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[Game] Chapter 45: Money Is Really Tight
🕑 Added 2024-12-08 09:53:00 +0000 UTCAt noon, Ichin ordered takeout for everyone from a nearby restaurant, opting for a deluxe sushi set. Out of all the takeout options, Ichin’s favorites were sushi and burgers.
Since the studio downstairs wasn’t fully renovated yet, Ichin invited everyone to his place for the meal. When the food arrived, he addressed the group, saying, “Let’s just make do for now. After we finish purchasing everything this afternoon, we’ll go out for a proper meal to celebrate the opening of our studio!”
Everyone clapped happily, and Aoba Suzukaze, looking at the assortment of sushi on the table, exclaimed with delight, “This is hardly ‘making do!’ It’s deluxe sushi! Wow, look at that huge sea urchin!”
Hifumi Takimoto smiled and said, “Ichin-kun, you’ve really gone all out.”
“It’s no big deal. I’d be eating lunch anyway, so this isn’t much. I’m counting on you all to help me develop our game from now on. Now, let’s dig in.”
“Let’s eat!!!”
Hajime Shinoda, who had been eyeing the food hungrily, grabbed a piece of sea urchin sushi and eagerly popped it into her mouth.
“Wow! It’s so good!!! Oh, by the way, Ichin-kun, where’s Utaha? Isn’t she coming today?” Hajime Shinoda asked as she looked around Ichin’s apartment. “She’s not your girlfriend, right? You two seem really close.”
“We’re classmates and neighbors. Her place is right next door,” Ichin explained. “She had something to do today, so she’ll be back this afternoon.”
Kasumigaoka Utaha was originally supposed to join them, but her editor had called her in for a meeting to make sure she hadn’t been slacking off in her work. Ichin guessed she wouldn’t be back until the evening.
“Wow~~ So you’re classmates and neighbors?” Kō Yagami said curiously. “But from what you said, she sounds busy. Does she have another job besides studying? Is she working part-time?”
“Not a part-time job,” Ichin shook his head. “But as for what she does exactly, you can ask her yourself later. She’s just getting started, so she probably doesn’t want too many people to know yet.”
Ichin’s words sparked everyone’s curiosity, and they began guessing what Utaha’s job could be. HIfumi Takimoto speculated that Utaha might be writing novels, but Ichin remained tight-lipped, letting them entertain themselves with guesses.
While chatting and eating, Suzukaze, now half-full, turned to Ichin and asked curiously, “Ichin-kun, how’s the development of Slay the Spire coming along? Is there anything we can help with next?”
Out of everyone, Suzukaze was the most engrossed in Slay the Spire. She didn’t have the greatest talent for action or shooting games, and her reflexes and speed often lagged behind, so she preferred slower-paced RPGs. Ichin’s game, Slay the Spire, being a card game, was much easier for her to play—unlike action games where she seemed to be constantly dying.
“Oh, Slay the Spire? Yes, I’ll definitely need everyone’s help with it,” Ichin said with a smile after taking a sip of cola. “I mentioned in the update notes on Steam that we’ll be adding two more characters. I’ve already made some progress on the third character, a Glitch Bot named Defect. Once I finish the card set and polish it up, we should be ready to release it. As for the fourth character, I haven’t started on it yet. If you’re interested, you can help me out.”
Suzukaze excitedly raised her hand, “I’m in! I want to be a part of the development!”
Just like how she joined Eagle Jump right after graduating from high school due to her love for their Faries Story series, and was fortunate enough to participate in the development of its third installment, Aoba Suzukaze was thrilled to now be part of Ichin's studio. She was delighted to have the opportunity to work on the further development of Slay the Spire, a game she also deeply enjoyed.
Umiko Ahagon also chimed in, “I haven’t worked on this type of game before. I’d like to get involved in the programming as well—sounds interesting.”
Seeing that Umiko was also willing to join in, Ichin felt relieved. “That’s great! How about this: for the initial character design and environment mapping of Hollow Knight, Kō can lead the rest of the team, while Aoba and Umiko join me to first finish the major update for Slay the Spire. After that, we can all fully shift to Hollow Knight’s development. We can afford to slow down a bit with Slay the Spire’s future updates.”
Everyone had no objections to Ichin’s suggestion, as it was only a preliminary plan, and they would definitely make a more detailed development roadmap later.
After lunch and a brief rest, the group set out to buy the necessary equipment.
The first priority, of course, was the computers needed for game development.
The store they headed to was one Ichin had carefully selected when he first came to Japan to build his PC. The shop stocked all the essentials at market prices, and they had a wide variety of high-end graphics cards available.
Since there were eight people in total and no one had a car, they took a bus to the store. On the bus, Ichin explained to everyone, “I called the store this morning. They have high-end, professional-grade graphics cards and CPUs in stock, and I asked the owner to set aside what we’ll need. Just pick according to your needs—don’t worry about saving me money. Choose the best available. Even though our current projects are 2D games, we’ll eventually transition to 3D game development.”
“Oh! Are we finally going to have good computers?” Yun Iijima said excitedly. “The computers at the previous company weren’t that great, and anything complex caused major lag!”
Kō Yagami nodded in agreement, “Yeah, my computer used to freeze up during overtime. Although part of it was the software’s fault, having a better computer would make a huge difference.”
Soon, they arrived at the store. Ichin led the way, and they found the owner to start picking out the computer components.
The artists’ computers needed to be high-end, while the programmers could get away with slightly lower graphics card specifications. It wasn’t too critical for them.
For the eight members, Ichin also planned to add an extra computer for himself in the studio and a couple of spares. So, they ended up configuring ten computers in total.
The store owner, recognizing this as a large order, personally attended to them and offered some discounts.
Ichin’s game studio had potential for future growth, and the owner knew that if things went well, they would keep buying equipment from his store down the road.
With the ten computers sorted, the store staff began assembling them right away. Ichin also bought drawing tablets for the artists, a projector, and a screen. After that, they went to the appliance store next door to pick up a fridge, air conditioning units, and a 65-inch 4K TV.
After swiping his card and seeing the charge notification on his phone, Ichin shook his head and muttered, “Money really doesn’t last long…”
…
