The Anti-Trope Game Designer Drives the System Crazy from the Start

Game designer Lin Qi, mocked by the industry as a “UI tyrant,” is fired and unexpectedly bound to the Ultimate Game Designer System. The System forces him to make mindless, fast-paced hack-and-slash games, but he instead pulls out a brutally hardcore interface for a Classic of Mountains and Seas devouring-and-evolution game. Dense etched runes, bizarre energy bars, and controls driven by spiritual awareness make it so complex that players collectively lose it. The System issues frantic warnings and punishes him with psychic shocks, only to discover that the interface is parsing and slowly devouring its core rules. When the System flies into a rage and prepares to forcibly format its Host's brain, Lin Qi looks at the interface on the verge of crashing and smiles faintly. “Are you sure you're still the one in control?” This is the ultimate showdown between a designer and a system over the very definition of a “game.”