Chapter 30

**Pov Alexandre Lockhart**

........

"Hahaha, look how beautiful my daughter is. It couldn't be any different with a mother like me, haha."

"Haha, of course, she's beautiful, just look at her older brother. Genetics never fail, haha."

(⌒_⌒;)

"... Can you both speak more quietly? Everyone is staring at us."

"Hmm?! Jade, dear, you should already be used to it. After all, people as beautiful as us will always attract attention."

"....."

While we were talking, I saw Meli coming back.

"The photos are over; our supermodel is coming back."

Mom seemed really happy. She usually tries to keep an expressionless face in front of strangers, but when something good happens or she's having fun with us, she can't hold it back. She's almost like a child.

"So how was it, did you have fun?"

"It was fun. Everyone kept complimenting me for being so beautiful, but I guess that's normal since I am beautiful, haha."

"Yes, it's normal for beautiful people like us."

"Okay, okay, that's enough; you're drawing too much attention."

After that, the four of us continued walking through the park until nightfall. Even so, I couldn't see even 10% of all the rides. This place is simply huge.

We went back home, and I must say that today was super relaxing. I feel all the fatigue from recent times disappearing. When I entered the room, I saw that Luna had just analyzed the data she collected from Mom and Monica.

I just let her use this data to fix minor problems, and later I'll help her adjust the more complicated things. Even though she can do it alone, I want to handle the important parts myself. After that, I went to sleep.

"Today was fun. I bet there are even more amazing things on other planets. In the future, I'll go on a tour of the universe."

...….

After yesterday, I felt energized, with all my work almost done, and the popularity of Detroit rising rapidly. I think I can start a new project.

"But what should I do?"

There are several great games to pass the time, like Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Plants vs. Zombies; they are good games. There are also some simpler ones like Flappy Bird and Angry Birds. There's a huge variety of mobile games.

"Wait… I'm being silly… I don't necessarily need to make mobile games for the holographic bracelet. With solid light technology, I don't need to be stuck with the limitations of old cell phones. I can easily create PS5 or Xbox controls, even Nintendo Switch."

It's so obvious. There are an incredible number of 2D and pixel art games I can make for the holographic bracelets, like Celeste, Limbo, Inside, Cuphead, Shovel Knight, What Remains of Edith Finch, Ori and the Blind Forest, The Binding of Isaac, Hollow Knight, and many others.

(Note: Yes, I know that What Remains of Edith Finch is not a 2D game, but it's among my favorites among indie games.)

All are very good and unique games in their own area. I could make several fun games that wouldn't work well in virtual reality or would lose their unique characteristics. But there's one very good game that really caught me by surprise in the past.

Undertale.

This game is simply incredible in many ways, whether its characters, story, or world, everything in this game was very well thought out and executed. From the settings to the music, everything is made to immerse the player and make them engage with the characters.

When Undertale was created, its developer didn't have much budget, so he used pixel art to make the game. At first, this put some people off, but over time its pixel art became almost a trademark of the game.

Anyone who has played Undertale can easily recognize the characters and settings. This is a game that gives a unique feeling while you play. The characters seem cliché and shallow, but as you play, it's easy to see that this is not true.

The game designer purposely plays with this; he makes you believe that this game is just another one with a silly story about killing monsters, but as you progress and get into the story, this view changes.

Each character has its own past and story. You have the choice to find out about it or not. If you just want to kill everything in your path without caring about anything, you can. Undertale shocked many people, including me. Many were frightened by the genocide route and cried in the pacifist route.

It can be said that Undertale's impact was so great in the gaming industry that it changed how indie games are viewed by the public, as well as making many developers realize that there is space for retro games in the market. This kind of influence is very rare in the gaming market, especially when talking about an indie game.

Undertale also ended up creating a huge fan community, who created theories, mods, even animations, and music. The enthusiasm of the fans of this game was simply incredible. For several years, the Undertale community created content around the game. It was even fun to see how they tried to talk about the game while avoiding spoilers.

Much of the Undertale experience comes from not knowing anything about it or knowing as little as possible. So many fans tried to hold back spoilers as much as they could so as not to affect other players' experiences.

This game was a phenomenon, but if I had to say something that I would improve in the game, it would be the art. As much as pixel art is really beautiful and has become a trademark of the game, over time, pixel art games have evolved, and the characters gained more animations and expressed more emotions.

If Undertale was the one that drew the public's attention to indie games, games like Sea of Stars, Blasphemous, Hollow Knight, Stardew Valley, and many others were the ones that showed everyone the potential of pixel art and kept the audience surprised.

"I think it will be fun to make Undertale, but I don't know if people will like it… who cares? I'll just do what I like."

I did a quick review with Luna on God of War, then left the virtual space. When I was about to start drawing the characters, I realized that I would need the help of a programmer to make a game for the holographic bracelet.

"This is complicated… Luna, I want to make a game for the holographic bracelet, but I think I'll need to program something to do that, right?!"

"Hmm?! On the holographic bracelet? I don't think the holographic bracelet has the computational power to run a full game."

"No, this will be different; it won't be in virtual reality."

"????"

Several question marks appear above her head. I can only sigh at this, so I started to explain what the game would be like. I had to burn my few brain cells to make her understand that the player couldn't control the character with their thoughts.

Part of the fun of games is training reasoning and motor skills. Obviously, in virtual reality, this is much more important, but we're talking about a simple game that doesn't require much effort.

"So, if I understand, this game will be shown on a screen, and the player will use a solid light controller to play, is that it?"

"Yes, exactly."

"... I don't think that can be considered a game."

"Of course, it's a game... anyway, I'm going to do it, and I'll need to find someone to program it."

"Sigh... alright, if you want to do that, then let's go, let me search a bit..."

