Lucas Hart looked at the virtual screen in front of him. The layout was super simple.
There was an info button, a machine full of capsule toys like a gacha machine, and next to it was a prize list showing what could be won: [Normal Skill Book], [Rare Skill Book], [Special Item].
Below that was a number: 473,451.
He tapped the info button first, and quickly got the explanation he needed.
This was clearly his "cheat system"—no doubt about it.
It was a very straightforward gacha system. Of course, it required points.
And earning points was also pretty simple. As long as his work—whether it was a game, video, story, or music—made players, viewers, readers, or listeners feel something like joy, excitement, sadness, anger, fear, etc., he'd get emotion points.
Those emotion points could be converted into draw points for the gacha. The 470,000+ he had now…
That was everything Lucas Hart had saved up in his previous life.
Reading that, Lucas Hart felt a bit of regret.
"If I'd known this earlier, I should've gone into event planning instead of level and story design," he sighed.
Unlike in this world, where players directly curse the game designer when they're unhappy…
In his past life, the planner was always the scapegoat.
Favorite character's stats got nerfed? Damn the planner!
Favorite character got killed off? Damn the planner!
Server crash? Damn the planner!
It didn't matter whose fault it actually was—if something went wrong, it was always "blame the planner."
"100,000 per draw? And a 10-draw costs 1,000,000 with no discount and no bonus pull? Even the greediest games back home weren't this bad!" Lucas Hart had thought he had a ton of points, but seeing the draw prices left him speechless.
Turns out, his 470,000 points were only enough for four single pulls?
Still, even as he grumbled, his hands didn't stop. He grabbed the lever and pulled four quick times.
The gacha machine spun with a loud whir, and four capsules popped out one after another.
A burst of golden light suddenly flashed from the four capsules.
Lucas Hart hadn't expected anything good to come out of them. After all, he only had four pulls.
And with only three types of prizes available, there didn't seem to be much of a chance.
But now?
"Whoa! A golden legend!"
Lucas Hart couldn't help but add sound effects in his head, his face full of anticipation.
Then...
Two [Normal Skill Books], one [Rare Skill Book], and one [Memory Capsule].
Looking at the four items in front of him, Lucas Hart was speechless.
So that golden light was just... special effects for the pull?
Nice one, system.
He grumbled internally, but still reached out and tapped on one of the [Normal Skill Books].
The skill book turned into a cluster of glowing purple lights, like tiny stars, and merged into his body. A notification followed:
[Story Design +1]
As the purple light entered him, Lucas Hart felt his mind grow sharp and clear. Some things about pacing and story flow that used to be fuzzy suddenly made perfect sense.
It was a strange but amazing feeling—like back in school, staring at a tough math problem, completely stuck…
Then suddenly seeing the right formula and instantly understanding everything.
He quickly tapped on the other two books.
[Music +1, Drawing Skills +5]
Music came from the [Normal Skill Book], while the drawing boost came from the [Rare Skill Book].
The boost amounts were clearly different, though whether that was due to the skill type or just random numbers, he had no idea.
He hadn't drawn enough times to figure it out.
Finally, Lucas Hart turned his eyes to the last item:
[Memory Capsule: Use to dig up deeply buried memories within 1 hour.]
Seeing that capsule, Lucas Hart's eyes lit up.
This one was good.
It was basically like having a temporary perfect memory.
In his past life working in the game industry, Lucas Hart had played tons of games—not just for fun, but to study them.
Take The Last of Us, for example. A regular player might react like, "Whoa, awesome!" or "Ahh, scary!" or "Crap, I died!"
But someone like Lucas Hart, coming from the industry, would look at things much more carefully.
Why was the story told in that way?
Was the monster placement balanced?
Why were the maps and cover spots laid out like that?
How did the devs hint at secrets and details for the player to discover?
With the [Memory Capsule], Lucas Hart could now recall all those past games as clearly as possible.
For now, he stored the capsule in his inventory. He wanted to save it.
Before starting development on his first game, there were still a few things he needed to prepare.
Like getting used to the official game engine, doing market research, understanding which game genres were trending, and figuring out which platforms to release on.
All of that needed to be handled first.
"Alright, let's have a look." He closed the system and sat down at his computer, fingers tapping the keyboard as he searched for what he needed.
First up: checking out the game engine tools used in this parallel world.
Back when he'd worked on outsourced concept art for game companies, he had already installed the official game engine software on his PC and created an account.
In this world, that whole system was pretty advanced.
You could find things like concept artists, 3D modelers, music composers, even voice actors—
All through the built-in platform inside the game engine.
"Yeah, it's not really that hard, and not that complicated either. It's just that there's barely any resources out there."
Lucas Hart quickly skimmed through an intro video and also searched online for written guides.
He now had a basic understanding of how game engines worked. It wasn't that hard to get started.
The next thing to look into was the platforms. With the growth of the entertainment industry came a strong crackdown on piracy. Games made with modern engines were built in ways that basically prevented pirated copies from being made at all.
Of course, just because there was no piracy didn't mean there was no competition. The industry was still really competitive.
(End of Chapter)