Update time! (Sorry for the late update, but I was incredibly sick, at Friday and Saturday, to the plint where I could barely leave the bathroom)
First things first, I'm surprised at how the poll changed in this single week. There had been more than twice the activity around it this week than the previous one (There was some suspicious votes, though. Especially when it came to the poly ship.), and the results changed quite a bit.
The Poll:
Weiss x Jaune: 33 votes (17 poll; 16 comments)
Weiss x Jaune x Ilia: 26/19 votes (14 poll; 12/5 all comments/without most suspicious comments)
Weiss x Ilia: 14 votes (7 poll; 6 comments; 1 PM/I was quite surprised about this one, to be honest)
No Pairing: 2 votes (2 comments)
Well, it looks like WhiteKnight it is, I have to say I didn't expect this pairing to pull so ahead this time, but here we are. If something changes before next chapter I will probably still adjust, but after the next chapter's out the pairing is final. Regardless of the poll result, however, I'll probably do a couple Omakes/non-canon scenes for all the other pairings, at some point.
Don't expect them to be very long tho.
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Topic: A Month Until the Release.
In: Boards News and Updates
BlackRainbowPart (Original Poster) (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Posted On Nov 18th AW97:
Yes, the title of this thread is real. After many months of hard work from all of us, and quite a few helping hands from all the volunteers in the community, we are finally confident in releasing our game.
The only aspects of the game remaining that we are still working on, are the store page, some easy to fix bugs, and making sure that we put correct credits. That's why we are confident that our game will release in a month.
I hope you're all excited.
If there are any final questions some of you may have before the release of the game, you can send them here. We'll try to answer them to the best of our abilities
(Showing page 1 of 26)
rusherthecrusher
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
WOAH FIRST111
Ghost_valley
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
So, the full release is in a month, huh?
I can't wait.
A_Timber (Minor ATGDev)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
Woah, these were some quick replies before me.
Anyway, I'm kinda surprised you've managed to get everything together so quickly. When I was helping you put the map together the game was a mess of disconnected systems and models.
By the way, how did you guys manage to fix the tile duplication glitch?
WhiteRainbowPart (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
We changed the way the coordinates were stored. Trust me, it took a lot of time for us to figure out it was the issue.
BrownGown81
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
Damn programming mumbojumbo, I have no idea what they're talking abut.
90_TnunT_90
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
Me neither.
NewestGameR
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
I heard you've managed to get Weiss Schnee herself to help you guys with music, and to record some voice lines.
Is that true?
BlackRainbowPart (Original Poster) (Moderator) (ATGDev)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
No comment, she won't be appearing in the credits for the game, though.
EvilDuck06
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
wha? thats lame
HappyNEWby (The Regular)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
I can understand why. It's not easy for celebrities to help such unknown products without the agreement of their agents.
I will still argue that regardless of whether she actually helped with the production of the game or not, we shouldn't be gossiping about her on this forum. Just like I did all those months ago in the thread discussing it.
prinkymaan1
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
ye ye, we got a different forum. u dn't have 2 tell us twince
HappyNEWby (The Regular)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
That's not my point, and you know it.
BuggyNuggy (Veteran Member) (Verified Tester)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
Please, don't derail the thread guys, your topic can go to private messages or its own thread, I don't care which.
I'm talking about you as well, Happy.
TheBuggyNuggy (Unverified Tester)
Replied On Nov 18th AW97:
Don't listen to him, that guy's a fake anyway.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 24, 25, 26
(...)
Making an entire video game from scratch wasn't easy.
It was a fact that they had come to realise pretty quickly in their attempts at turning their single fan-made game mode into a proper game that could stand on its own.
There had been countless hurdles they had to overcome to accomplish that. They had to create completely new assets to be used in the game, learn an entirely new coding language to program some of the multiplayer features, and even form a proper company to be allowed to publish their creation at all.
It was frankly a miracle that they'd managed to do all of that with a team as small as theirs.
