[Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio had only just held its meeting that morning when, in the afternoon, Mizuhara Raiko arrived at Yosuganosora Animation Studio to report the situation to Kamiyā Yuu.
"So you can't keep up with the project's schedule."
After hearing Mizuhara Raiko's report concerning the contents of the email, Kamiyā Yuu frowned thoughtfully.
Standing in front of his desk, Mizuhara Raiko nodded solemnly. "Yes. We've already contacted quite a few studios to help share the production burden, but if we make the modifications according to the 'Prototype' you sent us, the sheer amount of content makes even completing the PC version extremely difficult. There's no possibility of finishing the mobile version alongside the PC version before next year."
After saying that, Mizuhara Raiko bowed deeply to Kamiyā Yuu and apologized.
"I'm very sorry. Our development team's lack of maturity has disappointed you."
Kamiyā Yuu waved his hand understandingly. "It's fine. Our own lack of consideration was partly responsible as well."
Indeed, when the 'Matrix Space' modified 'Throne of Heroes', its optimization plan had primarily been calculated according to Kamiyā Yuu's own workload. Only after that had it taken into account the workload involved in having [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio formally implement the modifications.
The plan had originally been formulated according to the standards of a game company with a mature production department. Moreover, because Kamiyā Yuu had provided only the most basic information, the 'Matrix Space' had lacked effective reference data. It was hardly surprising that it had misjudged the workload.
"Then, Miss Mizuhara, what do you think we should do now?"
"My opinion?" Mizuhara Raiko asked hesitantly.
Kamiyā Yuu placed both hands on his desk and nodded with a smile. The animation storyboards he had just been drawing were still spread across its surface.
"Miss Mizuhara is the president of [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio, so naturally, your opinion takes priority. Although I occasionally interfere, the company's overall direction is still yours to decide. Besides, if I can't even trust the renowned Miss Mizuhara of the gaming industry, what would be the point of me establishing a game company in the first place?"
An almost imperceptible smile appeared in Mizuhara Raiko's eyes upon hearing Kamiyā Yuu's praise. It was the greatest acknowledgment he could give of her abilities.
After thinking for a moment, she answered cautiously, "Thank you for the compliment. I've considered this problem myself as well. My personal opinion is that we should put development of the mobile version aside for now and focus on the PC version. We can use the game plan you've provided to produce a relatively polished PC platform first. It won't be too late to release the mobile version after the PC version has been tested by the market and received sufficient promotion. By then, with support from the PC version, popularity shouldn't be an issue for the mobile version."
Putting aside development of the mobile version would mean losing the promotional gimmick of launching the mobile and PC versions simultaneously, but no matter how one looked at it, this was the safer plan.
Game development consumed a considerable amount of money, and simultaneously developing both PC and mobile versions required a great deal of effort. Observing the game's overall market response before proceeding with mobile development was the sensible operating strategy that virtually any game company would adopt.
However, both Kamiyā Yuu and Mizuhara Raiko had considerable confidence in the 'Throne of Heroes' project, so they had always taken simultaneous development across both platforms for granted.
If Kamiyā Yuu did not want to adopt this plan, then he would inevitably have to provide [Mirror Flower Water Moon] Game Studio with considerably more assistance to overcome its present difficulties. Unfortunately, while Kamiyā Yuu could not exactly be called overwhelmingly busy right now, neither did he have the leisure to spare.
Kamiyā Yuu nodded in agreement. "All right. We'll go with that plan."
······
With the development plan for the 'Throne of Heroes' game settled, Mizuhara Raiko left, and Kamiyā Yuu resumed drawing the key-animation storyboards for Episode Eighteen of 'Fate/zero'.
Without so many other matters interfering, his storyboard production speed was incomparable to before. In the time it took to produce a single anime episode, he could complete enough storyboard content for three episodes.
For now, Kamiyā Yuu still drew his storyboards by hand. However, as he continued developing his ability to manipulate computer data through consciousness, he had gradually begun considering using his consciousness to draw directly on a computer.
After all, when he first began using his ability, even writing a single character on a computer had been difficult. Now he could copy more than a million characters every day without even feeling mentally exhausted.
If he became proficient at drawing through consciousness, could he eventually complete the storyboards for more than a dozen anime episodes in a single day?
He had already begun experimenting with this idea on the illustration website operated by the 'BIUBIUBIU' danmaku video platform, using the username 'Blank'.
Over the past half year, the 'BIUBIUBIU' danmaku video website had expanded aggressively according to Kamiyā Yuu's instructions. In addition to its primary danmaku video business, it had branched out into a social section resembling an upgraded version of Baidu Tieba, a fan-art illustration section, and a fiction section.
The danmaku video and social sections had relatively mature operating systems and the largest user bases.
The fan-art illustration and fiction sections lacked mature systems and established communities. Moreover, because the company operating 'BIUBIUBIU' did not yet possess the capabilities to properly develop them, they currently existed only as basic frameworks and remained relatively minor ventures.
On another note, an online fiction community likewise existed in China in this world, but its development seemed to be in an immature stage similar to Japan's animation industry.
During the corresponding period in Kamiyā Yuu's previous world, China's webnovel ecosystem had already basically matured. Saying it was fifty years ahead of the rest of the world would hardly be an exaggeration.
In its early days, China's webnovel scene had been heavily influenced by the light novel community. Most of its earliest fantasy systems had adopted either JRPG conventions or light-novel templates. Strictly speaking, even the online-game genre had first been proposed relatively early in Japan.
Leaving aside 'Sword Art Online', 'Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere', 'Accel World', and others, one of the earlier examples Kamiyā Yuu knew was the '.hack' anime series. Unfortunately, like many obscure masterpieces, that series had been born in the wrong era.
Japanese light novels had experienced their most glorious era, yet in the end they found it increasingly difficult to break beyond the confines of their existing audience, while excellent works became fewer and fewer.
Even though the creative environment for webnovels was extremely harsh, the process of survival of the fittest continued producing quality works without end. The entire ecosystem gradually matured and eventually surpassed light novels.
Without exaggeration, a fitting comparison would be that most contemporary light novels were still using tropes from the early days of webnovels.
Meanwhile, the webnovel scene in this world seemed to be stuck in an awkward period.
Chinese-style fantasy webnovels had yet to rise. At present, the most popular subject was transmigration into JRPG-style fantasy worlds.
Put simply, this was still the era of—
"Junior Swordsman, Intermediate Swordsman, Senior Swordsman, Grand Swordmaster—how terrifying!"
And—
"The corpses of the Gods of Light slain by the protagonist could circle the otherworldly planet three times!"
Chinese webnovels were also an industry Kamiyā Yuu regarded highly.
After the IP boom in his previous world, the commercial value of webnovels had skyrocketed. More importantly, in his previous life, he himself had been an unsuccessful webnovel author. Because of that, he harbored complicated feelings toward the industry that he could never quite let go of.
If he had transmigrated into this world as a resident of China, he undoubtedly would have entered the webnovel industry he knew so well.