"President, Ken Kutaragi is on the phone," Ayase Akane called out, holding up the receiver.
"Hold on, tell him I'm not here," Aoki Haruhi replied without looking up.
It wasn't the first day Ken Kutaragi had called; even without answering, Aoki Haruhi roughly knew what this guy wanted to say—
Sony's PS had already been released. It was like the Battle of Red Cliffs, with Old Huang Gai charging with his ships; if you couldn't borrow the East Wind, you wouldn't be burning Cao's camp, but your own side, Eastern Wu.
This East Wind was none other than the pokémon 3d world that Pokeni was currently developing.
Without this game, many of the features developed for the current PS would have no place to shine. People who didn't know better might think Sony's designers were crazy to design it that way.
So, to avoid being called an idiot by players, Ken Kutaragi could only urge Aoki Haruhi over and over again.
However, Aoki Haruhi was as calm as could be.
The East Wind wasn't so easy to borrow. They still had to fix bugs, and they hadn't even visited President Hattori yet; the distributors didn't even know Pokeni was going to release this game.
On the other hand, LL had only just been released, and its popularity hadn't even peaked yet. The right approach was to wait until the hype for LL died down before pushing the next blockbuster game.
Therefore, no matter how much Ken Kutaragi urged him, Aoki Haruhi remained as immovable as a rock.
Hearing Aoki Haruhi's instructions, the little HR frowned, then said some polite words on the phone, apologized, offered respects, and hung up.
This guy, the President, really treated her like a little secretary.
Why did all calls have to be transferred through her first?
And wouldn't that mean she was the one facing Ken Kutaragi's wrath?
This was clearly the President's own problem!
After hanging up the phone, the little HR crossed her arms angrily and walked into the President's office.
"President, please seriously consider hiring a proper secretary."
"Aren't you a proper one?"
"President!!!" Ayase Akane raised her voice, slamming both hands onto Aoki Haruhi's desk.
"Alright, alright. It's just that I haven't found the right one yet. If I find a better secretary than you, I'll hire them," Aoki Haruhi quickly conceded.
"Please hurry up," Ayase Akane said with wide eyes. "Our HR department has a lot going on lately. Think about it, spring next year is coming up soon, and we still have to send offers to others and handle onboarding."
"Yes, yes, thank you for your hard work," Aoki Haruhi said.
However, turning his head, Aoki Haruhi looked suspiciously at the angry girl in front of him.
"Didn't I help you hire a junior assistant? You should delegate the work."
"President! I am also an HR, okay? And you can't dump all the work on the newcomer; it's not fair to her. Many things take time to learn; it's not as easy as you imagine, okay?"
"Yes, yes. That's right, I feel more at ease when you handle some things."
Aoki Haruhi quickly apologized. It seemed like this girl had been under a lot of mental pressure lately; her workload was likely truly oversaturated.
"By the way, the game sold well this time, and I was planning to give you a bonus," Aoki Haruhi decided to give her some material reward to make up for it.
"Eh? Really?"
Upon hearing the word 'bonus', the little HR immediately perked up.
"Yeah, thanks to you working as my part-time secretary, you cleared the obstacles in the rear for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to fully dedicate myself to making the game. So, I have to give you a bonus. And it has to be a lot."
"Ah~ Thank you, President."
Ayase Akane could no longer control her facial expressions. She had been extremely angry just a moment ago, but now she was inexplicably happy.
However, she couldn't be too obvious in front of the President, so the little HR's face was now quite twisted. The upper half still maintained an angry, unforgiving look.
But the corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up.
To suppress her inner joy, the little HR forcibly pulled back the other corner of her mouth.
In short, for such a pretty face, it looked incredibly awkward right now.
Seeing the expression on her face, Aoki Haruhi found it inexplicably funny.
It would be a pity not to tease such a little secretary more often.
Ayase Akane could be said to be one of his few sources of joy.
After two seconds, Ayase Akane hesitated, then shamelessly said, "How about you just keep using me as your secretary for now, until you find a new, suitable one?"
"Eh?" Aoki Haruhi raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you say the work pressure was high? Just record this job opening in your work tasks, and if you find a suitable candidate, forward them to me."
