Chapter 8: Early Development of Cute Girls Academy II

All of their doubts were gone after seeing the new update on CGA. First was the exploration mode. In exploration mode, the gamedev said it would be a way for them to explore the academy grounds and every world that would be introduced in the game later. Its first version was utterly atrocious, and everyone thought the gamedev wasn't skilled at doing 3D games. That belief was turned upside down with this new update.

The new exploration mode still had a single place they could go, which was the academy grounds, and the academy grounds only had the courtyard stage available, but this alone took their breath away. It now looked proper enough to be a courtyard for an anime-styled academy, and the world looked so expansive instead of the cardboard cutout with obvious background barriers all around. The dev had even put messages stating that each entrance was still under construction, unlike the previous version where there was no message notifying them of it.

The most shocking thing was the characters. In the previous version, they were using a default model on Mixer. Now, all twelve characters had their own models made. They didn't have any idle animations and all had the same standing posture in their model, but their walking, running, and jumping animations were all distinct, all of which fit into their personality. They couldn't do anything else but run around for now, but the dev said they would implement more in the future.

'''This alone is already worth it!''' Everyone thought so.

It still lacked a voice, and there were still no BGMs. The sound effects were also quite basic, but all of that could be forgiven because this mode looked polished enough. The owners of the characters implemented in this game were the most ecstatic that even if they could only walk and run around the empty courtyard, it was already enough for them to be satisfied.

The next mode increased their hype more when they saw it. Mockup challenges was a mode where they could go around the world and beat stages using five students on their team. The battles in this mode were in auto, and it was up to the players how they would make their lineup. The dev said that the in-lore reason why it was called the mockup challenge was because it was only a simulation Phantasmic made so students could fight in a team against various amounts of creatures on every world. It was like a team combat training Phantasmic personally made so she could teach the students how to fight in a team and to teach them about what to expect from different monsters if they ever encountered them.

The rewards they could get from each stage were also useful for the game, so while it doesn't forward the main story around the world, it was still a part of the core gameplay, as this was the place they could consistently gain resources that would help them strengthen their students and upgrade other stuff from future updates the dev planned. The in-lore reason why these rewards came from was that they came from Phantasmic. She embodied fiction and imagination itself, so she had access to literally everything anyone could ever conceive, even those that they couldn't comprehend. Through these, she manifested the rewards for the good students who passed her exams.

Characters were divided into positions. There was the vanguard, which was the group of characters that was placed in the front of the lineup. Then there was the midline, characters who were in the middle. Finally, there was the rearguard, or characters who were most likely in the back of the team. Other than these positions, characters were further separated by two types, which were physical and magical, and roles, which indicate what the character exactly does in these two types. Each type had four roles. The roles were tank, DPS, support, and healer.

This complicated system was easily done by the dev, and it showed. Even with only twelve characters, five mobs, and one boss implemented in this mode, the system was so rich that they would need to strategize on the harder stages. Currently, there was only one world, and within this world there were eight stages. As the game was still in its infancy, the stages were a bit harder so they could experiment with their roster.

Currently, each stage only drops gold and Pages. Pages was the special currency in this game, which could be used to recruit characters on the gacha banner. Anyway, the dev said that he hasn't implemented the hard mode maps in this world as he didn't have enough time, and he was excited to show this version to the others. They also felt that putting character shards, an important resource for upgrading a character's star rating, into these normal stages would break the game, so he hasn't done it at all.

The rich features of mockup challenges endeared the members who intimately knew about the game it was referenced by. Though most members of the CGA server found something more intriguing than that.

It is the chibi animations!

If the exploration mode only showed them in their full 3D models, then their 2D chibi art in this mode showed their charm as it showed their traits and appeal through their own actions, whether they were using skills or simply doing simple attacks. More than that, they were mesmerized by the only character who has a special skill cutscene.

Rose Garden Mary's Ultimate Skill has a full 2D hand-drawn animation cutscene!

It was beautiful. Rose's position was at the rear. Her unit type was magical, and her role was support. This mode had two types of animations. One was the chibi animations, and the other was a full animated cutscene. The animated cutscene only occurred whenever the character used their ultimate skill. If players disabled it, they would only see the chibi animation of that ultimate skill. Others only had chibi animation, and Rose was the only one who had the full animated cutscene.

