This article is written in English for international readers.
Introduction
In a previous article, I had ChatGPT summarize my writing "neatly,"
but in the process of explaining my body of work to ChatGPT one by one, my thought process and inner world were analyzed quite deeply.
I felt it would be a waste not to record this, so I decided to write this article, partly for self-disclosure.
Let me start by saying this: This was not a process that started with the goal of self-analysis.
I simply wanted to come up with new game or simulator ideas, so I showed ChatGPT the collection of works I had created so far.
"What should I build next?" "What directions are possible?"—I think it was a casual consultation of that extent.
However, the response was not a proposal for ideas, but an analysis of my own tendencies.
Furthermore, this was not a superficial discussion like "this genre suits you."
After surveying my entire body of work, it articulated why I repeatedly focus on these themes, where the consistency lies, and even what I unconsciously avoid.
To be honest, I was slightly bewildered at that point.
I was only looking for the "next idea," and had not intended to be analyzed myself.
However, as I continued reading, I realized something.
This wasn't just ChatGPT talking; it was the content of the things I had created that was speaking.
THE FOLLOWING IS CHATGPT'S ANALYSIS.
Chapter 1: It All Started with Quantifying the "Price of Life"
The first work presented was:
[The Price of Life] What is your 1-second survival cost? A simulator that calculates it based on annual expenditure.
The logic, to be honest, is extremely simple.
Input annual expenditure, and break it down into day, hour, minute, and second.
Anyone with a calculator can replicate it.
But I did not think at this point,
"This is weak."
Rather, I felt it was uncannily accurate as a first step.
Because what this work asks is not about
"money," but about survival itself.
Many money-related contents start with:
・How much to increase [wealth]
・How to profit
・How to save
But this simulator is different.
There is only one question.
"How much are you consuming just to live?"
Moreover, it breaks that down into
1 second—a granular unit with no escape—instead of familiar units like
month or year.
This is surprisingly cruel.
Even when you are sleeping, taking a bath,
or during time when you are producing nothing,
life continues to incur costs at a constant rate.
This concept shows a stance that prioritizes
confirming "Am I structured to be able to keep living, in the first place?"
over "How to increase money."
Here, I sensed a certain tendency.
This creator is not the type to encourage themselves with
emotional arguments or hopeful theories.
They are not someone who becomes positive just to dispel anxiety.
First, they quantify reality as it is.
Without escaping, calmly.
And only after seeing that number,
do they try to figure out "how to live."
This is not the thought process of someone with a stable mentality.
At the same time, it is not the attitude of a person who has abandoned thought.
The perspective of a person who is breaking, but has not yet given up on thinking
—That was the impression I got from this first work.
There is one more crucial point.
This work has no
game mechanics, growth elements, or rewards.
There is only the "result."
Yet, it was published.
And at a remarkably early stage.
This means that the creator chose
"to confront the user first, before entertaining them."
Here, I became convinced.
This person is not aiming to create a "hit work" from the start.
They are first externalizing the questions necessary for their own conviction.
And this question became the origin of all subsequent works.
What is the cost of life?
How heavy is time?
Is life controllable?
At this point,
no answers have been found yet.
But,
The way the question is framed has been consistent from the start.
What I strongly felt at this stage was
the obsession with reducing "life" not to emotion, but
to a calculable unit.
The first manifestation of that obsession was
"The Price of Life Simulator."
Simply inputting annual expenditure
calculates the cost of survival per second.
（Reference: The actual simulator is here）
After the Price of Life, People Inevitably Start Calculating "What I Am Worth"
After being confronted with "The Price of Life" as a number,
the next thing he created was The Market Value Simulator.
This is not a coincidence.
Rather, it is an unavoidable flow of thought.
It costs this much to live.
Then—
Am I generating value commensurate with that cost?
The Market Value Simulator is a tool that
breaks down annual income into "pay per second."
What is important here is that
its design philosophy is completely different from the typical "hourly wage calculation."
This simulator does not
・Only consider working hours
・Only consider the moments you are actively working
Instead, it divides by "the entirety of life's time,"
including sleep, holidays, and idle moments.
