More and more players and gaming media were talking about "Valiant Hearts: The Great War."
In terms of sales, it obviously couldn't compare to something like "Fall Guys."
Three days after release, at a price of just 3 dollar, it sold 310,000 copies.
That was only 20,000 more than last year's "To the Moon."
The price difference didn't have much impact, after all, it was only 1 dollar more.
The main thing was that last year's "To the Moon" launch had perfect timing, right when players were paying a lot of attention to Nebula Games.
But when "Valiant Hearts: The Great War" came out, not many players were paying attention to it.
Aside from Lucas Hart briefly mentioning it on the official blog, the main push came from Nebula Games' own platform recommendations.
The fact that it still sold this well shows one thing:
Nebula_Games has gained a lot more influence compared to last year.
Several media outlets also covered "Valiant Hearts: The Great War," a unique anti-war game.
After all, compared to other anti-war games released around the same time, most were pretty weak.
Only "Valiant Hearts: The Great War" could truly stand out.
For many ordinary designers taking part in this contest, the feeling was completely different.
On some industry design forums, designers who had played the game were full of complaints.
"I'm done! I finally made a game, and then Lucas Hart joined the contest!"
"Exactly! When they announced the contest, you could've at least said something. I was almost done with my game, and then he just pops up!"
"Who could've guessed? They'd been hyping up 'Dark Souls,' and suddenly he joins the contest and even makes a game!"
"This sucks!"
"The key is, 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War' is top-notch in both theme and story!"
"And compared to last year's 'To the Moon,' this one also has much richer puzzle gameplay."
"I feel like this year's contest result is pretty much set in stone!"
"In terms of sales, maybe a few games could compete with 'Valiant Hearts: The Great War,' but for the award... forget it, not worth talking about."
Two weeks after its launch, the contest voting officially began, and unsurprisingly, "Valiant Hearts: The Great War" took first place.
In the official game store, it also got a front-page recommendation, along with an award review written by Game Division:
"As a World War I-themed game, this work doesn't use grand scenes to depict war, but instead reflects on the pain it brings through the experiences of ordinary people."
"By portraying the hardships, separations, and reunions of several ordinary people of different nationalities, ethnicities, and backgrounds, it vividly shows the cruelty of war and the deep suffering it causes."
"Without chasing flashy graphics, its 2D side-scrolling cartoon doodle style makes the game feel old but deeply touching, much like the history it tells."
"Although it's about war, it doesn't show blood and gore. Scenes like shells falling or soldiers charging and dropping one by one are presented in a cartoon style, making them look almost comical. Isn't that the greatest satire on a war that had no 'just side' to begin with?"
"This is a work that completely overturns the traditional war genre. An ordinary person dying in a meaningless war is the strongest condemnation of war."
The reviews were glowing, focusing mainly on the game's achievement in storytelling.
But outside of small circles like indie game fans and Lucas Hart's followers, the award didn't have a huge impact.
For most regular players, it didn't cause much of a stir.
The main reason was that, unlike last year, players weren't experiencing a game drought during the contest period.
In fact, there were plenty of highly anticipated big titles coming out.
Top domestic studios NetDragon and SkyNova were promoting their latest VR projects.
On PC, Nebula Games, which had shaken up the indie scene last year, was now teasing its first big-budget PC title, "Dark Souls," alongside releases from two other major game companies.
Unlike last year's dry spell, this year's game market was buzzing with excitement.
So while "Valiant Hearts: The Great War" was excellent, it was never going to make a huge splash among the general player base.
Just like last year, Lucas got the trophy from Game Division and met with leaders from Magic City Game Division. His application for a senior game designer title had been submitted, and getting approved shouldn't be a problem.
The available resources in the official game engine had also increased by another gigabyte.
At Nebula Games—
Rachel took the certificate and trophy from Lucas and placed them in the wooden cabinet nearby, looking excited. "Another certificate and trophy! Feels like one day we could have an offline showroom like the big studios, displaying all our awards."
"That day will definitely come!" Anna said with anticipation.
"Let's talk about that later," Lucas said with a smile.
After chatting briefly with Anna and Rachel, he stood up and headed to the project team to check on the progress of "Dark Souls."
He also needed to coordinate with the marketing team to lock in the game's promotional strategy and schedule based on its development progress.
For a game, especially a AAA title, this is extremely important.
There are plenty of past examples to learn from.
That's why Lucas takes this part very seriously.
He won't let the marketing team hype the game to the skies and promise players the world, only for the dev team to still be sitting on a half-finished product.
When he arrived at the "Dark Souls" project team, Hector looked at him, hesitated, and seemed like he wanted to say something.
"Boss Lucas, can't we make the difficulty just a little lower? Or maybe add an option for players to choose?" Hector finally spoke up as he watched Lucas work on the game's map design.
By now, the combat system for Dark Souls and most of the related stats were basically done.
The rest was just adding them into the game—like placing all the different monsters.
Through the stats and the core gameplay ideas, Hector and some of the other developers had more or less understood the charm and unique style of Dark Souls.
It wasn't like your average ARPG.
This game wouldn't hold your hand and start you off with weak enemies, letting you level up bit by bit.
It felt much more real.
In normal ARPGs, no matter how skilled you are, you're still bound by the numbers—you could never beat the final boss with just a level 1 character.
But Dark Souls wasn't like that, even though it still had stats.
If you were good enough, even at level 1, with no gear and only a little wooden stick that looked like a chicken drumstick, you could still beat the final boss.
That was the magic of Dark Souls—there were no unbeatable enemies. If you couldn't win, it was just because your skills weren't there yet.
Gear and levels were only there to help you, nothing more.
Still, magic or not, Hector already thought the map design was mean enough.
But now… what was he seeing!?
In the early part of the game, there were already so many strong enemies.
And in that small room after the dragon bridge on the High Wall of Lothric, the first treasure chest players found was actually a monster!
Not to mention all the traps.
Even the messages written on the ground for players were a mix of truth and lies.
Like in the Catacombs, next to the hanging bridge, there was a message saying the bridge would break. Naturally, players would think it would collapse when they walked to the middle.
But in reality, you had to cut it yourself for it to break.
And if a player worried the bridge would break and chose another path, they'd run into endless waves of skeleton "sword masters" ready to prove that Lords of Cinder were nothing—ordinary skeleton soldiers were the real bosses!
(End of The Chapter)
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