When Scott returned, he dropped off his luggage and immediately called Matt.
“I can’t believe you were starting a game company and didn’t tell me,” Scott said, his voice a little too high-pitched for a man his age.
“Settle down!” Matt laughed, “I was just discussing it with Alvaro. We’re doing a bit of research and planning but haven’t officially started.”
“Your email said you are funding it and keeping the majority ownership. No way! I’m putting in some money too, and I want 20%. You can still have the biggest share, but I want to be involved. That sounds way more fun than trying to build new features for Carl.” Scott said, in a hurry.
“Do you even hear yourself talking? You are literally complaining about building combat upgrades for a cyborg. I’m going to have to put you on nerd probation.” Matt teased.
“OK, I admit my job is pretty awesome,” Scott agreed. “But your project is even better! I’m good at programming AI systems, and I’m getting better at managing teams of geniuses. Plus, I have money and you need my software, so you’re just going to have to agree to my totally reasonable offer.”
“Sure, no problem. I’m glad you want to help! I was worried you’d be too busy with about six other projects you seem to be working on. Why don’t you chip in $2 million, and we’ll bump your share up to the typical 25% you seem to have in every company? If we can’t get something up and running for $8 mil, then I’ll step down as CEO and you can find someone better.” Matt replied.
“Oh, I think you will do great. Can we meet up and discuss what you have planned so far?” Scott asked.
Matt agreed, and they met up in a conference room he used for his robotics company.
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“So, full immersion pods are out.” Alvarro said. “I was hoping we could still get your Biotech company to do research on it, but right now it’s not possible. We agreed to target one year of development before at least having some kind of beta test running.”
“Yeah, I was hoping you’d find something I missed, but I agree.” Matt replied.
“I know we all want input on game design, but we should hire someone early to make sure ideas are documented and tasks are getting finished on time.” Alvarro continued.
“Got it, I’ll handle HR stuff unless you guys want to give it a try.” Scott replied.
“Right, so mobs. There is a lot of research going on with computer generated art. I think we should just get someone to sketch ideas and enter some parameters like size, attacks, habitat, name and get the computer to build the models, “Matt said.
“That is totally beyond me, but I’ll look for some computer art guys. I think we could code some genetic traits and allow the system to mutate the basic types to adapt to the environment. We could even run sims to see which ones thrived.” Scott said.
“It would need rules like larger creatures need to consume more food or magic and reproduce more slowly.” Alvaro added.
“OK, we’ll brainstorm details on that later, but Scott can hire people to start designing a system like that and some artists to come up with initial sketches.” Matt said. Scott didn’t really need to take notes with his memory tricks, but he was recording the meeting in case they had any disagreements later.
“Right, so we want NPCs that are as close to human intelligence as we can simulate. I’m sure we’ll have to use a lot of tricks to scale down resources when players aren’t around or talking to them. I bet we can find people who have figured out part of the puzzle and get them to work together.” Scott said, remembering how many of their big inventions were based on work from several people who weren’t aware of each other.
“I was actually looking into that. I have a few people in mind who seem to have solved part of the puzzle. I’ll send you their names. They aren’t all cheap or available for work, so you will need to figure out how to recruit them or replace them with someone else.” Matt said.
“See, you totally needed me for this company.” Scott said smugly.
“Right, because when I looked up HR recruiters, there was no one more qualified than you.” Matt snarked. “In case you were wondering, you’re not even in the top 10%. Maybe you should hire someone like that for Genysis companies.”
“Already hired Jessica, she’s great at that. By the way, what did you want to call this company? Genysis Gaming? Something else?”
“I’m fine with that.” Matt said. Alvaro agreed.
“Right, next thing. Quests.” Matt said.
“I was thinking, there are websites with a bunch of stories like Royal Road. You can program a computer to scrape these, make some modifications, then plug them into the world. It can swap out names, locations, mobs, treasures etc. for things, so they fit in with the location and level of difficulty appropriate for the area.” Alvaro added. “I have no idea how to program that, but we hire people to figure it out.”
