Chapter 238: Did Even the Trailer Disappear?
After Alex finished explaining the conceptual draft of the game, the Monster Hunter: World project was officially launched and the team began to work with efficiency.
With their previous experience in the development of Dark Souls, the team was not new to the action system, recording animations for various weapons. Jane also worked on the conceptual art and then contacted an external art contractor to produce the artistic resources.
Meanwhile, Alex and Eric continued to test the performance of the AI, mainly to plan the difficulty of the different bosses in Monster Hunter: World.
As for the performance of the bosses in Monster Hunter: World, Alex did not want the boss's difficulty to be reflected solely in the tolerance that high numbers provided. For example, if a normal monster attacks the hunter five times in a row, he will use a cat and a cart. However, if a battle-hardened monster attacks the hunter three times, he will use a cat and a cart.
Without better AI technology, they could only focus on numerical adjustments. For example, a higher attack power would allow the monster to attack more frequently and move faster.
Now that AI performance technology is available, Alex hopes that the difficulty of the monsters in the game will be more evident not only in number, but also in their performance.
For example, by integrating a series of commands in the boss, such as fleeing, attacking, entering a frenzy, and stealth attack, it will take advantage of the favorable terrain to attack the player, reacting to their performance.
For example, in normal mode, players tend to distance themselves and then begin to sharpen their swords or drink potions. A boss with a higher difficulty AI performance will immediately launch a Dragon Rider attack.
However, after adjusting the AI to the maximum, Alex decided to proceed with caution.
Even with the AI at its maximum, the boss's performance was truly outrageous. If this were implemented, the following would probably happen:
The swordsman's red sword ascends the dragon, ready to strike a devastating blow. The boss dodges the swordsman's ascent with small steps and counterattacks with a Dragon Rider charge.
The greatsword charges without thinking, ready to strike a devastating blow, who stays five meters away and looks at him with a silly face. In normal game mode, monsters are mainly characterized by their habits, while combat is reserved for players who are experienced dragon hunters.
After all, being experienced means having overcome hundreds of battles. Therefore, it is natural to gain experience and know how to deal with hunters.
Of course, difficulty has a limit. Players must be able to farm accounts regularly, right?. Otherwise, Monster Hunter: World would be much less fun.
'Wouldn't the players' grinding be a protest? A Monster Hunter without grinding is not even Monster Hunter!'.
During this period, Alex and his team have been developing content for Monster Hunter: World non-stop. Meanwhile, the video game industry is not calm at all.
First of all, Minecraft is still incredibly popular. Players find more and more ways to play. At the same time, a wide variety of mods are emerging, significantly strengthening the Minecraft community.
As for sales, many game designers are already indifferent.
In addition to Minecraft, there is other news that has caught the attention of many industry designers. It is the case of the main distribution channels. While they have gradually reduced their share of income, they are clearly not willing to sit idly by.
On May 1, several important distribution channels announced strategic alliances, forming a channel alliance to share resources. Meanwhile, NetDragon and Aether Games also announced several important titles, stating that they would also be available in the channel alliance. This is an innovative move, as NetDragon and Aether Games have long been one of the largest distribution channels in the country, with their respective games generally exclusive to their own channels.
But now, they have been released directly on all channels, and the implications are evident.
This has generated confusion among many designers. This is mainly because, after joining the channel alliance, they can no longer upload their games to other platforms outside the official one.
However, the Nebula games platform continues to develop at a good pace. Numerous titles have shown that the platform's user base is sufficient to drive sales.
However, Alex remains impassive in the face of the actions of NetDragon, Aether Games, and other important distribution channels. Just as these distribution channels are helpless against Nebula Games, Alex has no recourse against them.
Only time remains. If Nebula Games boasts more high-quality games and offers better service to players, it will naturally become the largest distribution channel, and vice versa.
The Nebula games platform has entered a period of steady growth. Both its user base and game developers have stabilized. It only remains to maintain the platform's competitiveness by releasing one excellent game after another, and that is what worries Alex the least.
However, the most common players focus more on the aspect of video games than on the platform itself. Alex's fans, in particular, were furious. The reason was simple: countless players had realized that Nebula Games would not participate in this year's Game Expo. This left many stunned and bewildered.
After all, Nebula Games had participated in the two previous editions. The first included two mini-games and a trailer at the end, and the second began with a trailer and a shoddy mini-game. But in this third edition, had Nebula Games completely disappeared?.
This immediately unleashed a heated discussion among countless players.
"My goodness! Who noticed? Nebula Games will not participate in the Game Expo this year!".
"Geez! Is that true?".
"No way? Nebula Games no longer creates games and is simply dedicated to distribution?".
"Who told you that?".
"Can't you read? It's obvious, I guess!".
"But don't say it's impossible!". The explosive popularity of Minecraft has generated huge profits for Nebula Games. Added to the success of the Nebula games platform, while the commission rate is among the lowest in the industry and, according to CEO Alex, the profit margin is also small, it is stable!.
"No way!".
...countless players speculated, whose conjectures became more and more outrageous.
Alex's official blog was filled with comments. Inside Nebula Games, Alex, who led the intensive development of the Monster Hunter: World team, was speechless after his assistant, Lynn, reminded him of the online comments.
However, he issued a statement on the official blog: "We appreciate your interest in Nebula Games, but our decision not to participate in this year's Game Expo was made after a careful internal evaluation, as we are actively developing a new important title."
"In order to be able to offer this new surprise to the players earlier, we have decided not to participate in this year's Game Expo so that we can fully focus on the development of our new game."
"So stay tuned!".
After the official publication of Alex's blog, many players were excited.
'So that's all! Actively working on a new game!'.
But soon, in the midst of the excitement, the players discovered a problem. They knew that Nebula Games was developing a new blockbuster, but they did not know the theme, the genre, the platform, or the development. In previous games, Nebula Games had never included playable content, only a promotional video.
This year, Nebula Games canceled the event completely. Not only was there no playable content, but there was not even a promotional video!.
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