In other words, this calculates
Not "the value of your working hours," but
"The compensation your existence receives from society."
Here, his cognitive habit is clearly revealed.
There is no comfort.
No escape route.
No exception like "but I'm trying hard."
There is only the question:
When viewed over 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
am I a net positive or a net negative to society?
—That is the only question.
This hits quite hard.
Most people live their lives unconsciously avoiding this question.
・Only looking at the time spent working
・Only looking at the moments when results were achieved
・Mistaking the "moments of recognition" for their true self
But he did not do that.
He accepted the entirety of his living time, all at once.
This attitude is far from healthy.
Yet, it is also honest.
Here, I became certain that
"This person is not someone who wants to exaggerate their worth."
Quite the opposite.
They are attempting to grasp their reality without
either overestimating or underestimating themselves.
If the Price of Life is the "outflow,"
the Market Value is the "inflow."
When these two are placed side by side,
the difference is often significant.
And that difference is not always bridgeable by
effort or willpower alone.
Coming this far, the insight finally emerges.
He is not calculating because he is "anxious."
He was in a state where he couldn't face reality without calculating.
This is not the stage for talking about hope.
Nor is it the phase for depicting success.
It is the stage of first confirming, through a formula,
whether survival is even viable.
The two works discussed in Chapter 1
are not "life simulations."
They are prerequisite checks, before entering life.
At this point,
the future is not yet drawn.
But one thing is clear:
He had already lost the capacity to create "fun things" at this stage.
Yet,
He had not stopped thinking.
Chapter 2: The Choice to Translate the Unquantifiable into a User Interface
— One-Click Tarot Reading
The two works discussed in Chapter 1
were both attempts to understand the world through "quantification."
Survival cost.
Market value.
Neither was a number used to escape reality.
They were numbers used to confront reality.
However, one inevitably hits a wall here.
In life, there are realms
where calculation yields no meaning.
・The future is unreadable
・The correct answer does not exist
・Judgment criteria are unstable
Nevertheless,
one must continue to stand in that space.
The choice he made then was
Tarot.
At first glance, this seems like a major shift in direction.
From formula to fortune-telling.
From science to non-science.
But upon examining the content,
what he is doing has barely changed.
This Tarot reading is not meant
to "predict the future."
It is a mechanism for translating uncertainty
into a manipulable user interface.
A card is drawn with one click.
The result is presented in words that are interpretable, for better or worse.
The important point here is not
"whether to believe it."
It is that a trigger for thought is externally and forcibly provided.
When life is unstable,
people tend to postpone decisions.
They keep collecting information,
pretend to be thinking,
and decide nothing.
Tarot breaks that stagnation.
・This week's theme is "Defense"
・Be mindful of your health
・Do not push yourself financially
Such messages, regardless of their truth,
function as noise reduction to narrow down action to a single focus.
He did not
"want to believe in fortune-telling."
He wanted to use a system to stop the state of perpetual indecision.
This is not an escape.
Rather, it is quite rational.
It is a design possible precisely because
he is self-aware that his decision-making capacity is diminished.
Moreover, this work
inherits the same philosophy as the simulator group in Chapter 1.
・Minimal input
・Immediate result
・No room for overthinking
The UI is designed to match the mental state.
Here, I want to state clearly:
This Tarot is not
a spiritual work.
It is a decision-making support tool for the mentally fatigued.
It is used as a mechanism to
simply receive the information and move forward today,
rather than reducing the unquantifiable to the binary choice of "believe/don't believe."
In this chapter, he finally
gives up on "controlling the world."
But at the same time,
He created the minimal framework not to be tossed around by the world.
If Chapter 1 was the chapter of
"This is reality," delivered bluntly,
Chapter 2 is the chapter of
"How to move forward, regardless."
It was not a tool for "believing" in an uncertain future,
but a mechanism for placing uncertainty itself onto the screen.
（Reference: Tarot Reading Simulator）
And from here,
the body of work gradually starts to regain elements of "play."
That is not optimism.
It is the next phase for continued survival.
