Chapter 26: Echoes of Creativity
The soft thrum of the air conditioner mingled with the clicking of keys as Cal scrolled through his recent VOD comments. It had only been 12 hours since the Friday Night Funkin' stream, but already his inbox overflowed with messages from excited viewers—modders, musicians, and even fledgling developers from all corners of the globe.
One comment in particular caught his eye:
"Hey Streamer-san! I recreated your version of the game's UI in Flash! Can I show it to you live?" – from @shindogamedev
He blinked, leaning closer. A Flash UI recreation? Already?
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[Viewer Influence Ripple Detected: Early Game Prototypes Being Developed in Alternate Timeline]
[Unlockable Opportunity: "Dev Community Bridge"]
[Mission Available: Stream Indie Game Showcase with Mod Interaction – Reach 150K Live Views]
[Reward: +10,000 Points | Special Tag "Dev Whisperer" Unlocked]
Cal rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
He had streamed games and anime that shocked the past. But now he saw something deeper taking root. This wasn't just passive viewership anymore—this was collaboration. People were building based on what he streamed.
And that realization gave him an idea.
"What if I give them tools before they even exist?" he whispered.
He opened a blank document and began typing: "Top Free Indie Engines & Tools of the Future."
STREAM TITLE: "Building the Future: Free Dev Tools You Need to Know"
Tags: #IndieGameDev #OpenSource #RetroTools #Godot #GameMaker #UnityLite #ScratchPlus
The countdown ticked to zero, and Cal appeared onscreen—not in a game window this time, but inside a custom layout mimicking a developer's desktop, courtesy of the system's interface.
He spoke directly to the camera this time.
"Tonight," he began, "we're doing something a little different. If you watched my last stream, you saw Friday Night Funkin'—a pixel rhythm game that looked simple but packed more punch than most triple-A games. But what makes games like that possible?"
He clicked open the first folder: "Godot Engine."
What followed was less a spectacle and more a masterclass.
He showed the basic interface of Godot 3.x—dragging sprites, writing small GDScript snippets, previewing game scenes in real time. The viewers were stunned. Comments poured in.
"This looks easier than C++…"
"Wait, you can make games without millions of yen??"
"Where can I get this?"
Then he showed GameMaker Studio, the original tool used to build early Undertale prototypes in his own timeline.
He loaded a mockup project prepared by the system: a simple bullet-dodging game with retro pixel art. Within minutes, Cal demonstrated how to set collision rules and enemy behavior.
"I've been scared of coding, but this makes it look like drawing with logic."
"Can we try this for class?"
"I wanna make my own game now."
Finally, he introduced Scratch+, a fantasy version of MIT's Scratch—an enhanced visual programming language that was incredibly popular among beginner developers in his original timeline.
He showcased a remix of the rhythm game, built entirely using blocks.
It wasn't just entertaining—it was empowering.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
Live Viewer Count: 157,230
Mission Cleared: "Dev Community Bridge"
+10,000 Points
Title Earned: [Dev Whisperer]
New Feature: "Open Showcase Mode" Unlocked – Allow External Submissions During Stream
As the stream ended, a quiet message appeared in the chat:
"I'm 15. I want to make my own rhythm game. Can I send you my build?"
"I'm in Thailand and just downloaded Godot. Thank you."
"My daughter watched this with me. She's drawing characters already."
For a long time after the camera went off, Cal just sat there in silence. Not the silence of emptiness—but the silence of a mind still absorbing the magnitude of what had just happened.
Elsewhere in the World
Japan – Osaka Animation Academy
Instructor Arai watched the Friday Night Funkin' stream replay alongside his class.
"That's... not anime," one of the students muttered.
"But it moves like it is," another said.
"It has rhythm, aesthetic, and it's full of expression," Arai nodded. "More emotion in a few pixels than some full episodes we've worked on."
They took notes. Then, they sketched. Arai quietly sent a message to an animator friend who worked freelance:
"Can we try animating a music game opening? Just for fun?"
France – Modding Community Discord Clone
A teenager named Luc, alias "BytePirate," stayed up past 2 a.m. rewriting a code base.
He was determined to clone the game from the stream. But better.
His version had customizable characters and beatmaps. He had no idea his small project would snowball into something that, in the coming months, would birth an entire modding genre based on what the world thought was an "unknown streamer's dream."
Brazil – São Paulo
Two cousins who had never coded before used Scratch+ to recreate the Bopeebo track using colored tiles and animation keys.
They uploaded the project to their local web forum with the title: "Game of the Future?"
By morning, it had 12,000 views.
Back in Cal's Apartment
[SYSTEM MESSAGE]
[Viewer Activity Analysis Complete]
[Fan-Created Games and Tools: 57 Projects in Development Based on Recent Streams]
[Upcoming Feature Available: "Beta Stream Portal" – Showcase Fan Submissions Live]
[New Path Branching: "Interactive Streamer" vs "Cultural Archivist" – Select Style Path]
Cal stared at the screen.
"Interactive Streamer" or "Cultural Archivist"?
One would focus on community integration—streaming viewers' games, reacting live, helping creators grow.
The other would focus on preserving key media, reshaping release timelines, showcasing the future through carefully chosen classics.
Two branches. Two styles.
He sat quietly, fingers hovering over the selection.
"…Why not both?" he whispered.
And as if the system had anticipated that answer, it split the path into dual-mode.
[NEW STYLE MODE UNLOCKED: "Fusion Streamer"]
[Stream Types Unlocked: Legacy Drop | Fan Feature | DevLab | Replay Theater | Culture Dive]
Next Day – New Stream Title Posted
Title: "Legacy Drop: Undertale – The Game That Changed Everything"
Tagline: "Before it changed the world... what if YOU saw it first?"
Scheduled Time: 8:00 p.m. JST
A thousand retweets.
Dozens of fan art drafts.
Even YouTube remixers began preparing speculative music based on "leaked" content from the Undertale VOD, despite never having played it.
Some animators reached out to collaborate.
Cal's stream wasn't just influencing games anymore.
It was awakening a global urge to create.
And the past—this alternate 2010—was no longer following its original script.
End of Chapter 26