When they landed in London, there were still about ten days left before the game developers' competition began.
Several department heads agreed to take advantage of this time to walk around London more, experiencing the atmosphere of the former British Empire. For them, this also counted as a rare vacation and something to be properly enjoyed.
Back at the company, each of them still had their own development tasks, but it wouldn't hurt operations if these leaders were away for a few days.
As for Takayuki, he wasn't in the mood to sightsee at all. He shut himself in his hotel room alone.
He wanted to continue thinking through countermeasures, and at the same time, he needed to complete a game of sufficiently high quality before the opening ceremony began.
The game also couldn't be too complex, so the best choice was a rogue-style randomized dungeon game.
Almost instantly, Takayuki came up with the game's name.
He intended for this game to serve as a benchmark for the competition, to let those who truly loved games realize that even within existing game frameworks, it was still possible to create very novel experiences.
Originally, Takayuki planned to release the game under a pseudonym, but after some thought, he decided to use his real name instead. At the very least, the reputation attached to his real name would give developers greater encouragement.
As for the game's title, it was called The Binding of Isaac.
This could be considered the pinnacle of rogue-style randomized dungeon games, and its development difficulty wasn't particularly high—the only thing missing was a flash of inspiration.
Takayuki estimated that by using Unreal Engine and its convenient programming capabilities, he could definitely finish it by himself within ten days.
At the same time, during development, he would also continue thinking about how to further improve the overall quality of indie games.
And so, Takayuki holed up alone in the hotel for ten days, barely going out at all.
Several department heads were very curious about what President Takayuki was doing. They all wanted to enter his room to take a look, but each time they were firmly turned away by him.
Meanwhile, as the organizers of the game developers' competition, they also wanted to speak with Takayuki in detail about the event's arrangements.
From the emails Takayuki had previously sent, they had already confirmed that the competition would adopt a categorized, grouped format.
In total, it would be divided into three major categories:
Sports & Racing
Casual
Combat & Action
Within these categories, there would also be smaller subcategory awards. However, the top prizes would only be for these three main categories, with just one ultimate grand prize per category.
After hearing Takayuki's ideas, the organizers felt this was indeed a very solid plan.
With more categories came more awards, allowing developers whose games weren't bad to share in the recognition and receive at least some form of prize. For them, this was also a kind of motivation.
At the same time, the organizers secured additional funding from other sources, expanding the prize pool and increasing the total prize money.
Everything was already prepared, but they still wanted to sit down with Takayuki to discuss further improvements in detail.
Unfortunately, Takayuki declined them as well.
No one knew what Takayuki had been doing these past few days.
It wasn't until the day before the developers' competition officially began that Takayuki finally emerged from his room, looking somewhat exhausted.
He appeared tired, but his eyes were sharp and lively. His mind seemed to remain in an excited state the entire time—only his body was struggling to keep up.
Over those few days, Takayuki had finally finished developing the game, and he had also come up with what he believed to be a fairly good method to improve the indie game ecosystem.
It might not be the best solution, but at least it would give developers more motivation.
"President, you finally came out. If we hadn't heard you refusing us every day, we would've barged in to rescue you by now."
Seeing Takayuki finally step out of his room, Uchiyama Ei was extremely happy.
The others felt the same—they were all relieved and glad to see him.
"I'm fine. I just wanted to make an indie game, so it took a bit of time," Takayuki said.
"Huh? Making an indie game now? What kind of game is it?"
Several of them grew curious.
"It's a rogue-style randomized dungeon game. That kind of game isn't too hard to develop these days."
Everyone nodded in agreement. "That's true. If you want to make a qualified and fun game in such a short time, rogue is the most suitable choice."
Then Yabuki Shizuo asked eagerly, "President, can you let us see the game? Let us try it?"
As soon as Yabuki finished speaking, the others all turned to look at Takayuki with the same expression.
Clearly, they all wanted to try it as well.
After all, this was a game personally developed by the president.
Their president was the most famous game developer in the world. No matter the scale of his games, they were always worth anticipating.
Takayuki shook his head. "Not yet. Once the entire competition is over, the game will naturally be revealed."
Uchiyama Ei nodded. "That makes sense. If you released it now, President, it would be an instant kill in the competition. Other developers might completely lose their fighting spirit."
"Then let's look forward to the game you made, President. As for now, let's head to the competition venue first. The organizers have contacted you several times already, hoping to discuss more details about the event."
Takayuki said, "I also have a few things I want to talk to them about. I think I've roughly found a way to address the shrinking indie game scene."
"Oh? You already have something? What's the method?"
Takayuki didn't hide anything from his subordinates—there was no need to—so he said directly, "You're all familiar with crowdfunding, right?"
"Of course. Crowdfunding is a very popular business model now. President, are you thinking of adding a crowdfunding option for developers? But I remember there are already quite a few crowdfunding platforms for games."
Takayuki replied, "We'll talk about the specifics once we get there."
"Got it! I'll call a car right away." Yabuki Shizuo immediately ran out to arrange transportation.
In front of others, he was a well-known game producer and one of the development department heads at Gamestar Electronic Entertainment. But in front of Takayuki, he was unquestionably the junior.
He understood this very clearly.
The car was quickly arranged, and the group from Gamestar Electronic Entertainment headed together toward the venue of the game developers' competition.