But where on earth did this guy find the time to learn programming?
The President is too terrifying; it's impossible he doesn't sleep 24 hours a day, right?
Aoki Haruhi curled his lip, getting more and more excited as he wrote.
You guys don't know, from this point on, this is my territory!
This group of people who haven't really studied future computer programming, especially those who know nothing about network programming, you'll be surprised by many things in the future.
***
In fact, the reason why Aoki Haruhi was doing this was mainly because——
The Internet in Japan was starting to become widespread!
Last September, InterCon International KK (IIKK) in Japan provided commercial Internet access for the first time.
Starting in October, TWICS began offering dial-up Internet accounts by leasing lines from IIKK.
The Internet, or the fabled Wide Area Network (WAN), as distinct from locally connected internets, is used to connect computers across long distances, achieving network effects by exchanging data.
However, due to current hardware limitations, mainly the transmission efficiency of fiber-optic communication cables, the transmission speed is only around a few kb per second.
It seems incredible, considering that players in the future, who have grown accustomed to large-scale downloads, are used to transmission speeds of several megabytes, or even tens of megabytes per second.
In other words, in the nearly 30 years from 1994 to 2023, the development of the Internet has grown by a factor of millions.
The early stages of this development are quite consistent with the famous Moore's Law.
With the advent of the internet in Japan, the number of personal home computers has been growing exponentially. According to Aoki Haruhi's estimates, personal computers will become commonplace in Japan in just a few years.
This means that while all the major game publishers are locked in a fierce console war, Aoki Haruhi has already quietly begun laying the groundwork for another platform—the PC.
Regardless of how things change, the PC is destined to become the most widely used gaming platform in the future world.
It's just that in the current environment, the PC has yet to demonstrate sufficient gaming performance and capability.
The server architecture Aoki Haruhi is building now isn't meant to support wide-area network (WAN) games, like World of Warcraft or DNF.
After all, transmission speeds are far too slow; it's impossible to establish an effective synchronous connection, let alone allow players to engage in synchronous combat.
What he wants to do first is develop local area network (LAN) games, similar to the original Warcraft developed by Blizzard, where one computer acts as the host, serving as the transmission hub for data exchange within the LAN.
As for specifically what game to make, Aoki Haruhi hasn't decided yet, but with his programmer mindset, he knows he at least needs to build the underlying architecture first.
Preparation is half the battle.
Tools are crucial.
***
"Mmm-hmm."
"I really am a genius."
Aoki Haruhi nodded frequently, typing away with great excitement.
While others could only see three to five years into the future, he could already see the world ten, twenty, or even thirty years from now.
I'm practically a prophet!
Seeing his expression, Ayase Akane's heart skipped a beat.
Oh no, it's over.
The president has completely lost his mind. You started out in original art, yet you're coding like a maniac—isn't that a bit like neglecting your actual job?
Aoki Haruhi would say that she just didn't know: in his past life, his very first job was actually programming.
"Hahaha..."
Just as he was engrossed in pounding away at the keyboard, he suddenly heard the sound of children making playful noises outside.
Aoki Haruhi froze slightly. At first, he thought he was hallucinating, but then he heard that cheerful laughter again.
So, he looked up and glanced at the little HR with a puzzled expression.
"Huh? Where is that child's voice coming from?"
"Hmm?"
Ayase Akane was slightly taken aback. She pricked up her ears to listen for a moment, then, as if it had suddenly dawned on her, she said:
"President, have you forgotten?"
Ayase Akane covered her mouth and chuckled, her eyes full of schadenfreude. "Didn't you previously arrange a task for that guy, Maeda, telling him to find an opportunity to experience what real life is like?"
"You said it was to help with his writing, and so he could write about families with more genuine emotion."
"So, our Program Manager, Akanishi Ken, brought his five-year-old daughter to the company, saying he wanted Maeda Jun to take care of her for a day and get a taste of what it's like to raise a child."
Huh? Did I say that?
Still, Aoki Haruhi was actually quite curious.
He waved his hand grandly, "Let's go take a look."
***
Pokeni has a total of two gaming experience rooms.
Each room is about 10-plus square meters, and they feature different game consoles. The floors are covered with foam mats, also known as baby play mats, so that employees can relax and play games to their heart's content.
The walls are decorated with murals painted by the art department colleagues, which actually have quite an artistic atmosphere and fit the image of a game company very well.
At this moment, Maeda Junsei and Akanishi Ken's daughter are in there fooling around.
Aoki Haruhi and the HR staff member snuck over and peeked through the door crack.
Inside the gaming room, they saw the little girl jumping up and down like a monkey.
Meanwhile, Maeda Jun sat on the floor, looking exhausted and playing the game with a look of utter hopelessness on his face.
The game console was playing "The Witcher," which Hidetaka Miyazaki plays most often.
Seeing this, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but frown.
This guy Maeda, I asked him to experience life, but isn't he being a bit too careless with babysitting?
Worst of all, how could he just ignore the little girl while he plays games on the side?
He was still playing "The Witcher".
There are actually quite a few gory elements in it, which could easily leave a psychological shadow on a young child.
