Chapter 206 - Quad Blocks

"Games. F*ckin video games…" Tayaw utters in excitement.

The 'Random skill set' he received is the basics of 2d game development and programming. The 'Random Equipment' on the other hand, he had not seen yet as he was kicked out of the white void.

"Alright. That's it. I'm going to the theater and you stay here and think out loud as much as you can." Gary is distracted for the third time and finally loses his patience.

"Okay. That's the last time. Really. And, you're not even three minutes into the movie anyway." Tayaw says while eyeing his laptop, itching to apply what he received from the giant roulette.

"I was just getting immersed." Gary says.

"Alright. Give me my computer first." Tayaw gestures to Gary.

"What are you doing?" Gary is getting annoyed at Tayaw's unpredictability.

"Let me burn this thing on a Blu-Ray, then you can watch it on your theater." Tayaw says.

"… Oh. That's better." Gary calms down at the alternative and hands the laptop back. 

~

After dealing with Gary, Tayaw is back in the ~white void~.

He is currently sitting on the floor fiddling with the equipment he did not expect to see; an arcade machine. It is not the average arcade machine however.

The only thing Tayaw can touch is a half a chopping board's size controller, all white in color, without wires connected to it. Instead of an arcade monitor for the games' display, a display is floating in front of Tayaw like that of a hologram.

*beep* *beep* *beep**boomp* *Bomp* *grrm.* *Durrrrururu!* All sorts of classic video game sounds are also ringing around the white void. 

A few minutes later, with his score reaching the millions, and Tayaw can no longer keep up with the speed, *DDududunnnn* *Game Over*.

"Ahhhhh. PHHEWW.." Tayaw sighs in disappointment.

"Quad Blocks… how could a simple f*ckin game be so much fun?" Tayaw stretches, fighting to urge to play again for the nth time.

"There are 5 games in here, are they just as addictive?" Tayaw ponders while absentmindedly scrolling through the game menu until *clack* he presses a random selection.

"'Wonderful Nerio Brothers'…" Tayaw then moves on to the other games on the arcade machine. 

~

Having had enough of the games, Tayaw is back in the bedroom Gary lent him.

"Holy sh*t… How did anyone in my world NOT think of those? Not even one…" Tayaw is still feeling the fun of the five games he just played.

"This is just amazing… Alright… But they're a waste if I'm the only one playing them." Tayaw rubs his palms together but finds a problem.

"Which one should I start reproducing?... Quad Blocks! That seems to be the simplest one!." Tayaw decides shortly before busying himself with his laptop. 

A few minutes later, he is finished buying and downloading the software he figures he can use. Tayaw however does not know where to start even though he received the skills to make a simple 2d game from the giant roulette.

After a few seconds more of pondering on how to translate the arcade game to a computer video game, Tayaw takes a sigh and decides to just wing it.

"F*ck it. I'll just learn as I go." Tayaw says as he starts designing the polygons of the game.

<SampleScene>

<T Tetracube>

<Square>

<Square(1)>

<Square(2)>

<Square(3)>

<addcomponent

...

....

After designing them, Tayaw gets to working the controls immediately. 

>{visual Studio}

1.using system. collections

2. Using system. Collections. Generic ;

3. Using. UnifyEngine;

5. Public class Tetracubek : MonoBehavior - /

/ start is called before the first… …

… ifinpult.getkeydown(keycode.leftArrow)

{transform.position += 

…

…

… 

(Look guys. Just like how I don't know sh*t about writing, making music and making films, I also know nothing about programming. So give me a break.)

~

In just 5 minutes, with his enhanced brain, physical prowess aiding his programming skills, he is finally done with the first draft of the 'Quad Blocks'.

"Alright… Test drive…" Tayaw nervously runs the program and starts playing it.

"Oh.. oops…" Tayaw finds a problem with the T block as it goes outside the playing area.

"Let's fix that." That is not the only problem that Tayaw found in the movements of the blocks and so he continues to fix the kinks. 

After refining the details for another 5 minutes, Tayaw runs the game once again.

