As the third day arrived, the Atlas Carnival was drawing to a close. Naturally, this meant it was time for the event's main attraction: the twenty-million-yen developer grant!
At noon, the venue remained packed. Players crowded around the Street Fighter II arcade cabinets scattered in every corner, still buzzing with excitement over yesterday's fighting tournament.
If anyone were to clear the hall and look only at the arcade machines, they would notice that on all a dozen or so Street Fighter II cabinets, players were exclusively choosing Chun-Li or Cammy—it was as if every fighting game player who showed up today shared a single brain.
Tajiri Satoshi, who rarely wore formal attire, had donned a suit today, a handkerchief tucked into his breast pocket that he kept pulling out to wipe his sweat. He had brought Game Freak staff with him to present their work at the Developers Conference.
"I can do this, I can do this..." Tajiri muttered under his breath, trying to psych himself up.
He had always been uncomfortable in crowds, and even more terrified of saying the wrong thing.
The small insect in his pocket chirped incessantly. Tajiri took out the acrylic box, and as he gazed at the tiny creature inside, his nerves seemed to gradually settle.
"Yes, I can do this."
Satoshi Tajiri repeated the words to himself, his posture gradually straightening.
The area from the short side of the L-shaped venue to a portion of its long side had been rearranged. Equipment for game demos and judges' seats were already in place.
Every developer participating in this conference had their own station to showcase their work and explain their vision. If players found a game impressive enough, they could take a voting token from the corresponding station and then hand it in to the staff.
The results were displayed in a glass box throughout the event, making the process seem completely fair.
But in reality, there was still room for manipulation. That was merely a last resort, however; as long as the voting results were normal, Kobayashi Tetsu would never resort to such measures.
By now, Satoshi Tajiri had calmed down. He took a deep breath, stepped onto his display platform, and inserted the cartridge into the game console.
A few Game Freak staff members worked in tandem, promoting the game and drawing in passing players to try the demo.
Soon, small groups of visitors and passersby were brought over. Satoshi Tajiri forced a smile as he explained the simple scene they had created and his vision for expanding it into a full game.
"This is a trading game. We can play it on a handheld console. In the game, we can raise our own Pokémon," Tajiri Satoshi explained, gradually finding his rhythm as he spoke passionately about the game's concepts and strengths. "You can use the Pokémon you've raised to trade for mine, or I can even give a Pokémon I've raised to a friend. Each Pokémon has its own unique attributes and abilities—"
The few players present quickly understood that this was a battle game.
The gameplay sounded a bit far-fetched, but the idea of Pokémon with various attributes was still quite intriguing!
Especially when Tajiri Satoshi mentioned the type advantages and disadvantages. It seemed that this kind of nurturing would require tactical consideration, making it impossible to simply choose at random.
Out of the five or six visitors, two ultimately chose to take a voting card each.
After seeing them off, Tajiri Satoshi breathed a sigh of relief.
"I guess my pitch went well enough!"
Seeing another player approach, Tajiri Satoshi had no time for self-reflection and immediately bowed.
"Hello, I'm Tajiri Satoshi, the designer of this game."
"Mr. Tajiri, hello. I'm Matsuoka Satoshi. Could you tell me more about this game?"
A fair number of developers had participated, with twenty or thirty of them taking up booths both inside and outside.
Kobayakawa Rinko stood in the middle of her booth, an ID badge hanging from her neck. Beside her were the people who had come to help—mostly friends from the editorial department or former classmates.
At a convention like this, it was rare to see someone present as a magazine company, like Game Freak. Most people invited friends and family to help staff their booths.
Perhaps because there were a girl or two at the booth, a decent number of players stopped by. However, few actually took a voting ticket.
Occasionally, someone would hear the game's genre and shake their head, losing interest immediately.
What's the point of a game with dark rooms and puzzles? No shooting, no fighting—how's that any fun!
Kobayakawa felt a pang of disappointment. She had put so much effort into making the game, yet it was so unpopular.
Just as she was thinking this, a player stepped up to the booth. Kobayakawa quickly bowed.
"Hello, I'm Kobayakawa. Welcome! Please, give my game a try."
"Hello," the man replied, bowing back. "I'm Matsuoka Satoshi. Just call me Matsuoka."
"Matsuoka-kun," Kobayakawa began, explaining her game.
"This is a puzzle-solving game. You'll need to find various items within the environment and reach specific locations to progress. However, the puzzle-solving isn't a quiet affair. Monsters will be relentlessly pursuing you, so you'll need to be careful to evade them and avoid taking damage. You have no combat abilities and cannot fight the monsters; your only option is to survive by hiding. There are designated hiding spots throughout the game."
She continued to describe her design and vision for the game, before finally gesturing toward the screen in front of him.
"Why don't you try playing it yourself?"
Matsuoka Satoshi bowed his head and took a seat at the console.
This was a demo scene. The setting appeared to be an exhibition hall. At the start, the player had no control over the character as a cinematic sequence played out. A family of three walked into the hall.
"Welcome to the Family Aquarium," a guide announced, bowing to the trio. "The admission for three people is 4,800 yen."
"What's this about? Look at our child, he's so small, only nine years old! Does he really have to buy a ticket too?!"
The woman, acting as the mother, immediately started to complain.
Meanwhile, the man acting as the father turned around to look at the character.
"Ren, it looks like the permit will take a while. Let's just wander around here for a bit, but don't go too far."
Matsuoka Satoshi tried moving the controller, and now he could freely move around.
The protagonist was a girl. From this top-down perspective, he could see that she was dressed in typical elementary schooler attire: a yellow sun hat, a backpack, and a little skirt.
This was a bit surprising to Matsuoka Satoshi.
When the characters spoke, corresponding avatars and dialogue boxes appeared. The parents and the guide didn't have detailed faces; only the protagonist, Ren, had a visible face—that of a rather well-behaved child.
"So, the protagonist of this game is a little girl who couldn't even lift a finger against a chicken?"
Matsuoka Satoshi mused as he began to control the character and explore the scene.
Please Support me by becoming my Patreon member and get 15+ chapters.
[email protected]/Ajal69
change @ with a
Thank You to Those who joined my Patreon