The Legendary Game (2)
Tetrix was a game with quite a history behind it.
The best-selling game.
The most popular game.
The game ported to the most platforms.
And above all, it was also a game that had been involved in the most copyright lawsuits.
“And now I'm going to plagiarize a game like that. There's something oddly meaningful about this.”
Tetrix had been one of the most plagiarized games in history, and now I was plagiarizing it too……
Somehow, it felt a little more special than all the plagiarism I'd committed until now.
“Tetrix? Is this the new game you've made? Forgive me for saying so, but it is very… simple.”
Of all the games I'd made so far, Tetrix really was extremely simple.
After all, the entire rule set consisted of fitting differently shaped blocks together to complete horizontal lines.
Of course, later variations of Tetrix had more rules and additional elements, but what I'd made was the simplest version of the original Tetrix.
So there was nothing strange about Selen calling it ‘simple.’
“It is simple. But I don't think it's merely simple. Why don't you try it?”
But that simplicity was also its greatest appeal and its strongest gameplay element.
This puzzle game with such simple rules had once been one of the most popular games in the world, with such powerful addictiveness that it even gave rise to the term ‘Tetrix Effect.’
“Why won't the long piece appear? If I just get that, I'll have a four-line combo!”
Sure enough, Selen was completely absorbed in Tetrix.
She had already been playing the test version for an hour.
“Ah! Has it already been this long…? My apologies. I completely lost track of time…….”
“No, I'm glad you enjoyed it.”
I'd been a little worried that people in this world might find it too dull, but apparently that wasn't going to be a problem.
This should be more than enough to win people over.
“Even though it is such a simple game, it is incredibly entertaining! As expected, games made by the Sage of Games are truly different! If we sell large quantities of this in Valentia, we will make a great deal of money!”
“You don't have to go that far… But we can't sell it like this.”
“Pardon? Why……?”
“Because selling it on this model would make it too expensive.”
The Tetrix Selen had just been playing was a version ported to one of our existing game console models.
It was the model we'd made when selling ‘Age of Great Voyages,’ so it was cheaper than the ones used for our other high-spec games, but it was still expensive enough that commoners couldn't casually afford one.
This time, however, I intended to sell it for much less.
I'd make the artifact smaller and portable, drastically lowering the production cost.
I was thinking of something like the palm-sized handheld game console that had become so closely associated with Tetrix's fame.
“That way, I can sell as many as possible. I want as many commoners as possible to be able to enjoy this game too.”
And through that, I'd spread gaming culture throughout Valentia.
The goal of this development project was to expand the game market.
“I see… Monster hunting has become more active recently, so the price of magic stones has been falling. It is not an impossible plan.”
“Ah, because of the traditionalist knights… or rather, the ‘monster hunters,’ right?”
“Yes. Thanks to them, public security has stabilized and commerce has become more active, so the Empire's economy has improved considerably. This, too, is an achievement of yours.”
She looked at me with genuine respect as she said that.
Feeling a little embarrassed, I cleared my throat and continued.
“Anyway, that's the plan. Looks like I'll be working overtime on game console development for a while.”
“I will assist you. Ah, and Valentia has also requested permission to import the previously released games. Will you approve it?”
“Those? If the imperial household is fine with it, I don't really care.”
Maybe the King of Valentia really was serious about games, because he'd expressed an intention to import large quantities of the existing titles as well.
It looked like I'd be making a lot of money.
Money aside, though, I hoped gaming culture would spread throughout Valentia, expanding the game market and producing more successors who would follow after me.
All I could do was plagiarize masterpieces from Earth, but someday, I wanted to see games created entirely by the people of this world.
And that wish came true much sooner than I'd expected.
***
Some time later, Ian released ‘Tetrix.’
Unlike his previous games, even the game console itself was small enough to carry around and had low specifications, making it extremely inexpensive.
Even commoners without much money could afford one without too much difficulty.
Yet the initial response from people who saw the game console was more lukewarm than expected.
“Compared to the other games, this seems far too simple…….”
“It is nice that it is incredibly cheap, but the fact that it can only play this ‘Tetrix’ is a little disappointing.”
“Still, Baron Ian made it. Should we give it a try?”
Compared to the games Ian had created before, it looked almost pitifully simple, so the initial reviews weren't particularly enthusiastic.
But that atmosphere didn't last long either.
“Why is something this simple so entertaining?”
“This is much more entertaining than those cheap knockoff games coming out these days.”
“There is no need to compare it only to those. It is not bad even compared to Baron Ian's previous games. There is something addictive about it.”
People quickly fell under Tetrix's spell.
It wasn't flashy, but the primal fun created by Tetrix's simple rules possessed a strange addictiveness.
That alone was enough for people to quickly become hooked.
Moreover, Ian's first handheld game console allowed people to play games anytime and anywhere, making it incredibly accessible.
Because they could play anywhere, people rarely let go of it and pulled it out whenever they became bored.
Before long, people could be seen playing Tetrix in taverns, on the streets, and even at their workplaces.
News of that situation soon reached the King of Valentia as well.
