Success and Set Backs

" Dad... Dad." Ashley called out to her father who seemed to be stuck in his thoughts. As she tried to grab his attention.

" Hmm, yes what is it? " Oliver asked, upon finally hearing Ashley call being brought out of his recollections. " We need to stop by the mall on the way. Just to get a few things for Ji-woo. "

Oliver glanced at Ashley through the rearview mirror who had just spoken with a hint of suspicion in his eyes. He had been a husband and father long enough that understood one thing.

The mall and women were two very close friends as well as being an enemy to his wallet and time. " Alright, twenty minutes that's all I'm giving you three. I still need to get back to work. " Oliver said finally.

Even though he knew for a fact that his own two daughters would grab a few items for themselves in the process. He didn't mind money was no longer a big concern for them.

Hence, Jennifer and Ashley have been becoming less frugal with their spending. Which wasn't more than a hundred dollars a month in total.

They were still used to budgeting and not spending too much money on things they didn't need. The same went for everyone else in their family.

" Sorry, for the inconvenience once again. " Ji-woo apologised at this time, thinking that she was causing Oliver and his family problems.

The three had been discussing in the back seat about what Ji-woo needed quickly. Ji-woo hadn't thought Ashley would directly ask her father to make a stop at the mall just for her.

" It's no problem at all. Just don't take long. " Oliver said as he made a detour to the nearest shopping mall. Soon enough, however, Oliver quickly realized his mistake not long after nearly thirty minutes passed. Worried that the three girls would spend a whole hour inside the shopping mall.

He quickly called Ashley phone, urging the three to hurry up and return. It was only after another ten minutes did the three girls returned to the car. Oliver now had a displeased expression on his face, but didn't say anything about it to the three.

He wanted to quickly drop the three girls back home and get back to work. Ashley and Jennifer also didn't say anything as well. The reason why the three took so long wasn't because they were inconsiderate.

It's just that there were a lot of people in the mall today, and they had to wait in line awhile after grabbing the things Ji-woo needed as well as somethings for themselves. It took another fifteen minutes before Oliver dropped off the girls at the house. Before he drove back to the office to finish some urgent work for the day.

Watching their father rush off Jennifer and Ashley proceeded to help Ji-woo acclimate to her new environment. Settling her in their small shared bedroom, they also gave her some of their clothes to wear for now

As she hadn't brought many items with her, to begin with. It was also decided that she would be sharing a bed with Jennifer for now.

At Star Horizon Office Building, Oliver upon entering the building quickly headed to his office room. Where he found Martha busy, on her computer very focused on her work as he entered. " Still hard at work. I see." Oliver commented as he over walked to his computer desk.

" Oh, you're finally back I see. " Martha looked at her husband who left to handle the situation with the girls. " Yes, sorry for running late. " Oliver apologized as things here had now be becoming a little chaotic since yesterday. With a substantial increase in the number of orders, they receive a day.

" Hmmm, it's fine. How Ji-woo is she doing okay? " Martha asked, letting out a sigh of exhaustion. "She doing fine physically from the looks of it. Emotionally I'm not sure. " Oliver explains briefly.

As they both recollected their own shared experience, being abandoned or forced to leave by both of their family members wasn't an easy thing to get over.

This is exactly what he experienced himself, even though he had never had a good impression of his father. After, his mother's untimely death it however still hurt having to leave his family.

Especially, his younger brother Daniel who had only been ten at the time. Their father couldn't be said to be abusive, however, he was generally very neglectful towards the two growing up.

Martha has similar thoughts about her family abandoning her. Due to the expectations placed on her at that time. The husband and wife continue to discuss the similarities of their own past experiences causing them to empathize with Ji-woo.

Unfortunately, the discussion couldn't last longer as the two had more important things to do for the day. Which resulted in Oliver having to leave the office once again this time with the accompaniment of John.

Duke's long-time friend, the two heading to hopefully strike up a partnership with a small party packaging company. Usually, they would package all the orders made themselves.

However, that was now quickly becoming unproductive and time-consuming. Hence, Oliver had no choice but, to partner up with a third party in this matter. Who would then begin to manage the packaging of the books.

New York Manhattan

Quentin Tarantino, along with a crew of carmen, sound engineers, and other crew members. Including the actors and extras began shooting the hospital scenes for the movie.

Alex stood with Robertson, and Stevenson watching over the filming direction. Tarantino seemed to become increasingly more and more harsh as well as strict when it came to filming.

Alex watched Quentin's meticulous preparation for the filming, making sure the entire cast and behind-the-scenes crew. Were all in place at this moment. "Alright take nine, scene two. And... Action. "

The scene began as Lawrence Gordon the male lead, was busy treating patients of his. Tarantino wanted to shoot the less intense scene first, another reason was that this was the time the hospital had agreed upon allowing filming.

Alex had previously thought of building another production set at the Fire Foxx production studio. However, Harry found it cheaper to shoot the scene here than to spend more money on building another movie set.

He was already spending a lot of money on building various new television series production sets. For all the new television series that were greenlit which involves finalizing the script, hiring the actors and crew, finding locations. Along with determining what equipment is needed, and figuring out the budget.

