The next day, GameSpace published an exclusive interview with Lucas.
"Spreading the Love: Every Game Filled with My Passion for Players"
That was the title of the entire article.
If you clicked into the article, most of the content was from Lucas's earlier chat with William.
Of course, some parts and topics were trimmed.
Other parts were slightly polished.
They leaned into the more positive side—like how the development team faced lots of challenges, even thought about giving up at times, but in the end pushed through and delivered a passionate, high-quality game to players.
Honestly, if Lucas didn't know it was all fluff, even he might've been moved reading it.
GameSpace, as one of the top gaming media outlets in the country, still had a lot of influence among players.
At least in terms of traffic, that was true.
Once the article went live, tons of player comments started pouring in.
"So that's where Lucas's 'warrior of love' title came from!"
"Why does it still feel like a load of sweet talk?"
"Same here. I feel like that editor totally got played by Lucas."
"If we're talking about Undertale and To the Moon, then sure, he's totally earned the title. But Outlast though… LOL!"
"I still think Lucas's explanation of Outlast was just him messing with us!"
"The thing is, it actually sounded pretty convincing!"
"Forget whether Lucas is just trolling or not—aren't you curious about the new game he mentioned?"
"Yeah, he said it's called Overcooked. Is it some kind of cooking game?"
"Who knows? You can't guess what a game's about just from the name. I mean, look at Mirror—did the name make you expect something that crazy?"
"Say no more. I still think Mirror is the ultimate gentlemen's game. Nothing has topped it yet. I've seen too much—it's starting to mess with me."
"Well, what can you do? Lucas just keeps doing better and better in game development."
After the article came out, it did let more players know about Lucas, but it didn't cause much of a stir.
Even though it mentioned Overcooked, there wasn't much info besides the title.
And Lucas wasn't exactly a big name yet—he wasn't at the point where players would go nuts over every new thing he did.
Plus, with the New Year approaching, all kinds of games—big and small—were being promoted by different studios.
In this kind of situation, outside of Lucas's hardcore fans, most casual players didn't really care about Overcooked.
Lucas didn't mind that at all.
Overcooked hadn't even been officially announced yet.
In terms of cost, it was only about one-third the cost of Outlast.
Of course, that's not counting server-related expenses—which weren't just for Overcooked, but also for the Nebula Games platform overall.
So for Lucas, two months was enough time.
With a clear and experienced view of Overcooked, Lucas already knew what its core strengths and weaknesses were.
So development was moving really fast.
Compared to the early version that only had one or two simple themes and was filled with free engine assets, the current version of Overcooked was much more complete.
And unlike Outlast, this time Lucas even made a proper game trailer for Overcooked.
He wasn't just relying on his own blog for promotion like before.
After all, Overcooked was meant to be Nebula Games' first real push into the player market.
It had a very different meaning for the company.
...
As time passed and New Year's Eve approached, the country entered its yearly travel frenzy: Chunyun.
At Nebula Games, the team started their holiday break too.
But some employees chose to stay.
That's because Overcooked was set to launch on the third day of the Lunar New Year, and it was tied to the Nebula Games platform and community features.
So they needed people to stay behind in case something unexpected happened.
Of course, Lucas wasn't stingy at all when it came to overtime pay.
Meanwhile, on game forums and communities all over the internet...
Players were talking about what games they'd play over the holiday.
"Feels like there aren't any good new games coming out this New Year."
"Yeah, nothing really exciting when I checked."
"Era of Gods by Tenghua Games looks kind of decent."
"True, and NetDragon's big title Demon God sounds promising too!"
"I mean, yeah, they sound good—but both are VR games. And the VR arcade in my small hometown is closed during the holidays."
"Aren't entertainment places usually open during the New Year?"
"Well, mine isn't. What am I supposed to do?"
"This kind of VR game is only fun when you have time to really play it. There's not much time during the holidays. I'd better check if there are any good PC games."
"Looks like there are quite a few PC games being released too."
"Check out Lucas's official page! He released a new game, and it looks like a couples' game."
"I saw it! It feels so heartwarming! Perfect for playing with your girlfriend. Did Lucas actually become a warrior of love this time?"
"Overcooked, right? So it really is a cooking game! Cooking with your girlfriend?"
"A couples' game? Bro, I'm single—why are you even telling me this?"
"Come on, man. Even single guys need dreams. And you don't have to play with your girlfriend—you can play with your bros too!"
"Exactly. Plus, Nebula Games is doing a New Year's deal: buy one, get one free!"
During the Spring Festival, game companies pulled out all the stops with their titles.
The ones that grabbed the most attention were, of course, the two big games from Tenghua and NetDragon.
These two are giants in the local game industry and longtime rivals—competing in both platforms and games.
Their big releases dropping during the holidays definitely drew a ton of eyes.
But both companies went with major VR titles this year, and didn't do much on the PC side.
And in the PC game space, the trailer for Overcooked started spreading across major game media outlets and on Lucas's official page,
catching the attention of a lot of players.
(End of The Chapter)
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