Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

The next day, Chen Xu arrived at the company at 7:30 in the morning, but surprisingly, Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue were already there.

When they saw Chen Xu pushing open the door, they rushed to him like excited puppies.

“It’s a hit! It’s a massive hit! We’re going to earn ourselves a reputation with this one!” Yang Xin could barely sit still to show him the screen, her whole body was shaking like she just downed 2 coffees mixed in an energy drink.

The ratings from the store page were proudly displayed.

USER SCORE 9.9

An unbelievably high score.

But that wasn’t all, Yang Xin quickly opened up a few new tabs, showing 2 major media outlets who had already published their reviews.

The real shocker was that both reviews gave the game full marks. 10 out of 10!

One of the sites, called Spacetime, wrote their review in a hilariously cryptic fashion.

In it, the reviewer did not spoil the content whatsoever, but instead, thoroughly described his feelings and experiences. It had a lot of exaggerated quotes.

[ After completing ‘Undertale’, the reviewer went silent for a long time, even as his colleagues went to nudge him ]

[ This is a game that breaks the constraints of traditional RPGs, It undermines a player’s understanding of how a game should work ]

[ I never thought playing a game could shock me this much. Even though it’s a low-cost indie game, the experience it provides is deeper than many, many 3A masterpieces ]

The sentiment was shared in the comments and user reviews of ‘Undertale’s store page.

There were a lot of confusing comments.

• [ An incredible RPG, at some point I started having chills till the end ]

• [ You won’t be needing mercy in this fight… ]

• [ This fills me with DETERMINATION!!! ]

“Hmm… Yes, the sales aren’t bad, but let it simmer for the time being.” Chen Xu smiled after going through the reviews and statistics.

After all, 2749 copies sold is not very high, even with the hype built around Zhong Mei.

But really, its main benefit was to spread the name of the game, ‘Undertale’.

For many players, Nebula Games and Chen Xu are both still unknown, with only a single erotic game in their portfolio.

The price of ‘Undertale’ was set at 36 yuan, just like in his previous life.

Considering the prosperous socioeconomic standards of this parallel world, one could describe this game as being “dirt cheap”.

7pm to 11pm, the golden hours of video gaming.

With the positive boost influenced by Spacetime’s review, word spread in the gaming communities. At the same time, players across the time zone were getting comfortable and starting to look for games to play.

Just before 7pm, ‘Undertale’s sales increased by about 500 per hour.

But after 7pm, the number shot up to over 1200. Causing the total sales to quickly shoot pass 14,000 units.

And the reviews of the game have been gradually increasing.

One and a half days since launch.

In a private room of the same hot pot restaurant.

Yang Xin fidgeted around with her phone every so often, unable to stop glancing at the ever increasing sales volume.

While she admired the sales of ‘Mirror’, Yang Xin was nothing more than a passerby during that time. Just watching from the sidelines.

But now, she was involved. ‘Undertale’ was born of her hard work and sleepless nights.

Even if she still felt like Chen Xu handed her a cheat sheet, she was still responsible for putting everything together and had a hand in assembling the plot.

She partook in the production of this game, and it gave her a sense of pride and accomplishment.

(TL: wink wink, nudge nudge 😛 )

“What do you think the final sales will be?” Ruan Ningxue said excitedly while sipping on a slightly more fancy brand of milk.

“Feels like it’ll break a million!”. Yang Xin exclaimed, eyes still glued to her phone.

Chen Xu nodded calmly and leaned back in his chair, “Yes, it’s only a matter of time.”

………..

Unlike the confident Chen Xu, players and some game designers who had been keeping an eye on the development of ‘Undertale’ felt like they were going mad.

What’s going on here?!

In the Hepai Style, Zhong Mei’s eyes were wide open and he had no intention of clocking out.

Is Nebula Games made of money? How much did it cost to do this?

He’s done this before, buying good ratings and reviews from media outlets, but this ‘Undertale’ is too much! How much would they have to pay to get perfect scores?

That was his first thought, and it was the first thought of many who saw the results of ‘Undertale’.

Nobody believed that the true quality of ‘Undertale’ would warrant such reviews. Nobody wanted to believe.

This was, after all, a low-cost indie title.

With scores like that, you could call it a classic, a masterpiece, an all-time great. Could something like this really be made with a small budget?

But at the same time, it has made many players curious, to find out just what kind of game is this ‘Undertale’?

And after they satisfy their curiosity, they join the cult and add their voices, singing its praises and adding fuel to the fire.

The most direct manifestation of this is the sales statistics, of which the team at Nebula Games are eagerly observing.

Every hour, stats are updated in real time. And every hour, there is a significant increase.

But more importantly, were the player reviews and ratings.

It received near unanimous praise, and the overall score of the game remained at 9.9, not declining even with the increased volume of sales.

In most cases, the rating of a game tends to drop as the number of players increases. So if a game stabilizes at 8.5 points, it has reached the bottom line for excellence.

At 9 points, it’s acknowledged as a high-quality game. And if it hits 9.5? It’s basically a masterpiece.

But despite the skyrocketing sales of ‘Undertale’, its player rating has remained very stable.

Undoubtedly, as the player count reaches a critical mass, the score might eventually drop, but this was still utterly terrifying.

Scrolling down the store page, players left their comments and reviews on the game.

• [ I went in thinking it was just a normal RPG, but I have to say, the appearance of a certain flower shook me ]

• [ I was skeptical of Nebula Games and Chen Xu because of ‘Mirror’, but ‘Undertale’ made me understand what a game really is! ]

• [ My understanding of RPGs have been undermined ]

• [ One word: Incredible ]

• [ Don’t hurt my precious babies!! I’m warning you!! ]

• [ The wind is howling, the heroine appears ]

• [ I’m feeling it, this game is gonna be big ]

• [ Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, kids like you should be burning in hell ]

• [ This game fills you with DETERMINATION ]

• [ An incomparably novel game, a shocking show of game design ]

As waves of players came and went, leaving their comments and scores, some bad reviews were left as well.

In the end, the store page score was lowered by 0.1, but compared to the flood of positive reviews, it was just a drop in the ocean.