonized in a touching way.
I was worried my story would be too shabby compared to the highly polished physics engine, but…
“We have three months until launch! Let’s all give it our best!”
Three months until launch.
Not that I had much left to do.
I’ve already run spell-check multiple times.
I’m just reviewing to make sure the fonts aren’t broken.
And checking if the dialogue distribution per cut is appropriate while passing time.
The development team was pulling all-nighters until the last day, but I didn’t dare slack off.
“10 seconds to open! 9! 8······.”
Finally, it’s the much-anticipated opening day.
The in-game stills and PV released after a long drought in new game releases were enough to attract public attention.
Words went around like “What’s with wrapping a whole subway car in ads?” over our aggressive marketing.
Whether the view is good or bad, our game has been under significant interest even before its release.
And finally, the moment the game opened.
“Huh?”
The server crashed.
Everyone was startled, but their expressions were bright.
It was the first time traffic had surged enough to put tension on our notoriously loose company servers.
But after one hour of the crash, then two, and approaching four, nobody was smiling anymore.
“What the hell is going on here? Get it fixed, fast!”
“I think we need to expand the server.”
“Where on earth are we going to get that money? Stop talking nonsense and fix it!”
After abandoning the fundamental problem and eventually managing to restore the server.
However, every time traffic increased, the server kept glitching out, and with tears in our eyes, we had to drastically cut the simultaneous connection limit.
How many?
Up to 5,000.
Anything more and the server couldn’t handle it.
While there were hundreds of thousands waiting to play, only 5,000 could enjoy the game.
The president belatedly recognized the seriousness of the situation and pulled all available funds to expand the servers.
– Is this really an RPG? It’s too brutal!
– I can’t hunt; it’s too scary. Look at that goblin; it’s running away, missing an arm and spilling blood!
– Did other games avoid making such realistic systems because they couldn’t? LOL
Unexpected harsh reviews poured in the online community.
The action powered by the physics engine they proudly created was too much.
While the overall vibe of the game felt like a heart-pounding visual novel, the battles seemed like a slaughter between a goblin father protecting his family and a psychopathic protagonist, making it hard to get immersed.
– The story of the visual novel is actually fine, isn’t it?
– I just want to enjoy the visual novel; why do I have to go hunting for materials in between? It’s so infuriating!
– Wow, Yulia’s female movements are super erotic. What have these guys been doing all this time without making a visual novel?
Among it all, there were many positive reviews about the visual novel story.
Should I be happy about that or not?
My mood was all over the place.
– Why have these girls suddenly developed obsession? They freak out every time I go somewhere!
– Am I playing a visual novel or a mental health simulation for a bunch of crazies?
– Is this game some kind of anti-infidelity public service announcement?
All the harsh reviews pointed to the silly system proposed by the president.
I told you.
If you raise the difficulty like this for the harem, everyone will hate it.
“Did you just really want to show off your new physics engine?” (★☆☆☆☆)
“They have no idea what genre of game they’re making.” (★★☆☆☆)
“Let’s just do one thing at a time.” (☆☆☆☆☆)
Game critics jumped in with their attacks.
It’s not like we didn’t try to respond.
In the end, the realist system, where blood splatters and body parts were severed based on where you got hit, was scrapped.
We added effects where monsters stagger and become rigid with the hits, and made the corpses disappear upon death, like in other common games.
The development team had to work all night on this.
We also expanded the server again, increasing the simultaneous connection limit to 100,000.
All of this was accomplished in just three months post-launch.
The time it took to buy the servers was rather short.
It was a feat made possible thanks to the president’s connections he so often bragged about.
“Did the server burst? Why did the simultaneous connections decrease?”
“······.”
However, after three months, those users who left disappointed after reading reviews departed, and those who had waited to play grew weary and left as well.
It was too late.
Even after the update, if someone were to ask if no problems occurred, that wouldn’t be the case either.
It seemed there was a bug where dialogues started getting jumbled up from a certain point due to a code mishap.
In most cases, the game turned into a chaotic mess where normal progression was almost impossible, yet occasionally, everything aligned just right.
It was as if the heroines were remembering past events from previous rounds, and the conversations flowed smoothly.
One lucky user who experienced this posted in the community that the heroines were giving him goosebumps.
Reading that made me laugh so hard.
Ultimately, the game failed.
Fixing one bug just made another pop up, and fixing that would lead to two more.
The initial complexity of the code had caused these problems.
To resolve them required a complete overhaul, but not only would it take a long time, it was uncertain whether our manpower could manage it.
The game failed.
Only one person remained unable to accept that fact.
“Hey, you idiots! We bought the servers, but why can’t we fix the game? If we just patch the bugs, the traffic will bounce back!”
The president pushed aside the development team’s suggestion to bring in outside help, and when it was time to expand the servers, he dawdled until the golden opportunity had slipped away.
I’m sure he knows this well.
Without the ability to blame someone else, he could only endure.
The president insisted that the users who acknowledged our efforts would soon return, clutching at straws with the dead game he refused to let go of.
But even he finally raised the white flag when the debts from loans piled higher and higher with no signs of recovery.
Thus, our company’s ambitious new project declared service termination just six months after release.
“Sigh…”
Stepping into the empty office felt eerie.
The development team had practically lived there, yet now I faced this quiet room.
It finally sinks in that it’s truly over.
What will I do now that the company has failed?
Should I go back to writing drama or movie scripts?
Or should I try my hand at the hot web novel scene these days…?
“Speaking of which, I haven’t tried the finished version.”
Maybe it’s because this was the developers’ desk, but I casually cleaned up the scattered trash and sat down at the computer.
I had previously scolded for not having a lock on this computer, but it was still as it was.
I brought the cursor over the game client and executed it.
Even though I hadn’t crafted the character, I had written all the lines for the heroine, protagonist, and supporting characters.
I was dying to see how those characters appeared in the game.
Even though it was a failed game now, I wanted to experience the ending at least once.
I was curious just how terrible it was to earn such criticism.
“Why is it doing this?”
But once the loading bar filled up completely, the game didn’t start at all for a long time.
Banging on the computer, just like the door, didn’t make the loading bar budge.
Is this a new bug at this point?
Just as I sighed and stood up, the game suddenly started.
[ID: Yoo Jin]
[password: ]
[Login complete.]
What’s this?
I hadn’t pressed anything, yet my ID and password entered themselves, logging me in.
How does it know my name…?
“Ugh…”
Out of nowhere, a bright light streamed from the computer screen.
I was captivated and couldn’t tear my eyes away from it until the light completely enveloped me.
It was so bright that when I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, I found…
[Welcome.]
“······?”
In front of me lay a lush forest scene.
I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or awake, so I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and even slapped my cheek—
Then out of nowhere…
“Kyieek! Our father’s nemesis! Kyiek!”
“What the hell…?”
All of a sudden, a goblin appeared, wielding a club, crying as it charged at me.
Now I understood where I was.
I felt like crying.