Nebula Games' office.
Compared to the small team they started with, Nebula Games now had grown to a decent size.
Lucas led the main development team, which included Rachel, Anna, Hector, and others.
In addition, there was also an operations team for Overcooked, Legends of the Three Kingdoms, and Fall Guys, in charge of ongoing operations and content updates for these games.
Nebula Games had also created a separate department for maintaining the community and the workshop.
For now, most of the MOD reviews in the workshop were handled by the company's own staff and customer service team.
But in the future, as more games were supported, they would have to outsource the work.
By then, the in-house staff would focus on big-picture direction — right now, they were still gaining experience from the ground up.
With the start of the Dark Souls project, the whole team was working in an organized manner.
Lucas didn't need to worry too much about art assets.
Rachel handled communication with the outsourcing team, and Lucas only needed to give the final approval.
Anna's work on the story and worldbuilding also didn't face major issues — she just had to keep up with the game's development schedule.
The real core of Dark Souls' development lay in the combat system.
Under Lucas's guidance, progress on this part of the game was going very well.
The post-holiday hiring had brought in many new Nebula Games employees with solid experience in action games.
They quickly understood what Lucas wanted and adjusted parameters using the official game engine.
"For boss fights, don't rely on HP sponges. Only certain weapons or conditions — like backstabs or shield parries — should give big rewards," Lucas said.
"The whole Dark Souls combat system is built around stamina management. Resource balance and smooth combat come before just making the hits feel heavy."
On the big screen, a boss fight was playing.
Since the map art assets weren't ready yet, the background was just a simple 3D wireframe.
But the boss model was done — it was the first boss players would face, nicknamed the "Parry Teacher": Iudex Gundyr.
As Lucas gave instructions, the combat system team made parameter tweaks bit by bit.
While they worked, Hector used the moment to discuss some Dark Souls development matters with Lucas.
"Boss Lucas, for the stats — should we also make formulas for easy and normal modes?" Hector asked, holding a printed file.
It listed stats for all bosses, monsters, and equipment in Dark Souls.
"Easy and normal modes? I forgot to mention — this game won't have difficulty settings," Lucas replied with a smile.
"No… no difficulty options!?" Hector's eyes went wide.
He glanced at the numbers in the file, then at the test footage on the side, looking completely baffled.
"Boss Lucas… so should we still adjust the stats later on?" Hector asked cautiously.
"Why adjust them? The stats are already very scientific. Don't just look at the bosses' numbers — you need to consider the combat system and player stats too.
First, in our combat system, most enemies can be backstabbed for big damage. There's also shields and invincibility frames on rolls — all of which make it easy for players to take them down."
"In that case, if we don't make the monsters stronger to add some challenge, wouldn't the players be almost unbeatable? Wouldn't the game end up with no difficulty at all? Would players still find it fun then?"
Lucas explained seriously to Hector.
Hector felt a bit dizzy listening to Lucas.
It did… kind of make sense.
But then another problem came up.
In theory, as long as players don't get hit, they're basically invincible and can take out small monsters with just a few hits.
But what if the player does get hit?
Looking at the nearby battle scenes still being polished, Hector fell into deep thought.
.........
After leaving the Dark Souls project team and returning to his office, Lucas stretched.
During this time, Fall Guys was still riding high in popularity.
The game had already been updated twice, adding several new maps into the rotation.
Thanks to its large player base, the game also added a solo matchmaking mode and a team mode.
Compared to the previous life, the team mode had improved a lot — now the whole team could win the crown, instead of just one person in the end.
In terms of sales, Fall Guys kept breaking its own records, reaching nearly 4 million copies in just under a month, and the numbers were still going strong.
As for Legends of the Three Kingdoms, its numbers weren't as flashy as Fall Guys, but it had extremely loyal players.
Both its daily active users and revenue were steadily climbing.
Opening the system UI, Lucas looked at the golden item he had drawn earlier, with its four progress bars.
The "happiness" bar had grown the most, now almost two-thirds full.
Next were "anger" and "resentment," each at about one-sixth.
As for "sadness," it hadn't moved at all.
Obviously, nobody was going to cry while playing Legends of the Three Kingdoms or Fall Guys.
As Lucas was checking the growth of these emotion points, his phone buzzed on the desk. It was a message from his assistant Lisa.
"Boss Lucas, the official announcement for the new game competition is out."
A new game competition?
Lucas froze for a moment. Last year's official competition was focused on sci-fi games.
That was when he made To the Moon. It won in the end, but also stirred up a lot of controversy.
This year, they were announcing the competition this early?
Opening the backend of the official game engine, Lucas saw an electronic notice with a red header.
But this year's theme!?
"An anti-war game?" Lucas habitually rubbed his little finger.
Then he glanced at the rest of the requirements.
They were mostly the same as last year's.
The main difference was that this year's theme was noticeably more serious.
After all, it was about opposing war.
Looking over the requirements, Lucas began thinking about what kind of game he should make.
Earlier this year there was Outlast and Overcooked, and after the new year came Legends of the Three Kingdoms and Fall Guys.
Originally, he had planned to wait until Dark Souls was done before applying for a higher professional title.
But if he could place well in this competition, he wouldn't have to wait.
Besides, during the development gap for Dark Souls, Nebula Games would also need a new game to keep its platform in the spotlight.
Now the only thing left was deciding the game's direction.
For an anti-war theme, he actually had quite a few options.
After thinking for a moment, Lucas remembered the conditions for unlocking that golden capsule he had just gotten earlier, and came up with a game that seemed like a good fit.
(End of The Chapter)
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