In the cutscene, she looked scared. Trembling all around as she clutched her wooden staff tightly before she raised it. After a flash of green, giant vines emerged from the ground before engulfing the entire screen after a few moments. This was Rose's ultimate skill cutscene, Nature Bind, which could immobilize every enemy for five whole seconds and inflict a fourth of her magic damage to them every second until the duration of her skill ends.

Everyone was hyped. Even if there was no voice in this cutscene, the sound effects and the smooth animation won them over.

Other than those two major parts of this update, a few minor ones, like the gacha banners and the student rosters, have also been remade. The gacha section only had a regular gacha banner in it, though the art of the banner has been remade, and now it has Rose's skill animation cutscene in the background. As for student rosters, they could use their character shards, items that they could gain from getting a duplicate of a character on the gacha banner, to increase the star rating of the character. Each student starts at 1 star, and the maximum star rating for them was 5. They could also level up their students in the student roster section using their gold. The maximum level cap was fifty, and a student's level couldn't exceed the player's level.

The player also has a level. They gained player EXP whenever they did some activities in the game. Currently, as the exploration mode only had a peaceful school courtyard, they could only gain player EXP through mockup challenges. Leveling up would increase their Energy Points (EP) which they needed to tackle the stages on mockup challenges. At level 1, they only had 10 EP. Anytime they leveled up, their EP would increase by ten. World 1 stages only drained 2 EP, with the only exception being stage 1-8, which required 3 EP to play. This gave many players many opportunities to test their lineup at any stage, and as the dev said, it was still the first world, so that requirement was reasonable.

Every player was convinced. Their worry was unfounded because the dev could make a good game within 3 - 4 months. They felt a bit ashamed, but with this new version, their trust increased greatly. They also appreciated the gamedev for doing such hard work for free.

Now, the only thing they worry about is the online capabilities of the game. The CGA version they have is a standalone game. That means it still doesn't have an online server for players to connect to each other or make their accounts. It's just a single-player game. All the resources are directly downloaded to their own phone's storage. There is no data storage out there taking the burden from the players.

Most of the members on the CGA server wanted to help the dev. They wanted to play the gacha game with friends sooner or later. It was also common sense to them that a gacha game should have its own dedicated server, so the members who had money decided to donate.

"It's for the continued prosperity of the game!" Said one of the rich members of this server.

With that, the next day, Mike's mood immediately fell when he saw the 2,000 dollars that was transferred on his e-bank.

"...Why?" He couldn't help but whine.

______________________

The improvements he could have gotten from the potential profit loss on CGA v0.1.0 were greatly diminished on the following days due to his fans pouring in donations to him on a constant basis. The current version has generated enough hype that they felt their meager donation wasn't enough, so they kept copiously dropping more each day.

Despite that, he still got some notable improvements from his power. His newly improved skills helped him shorten the time it would take to make the other features he was planning for the game. The limited behavior of the characters on mockup challenges was far simpler than the implementation of the combat system on Idle Power, so making new enemy NPCs and a boss in this mode barely took him a week. What took most of his time was the hand-drawn animations for skill cutscenes. Regardless of the boost from his power, he doesn't gain any superhuman speed. His speed in animation stalled at its peak. Hand-drawn animations just took him a few hours for five seconds of high-quality anime cutscenes. There was another reason why it was taking him so long despite his improvements.

His relatives have been buzzing him lately due to the approaching holiday.

Christmas is coming soon. Most families always go to a gathering to catch up with each other. This kind of behavior was more prominent in SEA countries like the Philippines. Spending a day at a relative's house on Christmas and New Year was a normal tradition for most Filipinos. If they couldn't go, then it would be the relatives going to them.

Of course, festivities were also natural between close friends and cousins. Tight-knit familial bonding was the normal thing in this country. He couldn't escape that kind of occasion either.

In his family too, it was hard to go against this tradition. The Castros saw Christmas and New Year as an opportunity to meet up with their families. Most of them have become adults, and all of the cousins his age already had children. They were so busy with their lives that they couldn't find the time to check with each other, so this kind of situation was rare for them.

