Okay, so after that I ended up spending more and more time with those older kids in the back room, often more time than I spent gaming with my friends. I also tried to get them to try making games with me but they didn’t like it… We eventually drifted apart as we spent more time away. Kioshi Sasaki however; my best friend, wanted to try making artwork. It sucked. It really did. Although his artwork just needed to be drawn my code however never even compiled at first, as I struggled to learn the rules of the programming language. Well, we both got better in time and those kids who I thought were about 16 to 17 helped us out a lot. I didn’t even know where to start at first because this was way back when your good friend Google didn’t even exist.

As I continued to learn how to make games while spending my time with the older kids, one day, they decided to invite me to help write aspects of their games. As I always thought what they were working on was cool I jumped at the choice and joined in merrily. It was hard at first because their code-base was quite large; much larger than mine and more complicated too. However, whenever I got stuck they gave me hints without holding my hand too much, and, eventually; I began to understand even the complicated bits without having to ask them for help. I was really proud of this. I felt smart. I felt like I could do anything; create anything. It was fun working together with all of them; more fun than working on something alone. We were like worker bees or worker ants all contributing a part to a bigger whole and watching it all come together felt magical.

A year passed by like a flash and when we finished the game, Yoshida-ojiisan let us use one of the spare arcade machines in the storage room. We uploaded the game onto the memory chip and stood the machine close to the entrance as if we had won the game of the year award and wanted the world to know about it. Which we did of course, except it wasn’t the game of the year. We felt like it was; after all it was like our baby. A feeling as close as a guy could have to something like that perhaps? We might have been stretching it but this was a great achievement and we all felt proud. We wanted recognition for our hard work.

When afternoon came we were there, at the arcade before opening hours, all bundled together and peeking through the machines, synonymous to peeking through a keyhole. Each of us trying to lean over the other in an attempt to get a better look at the first play of our game, giggling like little girls. From a third party perspective, anyone passing by would have made disgusted looks; others a wry smile. We were quite fortunate that only Yoshida-ojiisan was there to witness us at our darkest hour, or, we might have made our debut on the wrong magazine.

Yoshida-ojiisan walked to the door and opened the flood gates. A stream of people entered our sights and we gasped in anticipation for what was soon to come. This was the time when schools ended and kids from different areas came to let of steam from a long day of learning. Not many had computers at home with a good collection of games and it was cheaper and easier to just come to the arcade on the way home from school to play instead. Quite a few noticed a machine that occupied a spot which was air only yesterday. They shouted in joy ”New Game!” and ran to the console eager to be the first to play it.

We noticed Yoshida-ojiisan was there to make sure the crowd didn’t push people around and take turns on it properly. We saw that most people left to play other games in the meantime with the obvious intend to come back later as a glint in their eye. As the first person walked up to our game we shook each other’s shoulders with glee! ‘Look! They’re playing it!’ We thought. Yoshida-ojiisan disabled the coin mechanism on the machine so they didn’t insert a coin in, our player just pressed a button on the console and a new game session started before our eyes. We watched on and before we knew it five minutes had passed by when our dear player stopped. With a look of disappointment strewn across his face, he shook his head twice and walked passed our game, further, into the depths of the arcade. We froze. What? Did something happen? We were shocked. Why did he leave? He looked disappointed? Did something happen to the machine? Perhaps someone tripped over the power lead and the game turned off? But that is very unlikely. Yoshida-ojiisan pays a lot of attention to safety and has strict rules in the arcade. People tend to follow them or they get thrown out and power leads would never be placed where they’d be easily tripped over.

Ignoring the earlier abnormality we continued to observe but this event occurred almost consecutively; one after another! We did realize some people had expressions of enjoyment, which soothed our worried souls but disappointment made up the majority, shattering that near streak of serenity. We all looked at each other with a knowing look but no one spoke aloud. Yes, We all thought it, but refused to speak it aloud as we knew that in doing so would be tantamount to admission. Doing that would crush us! But, deep down we knew we had to accept it; the game was a failure. We gritted our teeth and clenched our fists, making a pledge in our now heavy hearts to do better next time; to succeed. With a sullen face, I looked up to meet my friends… No! My brothers, with a tear forming in the corner of my eye as we dragged ourselves back to our sanctuary. My brother held me up by the shoulder and slung my arm around his neck as If I were an injured soldier who had lost his leg. When we all made it through and was about to close the door we were called from behind. ”Wait! I’m from the Game Development Youth Association! Can I have a word…” Surprised from the call, I looked back…

…
…

Yeah… So as it turns out that guy was from an association that holds a game development competition every 2 years and even though our game was lacking, they took interest in it and invited us to participate. We could have joined even if we were not invited but we didn’t know about such a thing so we were lucky. What happened after that is a story I’ll have to leave for another day. But, at least it ended up being a partial success so it wasn’t all bad. Hmm, lets see… since it’s 2020 right now and I’m currently 45 years old I should have been 11 years old back then, which makes that 34 years ago in the year of 1986. Now hold on! Before you start saying ‘woah that’s old af bruh’ I’ve always stayed up to date in the latest technology and games. I don’t feel old at all, at least on the inside. You could consider me a 23 year old on a mental level.

You might be wondering why I decided to go back to writing games after 34 years; or rather, why I’m not working at a game development company right now? Well, that In part has to do with my parents. Because they didn’t consider making games as an actual job, I wasn’t really able to go that route. I just about managed to convince them to send me to a software development course, the closest I could get to a course like that. So, after getting a degree in computer science I was accepted by Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank to maintain their banking systems.

In 2001, that bank merged and many people were laid off; including myself, which brought me to the company I work at now. Since it was a black company, after a few years of working there I decided to invite my childhood friend to work there as well, as their graphics designer, so that he could share in my suffering… Just Kidding. There was a job opening in their graphics department and the pay was good. My childhood friend, Kioshi, who went to a university specializing in that, ended up taking a career in graphics design. He really loves that line of work so at least one of us managed to achieve our dream! This makes me feel slightly bitter since my actual dream was making games but I’m glad my friend is happy. Although I could not pursue a career in what I actually wanted, at least I can achieve something similar In my free time; now.

*Pin Pon* “Please stand back from the doors.” Prompted by the robotic sounds of the train car I make my way out of the train station and navigate through the busy streets, finally arriving at the doors to my workplace. “Hasegawa-senpai! Good morning!” As I walked through the company doors, my kouhai, Kenji-kun, greeted me with a smile across his face.

I smiled in return. Time to start a new day!

SirMetathyst

I wanted to write more chapters today but this took me 6 hours to do which burned me out. (Started at 9am and worked until 3pm). I don't think I'll be able to write another one. That sucks, maybe 1 chapter in a day is my limit? How do other authors crank out so many chapters? :/ Respect!