Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chen Xu looked at the floating screen in front of him. The content displayed on it was clear and concise.

Theres an explanation button, an inventory, and something like a Gachapon machine with a list of rewards :

• [Common Skillbook]
• [Rare Skillbook]
• [Items]

There is also a row of numbers at the bottom: 473451.

First, he clicked on the explanation, and soon Chen Xu got the information he wanted.

Apparently, this system is his own golden finger.

Its a very simple lottery system using points.

When people consume and immerse themselves in his works, the emotions they experience will be used by the system to generate points.

The points can then be used in the lottery, and now there are more than 400,000 emo points.

It was accumulated by Chen Xu in his previous life.

Seeing this, he felt a bit regretful. 

If I had known this, I would have gone into level and plot design instead of working on scenarios.

It is different from his previous world where players directly blame the game designers when they are unhappy.

Planning in his previous world meant taking the blame.

A favourite character gets less screen time? Your fault.

A favourite character dies? Your fault.

Server crashed? Your fault.

Whether its the planners fault or not, it is what it is.

100,000 per draw? No discounts or extra rewards for ten consecutive draws? What kind of piglike system is this! Originally, Chen Xu thought he had quite a lot of points, but when he saw the numbers in the lottery, he fell silent.

With more than 400,000 points, he could only draw four times.

Chen Xu didnt stop, though, and started moving his hands.  

He pulled the lever four times and waited. The Gachapon machine whirred and shook loudly, spitting out four capsules.

Then a golden light burst out of the capsules.

Originally, Chen Xu didnt expect to receive anything good. After all, he only had four chances and he knew how Gachas worked.

And this Gachapon only has three options in total.

But now?

Wow! Golden Legend!

Chen Xu dubbed a voice in his heart, his face filled with anticipation.

Then

<figure>RewardsQuantityCommon Skill Book2Rare Skill Book1Memory Bank1</figure>

Looking the items in front of him, Chen Xu was completely speechless.

This golden light is just for drawing the lottery No, it should be the special effect of opening the capsule?

System, its really extra!

Chen Xu complained in his heart, but he still focused his mind on the common skill book in his hand.

Then Chen Xu saw the skill book turn into a puff of cosmic dust and seep into his body, a new announcement appeared in his UI.

Plot Design +1

As the purple light poured in, Chen Xu felt that his mind was extremely clear, and at the same time a random thought came to mind, the concept and arrangement of story beats seemed to come easier.

This feeling is quite strange, just like when he was stuck at a particularly difficult math question.

But got enlightened when seeing a related formula.

Then Chen Xu clicked on the other two books.

Music +1

Drawing +5

Music was marked as a common skill book, while drawing was marked as rare.

The level of increase is different. He didnt know if it was the skill type or level of increase that was related to rarity.

After all, there were no points of reference.

Finally, Chen Xu looked at the last item available to him.

Memory Bank: It can retrieve deep memories for 1 hour.

Looking at the memory bank, Chen Xu showed a surprised expression.

Not bad!

This is the equivalent of having photographic memory with a time limit.

As a person familiar with the games industry in his previous life, Chen Xu had not just played, but researched a great number of games.

Take the famous game The Last of Us, for instance. The average consumer would play it and take away experiences like Wow, that was amazing or That part was very scary. That sort of thing.

But for people in the games industry like Chen Xu, it was a thought-provoking treasure trove of research material.

For example, why is the story told in this way, was the distribution of monsters reasonable, why were the map and its bunkers placed as they are, and how are clues intuitively given to players to guide them towards the more hidden portions.

So, with the memory bank, Chen Xu is able to replay games in his head to the greatest extent possible.

Valuable as it was, he had no use for it yet, so it was returned to his inventory for safekeeping.

Before developing his first game, there are still preparations to be made.

For example, he had to familiarize himself with the use of official game engines, do some market surveys on trending games, as well as surveys on available gaming platforms.

These are important parts of the process.

Well, let me have a look! Chen Xu dismissed the system and booted up the computer to start learning more.

First, he took a look at the engines.

Because he used to help game companies looking to outsource the production of art assets.

Chen Xu also has the official game engine software on his own computer with a registered account.

In this parallel world, the development of integrated engine platforms is relatively mature.

Allowing users to find anything they might need, including original assets, models, music, and even voice actors.

Well, its quick and convenient, but the resources available to a newbie are very limited.

Chen Xu used the fast-forward mode to watch the introductory videos, while simultaneously searching for related text guides.

With a basic understanding of the game engine, it is not difficult to get started.

Next is the platform. The development of the entertainment industry has also led to a crackdown on piracy. Games developed using game engines also technically eliminate piracy.

Piracy is now a non-factor, but the competition in the industry is cutthroat.

As for platforms, there are domestic and foreign ones available.  

However, unlike his previous world, where Steam was the one true god of platforms across the world, in this parallel world, each country seems to be supporting its own domestic platforms.

This is mainly because, unlike the domestic games where you were either an Xbox or a Playstation fan, in this parallel world, real-name authentication is completely universal and there is a corresponding rating system for everything that passes for a cultural product, including video games.

Games like The Witcher 3 and GTA have basically a 0% chance of passing the review in the previous life, but in this parallel world they can pass the review completely, but will definitely be rated 18R.

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