Chapter 132: Simulation Begins

"It's very simple, Sam. These three bars just represent the demand for commercial, residential, and industrial zones."

"Uh... let me make sure I've got this straight. The objective of this game is...?"

Sam sat across from Will, staring at the still somewhat rudimentary version of SimCity on his monitor.

In the lower-left corner of the screen were three bar graphs colored blue, green, and yellow. At the moment, the blue bar representing commercial demand was extremely low.

"The objective? To build a city."

"Look, industrial demand is really high right now, so we build more industrial zones."

Will dragged the mouse across the map, laying down a road before zoning an industrial district and connecting it to the power grid.

As soon as a large factory appeared in the newly planned industrial area, the yellow bar representing industrial demand dropped. But immediately afterward, the demand for residential and commercial zones rose a little.

"Isn't this basically just working the dough?"

Sam scratched his head.

At this point, his understanding of the game could be summed up in a single word, confused.

No matter how elegantly it was presented, all he saw was someone kneading an enormous lump of dough.

Too much flour? Add water.

Too much water? Add flour.

It all felt rather aimless.

When Sam had learned that Will was the creator of Raid on Bungeling Bay, he had assumed his next work would be even more intense and action-packed.

Instead, SimCity gave him a strange feeling of emptiness that was difficult to describe. It wasn't the same kind of "aimlessness" that The Legend of Zelda evoked.

Although Zelda also lacked a clearly defined objective beyond rescuing Princess Zelda, the hidden secrets scattered across the world and the many dungeons constantly encouraged players to keep exploring.

According to Ethan, that was called emergent design. It relied on curiosity to sustain the player's desire to explore, but as far as Sam could tell, SimCity had absolutely nothing in common with that design philosophy.

"Haha, you're actually right."

"It really is a dough-kneading style of gameplay."

Walking over to the two of them, Ethan burst into laughter after hearing Sam's description.

This kind of city-building gameplay wasn't just kneading dough. It was also spreading out a giant pancake. Much like the Anno series would be in the future.

"In a sense, this is a style of gameplay that thrives on piling on content."

Ethan looked at the still rather sparse building menu on the screen.

"More building types, more kinds of city demand, more decorations, and more new mechanics..."

"Exactly!" Will nodded vigorously.

His mind was overflowing with ideas for the game. The only limitation was the hardware. If it were possible, he wanted to incorporate everything he understood about urban planning into this single title.

This tale has been pilfered from NovelPhoenix. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Sam, you need to understand something."

Ethan's expression grew serious. To GAMENOVA, SimCity meant far more than it appeared to.

"A PC isn't a game console."

"And it certainly isn't an arcade machine."

"We don't need every single person to like the same game."

Not even best-selling games like Tetris or Minecraft could appeal to everyone, and Ethan understood that perfectly well.

"But above all else, we have to make sure our target audience loves it."

In Ethan's eyes, Sam was the textbook example of someone who enjoyed instant-gratification games.

Fast-paced action, and immediate excitement, that was exactly his preference.

If he'd been born in the future, he probably would've been the type to sink thousands of hours into first-person shooters.

A game like Fire Emblem might hook him for a while with its brilliant design, but once he finished them, he would inevitably return to shooters and fighting games.

"However..."

Ethan changed the subject and placed a freshly printed document onto Will's desk.

"We can add a little... seasoning."

"Something to attract players outside our intended audience."

Will looked at the title printed across the top of the document.

[God Mode]

It was an incredibly bold proposal. The disaster system he had originally designed as a gameplay challenge... would instead become a toy.

"This..."

"Will that really work?"

"Honestly, I can't say for certain."

Ethan shrugged.

With Dell as an ally, the greatest benefit was that GAMENOVA no longer had to worry about sales channels.

Although major arcade and console distributors had done fairly well building an offline distribution network, they had virtually no presence in the PC market. So, Dell's addition completely filled the last remaining gap in GAMENOVA's sales network.

As truck after truck traveled between the factories and Dell Computer, hundreds of thousands of floppy disks began making their way across America. Among them were shipments bound for Michigan, the state bordering the Great Lakes across from Canada.

.....

MicroProse.

A relatively small game studio with an impressive track record, now entering its fourth year.

One of its founders, and the studio's lead game designer stood in front of a store shelf, examining a newly released game on floppy disk.

SimCity.

GAMENOVA's very first PC game released for retail sale.

The beautifully designed box depicted a modern metropolis, with towering skyscrapers rising neatly from a concrete jungle. The only thing he couldn't quite make sense of was the tornado looming in the distance.

"I suppose there's a mode where you destroy the city?" He muttered to himself.

He had already played countless games centered around destruction. As an obsessive gaming addict, he had virtually no blind spots when it came to choosing games.

No matter what kind of title it was, he had to give it a try. Perhaps that was one of the reasons he had led MicroProse to produce so many successful games.

"Maybe it'll give me some inspiration for my next project."

With that thought in mind, he took the floppy disk from the shelf and paid for it without hesitation.

"Thank you for your purchase, sir. Just sign the receipt right here... Thank you, Mr. Sid Meier. Enjoy your new game!"

Inside MicroProse.

Bill, the other co-founder and the one responsible for the company's business operations, was testing their latest flight simulation game. As a former Air Force lieutenant, he had always been especially fond of that genre.

"Bill, guess what I bought?" Sid waved the game box excitedly.

"GAMENOVA's first PC game!"

"Huh? I thought you went out to gather inspiration for your new pirate game."

"Isn't this gathering inspiration?"

"There is no time to talk, I'm playing it right now."

Sid sat down in front of his PC and inserted the floppy disk into the drive. After a lengthy loading process, a highway sign in military green appeared on the screen.

Aside from the large, bold SIMCITY logo, there were only three menu options.

Start a New City.

Load a City.

Choose Scenario.

"Name the city?"

"Hmm..."

"I'll just use my own name."

He typed Sid Meier's City into the field, clicked OK, and officially entered the game.

A map composed of nothing, but grassland, bare land, and water appeared before him. Then... nothing else happened.

"...?"

"So... now what?"

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A.N: If you don't recognize Sid Meier? You probably know Civilization, XCOM, Alpha Centauri, or Pirates! instead.