Making the game was surprisingly easy. First, there were tons of ready-to-use assets in the engine store. Second, the game already existed on Earth, so William didn't need to plan anything new — he just had to rebuild it the same way.
But the biggest reason? Learning cost.
William didn't spend any time learning how to use Cocos2dx. At first, he thought it was because he was naturally gifted. But when he opened the book Introduction to Game Engine Technology, he found the real reason.
The book only had one topic: Cocos2dx.
That's right — it was a complete beginner's guide made specifically for Cocos2dx. If you mastered the content in the book, you basically had everything you needed to use the engine.
William's advantage was that he could understand everything without needing to learn.
According to the system, whenever he gained access to a new engine, Introduction to Game Engine Technology would automatically update with a guide for using that engine. He could understand it instantly and completely for free. And the best part? The book was public and accessible.
Even though the development was going smoothly, coding wasn't exactly easy for William. The game still needed to be built with real code. Even with ready-made scenes and animations, it all had to be powered by code to actually work.
The hardest part was that he couldn't just go online and copy-paste things like he used to. He had to write everything from scratch. Compared to his usual job, the difficulty had jumped several levels.
The moon rose and the sun set.
Even though William had done everything he could to conserve energy, the hunger still hit him like waves crashing down.
Leaving the private space, William felt like a dried-up eggplant — his skin wrinkled, his body close to dehydration.
Water. He needed water.
He opened the door and happened to run into Aunt Lisa's family having dinner in the living room.
If anyone could be called his saviors, it would be Aunt Lisa's family.
When William first came to Riverdale, all he had was an ID card, a guitar, and 300 dollar. Normally, there was no way someone in that situation could rent a place. But Aunt Lisa's family gave up one of their rooms and let him move in. That's how he got a roof over his head.
In a big city where prices were way higher than in the mountains, even with free rent, his money ran out fast. And the talent show he signed up for wouldn't resume until the end of the month. That meant if he wanted fame and money, he had to wait at least another month.
But back then, he couldn't even make it through a single day — let alone a month. It was under that kind of mental pressure that he finally broke down.
"William?"
Aunt Lisa, wearing a pale yellow sweater, was the first to notice him walk out of the room.
"We thought you went out or something. Haven't seen you in days. Have you eaten? Want to sit and have a bite?" Even at home, Uncle Zach wore his checkered shirt. He turned around with a warm smile, his thick black glasses unable to hide his kind expression.
"Brother William!"
The most excited was little Jenny, who was four. She used to be close with the old William — the two of them really got along.
But for the new William, trying to remember their relationship was hard. Maybe it was because they were both innocent back then.
He stood still. His stomach growled with hunger, but taking help from others without giving something back wasn't easy for him. That was something he and the original William had in common. But the old William had starved himself to death because of that stubbornness — and William wasn't planning to make the same mistake.
While he was still struggling with himself, Aunt Lisa had already brought out an extra set of dishes from the kitchen. Uncle Zach pulled up a chair. Just like that — one more seat, one more bowl. A small gesture for them, but it meant a lot to William.
"Come on, sit down," Aunt Lisa called out again.
William quietly sat down at the table. As he picked up the chopsticks and bowl, tears began to fall.
"Brother William, why are you crying?" asked little Jenny, her big, innocent eyes filled with curiosity.
William shoveled a big mouthful of rice into his mouth, barely chewing before swallowing. The warmth in his stomach only made more tears well up. Even though he'd pretended not to hear Jenny's words earlier, he now had to wipe his eyes with his sleeve.
It felt like all the frustration from two lifetimes had burst out at once. He didn't want to cry, but the tears wouldn't listen.
Neither Aunt Lisa nor Uncle Zach brought up William's breakdown at the dinner table. After the meal, Jenny dragged William over, insisting he listen to her practice her new piano piece.
As the notes filled the air, William pictured the game he was working on.
Development was almost done—just a few dozen lines of code left before it could run. But the game was missing something crucial: music.
A music game without music was unthinkable.
Since he couldn't just download songs from Earth, his only option was to buy the rights to music from Blue Star.
But licensing wasn't cheap. Prices varied depending on usage, and for software, the average fee was around 70 dollar per year. William couldn't even afford 7, let alone 70.
Jenny's playing gave him an idea—if he couldn't download music, why not find sheet music and play it himself?
"System, take me to the private space."
Without a word, the system transported him, leaving his body in the real world standing behind Jenny, eyes closed as if lost in the music.
A quick browser search: piano music.
William wanted to include flashy, high-difficulty pieces, but Jenny's skill level made that impossible. Still, he managed to find some of Earth's most famous compositions.
"Give me a second."
Once Jenny finished her piece, William rushed to his room, grabbed paper and pen, and copied the sheet music from memory.
Having played guitar before, notation wasn't hard. In under two minutes, three complete scores were ready.
"Can you try playing these?"
William stepped behind Jenny and swapped the sheet music on the piano with his handwritten pages.
"Did you write these, Brother?" Jenny's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Yeah… something like that."
He dodged the question—no way he could admit he'd copied them from Earth's internet.
The first run was rough, barely recognizable as music. By the fifth try, Jenny was playing smoothly.
*Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding-ding.*
The simple C-major version of Beethoven's Für Elise carried a quiet, bittersweet sadness, like longing for something just out of reach.
"It's so pretty!"
Jenny played with delight. Too young to understand romance, she still knew good music when she heard it.
"Jenny, what was that?" Aunt Lisa stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands on her apron.
Even Uncle Zach poked his head out from his study.
"Brother William wrote it!" Jenny beamed.
Aunt Lisa gave William a surprised look. Uncle Zach whistled. "Didn't know you had that in you, kid!"
William flushed but stayed quiet.
Aunt Lisa smiled at Jenny. "Play it again?"
Jenny nodded, fingers already on the keys.
*Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding-ding.*
After listening once, Aunt Lisa suddenly pushed Jenny aside and started playing herself.
The same piano piece can sound very different depending on who's playing it. If Jenny's version was proper and by-the-book, then Aunt Lisa's was full of emotion. What used to be a quiet, nostalgic melody instantly turned into something more like a heartfelt confession.
Watching Aunt Lisa so deeply immersed, and then looking at Uncle Zach's expression, William felt like he could hear the ups and downs of their journey together in the music.