If they were to ignore all the occasional help they've received on some specific elements from all the volunteers of their community, then there were at most four different people working on the game through the development process.
When compared to other game studios around the world, it was practically nothing.
The fact that out of all the people who consistently worked on their game, only two of them had any knowledge of programming, had made the situation all the more daunting.
Sure, Weiss and Whitley might have been integral to the game creation process, but they've hardly done any actual work when it came to bringing the game to life. They were far more focused on the community management side of things and other aspects of the game creation that didn't involve any programming know-how.
It was still more than some people did for the game, though.
Neither Jaune nor Ilia really helped that much, in the end.
At most, they've lent their voices, helped a little bit with music, and been the primary game testers. In the grand scheme of things, they barely helped with anything that wasn't simply them sharing their opinions.
In spite of all of that, however, their game was somehow finished, and all of them couldn't be happier about that.
The only thing they needed to do now was finalise some of the minor legal aspects of publishing a game online, create a basic credits scene that would mention every person responsible for the game, and ship the game out.
It would take barely a day.
Weiss couldn't help but smile as she controlled her character on the screen.
If there was a single perk of being one of the people responsible for creating a game that she appreciated the most, it was the ability to play their game before the full release. They've been doing that a lot for the last couple of months.
It was quite an entertaining and efficient way to spend their evenings.
Not only did it allow her to unwind after whatever exhausting lesson she had to endure during the day, but it also let her track the progress of their project and test it to see if there were any bugs.
The fact that it was a special activity exclusive to her friends and her only made those gaming sessions of theirs even more special.
Weiss stretched a little as she saw her character die after Ilia's sneak attack.
Although it seemed that their exclusive way of spending time might become quite a public entertainment method soon enough. At least, if she understood the conversation they were all having correctly.
"Are you sure that you want to release the game already, Noir? We still have an entire week until the deadline, you know?" Whitley asked through the call. "You and your sister can still clean up the code a little, if you want."
Throughout the last two years, the boy had basically become a mainstay of their voice chats, and nowadays he had been online almost as often as she had been, if not more.
Of course, the main reason behind his presence was to work on the game, as he rarely bothered to play with them during the gaming sessions. Despite the boy's involvement in the creation process, the boy rarely bothered to actually play the thing.
Her younger brother was still a great friend with all of them, though.
"Don't worry, Whitley. I'm still planning to do some final adjustments this evening, and we will do a final checkup on the code tomorrow before we actually release the game." Noir said, before a loud shifting sound could be heard from the call. "Speaking of which, step aside, Jaune; I've got a credits scene to implement."
A quiet shout was heard through the call.
"Hey!" Jaune protested. "I was just about to defeat Ilia and win us the game."
"Sure you were." Noir said, her voice clearly doubting.
Weiss giggled slightly.
Although it pained her to admit it, her brother and she were quite lucky that their family was rich. Thanks to that, it wasn't a big deal for each of them to have their own cutting-edge computer at their disposal.
It certainly made online meetings like that far more convenient for them.
She didn't even want to imagine how much they would have bickered if they had to share their computer all the time like the Arcs did.
"Hey, I was!" Jaune protested once again, although this time his voice was far more distant.
Ilia snorted loudly.
"No, you weren't." The girl said. "After I've defeated Weiss, I would have taken you on without any issues. If your sister hadn't interrupted the game like she did, I would have taken the victory without a doubt."
Jaune groaned.
Weiss chuckled once again.
"It's alright; I believe that you would have avenged my character, Jaune." She said with a light tone to her voice. "Besides, I believe we have something far more important to focus on right now, guys. After all, soon we will be able to play our game against other people. It will be just like the time the game mode went live for the first time. I think both of you know very well what it means, right?"
Ilia and Jaune let out affirming grunts.
"Yeah, we are going to school these newbies!" The girl said.
The boy sighed.
"Really, Ilia?"
"What?" Ilia asked. "It's what's going to happen. You know we have to protect our image as the Winning Team, right? We have a reputation to uphold; it doesn't matter whether we have to balance it with Beacon or not."
