(Chapter 11 - The Museum of Everything)
GameDev looked back at the square. She gently kept floating in midair, waiting for his response.
"I am not buying your narrative," he insisted. "I know that I am unable to find a decent alternative to the solution you just presented, but that doesn't mean that it is a good one."
She got closer to him and rebuked. "Does your judgement matter, though? You have been searching for a solution, and if there is only one which is proven to work, you have no choice but submit yourself to it. Don't be a slave of your illusion of creativity."
"I raise my doubt not on the basis of my ego, but on the basis of the fact that following the majority's path will simply put me in an endless rat race," he opposed stubbornly.
"What is your alternative, then?" Asked the square.
He spent a few minutes trying to come up with a way to brand himself as a man of steel, capable of creating his own library of values without relying on the voice of the world's already established heroes (He preferred to call it "psychological entrepreneurship"). Such an attempt was so inexplicably vast in scale, though, that he could not save himself from being lost in his tangled string of reason.
Noticing GameDev's internal desperation, she resumed her speech. "Okay. I will show you the place in which you can see the virtue of becoming a creative individual who solely harnesses one's own skillset for pure win, without borrowing the power of any authority whatsoever."
She made a few chirps.
The circular hall morphed itself into another architectural masterpiece which was somewhat similar to but still distinguished from the previous one.
They were now in a long lobby of a large public exhibition area, which had a great number of entries to its individual showrooms.
"We are in the Museum of Everything. This is where we can find anything we can possibly imagine," she explained.
They entered the closest entrance to see what was inside. As soon as GameDev entered the room, he realized that he was standing in front of an infinite array of brightly lit glass cages, each of which contained a unique three-dimensional object in it.
"What is this place? It looks like this area is infinite in size; I cannot even see the walls, except a faint horizon which seems immesurably far away from us!" He exclaimed.
"It is because we are in an infinitely wide room," she answered calmly. "Behold each of these intricate sculptures; what you are seeing is the ultimate collection of all three-dimensional forms that can possibly exist in space."
He looked puzzled, so the square led him to the entrance of another room which was also infinite in size.
This new room was filled with an endless array of partition walls, each of which was filled with a group of colorful canvases.
She explained. "This is the ultimate ensemble of all pictures you will ever be able to draw in your mind. Mona Lisa, The Birth of Venus, The Scream - they are all here, somewhere among these countless pieces. You just can't find them right away because there are so many."
"Why are you showing these to me?" He asked.
"It is to show you that the world is already brimming with masterpieces," she replied. "Your talent has no meaning in this ocean of perfection, and every strain of your personal effort is a mere howl against an empty wall."
"You are making me feel wretched," said GameDev, grumbling outside but crying inside.
"Let us visit the third room, which is filled with every piece of literature you will ever be able to read," she whispered.
He knelt down and spoke in sheer bitterness. "No, I have seen enough. Everything I have ever dreamed of inventing has already been invented, And no matter what I do, I am and will always be an utterly insignificant little rat. The world is way too large to make anyone special, and every bit of individuality is but a speck of dust in the vast pool of proud talent."
"Do not despair," she said. "There is no reason to raise sorrow over mere observation. You are miserable simply because you assume that being a rare gem is a requirement for becoming a successful game developer."
"Without uniqueness, what remains?" He cried.
The square leaned over and gently said, "Familiarity."
Noticing that GameDev was perplexed by this one-word answer, she began to explain. "No matter how big and saturated our world is, people stick to what they are familiar with, and build intimate relationships with it. A person loves a game with which she spent her childhood, not because it is 'special' in any objective manner, but because it occupies an irreplaceable portion of her past."
She took a deep breath and continued. "The key to unlock someone's heart is to keep showing that you care about the person. And the way to give life to this unbreakable chain of intimacy is constant dedication. Make a game which is enjoyable, and keep tending it like a rose with its own birthright. It will then be 'special' in the eyes of your audience."