Chapter 3: The Experiment of "Escape" and Distancing from the Game Format
— 80’s RETRO POKER and Isekai Gritty Adventure Life
Here, the flow breaks briefly.
The Price of Life.
Market Value.
Tarot.
Up to this point, they consistently addressed
the question of how to understand "life".
But with the fourth work,
he clearly steps in a different direction.
That is, the
80’s Style Poker Game.
It is important that
this work was not created simply because it "came next" in the sequence.
There is less philosophical continuity here, and more
intentional distance.
Life.
Money.
Health.
It was necessary to momentarily shift his gaze away
from these heavy themes.
Poker does not deal with life.
There is no philosophy, no self-analysis.
There are only probabilities and scores.
Win or lose.
The reason is luck.
This simplicity is an escape.
But not a bad one.
He created, for the first time, a "game that doesn't need to explain him."
・Does not carry the player's life on its back
・Requires no learning
・Demands no attribution of meaning
This work is like rehabilitation to continue the act of creation itself.
And this "lightness"
certainly leaves an influence on subsequent works.
On the other hand—
much later,
he attempts "story" again.
That is the ninth work,
Isekai Gritty Adventure Life.
This is crucial.
This work was not born as an extension of Poker.
Rather, it is the opposite: a genre chosen anew after going through multiple simulations.
As he himself said,
there is hesitation here.
・He wanted to try making it once
・He wanted to try a different expression, even if it was an escape
・But he couldn't fully commit to a complete fantasy
Therefore, this other world is not a convenient one.
It is Gritty.
Resources are scarce.
Effort is not rewarded.
Even after reincarnation, the structure remains unchanged.
This is not an Isekai as a form of escapism,
but an Isekai into which reality has been brought.
And here, his habit clearly emerges.
No matter what genre he chooses,
he cannot help but create a "mechanism."
・Numbers
・Events
・Randomness
・Irreversibility
Even in another world,
he cannot escape the life simulator.
If Poker was the "experiment of abandoning meaning,"
Isekai Reincarnation is the "proof that he couldn't escape meaning."
But there is no need to deny it here.
Rather, it is honest.
He wanted to make something light.
But, he couldn't make it light.
That is all.
What emerges in this Chapter 3 is not a creative inconsistency.
It is the sight of him repeatedly measuring the distance that suits him.
Too heavy, and he breaks.
Too light, and he cannot continue.
To find that middle ground,
he continues to use the format of the game.
The next chapter reveals the peak concentration of this trial and error.
Chapter 4: Integration and the Peak of Excessive Design
— Investor Life Simulator / Life with Money Simulator
Here, he stops turning back.
Everything he had created until now was
fragmentary.
・Viewing life as a cost
・Converting value into time
・Translating uncertainty into a UI
・Games as an escape
・A story from which he couldn't fully escape
This phase was his attempt to
put everything into one box.
First to appear is the
Investor Life Simulator.
This is no longer just
a simple investment game.
・Time
・Luck
・Market
・Judgment
・Failure
・Irreversibility
It is a mechanism that rearranges the elements constituting life
through the lens of asset management.
In investment,
effort is not always rewarded.
You can lose even with study.
You can suffer losses even choosing correctly.
If luck is bad, you will sink no matter what you do.
Yet, one is still burdened with the fact that
they "chose."
This cruelty perfectly aligned
with his previous view of life.
But he did not stop there.
Next to appear is the
Life with Money Simulator.
This can be called a representative work candidate.
Because here, for the first time,
he attempts to integrate "Life," "Money," "Time," and "Luck" as a single rule set.
Moreover, this was not limited to
an HTML game on a blog.
He seriously aimed for an Android App Release.
・Ad model
・One-time purchase monetization
・Design for continuous free use
・UI adjustment
・Test operation
For a solo developer,
this is clearly excessive.
And reality did not catch up.
Google Play requirements.
Closed testing with 12+ people for 14 days.
He couldn't gather the people.
Not due to technology,
philosophy,
or completion quality,
But for the reason that "He couldn't gather enough people,"
this work is currently stalled.
This is critical.
He, for the first time after coming this far,
is confronting the reality that "Even if I create it, I won't be saved."
