02_ Digital Arts

After opening the folder and making sure everything was ok i started to put the pieces together, ever since i managed to buy this laptop i have been doing little things while i could, this resulted in the game being almost ready now that i have time.

All that was left to do was finish the customization process of the player, while the idea behind subnautica was amazing, it was littered with mention of humans and their (even if fantastical) history.

since the goal was for different races to play and feel accepted i decided that a character creation tool would be the best bet, not only thanks to the freedom that such a feature brings but also because there was no game with such a feature yet.

while games have evolved a lot from 8 years ago their stories were still based on reality, following real histories and thus not showing the need to it.

another point of importance is changing the story of the game to fit my current world, making mentions of humans as neutral as possible or only talking about race if it is about a especific person.

"that is enough thinking let's do it" cracking his fingers he started to type.

2 days later

"thank you for you purchase, please come back again!" a small girl with black hair in twin tails said while smile and handing nathan a bag of groceries, she was balancing herself up a small box so that she could manage the counter "hey Nathan you said that you were about to finish your game right? can i see it?" she asked animated.

Seeing the actions of the small dwarf child brought a smile to his face making him remeber that there was only one las thing to do, so laguing he answered "yes Gizza, i will be posting it on the web store tonight and tomorrow afternoon it should be available to download"

the internet in this world is almost completely congregated in a place called 'the web', it is basically a giant hub for everything digital, from news of the day to movies and that includes videogames, they are selled in a special area of the web destined to entertainment content, in there you will find a place focused on videogames.

if anyone looked at Gizza now it would look like she drank 3 litters of coffe from how much she was vibrating in place, giving a blinding smile to Nathan she exclaimed

"FINALLY! i have been waiting for months! did you really have to take such a long time with it? you were working on it for years weren't you?" she finished her rant sideeyeing him in fake outrage

picking his bags up and preparing to leave he said "well i had to make sure it would be perfect, i can't just go in half-assed right?"

stopping before the door he turned to say one last thing to her "i hope you like it Gizza, i remember you telling me how much you wanted to go to the sea"

finally leaving the store there silence for some moments before a high pitch squeal followed by "YOU WERE MAKING A GAME ABOUT THE SEA AND DIDN'T TELL ME??" sounded from the store.

laughing out loud Nathan just continued going home, ignoring the amused stares of his neighboors.

Night time - unknow location

"well guys that was it, we finished 'tha lady of the lake'" a young elf woman with red hair says that while stretching her arms above her head and breathing a relieved sigh "it was quite good i would say, through i would have liked to know more about the monster"

in a screen in front of her a section started speeding up with texts, but two of them caught the lady attention

{chat}

'of course lady ash would like to know more about the monsters'

'yeah, she says that basically in every game lmao'

reading this ash looses her posture and laughing say "come on guys you know how i am a lore nerd, i need to know everything about this things" she drinks a little of water while reading the chat on the screen

{chat}

'Lore nerd Lore nerd'

'ash is always reading everything that she finds in the game, i could never'

'queen ash never fails us with random lore drops'

'i really love her bad lore rants'

Ash smiles in amusement on the queen coment, finding the irony that they don't know she is a real princess really funny, the wonders of makeup and a wig, it was then that a message poped up from a vip viewer

[vip](littleFish)'HEY ASH I AM THE BEARER OF GOOD NEWS'

the smile on her face goes from amusement to fondness, ever since litthefish appeared in the chat it was always a war to fight the cuteness, she never through that she would feel that way about a dwarf, but kids just were her weak point

"oh! nice to see you here today fish, you usually don't appear on mondays what happened?" ash smiled wondering what kind of sweet littlefish made this time to come to her chat outside of her usual time and she could see that her chatmates were the same

{chat}

'hey fish! what was the sweet this time?'

'i bet it was chocolate!'

'last time she said she would try to make ice cream, i wonder if she managed to'

'i am sure it will be cookies'

[vip](littleFish)'IT WAS NOT FOOD THIS TIME I SWEAR, i made ice cream through'

laughing out loud by the end of the text ash asked with a grin on her face "so what is the news fish?"

[vip](littleFish)'the friend i told you about, the one who was making a game, he put it on the web tonight, HE ALSO SAID THAT IT HAS AN ONCEAN AND THAT I WOULD LIKE IT!'

raising an eyebrow ash through about it for a moment and then snaped her fingers "right i remember, you said that he was working on it for years right? i am going to look at it, if he put it there tonight then it should finish review tomorrow afternoon right?" she starts looking for the game while saying that

{chat}

'i believe so, unless the game has mature content'

'a game with an oncean in it? is it about a water dragon?'

'it would be way to similar to the lady of the lake no?'

'hey fish did he tell anything else?'

