In the office, Lucas was polishing the details for the concept drafts of two new games.
Legends of the Three Kingdoms was the simpler one.
In the previous world, the game had borrowed ideas from BANG! and then localized it around the Three Kingdoms theme.
For example, roles like Ruler, Loyalist, Rebel, and Spy in the game matched up with BANG!'s Sheriff, Deputy, Outlaw, and Renegade.
Of course, Legends of the Three Kingdoms didn't just copy—it added plenty of new features. For example, each playable character from the Three Kingdoms had unique skills.
And when it came to the card effects and skills, the game also made detailed changes compared to BANG!
Setting aside the so-called balance issues, Legends of the Three Kingdoms was still a very fun game.
You could say it was a mix of luck and strategy.
In the previous world, many players who got frustrated with the game weren't upset with the gameplay itself—they were upset with the way Yoka handled it.
Honestly, the fact that this game even lasted thirteen years under Yoka's management—and still had life in it—was nothing short of a miracle.
If we're talking about Yoka's blunders, there were new ones every year.
But if we go back to one of the earliest and most infamous ones, we have to mention "Rise of the Generals."
At the beginning, this "Rise of the Generals" had nothing to do with the online version of Legends of the Three Kingdoms.
It was just a bonus set of cards for physical players.
The characters were designed by players, with the official team tweaking things slightly for balance.
The goal was to let players fulfill their dream of creating their own generals.
As a tabletop game, if some cards were unbalanced, people playing in person could just choose not to use them.
But the weirdest part of the Legends of the Three Kingdoms story was this: one game, two systems.
There was South Yoka and North Yoka—one handled the physical tabletop version, the other handled the online version.
Then the online team had a brilliant idea:
"These ready-made generals? Let's just use them!"
Wouldn't it be a waste not to add it?
Add it. It has to be added!
And once it's added, sell it to the players.
That's how Legends of the Three Kingdoms's balance went completely out of control — Ma Dai and Bu Lianshi in 2012, Cao Chong and Empress Fu in 2013.
That was basically the beginning of the broken character era.
How broken were they?
Some players even started banning Cao Chong and Empress Fu on their own.
Characters this overpowered totally messed up the game balance.
Why? If you know, you know.
And this laid the groundwork for what came next — each new wave stronger than the last.
The older characters who relied on simple "kill" and "dodge" skills? They were totally outdated.
The game had officially moved on from martial arts to full-blown fantasy cultivation.
Of course, in a card game like this, it's natural for later cards — or generals in Legends of the Three Kingdoms — to gradually get stronger.
That power creep is basically unavoidable, the key is knowing where to draw the line.
Even though a ton of players were already fed up with it.
Still, things could've been salvaged at that point.
But if you think that was the worst it got — that they realized their mistake and stopped pushing it?
Then you've seriously underestimated Yoka.
Right after they announced that buying any 23 paid generals would earn you Zuo Ci forever,
they threw the most purchased cheap generals straight into the free rotation for VIP members.
Then came the engine upgrade — new graphics, better experience, all to improve the game for players.
How thoughtful, right?
But wait — old players couldn't carry over their old generals or skins into the new version.
Officially, they launched a big campaign with 200 million gold ingots up for grabs. From the afternoon to 11 p.m., only around 3,000 people joined.
Then suddenly, in the last ten minutes, over 400,000 "ghost accounts" showed up.
The official explanation? "That really was the number of players — they just all happened to log in at the exact same time."
What a coincidence, huh?
Combine that with their line "our game is thriving," and it honestly felt like dark comedy.
But aside from that, there's also the issue of the game's art.
In early Legends of the Three Kingdoms, the art was kind of a mess.
After all, the game started out as a couple's side project, made by Huang Kai and his girlfriend Li You.
Most early characters were based on Dynasty Warriors models, and later versions heavily borrowed from manga as well.
For example, the art for the basic "Kill" card was directly based on Ichimaru Gin from Bleach.
But that wasn't really a big problem, since the core of Legends of the Three Kingdoms was always its game mechanics.
