NMGMS 01 - Hello World

Alex was feeling lost.

When he was a teenager, he imagined that the future would bring great things for him.

That he would study game design, then he would get to work in big game studios, and that in the future his name would be remembered alongside Hideo Kojima, Leslie Benzies, and other big name game designers for a game he made.

But life doesn't like to follow people's plans.

Shortly before graduating from school, his parents died in a plane crash and Alex had to start working to support himself.

The dream of going to college gave way to the effort of carrying bricks in construction camps.

When he got home with an exhausted mind after working for 12 hours, Alex couldn't even dedicate himself to learning how to make games, just taking advantage of the few free hours he had to play what he could and have the minimum amount of fun until he went to bed and started the routine again.

This routine caused Alex to drift away from the old “friends” he had at school, and he was unable to make any new friends in this new life.

Despite all this, whenever he played video games after work, Alex still analyzed and wrote down all the relevant points that he believed could be improved in each game.

For example, after playing Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Alex realized that the missions were becoming extremely repetitive, as if the company just wanted to artificially increase the playing time instead of really delivering the best possible experience.

The game was very good, but seeing how changing details like this could greatly improve the user experience made Alex a little disappointed with the game.

And this was true of many of the games Alex played.

Even Minecraft wasn't exempt from Alex's analysis because of how dependent the game became on mods for interesting gameplay variation, something that could easily be solved with bigger and more creative updates every year.

But despite analyzing and writing down these points about every game he tried in an old notebook, Alex never did anything about it.

He could have tried to make a YouTube channel where he critiqued the games, he could have made an analysis blog, or even tried to apply for a job related to this area, but leaving his comfort zone was difficult.

Alex was afraid of trying to venture into an area so different from what he was already doing for a living and it going wrong, he no longer had his parents to help him financially if one of these ventures went wrong, and what's worse, after a few years he completely lost the motivation to try something different like this.

So the years just went by and Alex continued in this solitary routine.

Until suddenly, everything changed.

-

It was just any other day.

Alex had stayed up late at night playing a new game.

This game was completely different from anything he had ever seen.

[Game Maker]

It looked like a Tycoon game, where the protagonist was a Game Maker and had to create a game company.

Feeling a connection with this game, Alex didn't feel any time passing.

The games the protagonist made were very similar to games Alex had played in the past.

In the game, Alex could change any aspect of the games he played and the results of the games would be realistically simulated with the reactions of the Players in the world of that game.

Deciding to do some tests, Alex took out his old notebook in which he wrote down ideas for changes to each game he played and surprisingly, most of the changes he suggested to the games, even if they increased the cost of producing those games, increased the revenue each game brought in even more!

And that was very addictive!

Alex's fictional company in the game started out as a small Indie developer and gradually evolved into the leading game creation company in the industry.

Alex's teenage dream of becoming a Game Maker was slightly realized in this strange game.

‘Maybe this could have been my path if I had followed my dream?’ Alex thought a little wistfully as he compared his current life with the theoretical life he could have had.

“Don't kid yourself, Alex, this is just a game, if it were real life maybe other unforeseen events would happen and you'd be worse off than you are today...” Alex said in a sad voice as he tried to comfort himself.

Looking at the clock and seeing that it was already 04:00 in the morning, Alex sighed and prepared to turn off the computer and get an hour's sleep before going to work, but a strange message appeared.

[You have shown great potential in Game Making. Many people would benefit from playing games made with such passion, do you agree?]

Alex was surprised by this message, but with nothing better to do, he replied.

[Yes.]

Then another message came through.

[There are several worlds that have not been lucky enough to experience high quality games, this is something that greatly frustrates XXXXXXXXXX, if you were offered an opportunity to develop games on these worlds, with a suitable reward, would you accept?]

Although this was a strange question, Alex didn't think twice and agreed.

[Yes.]

The screen was quiet for a few seconds, Alex realized that perhaps the prank someone had been playing on him was over, so he turned off the computer and went to bed.

'Even if it was a prank... it would be fun to show cool games to people who never had access to things like this in the past.' Alex thought with a dreamy smile as he set his alarm for 53 minutes from now and went to sleep.

Strangely, despite only having 53 minutes available to sleep, Alex felt like he had the best sleep he'd had in years.

He even woke up before the alarm went off.

His body, which was already fatigued, weak and exhausted from several years of manual labor without rest, woke up today feeling very well and healthy.

His aches and pains had disappeared to the point where Alex felt like he was back in his teens again!

Feeling refreshed, Alex opened his eyes excitedly for the first time in many years, only to be confused by where he was.

‘This isn't my house...’ he thought startled.

Looking around, Alex found himself in a cozy apartment.

Through the open bedroom door, Alex realized that the place was very small, with just one bedroom, a living room, a bathroom and a kitchen.

But strangely, even though he had never seen this place before, Alex felt like he was at home, which helped to ease the terror he felt at waking up in an unfamiliar place.

Looking around hesitantly, Alex saw some pictures hanging on the wall and was even more confused when he realized that the pictures were of him with his family!

'I don't remember taking any of those photos...' he thought confusedly.

There were even photos of his family in front of the Eiffel Tower, even though Alex had never traveled to Europe before.

“What's going on?” He asked himself at a loss.

Suddenly, a window appeared in front of him.

[Hello again, user A.

After accepting XXXXXXXXXX's offer, you have been sent to one of the worlds where there are no high-quality games.

A new identity has been generated for you in this world and your only job is to develop games.

You will be able to create new games using Gaming Points. These points are accumulated as more players try out and get involved with the games they create.

Each player can receive exclusive items as rewards within the games, and some of these items can even be exchanged for real things in the physical world at the cost of GP.

To create the games, the user will have to use the development platform provided by the system, which only the user will have access to.

As more players become interested in their games, the user will earn more GP, which can be exchanged for more advanced functions for their games, or even for items that are useful in the real world for the user, such as clothes, objects, knowledge and other rewards.

However, if the user is unable to create games that appeal to the public, the system may be forced to look for another host.

As remuneration, the user will keep all the monetary revenue that the games bring in, and will be able to spend the GP earned in any way you like.

Best wishes for collaboration, signed XXXXXXXXX].

Looking at that screen, I was in disbelief, how could something like that be true? But in the next second, a flood of memories started flooding into my mind.

Memories of my parents playing with me when I was a child, of the people I had met in this world, of how everything had developed over the last few years, as if I had actually lived here from the beginning!

But the most shocking thing for me was that in one of those memories there was a man who shouldn't have been real... Tony Stark.