Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 207: Don’t Starve Released

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Chen Mo sketched as he walked out of the office towards the experience store.

As he was working on Reaper of Souls and Don’t Starve recently, most of his time was spent in the office discussing details of the game. However, he would periodically check on the experience store and sometimes get some peace and quiet in his office on the second floor.

Chen Mo was caught by Zou Zhuo and Chang Xiuya as he stepped his foot into the experience store.

“Hey, the manager’s here.”

“Manager, there are many players discussing about the post game of Diablo on the forum. Have you seen it?” asked Chang Xiuya.

Chen Mo nodded, “Yes I have.”

Chang Xiuya continued asked, “What’s your plan then, manager? Although I don’t have a good grasp on the situation, I think the players want to spend more time in the game and provided a lot of suggestions to do so.”

Chen Mo sat on the sofa and flipped through a random book he grabbed, “I’ve looked at most of the recommendations, and none of them are worth considering. Diablo’s DLC is in works with new content and gamemodes, I’ll announce it soon.”

“New classes? This caught Zou Zhuo’s attention, “What new classes, is there a Death Knight?”

Chen Mo facepalmed, “You’re kidding! Death Knight is a class exclusive to Warcraft. There will be two new classes this time, Crusader and Necromancer. There will be new story scenes too.”

Zou Zhuo asked, “Really? When will it be released?”

“It’s been going well so far, probably November,” answered Chen Mo.

“Huh?” Zou Zhuo was visibly disappointed, “That means it’s going to take two months or so, I can’t wait that long!”

“It’s a proper DLC, so there’s a lot of stuff to do. You think I can just conjure an update out of thin air or something.”

Zou Zhuo nodded, “Geez, fair enough. But based on the forum discussions, most older players can’t wait anymore. Perhaps you should give a hint? Just so everyone has something to look forward to.”

“Diablo still has a steady amount of sales, meaning that there is still an influx of new players. It shouldn’t be a problem short term, so I’ll save it as a surprise.”

Zou Zhuo was speechless.

“Oh, I do have a new game for you guys to try out,” said Chen Mo.

Zou Zhuo exclaimed, “Huh? You’re making a new game again manager? I thought you said you were going to give Diablo a new DLC?”

Chen Mo nodded, “Yeah, a new game and a DLC.”

Chang Xiuya asked, “Really? What type of game is it? I want to play something like Plants vs Zombies!”

“It’s hard to describe, but it’s a survival game. The first version should be out in half a month, then we’ll go straight into selling.”

—

At the end of September, more than two months after Diablo’s release, a game called Don’t Starve quitely appeared on the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.

There wasn’t much promotion this time, Chen Mo didn’t even post a Weibo.

Many players thought their eyes were playing tricks on them when they discovered the new game upon logging onto the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.

There was a lot of confusion among the happy surprise.

“What? How come Chen Mo released a new game without saying a single word about it?”

“Don’t Starve? That sounds like a cool game. It’s on both PC and mobile too? Crossplay as well!”

“Uhh... This game is quite small at around two gigabytes. What type of game is this?”

“Let’s download it and see!”

“It costs twenty RMB!”

“That’s not so bad. But judging from the price, it’s probably a smaller game.”

“It has to be, it has only been two months since Diablo was finished. This isn’t enough time to make a large game at all.”

“Let’s look at the synopsis.”

Don’t Starve introduction.

This is a sandbox game that combines adventure, survival, role playing, training, and crafting. The character is placed in the desolate world, and must use their very two hands to survive using materials available around them. Of course, if you could arm yourself to defeat the demon in adventure mode, (maybe) you could return to the real world.

Game characteristics:

Rich in game resources and an expansive unknown world.

Plan your every move to best use your resources in order to survive.

Use your creativity to explore the endless limits.

Face the unknown danger in this world with friends in co-op mode.

—

The vast majority of players were shocked to see this introduction.

“All that text just to say it’s a sandbox game similar to Earth Online!”

“It doesn’t sound quite right. Earth Online is such a huge game, whereas Don’t Starve is a measly 2GB, how could it call itself a sandbox game? How many elements could this game contain?”

“And Chen Mo made this in two months too! Two months for a sandbox game! Are you kidding me?”

“Uh, I looked at the graphics, and it was pretty simple. It’s in 2D so the graphics don’t take up much space. Perhaps it has a rich gameplay. I’ll buy it to try it out, it’s a Chen Mo game afterall.”

“I think Chen Mo seems to be heading onto a certain path. This game looks like one of those games where the player is constantly under pressure as they try and survive in a desolate world. Think about how torturous that would be, what’s the point of this game?”

“They said that in the introduction, it’s a survival game, you survive as long as possible.”

“Geez, I don’t understand the intent behind a game like this. Why didn’t he just spend his time on a Diablo DLC? It must be his young creative blood acting up.”

“I think so too. Look at the graphics, it predominantly uses black, the proportions of the character, and this weird art style. I think this is Chen Mo’s play thing, why else would he not do any promotion of this game.”

“Whatever, I’ll pretend I never saw this.”

“I tried it out, and the game is actually quite interesting. The introduction said players could push the players’ creativity to their max. Remember Plants vs Zombies and Warcraft?”

“I don’t think Chen Mo did this. Maybe it’s something an assistant made for practice? And they put it onto the store to take my money?”

“... I believe in Chen Mo’s character.”

“Alright, I’ll try it out just because it’s Chen Mo.

Although many players managed to ignore the game, a large portion of the players forked out money to buy the game. Other than trusting Chen Mo’s brand, a portion of these buyers bought it because it had a clear source of enjoyment with a unique art style.

As a self-proclaimed sandbox game with survival in mind, could the game be as fun as cited in the introduction?

This was a question on the minds of many.