Hearing what Rachel Ruan said, Lucas Hart's face flushed red.
But just a moment later, he pulled himself together, cleared his throat to break the awkwardness, and started thinking of a good excuse.
"Well, you see… there are a lot of reasons for that..."
Across the table, Rachel Ruan gave him a sideways glance.
Men and their lies, ugh!
"But if those are your conditions, I can accept them. Still, I have one request of my own!"
Rachel Ruan looked at Lucas Hart with a bright smile.
Lucas Hart was caught off guard when he heard that.
He had been racking his brain trying to figure out how to convince her.
When he first approached her, Lucas Hart honestly hadn't had much confidence, it was more of a shot in the dark.
He knew his own situation well. Offering money?
There was no way. If he had money, they wouldn't even be talking, he'd just go ahead with making the game.
After all, there were still essential things he needed to buy.
Count on the senior-junior relationship?
But she didn't owe him anything, and she had no reason to help. Plus, the whole thing probably sounded like empty promises.
But now… is there hope?
"What are your conditions, senpai?" Lucas Hart asked Rachel Ruan.
"You've got one month. And if your game doesn't sell well, then you'll have to come work for me!"
"At least two contracts need to be signed! Of course, I won't treat you the way you were planning to take advantage of my work for free."
Rachel Ruan said with a smile.
Hearing her words, Lucas Hart was stunned for a moment before snapping back to his senses.
As for "doujin" works, Lucas Hart didn't really have much of an opinion. After all, in his previous life, there were already plenty of female artists doing those kinds of illustrations.
Like "
Yuzuki N Dash" or "Nishizawa 5mm"... ahem… Actually, Lucas Hart didn't know a single one of those artists or their work, only heard about them from friends.
"So, what kind of sales number would count as 'not good'?" Lucas Hart asked Rachel Ruan after collecting his thoughts.
If she was talking about needing to sell a few million copies, then he really wouldn't feel very confident.
This was, after all, a parallel world. The game industry here was very different from the one in his past life.
Even without the issue of piracy, the market itself had a different shape.
Without any capital for marketing and promotion, relying solely on word-of-mouth from players would be really tough.
Even in his previous life, those hugely successful indie games that sold millions—sometimes tens of millions—of copies?
If you looked closely, most of them only blew up half a year or a year after release.
At first, they were completely unknown.
Even big titles like The Binding of Isaac started out in obscurity.
Good stuff can still get buried if no one hears about it.
So if Rachel Ruan were to say something like "one million copies," then Lucas Hart figured he'd be better off just going solo.
Because if he agreed to that and failed, with the game he was planning now, he'd definitely end up as just a hired artist for doujin works.
"Eh… 100,000? Hmm, let's say 50,000 then!"
"If you don't break 50,000 sales in the first month, you lose!"
Rachel Ruan pulled out her phone and seemed to be typing something.
About a minute later, she looked up and said the number.
Hearing that, Lucas Hart couldn't help but show a confident smile.
50,000 sales in one month?
Even though this world's game industry was different from what he knew, and he didn't have much startup money right now…
That number? Lucas Hart thought it was basically a free win.
"No problem," Lucas Hart agreed without hesitation.
"Then let's officially start tomorrow, senpai! I'll head back now to prepare. See you in the morning!"
With that, he gave her a quick farewell and didn't give her a chance to react.
Lucas Hart turned and left the café just like that.
Leaving behind a slightly dazed Rachel Ruan.
Did I… maybe aim too low?
Thinking that, Rachel Ruan quickly opened her contacts and dialed a number.
Two seconds later, someone picked up.
"Anna, you weren't messing with me just now, right? Is 50,000 sales in a month actually considered a high number?" Rachel Ruan asked, still thinking about Lucas Hart's confident reaction earlier.
A clear female voice came through the phone: "It's not high—relatively speaking. Didn't you ask how many sales would be considered 'a lot' for someone making a game for the first time, with barely any money?"
"No budget, first-time developer, barely any usable game engine resources… that's basically nightmare mode. Getting to 50,000 sales would be S-rank difficulty. If you hit a few thousand in the first month, that's already considered passing."
"Really?" Rachel Ruan was still a bit skeptical.
"Of course it's true. That's a judgment from someone who works in the industry!"
"By the way, Rachel, are you really planning to make a game now? You've finally made up your mind? I told you—you come help me with concept art and character illustrations, and we'll make something big out of it!"
The person on the other end of the phone, Anna Young, sounded very excited.
"Anna Young? Anna Young? I can't hear you clearly. The signal's bad here. Let's talk later, okay?"
Hearing the excitement in Anna's voice, Rachel's expression shifted slightly. She held the phone a bit farther away, said a few words, then hung up and let out a deep breath.
Thinking about what Anna had said, Rachel couldn't help but smile.
First time making a game. No money. Hell-level difficulty. Lucas had basically checked every box.
So the assistant problem was finally solved!
The only downside was that this assistant wouldn't be able to officially start for another two months.
After saying goodbye to Rachel Ruan, Lucas Hart returned to his apartment.
He quickly tidied up the room, then sat down at his desk and looked at his laptop.
As a dev machine, the laptop's specs were just average, but it was enough to handle a project like Mirror.
Of course, bigger games were completely out of the question for Lucas right now.
Because he had no money, and didn't have full access to the official engine's resources.
As for gaining access to more resources, there were basically two ways to go about it.
The first was becoming a certified game designer and leveling up your title.
How do you level up?
Game sales, awards—those are things that count.
The second way was much simpler: just pay for it. How many resources you can use depends on how much money you've got.
But for now, none of that mattered to Lucas Hart.
Besides, Mirror didn't really need that many resources anyway.
At least for now, Lucas Hart had more than enough to work with.
Sitting in front of the computer, he started working on the initial draft of Mirror—the game design document.
Even though he was the only developer, and Rachel Ruan was just handling the illustrations,
That didn't mean he could skip the concept drafts.
Just like writing an outline before an essay, it would help him work much more efficiently.
(End of Chapter)