Chapter 1

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Solo game development is incredibly tough.

The reason is simple. Game development is essentially manual labor.

Ideas are short, but development is long.

Games are built on countless lines of code. The sheer volume was too much for one person.

And it’s not like coding is all there is to it.

Illustrations, sometimes pixel art, storylines, and music are all essential.

Doing all of this alone?

Even just putting together the basics took an insane amount of time.

So, I dedicated several years to the game.

From high school until after my military service.

And then it flopped.

And then I became a woman.

Probably because the game needed it.

Unbelievable.

“Wow.”

I let out an exclamation while playing the game I had just completed in an instant.

It was a simple bullet-hell shooter, but the structure was incredibly solid.

A pixelated character flew through empty space, obliterating enemies. Music played. There were special move effects and illustrations.

Even though bullet-hell shooters are beginner-friendly genres, achieving this level of quality would normally take a lot of time.

But I made it in just one day.

And since more than half of that time was spent getting used to my new abilities, I could make things even faster from now on.

I recalled the conversation I had in my dream last night.

[Mortal. Hand over the <Infinity Zero> you created. In return, I will grant your wish.]

“I want to develop games forever. Make me a god of games.”

[Your wish. It is granted.]

I added a bit of MSG. I didn’t hear anything about being a mortal, but I also didn’t say anything about being a god of games, so it’s a fair trade.

Someone I met in my dream took my <Infinity Zero>. When I checked Steam, the legendary game that had only one download was long gone without a trace.

All my development logs and other materials were gone too. Even the analog records I wrote on paper. So, this wasn’t the work of a hacker.

Besides, hackers can’t turn people into women.

Anyway.

All evidence that I had wasted my time in empty space disappeared from the world, and in return, I gained a few abilities.

There’s no status window, but I am, after all, a game developer.

I’ll display my abilities in a game-like manner.

[Sleep is Chocolate]

From now on, sleep is a treat for you.

Just like you won’t die if you don’t eat chocolate, you no longer need to sleep.

But you can sleep whenever you want. Even deliciously.

That’s what treats are all about, right?

[If Abilities are Poor, the Body Suffers]

When it comes to game development, the manual labor part is now skipped.

Coding? Art? Music? Just think about it! It’s instantly completed.

Bugs are removed as a service.

[Cool-headed Tester]

You can now view the games you develop from a third-party perspective!

At any time, erase your knowledge of the game and play it with a fresh mind.

Failed game developers can’t keep making games. So, my wish, “to make games forever,” implied “to make them well,” and thus, my abilities became related to game development.

My desire to develop games was well conveyed.

If we’re talking about cost-effectiveness, it would have been best if a god-tier fun game popped out with a click.

But what would be the point of that?

I wanted to make the games I desired, not to be worshipped.

So, my abilities stopped at skipping the manual labor part. When it comes to game development, whatever I think of is immediately reflected in reality.

Thanks to this, the games I make will boast a quality uncharacteristic of solo development, but ultimately, the limit of this ability is me. Skipping the process alone can’t produce output beyond my original talent.

Well, it’s fine. If my mind changed, I’d be a different person. I didn’t expect to suddenly be flooded with genius ideas.

And this much was already a cheat code.

Coding, composing, art—the three essentials for game development—all require manual labor.

Coding was notorious, and art? When you’re tweaking images pixel by pixel, you often wonder if you’re doing pixel labor or drawing.

Composing was the same. Composing itself took a lot of time, but mixing and mastering really ate up the hours.

Skipping all these processes?

I almost feel sorry for struggling creators.

What about the other abilities?

Cool-headed Tester? Objectively viewing your own work was always the hardest. An ability that compensates for this is naturally welcome.

Sleep is Chocolate? Humans spend a third of their lives sleeping. It’s practically like extending my lifespan.

Breaking it down, it felt like I was being pushed to become a myth in solo game development. Most of my abilities were specialized for solo game development.

Except for one.

I looked in the mirror.

Hair like spun gold, eyes resembling a clear sky, and skin as white as snow.

