After lunch, John returned to his room, eager to begin designing the Happy Farm game.
Entering the virtual space, the environment was no longer sterile. In a pure white expanse, John set up an area identical to his real-world room. Elsewhere, the Pokémon he designed moved like lively sprites, injecting vitality into the space.
"The virtual farm space needs to be set up first."
John rubbed his forehead. While designing games for others often involved handling various creative and technical challenges, constructing the virtual world itself posed the greatest difficulty for him.
Although Happy Farm was a small game, it still required its own virtual world to function properly.
According to the system, John could design a basic virtual world. This time, he opted not to copy the pre-made world from "Second World" but instead practice his skills by building one from scratch.
With the virtual world framework in place, John proceeded to set up various functionalities and hundreds of plant varieties for the farm.
After contemplating, John spent another 200 points to acquire ranch and fishery information, aiming to integrate both pastoral and fishing elements into the game.
"Let's get started!"
Organizing his thoughts, John concentrated, and the surrounding environment dissolved like bubbles. Countless symbolic codes sprang to life under his command.
Before him, a swirling vortex of space began forming quietly, with countless codes integrating into the space according to John's instructions. This was the virtual world that would host Happy Farm.
His current task was to establish the rules of this virtual world, tailoring it to best suit a farming game setting.
Next to this nascent virtual world was the copy of "Second World" that John had made earlier.
Time seemed to blur in the virtual space, where day and night held no distinction. By the time John realized it was evening in the real world, he was still deeply engrossed in constructing the virtual world, until Grace's arrival interrupted him with concern.
"John, why were you so hard to wake up? I knocked on the door for so long."
Emerging from the virtual space, John saw his mother looking at him with a mix of worry and relief, her hand on his forehead.
"Why are you sweating so much? Are you feeling unwell?"
"Mom, I'm fine, just lost in game design thoughts."
John forced a smile, wiping the sweat from his brow. He stood up and stretched, saying, "See, I'm perfectly healthy. Let's go downstairs for dinner, Mom."
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely. Why would I joke about my health?"
As they descended the stairs together, John marvelled at the challenges of constructing a virtual world.
Reflecting on how he could design dozens of Pokémon in an afternoon, yet a small game's virtual world construction had consumed his entire day, John estimated he needed at least another three or four hours to complete it.
Meanwhile, the others had finished their day's work and appeared in high spirits.
"Brother, come see!" Lily waved enthusiastically as John approached.
"What's up?"
Curious, John peered at the screen displayed on Lily's phone.
Upon closer inspection, it showed the top trending searches on Weibo. "Seaside City Pokémon" was leading as a surprise hit, with topics related to it firmly holding the top positions. Notably, Lily's battle video and Pokémon information uploads followed closely behind.
Top three in trending searches in just one afternoon?
This momentum is incredible.
John marveled inwardly, glancing at the system panel, where he froze in astonishment.
"Haha, scared you, huh? Pokémon's popularity is growing faster than I expected." Lily teased, thinking John was surprised by the game's sudden fame.
Little did they know, John was actually taken aback by the numbers on the system panel: Points: 31,527.
Over 10,000 points!!!
Though a mere fraction compared to "Second World's" player base, these loyal fans were generating significant points for John!
Upon reflection, there were likely hundreds of thousands of players with Pokémon already in hand.
The internet buzz, coupled with coordinated promotional efforts with "Second World", had already brought John over 30,000 points—proof of Pokémon's initial success!
As the game continued to gain traction, John's points were bound to skyrocket.
"Brother? You okay?"
After a moment, John snapped out of his daze, suppressing his excitement and focusing on Bai Ziyue's screen.
"Hey, there are loads of Pokémon battle videos on Weibo now. None can top my little Dratini though." Bai Ziyue grinned proudly.
"True. If they could match your dragon type with normal Pokemon, I'd be handing them out like candy." John smirked, regaining his composure.
After dinner, Bai Ziyue returned to "Second World" to hone her skills as a Pokémon trainer while Michael and Adam busied themselves with Pokémon's burgeoning popularity.
Currently, the Pokémon Center and Alliance functions in "Second World" were still in preparation. Once the situation stabilized in a few days, recruitment for both would begin.
Grace was also gearing up for Pokémon-related activities.
Returning to his room, John re-entered the virtual space.
"Exchange for proficient virtual game design ability."
Opening the redemption page, John promptly upgraded to proficient level in virtual game design.
After a short while, the system completed the enhancement.
John could feel the difference—designing a Pokémon now was much quicker than before.