Jaune grumbled loudly.
Noir let out a sigh.
"That will be the case only if there will be people for you to play with." The older girl said. "We still have no idea whether our game will be successful or not. There's no way we will be able to keep the servers up if it doesn't turn out to be a hit."
Weiss couldn't help but wince a little at her friend's worries.
Although she personally believed that their game was going to be a huge success, it didn't change the fact that there was no way for them to actually know how it was going to be received, in the end.
Their game could still turn out to be a flop.
The only thing she was reliably sure of about their project was that their monetisation method was going to work splendidly.
It was just that good of an idea.
"I think the game will do fine. It only really needs to make enough profit to let us keep it online for a couple of months at the beginning. After that, it will be far easier to update it with new content and to make money from all of that." Whitley cut into the conversation.
A loud groan echoed through the call.
"It still means that Blanc and I will have to keep working on this for a long time, though." Noir complained out loud. "I can already picture all the nights that we will have to work through in order to do that."
Weiss chuckled once more.
"That's just the life of a game developer, I guess." She said.
A whine escaped the older girl.
"You know, when I decided to attend an IT school a few years ago, I didn't think I would end up as a game developer." Noir mumbled. "I don't even play video games. If it weren't for you three, neither I nor Blanc would have bothered to do anything with that game mode we made."
A wry smile formed on Weiss's face as she heard that.
She wasn't sure whether she should take that as a compliment or not.
At the very least, she was glad that it ended up that way. The game they made was an important thing for her, and she wasn't sure how her life would have looked if it had never existed at this point.
"Well, you've already basically made a whole game at this point, sis." Jaune butted into the conversation. "The way I see it, we might as well make sure that the game you made will be good."
Weiss nodded her head quietly.
"Yeah, no kidding." Ilia said. "I still don't get why Weiss and Whitley couldn't have sponsored the game for a bit longer, though. Aren't you two rich? I'm pretty sure you would have been able to keep the servers afloat with just your allowance money."
A quiet sigh escaped Weiss.
It was something she contemplated doing through the entire game creation process. She was going to use some of her money to help the game stay up if anything went wrong, for sure. However, it was impossible for her brother and her to keep the servers on their own.
"It's the issue of privacy." She explained to her friend.
"Privacy?" Ilia asked.
"Yes." Weiss nodded. "Almost all the money exchanges we make are monitored by our father—especially if they are larger than usual—and if he notices that we spend money on something like that, then he's bound to stop giving us an allowance afterwards. It wouldn't have been an issue if we could pay for the servers irregularly or if the price was lower. The fact that neither of those things is true, however, makes it incredibly hard to keep secret."
A grumble echoed through the call.
"That means that if you use your money to cover the servers, you will end up with no money to do that again in the future, won't you?" Ilia asked.
Weiss nodded her head slightly.
"More or less."
Ilia sighed.
"Great."
Weiss put on an encouraging smile; although she was aware that her friends wouldn't be able to see her because of how their voice chat worker was, she still felt it was appropriate of her to do.
"Don't worry." She said. "I'm certain our game is going to be a hit. All of us worked hard to make sure it's the best it could be, and our community helped us turn it into something that could be enjoyed by all. If our game isn't good enough to succeed on the market, then no game is!"
Cheers resounded through their call.
The hopes they had for their game were huge; however, in the end, they could only hope it would be as big of a success as they thought it should be. After all, it was the other gamers from around the world who were going to decide whether their project was good or not.
They could only await their decision.
(...)
It wasn't easy being a celebrity.
A celebrity needed to always be perfect, work to keep their fame, and waste their time on things they didn't care about in order to please people they would probably never meet. It was a life of constant grind and never-ending falsehoods.
The only positive aspects of being a celebrity seemed to be fame and money. There were no other reasons why someone would want to be famous, or why would they enjoy their status as a celebrity.
At the very least, Pyrrha couldn't think of any such reasons herself.
She still remembered the very day she became famous. It was right after she had just won her second tournament, the moment she had proven to the world that her first victory wasn't just some blind luck and that she was a skilled fighter.
