Chapter 44
20 minutes after the interviews.
Chen Xu had yet to reach his office due to traffic.
Reports and articles from major gaming news outlets had already appeared.
《 Revealing, Nebula Games’ next game is likely to be…》
《 Chen Xu : I’m a Warrior of Love 》
《 No plans for a new game yet, but according to Chen Xu’s words, Nebula Games’ next project is likely a heartwarming love story! 》
《 The rising indie darling : The Warrior of Love – Chen Xu! 》
The interest generated by the science fiction contest has yet to pass, and ‘To the Moon’ is still being recommended on the official platform.
This combined with the wave of new articles released have brought the name of Chen Xu into the awareness of many new people.
The followers of his official social media has reached over 800,000. And with the current momentum, it is only a matter of time before it breaks the 1 million mark.
At the same time, in his public designer profile, ‘To the Moon’ was added under the “Masterpiece” tab, and a small title was added to his introduction excerpt. “Warrior of Love”
Many players were also discussing the articles in their forums.
- [ Warrior of love? The hell is that? ]
- [ I mean if you think about it, Chen Xu really does seem to like heartwarming elements. Disregarding ‘Mirror’ and the horrific parts of ‘Undertale’ ]
- [ The pacifist ending of ‘Undertale’ was full of love. ‘To the Moon’ was full of love, I think he might be onto something ]
- [ Yea, if you put it that way, I guess so ]
- [ This makes me even more curious about his next project ]
- [ Should be another heartwarming adventure, I’m actually looking forward to it ]
- [ Yep yep, warrior of love… ]
……………..
Meanwhile, Chen Xu couldn’t care less about the happenings on the internet.
He had just arrived in his office and was itching to spend those delicious banked up emo points.
Golden rays of light bombarded his vision constantly. The special effects were pretty great, it all looked so solid and real.
50 draws in a row.
The spoils of war:
37 ordinary skill books covering storyline, music and level design.
4 rare skill books, covering architecture, psychology and music, again.
And 9 memory capsules.
There were enough points for 1 last draw, Chen Xu didn’t overthink and just spent it.
The golden light was surprising, and looked like he would receive something noteworthy.
It wasn’t a skill book, but an item, similar to the memory capsules.
[ Fear Converter ] (120 days)
Effect : x10 point multiplier to player fear emotion (6 million points collected limit)
A consumable item that boosts points earned with strict limits. It seemed like a mid game item that helped with scaling.
Something else that bothered him about the item’s description. It didn’t specify if the points cap was before or after the multiplier effect.
Ultimately, it didn’t matter too much. Points were points and 6 million was a huge amount either way.
But this time limit…
It was concerning. He could see the seconds ticking down even while the item was in his inventory. He had to make use of it soon, or risk wasting a rare consumable.
So just like that, the genre of his next project was decided for him. It would have to be a horror game, or something adjacent. He couldn’t stand to let this item go to waste.
But what title specifically? He was still mulling over it.
It definitely wasn’t going to be a small project like before. No no no… It had to be bigger, at least moving from 2D to 3D.
But at the same time, the scope cannot be too large.
Even if game development is simplified in this world, there are still limits. What you can and cannot do will be restricted by the resources available to your designer ranking.
And like building blocks, while everyone on the same level would have access to the same pieces, the type of structures you can build would be limited by your personal skill level.
There are many pieces of these “building blocks” to consider. Take Action games and FPS games for example.
In these types of games, the most important thing is the sense of impact.
And how would you create a sense of impact?
Through “Building Blocks” like Sound effects, Controller Feedback, Special Effects, Vibration of the UI Interface, Physics, etc.
With the most fundamental one being Freezing Frames.
Chen Xu is not planning to make something incredibly complicated for his next work.
He began writing down his plans as he mumbled to himself, “ A horror game with some action elements…”
An idea of what he wanted was sprouting in his head, but Chen Xu did not immediately act upon it. Instead, he first when sleuthing around the internet, scouting out the current landscape of horror games in this parallel world.
There were no especially noteworthy titles compared to his previous world. But the situation was very different.
There were no large-scale productions of horror games or films in this world. Nothing with big investments or big production values. Everything regarding this genre was small and indie.
But the market share was still rather sizable. With some horror games selling up to almost 10 million copies.
Of course, that example is an older title. It’s been on sale for a few years and even has multiple holiday discounts.
All in all, horror is actually a rather niche genre in gaming.
Unless the developer has a special love for horror in general, no one is going out of their way to develop horror games for the latest VR platforms.
There hasn’t been a horror game created in this world that is suited to VR. And the cost of developing VR games is always very high.
The risk is simply too great to bear.
And as for horror games on the PC platform, there have only been 2 types of ventures. The budget approach, like ‘Undertale’ and ‘To the Moon’, or something a bit bigger like AA games.
After having a deeper understanding of the market and other related trends in the horror game genre, Chen Xu quickly made his decision.
With the capital gained from ‘Mirror’, ‘Undertale’, and ‘To the Moon’, Nebula Games currently has the funding for a AA production, something medium sized.
And the market share, though relatively niche, still occupied an important space, comparable to classic genres like RPGs and FPSs.
If made well, it will be able to generate hype and sell well. But now, the question is what to make.
When it comes to horror games, Chen Xu actually has a lot of options.
The Resident Evil series, the Silent Hill series, Dead Space, and so on…
But after careful consideration, Chen Xu decided upon ‘Outlast’ as his next project. Mainly because it was more suitable for his current situation.
In terms of length, ‘Outlast’ only takes around 5 hours to complete. And if you speedrun it, you can be done in less than an hour.
And another very important point, when compared to many other famous horror titles, is that in this game you are unable to directly defend yourself. You play as a reporter, not a combatant with a weapon.
This is good, because the development team at Nebula Games is still new and untested, removing combat as a feature would ease the burden and allow the team to ease into their roles.
To Chen Xu, this game was not just an opportunity to make use of his time-limited consumable, but would also serve as the perfect team-building exercise. Giving the fledgling company a chance to test out game engines in a more in-depth fashion.
Experience on action and shooting can be honed using the enemies in the game, while the protagonist, who will be controlled by the player, will be used to sharpen their skills with traversal and environmental interactions.
In almost all aspects, ‘Outlast’ is a game that can realistically be recreated and improved according to Chen Xu’s expectations, and with the current resources and skill levels available.
He is confident in the quality of the game he could produce, but the only things that bothered him were the potential reviews.
Though not particularly egregious, ‘Outlast’ was still a relatively graphic game, with scenes of blood and gore.
While the rating system in this parallel world is well-rounded, whether the game will even be allowed to pass will still depend on the decision of the Games Department.
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