His phone, which hasn't been contacted for months now, kept ringing nonstop. He couldn't even mute it because it would be considered rude when everyone in the neighborhood knew that he was cooped up in his house. He couldn't just claim he was busy with his job when he was only staying at his house. Even if work-from-home jobs have existed for a few years now in this country, most Filipinos don't believe something like that, as they always saw those kinds of jobs as unreliable. They only acknowledge on-site jobs where a person actually leaves their home and does their 9-to-5 in some office or factory somewhere.

So he could only endure their constant interruptions, responding back to their calls even with how much it ate at his time. He doesn't hate them, but he was currently in a critical moment of his development. He wanted to wrap up everything before the next year came, so interruptions like these ruined his rhythm.

After another call, he let out a long, tired sigh as he slumped on his chair.

"Ugh... occasions like this make me tired. I still have to make house visits and greet my cousins in other cities." He sighed before staring at the calendar. "Ten days before Christmas. The street market's already busier at this time, right?" He stood up. "Yeah, I have to neaten myself up. It will be hard to navigate the streets on the 20th."

With his plans made up, for the first time this month, he left his house to get a new haircut and also buy some decorations for the upcoming occasion.

______________________

After a haircut and then coming back home to clean himself up and also get a change of clothes, he goes straight to the waiting shed for commuting and then commutes on a bus to a mall on Tungko. The traffic leading there was already busy with lines of cars, and the pace was slow. With time on his hands, Mike decided to check his Accord server.

First was the official server of CastroGames. It both introduced all of his games and the devlogs for Idle Power. The members had already reached the 500 mark, and there were hundreds of them actively responding on the server.

Idle_Nick: I can't wait for New Year!

De_Dust_2: Idle Power is the best idle game ever!

Claustrophobia: Hype! Hype! Hype!

Germophobe: New stages! Immersive maps! I can't wait!

StickmanLegends: (Image of Hero pumping up his fist)

TheCreationTrio: I want Time Manipulation and Space Manipulation in the game next!

Bakarina: Rose is so cute~

Genocider_Syo: Kehehehehehehe

Clapyourhands: Please add arena mode so I can beat up other players in IP

B33J03: Crystal Maiden is the best designed student in CGA

Mamamia: I wonder what kind of stages will be added? I can't wait!

SpicaWolf: Full version is coming soon!

Mileage: Chill everyone. Its still 2023

Lima: I can't wait for the full version too

Shork: I'm still amazed at the gamedev's speed. He's working like a maniac!

Mino: I am also excited for Idle Power's update.

Chili_Oil: I want more

Hero: Update is coming soon!

He chuckled at the sight of the general channel on Castro Games server before browsing the other channels. Other channels like the clips channel had various short clips of highlights from the game Idle Power. They were short videos that either showed some cool 1v1 fight against a boss or cinematic fights against many reminiscent of stickman fights. There were also some clips that just showed funny moments like the AI acting stupid at certain parts, like being blocked by some indestructible obstacles, or the Hero character playing a game of cat and mouse against other mobs using said obstacles.

There were other channels where people either posted their fanarts, or those who only posted memes or suggestions for the next game update. He briefly glances at those before moving on to the other server.

A cursory look at the CGA server made him intrigued after reading a certain discussion among a few members through the logs. To summarize the long discussion, they were lamenting about the fact that the game was still a standalone game and doesn't have any servers or online capabilities, and it felt weird seeing such a high-quality gacha game with no voice actors. He frowned for a bit, gazing at it with a sense of helplessness within his heart.

'I originally planned to have voice actresses in the game, but I just don't have the money. I can't also take it on myself to voice them because I'm a guy. My voice is also deep!' He lamented internally with a shake of his head.

He doesn't want to hear his own voice on a cute girl. That would be disgusting!

There might be others in the market that had a high-quality gacha game with no voices in them, but they were essentially obscure in this age. In Mike's ideal version of a gacha game, characters must have voices. If they don't have any voice actors, then personally for him, it was garbage!

As for the server issue, he was already contemplating that during the development of this game. It wouldn't be a gacha game if it wasn't on an online server. It was unlike Idle Power, which only had a single in-app purchase in it. That in-app purchase was directly connected to Woogle Play, so he doesn't even need to pay any server fees. Woogle had a cut on every earning the game got through the in-app purchase. CGA doesn't have that kind of benefit.