When that happened—and she had gotten the very first taste of fame—she had been overjoyed.
Now, she recalled that day as the moment her life spiralled out of her control and turned into something that tended to be more exhausting than satisfying most of the time.
She couldn't be just Pyrrha Nikos anymore; no, she needed to be the Invincible Girl, an unstoppable champion of all the combat tournaments around the world and the pride of the entire Mistral kingdom.
It was a tiring life.
If she could have gone back in time and changed a single thing about it, she would have undoubtedly forced herself to lose that single match that brought her fame. It would have certainly resulted in a far more fulfilling life.
Unfortunately, she couldn't change the past.
That was why she was forced to go on all these marketing meetings that had nothing to do with combat and sit through them, pretending she cared, as if she had any idea what her agents were talking about.
There was nothing that felt like as big of a waste of time as it did.
"That's the reason why I believe that you shouldn't associate yourself with a brand like Wild Burgers, Miss Nikos." One of her agents, an older woman with a kind expression on her face, said as she finished her presentation.
Pyrrha looked at her agent.
Although she was paying full attention throughout the entire presentation, she still felt as if she didn't understand half of it. The topic covered was simply so different from what she specialised in.
She was a huntress in training and a championship fighter; the market research wasn't among the things she was particularly invested in.
What was she supposed to even talk about here?
"I-" She paused for a moment. "I'll take it into consideration."
The older woman smiled.
"Thank you, Miss Nikos."
Pyrrha smiled stiffly.
Hopefully, it would be all for the day, and the meeting was about to end.
She wasn't sure whether she would be able to last through another presentation or not.
"If you're looking for a good company to endorse and accept sponsorship from, then I do have a couple of ideas that you might find satisfactory." The agent said. "Would you be willing to hear about them?"
Pyrrha had to suppress a groan.
Of course, there were more things to talk about; the meeting couldn't have ended after a single presentation, after all. There needed to be multiple topics covered at once for it to be a proper meeting.
It would have been far too simple if the meeting ended so quickly.
"I would love to, Miss Kastanos." She said, her voice slightly strained.
"That's great!" The agent, Miss Kastanos, said.
It was moments like these that she really regretted being as nice as she was. There were so many minor problems she had to deal with simply because she was too kindhearted to say no or ignore them.
Why couldn't her parents have taught her to be more assertive?!
Pyrrha huffed quietly.
No, she shouldn't think like that.
Her parents were wonderful people who would support her no matter the situation. She should be grateful they were so supportive of her and had managed to bring her up as well as they did.
The next time she met them, she should apologise for thinking about them that way.
She was a filial daughter, after all.
All of a sudden the presentation in front of her changed as the marketing agent swapped it for another one. This time, instead of focusing on a single company that would bring her a bad image, the presentation seemed to be focusing on multiple different brands.
"Alright, let's get into it." Miss Kastanos said, before pressing a button in her hand and switching a slide. "The first company that I believe would be a great investment for you is the Tempest Game company."
Pyrrha couldn't help but perk up a little at the mention of that company.
She knew that company.
"Although you most likely haven't heard about them because their products aren't really correlated to your career—and they are quite an old company on top of that—recently they've been on quite a raise." Miss Kastanos said. "While I'm not aware of the reason behind it, recently their older titles had seen quite a resurgence in interest among the people across the whole Remnant. I believe that it's because this company supports their old products, and that mentality of theirs would work perfectly belonging to one of your partners, Miss Nikos."
Pyrrha frowned slightly at the words of her agent.
That didn't sound correct.
"It isn't because of them." She said.
The agent paused for a second.
"You know about them?" The older woman asked.
Pyrrha nodded.
Of course, she knew about them. Although her knowledge about this company was mostly secondhand, as she interacted more with things related to the company's products rather than the games themselves.
It was the company that created Sci-War, the original game on which the ATG was built upon.
She might not have been that much of a gamer, but even she was aware of the phenomenon that was that one fan-made game mode. It had an entire almost professionally made forum, and she was a member of it.