He then realizes that he is still far from done.

"The scoring and leveling… This must have been a serious video game when it came out, but now, this can only be considered a casual game to pass time. 

"So... unlike the original where it takes a long time to speed up… I think it's better if I lessen the required score to speed the game up....

"No... that's bad. Maybe I should add multipliers instead. COMBOS! That's it! Just like those boxing games! The more successive hits, the more points.

"Maybe I'll make another play mode where it's the time that increases the speed. Hmm. That's a good idea." Tayaw resumes working. 

Another 10 minutes passed and he runs the game again.

"That's more like it… But what's the point of scoring if I can't list it or compare it to others. Hmm.. I'll put in offline high score… the internet high score later." Tayaw shrugs before finding what else is lacking. 

"Oh. The sounds. Hmmm. But the original sounds are dated and cheesy. Very calculator-y. Maybe there are some I can use in the engine package." Tayaw starts scouring through the stock sounds of the game engine until he finds some sound files that he deems appropriate.

"hmm. I have to make them sound satisfying… Muted string pluck for laying the blocks. As for eliminating lines, maybe I can stifle the sound of 'marbles dropping on hardwood' sounding like… crunch! That's it! A soft crunch when eliminating the lines!...

"Wait. No. Crunch seems too loud. How about… a shuffling of cards? That's it! A crisper sound of shuffling cards! Satisfying! Now… when the game's over… maybe an electrified crescendo. It really has to rub the player of their loss.

"And the background music… Why don't I make it immersive too. Hmm. A melody maybe that doesn't have an obvious conclusion… Ah. Atmospheric… ambient… and peaceful… I have plenty of originals like those.

"Wait...! The game speeds up! I'm such an idiot. I should design the music to be more intense as the game goes on!" Tayaw starts designing MIDI sounds with his audio software which he is more familiar with than the game engines. 

A few minutes later. *stack* *stack* *stack* *crrrrrrggghhh* Tayaw is satisfied with the sounds he integrated.

"Cool… It's finally a real game… But if it goes online, I should make an ad-space too. I mean, that's what other games are doing. If they can do it, why shouldn't I?" Tayaw gets another idea. 

A few minutes later. He is finally done putting an ad space; A white square under the 'Start' button, covering the other menu buttons under it. It can only be closed by clicking the small X button on the corner of the ad space. 

"That's more like it… Just like those Facebook and mobile games I played." Tayaw is satisfied.

"…But I still can't play it with others though." Tayaw is still not fully satisfied, however.

"Hmm. Let's make a two player version and THEN test it with the LAN here." Tayaw decides and he resumes his work.

~

A few minutes later, Tayaw is in now Gary's study, seated in front of Gary's home computer.

"T.t.t. done!" Tayaw is getting excited just by installing the game in the computer.

"Oh… It's you. I thought you were sleeping." Ida who has been doing all sorts of chores around the house finds Tayaw all excited by himself in front of the computer.

"Ida! I'm bored~ Aren't you bored?" Tayaw asks. 

"…" The woman in her 40s, is confused and an inappropriate thought even crosses her mind before she brushes it aside.

"I just made a video game and I want to see others play it. Xiao Song and Helena went home, Gary is busy, there's you left." Tayaw says.

"I see… But, a video game? I'm not good at video games except for online poker or billiard games." Ida says.

"That's fine! Here. Sit, sit. I'll set it up for you." Tayaw says as he loads up the single player version of the game.

Ida having done with housekeeping, and finding nothing else to do, complies in curiosity.

"Okay… Bricks?" Ida is dumbfounded looking at the preview animation of the game in the background of the game menu. A few seconds of watching it however, she immediately gets the goal of the game. 

"So, stacking and clearing them?" Ida says, getting interested from the oddly satisfying animation which suits her borderline obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Exactly. Please. Click the start button first." Tayaw instructs and Ida follows. Soon, the game starts. Its speed slow enough for Tayaw to give instructions.

"Okay. The goal of this game is score as high as you can. The speed of those things falling will increase the higher you score."

