"Actually, what's more important in game development is to not aim too high too soon. This is a brand new industry, no less complex than the film industry — in fact, it's even more complicated. Everyone makes progress one step at a time. There's no shortcut."
Takayuki spoke with sincere honesty as he explained to the three girls, hoping to help them accept the reality that they weren't yet ready to make complex games.
After that, Takayuki shared some fun behind-the-scenes stories about game development and then wrote each of them a personalized handwritten message of encouragement — hoping that once they entered university, they would seriously consider pursuing game development.
Judging by the timing, they'd be starting university next year. It wouldn't be too late at all to begin studying game development then.
After leaving the Gamestar Electronic Entertainment building, the three girls took the train home.
On the train, they remained silent. They didn't seem excited at all, even after getting the rare chance to visit Gamestar's headquarters.
Or rather, they had been excited at first — but reality had quickly caught up with them and left them speechless.
Eventually, Aiko broke the silence:"Hazumi, you were right. Game development really isn't something the three of us can handle on our own. A game like Final Fantasy needs both enormous funding and a massive team. There's no way we can manage that."
...
...
The three girls didn't come from wealthy families, but they were comfortably middle-class.
Still, in the face of blockbuster game budgets that easily exceed hundreds of millions of dollars, their resources seemed insignificant.
Even a ten-million-dollar indie project was completely beyond their means.
It started to feel like this industry truly had a massive barrier to entry.
That's when Oto-chan, clearly frustrated, said:"But… we could at least start with simple games, right?"
Hazumi shook her head."But even then, they're just simple games. How popular could something like that really be?"
Oto-chan replied,"I think Fruit Ninja was pretty simple. Maybe we could try something like that."
"That would probably still cost a few hundred thousand dollars. We still can't afford it."
Oto-chan fell silent.
The more they had learned about how large studios created games, the more hopeless it all seemed.
They realized just how naive they had been — thinking the three of them, calling themselves a "Game Development Triangle," could make an entire game on their own.
But that didn't mean they were giving up. They figured that, at worst, they could study game development in college and eventually work at a game company.
Still… there was a stubborn part of them that didn't want to give up on making their own games.
The girls said their goodbyes for the night, clearly still burdened with heavy thoughts.
The next day at school, they met up like usual. Everything seemed normal on the surface — but someone as sensitive as Tianchong noticed the difference right away.
He wasn't the game-addicted kid he used to be. These days, he had learned to balance gaming and school — largely thanks to Aiko.
He also had a bit of a crush on her, though she only saw him as a friend… or maybe even a little brother.
"Hey… what's with you three? The vibe's totally off today. Are we still doing our club meeting later or what?"
Normally, this would be the time when Oto-chan and Hazumi got into their usual bickering, but today they were both unusually quiet. Something was definitely off.
Oto-chan glanced at Tianchong, who looked genuinely concerned, and then explained everything that had happened the day before — holding nothing back.
Tianchong's eyes went wide.
"W-What?! You guys actually went to the God of Games' company?! And he personally gave you advice?! Why didn't you tell me?!"
He was so jealous, he was practically about to melt from envy. The caring expression he had just moments ago was now replaced with pure lemony bitterness.
How could they get a chance to meet the God of Games up close and personal, and not even tell him?
His heart ached!
Were they even still friends in the same club? They just went ahead without him to meet Takayuki.
If he had a chance to meet the God of Games, he'd gladly trade ten years of his life!
But of course, he didn't get that chance.
These three girls… what's up with them? They always seemed to be absurdly lucky. The more he wanted something, the more likely they were to get it. And he? He got nothing.
Hazumi pouted on the side and said,"So what? Even if you went too, it wouldn't change anything. Game development is just too hard. People like us can't handle it."
"Huh? But didn't we make that little hopscotch game before?" Tianchong said.
"That was nothing. Completely boring," Hazumi said, exasperated.
The hopscotch game had felt underwhelming to the three girls, but Tianchong had been ecstatic just seeing a game he helped make actually come to life.
Sometimes, the girls really envied how easily Tianchong could find happiness in the little things.
"Tianchong, don't you want to make something better? Like Ocarina of Time?" Hazumi asked.
Tianchong nodded with all his strength."Of course I do! But how would we even start?"
Hazumi held out her hand."Step one: bring me fifty million dollars. Then we can start talking about making games."
Tianchong was stunned speechless.
These little aspiring developers were already on the verge of giving up because of the immense financial and manpower demands of the industry.
But Tsukino Aya still held high hopes for the three girls. She wanted more female developers like herself to enter the field.
That's why, after the tour, she had made sure to get their contact information. She had even scheduled a series of private lessons with them in the following days to teach them the basics of game development in advance.
But what surprised her was — the three girls, who had agreed to attend, never showed up.
Tsukino Aya was confused. She didn't understand what had happened.
If this were the old Tsukino Aya, she would've never taken the initiative to follow up. Even if she wanted to, she wouldn't have reached out.
But now, she had changed.
At home, wearing a thin tank top, Tsukino Aya couldn't help but pick up the phone and dial the number of one of the girls.
"Hello? Who's speaking?"
A woman's voice answered on the other end — probably Oto-chan's mother.
"Hello, ma'am. My name is Tsukino Aya, I'm a good friend of Oto-chan. Is she home?"
"Ah, yes, she is. Please hold on."