That forum was one of the few places where she didn't have to be the Invincible Girl, after all.
"I don't really know about the Tempest themselves, all that much." She admitted. "I know, however, that the sudden growth in interest for this company has to do with the fan-made content for one of its games. I also heard that this fan-made content is about to turn into its very own game today. It's very likely that this increased interest is going to fall very soon after the separate game releases."
Miss Kastanos looked at her for a moment with interest in her eyes.
"I didn't know that you were that knowledgeable about this specific game company, Miss Nikos." The older woman said. "Are you perhaps involved with that fan game that you spoke about in any way?"
Pyrrha immediately became a little flustered and looked somewhere else to avoid the eye contact.
She wasn't going to answer that question.
The fact that she was an active member of the ATG forum wasn't known to anyone, and she wanted to keep it that way.
It was something that she didn't want even her trusted agents to know. If they learnt that she often commented in such public spaces, they would most likely tell her to announce her identity as the Invincible Girl to all the members of that forum and market herself there. That would be a decent way to spread her fame, and that was the most important for those agents in the end.
She couldn't let that happen.
That forum was one of the few remaining places where she could be herself instead of the perfectly curated celebrity that the people responsible for her career saw her as.
There was absolutely no way she would give her agent any more information about her involvement with that specific community, no matter how much she wanted to be honest with her.
In the end, her agent's question was only met with an awkward silence from her.
The older woman sighed.
It seemed that the woman had realised that she wasn't going to get any answers from her about this topic.
"Anyways, it seems that we might skip this part of the meeting in that case." Miss Kastanos said. "I clearly need to research those companies further; if my very first recommendation turned out to be so incorrect, then I don't even want to tell you about the other companies I looked into. We will discuss them the next time around. I'm sorry for wasting your time."
Pyrrha couldn't help but wince a little.
It didn't feel right for her to hear the older woman apologise to her because of something so minor. If anything, she felt like she should have been the one to apologise for interrupting the presentation. Miss Kastanos must have spent a lot of time working on it.
It wasn't nice of her.
"There's no need to apologise." She said.
Miss Kastanos raised her hand to stop her from saying anything more.
"It's alright, Pyrrha." The older woman said, her voice slightly more gentle than before. "It's my fault for not doing proper research to begin with. Besides, I can tell that this meeting was already starting to grate on you by now. Don't worry about it."
Pyrrha nodded with a small smile.
Although she wasn't going to admit it, she was kind of glad the meeting was already over. She always felt like those things dragged on for just a little longer than they really should have, covering more topics than they ought to be.
It always seemed like a bit of a waste of time.
At the very least, Miss Kastanos didn't seem to be offended by her lack of enthusiasm for those meetings.
"I will be on my way, then." She said while standing up.
Miss Kastanos nodded her head in response.
"Have a nice day, Miss Nikos." The agent said.
"Thank you, Miss Kastanos." Pyrrha replied while leaving the room. "Have a nice day as well!"
As she left the room, she gently closed the door behind her and swiftly made her way out of the office building her agents used before heading back home with a rather excited spring to her step.
The standalone version of the Arena of the Great was being released today, and the forum was going to be full of activity because of that. Although she probably wasn't going to play it a lot this early into its release, she would for sure enjoy the discussion about it.
She couldn't wait to share her opinion about it on the forum.
A smile formed on her face as she made her way through the streets of her city.
There was no doubt in her mind that the people of the forum couldn't wait to read the opinion of the HappyNEWby about it, either. Her unique tag as the forum's regular did carry some weight, after all.
(...)
Neptune Vasilias was a pretty simple guy.
He liked having fun and partying and had a dream of picking up multiple girls in the future as he became famous. Truly, there couldn't have been anyone easier to understand than him in this world.
That was why he decided to become a Huntsman in training; chicks dig heroes.
Actually, that was the reason why he did a lot of things in his life, now that he thought about it.
