At midnight on October 31st, Lucas uploaded the pre-recorded video to his official account right on time.
He also posted a message: "Guess what the new game is?"
Even though it was late at night, quite a few night owl fans were still keeping an eye on Lucas's account.
The post quickly caught the attention of some players.
"What's going on here? Look what I just found—Lucas has a new game?"
"Whoa, he posted this in the middle of the night? That's kind of wild."
"Damn, what is this video? I thought it was gonna be something exciting, and then I got this in the dark!"
"Wait a sec—what is this video even about? A horror game?"
"Holy crap, that DV looks so cursed!"
"So Lucas's next game is a horror game?"
"I don't really care about horror games, but the timing of this post… it's creepy as hell!"
"So the next game has something to do with a DV?"
A lot of players were confused.
Lucas's message was actually super clear—this eerie video was basically a big sign that the next game would be a horror title.
But what really got players talking was the time he posted it.
The next day, Lucas's post got picked up by a bunch of media outlets.
After all, Lucas still had some heat from winning the top prize with To the Moon.
Plus, with November just around the corner, there weren't any major titles coming out at the moment.
Players started jumping into discussions, trying to figure out what kind of horror game Lucas might be working on.
Even within horror games, there are different subgenres.
"There's a DV and what looks like an office. It's probably set in modern times."
"Someone's holding a DV camera filming something, but the whole video is completely silent. And judging by how messy the room in the video looks, we can take a wild guess—maybe you can only see the ghost through the DV camera?"
"Walking with a DV camera through dark hallways and rooms, and suddenly a ghost face shows up on the screen, then drags the cameraman into the dark abyss!"
"Damn it, a bunch of over-actors. There's nothing there at all. Are we really supposed to analyze this? Watching it in broad daylight still gave me chills."
"Man, you're such a coward. You can't even handle this? I suggest you wear a diaper when you play or watch it later."
"This is so creepy. I saw it around midnight last night. It didn't even show anything scary, but I still freaked myself out and felt like someone was under my bed. Couldn't sleep half the night."
People online were all talking about it, but most of the comments were just wild guesses. After all, Lucas's video was just a hint—his next game would be a horror game.
But what kind of horror game it is hasn't been revealed yet.
Not just players, even designers and media people in the industry were buzzing about it.
"Did you hear? Lucas's new game is actually a horror game!"
"That's a bit unexpected. I really didn't think Lucas would go for horror."
"But it's not that surprising. For small teams or indie game devs, horror is actually a good genre to start with."
"Small team? Lucas doesn't count as a small team anymore. Haven't you seen the intro for Nebula Games? Lucas's team isn't that small now."
"That makes sense. After all, Undertale and To the Moon both sold really well."
"But horror games are still kind of niche. There aren't many great horror games."
"Yeah. VR might fit horror pretty well, but the market and costs are big problems."
"I feel like Lucas's horror game might just be a fake-out."
"What do you mean?"
"Look at To the Moon and Undertale—it's obvious Lucas is a great storyteller. So maybe this so-called horror game is just horror on the surface, but it's actually telling a touching story underneath?"
"When you put it that way, it doesn't sound impossible. Didn't Lucas once say he's a 'warrior of love'?"
"Good point!"
Game designers in the industry were all talking about Lucas and his new game.
But for game content creators chasing clicks and views, it was a total circus.
"Strange Video Drops at Midnight—What Is Lucas Planning?"
"From Warm and Fuzzy to Full-on Horror? Designer Lucas Shifts to Scary Games!"
"Leaving His Comfort Zone to Try a Niche Genre—Confidence or Overconfidence?"
...
One article after another flooded websites and forums.
Some bigger media outlets stayed fairly neutral.
But a bunch of marketing accounts and second-rate game media were stirring things up like crazy.
And the main reason was the genre Lucas picked.
After all, it's been years since the industry has seen a truly great horror game.
You can't say the whole horror genre is dead, but it's definitely lacking energy.
The ones that sell okay are mostly part of long-running IPs, and their yearly sales keep dropping.
And horror games come in all kinds of forms.
Zombies and ghost girls in Asian games.
Serial killers and demons in Western ones.
Realistic ones. Supernatural ones.
You name it, it exists.
But none of them are really breakout hits.
Mainly because they're all stuck in the same loop.
Still using the same formula: jump scares, shooting, and tight story pacing.
It's not a bad formula, but making it truly stand out is really hard.
Out of all the shooter-horror games from the past, how many can people actually name?
Basically, just Resident Evil and Dead Space. And even then, only the former still counts as a top-tier IP. Dead Space completely disappeared until years later when EA ran out of old games to remake and finally decided to dust it off.
But for Lucas and the whole team at Nebula Games, none of those online discussions really mattered.
Because the game's development progress was growing at a pace you could literally see with your own eyes.
It wasn't fully finished yet, but the early parts were already playable.
And after trying it out, Anna, Rachel, and the rest of the team all had the same reaction.
And that was… no freaking way are we playing this at night!
Seriously, it was just too damn scary.
Even though everyone in the team had worked on the game together, building every detail from scratch—
That didn't stop them from getting scared out of their minds!
(End of chapter)
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