As for Lucas's so-called game confession on his blog—
Players collectively said: not a single word of this can be trusted!
Sure, plenty of media editors reposted it.
But the players aren't that naive. Even if a few actually believed him and went into the game—
A few minutes later, or even ten minutes later, when the fitting background music plays and they see that beautiful midair fall, they'll finally understand what this game is really about.
Life is suffering? What nonsense! Do you really believe that?
Even though this hammer-swinging game broke Nebula Games' record for the lowest rating and scored a failing 5.1, its download numbers kept climbing every day, and discussions around it were just as lively.
The main reason? This game blew up on streaming and video platforms.
After getting crushed by it, many players realized that playing this game themselves was pure torture.
But watching someone else play? That's a whole different story.
Two words describe it: pure joy!
Especially when they see the streamer reach some key point, only to fall from the sky and land right back at the start.
That makes it even more fun.
In streams for this game, you'll often see comments like:
"Welcome home!"
"Just start over!"
"Games are meant to be played with a smile."
"The place where dreams begin."
Countless streamers and video creators kept playing this game while feeling both joy and pain.
The joy came from discovering how great it worked on stream.
The streaming effect was way better—more viewers, more comments, even the vibe was nicer.
In other games, a single mistake would fill the chat with toxic comments like:
"This streamer sucks."
"How do you even die there?"
"Scatter some rice on the keyboard and let a chicken peck—it'd play better than you."
That kind of stuff was common.
But in this game, when you mess up, the comments are always the same.
All laughing and cheering at your pain.
Everyone's here to watch you fail. If you don't fall, they're actually disappointed!
The only tough part is that playing this game can seriously spike your blood pressure.
Your poor heart can't take it!
Blood pressure pills have become a household necessity.
On video sites, clips of streamers completely losing it are everywhere.
That empty, broken look on their faces after falling back to the start shows just how badly this game crushed them.
Because of all this hype, tons of new players, curious after hearing about the game, decided to give it a try.
And after playing, they ended up leaving self-mocking comments like, "I'm an idiot."
Some streamers even went the extra mile, copying Nebula Games' expo setup with the water tank, sofa, and hammer, dressing up like the pot guy and playing with motion controls.
It looked like they were trying to laugh through the pain and enjoy it somehow.
Of course, most viewers just thought, "Yep, another player who's lost it."
But not everyone went crazy—speedrun videos started popping up online.
One player even beat the whole game in just a little over two minutes.
That earned endless respect.
They were so good with that hammer swing!
How many times did they fall from the junk mountain to master that?
And wait, the game's actually that short?
For most players, though, watching is enough.
...
While "Hammer to the Heavens" was blowing up among players, game industry designers were left scratching their heads.
"Anyone paying attention to Lucas' game? This makes no sense!"
"Yeah! The game isn't anything special. The quality is rough, so why is it so popular?"
"Exactly! Lucas' past games either had great stories, great levels, or fresh gameplay. But this? Everything feels weak. The only good thing might be the music when you fall?"
"Right, and I don't get it either. The hype is almost as big as 'It Takes Two.'"
"This is crazy. What's going on with this game?"
"I played for ten minutes and quit. I just don't see what's fun about it!"
"You're looking at it the wrong way. The actual play rate is low. Most of the attention comes from curiosity, streams, and videos. But for a low-budget game, whether it's cheap to buy or free promo, if they can get even half or a third of this hype, that's a win."
Many game designers were discussing in the forum, but some of them had already figured out what was going on.
You could say that this type of game, like Swinging the Hammer, is pretty much a standard streaming game.
A "streaming game" means a game that looks fun to watch.
In a sense, games like It Takes Two, Dark Souls, and Outlast also count as streaming games.
But the difference is that these games have a core gameplay at their heart.
The viewing experience is just a bonus.
The content of the game itself is already enough to win over players.
But Swinging the Hammer is different. The original purpose of the game was to let the creator watch players suffer and enjoy himself.
Suffering is the core of this game.
That's why watching others play it is way more fun than playing it yourself.
After all, you're not the one suffering.
Because of this, its popularity on streaming platforms kept rising.
After all, when players play it themselves, most of them can't stick with it.
But streamers are different. Viewers love to watch, and streamers, for the sake of entertaining their audience, will keep playing even when they're dizzy from frustration and their blood pressure is through the roof.
With both sides pushing it, this simple-looking game quickly became a huge hit.
And when lots of people are watching, some players will naturally want to try it themselves. Of course, their fate is already sealed.
In Nebula Games' office, Lucas was explaining the features of this unique game to Hector, Rachel, and the others.
"So, Lucas, what you posted on the official blog before was all fake!" Rachel clearly wasn't focused on the game.
"Exactly, Lucas! You just wanted to watch players suffer!" Anna stared wide-eyed at Lucas.
"Lucas, does this mean the warrior of love has no love left?" Hector couldn't help throwing in a jab.
"Alright, everyone, back to work! We need to speed up the progress on Dark Souls: Age of Fire! Our lovely players are waiting for us!" Lucas coughed twice to change the topic.
Watching everyone go back to work, Lucas stretched.
The whole "warrior of love" thing didn't matter anymore because the players' misunderstandings and assumptions were getting worse.
They didn't believe a word he said anymore, and that really hurt him.
Shaking his head with a sigh, Lucas started confirming plans for the overseas version of Dark Souls: Age of Fire with Target Software.
There were still two months left before launch, and at the current pace, it wasn't a problem at all.
But the translation and early negotiations for promotion channels still needed to be settled with Target Software.
(End of The Chapter)
---
Read +100 advanced chapters on my patre*n
patr eon.com/GustinaKamiya
Free Tier can read 3 advanced chapters
---