If he wanted to host multiple players online, he needed a server. He could just rent on the internet for public servers, or he could buy his own hardware to set up his own dedicated server. Though, both of those cost money. It was a cost that he couldn't afford indefinitely. His income was still reliant on donations, and he doesn't know when it would end. He might be grumbling about the donations as they impeded the speed of his skill improvements, but that doesn't mean he hated it. He needed the money so he could continue focusing on pursuing his dream.

If he chose to rent public servers, then he would be reliant on the company that held his server. If they had problems on their side, he couldn't do anything about it but wait for them to fix it. If they were undergoing maintenance, then he had to turn his server offline regardless of any reason. As for buying hardware to make his own dedicated server, the issue was with money. The Philippines usually only had that kind of stuff on their telecommunication companies and other corporations. No game developer in the Philippines ever owned their dedicated server just for their game. There was an option to just rent a private server on the internet, but that would mix both cons of the two options. The provider was the one who could only fix the problem, as he doesn't technically own the server and was just renting it, and it was also expensive.

As time passed, he was getting more amenable to choosing to buy a server rack. The only problem with that was, even if he managed to afford one, he still needed to have some knowledge about its maintenance and then have a fast internet of his own. The server rack couldn't just connect on its own to the internet. He also needed a lot of know-how for it. Just owning one wouldn't solve his problems. There was also the issue of upkeep, because even if he owned it, the bills would increase with it. That was an entire server rack in charge of the game server. He couldn't just turn it off when he went to sleep. He had to let it run 24/7. This doesn't even include the other concerns from owning one, like whether his civilian house could handle one that large or whether he should upgrade to something that would let him handle electricity consumption comparable to industrial ones.

He could also start small, but he felt like it would be betraying his dream. He wanted to make a game where there were no complications in it. If his game could only host a hundred players just because he skimped on server maintenance, then he might as well throw his aspirations away.

"...But it feels like that's the only option left..." He sighed.

Many members of the CGA server were clamoring for a server so they could play with each other. He wanted to fulfill those wishes, but he was still unsure what to do about it.

"Maybe after New Year..."

He decided to shelve that thought for now as he closed his phone and leaned his head on the slightly rough leather seat of this bus. Then he spent his time quietly staring at the changing scenery beyond the window until he arrived at his destination.

______________________

After buying some decorations for the upcoming holidays, he spent an entire day cleaning his house, arranging stuff, and then putting the decorations he bought at the mall on the following day. After that, he spent a short spare of his time marking some parts of Idle Power that he could improve and noting it on his logs before sleeping. Then the following days were him greeting some of his relatives through the phone or responding to them if they were the ones who called, responding to friends, and then using any remaining time he had to develop both Idle Power and CGA.

Most of his focus was on CGA. The improvements he got from CGA were diminished due to the constant donations from the contributing members of the server, but he still has some improvements that he managed to make that shortened his development time a lot. He managed to finish at least another stage in the academy grounds called the school frontyard. It was a stage that showcased the bricked path towards the gates, the scenic scenes around, roads that led to different areas of the school, and the entire red-tinted main building of the academy.

He had also added world two with a total of nine stages on the mockup challenges, along with adding a hard mode map on world one. Following that was the art and animation of the chibified mobs and bosses in each world.

Other than that, he finally started making some progress on the standing art for the characters. It might be making different illustrations for character poses when he already had a 3D model for them. Normally, game devs would use the model they already finished for other scenes in stories because it was easier and much cheaper. Going all the way to make another separate art just for story bits was a waste of time and money.

He was still going to do that because the gacha game he came to love mostly had a visual novel style of expressing their stories. Even if they had 2D illustrations or 3D models readily available for him, he would still put that visual novel style of storytelling. It was why he was making different illustration arts for their poses.

With the upgrades on his skills, even if they were diminished and he was multitasking for the other aspects of the game, along with the constant interruptions from his relatives that were becoming frequent as Christmas approached, he managed to finish two different poses for the twelve characters in the game before Christmas Eve.

When Christmas Eve came, he announced that he would take a break for game development first, as he needed to deal with some real-life obligations. After that, he spent the entire day preparing food to welcome Christmas along with his nearby relatives.

______________________

While that happened, others from the server weren't idle. The community-driven gacha game was such a novel concept that the gamedev himself was making up things as time passed. It's been a few months since the CGA server was made; the members have settled into their own roles. There were those who made character submissions, those who made suggestions for the game, and then there were those who focused on worldbuilding.