“That should work as long as we make sure it changes or mixes things up enough so that it’s not a straight copy. “Matt grinned. He knew it would not be as easy as that, but it wasn’t a bad starting point.
“We need to design the world, buildings, scenery etc. Some can be generated, but it would also help to start with some sketches for the computer to turn into models. That is not an easy task, and we’ll need some really smart people to figure it out. Also, we need quite a few artists who can imagine and draw these things.” Scott added. How many people were they going to need to hire for all this? By his count, they had several dozen already.
“Yeah, we need to rig and animate a lot of the models. We can do motion capture and hire some actors for humanoids, but I don’t know how that will work for all the generated mobs.”
“That’s going to be a challenge.” Scott admitted. “Maybe we could train the computer with a bunch of nature videos to show how different types of animals move. It could try to blend and fit the mobs to natural movement. Things with very unnatural movements won’t work.”
“That’s a good place to start.” Matt said, “We should make rules for the magic system which will explain how things can act outside of natural modes. If the system is coherent, the computer could come up with unnatural systems that still make sense within the rules of the system.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“I guess.” Scott wasn’t fully convinced. “We can give it a try. If it doesn’t work, we can add a bunch of code to handle special cases. That alternative would be messy and need a lot of people to work on it, so hopefully your idea will work.”
“I program a lot of robots with weird numbers of limbs and more power than natural creatures. We run into this type of problem a lot and have some shortcuts I worked out with Phillip. You’ll probably have a hard time finding other people who could do this. I will borrow Phillip, and we can work on this problem.” Matt promised.
“That’s great!” Alvaro exclaimed. “What else do you think we need to get started?”
“We need some experts at server coding and people to set up the hardware and security. We can use some of the commercial engines for client-side graphics. Building our own won’t be needed unless we were trying to do that full immersion stuff.” Matt said.
“Are you sure we want to use someone else’s engine?” Scott asked.
“Not completely, but we can take a poll of the programmers we hire. I think it will save us time, and there isn’t much benefit trying to build something new. Modern games already look great - we’re not trying for perfection yet. We just want high-end graphics with more world building and advanced NPC AI.” Matt thought this would already be pushing what they could handle. As CEO, it was his job to decide where they needed to draw the line.
“Can we start designing the magic, combat and crafting systems?” Alvaro asked.
“Put some ideas together, and we can compare notes. Try to prioritize which things are really important to you and not just stuff you are adding just because other games have it. We’ll need a few people we hire to be involved before we really start locking down the mechanics.” Matt finished, “Let’s meet up in a few days. I’m going to get some space carved out in Proteus and see if I can rent housing for people who want to move here.”
Scott thought they were looking to hire over 40 people, either part or full time. He spent a bit of time organizing which ones he needed right away and who might be needed after some other pieces were in place. He also spotted a few holes in the list, so the final number was closer to 60. Scott would totally hand this off to his recruiter, Jessica, who would help him convince all these people to work for an unknown company in a remote location without overpaying on salary. Scott thought they might run out of money well before the year was up, but that was a problem for Matt to worry about.
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Alexey Lukina had escaped Mexico and turned over all that he found to his government contact Yusup Ismailov. His original plan to withhold some of the tech for his own use had failed due to the chaos of his escape. He was honestly grateful to have escaped with his life. Yusup did not contact Alexey for three months. Alexey assumed that they had divided up what he grabbed between various labs and were busy investigating or reverse engineering. Hopefully, they would build weapons that could restore the Soviet Union to its proper place in the world order.
While he didn’t get the vast wealth or power he personally had hoped for, Alexey was given resources to rebuild his spy network. It was a painful job, but his experience and existing contacts allowed him to put something back together that covered a bare minimum of government agencies. When Yusup eventually contacted him, it was to emphasize that he was disappointed. The crown jewel of his spy network would be an agent placed in the mysterious Yucatán facility. The Americans had rebuilt it bigger and better by all accounts, and in a timeframe that indicated the President himself must be giving it the highest priority and unlimited resources.