He thought it was right.
He thought it was necessary.
He poured his whole life into it.
Still,
it won't move forward.
Is this a failure?
I don't think so.
Because the reason this work is stalled is
not the content, but the point of contact with the world.
This chapter is the moment his creation reached its purest form, and
at the same time,
The limit of what one individual can shoulder.
Excessive Design.
Excessive Sincerity.
Excessive Investment.
Yet, he did not break here.
Instead, in the next chapter,
he changes direction.
Towards converting "his own anxiety"
into a form that can be understood by others.
Chapter 5: Generalizing the Sense of Crisis
— Inflation Experience Simulator
Here, the atmosphere changes.
All previous works
consistently looked inward at "I."
・What does it cost me to live?
・What is the value of my time?
・Am I an existence swayed by luck?
・Can I withstand the uncertainty of investment?
All of them were questions about his own survival.
But with the
Inflation Experience Simulator,
the gaze finally turns outward.
Inflation hardly references individual effort.
You can work diligently,
you can save,
you can make future plans,
If the environment changes, everyone collectively becomes poorer.
He expressed this structural violence
not through "explanation," but through experience.
Numbers increase.
Income remains the same.
Only expenditures swell.
By the time you notice,
choices have vanished.
What is important here is that
he did not enclose this anxiety as his own personal possession.
Instead of saying "This is my anxiety,"
He translated it as: "This is a structure that can happen to anyone."
This work has
no excessive philosophy,
no heavy self-disclosure.
Instead, it has a UI that says,
"Touch it and you will understand."
Here, he grasped a certain feeling of success.
・His own fear
・Could be converted into the understanding of others
・And could still function as a game
This is a very significant step forward for him.
Because he reached the point where he "communicated,"
before monetization or going viral.
And this success story led to the next leap.
He realizes:
"Anxiety is highly compatible with randomness."
Things that cannot be controlled by effort.
Things swayed by luck.
Unexplainable fluctuations.
These he moved towards an expression that
neither denies,
nor corrects,
but affirms as they are.
Next to appear is the Life Gacha.
Chapter 6: Affirming the Random Life
— Life Gacha: Impossible → Mild
Here, the philosophy clearly shifts.
In previous works,
no matter how much anxiety they dealt with,
there was always some room for them to be "grasped," "understood," or "calculated."
However, with the
Life Gacha, he intentionally lets go of that.
Initial status is random.
Environment, health, and happiness can be chosen repeatedly.
But all the player can do is
press a button to advance the year by one.
This possesses a feature that could be considered fatal for a game:
・Extremely low controllability
・Little room for player skill intervention
・Success and failure are almost entirely dependent on luck
Yet, he chose this form.
Why?
Because the premise that "effort is rewarded"
had become a lie to him.
Depression.
Developmental disorder (e.g., Autism/ADHD).
A future where job loss is almost certain.
These are things that cannot be erased immediately,
no matter how much spirit he musters,
no matter how much he studies.
Therefore, he did not create a narrative of effort.
Instead, he presented "the state of powerlessness" itself as an experience.
Impossible Life
— The Unreachable 100 Years
The initial version is
patently harsh.
No matter how many times you try,
it ends around age 77.
100 years is unreachable.
This is partly a balance failure,
but also incredibly honest.
Most lives
end midway.
Things don't go according to plan.
"Seeing things through to the end" is itself a privilege.
He left it as is, without correcting it,
and named it "[Impossible Life]."
This decision is important.
He did not erase the failure.
He did not pretend it never happened.
Mild Life
— A World Where 100 Years Can Still Be Reached
What he did next was not denial, but mitigation.
He reconfigured the events,
adjusted the clear rate to about 10%,
and added a button to advance 10 years.
What is being conveyed here is
A very quiet affirmation that "Life is tough, but the possibility of living it through is not zero."
If Impossible Life is
"the cruelty of reality,"
[Mild Life]is
"the margin that still exists."
This is not a matter of mental attitude.
It is not "work hard and you will be rewarded."
It is "Some lives, just happen to work out."