Being a game where the community was the one deciding how the game would go, CastroGames had given them free rein to make their own lores in the world along with any side stories they could ever think of. Gamedev would be in charge of the overall plot and implementation of anything they suggested that the community accepted, and the community itself would build everything else. This included bond stories, which were sidestories that featured the Principal (Player) and a student's interaction from certain times in their school life; the school story, which were actual side stories from different girls interacting with each other; the faction story, which were sidestories that featured an entire group's story that delved deeper into each character and their faction as a whole; and then event stories, which were semi-canon sidestories for certain occasions or other interesting plot ideas that could be implemented in the game.

Anyone could contribute even if they weren't the owner of the OC. They only needed the approval of the owner of the OC first before they could undergo evaluation. Evaluation was a term they used for submissions that the majority would look at and vote for. If the majority voted positively on it, then it would be put in the backlogs for future updates on the game. If the community doesn't like it, then it would be rejected.

This simple rule was used on everything, whether they be suggestions, lores, stages, mob submissions, boss submissions, and many more. It always ended with the community evaluating the suggestion, and the majority would decide. With this being an internet social platform, it wasn't a sure thing that everyone would be active, so instead of waiting for everyone to look into a suggestion, the suggestion would only be given a week to vote for it, and their acceptance and rejection depended on the reaction to it. If they hadn't exceeded ten reactions in their submission, then it would be deleted on the submission channel, and they had to resubmit again if they truly wanted someone to vote for it.

With this kind of system, it became hard for one person to moderate it, so longtimemembers became admins to moderate it. They became the loremaster, character designer, content expert, story writer, and many unique server roles that indicated they were in charge of certain parts of the server. This system, which had been implemented by the members themselves, made it easier for the gamedev to just focus on developing the game without thinking too much on what they should do to the game. The members did all of that for him.

They were like cheap labor, and they were voluntarily doing so because, in their eyes, they felt like they were contributing to something greater than their life. They felt like their voices were actually being heard, which made them more enthusiastic to contribute to the game and the server more.

Currently, everyone was still looking for a decent artist that could draw anime-styled art. Mino was a digital artist, but her style doesn't meet the criteria for that anime-style drawing. Hers was more cartoony, the likes of which could usually be seen on a saturday morning cartoon. Mino herself admitted that she couldn't change her style that instantly, so she accepted the redesigns for her OCs.

The gamedev had said that, other than them, they could also request other artists in the server to make their OC if they ever got a new artist member, but that wasn't happening yet. Even with this game grasping at the loyalty of its members, it was still a niche community. Cute Girls Academy v0.1.0 was posted only at witch.io. And the official server was more interested in Idle Power than this incomplete mess of a gacha game.

Regardless, everyone was still working even as Christmas drew closer. Mino's world, an alternate Earth with superpowers in it, has already gotten a deep lore within it due to Mino's various posts about it and other members who got interested and helped out. Bond stories and faction stories were also done by the members, and they were just waiting for their implementation.

Shork: Can't wait for next year!

Shirocc: Yeah! Gamedev said they will be uploading a new version on January! I can't wait!

SSGSS_Gray: I want my OC to be accepted soon ;-;

Glass: Is Nick making a massive suggestion for the game again? I've seen at least three documents with 10,000 words on them in the suggestion archives...

Leyline: Its Nick. He's obsessed with game quality

Desperado: More game content means more fun!

Mimicry: my oc looks so beautiful

Hillsfar: Mimi, when are you going to make a new OC? Crystal Maiden is so amazing!

Mimicry: still thinkin

Mino: Hi

Lima: Morning Mino

Ichinose: Its Mino!

Lionel_M: Its Mino? The one with two OCs in the game?

Ye Qiu: Cool

DemonGod: Mino. Still up for collab?

Mino: Sure. Go to RP channel

Such talk was going on as they spent the morning of the christmas eve just having fun together.

There were at least a hundred character submissions on this server, though the gamedev hasn't glanced at them since then, as he was quite busy. Everyone was still waiting for the chance for their character to shine. Due to that, Mike had made an RP category so people could submit their characters, and after their character got accepted, they could immediately interact with other accepted characters on the game so they could create content. CGA had turned into an RP/Official server for the game. This was in line with Mike's expectation, as he felt roleplaying would make members interact more in the server. Mike also planned to implement some of the stuff roleplayed in the server into game content if it was interesting enough.

