Chapter 15: Under the Legend.
The next morning, at ten o'clock, in an office building in the city, Alex had just signed the lease agreement with the real estate agent and the landlord, and was chatting with Lisa and Jane on the sofa.
"Alex, the monthly rent for your office building is quite high, isn't it?" Lisa asked casually, observing the surroundings.
"Well, I already signed for three months. The rent isn't bad, but the video game development machines and other office equipment are the biggest expenses."
The rent, one dollar per square meter per day, was one dollar per square meter for two shared offices totaling 160 square meters. The monthly rent alone was about $4,800, with property management fees of $4 per square meter per month included. Of course, if he moved to a smaller city, the cost could be a tenth of that. But that was clearly unrealistic, given the huge talent gap between smaller and larger cities.
"It's easy. My company is closing down and I no longer need all the development prototypes. I have them ready. Just give me whatever you think is fair when the time comes." Lisa, standing next to him, took responsibility.
"But, of course, are we the only two main developers in our company?" Lisa asked Alex.
Currently, the company had four employees, including himself. Lisa worked on the game with him, while the other two were former employees of Lisa's company. One was in charge of finance and administration, the other of operations. After testing their skills, Alex also hired them.
"Well, now it's just the two of us. The core team is missing a lead artist!" Alex sighed and then looked at Jane, who was holding an ice cream cone nearby.
Alex's plan required someone with considerable artistic achievements, in addition to himself. Jane was his target. As for the team being limited to three people, Alex wasn't worried. After all, the video game development industry in this world was different from that of his previous life. A core development team of three people was enough for Alex's current plan. Numerical data, level planning, and core design could be managed by Alex himself. The vast majority of the remaining content, such as artistic modeling, could be outsourced. While outsourcing these aspects would undoubtedly be more expensive, Alex preferred financial investment over time investment. It remained to be seen if he could "trick" Jane into joining the team. During the development of Mirror, Alex had been observing Jane's artistic talent.
"That's right, Jane, join us... By the way, Alex, what's our company called?" Lisa asked, suddenly thoughtful.
"Nebula Games," Alex replied with some resignation.
"Actually, Jane, I don't think there's much difference between comics and video games. Both focus on presenting stories born from our hearts to readers and players." Alex looked at Jane and said seriously, "And in the future, Nebula Games will also be involved in comics. Some games will release corresponding and similar comic volumes. If you're interested, you can continue working on this content."
A video game adaptation into a comic is, in fact, a perfectly normal practice. Furthermore, unlike games adapted into comics in his previous life, which basically sought to make money from fans, according to Alex's understanding of the parallel world, although the design concepts of most games lag behind those of his previous life, only games adapted into comics are at the forefront.
Hearing Alex's words, Jane's expression changed and, finally, as if she had already decided, she nodded and said, "Then, from now on, I'll call you Alex!"
"It's just a title. Whatever comes to mind." Alex smiled, seeing Jane join.
"Jane, how could you agree so easily? I already promised you something like that!" Lisa, standing beside her, was speechless.
Although she was delighted that Jane was joining, the key was that she had tried to persuade her countless times without success, but now, Alex had everything going for him.
"Lisa, those are just empty words. Even if you succeeded with a single game, I wouldn't even consider it." Jane was speechless.
Alex had a guaranteed Mirror game and a clear vision for the company's development direction. On your part, the more games you created, the smaller your company became and the fewer staff you had.
"Alright, to celebrate your joining, let me tell you about some of the upcoming preparations," Alex said, looking at both of them.
Hearing Alex's words, even though they had just started and didn't even have office equipment, Lisa and Jane expressed seriousness and anticipation. After all, they hadn't joined Alex's company just to get by, but also to achieve results.
"Now, we are going to develop a new game, a metagame," Alex said.
Lisa and Jane looked bewildered.
Metagame?
"Metagame? Aren't we still developing 18+ games?" Jane was a little surprised.
"Of course not. 18+ games are just our initial capital." Alex shook his head.
He had no intention of creating an investment company in a parallel universe.
"But, Alex, what kind of game is a metagame?" Lisa was a little confused. After all, she had developed three games and had even earned a professional game designer title. But she had never heard of the so-called metagame. As for Jane, who was beside her, even less so.
"In short, a metagame is when content external to the game appears within it, creating a direct interaction between the game and the player."
"Have you read Don Quixote? In the novel, the author often delves into it and comments on the plot," Alex explained.
"Breaking the fourth wall?" Lisa was still a little confused, but Jane seemed to understand.
"That's right," Alex nodded with a smile.
As for metagames, Alex had taken a look at the parallel world and had found that some types had already appeared, but they were not yet systematized. Novels, comics, and other genres also had applications, but they had not yet become a differentiated category.
"Our next project is a metagame. The name of the game is Undertale. I'll give you more details when we start working on it."
"Of course, in addition to Undertale, we are also developing a DLC character pack for Mirror to sell more while the hype continues."
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