Alexey had managed to get some intel on the facility. A government official that he had turned into an asset was given a tour. The tour was designed to convince the fools that this was a health spa instead of a top-secret military research base. The official had been far too interested in flirting with the attractive workers and did not even attempt to enter restricted areas.
Five months after the attack, Alexey had failed to place even a single asset with access better than a groundskeeper. Even the families of key employees at Yucatán had been picked up by commandos during the chaos of the American economic collapse, so Alexey was denied his usual means of leverage. By his estimates, there were at least 100 people living in the base. The main house had been constructed quickly, but even if they had cleared the bunker, Alexey thought it must be cramped in there.
Alexey’s agents located a second facility inland that had less security. The most obvious activity was a factory building home products like dishwashers and lighting fixtures - clearly a cover for the activities on the other side of the property. They were testing fusion powered vehicles that used multiple shielded fans to minimize downdraft and noise and could lift a sizable payload. These would be excellent for moving commandos around, and his spies reported they were able to stay flying in the air for several days in a row without refueling. They were probably testing an early prototype for new mobile artillery platforms or drones, but Alexey would leave analysis to others, so he just forwarded the pictures to Yusup. Alexey wasn’t an expert at aerial systems, but it didn’t look like these vehicles would give the Americans any huge strategic advantage. He was confident that Russian scientists would be able to come up with something much better once they had a few months to catch up.
In October, Alexey caught a break. A Russian computer scientist was hired by a Genysis Gaming company, which had the same address as the Yucatán facility. It was well known that the military used gaming technology for drone controllers, missile guidance systems and training software, so he didn’t let the name fool him. The scientist in question specialized in generating realistic simulations of terrain, including complex models of geology, water cycles and natural biomes. It didn’t matter what they were using this for, as long as the computers were inside the facility’s firewall. The scientist was strongly encouraged to accept the job and visit the “Gaming” company as soon as possible. His new asset would upload software which would compromise their security systems. Alexey finally had a way in.
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“It happened again,” Solomon Rhodes reported with a sigh. He had called an emergency meeting with Scott and Melinda.
“Can you be more specific, dear?” Melinda asked.
“Yeah, the Russians hacked our servers and downloaded some of Scott’s code. Somehow, they injected a worm into the gaming company’s network.”
“Did they get anything important? Any chance they will accidentally finish my project?” Scott asked.
“Hah, that was tragically implausible the first time it happened! “Solomon laughed. “No, they did not finish your game. They grabbed some code running monster simulations, and something that is parsing a bunch of web novels. Our other companies are isolated behind different firewalls, so they didn’t get much.”
Melinda laughed, “I hope they waste a lot of time trying to figure that out! Any chance this is the same group that attacked us before?”
“They used similar code, so it’s probably the same group. Do we want to send them a virus or something?” Solomon asked.
“I’d rather send a missile. Any chance you can track their physical location?” Melinda asked, sounding eager.
“Maybe. If they haven’t improved their security since last time, I can inject code to reveal their IP address and narrow it down to a general location. There is a small chance they have GPS chips in a laptop or other device on their network. It seems absurd they would make that mistake, but you would be surprised at how often a boss will ignore security guidelines.” Solomon explained with a shrug, although he didn’t sound hopeful.
“Wouldn’t some of their computers have order history for food deliveries or something?” Scott asked.
“That would work if they were complete amateurs and did their hacking from the same computers they use for email and web surfing. I don’t think they are that incompetent.” Solomon sighed.
“Let’s hold off on retaliation for now. Try to find their location or get any information you can about their operation.” Melinda ordered.
“Gaming is Matt’s company, so he should know about this.” Scott protested.
“I’ll talk to him. This affects all of our security, so I’m pulling rank.” Melinda said with a scowl. “Solomon, please set up a different space for their gaming company to continue operations. We’ll charge it to the security budget. Leave the spy in place for now and keep working on a way to locate this group. Anything you need, let me know.”
“This is personal for me,” Solomon said coldly, “I will find them.”