The next day, as soon as Caelan arrived at the academy, he was surrounded by his classmates.
"Caelan, you're finally here! Hurry, while there's still some time before class, quickly conjure the chess so we can play again."
Caelan didn't refuse. With a wave of his hand, he conjured a board on the tidied desk, then went to his seat and sat down.
Yesterday's chess had caused a minor sensation.
Students from his own class and several adjacent classes all knew about this new and very interesting board game in first year class eight.
Many students from other classes came to play, and they even wouldn't let Caelan leave during lunch, as the board would dissipate if Caelan moved too far away, losing the support of his mind palace.
Thus, Caelan experienced special treatment for the first time. Several wealthy classmates paid, and those without coin contributed their efforts, buying a large amount of delicious food from outside the academy.
Everyone ate and played games together, with many even playing late into the evening.
Sitting in the classroom, Caelan wasn't idle. Besides providing mental support for the conjured board, he was also constructing a framework for his ideas in his mind palace.
And the path Caelan thought an Illusionist could take was to create games.
Admittedly, due to the Weave's weakening, the realism of objects conjured by Illusionists was greatly compressed. However, games didn't require such realism. Just like in the early days of the Famicom,
the pixelated graphics of that era might look fake now, but the joy they brought him back then was not diminished.
Now, the first game Caelan wanted to make was the first game he ever played in his childhood—Contra.
Of course, it would only be based on the framework of the original game; the plot definitely couldn't be copied directly.
For example, the original was an alien invasion scenario, but he couldn't set the plot that way. He also planned to change the guns in the game to magical staves.
Last night, Caelan had already constructed the game in his mind palace. Next was his gradual testing to see if there were any bugs or unreasonable designs.
On Earth, Caelan's gaming talent was actually quite ordinary, and he was the kind of person who would absolutely avoid hardship if possible.
So he'd joined the Cheat Users' Guild early on and become an entry-level member. Based on this, after seven or eight rounds of testing, Caelan—who died again at the falling rocks in the third level—finally grew impatient.
No, no, testing games is really too tedious. What should I do? But I can't not test it either.
Caelan, frowning, slumped at his desk, pondering how to proceed with the path of making games with illusions.
He didn't worry for too long. As he scanned the "System" he had once constructed in his mind palace to display his attributes, Caelan suddenly had an idea: why not construct some personnel specifically for testing games?
He acted on the thought immediately. Caelan quickly based it on his own gaming skill level and constructed ten ordinary-level testers,
letting them start playing and testing the game. After some thought, he again used his own skill as a standard, raising it one level to construct ten advanced testers with better abilities.
This method was actually very simple: it was like writing a program, improving reaction speed by slowing down the entire game, giving more time to think about how to act, and strengthening attack speed.
After easily creating ten advanced testers, Caelan again constructed ten expert-level testers. Caelan was about to continue his efforts to create ten master-level testers, but then he felt a sense of inadequacy—
the mind palace was infinite, but mental fortitude ultimately had its limits, and higher-level testers naturally required more mental energy.
After some consideration, Caelan transformed all the testers in his mind palace that looked like him into simple stick figures.
Only then was he able to successfully construct ten master-level testers. After sending all the testers to test the game he had made last night and activating acceleration mode, the class bell rang. Caelan withdrew his attention and focused on listening to the lecture.
Today's lesson was still about how to use the Spinning Fireball spell.
This spell required condensing a fireball with mana while simultaneously using Wind magic to guide the direction of the fireball.
This spell had a great advantage: its flight trajectory would make it very difficult for opponents to defend against. Those skilled in this spell could even easily unleash spinning fireballs that varied in speed, making opponents even more frustrated.
Moreover, this spell's power was not weak, and its mana consumption was not high, making it a very cost-effective spell. Its drawback was that it was too difficult to learn.
According to memories and conversations among classmates, this spell had already been taught for five lessons, and more than half of the students in this ordinary class eight still hadn't learned it.
Caelan was naturally one of those who couldn't learn it. After storing all the new knowledge points into his mind palace, during self-practice time, he began to check the results of the game testing.
"The position of this turret in the first level is not good; it's almost useless. It should be adjusted higher, placed at this position..."
"The paralysis time in the second level is too short; it should be extended a little..."
"This jumping enemy should be a bit faster, otherwise the difficulty is too low..."
"The falling rocks should be a bit larger..."
"The third level boss design is unreasonable; there are two positions that will never be hit, and its health should also be strengthened."
"Wind magic is too strong; it must be nerfed."
"Earth magic is too overpowered in levels two and four; it must be nerfed."
"The fault tolerance in the seventh level is too low; almost no one below master-level testers can pass it. Please extend the mechanism cooldown time."
"..."
He didn't know until he tested, and once he tested, he was shocked. He hadn't expected that the Contra he had constructed from memory would have so many flaws.
He quickly modified them one by one and had the testers continue testing. However, Caelan did save the data for some parts that master-level testers could pass, which could be used to set difficulty later.
When they returned to the classroom from the mana gathering chamber, everyone again asked Caelan to conjure the chessboard.
There was no reason to refuse something that could increase his mana. With a wave of his hand, he conjured the board and placed it on the desk for them to play, while Caelan himself sat in his seat scratching his head.
He was currently troubled by a problem: whether or not to adjust the firing speed of the guns in the game.
Anyone who has watched expert speedrunners online can see that the expert players in the videos instantly kill bosses.
This is due to a game mechanic, which can be summarized as: "The number of bullets on screen has a cap, so the closer you are to the enemy, the higher your damage per second.
" Therefore, as long as you output at close range, no boss can last long, including the final boss.
After careful consideration, whether for nostalgia or to enhance the fun of speedrunning, Caelan decided to keep this mechanic.
However, he planned to only have this mechanic on specific difficulties. Compared to this world, the game was divided into five difficulties:
Easy Difficulty: The game basically replicates the Contra from his previous life, with only changes to the character and monster models. Most other aspects remain unchanged, with minor changes being five lives and strengthened boss health.
Compared to the original, the difficulty should be slightly increased. The explosive close-range output mechanic is retained.
Normal Difficulty: Building on Easy Difficulty, this increases the number of monsters appearing, strengthens boss bullet patterns, and removes the explosive close-range output mechanic.
Hard Difficulty: Building on Normal Difficulty, this further increases the number of monsters appearing, and strengthens boss bullet patterns and health.
Expert Difficulty: Building on Hard Difficulty, all monster health is doubled, trap cooldown times are shortened, and the movement speed of enemy bullets is increased.
Master Difficulty: Building on Expert Difficulty, this is a one-life clear, monster movement speed is increased, but the explosive close-range output mechanic is reintroduced.
Furthermore, on Easy and Normal difficulties, the command "Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, B, A" can be used to activate thirty lives.
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