[vip](littleFish)'no he just said that he hoped i liked it, he left the store while saying it the jerk'

'ooh a misterious game then'

'i wonder if it will be good'

opening the page to new games ash found that there was not many games waiting to be reviewed and going by the pictures easily found the only one with water and what looked like a fish in it "subnautica? is that it fish? it's the only game with water in it waiting for review"

[vip](littleFish)'yes it is, i asked papa to ask him'

nodding in confirmation ash opened the game page and started looking at the pictures "look like it is a underwater game? how is that going to work? and looks like there are a lot of ish, and is that a burning ship?" she started looking more and more confused as she saw the pictures

{chat}

'yea fish is definely going to love this game'

'did he make this game for her?'

'wouldn't it be weird?'

'yes'

'yes'

'yes'

[vip](littleFish)'stop it guys! he is great'

'i am getting worried now'

rolling her eyes at her chat crazines ash looked at the game description and decided to read it out loud

'Descend into the depths of an alien underwater world filled with wonder and peril. Craft equipment, pilot submarines and out-smart wildlife to explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and more - all while trying to survive and find other survivors.'

after reading it there was surprise in ash face while she said "explore? we will be able to explore? and find other survivors? what do he mean by that?"

'it sounds crazt but i am all for crazy stuff'

'maybe we will be able to swim in the ocean?'

'no other game has this i don't think a single guy managed to do it'

'there is a video to ash let's watch it!'

seeing that there really was a video ash decided to play it, she was still confused about how a single game could have all this stuff, usually games were about one single thing, usually a combat sistem, but it was always a linear experience and she can't help but think that the survive part doesn't mean fighting

putting the video in fullscreen ash got confortable in her chair and then clicked play.

'the video starts with a black screen and calm music playing behind and then a hand is seen touching a window, on the other side of the windows lies a giant planet with a giant moon behind it'

seeing the planet ash puts a hand to her mouth thinking that is the planet we are going to explore?

'suddenly the scene cuts to alarms blaring and people from all races running from one side to the other in fear'

"oh damn seems like something is wrong" ash says worried and at the same time curious about what is happening, her lore nerdness starting to show up

'then it cuts again to inside a small room that is vibrating a lot and then once again to a hand opening a upside down windows and climbing the end of a ladder giving view to beatiful blue sky and a giant burning ship'

smiling proudfully ash says "i am pretty sure that the planet we saw in the star is were we fall down" after saying that she cringes at herself thinking about how obvious that one was

{chat}

'there goes our queen'

'connect the dots queen!

'after that the video starts to show a bunch of gameplay scenes of the player swimming, gathering resources and going around exploring'

ash fronws while seeing this "it really looks like there is exploration, i have never seen it before i am kind of worried"

{chat}

'i for one am really exited'

'i concur with ash, if it was not done before it's because it is a trash ideia'

[vip](littleFish)'LOOK AT ALL THE CUTE FISH, CAN WE HAVE PETS?!'

'fish asking the real question i see'

'the video ends when the player comes to a giant and dark space in the ocean an in the edges of the darkness a white part of a giant creature shows up for a moment before disappearing followed by a loud roar'

gasping in surprise a smile forms in ash face "that guy looked really big i wonder what it was, could it be the thing we have to survive?"

'then a scene is show with ocean waves in the background and the name of the game subnautica followed by a blackscreen with DIGITAL ARTS written in it'

ash hummed while looking at it "digital arts hum? it is not a bad name if i say so myself, it brings a lot of expectations through" even saying that she still has a sliver of hope in her chest i can only hope that this game has a deep lore

{chat}

'it sure brings expectations'

'i expect it to be bad! no way only one guy created it!'

'yeah no way, even big companies don't make things like that'

'i wonder what program he used to make the game?'

'none obviously, he didn't make shit, it's all fake!'

stretching herself once more ash address the chat "well peoples let us hope for the best, another good game on the market is always good, fish i will be playing it tomorrow when it officially launches, i hope you have a good gameplay since i know you will receive a key from you friend"

[vip](littleFish)'OH NO I FORGOT TO ASK'

laughing fondly at that ash says goodbuy to everyone and closes the stream, finally allowing herself to take her wig out and let her blonde hair fall down she gets up from the chair and lays down on her bed looking at the ceilling 

"digital arts hm? i hope you make good use of that name" closing her eyes she is about to fall asleep thinking about the nest day when she suddenly sits up shouting 

"darn it i haven't eaten anything yet!"

next day - Nathan's house

with a big smile on his face nathan finishes reading the email sent by the reviwers. congratulating him in passing the review and on bringuing such a new fresh experience to them

"well today is the day, let's hope for the best"

all that he has left to do is look at the timer on the game page, until he recalled something "oh! i have to give a key to Gizza!"