Luna started searching, and in less than 5 seconds, she finished.

"I found some options. You can hire a programmer specialized in holographic bracelets or buy an AI to program it.

If you want to hire a programmer, the price will vary depending on the service. Considering what you want to do, I estimate a price between 2 to 20 million credits, which includes purchasing rights to release part of the holographic bracelet's code.

If you want to buy a new AI, the cost will vary from 1 to 5 million, buying the cheapest models on the market."

(⊙_⊙)

"How is this so expensive? The creation table barely cost a few hundred credits."

"This is normal. You only bought a basic creation table, which has almost no auxiliary functions. If you were to buy a complete table, it would cost over 100 million and could reach 200 million if you had any extra requirements."

"....."

(What should I do? I was just thinking of doing this for fun, but if I think about it, this is an investment for the future. If I buy it now, I won't need to buy it later. Yes, that's it. I've saved up 10 million credits from the movies over the past few years, so it should be fine to spend it now. Besides, after the competition, I'll have a partnership with Eternal Dream.)

Decided, I started looking for an AI with Luna. After a few hours, I finally spent 8.7 million, and I can almost feel my heart bleeding.

(Damn, I thought I was already rich. How did my hard-earned money disappear so quickly?)

Soon a message appeared above the table.

[Would you like to replace the current AI, or would you like to integrate the new AI with the old one?]

Sighing, I just integrated the new AI into Luna. After a few seconds, a hologram of her appeared with a strange and greedy smile.

"Hehe, Alex, I only just realized now... but it seems that this new AI is not specialized in holographic bracelets, so... you'll have to buy a small update for me."

(-_-;)...

"... buy? Update?"

Just hearing that, my heart almost broke.

"How much?"

"Don't worry, it'll be cheap, just 1.1 million credits."

٩(╬ʘ益ʘ╬)۶

"LUNA... damn it, is this serious? Damn capitalism."

"Buy, buy whatever you want... I can't believe how poor I am, should I ask Mom for money... no, I'm getting old, puppy eyes won't work anymore."

Even though I was outraged by my poverty, as soon as Luna made the update, I sat in front of the table and started drawing, and soon I got lost in this work.

It's strange, drawing every movement of the character, the settings, the objects, everything is strangely relaxing. It's a lot like the 2D animations I was doing before, but with a mix of nostalgia.

When I started as a designer, my first jobs were to help make pixel art animations. I really enjoyed that, creating the settings, the characters, and then being able to walk through them was simply satisfying. But as time went on and the industry grew, 3D games dominated the market, and after the first few years of my design career, I practically never did pixel art again.

I really didn't know how much I missed doing something like this. Slowly I got immersed in this work; I can't even call it work, I was really having fun doing it. Not only was I recreating a game I loved, but I was also improving its art even more.

Hours went by, but I didn't even notice. While I was fully concentrated, I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Aaaahhh"

"Aaaaaahhh"

"Melissa, what the hell are you doing? Do you want to scare me to death?"

"You scared me, I've been calling you to dinner for a while, and you didn't answer, and why are you here with the lights off?"

"Eh?! It's already nighttime; I didn't even notice."

"Did you at least have lunch?"

"...."

(I didn't even notice the time passing, besides, I'm not hungry, but it's better if she doesn't know that.)

"Of course, I had lunch."

She looked at me suspiciously, but when she was about to say something, she saw a small animation of Sans and Papyrus on the table.

"I hadn't seen these characters before, haha look at this skeleton with the funny face, but they seem... I don't know, strange. Is it a new movie?"

"No, it's a new game; I made them in pixel art, but I'll tell you later, let's go have dinner."

"Okay."

We left the room and went to have dinner. While I was eating, I felt Dad looking at me all the time.

(Why is he staring at me? Did I do something? I'm sure I didn't leave the room today.)

After we finished eating, everyone was talking happily, and then Dad asked nonchalantly.

"Alex, did you buy something today?"

"Hmm??? Just a little something, nothing much, hehehe."

"A little something, huh? You forgot your wallet is linked to my ID. I got a message that you spent 9.8 million in an AI store."

"WHAT??? Alexandre Lockhart, you better explain this to me."

N, n, n, it's not my fault, I wanted to make a new project, but I needed to buy an update for Luna; everything is so expensive, I didn't even get the best on the market."

"Alex, even if you're earning this money, you can't just burn it like that... but since you spent it, so be it, but don't even think about asking me for money, got it?!"

"But Mom..."

"It's no use, no money for you."

(Damn)

...

Note: You may be wondering:

"Potato, why make Undertale if the protagonist could make a lot of money with Candy Crush, Flappy Bird, or any gacha game."

The reason is simple, I didn't want to.

When I started writing this story, I wanted it to be an open love letter to all the games I like, and the protagonist is doing exactly that.

His goal is not to be super rich or famous. He doesn't want to be the best designer in the universe. His goal is simply to change the current gaming market and share the things he likes with the people in this universe.

Obviously, over time he will be on top, but that's not the goal, haha.

You might think, "Potato, why are you saying this now?"

I've read several stories where I expected something, but I was disappointed and ended up dropping them, and I don't want you to be waiting for something that won't happen.

Now, as for the money, I did this both as a joke and as something realistic. Imagine this, you have an 8-year-old child, and he somehow earns a million dollars. Would you really leave all that money with him, or would you save it for when he's older? Don't forget that even though the protagonist is mentally old, he is still a child to others.

I don't know if anyone will read this huge note, but that's it, haha.

Also, I'm trying to update everything on Thursday and Sunday.

I want to ask you something: what is your favorite game, the one that's always at the top of your list, even if there are others with better graphics and story, they will never take first place? Mine is definitely Chrono Trigger, I know it's cliché, haha.