Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Chapter 59

The popularity of ‘Outlast’ continued to rise on live streaming platforms, video sharing platforms, and major gaming communities.

While video game journalists and media sites began publishing their reviews and scores for the game.

On the critics’ side, ‘Outlast’ received a positive average rating of 8.5 out of 10. It also received a high average user score of 9.1 out of 10.

Amongst the 3 games developed by Nebula Games so far, it had the lowest scores.

(For obvious reasons, ‘Mirror’ is not included)

However, in terms of sheer popularity, ‘Outlast’ stood head and shoulders above them.

‘Undertale’ opened up the concept of metagames and could be considered a pioneering title in the genre.

So its popularity was understandable.

‘To the Moon’ gained significant attention by piggybacking off the Sci-Fi game competition.

‘Outlast’, in contrast, received very little aid from external factors, but generated much more discussion among the community. It was also the fastest to go viral among the 3 titles.

(Again, ‘Mirror’ is excluded because gentlemen games is a strange and mysterious genre)

But what truly sparks discussion among Chen Xu’s peers is the sales figures.

Only Chen Xu has the actual sales numbers, but numerous 3rd party organizations were providing their estimations.

According to them, ‘Outlast’ is expected to have sold around 250k copies within the week of launch.

In terms of horror games, this was a triumph.

Before ‘Outlast’, the sales record of horror games was held by an old IP, sitting at 120k copies sold in the first week. It was priced at 149 yuan and had an established fan-base to lean upon for nostalgia driven support.

But in terms of the wider gaming landscape, many found this sales performance surprisingly underwhelming. Especially considering its current popularity.

This led to many heated discussions among industry insiders.

[ Chen Xu really missed an opportunity this time. How can the sales be so low when it’s going so viral? ]

[ Mmm, compared to ‘Undertale’ and ‘To the Moon’, it’s not particularly close. ]

[ I guess that’s just the curse of horror games, it’s such a niche market. ]

[ I just don’t get why he would choose this genre, imagine what else they could have spent their time and effort on. ]

[ Horror games are such a tough sell. If he had just stuck to making fantasy and sci-fi stuff, he would have been on a hot streak. ]

[ Maybe he wanted to challenge himself. Traditional RPGs are too competitive right now, so he wanted to stand out? ]

In slack chat groups and game dev forums, a group of designers were sharing their thoughts on Chen Xu and ‘Outlast’.

But as they were in the middle of their laments, a new comment made them rethink their stances.

[ So 250k copies sold in 1 week at 65 yuan per copy. ‘Outlast’ has already recouped its development costs in full. With the current trajectory and social media popularity, it should hit 1 million copies sold easily. So whatever Nebula Games rakes in from here on out is pure profit, they could make over 100 million yuan from this game alone. ] 𝐑ἈNÓΒĘＳ@@novelbin@@

Oi now, mind the mood. Who invited this killjoy?

As fellow game designers, they understood that this game was a success.

They just wanted to shoot the shit and act like this game wasn’t such a big deal. It was basic, self-soothing etiquette.

Tch, some people just can’t read the room…

——————————————————————–

Back in the office, Chen Xu was leaning back on his fancy chair with a sour expression on his face.

The system UI only visible to him was showing him the effects of the special item he used. 6 million points were displayed on his tally in converted form, not the raw value.

Still, 6 million was equivalent to 50 pulls of the gacha, not a bad haul overall.

The only problem was that after hitting the conversion cap, the accumulation rate slowed down significantly. Even worse than the time with ‘To the Moon’.

Plus, after getting this 6 million, he hadn’t been able to accumulate enough for an extra 10 pull, even with help from ‘To the Moon’ and ‘Undertale’.

Reflecting on the situation, Chen Xu realised that he had been too aggressive this time.

Using fear-based collection, the amount generated per individual was high, but the total number of active players fell short.

Too many were trying it for a short time before shelving it forever, preferring to watch other people suffer in their stead.

Too many were getting scared into refunding the game.

Too many were buying it as a show of support for Nebula Games but never actually intending to play the game.

How could this generate enough fear points?

At the end of the day, Chen Xu was suffering from success. ‘Outlast’ was simply too immersive and scary.

“A miscalculation on my part, I was too short sighted,” Chen Xu sighed.

The original plan of striking it rich using the [Fear Converter] had fallen through, and judging by how things were going, it would be a slow grind to the finish line.

Bah! No use thinking about it now! He had pulls to spend!

He stood up and took in a deep breath before heading to the bathroom.

After relieving himself and washing his hands, he closed all the curtains in his room and turned off his monitors.

He then lit up a few auspicious candles he bought online to add to the atmosphere.

After all, successful pulling requires ceremony.

The familiar golden lights flickered before him as he used all his pulls in one go.

Terrible luck as usual. He would ask Yang Xin to get him a refund on those fake candles later.

50 pulls and not a single special item like the [Fear Converter]. Tsk tsk.

But on the bright side, he got plenty of [Memory Capsules]. Those were always useful.

As for skill books, arguably the most important aspect of the gacha, he got 2 rare pulls. One for [Level Design], and another for [Game Balance]

Maybe washing his hands before pulling was the issue.

A final tally of his pulls:

[Concept Art]: 17 books

[Level Design]: 11 books

[Game Balance]: 9 books

[System Balance]: 9 books

[Narrative Design]: 3 books

[Music & Sound Design]: 3 books

[Cinematography]: 4 books

The rest were all Memory Capsules.

Chen Xu let the capsules sit in his inventory for later use. Ultimately, they were the key to bringing his favorite and most memorable games to life in this new world.

As for the skill books, he used them all immediately.

“Time to think of a new direction…” Chen Xu mused as he leaned back in his chair, letting the mysteries of the skill books seep into his mind and body.

Overall, ‘Outlast’ was undoubtedly a success, making his company a hefty return on investment.

But it was still peanuts in the grand scheme, and after eliminating costs and other fees, he was left with an available capital that wasn’t massive, but enough to be flexible and effective.

The real concern was the future of Nebula Games. Chen Xu would need to flesh out the strategy of the company, direct the development of new projects, figure out the time management, and do something about his online gaming platform.

Chen Xu absentmindedly scrolled through his newsfeeds while pondering his next move…

Truly, he was a busy man.