On the official blog, many players tagged Lucas every day.
Aside from the loyal fans still playing games like Legends of the Three Kingdoms and Fall Guys, most were people waiting for Dark Souls.
So far, the official info was just a teaser shown at a game expo, along with some concept art of weapons and locations.
The only things players knew were that the main character seemed to be carrying some "flame of hope" and that the game world would be quite dark, probably with some sad or emotional parts, maybe similar to Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
Still, a lot of players said they were fine with that.
It just meant the story might be a bit sad.
Having just gone through the emotional rollercoaster of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, they could handle it.
The real question was when the game would be released.
Lucas didn't keep players waiting long.
Game media sites and video platforms started showing Dark Souls ads.
These ads made people excited because they mentioned a lot of interesting things.
For example, unique freedom of gameplay and a different kind of combat system—things that really got players hyped.
At the same time, the physical edition of Dark Souls was already in production.
In this world, digital games were the main format.
Physical editions were more for collectors, like deluxe versions that came with figures, art books, and other goodies.
But what really got players excited was that Nebula Games announced they would hold an online livestream event for Dark Souls, showing the latest real gameplay footage and revealing the release date.
With that news and the ads, the hype for Dark Souls caught fire.
Even the game industry was surprised.
"Lucas seems to be putting a lot of effort into Dark Souls!"
"Yeah, while the marketing isn't on the same level as SkyNova or NetDragon's biggest projects, it's still a big move for a PC title."
"Well, it is Lucas's first big-budget game, and honestly, Nebula Games can take risks now."
"True. Forget Legends of the Three Kingdoms for a moment—Fall Guys alone made them a ton of money earlier this year."
"What I'm more interested in is that Nebula Games says Dark Souls will be a little different from traditional ARPGs."
"What could be different? ARPGs are usually story-focused, action-focused, or all about level stats. Those are the main types."
"I don't think it'll be that simple. Lucas's games always have surprises."
"That's true, but his past games weren't large-scale projects. This is his first big one, so it might not turn out as well as people hope."
As Nebula Games started promoting Dark Souls, many game designers in the industry began discussing it.
But regular players didn't care about that—they just wanted the days to pass faster so the online launch event would come, and they could finally hear the release date.
......
Time flew, and the day arrived.
The livestream was held in Nebula Games' office, which had been decorated for the event. On the table were a custom Fire Keeper figure and a bonfire model with a spiral sword. Behind them hung Dark Souls concept art posters.
On all major streaming platforms, Nebula Games' channel was featured on the front page.
They had arranged this with the platforms well in advance—it was a win-win deal.
The event would also have live chat giveaways, with prizes like Dark Souls collector figures, deluxe editions, and randomly selected standard edition CD keys for regular viewers.
Before the stream began, the camera only showed the background.
Still, tons of players had already joined the chat. Even with a 30-second message cooldown, the comments flew by like snowflakes.
It was clear that thanks to their past hit indie games, Nebula Games still had a big following.
Of course, a lot of viewers were probably just there for the fun.
After making sure everything was ready—video playback, scene transitions—Lucas appeared on screen right on time.
"Hello to everyone watching the stream. I'm Lucas, the lead developer of Dark Souls. I'm sure you're all here for one reason, so I won't waste time. Let's get straight to it and take a look at what Dark Souls looks like in real gameplay!"
No long introductions or small talk—Lucas went straight to the point.
After all, this was a game launch stream. People came to see the game, not filler.
As soon as he finished speaking, the stream switched to a new screen.
This time, it wasn't the pre-rendered trailer.
This time it was a pure in-game animation demo.
You could clearly see the UI display on screen in the video.
It lasted about a minute, showing mainly a boss fight and a regular enemy fight.
The first thing you saw was the Ash Judge Gundyr at Firelink Shrine.
His massive body looked truly overwhelming, and the halberd-like weapon in his hands was even more intimidating.
When the boss swung his weapon down, you could clearly see the ground crack apart in the video.
The player character in the video was later re-recorded by Lucas.
The video was mainly to show some basic game actions, like blocking, rolling, shield parries, executions, and backstabbing smaller enemies.
Of course, to keep some surprises for the players, Gundyr's second phase was skipped entirely in the video.
It also showed things like running jumps and messages on the ground acting as hints—pretty much all shown in the footage.
Countless players watching the livestream, as well as some media and industry designers, were buzzing with their own opinions.
(End of the Chapter)
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