"Oh my, President, your standards are too high. Where would you find someone better than me?"
"Yeah, yeah," Aoki Haruhi nodded perfunctorily.
He was struggling to hold back his laughter.
Although Aoki Haruhi looked calm and indifferent on the surface, he was actually laughing his head off inside.
He had never intended to hire a new secretary from the start, but seeing Ayase Akane's awkward [little person appearance] actually made him quite happy.
Besides, the secretary position was so important. She had heard so many of his trade secrets; changing to a new secretary would actually be a headache.
After being properly soothed, the little HR happily accepted the secretarial job again and promised to do her best to clear all obstacles in the rear for the President.
"President, feel free to go for it. Your time is far more valuable. Saving you time is creating the highest efficiency and value for the company. It is truly an honor to be able to do work like being a secretary."
Yo, not bad. Ayase-san's transition was so natural that it even made Aoki Haruhi doubt if his memory was a bit scrambled.
Who was it that was just here confronting the President?
"But President," Ayase Akane stood obediently by his side, holding a notebook, and asked suspiciously, "Why have you been avoiding Ken Kutaragi lately? He has called so many times."
"Sigh~" Aoki Haruhi sighed. Do you think I want to?
"He's here to collect a debt; he's like a debt collector from hell," Aoki Haruhi said.
"Eh? We actually still owe Sony money?" Ayase Akane asked in surprise.
"Hmm?" Aoki Haruhi looked up and glanced at her, then nodded. "Yes, we can't pay it back yet. In the future, whenever he calls, just say I'm not here. Once I'm ready, I'll contact him myself."
"Oh, okay, President," the little HR nodded solemnly.
My god, the company's annual revenue is in the tens of billions now; if we still can't pay it back, just how much did we borrow from Sony?!
However, although he was impatient with being urged, Aoki Haruhi still went to inspect the Pokémon project team in the afternoon.
pokémon 3d world had been in development for almost a year since its inception.
It was just that because it was the company's first 3D game, and they only received the relevant protocol framework and development tools from Sony at the beginning of this year, the programmers needed some time to get the hang of it.
Although they had Chikawa Hirokazu, the hardware engineer sent to Sony as an [undercover agent], to guide them, it still took the programming team about a month or two just to digest everything, and that was while they were fumbling through development and learning at the same time.
Then, when the programming department was finally capable of taking over the game production, they realized the actual situation was even more difficult than they had imagined.
3D conversion wasn't just about modeling requirements; it also required camera system functionality. Although Sony's PS provided some interfaces, basically all the features had to be redeveloped by Pokeni.
According to Aoki Haruhi, this was equivalent to building an engine for future game development.
An engine for a car is like a human heart. Even if a game engine is difficult and has a long production cycle, it is a great undertaking that will benefit future generations.
For this reason, the programming department specifically pulled out a group of elites trained by Comrade Akanishi Ken to form the Pokeni game engine team.
As the name suggests, this team didn't have to worry about anything else; they only had to focus on engine development.
The process of perfecting the engine's functionality was actually the process of tackling the game system.
With their continuous efforts, Pokeni's first 3D game engine finally had a prototype last month.
Yes, last month.
And this speed was already considered quite fast.
Just think about it: this was equivalent to developing a 3D modeling system, while also developing the corresponding game logic in a 3D environment, lighting systems, UI tools, cameras, and a whole bunch of program support...
Being able to reach this point within a year was quite remarkable.
Fortunately, Aoki Haruhi was quite skilled in this area, and with his participation, the engine development team could avoid many detours.
Otherwise, relying entirely on their own exploration and practice, it might have even taken three to five years to develop.
Under such circumstances, with the knife just sharpened, how could the game be developed so quickly?
It's very unrealistic to think so, right?
Aoki Haruhi himself wanted it to be fast, but the problem was that reality didn't give him that chance.
After an actual inspection, the situation was even more serious than Aoki Haruhi had imagined.
pokémon 3d world wasn't even finished; there wasn't even a decent level yet.
There were plenty of test levels, though.
They were specifically used for the programmers to verify functions.