It was the reason he learnt how to dress properly and how to have a proper small talk with someone. It was even the reason he followed some weird fashions that girls at his old school liked to follow.
He was that dedicated in his quest of courting the fairer gender.
A subtle smile appeared on his face as he walked past a small group of people who were discussing a familiar topic.
That dedication of his was also the sole reason he was introduced to the certain video game that seemed to be taking Remnant by storm nowadays.
It was a free day today, a holiday at that—the type of day that should mean small crowds of young people having fun in the city even in the dark like it was now—and yet, there were hardly any people to see outside; at least people around his age, that was. All of them, most likely, were too busy enjoying the newly released full version of Arena of the Great.
That was how big that game was.
Sure, the game might not have reached its full potential yet, but it was already more popular than most projects of similar stature, and he was certain it was going to reach its potential soon.
The fact that he wholeheartedly believed that the most distinguished team playing that game was made mostly out of cute girls only helped to strengthen his faith in that game further.
There was not a single thing supported by hot chicks that wouldn't accomplish a great success!
At least, that was what he believed in.
He hadn't been proven wrong yet; from all the rumours he was hearing about the new game, he could confidently say that he wasn't going to be proven wrong anytime soon, either.
There was no way that the public wasn't going to like it; after all, it did prove entertaining to him.
Although he was never that big of a gamer, and he really only started playing it to have something to talk about with Stephanie, he had to admit that game hooked him in. Nowadays, he sometimes played that single game mode even when he knew that he wouldn't be talking with any girl about it.
That was also why he was returning home right now to play ATG as well.
He would have returned and started playing earlier, but his training to be a Huntsman took priority. Despite the fact that his desire to be a Huntsman wasn't all that selfless or noble, he still treated that career seriously, especially because it allowed him to have quite a fit and attractive physique.
One couldn't pick up chicks if they didn't have a body those chicks could dig, after all.
Besides, he was pretty sure that he wouldn't be that behind all the people who started playing right the moment the game went public. In fact, he was rather certain that if he had tried to play at that time, he wouldn't have managed to get a game at all.
The game needed servers to work, and the amount of people that tried to play it was bound to have overclocked them at some point.
He suspected that the very moment the game went live, there were more people trying to play the game than the people actually playing it. That was just how big game releases tended to be.
After a good couple of hours of playtime, everyone else had to test the game, though he was pretty confident that he would be able to get in a game or two.
With a confident smile on his face, he reached the internet cafe of his city and opened its door widely.
It was time for him to play.
The moment he saw the inside of the cafe, however, he couldn't help but blink a couple of times in surprise.
The cafe was full—which wasn't that big of a surprise to him, considering the reason he was here in the first place—and the people were hunched over many computers, with either scowls or wide smiles on their faces.
Although the people who were smiling were far rarer than the ones who were scowling.
It also looked like every smiling person had a small audience behind them.
"Let me guess, you're here to play ATG as well?" The cafe owner—who was a relatively older woman that Neptune would confidently say looked quite attractive for her age—asked with a knowing tone."
Neptune turned towards the older woman.
"Yeah, I am." He said with a small nod.
The woman smirked.
"I recommend that you give up, then, kid." She said. "The cafe's already full, and even if it wasn't, I don't think you would be able to connect to the servers with how overworked they are. There are only six people who have managed to do that here."
Neptune blinked in surprise once again.
He expected the game to be a success, but he didn't think that it would have ended up as such a big deal!
It seemed that when Stephanie introduced him to Arena of the Great those few years ago, she hadn't just shown him a fun game he would play later on. She had also introduced him to a gaming phenomenon before it became a big thing.
He should probably thank her at some point for letting him in on the trend early on.
It certainly wouldn't end fast.
And cut!
A little bit from the perspectives we haven't seen much before, also a small reveal. The next chapter's the Beacon Arc will begin for sure.
Also, I might take a week or two of a break after this chapter, the university will start their next term soon, and I'll be trying to get into one. It might require me to study a bit, so less time for writing. Just so you know.
Anyway, that's it for now, see ya.