The video game forest was always dark, because I hadn’t programmed the day yet. The NPCs sightlessly patroled their circuits, awaiting nothing. There was no randomness. I don’t believe in that RNG shit. Everything was on a big long loop, repeating once every thirteen months. NPCs going to the market, pretending to buy virtual bread from other NPCs who pretended to sell it to them. I did throw in one wrinkle, for the (potential) publishers - the dialogue was generated on the fly. That was to be my secret sauce. So while the actions were deterministic, the conversations would vary. They would adapt to the player, or lack thereof, and give the world its flavour.
That was the idea anyway. It had been about three years and I still hadn’t secured a producer. Without funding, without a monetization model, there was no point in releasing it. I could afford to keep a demo version running twenty-four seven, but not an arbitrary number for each user.
I’m shutting down the demo version now - the version which has been running for three years around the clock. But first I’m taking a nostalgic trip into my world. To say goodbye to my long slumberin dream.
(( view from an NPC could be, like what is this bread for? This money? The others? The world? Eventually come up with operational metaphysics in absense of real survival pressures. ))