Fortunately, the level design from the planning team was already completed on paper, and it had even gone through several revisions. Everyone had discussed it over and over again, so it could be said to be quite mature. Only then did Aoki Haruhi slightly relax.
As long as it could be completed on paper, it was basically not a big problem.
Once the basic program functions were developed, the later production would be quite fast.
This is what they call sharpening the axe to chop wood!
Alright, whether it can be released in June next year is still a question.
"Come on, I have high hopes for you all. This game will be the first shot Pokeni fires directly at Nintendo," Aoki Haruhi encouraged.
Everyone was excited. If Aoki Haruhi told them to go to the battlefield tomorrow, this group of people would shoulder their guns and go without a second thought.
Morale was high!
They believed the game could definitely be done well.
However—Ken Kutaragi would have to wait.
So, Aoki Haruhi personally called Ken Kutaragi and invited him to dinner to explain the reasons in detail.
Ken Kutaragi's fat face was twisted like a chrysanthemum.
However, since the other party had explained the actual situation to this extent, and he himself was an engineer, he naturally knew the difficulties involved.
It was hard to keep urging Pokeni.
If it were him, he probably couldn't have done it faster either.
Or to put it another way, although Ken Kutaragi was a game console designer, he was certainly not as good as Pokeni when it came to making games. Moreover, Aoki Haruhi had gone through the detailed development time and progress of each feature with him, and Ken Kutaragi himself felt a headache after hearing it.
Fine. I'm no Huang Gai. I'm clearly driving the titanic straight into an iceberg.
"Rest assured," Aoki Haruhi raised his glass. "Once this game comes out, Sony's PS will definitely sell like crazy!"
"Mm-hmm, wishing for great sales," Ken Kutaragi raised his glass helplessly.
The two of them clinked glasses and drank it all in one gulp.
Ah~ Ken Kutaragi smacked his lips, feeling only a burning bitterness.
This is really too hard for me. I still have to go back and explain it to the brothers.
So, planning must be done early, because time is just there. Aoki Haruhi said that although he was reborn, he didn't bring any system or anything that could just pop out a game for you.
These things all take time.
After explaining things clearly to Ken Kutaragi, Aoki Haruhi called a small meeting the next day in the President's office with Programming Director Akanishi Ken and Art Director Sakata Taiji.
It was for Pokeni's next strategic goal.
"Nani?! A shooting game?! And it has to be made for PC?!"
After hearing Aoki Haruhi's requirements, both Akanishi Ken and Sakata Taiji were shocked.
To be precise, Akanishi Ken's shock far exceeded Sakata Taiji's.
After all, no matter what, the art side had to redraw everything, and the differences wouldn't be that big across different platforms. The art students would at most provide images in different formats according to the programming side's requirements.
But! For the programmers, this was going to kill them!
Switching platforms meant many things were completely different.
You don't realize we just mastered the PS, do you?
This bone was so hard to chew; our teeth were ground down.
Why are we switching to PC games this time?!
We have absolutely no accumulation in this area.
Akanishi Ken thought that the President, that bastard, was just too much of a bastard. Every time everyone was happy and excited, he always had to stir up some trouble.
This time, he actually wanted to make a shooting game.
Have you ever seen us make a shooting game?
A lot of programming logic had to be rewritten. Isn't this just increasing our workload?
"How about it? Any problems?" Just as Aoki Haruhi finished speaking, he thought of something and added, "I know that for you, switching to a new platform is actually quite a hassle.
But this is also out of strategic considerations.
A shooting game, placed on a computer, finished through the precision of a mouse, is truly the best.
This game has strong strategic significance for Pokeni.
And if this step is taken well, many things will be easier to carry out in the future."
Aoki Haruhi explained his thoughts again.
The two of them listened, stunned.
The President is truly a god-like man; he has actually thought of such long-term things.
But as for how to do it specifically, Akanishi Ken had no idea at all.
Just listening to Aoki Haruhi pouring chicken soup for the soul here made his heart surge.
This is not good.
"President." Akanishi Ken opened his mouth, hesitating to speak.
Seeing the expectant look on Aoki Haruhi's face, Akanishi Ken gritted his teeth.
"President, wait a moment, I'll go pour a glass of water. Let's talk about this later."
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