I Give Up on Conquering the Heroines

1 – Episode 1: Into the Game I Created

– The Last Cry of a Stereotypical Game Company

– The Ugly Struggle of a Dying Star

Nothing but jeers showered our company after we announced the development of a new game.

A company that has survived over 10 years on outdated games now claiming it would develop a visual novel – a genre we’ve always looked down upon – it was indeed laughable.

But this time, it’s different.

A colossal open-world project, combining visual novel and RPG.

If this fails, it’s the end of our company.

“Wow, this is amazing.”

“How could our guys do this and not have done it sooner?”

“Why did they waste time on useless stuff when they could’ve been making pixel art…”

The development team pulled it off.

They developed a separate physics engine for the hunting and action, crucial elements of an RPG, and its performance exceeded expectations.

Swinging a sword causes more than just a decrease in the monster’s HP; wounds appear, and limbs are severed.

It’s quite realistic.

It was surprising – after losing talented developers to budding companies, who thought we only had pixel art slaves left?

I’m writing the visual novel part of the story.

I got the task because I’ve played the most games of this kind in the company.

Me, who has only played two visual novels in my entire life, writing a visual novel story.

A sinister aura surrounds me already, but seeing the development team pulling an all-nighter, I decide to brave through.

“Hey, isn’t this too unnatural?”

“What do you mean?”

“In the morning, he meets the Saintess, at noon the Witch, and in the evening the Ice Queen. And none of them suspects him of cheating?”

First issue of a stereotypical company.

They seek realism in weird places.

Who would want to be suspected of infidelity while playing a visual novel?

No one wants to sit before a computer to be accused and feel like their head is being scraped empty.

“Visual novels are supposed to be like that. So, it’s better to exclude elements that can easily tire the players…”

“Do we need to copy other visual novels? We’re making our game, not imitating others. Being original is good, right?”

Second issue of a stereotypical company.

Innovation where it’s not needed.

Why wasn’t this innovative spirit shown until the brink of the company’s ruin?

“Moreover, this would increase the difficulty of managing a harem…”

“Harem, was it?”

“Yes, harem. The difficulty of managing it would rise. Kids these days love high-difficulty games, don’t they? Am I wrong?”

“You’re correct…”

With a scribble, the story is entirely revised.

In the harem route, unlike the pure love route where all time is devoted to a single heroine, the number of possibilities increases.

As the time devoted to heroines reduces, suspicion grows, leading to changes in dialogues and actions.

If suspicions reach a peak, heroines might turn hostile.

“You said you loved me! You said you loved me! Yet why can’t you tell me where you have been!”

I wonder if this is right as I write the dialogue.

Is this a visual novel or a horror game?

But I decide to view it in a positive light.

People can enjoy the taste of other visual novels in the pure love route.

In the harem route, our company’s unique horror-like visual novel can be enjoyed, which might attract a certain audience.

“Screw it. If it’s going to be criticized, let it be.”

The implementation was forced.

The story was quickly completed, and the “realistic” dialogues that the boss demanded started to be added.

Now, to see the harem ending, players would have to use their brains.

“Wow, this is convincing.”

“Good that we went with open-world.”

As the game development proceeded, the mood in the company got better.

Except for the pale faces due to frequent overnight work.

Fast forward to the long-awaited opening day.

“10 seconds to opening! 9! 8…”

But at the moment of the game’s opening,

“Huh?”

The server crashed.

People were confused but happy.

It was the first time our always slack company’s server experienced such traffic.

But as one hour passed, then two, then nearing four, no one was smiling.

“What are you doing! Recover it quickly!”

“We need to expand the server.”

“We don’t have money for that! Stop the nonsense and just recover it!”

They managed to recover the server after abandoning the idea of a fundamental solution.

But as the people kept pouring in, the server kept crashing, and we had to drastically reduce the number of concurrent users.

How many could join?

5000.

The server couldn’t handle more.

Hundreds of thousands were waiting to play, but only 5000 could.

Our broke boss realized the gravity of the situation and pulled together every penny to expand the server.

“Is this really an RPG? It’s too brutal.”

“I can’t hunt because it’s scary. Look at them, running away with their arms severed and blood dripping.”

“Do other games not have this realistic system because they can’t make it? LOL”

Unexpected harsh criticism poured into the online community.

The action, ambitiously created using the development team’s new physics engine, was criticized as being too excessive.

The game had an overall exciting visual novel vibe, but once it switched to combat, it felt like a brutal clash between a goblin father fighting to protect his family and a psychopathic protagonist, making immersion difficult.

-“Is the visual novel part of the story okay though?”

-“f*ck, I want to keep playing the visual novel, but having to go hunting for materials in between is f*cking annoying.”

-“Wow, Yulia’s movements are so damn hot. What the f*ck were these assholes doing not making visual novels all this time???”

Amidst this, there was a lot of praise for the visual novel part of the story.

