Chapter 109: The Devil's Egg
A few days after meeting Chandra in the early days of April 1990,
I found myself at the Pentagon office. Coincidentally, the atmosphere at the Pentagon Soft was rather relaxed as they were gearing up for the release of Final Frontier 3.
"Oh, Chief. You're here?"
Morita, who was pouring coffee in the break room, greeted me.
"Ah, please, stop calling me 'Chief.' I'm not even a Mintendo employee anymore..."
"Well, when you join our Development Team 2, you'll probably be carrying that title again."
I guess that's true.
I chuckled at Morita's comment and greeted the Pentagon crew warmly. I had become familiar to them as I frequently visited the office.
"Would you like some coffee, Chief? It's no trouble to brew an extra cup."
"Well, in that case, I'll take you up on that, Morita-san."
A little while later, as I was in the middle of greeting Mr. Kawaguchi in the CEO's office, Morita came in with the coffee.
"Morita-san, please have a seat for a moment. Hayashi-san will be here soon."
"Hmm? Is there something you want to discuss with us?"
"I'll explain when Hayashi-san arrives."
Kawaguchi smiled and asked me, "Are you planning something with the second development team again?"
"Do you remember when I said I would bring a big gift to Pentagon Soft when I first joined?"
"Oh, yes, I remember..."
At that moment, Hayashi entered the room, knocking on the door.
"Mr. President, did you call for me? Oh, Chief. It's been a while. How are you?"
Come to think of it, both Morita and Hayashi keep calling me "Chief" until the very end...
I offered Hayashi an empty chair.
Now that the main cast had gathered, should I start the discussion?
I took out the project proposal for my portable gaming device, "Tamagosama," that I had been organizing for the past few days.
"Tamagosama?"
"Who drew this character? It looks incredibly cute with its round shape!"
"Oh, that's Tamagosama, the main character of this game. Yuki designed it herself."
"Yuki did this? Her sense is remarkable."
Kawaguchi and Hayashi nodded in agreement, clearly impressed by the evolution of Tamagosama and how it influenced the game's mechanics.
After reviewing the proposal, Mr. Kawaguchi was satisfied and spoke with a pleased smile.
"So, it's about raising virtual pets using electronic devices."
"It's similar. Tamagosama evolves into monsters before becoming monsters."
"Certainly, it's fascinating how the final appearance is influenced by factors like feeding and training. It's an appealing element for children. Not bad."
This time, Hayashi finished reviewing the proposal and shared his thoughts.
"It's quite simple, isn't it? With this setup, we could finish the coding in just a week. It's all about eating, sleeping, training, and considering the age of the players, it's quite straightforward."
Is that so? I smiled knowingly and took out the second proposal from my bag.
It was the project proposal for "Tamago Monster," which was planned as a cartridge for Mintendo's portable gaming device.
"This is a proposal for another game that can be enjoyed using Tamagosama's data."
However, at that moment, Hayashi's expression stiffened.
"Tamago... Monster? But, Chief, what are you using for this? Tamagosama's data?"
"Please, take a moment to read it."
Hayashi accepted the proposal with a worried expression and began flipping through the pages.
"Oh, I knew it."
Once he turned to the first page, he realized.
After a monster inside Tamagosama completes its evolution, its data could be transferred into the cartridge via a data cable. Players could use this monster data to create their own units and enjoy the in-game story by battling with them.
Especially, the part where players could connect their Mintendo devices with their friends' using a data cable to engage in battles excited Kawaguchi.
As the use of data cables for gaming was still relatively rare after the release of Game Boy, the data linking feature presented in "Tamago Monster" was a major revelation.
"Is it possible to exchange data like this?"
"It's a bit complicated, but the idea is that players can compete with their raised monsters, which is the most critical aspect of 'Tamago Monster.' It might be challenging, but we must implement it. I'll be helping too, so let's work hard on this."
Upon hearing my explanation, Hayashi sighed and covered his face with the proposal.
At the same time, Morita, who had been quietly reviewing the proposal until then, opened her mouth with a rather perplexed expression.
"But, Chief... there's a problem."
"Yes? What's the problem?"
Morita frowned as she examined Yuki's whimsical drawings in the proposal.
"I don't think my art style matches well with this. Drawing dozens of monsters, even a few, would be too overwhelming for me..."
Ah... that's right. You're a specialist in drawing cute girls.
As someone who had refused to draw Donkey Kong for MinTendo, asking Morita to draw over a dozen monsters would indeed be a great challenge.
"Don't worry, Morita-san."
"Yes?"
"Just draw a few characters that you're most comfortable with."
"But what about the other monsters?"
"For the monsters in 'Tamago Monster,' we plan to collaborate with amateur and professional artists. What do you think about organizing a character design competition at an illustration school in Tokyo?"
"A character design competition?"
"Indeed. Since it would be challenging for one person to come up with various monster concepts. We, Pentagon Soft, will directly hold a competition for students at the 'Illustration Specialty School' in Tokyo to submit character designs."
"An excellent idea. We can discover hidden talents and receive a variety of monster concepts. The school will likely welcome such an initiative, especially in times like these."
"I have one more request, though..."
"What is it? If it's something I can help with, I'll do my best."
"Would you consider letting some of the monsters that appeared in Final Frontier participate in 'Tamago Monster'?"
"Really?"
"Not all of them, but the most iconic monsters from Final Frontier, like Bahamut of the Summoner class, for instance."
"Is that so? But what's your plan, Chief?"
To Kawaguchi's question, I brought out the distribution plan for Tamagosama and Tamago Monster using an interconnected structure.
The three proposals I had prepared over the past week were the result of a great deal of thought.
"But these will be incredibly effective."
As Kawaguchi looked through the final proposal, his expression grew stiffer with each page turned.
"Final Frontier's Tamago...?"
On the last page of the proposal, the word "Final Frontier" was written on the surface of an egg.
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