Alex has a lot of basic and some advance knowledge about filmmaking. However, he still lacked experience in general when it came to the real deal. Which isn't a big issue since his main focus is still on the developing game industry.

The filming went smoothly mostly however, Alex had to leave early to get back to working on Mortal Kombat with Robert. As much as Alex wanted to stay and watch over the filming he unfortunately didn't have the time or luxury to do so. The cast of Friends was nearly complete with a few more weeks to go with casting.

One thing Alex appreciated about filming certain types of television series. Is that there was always time to make adjustments as the series went on air for certain types of television at this time.

For instance a Live Audience show, each episode is filmed over one day generally speaking in front of a live audience. The benefit of these changes and adjustments can be made during the airing of the show in question. Using the audience reaction as an outline for further improvement and revision.

This is different from streaming shows that were made later on in the future. Which was the same as filming a movie, as the entire series is shot and completed for binging shows.

When it comes to a scripted drama or comedy not filmed in front of a live audience, the whole series is generally filmed, one episode at a time. But, will start airing the show before they have finished filming. It generally takes about 9 months to film a full 22–24 episode season. Each episode takes between 5–8 days to film before it goes into the editing process.

For reality TV, they generally film the entire season before the show starts airing. That way they can edit anything together from the entire run before they start airing the show.

Returning to the Fire Foxx production studio Alex went to continue filming with the cast of Mortal Kombat using the same technique he did before. With the rest of the cast for the game, this time the whole cast would be present.

Thanks to yesterday's experience Alex can give more detailed instructions on how he wants things to be done. He also wanted to take the impute of the rest of the crew as well as the actor involved.

This time the whole cast of the Mortal Kombat were in the room together. " Alright, let's start. " Alex spoke in a loud voice gathering everyone's attention in the room. Seeing everyone's attention had been drawn to himself, Alex continued speaking.

" The Filming schedule will be held for two to three weeks. I hope everyone will be as cooperative as possible during this period. " All the actors and crew members nodded their heads along with Alex words.

He could see Kerri Hoskins who was the only female in the cast member in the whole room seeming a bit nervous. Which is understandable another thing to note was her original outfit in the first game. Had been drastically overhauled by Alex.

She supposed to be a soldier, of a special military combat unit from nearly a hundred years from now. From the time period the game is set in which is the year 2099. This is to account for all the cybernetic-enhanced characters that will appear in later games.

This also went for Harrison who played Jax Briggs. Both of them were dressed in black and green military uniforms with a pair of black wrist gauntlets. Which would fire different coloured energy blasts from both wrists.

Kano's costume was also changed as well to a pair of black jeans and boots. With a circular red cybernetic heart appearing on his bare chest. Which is more in line with his redesign in later games.

As for the other five characters, he didn't bother changing their first initial costume.

The cast and crew did their best to carry out Alex instructions. Which were mostly throwing kicks and punches inside a square as they captured their movement on video. Alex had the actors add their own favourite moves to the scene recorded.

He also had James Wan who played Liu Kang, help Kerri Hoskins with her fighting stance. As well as show her how to properly throw a proper punches and kicks on the sides. As they shot scenes with the other actors.

Due to the limited memory of arcade machines. Caused most of the characters to have similar move sets to each other, that wouldn't be the same for the console market. Alex had to figure out clever ways around these problems, as arcades are where these types of games can thrive and gain recognition quickly.

The filming lasted about five hours, with several takes needed as their a few mistakes made by Alex himself and the actors. During the filming session of the team.

All in all, it wasn't a bad first day of shooting with the whole cast. James Wan who played Liu Kang didn't have a lot to film scene too shot as they had already done most of his stunts and cartography the previous day.

Alex went to check on the progress of the programming team. Alex spent around twenty to thirty minutes checking up on the progress of the team while chatting with everyone. Currently, six people are working on the game not including Alex himself. While the other half of the team went back to begin work on new project.

The main reason for this is that Mortal Kombat and most video games at this time don't need many people working on them. Mainly since the technology of the time limits what is possible. The fact of the matter was that were now too many people employed currently, by their game studio.

One or two people can easily handle each aspect of the games in question development, the only thing that takes time is creating new programming software. Which took the teams time to learn and adjust to as they worked on each new project. It was already close to four o'clock when Alex decided to head back and make dinner at the apartment.

Alex hadn't been forced to do this by anyone, however, he knew his aunt Helena was still recovering. And was constantly kept awake in the night by the baby, Alex decided to help out wherever he could while he was still staying here.

As Alex knocked off for the day, back in Brooklyn at Blue Star Interactive's main headquarters. The team working on their new title DOOM had run into a big problem.

" We might need to drastically redesign the entire game and cut back the content if we want this to work," Sam spoke up as the team of programmers set together, in the meeting room cutting the silence in the room.

"..."

" Two thousand five hundred kilobytes of RAM. What is the best computer in the market RAM capacity? " Mark asked, his face gloomy at this moment. This was the estimated RAM needed for their new game title to run on PC once completed.