In fact, he was already quite proficient.
"This feels good. I should be able to finish designing the farm world tonight!"
Facts have proved that proficiency and entry are not at the same level.
An hour later, John completed the construction of the rest of the farm world, and the next task was the most basic game design.
John didn't start right away because the energy consumed today was too much. After building the farm world, John quit the virtual space and went to sleep.
...
On the second day, John, who had recovered his energy, continued yesterday's work.
The farm world had been built, and the most difficult step was completed. John planned to make the first version of Happy Farm today.
"Land...land class"
"Watering function... Weeding... Pest control..."
"Workshop, small stall..."
"Seeds, hmm... let's remove the planting level restriction, and only require the quality of the land."
Planning and designing the content of the farm game in his mind, John modified some of the settings.
For example, the various level restrictions that he once hated deeply.
To fit the background of virtual reality, John only had two conditions for farm planting, land and seeds.
He had never heard of vegetables being restricted by level. At most, the land is not suitable, and it cannot be planted, but it depends on the individual's ability to manage.
Watering, fertilizing, etc., John also made some modifications. He provided tools for operation, but the actual operation still needed to be done by the player. It was not too data-based, which would not be interesting.
Soon, the prototype of the farm appeared in John's hands.
In the farm area, the initial appearance was a vast land with several small wooden houses.
At the beginning, only one piece of land that had been reclaimed could be used.
For more land, players could use the gold coins obtained after planting and selling crops to open up, or they could choose to wield a hoe to reclaim it themselves. Gold coins could not be obtained through any cash transactions, only by selling crops.
This setting would keep players on the same level, with real-world factors being the only off-site influences.
Gold coins could not be purchased but could be traded among players, as over-the-counter transactions generated by the game were something John was willing to see. Games that could make money would be more attractive.
"And then the ranch."
The farm had already taken a prototype form. The next step was to increase the types of crops or add some special processing workshops. These were relatively simple tasks.
The setting of the pasture and fishery was similar to that of the farm but much simpler.
Compared to the various plants on the farm, the variety in pastures and fishing grounds was much less.
After a whole day of work, the initial version of the farm game was done.
"Phew, it's done!"
Although it was just a small game, John still had an unconcealable sense of satisfaction in creating a virtual world completely by himself.
In the evening, at the familiar dinner table, Lily looked at John, who was always smiling, with disdain.
"Brother, why are you so happy? I remember you were very calm before?"
Another day of fermenting, more Pokémon battle videos on WebNet, and many players who had obtained Pokémon spoke out, increasing the popularity of Pokémon. Players from other cities gradually started coming to Seaside City.
Obviously, Lily misunderstood again.
But John didn't bother to explain. Instead, he took out his mobile phone at home and sent out the link to Happy Farm that he had just designed.
"I just made another small game. Please help me see if there is anything inappropriate."
"It's done again?"
Michael shook his arm, and the water in the cup spilled out.
The corner of Adam's mouth twitched, and he silently took out his phone.
Grace and Lily quickly turned on their phones, impatient to see what game John had made this time.
"Uh, little game, little game."
"Happy Farm? Is it a farm game? It seems that there is no such game on the market now."
Adam, the head of the virtual game department, was very familiar with popular virtual games on the market.
John nodded and replied, "If there was one on the market, I wouldn't have made it."
Similar games that are already present in the market are just the simplest idea, not even a prototype. The most important thing about farm games was creativity.
Often only the first person to do it could get the biggest share, and the others would just divide the leftover market.
"This game is not that complicated. To put it simply, it is about growing and stealing vegetables," John explained.
"Growing and stealing vegetables?"
"Yes, you can use seeds to grow various plants here, and then friends can enter each other's farms to steal other people's mature plants."
"Of course, I have greatly shortened the plant growth cycle here and added some small functions to make it less boring. The main thing is to let you try it out and help me see what else can be improved."
John briefly explained the content of the game and continued, "I am going to release the game when the 'Second World' Pokémon side takes the next step."
Adam raised his head when he heard the words and said softly, "That's a good opportunity."
"Brother, what actions are we going to take over there?" Lily asked curiously.
"What else could it be? There will be more trainers, so it's natural to form a management organization," John smiled.
According to the current situation, the number of trainers would grow rapidly.
The League and the Pokémon Center would definitely start recruiting people in a few days.
By then, John would take the opportunity to launch Happy Farm.
The slogan would be "The latest masterpiece of Pokémon designers!" Wouldn't the hype be amazing?
Keep it up, I'm a professional!
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