"Okay. You use the left and right arrow keys to move the bricks left and right....

"Use the up button to spin it clockwise, and down arrow key to speed up the fall....

"...If you can't wait for the piece to fall, just press space bar to drop them..

"Oh. You can spin the piece counter clockwise using the z key...

"If you want to reserve that piece, press the letter c to hold it."

"Alright. I think you've got it?" Tayaw asks. "yeah." Ida says, getting comfortable with the controls. 

"Okay. Let's restart? I know you're bothered by how your stack looks." Tayaw instructs and Ida gladly does so.

Soon, *stack* *stack* *stack* *crrrrggghhh* Ida is now absorbed in the game, pressing the keys on the keyboard skillfully.

A minute or two later, the game's speed increases and so does Ida's hands. She can no longer keep up however and a piece hits the play area's ceiling.

*CRASH* *Game Over*. "Ughhh.." Ida sighs in disappointment.

"3700. Not bad for a first try." Tayaw politely says, finding Ida's score too low.

"Why don't you try –" Tayaw is about to urge Ida to play again but Ida already started a new game..  "again… You'll find it easier this time." He completes his sentence as  he watches Ida's game play again to see if there is something else, he can fix.

He is also secretly hoping that Ida's obsession with cleanliness and organization, which he has noticed having the same habit as hers, will help in getting her focused in a game of cleaning or clearing stuff. 

~

A long while later, *Game Over* Ida already forgot how many times she played, having lost herself in the game.

Tayaw on the other hand, had not seen any bugs and is already satisfied 15 minutes into Ida playing it. While Ida played, he has continued his work at Gary's desk and leather chair and already finished making the game playable to android and iPhone devices.

"… I guess that's all I can do by myself. If I want this to go online, I need the servers… But for now.. ADS." Tayaw mumbles.

His plan for now is to release 'Quad Blocks' as a single player game that will display the ads for 'Gold, Blood, and the Deer', 'Snow White', 'Australia', the Blu-Ray for 'September Ninth', and 'The Ruler's Ring'.

He hopes that this will, in addition to the View Points the game itself might gain, boost the View Points that his other stuff will earn and make his wait for 1 billion View Points shorter. 

"Oh dear…" Ida, who was pulled out from her game after vaguely hearing Tayaw's voice, exclaims.

"Good lord. It's been almost two hours! ..." Ida says, realizing that she has also lost her awareness with the time.

"I have to say, you have very strong focus." Tayaw teases.

"Why didn't you tell me I've been playing that long? I have you and Gary's snacks to prepare!" Ida says, hiding her embarrassment.

"If you were watching my film, I wouldn't distract you from it either." Tayaw shrugs, further annoying Ida.

"Alright. I think I hear your boss coming over." Tayaw says and just like prophecy, Gary walks in the room.

"What are you two doing here?" Gary asks.

"Oh! oH! Ida was slacking off! She's been playing a video game for two hours now!" Tayaw 'tells on' Ida.

"Y-.. wh-.. Ugh." Ida, caught off-guard by Tayaw's accusation, can only look at Gary and Tayaw in panic. 

"…" Gary looks at his computer and he sees that there is indeed strange program displayed. Gary processing the situation gives Ida enough time to recover.

"He made me play it! For two hours!" Ida throws back her own accusation.

"HAHAHAHA! You should have seen your face, Ida!" Tayaw bursts out laughing, not wanting to throw the ball back.

"Okay. What's really going on here?" Gary asks.

"Ida's right. She had nothing better to do anyways, so I asked her to play a game I just made. I promised her a hundred bucks." Tayaw says, surprising Ida with an unexpected reward.

"You made a video game? You know what? Don't even tell me." Gary gives up.

"Anyways. The film…" Gary prefaces, but cannot finish his sentence. "So… how was the edit?" Tayaw urges Gary, worried that Gary did not like it.

"It was great! Oh my goodness. I can't believe it's my work. Well, Xiao Song's and yours too. But I could never have imagined making something like it." Gary says, his eyes shining in pride.