In October 1997, a game was released in North America.
This game, published by a Scottish company called DMB Design, was an action-adventure game where you had to commit various crimes in the city from a top-down perspective while evading the police to earn money.
At first glance, one might think it’s just an ordinary game, minus the crime aspect.
However, the true value of this game lay elsewhere.
It was the world’s first “open world” game.
In this vast virtual world, players could freely explore, complete missions, and interact in countless ways, captivating gamers with overwhelming freedom to roam the world, enjoy missions, quests, and various encounters.
Gamers went wild with the primal instinct for chaos, stealing cars, shooting people, and unleashing a flurry of bullets, attracting substantial media criticism. Ironically, this backlash was seized as an opportunity to promote the game to the world.
As a result, a game that excelled in shooting, driving, sound, and graphics became legendary, transforming into a popular franchise representative of Western gaming through the showcased points of “freedom” and “crime.”
This is the game that surpassed legend to become a miracle, with over 420 million copies sold worldwide:
“GTC (Grand Theft Car: The Great Car Thief).”
My first encounter with the GTC series was GTC2.
At that time, it was 2D with a top view, and the feeling of open-worldness was surprisingly limited.
But with the release of GTC3, a 3D open world opened up, leading to a truly new realm.
Roaming the expansive city as GTC made it immensely fun just to steal cars and engage in shootouts.
Moreover, the various missions based off interviews with real criminals breathed life into the GTC world. I feasted on the experience, playing through GTC’s universe.
Shootouts in the streets were the norm, I stalked NPCs to see how far they’d go, and I even tried installing napalm inside a club, setting traps at the entrance to watch fleeing NPCs step on mines.
I thoroughly enjoyed GTC3, GTC Vice City, GTC Andreas, GTC4, and GTC5, but sadly, I met my demise before getting to play GTC6 and ended up reincarnated in another world.
Thus, I had longed to create an open-world game.
However, creating a massive world was no easy feat.
The capacity of the crystal ball reached its limits in implementing and running everything, such as the buildings, NPCs, and carriages that made up the city.
In a situation where there were no separate clients like in “Galaxy Craft – Real Version,” I was about to give up and simply sell it as a hobby project, even if it was expensive, when I stumbled upon the Dragon Heart Stone.
To my surprise, the Dragon Heart Stone allowed me to create a colossal world without issues, enhancing my abilities sufficiently to produce a respectable open world in just an hour.
Indeed, a new world was opened up for gamers everywhere.
*
“Bang!!! Bang!!!”
“Stop right there!!!!!”
My character threatened the bank tellers with a shotgun.
An NPC resembling Jerry worked hard to stuff money into a bag, and when the bag was full, my character picked it up.
“Damn!!! The sheriff is already here!!!”
“Let’s get out of here!”
During this, my comrades who had already entered notified me about the sheriff’s arrival, and I hurriedly followed them outside the bank.
There was the carriage we had prepared for our escape.
As everyone hopped onto the carriage, the next event triggered.
“Is everyone on!?”
“Yeah!! Let’s get moving!!!!”
“Bwaaaaang!!!!”
The carriage’s magic engine roared to life as it started to race away.
In driving mode, I could see the sheriff’s carriages chasing us from behind.
“Hey!!! What do we do!? The sheriffs are on our tail!!!”
“What do you mean what to do!? Just use it, you idiot!!”
In driving targeting mode, I pointed the reticle at the pursuing sheriff’s carriage and slammed the fire button.
“Take that!! [Fire Dragon’s Staff]!!!”
“Pewwwww—Boom!!!!”
The Fire Dragon’s Staff, which enables even the magic-less to use “Paora (Flame Spear Magic),” fired off a flame spear.
The flaming dragon spear collided with the sheriff’s carriage, exploding into a massive fireball.
“Wow!!! This is awesome!!!!”
While I marveled at the weapon’s performance, something changed in the star indicator in the upper right corner.
“★★★★☆”
With the shift in stars, new carriages appeared.
These carriages looked considerably sturdier than the sheriff’s, roaring towards us.
“The peacekeeping forces are here!!!”
“We can’t fight those guys!! We escape as is!!!!”
The peacekeeping forces were on a different level from the sheriffs.
I focused on steering the carriage to escape, while the screen displayed an exhilarating chase scene.
Avoiding the pursuing peacekeeping forces, I performed flashy maneuvers, leading to the destruction of several peacekeeping carriages, still keeping the pursuit at bay using the Fire Dragon’s Staff.
As the streets turned into a sea of flames and the sky darkened, I successfully reached the mission completion point.
“Phew! That was thrilling.”
Looking at the mission clear screen, I felt proud.
If this was the quality I could create in one hour of work, then making a game with the quality of the GTC5 I enjoyed in my past life was certainly within reach.
With a satisfied expression, I turned around.
“How’s it look, everyone? Pretty cool, right!?”
Turning confidently, I found everyone with their mouths agape in shock.
Sylvia, looking incredulous, asked me, “Yuren… what on earth is this insane game?”
“The name isn’t set yet. For now, I’m calling it ‘Project Open World.’”
I still hadn’t decided on a name for the game.
Calling it GTC wouldn’t work since this world lacked cars, so it had to be carriages, but “The Great Carriage Thief” didn’t sound cool.
“Brother, this game isn’t set in Irene Land, right? It’s just for testing, right?”
Jiren asked with a serious expression.
Why ask such an obvious question?
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Then… are you really planning to make a game about committing crimes in a city based in Irene Land?”
“Exactly.”
Irene Land was the city we had designed and built.
I understood it better than any other city and was confident in creating it accurately.
Upon hearing my words, everyone gasped again, and Karen swiftly approached to confiscate the open-world crystal ball.
“I’ll secure and dispose of this quickly.”
“No!! My ‘Open World’!!!”
Thus, all the magic created using the Dragon Heart Stone was taken into storage.
Was this what denial felt like…? It had been a while since I experienced such emotion.
*
After tidying up the lab, we gathered in the conference room to organize our thoughts.
I explained to everyone about the open-world game I aimed to create.
“I understand now what kind of game you want to make, Yuren.”
“But Yuren, even I think this is a bit much. You’re turning our Irene Land into a crime city.”
“Is that… is that so?”
I had lived in Ansan in my past life.
It was a city known by many nicknames, but it was peaceful and a pleasant neighborhood.
I thought the city would gain fame through humor.
“Right. Yuren, if it were me, I wouldn’t want to visit a place like that, no matter how fun the amusement park is.”
“Really?”
To the people of this world, the image of a crime-ridden city seemed much more severe than I had realized.
Still, when I thought about how to modify and repackage it, my Master spoke with a profoundly sad expression.
“Yuren, my disciple… do you want to start a war here?”
“I’m so sorry!!! Master!!!!! My thinking was too narrow!!!!!”
I had made a mistake.
I had acted foolishly.
I prostrated myself before my Master, and Sylvia and Jiren comforted me.
“The game itself looks fun, Yuren.”
“Right! Brother, let’s just change the city model and go with it.”
“But… if we’re making it, it’d be better to have a clear city model.”
Creating a generic city could work, but having a clear model adds a sense of life and vitality to the city.
This was my line of thought, and listening quietly to the meeting, Sora spoke up.
“Yuren, why not model a city known for its crimes?”
“Is there such a city within the Empire?”
“None within the Empire, but there’s one outside of it.”
“…………Ah!?”
The moment a city model was determined.
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