Wolfenstein 3D only needed 528 KB of RAM Space, which was cut down to 483 KB by the three. By cutting out three enemy types and hidden rooms originally inside the game.

" The best computers out right now have about 512KB to 640KB of RAM space from my memory. " Gray answered, at this time solemnly his voice barely audibly but, with the silence in the room right now everyone heard his words.

" So, basically there's currently no computers on the market that can run our game is that it." Roger the game's second designer spoke up his expression becoming even more gloomy at this moment. Looking to everyone expression in the team across the table. Finding that he wasn't the only one feeling down and out right now.

They were supposed to release a demo of their new game titled DOOM in the next three days. Which would have been next week Sunday for free as went for all demos of their games. Before releasing the full version of the game later next year. There was no official release date for the game set yet.

As they were putting together the demo for the game this situation came up. Note the demo is only about two levels and was barely able to run on their current PC hardware. This was a shot to the heart, as for cutting back on the content it is impossible.

Unless they drastically overhaul the entirety of the game redesigning the whole game and removing a tone of game coding that took up a lot of space.

Their own policy wouldn't allow that as well, they had to first all finish development and testing of the game through the demo. Before going back for further polishing and development of the game, before deciding the date after completion.

"We need to delay the game indefinitely." Mark suddenly spoke up again at this time, having done some deep thinking o the situation. Having arrived thus arriving at this conclusion, his words stunning everyone inside the meeting room.

Looking at the stunned expression of his team, Mark continued his words. " Rule two of Blue Star Interactive rules of conduct. All games must be released in a complete and playable state upon release. Maintaining a high level of quality gameplay and storytelling. "

These were the rules of conduct decided on the game development for their gaming studio, created by the three founders.

Building a good brand image for the Gaming Studio was of utmost importance for the long-term survival of the Game Studio. Hence, releasing half-baked games at this time was unthinkable to not just three of them but, went everyone in their teams.

Especially, after the great gaming crash of the entire game industry just four years ago. A large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including market saturation in the number of video game consoles and available games, many of which were of poor quality.

Home video game revenue peaked at around $3.2 billion in 1983, then fell to around $100 million by 1985 a drop of almost 97 percent. The industry itself is still in the midst of recovery in what is retrospectively currently considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America led by Nintendo.

Mostly due to the widespread success of Nintendo's Western branding for its Famicom console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), released in October 1985. With a slew of high-quality game titles that can be said to have single-handedly saved the gaming market in the West.

Hence, knowingly releases a new title that was unfinished or ran poorly on current hardware systems. Is something they wanted to avoid as much as possible, especially just after releasing a great title like Castle Wolfenstein 3D.

As for redesigning the game Mark didn't think it was a good idea. It would be a time-consuming effort on their part. As well as making all their previous work over the past four months of development on the game obsolete.

" So, what do we do now? " Jack the current lead Designer on the game asked. As he looked across the table. They had all put a lot of effort into the game already.

Not to mention the efforts other previous members of the project put in as well. As they went on to developing other games namely Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat. Had all done a bit of work on the game itself before the split into new smaller teams.

This would definitely also affect the release schedule previously discussed upon for the game studio's upcoming games. " For now. We put the entire project on hold for the time being. I'll speak to Michael and Alex about the situation. The rest of you can consider yourself all on temporary leave. " Mark finally spoke after some thought.

Ever since taking leadership over the DOOM project. Mark has become more bold and confident as he spent more time in charge. Looking at his younger brother's expression and his decisive actions made Grey immensely proud at this moment.

When Alex had made his younger brother leader of the DOOM team. He had previously been a little upset at his decision, however when he and Alex spoke privately. He understood Alex reason for putting him under his little brother's leadership.

Mark has always been a shy and reclusive person. Outside of Michael and Alex he only had one other friend Gray could point to, which wasn't a bad thing. However, his lack of confidence if continued would greatly affect him in the future.

But ever since taking the lead on the DOOM development project. His self-confidence in himself has greatly increased as while as his leadership skills.

" Well, I'll guess go and check went the other teams have been working. " Hugh spoke as he prepared to leave the table. His expression solemn as went for everyone else in the room as they all left. Leaving Mark and Grey alone in the meeting room.

DOOM had been estimated to be completed by early or late September by their team. And would have likely been released early next year. Internally it had already been decided that it would likely be released early February the following year.

" Hey, you did a good job. " Grey comforted his younger brother who seemed depressed at this moment. Upon hearing his older brother's words Mark came out of his troubled thoughts.

" Really?" Mark asked, turning his to look at his older brother for reassurance. " Yeah, I couldn't have done any better myself. If I were in your position, I would have just decided to go back and redesign the entire game. " Gray admitted.

He didn't have the same resolve to stick to their original vision for the game when it came to this matter. Sacrificing all the previous months' work already put into the project. " But, I'm not entirely sure what we should do now?"

Mark admitted to be honest, he didn't think he had the power to drastically redesign the game on his own. Hence, why he decided to postpone the game for now before discussing things over with Alex and Michael.

" Hey, isn't that what friends are for? I'm sure you, three can figure something out. " Gray encouraged as he petted Mark on the shoulder.