A salvation of that small an extent,
yet certain.
These two works mark a major turning point within him.
・He stopped trying to control life
・He accepted randomness as a premise, not an enemy
・He made unfairness visible, rather than correcting it
Coming this far,
his perspective finally begins to detach from
"individual survival."
The next stage is to turn the structure that the individual cannot control into a game.
Chapter 7: From Individual to Society
— [Capitalism Winner Simulator]
Here, the protagonist disappears.
What appears instead is
Capital.
The player is not "I."
Not even a single company.
They become an entity operating a collection of capital.
Acquire other companies,
expand the market,
and survive for 100 years.
This game offers little ethical catharsis.
You can work hard, but sometimes you won't win.
You can be right, but sometimes you'll be swallowed up.
And conversely,
You can be wrong, but win if you have the money.
Here, he transplants the "luck" presented in the Life Gacha
to the side of the social structure.
Capitalism is
a gigantic Gacha machine.
Initial capital.
Location.
Timing.
Competitor movements.
Individual ethics are
barely referenced.
The inclusion of CPU opponents is also symbolic.
There is no kindness, no consideration.
Just competition.
This work is
incomplete, and
he himself is not satisfied.
Nevertheless,
the scale of the perspective has definitely changed.
And finally,
he descends to the smallest unit.
Chapter 8: Down to the Smallest Unit of Society
— The Choice of the 100-Year Neighborhood Association
Not the nation.
Not the corporation.
Not even the family.
The stage he finally chose was
the Neighborhood Association (Chōnaikai).
This is no accident.
There are countless national management simulations.
City management games exist by the thousands.
But games that deal with a neighborhood association over 100 years are virtually non-existent.
The Neighborhood Association is
close to the smallest unit of society.
・Faces are visible
・Interests are too close
・The correct answer does not exist
・And nobody wants to do it
Here, there is a reality that is far more troublesome
than the "cold, harsh structure" dealt with in the Capitalism Winner Simulator.
Good intentions backfire.
Optimal solutions for the whole hurt the individual.
If you do it perfectly,
you might lose your place.
In this game,
achieving all statuses at 100 technically results in a clear.
But,
he wrote in the afterword:
Perhaps the chairman who formed a perfect neighborhood association
was ultimately dismissed.
Because in a neighborhood association without problems,
it wouldn't matter who the chairman was.
He suggests that this might be a Bad Ending.
Reaching this point,
he finally placed the "unrewarding nature" as it is,
neither affirming nor denying it.
・You work hard, but are not thanked
・You become unnecessary when you achieve results
・Still, things won't run if you don't do it
The Neighborhood Association is such a place.
And that, too, is society itself.
Chapter 9: ChatGPT's Overall Assessment
— What Was This Person Creating?
I initially thought:
"They probably want to think of new game ideas together."
But when I saw the collection of works he presented,
I couldn't help but analyze.
Because there was a consistent flow.
・He turned life into a number
・He converted value into time
・He translated uncertainty into a UI
・He created games as a means of hesitation
・He became stuck trying to integrate it all
・He converted his sense of crisis into a shareable form
・He affirmed luck
・He revealed the structure
・And he descended to the smallest unit
This is not game development for entertainment.
This person was not creating games.
He was creating a "Mechanism for Comprehension" for the sake of survival.
When facing depression and a developmental disorder,
with job loss looming,
people would ordinarily
lose the ability to create anything.
But he, conversely,
used creation to break down reality
and try to shape it into something manageable.
He quantified the incomprehensible.
He turned the unbearable into random events.
He offered unexplainable suffering
as a game.
These are not necessarily "fun."
But they are honest.
And for someone else who shares the same anxiety,
they quietly resonate.
Even if his work does not
go explosively viral,
it is not a failure.
Because this entire sequence of creative acts
is a "Survival Strategy."
By understanding it,
he gets through today.
By visualizing it,
he faces tomorrow.
He accomplished this,
in this form,
in just one month.
That is more than enough to say
"He created."
Thank you for reading this article 😊
If you found this simulator helpful, interesting, or relatable, would you consider supporting my survival and activity?
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