I didn’t know whether to be happy or upset about this. My feelings were mixed.

-“Why have these women suddenly all caught suspicion disease??? They keep b*tching every time I return from somewhere.”

-“I don’t know if I’m playing a visual novel or a mental illness mental care simulation.”

-“Is this game a public service advertisement against adultery?”

The harsh criticisms were all thanks to the idiotic system the boss had suggested.

I had said it.

If you raise the harem difficulty like this, everyone will be disgusted.

-“Did they really want to boast about their new physics engine that much? (★☆☆☆☆)”

-“It seems like they don’t even know what genre of game they are making. (★★☆☆☆)”

-“Just stick to one thing at a time. (☆☆☆☆☆)”

Even game critics joined in delivering additional blows.

We didn’t ignore this.

Eventually, the so-called realistic system, where blood splattered and limbs were severed according to the hit area, was abandoned.

We added effects where monsters stagger and stiffen up each time they’re hit, like in other typical games, and made it so their corpses disappear upon death.

The development team had to pull all-nighters to make this happen.

Additionally, we expanded the server, allowing up to 100,000 simultaneous connections.

All of this was accomplished only three months after launch.

Given the time it took to get the server, this was a quick turnaround, a feat made possible thanks to the boss’s often-bragged-about connections.

-“Why did the number of players drop when the server has expanded?”

-“……..”

But three months was ample time for disappointed users to leave and for those waiting to try out the game to lose interest.

We were too late.

And after the update, it’s not like no issues arose.

Apparently, due to mishandling of the code, a bug emerged where dialogues started appearing jumbled up from a certain point.

In most cases, the game turned into a chaotic mess, making normal progression difficult, but very occasionally, everything just clicked.

It was as if the heroines remembered what happened in previous chapters, their dialogues seamlessly connecting.

A user who hit this lottery-like probability posted about it in the community, mentioning how eerie the heroines were.

I laughed so hard at that.

Ultimately, the game failed.

Every time we tried to fix this bug, another would appear, and fixing that one would result in two more.

Apparently, the issue originated from the initial messy coding.

They said it’s a problem that can only be resolved by overhauling everything, but it will take a long time and it’s uncertain if our team alone can handle it.

The game failed.

There was one person who couldn’t accept this reality.

-“You motherf*ckers! We bought a server, why can’t you fix the game! If we just fix the bugs, the traffic will bounce back!”

The boss disregarded the development team’s suggestion to bring in external help, fearing the code would get utterly messed up. When advised to expand the server earlier, he dilly-dallied and missed the golden opportunity.

He probably knows it well.

He couldn’t endure without blaming others.

The boss believed that the users who appreciated our efforts would quickly return. He kept fiddling with the balls of the already failed game, reluctant to let go.

But eventually, he waved the white flag when the interest on his usurious debt kept piling up and there was no sign of the game reviving.

And so, our company’s ambitious new release declared service termination just six months after launch.

-“Sigh……….”

Entering the empty office, I feel uneasy.

The development team practically lived here, I never thought I’d see a silent office.

The reality that it’s really over hits me.

What should I do after the company goes bankrupt?

Should I go back to writing drama or film scripts?

Or, these days web novels are hot, maybe I should write those……….

-“I didn’t even get to play the final version.”

I barely cleaned up the trash scattered messily around the space where developers used to work all day, and sat down, powering up the computer.

I scolded this guy before for not setting a password lock on his computer, but it’s still the same.

I moved the cursor to the game client and executed it with a click.

Even though I didn’t create the characters, I wrote all the dialogues for the heroines, the protagonist, and the supporting characters.

I was curious to see how these characters appeared in the game and wanted to experience it firsthand.

The game has already failed

, but I wanted to enjoy it to the end.

I also wanted to check just how sh*tty it was to receive such a torrent of insults.

-“Why is it like this?”

But even after the loading bar filled up, the game didn’t start for a long time.

Even if I pounded the computer, the loading bar refused to move.

Has an execution bug appeared now?

Just as I sighed and stood up, suddenly, the game started.

[ID: Yoo Jin]

[Password: ********]

[Login completed.]

What the?

I didn’t touch anything, but the ID and password were automatically entered and logged in.

How does it know my name……….

-“Ugh……….”

Suddenly, a bright light poured out from the computer screen.

I couldn’t take my eyes off it, and soon, the light completely enveloped me.

I closed my eyes tight against the intense brightness, and when I opened them again.

[Welcome.]

-“……….?”

A dense forest landscape spread before my eyes.

In the moment of not knowing whether this is a dream or reality, I blinked, rubbed my eyes, and even slapped my cheek.

-“Kiek! Avenger of our father! Keke!”

-“What the hell is this……….”

Suddenly, a goblin, tears streaming down its face and wielding a club, rushed towards me.

Now, it seems I know where this is.

I wanted to cry.