The ultimate beautiful girl was there.

This was the most puzzling thing to me.

What does turning into a girl have to do with game development?

Hmm.

It doesn’t seem to be a hindrance, so it’s probably fine.

If turning into a girl interfered with game development, it would be a problem, but since it didn’t, I didn’t pay much attention to it.

Rather than such trivial matters, it’s all about the game now.

Excited, I frantically organized my ideas.

Games I couldn’t make before due to development limitations were now relentlessly asserting themselves.

Alright, guys. Wait. I’ll definitely bring you into the world.

*

I decided to create a game I’ve always wanted to make.

The genre is action, adventure, survival, crafting, RPG, and defense.

A similar game would be the original <7 Days to Die>, a famous apocalyptic survival game. However, I heavily enhanced the crafting and defense elements.

The game’s setting is fantasy. A world ruined by the descent of a demon god and the story that follows. The setting was created to include magic and monsters.

Players must choose and build a base in an open world and defend it from hordes of monsters.

To make it more interesting, I added boss monsters. Killing these powerful monsters that appear at certain intervals required proper leveling up, farming, and control.

I cranked up the difficulty to the limit. Defense games aren’t fun if they’re too easy.

But if it’s impossible to beat, it’s also not fun.

If it’s too hard and requires tricks, players lose interest. Defense games must be clearable by following the standard approach.

To hit that sweet spot, I pondered repeatedly and was able to test the game after about a week.

The base, filled with magic engineering, was half-destroyed.

I picked up my sword and faced the enemy before me.

Horns on its head, four arms, over 4 meters tall, purple skin, and a grotesque face.

A demon, the bastard child of the demon god, descended here to kill me.

The demon wielded a sword made of fire. Just its presence altered the surrounding temperature.

The sword moved. Its target was the ground I stood on. A blazing fireball pressed down on the atmosphere. I calmly watched it, then swiftly stepped forward.

A short slash, a long slash, and an off-beat long slash. Among them, it was the off-beat long slash. Damn. I didn’t expect there to be patterns I hadn’t encountered yet. If my reaction speed had been even slightly slower, I would’ve melted under the fiery sword.

The holy sword emitted light. Slash. The demon count’s Achilles tendon burned black. I kept moving, occupying its blind spots.

The sword moved relentlessly. Light trailed behind it, painting the empty space.

Finally, I plunged the sword into the kneeling demon’s neck. A scream erupted. The monsters attacking the base scattered in all directions upon realizing their leader was dead.

I stood up and applauded the screen.

I couldn’t believe this was the game I made.

The quality of the game far exceeded what one person could typically develop.

Of course, my talent isn’t top-tier in all fields, so compared to AAA games, it’s slightly lacking. But that’s only because the comparison is to AAA games. Objectively, <Fantasy Life>, or <Fantala> for short, had the polish of a high-tier game.

This was a significant strength.

As the saying goes, “What looks good tastes good,” and gamers are quick to spit out anything with a bad UI.

It was always good to eliminate elements that could cause rejection.

Moreover, it’s a solo development, right? That’s a plus for marketing.

“What? How is this quality possible from a solo developer?” That kind of word-of-mouth is easy to generate.

This works. I calmed my excitement and prepared to register the game.

Game reviews usually take two weeks to a month. It’s ironic that the review process takes longer than development. It really hit me how much of a cheat-like ability I’ve gained.

So, I spent two weeks designing a new boss monster for <Fantasy Life>, and the review process went smoothly.

The game was registered.

A month passed.

Title: Fantasy Life

Release: 32 days ago

Price: 18,900 won

Reviews: 5

Downloads: 31

Total revenue.

After platform fees, 410,130 won.

What’s the problem?

Unable to understand, I checked the reviews.

Title: “There are still people making PC games, lol”

Content: “It’s fun, but if it were a VR game, it would’ve sold a thousand times more.”

One word in the short review caught my attention.

VR game…?

Isn’t that a dead platform with no content except VR chat?