A legendary indie game creator recruiting staff to develop a large-scale game.
That alone was already a strong promotional hook.
Lorenzo's team focused heavily on this angle in their publicity, attracting people who were already curious about the account "Nintendo Damn It Is the Ruler of the World."
Marcus was one of them. He came for the interview partly because of the high salary, and partly because he wanted to see the true face of this legendary creator.
But what he absolutely did not expect was that this legendary creator didn't show his real face at all.
Instead—
A huge, spherical head mask.
On it was an eerie smiling face, with a faintly unsettling vibe.
Oddly enough, it actually fit the temperament of this indie game creator rather well.
After all, only someone with a strange personality like this could make those interesting indie games, right?
"Ahem. Mr. Marcus, correct? Graduated from an Ivy League university with a major in digital intelligence—a very popular field right now. You also designed multiple software projects during your time in school."
Hearing Takayuki's voice, Marcus immediately straightened up, unconsciously puffing out his chest.
"Yes. I'm fairly confident in my programming abilities. If your company has plans for large-scale game development, I believe I'm fully qualified."
"Good. Then you're hired. You can start work tomorrow."
"Okay—wait, what?"
Marcus only realized afterward how fast that interview had been.
Takayuki had barely hesitated after looking at his résumé.
Anyone who could perform well at a top university was generally capable.
Whether Marcus could handle extremely complex game development was unclear.
But developing something like Fortnite? That wouldn't be a problem.
"A dedicated HR staff member will contact you later. You can report here tomorrow and prepare to start developing the new game."
Marcus said, "Um, I have one question."
"What is it?"
"Our company is preparing to develop a game called Fortnite, right? And I heard we need to finish it quickly. Will there be a lot of overtime?"
"Overtime? No, no. Our company doesn't have an overtime culture."
"…Then this game—"
"Relax. This game will be much simpler to develop than you're imagining, even though it's considered a large-scale title."
Fortnite itself didn't have particularly difficult technical hurdles.
Most of its systems were based on already well-established game development techniques.
On top of that, the Unreal Engine in this world was far more powerful than in Takayuki's previous life, with richer databases and development resources.
A team of around a hundred people developing a game like Fortnite really wasn't a big issue.
And beyond initial development, the game would still require ongoing maintenance and updates—it was never meant to be static.
Hearing that there would be no overtime, Marcus visibly relaxed.
The game industry was extremely competitive these days.
Overtime had become the norm, severely affecting daily life. He'd genuinely been worried about having to work nonstop day and night to finish Fortnite.
But still…
Deliver high quality, in a short time—was that really possible?
No.
Or maybe… it actually was.
One name immediately came to Marcus's mind.
The god of games.
Takayuki.
As for the legendary indie developer standing in front of him…
Marcus wasn't sure if he could pull it off.
Still, the man's reputation was solid, and he'd already promised no overtime. Even if the game couldn't be finished on schedule, that would be understandable.
Maybe those aggressive deadlines were just pressure from investors—reality would have to be considered eventually.
Marcus left the room with his acceptance notice. Dozens more candidates were still waiting for interviews behind him.
Although Fortnite wasn't particularly hard to develop, the schedule was extremely tight. The goal was to finish within half a year and push the game to market as soon as possible.
Even the interview process had to move fast. Every time node had to be locked in tightly—there was no room for wasted time.
The interviews lasted only three days.
Over two hundred people were interviewed.
Takayuki fully unleashed the incredible stamina he'd built up over decades of development work.
Out of more than 170 interviewees, 120-plus were accepted.
Then, development on Fortnite officially began.
In its original version, Fortnite hadn't actually been centered around battle royale gameplay.
It was only later, after a suddenly explosive battle royale game appeared, that Fortnite followed the trend.
In this world, Takayuki simply set all other modes aside and focused exclusively on battle royale from the start.
Other gameplay modes could be added gradually later—this was meant to be a long-term live-service game.
Marcus officially started work the very next day after his interview.
However, since Takayuki was still busy with interviews, Marcus initially thought the first few days might be relatively relaxed.
But when he followed HR to his workstation, he discovered that his desk was already fully equipped with a computer—and a printed stack of documents.
Those documents were a game development plan written personally by Takayuki, already broken down in detail.
Marcus was a programmer. His current task was to write the game code for the "harvesting and dismantling objects" mechanic—breaking down environmental objects using tools—and integrate it into the Unreal Engine development environment.
That didn't stump Marcus at all. The task was clearly defined, and he estimated it would take him about a week to complete.
What surprised him was that when he looked around, every other workstation had similar development plans laid out.
And those plans were clearly tailored to different roles.
There was no way everyone was working on the same feature—otherwise it would just be duplicated labor.
Which meant—
This boss had assigned specific responsibilities down to each individual.
Was he really that hands-on?
This was nothing like what Marcus had imagined.
But there was an upside.
You just followed instructions and executed tasks.
No need for extra thinking. No need to brainstorm creative ideas.
Under that structure, development efficiency would actually be quite high.
Suddenly, Marcus started to wonder—
Could it really be possible to finish a large-scale game in just half a year?
Over the next two days, new employees continued to join the company.
Their experience was identical to Marcus's.
Task lists were placed on their desks.
They completed the tasks.
On each of their computers was an industrial management system. Once a task was completed, it could be submitted directly, and a new task would automatically be assigned.
This time around, employees weren't required to take much initiative.
They just had to follow the process step by step.
Overall planning was handled entirely by Takayuki alone.
After all—
Time was tight.