His catalog was another problem. Beyond a handful of big titles, it was thin. He planned to carve out time for smaller projects to fill the gaps, building out his selection without sacrificing quality.
On the development side, any team member with a promising idea could bring it to Alto, and the trading company would handle publication on their behalf. He also intended to approach outside designers. Good works that were well-received could be brought under his company's banner as well.
For the time being, the core business remained centered on Moonstone distribution. Once the Moon Elf Territory was properly taken care of, expansion beyond its borders could follow.
The changes taking shape in the Moon Elf Territory were already beginning to spread to the outside. But that brought an old problem back to the surface, one that had nagged at Alto for some time. Why was the Dream World still confined to the Moon Elf Territory?
After speaking with the temple elders and Ophelia, the answer came into view.
Exporting works to other regions carried steep taxes and transportation costs, compounded by tensions rooted in faith. The Elven Empire had no unified state religion, and the worship of non-evil deities was broadly tolerated, but that tolerance had its limits. Behind the civility, quiet rivalries between churches played out constantly.
The Moon Goddess gathered faith differently from other deities. Entering the Dream World didn't require genuine belief in her, yet Moonstones were still tied to her name, and various elven factions taxed them accordingly. In Lunaria, the price remained within reach for ordinary citizens. Life wasn't luxurious, but it was stable, and spending occasionally on a new work wasn't unreasonable. Outside the Moon Elf Territory, the combined weight of taxes and transport costs pushed prices several times higher, well past what anyone would consider spending on something non-essential.
For human settlements and the Demi-Human tribes, the situation was worse. Even without added taxes, most citizens there couldn't comfortably afford a login device and Moonstones together. It was a luxury, plain and simple. Without any meaningful promotion either, interest had never caught on, and over time, the Moon Elf Territory had largely stopped thinking about the outside market.
Alto had a different idea now.
High taxes on every Moonstone sold? Most people are unable to afford one? Fine.
If they couldn't buy, they could rent. And if renting was still out of reach, he would change the model entirely.
Experience Centers.
Rather than selling Moonstones directly, he would open storefronts where people could walk in and play. A combined sales and café model, running side by side. Those with the means could buy a login device and cartridge and enjoy everything at home. Those without could come in, pay a small fee, and have the same experience without committing to a purchase.
The login devices themselves were inexpensive. Setting up a network of these stores in volume was a realistic goal. There was no need to rush, though. One step at a time.
Helena stayed as his assistant, a position Alto had no intention of replacing any time soon. He trusted her judgment, and she would be needed in the development work ahead. It was also worth noting that his previously unpaid assistant had finally begun earning a salary, now sitting at twenty thousand a month.
Once the arrangements were in place, Alto turned his full attention to ARK: Survival Evolved.
Everything else was secondary. Development was the priority.
His team had grown to over twenty people, and as the project kicked off, they threw themselves into it without hesitation.
[ARK: Survival Evolved]
Developed by the American studio Studio Wildcard, ARK first entered early access on Steam in 2015 and released its full version in 2017.
The story is set in the 22nd century. Humanity had advanced Tek technology using energy elements carried to Earth by meteorites, but these elements corrupted living organisms and gradually developed a collective consciousness. In time, most life on Earth was lost to this corruption.
Facing extinction, humanity launched two parallel efforts: the Ark Plan and the Genesis Plan. The Arks were enormous ecological space stations, each governed by an artificial intelligence called an Overseer. The Genesis Plan dispatched spacecraft in search of habitable worlds elsewhere.
The Ark Plan preserved humanity's future by cloning exceptional figures from history and placing them aboard the stations. Players take the role of survivors dropped into an Ark environment populated by dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures. Progressing through challenges and defeating bosses, among them the Island's giant ape, the Broodmother, and the Dragon, they grow stronger. After clearing maps such as The Island, Scorched Earth, and Aberration, survivors return to Earth with one final objective: defeat the King Titan, the source of the corruption, and end the crisis.
Though the game's narrative is deliberately fragmented, scattered clues piece together a larger story through several central figures.
The paleontologist Helena uncovers mounting inconsistencies within the Ark ecosystems. The chemist Rockwell begins as a mediating voice but slides gradually into darkness. The Eastern Han warrior Li Meiying tames beasts and rises to become the Beast Queen. The Roman centurion Nerva builds a legion and pursues the Arks' secrets by force.
Through their conflicts and alliances, the true purpose of the Ark experiment slowly surfaces. In the Extinction era, Li Meiying sacrifices herself to protect Helena. Helena enters the Ark's data terminal, uploads her consciousness, and merges with the elemental energy, ascending into what the game calls Homo Deus, a mythic human, a being of godlike capacity. She refines the cloning technology so that survivors' memories persist through death, allowing players to resurrect indefinitely and move freely through the world.
The data apparition players encounter throughout is the ascended Helena herself.
He was giggling to himself while revising his knowledge of the game, since she and his trusted assistant shared the same name. Also, given the game's light narrative focus, Alto had no intention of making sweeping changes to the story. A few character background adjustments would be enough. His real attention was on the creature systems, specifically combat, taming, and hunting.
The original taming loop was too blunt. Knock a creature unconscious, feed it the right food, and watch the taming bar fill. He planned to replace it with something more involved. After knocking a creature out, the player would implant a device to begin a data intrusion sequence. The creature's hunger would climb steadily throughout, requiring continuous feeding. Maintaining it long enough without interruption would cause the taming to succeed. It wasn't a radical overhaul, but it added genuine tension to the process.
The maps would be expanded as well, with certain creatures native to this world folded in where they fit without breaking balance.
With the framework confirmed, Alto began working through research on prehistoric animals and ancient plant life, building the reference base he needed.
Development had officially begun.