As a game designer, Alex Parker felt that his life was perfect.
Every game he developed has been recorded in the history of game development.
"Journey" won seven awards at the World Game Developers Conference, including "Best Visual Art," "Best Game Design," "Best Sound Effects," and "Most Innovative Game of the Year."
"League of Legends" had reached its seventh year and remained the undisputed leader of PC online games. The S Series World Championship continued to break new records for viewership and popularity.
"The Last of Us," "Uncharted," and "GTA5" were globally popular, selling tens of millions of copies and breaking multiple records.
VR games "Outlast," "Glory," and "Horrorland" revolutionized the VR game industry and were revered as classics by countless game designers who studied them repeatedly.
Even casual games like "Honor of Kings" and "Onmyoji," which he developed on a whim, dominated the mobile game market for years, seemingly unbeatable in his lifetime.
Not to mention the card game platform he developed in just two months, making money effortlessly.
And then there's "Train..." Well, he got carried away and never developed that one.
If there was any regret in his life, he couldn't quite shake off his habit of daydreaming during overtime.
Yes, all of this was Alex Parker's imagination. In reality, he was the lead planner at a domestic mobile game startup. After two months of intense overtime, it was inevitable that he would start daydreaming.
Like other game planners, he entered the industry full of dreams, but after years of overtime, reality had worn away those dreams.
However, Alex still insisted on calling himself a "game designer" rather than a "game planner." This was probably his last bit of persistence.
Alex looked at the programmer sitting next to him. There was an empty instant noodle cup from last night on his desk; his hair was messy, and he had huge dark circles under his eyes.
No way, the programmer stayed up even later than him.
Alex wondered what kind of creatures programmers were. He felt like he would collapse if he stayed up five more minutes, but the programmers could maintain a near-death state for months and still energetically jump around after fixing a bug.
Sigh, everyone was struggling.
"I'm so sleepy. I need to lie down for a bit."
Alex didn't know if he lay down or passed out; he just felt darkness before his eyes and lost consciousness.
Alex wondered if he was hallucinating, but in his dream, he heard a voice.
"Loading game..."
"Main objective: Become the greatest game designer in the parallel world."
"Side objective 1: Monthly revenue of a single game exceeds 270 million USD."
"Side objective 2: Monthly active players of a single game exceed 100 million."
"Side objective 3: Develop games for PC, mobile, and VR platforms, with a classic work on each platform."
"Side objective 4: Enter the World Hall of Fame, achieving top celebrity status."
"New player rewards: None."
"Game difficulty: Highest."
"Game guidance: Closed."
"Parallel world switch countdown..."
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
"Game start!"