This was why there were many character submissions, and at least thirty of them have been accepted and were going to be implemented in the future.

This was how the development of CGA was progressing. Every member was all hyped at the time when this game would officially launch on Woogle.

'''I'll whale hard!'''

Almost everyone in the server thought so, even those who were usually free-to-play (F2P) players.

______________________

On the night of the christmas eve, Michael B. Castro walked towards the garage of his neighbor while carrying a large wok filled with creamy sauce carbonara. The sound of small pops of explosions resounded everywhere outside the gates of their residence as children threw their fireworks around.

"Hey, Mike. That looks delicious. Need help there?"

"Yes. Thank you."

He handed the large wok to his male cousin before patting his hands and then moving towards the garage where most of his relatives were. All of them were already mingling with each other, catching up as a few of them put the food on a table they put here since this morning, turning this garage into a makeshift area for their gathering.

"Hey Mike. How's life?"

"I'm doing fine." He answered succinctly.

"Oh my. Are you doing okay Mike? I heard you have been staying cooped up in your home?"

"I'm alright Aunt Rita. I'm earning enough to take care of myself."

Aunts, uncles, and other relatives who had attended all greeted him while at the same time asking him how he had been. It felt stifling to him, but he doesn't show it on his face as he answers them briefly with a strained smile.

It felt a bit hard for him. The way they asked him felt like they were underestimating him. There were looks of pity, and a few of them were shaking their heads. He kept clicking his tongue. He knew that they didn't believe a single thing of what he was saying.

He had just quit his job at a fast food chain. They thought he was squandering his chances at a stable life.

He didn't have the heart to explain, as he knew it would all fall on deaf ears.

"Hey, Mike. Ramcar's ramping. You in?"

"I'll think about it."

Just like that one.

It was normal. This was how they showed concern for each other, because they were already considered adults. If they weren't still leaving their home and working, then they were essentially seen as jobless, no matter if they were actually earning in their home. That was life as seen by these people, and dreams like his felt like an alien concept to them.

Some of his relatives his age and younger ones might have had an inkling about his aspirations, but they were shallow compared to his obsession. They only knew that it was unprofitable, which meant unreliable as a career.

He couldn't even complain about it. Whining about it would make it seem he was immature when they were only showing concern for him. He could understand that they were just worried. Still, it felt bad being seen this low by the others.

'I am earning a lot... even if its only through donation!'

'I can finally achieve my dream. What is so wrong with that?'

'If you want, I'll show you my games!'

These were words he wanted to shout but didn't, knowing it would be useless. In the end, he just smiled and then talked to them about mundane stuff. Most people in his family don't play games and weren't really interested in anime stuff. Even if he showed them, they would still need to be convinced for some time by showing a lot of things, and that would take a lot of effort.

No, he decided he would just let things naturally reveal themselves. If he continued on his path, then people would naturally realize that he was doing fine on his own.

He let the time pass, celebrating the approach of the holiday with them until midnight, until he had to resign early after the only food he contributed to the occasion was swept up by the children in their family. He hadn't stayed longer, as he knew most of the men would be drinking all night, and he doesn't prefer alcohol, much to his shame. Any man in this country should be at least capable of drinking at least one shot. It was common sense in this nation.

Not wanting to be swept up by the festive mood, he goes back to his home and then unceremoniously throws himself in his bed.

"I still have to wake up early for the house visit." He muttered sleepily to himself.

That was it on his Christmas.

The next day, he was surprised when he felt a sudden increase in his skills other than game development.

"... Did my cooking skill just improved?"

He just made a creamy sauce carbonara, as it was one of his favorite dishes, and it felt just right for an occasion like last night. He hasn't expected his power to consider him presenting that dish at the gathering to be a form of selling it.

His power ignored the context of why he brought that carbonara outside. It only read that his dish was served outside, where many people could potentially see, and immediately considered it meeting the criteria for possible profits to be earned. With the potential profit loss from that occasion, he acquired at least an improvement to his pasta dish-making skills equivalent to having spent 50,000 pesos for an improvement to himself. That was the amount of potential profits his power had considered he lost.

"...Wow, my power really just considers everything as profitable, huh...?"

He was a bit dumbfounded but decided to accept the improvement anyway as he prepared to commute outside his city.