Thinking of this, Aoki Haruhi felt an urge to push the door open and lecture Maeda.
However, the little HR pulled him back, indicating that this was all part of the experience Maeda had to go through himself.
Just then, a crisp little girl's voice came from inside the room:
"Uncle Maeda, your hair is so long, don't you find it annoying?"
"Not at all."
Jun Maeda didn't care about that at all, besides, what do you know?
You little brat!
This is called cool!
"Uncle Maeda, stop playing video games, come play house with me," the little girl invited.
"I'm so tired, please, just let me be," Jun Maeda said with a blank expression.
His eyes were glazed over as he stared at the TV, his hands never stopping their frantic inputs on the controller.
Seeing this, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but feel a bit puzzled.
Ayase Akane whispered from the side, "Maeda has been watching this kid all day. Kids really are full of energy."
Oh boy...
"Let's play horsey," the little girl said.
Seeing that Jun Maeda didn't respond, she circled around to his back and, with a thump, hopped on.
Crash.
The two of them fell to the ground.
Jun Maeda, looking utterly dead inside, just continued playing his game while lying on his side.
"If you don't pay attention to me, I'm going to get rough." The little girl got up from the ground, then crawled over to Jun Maeda on all fours.
She leaned in to take a look; this guy had developed dead-fish eyes.
It was that kind of world-weary look of someone who had been tortured into madness and just lay down wherever they fell.
"I'm so tired, please spare me," Jun Maeda said, lying on the floor expressionless.
"Hey! Take this!"
The little girl took a few steps back.
Then...
To Aoki Haruhi's astonishment, she gathered speed, flew through the air, and kneed Jun Maeda, who was still on the ground.
"Ah... ughhh..."
Jun Maeda clutched his lower abdomen, groaning in pain.
***
Pfft...
The little HR almost let out a laugh.
Seeing this, Aoki Haruhi couldn't help but chuckle.
Sigh, daughters are quite cute.
But if one were this mischievous, Aoki Haruhi himself would find it a headache.
After returning to the office, Aoki Haruhi turned and asked Ayase Akane:
"Has Maeda been like this all day?"
"Yeah." Ayase Akane shook her head. "It makes me not want to have kids in the future."
Uh...
Don't say that, Japan's birth rate is already quite low.
"You should get a boyfriend first." Aoki Haruhi replied.
"President!" Ayase Akane put her hands on her hips.
"But this is good, actually," Aoki Haruhi laughed.
"What do you mean, it's good not to have a boyfriend? President, that's really mean."
"No, I meant it's good that Maeda is like this. Having had this experience of interacting with a real child, he'll likely be able to write about daughters with ease when the time comes," Aoki Haruhi said with a smile.
***
***
"It's over, it's over, another author driven crazy by Kogen Shunchu."
Aoki Haruhi overheard this and thought: Nani?
What does that have to do with me?!
***
The development progress of CL and LL was ideal, and by mid-July, it was wrapped up.
The next step was to import the music and voice acting into the game.
***
In order to faithfully recreate CL, Aoki Haruhi did his best to hire the original voice actors for the roles.
For example, for the male protagonist Tomoya Okazaki, he hired Kentaro Ito.
Aoki Haruhi had discussed the issue of whether or not the male lead should have a voice with the project team for a long time.
In many classic galgames, the male protagonist is basically a mute—there is text for their lines, but no corresponding voice acting.
This is done to cater to the player's experience. After all, many galgames are male-oriented, and when you play the game, you naturally project yourself onto the male lead. If his voice is too different from your own, it often creates a strange feeling of possessing the character, but not quite fully.
However, in CL, Aoki Haruhi ultimately insisted on having a voice for the male lead.
He struggled with this for a long time, and the reason he made this decision was that the game's hidden ending—the TRUE END of Nagisa Furukawa—required the male lead to speak. Only through sound could the player's emotions be fully stirred.
***
Especially when Tomoya Okazaki sits on the train and breaks down in tears while recalling every moment with Nagisa Furukawa; if there were no voice, it would be a huge pity.
Especially when Tomoya Okazaki sits on the train, reminiscing about all the little moments he shared with Nagisa Furukawa and sobbing uncontrollably, it would be a real pity if there were no voice.
The emotional impact of the entire game would be more than halved.
Therefore, Aoki Haruhi ultimately decided to include voice acting for the male protagonist and invited Kentaro Ito, who was the voice actor for Tomoya Okazaki in the PS2 version and bonus DVD in his past life.
However, for some important characters, there was simply no way to do this.
After all, Nagisa Furukawa's voice actor from his past life, Mai Nakahara, was born in 1981 and is currently just a 13-year-old child.
Her vocal cords haven't fully developed yet, so there's no way she could take on the role.
In this situation, he could only find suitable voice actors to replace them.
Of course, Aoki Haruhi's memory isn't that good; after all, he was just reincarnated, he didn't come back with Baidu Baike in his head, so the other voice actors, besides the male and female protagonists, were very blurry to him.
Fortunately, after being lectured by Tsuda Nao, he now knows the importance of being flexible, so he wasn't so stubborn about insisting on specific people.
Thus, he found a group of voice actors who relatively matched the characters' images for the recording.
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