So when it comes to rules and gameplay, Lucas doesn't need to change much at all.
Just don't add broken generals for now, and focus on keeping the overall balance in check moving forward.
As for how to run the game, the online version will be the main one.
Legends of the Three Kingdoms will be offered as a free-to-play game.
The main profit will come from cosmetics like skins.
As for generals, it'll use a progression system.
Besides the default generals, a few will rotate as free-to-play each week.
Players will earn gold by playing matches, and there will also be daily tasks that give gold rewards.
This gold can be used to buy generals or skins — or players can choose to top up with real money.
The main goal isn't just making money — it's about building long-term progression and raising the cost of quitting for players.
Outside of cosmetics, players can fully enjoy the game for free.
And when it comes to buying generals, Lucas won't set grindy requirements — like "grind a whole month just to buy one general." That kind of system won't exist.
The main goal of Legends of the Three Kingdoms is to boost player engagement on the Nebula Games platform.
Of course, there will also be more detailed tweaks later on. For example, in the physical card game version, the role of the traitor isn't much different from loyalists, the ruler, or rebels, because the social aspect outweighs the gameplay itself.
But in the online version, it's the opposite—the win/loss mechanics matter more than social interaction. Plus, there's a ranking system that sorts players by skill.
That leads to a problem: a lot of players don't want to play as the traitor.
In his previous life, Legends of the Three Kingdoms had the same issue.
Many players who were randomly assigned the traitor role would just quit the match, or immediately betray the ruler to end the game quickly.
At one point, the game was even jokingly called Rebel Kill.
Obviously, that wasn't a good sign.
So Lucas plans to rebalance the traitor role by adjusting things from a third-party perspective.
For example, by tying rewards to how well the traitor manages the match.
The win rate for traitors is very low, mainly because the win condition is extremely tough—you have to kill everyone except the ruler, and then kill the ruler.
Any other outcome counts as a loss.
With conditions like that, even if you lose only a few points, who would want to put in all that effort managing the game just to lose and still get penalized?
That's the main reason most players avoid the traitor role.
So in Lucas's design, the traitor's score and rewards won't be based only on whether they win or lose, but rather how well they control the game.
For example:
A win as traitor earns 20 points
A 1v1 loss against the ruler earns 15 points
A loss in a 1v1v1 scenario with a ruler and a rebel still gives 10 points
And so on. As a unique third-party role, the traitor shouldn't be judged just by a win/lose result.
Of course, whether this works or not will depend on player feedback after launch.
Compared to Legends of the Three Kingdoms, the other game, Fall Guys, is meant to spread quickly and go viral.
In terms of stickiness, Fall Guys doesn't quite match a card-based battle game like Legends of the Three Kingdoms.
But in terms of short-term hype, Fall Guys definitely outperformed it.
In his previous life, Fall Guys sold over 10 million copies on Steam in a single month.
That alone proved just how addictive it was.
And unlike Overcooked, Fall Guys is a more all-around party game.
Even when playing alone, Fall Guys still offers a good experience.
That's something Overcooked, as a co-op game, can't really do.
After all, most gamers are solo players.
Not because they don't have friends or girlfriends—
It's just that their friends or partners don't play games, or don't have the time.
Compared to Legends of the Three Kingdoms, Fall Guys can also be combined with a creative workshop, letting players design their own levels.
When it comes to gameplay design, Fall Guys isn't that complicated.
The main thing to note is how unique its physics system is.
In his past life, one of the reasons Fall Guys became so addictive had a lot to do with its physics.
The way the jellybean-like characters wobbled toward the finish line, bouncing like rubber—it created a visual style that really stood out.
It was kind of a hidden selling point. Players even called it a "goofy game."
Games like Gang Beasts, Party Animals, and Human: Fall Flat also relied on wacky physics to create chaos, which made them fun in a different way.
But the difference is, Fall Guys supports large-scale multiplayer competition, with a game-show-style obstacle course format. That makes the solo experience way better than the others.
That's why, in terms of sales and popularity, it completely crushed those other games.
(End of the Chapter)
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