239 (Auxiliary) Junior Developer Notes

Junior Developer Note:

This is my journey with the character I created: "Gederick, the Golden Majestic".

Okay so the team leader said that every member of a team has to create their own NPC. This is to test our creative capabilities.

The ones with perfect or even mildly good lore and compelling personalities are added into the game as small DLC packs, coupled with unique rewards if the player defeats them.

I've always had a wild imagination. You know, the kind that children have. Mine was still very much alive well into my early twenties. I always had this dream at night where I lead an army numbering in the millions, ready to defend the divine realm. The God of War, a man braving through the frontlines to protect the land that he calls home.

Yes, I admit it's a going to sound like a bit of a self-insert but… I can't help it. Just imagine it: greatest warrior in the divine realm, a man capable of ending a thunderous storm with his roar alone, a man who could lift tectonic plates to create tsunami's and flood the nation of his enemies… That's the kind of man I want to be… Of course, fantasy is just that… fantasy. I'm not even sure if there's a second life for me after I die. Will I reincarnate and become a great magician, scholar or warrior in another world? Will I just fade to nothing?

Gederick is supposed to be the complete opposite of who I am: shy, awkward with girls, average looks, low self-esteem… I wanted him to be the perfect version of me. In any case, the team leader was taken aback by how much backstory and lore I put into the character to give him depth. So much so that she took it to the CEO. He agreed that we should add Gederick as a hidden boss to test Luke von Berkley's skills once he goes into the dungeon during the midgame arcs.

There was an issue though: He was way too weak to bear the title of [God of War] or [Golden Majestic]. Canonically, Luke was already a veteran swordsman by the time he enters the dungeon but still needed the power to fell a demon lord. If he goes into the dungeon after receiving the holy sword then he'd completely annihilate Gederick who is only level 33. The difference in stats wasn't astronomically huge but Luke was still far stronger at level 70.

I went back to planning. I decided to do more research on the game's mechanics, its weapons, armors and stat differences between mortals and gods. I had to do this to balance things out. The official requirement for the Sky God Dungeon is level 70 so I had to choose wisely.

I made Gederick level 99 to make him a much bigger threat than the Offspring that lurk the dungeon worlds beyond the walls. The team leader didn't like this idea. Gederick was apparently way too strong, even for endgame Luke with the holy sword in hand.

She asked me "Isn't Gederick supposed to be a disgraced god who lost everything that made him the Golden Majestic? His equipment and armies weren't the only things he lost. He served no purpose to the divine realm so his power weakened with every passing decade". I admit she was right to question my sanity for making Gederick almost level cap even though the only purpose for his existence in the game is to protect the World Ring Fragment.

With everyone's criticisms in mind, I went back to planning…

Junior Developer Recording #2

After days of planning, I managed to find a way to perfectly insert Gederick into the game's lore and his backstory to make it make sense.

His original goal was to travel the nine realms to find out what he could do to prove his worth to the gods and make them accept him again. To him, being exiled was akin to death. He's known war and fighting all his life. Taking that away from him was like taking the bread out of a poor orphan's mouth. Due to the Fragment that he had to keep safe, he was forced to remain in his stronghold for decades, not being able to fulfil his dreams.

Gederick lost most of his power as a demigod and his level was reduced to 33 after two centuries. He was like a plant without water and soil to nourish it. With each passing decade, he would lose a fraction of the memories and power he had when he was known as the Golden Majestic. Naturally, this led to him losing his skills as the famed demigod warrior as well.

One day he had enough! He told Fiannei, his Divine Mount, that he was going to go seek and fight strong warriors and get back the power that he lost due the shackles of duty holding him in his stronghold.

By the time Luke is supposed to go into the Sky God Dungeon, Gederick should've been level 66. Gederick saw the level 70 Luke as a worthy opponent so the two of them fought, promising that he would let Luke go into the divine realm if he wins in a duel.

This finally got the team leader's approval.

We added him into the game's next major update.

Needless to say, the community loved Gederick.

A mighty deity who lost his godhood and was sent to a far-off land to carry out the last duty his mother entrusted him with—that sounds pretty cool haha. When I close my eyes, I imagine that I'm the one fighting the player.

I was quite happy with the results. Hell, the team leader put me in charge of character lore. My job is now to paint a background for some of the game's side characters who appear mysterious and unimportant at first but had a huge impact on the game's past or future events. A tiny fraction of their lore is provided once you interact with these characters more and you can even say that that was enough to know how important they are but my job is to make their stories more interesting.

Two of the many examples of this include that skeleton merchant who can jump to every world as he pleases and Commoner Faction Leader Cain.

I enjoyed writing those characters' backgrounds, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed creating my original character Gederick.

Anyway, that's the end of my recording. I should probably add this recording to the system as a "congratulations" message once the player beats Gederick. Ah, but I should edit it first. Don't want my embarrassing stories known by every player out there.

Developer Note #3

It looks like there's some more news about the character that I created. This time it's really bad. Apparently, I accidentally left the level 33 and level 99 versions of Gederick's Character Files in the game. A player from one of the top guilds notified me of this.

I have no idea what kind of bug or conflict this will cause. I can't even remove it on my own since it would create bugs in Luke's Sky God Dungeon questline. Hopefully the team are able to patch it out in the next update.

Team leader is going to be so pissed…