“It seems my subjects are enjoying games too. It is pleasing to see a new culture flourishing.”
The King of Valentia, himself thoroughly obsessed with games, was delighted to see gaming culture spreading among his subjects.
As someone genuinely devoted to cultural development, he was satisfied to see his people happily enjoying a new form of entertainment.
“However… we still have not managed to produce a proper game of our own. Everyone is playing Tetrix and the earlier titles instead of games made by Valentia.”
“M-My apologies, Your Majesty.”
But the fact that the games his subjects were playing hadn't been made in his own kingdom displeased him.
The King of Valentia's immense cultural pride would not allow him to accept that fact.
“Put more pressure on the mages. We are a cultural powerhouse. We cannot fail to create something that even the Empire can produce.”
The king decided to increase support for the mages developing games.
It was his way of pressuring them to do a better job.
“Why is the quality of this game so poor?! His Majesty will never be satisfied with this!”
“Th-That is… with our current abilities, we simply cannot make anything better than this.”
“What? Even with all the support the kingdom is providing? They say Ian Maxwell created ‘Civilization Development’ by himself without any support from the imperial household. Are you telling me that you, the court mages, cannot do the same?”
“We are not Ian Maxwell!”
The mages themselves were going through hell.
Receiving more support was nice, but no matter how hard they worked, matching the games Ian Maxwell created was impossible.
Merely imitating his magical techniques was difficult enough, but matching his gameplay design was even harder.
No matter what they did, they couldn't immediately create a masterpiece like ‘Witch Hunter.’
In a way, that was only natural.
The original ‘Witch Hunter’ had been a AAA game created by a development team consisting of dozens of people.
There was no way a handful of mages could reproduce that level of gameplay on their own.
To do it properly, they needed to accumulate more development experience and organize a more systematic development team.
Ian, on the other hand, used illusion magic he had practically mastered to copy entire games he'd enjoyed on Earth wholesale.
There was simply no way people who knew nothing about Earth's games could catch up with him.
In terms of actual game development on Earth, it was the difference between someone copying all the code, assets, and everything else wholesale, and someone building a game from scratch with nothing.
The mages could feel that difference themselves, so they eventually changed their strategy.
“It seems impossible for us to catch up with Ian Maxwell anytime soon. So let us use this ‘Tetrix’ as a reference and begin with something simple.”
Until now, they'd been preoccupied with imitating the earlier games Ian had created.
But compared to Tetrix, those previous titles were either far more complicated or highly polished games.
As a result, their imitations had generally ended up as awkward knockoffs.
But this ‘Tetrix’ was different.
Simple.
Intuitive.
And above all, entertaining.
Even the mages who hated Ian had to admit that it was fun.
“We can make games that are simple yet entertaining like Tetrix as well. We merely need the right ideas.”
And so, they decided to strip away unnecessary elements from their gameplay and build upward from the fundamentals.
Coincidentally, this was exactly the situation that would have pleased Ian most.
The entire reason Ian had created Tetrix was to give them precisely that kind of hint.
Even without Ian directly explaining anything to them, his successors were beginning to experiment in exactly the direction he'd intended.
“How about a game where you flee from enemies chasing you while collecting jewels scattered throughout a maze? It should have a reasonable amount of tension and be entertaining.”
“Having the player shoot simplified monsters with a bow could also work. There would be no need to depict anything complicated. We could simply make it like this…….”
“I made something like this. You bounce a ball to break bricks, and if you fail to quickly catch the ball when it rebounds from the bricks, it is ‘Game Over.’”
They immediately began creating ‘simple but entertaining games.’
Although it was difficult for them to rival the wildly popular Tetrix, the games they created still became modestly popular in their own right.
***
Some time later, news that such games had been created reached Ian.
And Ian was shocked.
“These are retro games.”
Ian immediately noticed that the games being created in Valentia resembled retro games he knew very well.
Pac-Man, Galaga, Breakout……
They were all games that had once been popular.
Of course, they didn't have those names, and their designs were completely different.
For example, the game resembling Galaga didn't feature spaceships. Instead, an archer shot at monsters.
Then again, Tetrix itself was a retro game.
If these games had been inspired by Tetrix, it was only natural that things like this would emerge.
And Ian was extremely pleased.
“They still feel pretty basic… but if they keep accumulating development experience like this, maybe this world will eventually be able to create games that don't fall behind Earth's.”
To be honest, he was genuinely looking forward to it.
Then a clever idea suddenly occurred to Ian.
“Come to think of it… if I do this right, couldn't I make that?”
Ian still believed this world lacked a proper gaming culture.
He had spread Tetrix widely, but people still hadn't had the opportunity to experience a wide variety of games.
Part of the problem was that few games had been developed.
But game consoles and games themselves were also expensive.
The problem became even worse with high-spec games like Honorlord and Witch Hunter.
Even low-spec games like Tetrix or the ones being developed in Valentia were still expensive enough to burden commoners.
But Ian had an idea that could solve the problem.
“If game consoles are too expensive, I can just build an arcade.”
The nostalgic arcade.