The scene in cg03 shows John wiping away his mother’s tears, comforting her, and promising that he would study hard.
John has been admitted to university.
But his dorm style at the university was quite unconventional. While everyone else was playing online games, John stubbornly played single-player games.
When others boasted about the gear they paid for in games, John always had a strange thought:
"Aren’t those things already supposed to belong to you? Why do you still have to buy them separately?"
Of course, he also enjoyed getting equipment in games that had gear designs, but that kind of joy was unrelated to money.
John always felt that his roommates’ boasting was more about how "valuable" the equipment was. Whenever John mentioned that this kind of value design could harm the game...
The roommates would look at John like he was a weirdo.
Naturally, upon realizing that they felt no joy in acquiring gear, only a desire to show off how expensive it was, John also thought they were weirdos.
The scene in cg04 shows John on his bed playing a game from junior high that he never finished, while below him, his three roommates sit side by side playing visually stunning but ad-filled games.
"A graduation project? Teacher, I’ve recently met some partners from outside school. Can I... use a game as my graduation project?"
"Of course you can, but you have to demonstrate your role in the game production, hahaha, otherwise I won’t let you pass."
"Thank you, teacher. In the next year, I’ll find a way to make it. It’s my dream to create a... pure game that can bring people joy again."
cg05 is unusually simple.
At the end of the scene, John creates a folder on his computer—"Doomsday".
In the cramped office building, everyone had dark circles under their eyes.
This is where a miracle was born—in this tiny office of about ten square meters, eight people lived and worked at their eight computer desks.
John’s old friend Catherine had now become his lover.
The precursor to the game "Doomsday" was created by these eight people.
Here, John felt he had met his soulmate—Catherine.
That’s because the team that helped John complete his graduation project was brought together by Catherine.
Catherine was amazed that John, even as an adult, was still as passionate and imaginative about games as he was as a child, and... pure.
She had always been looking for someone like that.
Fortunately, many years later, John was still single. Fortunately, many years later, John still shone brightly as before.
There was a smile in Catherine’s eyes as she truly enjoyed her time with John.
With Catherine’s connections, she brought together a group of like-minded people.
In cg06, they were chatting together, with such harmony.
"In a serious game, if too many lottery systems are added, it means the game doesn’t deserve to be called serious."
"Exactly, lotteries and card draws indeed bring simple joy, but in the long run, such stimuli will gradually lead users to lose their passion for playing... they might start thinking that all slow-paced games are trash."
"Yes, yes! That’s why in our game, we absolutely must not do that!"
In everyone’s eyes, there was a belief in their dream. Amid such happy conversations, cg06 came to an end.
"Teacher, how’s our game?"
"Very good, very good. But I have a suggestion. You’d better not release it in full, or better yet, don’t release it at all."
"What do you mean? Teacher, I don’t understand."
"John, I can see how much effort you’ve put in. While other students are still engrossed in games, you’ve been diligently researching how to bring players a detailed experience within the game. This game is great... but it can’t compete with other games on the market. My suggestion is to refine it. Hmm, I’ll also help you, we’ll modify it well."
John was stunned. He had actually thought about this issue. How amazing could a game made by eight people be?
Indeed, this game wasn’t enough to defeat those top games developed by teams of hundreds of people.
But then, why did it need to defeat them? Players liked it, and it brought joy to players—in fact, that was good enough, wasn’t it?
But, thinking about the teacher’s suggestion to refine it, there was some reason in that. Could the game still be optimized? Yes. Could the visuals still be improved? Yes. Could the overly bloated systems in the later stages be simplified? Yes.
At this thought, John seemed to regain his motivation.
The ending of cg07 shows John setting a goal to create the world’s best game!
Of course, even if he couldn’t achieve it, it didn’t matter. Just thinking that there would always be someone better, someone worth learning from and surpassing, made him happy.
"Sorry, the number you dialed is turned off."
Six months after graduation, John suddenly received some difficult news to accept.
Catherine cried and said:
"John... he tricked us! He changed the art style of our game and sold it for money!"
"No... it can’t be. How is that possible? The teacher... he loves games so much, how could someone who loves games do such a thing?" John found it hard to accept.
But when he called the teacher, all he heard was the cold, mechanical voice of the automated system.