NMGMS 03 - Development

The [Game Maker] program in this world was identical to the game Alex played in the other world, so he was already very familiar with the functionalities it had.

The first thing he had to do was decide which platform the game would be made available on.

Each available platform had a cost of 500 GP, since it's as if there was a cost for translating and adapting the game into the languages of the other platforms.

So as much as Alex wanted to release the game everywhere, he decided to limit himself initially to just one platform.

With the GP revenue that the game would bring in, Alex could reinvest this to launch on other platforms, but for now, Alex would limit himself to just one.

His biggest doubt was whether he would publish the game for mobile or PC.

'A mobile release would make the game available to more people, but most of those people wouldn't be my target audience and wouldn't even bother to download the game... it's best to focus on PC development.' Alex made up his mind after some consideration.

From what he remembered of the game, in the future he could make an exclusive launcher for his games, no longer depending on posting the games on platforms like Steam or the mobile App Stores, but this was something he would only unlock when his company at [Game Maker] developed further.

With the platform decided, Alex was able to start developing the game.

Surprisingly, the game planning process in this world was even easier than in the other world.

Because the [Gamemaker] in this world was magical, without having to hide the magical features it had, unlike the [Gamemaker] in the other world which still had to pretend to be just a normal game, there were features just as magical as the concept of it in this world!

For example, in the other world, Alex could only use generic characters, since there was no way for the game to generate characters in real time for the Player, but in this world, it was as if Alex had a dialog window where he just needed to describe what he wanted and the character in the game would develop what he described!

'It's as if I had an employee that I speak to, he understands and replicates exactly what I've said!' Alex realized excitedly.

Sure, the first command was never answered exactly as Alex wanted, but little by little the character in the game understood what Alex meant and the results began to align with what Alex had imagined!

“Make a pixel art character where his body is that of a chubby skeleton, wearing a blue jacket and black shorts.” Alex ordered.

In a few seconds, an artwork of what he had asked for was in front of him, like magic!

But then Alex realized something.

'If the game character can make art so fast, can't I change the game's art style from Pixel Art to a more polished 2d animation? Even if the Pixel Art style of the original Undertale is very good, a 2d animation would probably be more attractive and captivating to new audiences, right?' Alex thought as he began to change the controls.

After a few minutes of testing, a 2d anime/manhwa style animation of the character Sans was on Alex's screen.

“That really worked!” He was thrilled. “With such a captivating animation, the chances of winning over more audiences are much greater!”

Sure, the price of making an animation in this style rather than just making the game in 2d is much higher, and the time taken to do something like this has also increased, but the value was still at an acceptable level for Alex to pay, so he carried on.

As for the time part, Alex was only concerned with the performance of the game.

His bank account in this world only had $2,000 set aside, which was just enough for another month's rent.

“Wait, where did that money come from?” Alex asked himself in confusion.

Alex could hardly scrape together that kind of money in the other world, so how did Alex from this world, being even younger than he was, manage to scrape together so much money?

Stopping to reflect on his memories of this world, he realized something shocking.

“My parents are still alive in this world?!”

As far as he could remember, the money he had came from various transfers his parents had made to him over the last few months.

Every month they sent him $2,000 to support himself in NY, then he used $1,400 to pay the rent and kept what was left over after buying what he needed that month.

His college tuition was paid by his father directly, so that money wasn't his responsibility.

From the old Alex's memories, this was just something ordinary, not even worthy of much importance in his memories, but having lived so many years alone in the other world, struggling to support himself without higher education, Alex's eyes began to sting with the feeling of being taken care of again.

Turning on his cell phone and looking at the history of messages and calls, it really indicated that his parents really were still alive here.

But even with the memories of this body showing that his parents' personalities were very similar to those of his parents in the other world, Alex was scared.

“Will they really be like my parents?” He asked himself insecurely.

Alex just wanted to call his mother now and hear her voice again, but the fear that she was a completely different person was stopping him from making that call.

'When I really need to, I'll call them. He assured himself, shifting his attention to something else to stop thinking about it.

With the financial problem secured, Alex didn't worry about anything else and focused completely on developing Undertale.

Although the game's development process was simplified, having only one character developing the game made the process a little slow.

That single character was responsible for making the illustrations, programming and soundtracks, so it wasn't possible to make the game in just one day.

But after a few hours, the finished result was amazing.

The foundations of the game were practically in place, with the fundamental systems such as the battle system having been finalized.

From time to time Alex had to intervene and change something that the character in the game had done wrong, but the more Alex corrected, the less the character went wrong, so little by little the speed of development accelerated.

Even when Alex went to sleep, the character continued to develop the game throughout the night, without needing any rest.

-

When he woke up, Alex found himself once again in this strange new environment.

Unlike the empty, lifeless house he lived in in the other world, this new house had much more personality.

Not only did the family photos scattered around the small house make the atmosphere much more pleasant and cozy, but the hanging posters of bands and superheroes added to the ambience.

Looking at the superhero posters on the wall, Alex commented with a wry smile, “Superheroes... something I'm still going to have to get used to.”

While he was heating up some breakfast, the newsreader was good-naturedly commenting on something extremely surreal.

"... the mayor of New York today announced new flight restrictions for unregistered superheroes after yet another incident involving the Human Torch flying over Central Park at 400km/h while making a heart with fire in the sky. Sources close to the hero say the ‘flaming message’ was for his new girlfriend, a Korean pop singer whose name has not yet been officially revealed."

Seeing how even ordinary people were used to the more bizarre things that superheroes did on a daily basis, Alex started trying to adapt to this new world.

“It's a good thing I don't have class today...” He sighed with relief as he realized it was Saturday.

Having to come to another world was already a big change of routine in itself; having to go back to school would make this new adaptation even more complicated.

“Come to think of it... am I still going to college?” He asked himself confusedly.

The Alex of this world was studying medicine at college, a highly respected subject and a great source of pride for his parents, but considering the potential he had in playing games, was it worth wasting so much time studying something that would be completely useless to him?

“I guess I can decide that after my game starts paying off...” He thought as he turned off the TV and went to his computer to check on the progress of the game's development.

Although there were a few inconsistencies, overall, the game's development was going very well!

Half of the game was finished, with a total of 2,000 GP spent so far and an estimated 2,000 GP more until the rest was complete.

'With this speed of development, I think I'll be able to post the game tomorrow!' Alex thought excitedly. 'Luckily [Game Maker] helps me with publishing... if I had to do all this manually I don't know how long it would take me to start getting some results with all the documentation I'd need to get.

In the [Game Maker] app there was a Publishing section for the games, the app would make the company, register the relevant accounts and even help promote the game in exchange for GP, although the marketing planning had to be done by Alex himself.

With everything facilitated in this way, he was excited for the time to pass soon and for the small employee at the App to finish the game as quickly as possible.