This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 45: Ascension Slots

The development cycle of a game is not something the producer can decide.

Because plans often can’t keep up with changes!

A new game promised to be released next week might discover a major bug today, forcing a delay, and then face a barrage of complaints from countless uninformed players.

A new game promised for release next year might, due to funding issues and pressure from investors, have to release a half-finished product early, resulting in players tearing it apart...

These are common occurrences.

Apart from that, many other factors affect the development cycle, such as the classic "main planner getting sick," "company team-building trips," and "producer slacking off," and so on.

What are you looking at?

I’m talking about you, Hideo Kojima!

Because during the game development process, there are many different challenges and difficulties, and the time needed to solve these problems is unpredictable, mature game producers will use words like "approximately" and "possibly" to describe the estimated release time.

Chen Ba is no different.

Ever since the first promotional CG video of "Star Emperor" was released, he has been continuously harassed by players.

Even friends and acquaintances have been asking him, "How’s the new game going?"

That’s not even the most ridiculous part.

The truly outrageous moment was when Chen Ba received a spam call promoting a pay-to-win re-skinned mobile game while sitting on the toilet.

During the call, the game customer service claimed he was one of the "lucky players" chosen to receive VIP exclusive privileges and a special weapon reward pack upon logging in...

"Do you know who I am?"

Intrigued, Chen Ba introduced himself to the customer service rep on the spot.

And then came the unexpected twist!

One would think that upon discovering his identity, the customer service rep would gracefully back off, but it turned out this guy was also a player of "Cold Window Study Simulator," and a member of the Cowherding Sect.

"Oh? You’re Ba?"

"It’s really you! So when is the new game going to be released?"

Heaven knows how speechless Chen Ba was at the moment; even receiving a spam call, he would run into someone from the Cowherding Sect, and they were still asking about the game’s development progress.

Come on!

Can’t you be a bit more serious about your job? And how many followers does your Cowherding Sect even have?

Chen Ba was at a loss.

"Cold Window Study Simulator" has sold over 700,000 copies so far, and the total number of players can’t exceed a million.

Yet he felt like the number of Cowherding Sect followers alone was more than a million.

"The Cowherding Sect has many cloud players."

While fiddling with the air conditioning remote, Yang Dong couldn’t help but laugh and said, "It’s not just the Cowherding Sect; actually, for the two games under our company, many people have seen them but not played them."

"Seen but not played?!"

"Yes!"

Yang Dong explained, "Take ’Cold Window Study Simulator’ for example. Some people simply came across related videos and, after watching them, learned about the game’s process but didn’t buy it."

So Chen Ba’s theory is valid.

Even though the game has sold only over 700,000 copies, the number of Cowherding Sect followers might be higher than the sales.

For example.

Previously, when "Invisible Guardian" went viral, the line "My wife is pure and chaste" became a meme, sparking curiosity and attention from countless people.

At that time, the number of people who knew about this game, its plot, and the source of this meme was far greater than the actual sales.

That’s the Cowherding Sect!

The reason Chen Ba feels the Cowherding Sect’s influence is so astounding, even surpassing the number of actual players, is mainly due to the many "cloud players" who are just playing the meme.

They might not have even bought the game, let alone played it.

They merely stumbled upon some related videos, found the "Cowherding Bug" amusing, and happen to have learned about the Cowherding Sect, deciding to join in for some fun.

"I see..."

Chen Ba nodded, reluctantly accepting this fact.

He had actually considered this, which is why, after "Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator," he did not continue developing games with strong narratives.

Strong narrative games might provide a great visual experience, but they are also too easy to spoil.

And once spoiled, or if you see someone else’s video stream playing through it, it’s hard to muster up the interest to buy and play it yourself. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"I agree with you."

Yang Dong said with a solemn expression, "That’s also the reason why many excellent strong narrative games, despite having great reviews and good quality, never achieve significant sales."

Tianba Studio has actually suffered from this before.

That’s why, when discussing the "Star Emperor" project, he and Chen Ba had the same thought: to firmly avoid creating overly complex and profound narratives.

It’s pointless!

If you make a fighting game, just do the fighting part well. Who’s going to read all that narrative? Cloud players?

But cloud players don’t buy games...

"There are pros and cons, I suppose."

Chen Ba didn’t outright deny the importance of a good storyline; if a game can have excellent narrative, it can greatly enhance immersion and engagement.

But relatively speaking.

"Star Emperor," as a fighting competition game, indeed doesn’t require overly intricate narratives.

Of course!

Narrative and settings are two different things.

Though the new game doesn’t have a complex plot, the settings are by no means simple, especially the background and ability settings, among others.

"In the game, the single-player mode is about the journey of the protagonist Star Emperor to becoming a Dao seeker. What about the online mode?" Yang Dong asked.

"To fight for immortality!"

Chen Ba laughed and said, "Be it the Human Race Emperor or the Alien Race Venerable, no matter how formidable they are, they are ultimately not immortals."

"According to the setting, the place for players to battle in online mode is the Path to Immortality, divided into different regions..."

Becoming an immortal takes a lifetime or two, for just a few people!

At that time, they could turn it into a seasonal system, offering a certain number of "immortal" slots per season, granting special titles once achieved.

That’s not all; they could also incorporate a ranking system, creating a unique matchmaking and ranking system for online mode.

"The Emperor/Venerable is the entry-level rank, then followed by the Celestial Emperor level, then Nine Lives Red Dust Immortal, with each level adding a ’life’..."

Having frequently read online fantasy novels, Chen Ba could easily come up with these xianxia settings, casually saying, "After achieving nine lives, the next ranks would be Immortal King, Immortal Emperor, and so on."

Attaining immortality is tough, which means Immortal Kings and Immortal Emperors would be akin to the Grandmaster and Challenger tiers in LOL, with only a small handful of players reaching that tier each season.

Most players would never become immortals.

This seasonal ranking system setting surprised Yang Dong, for he thought the online mode would be purely matchmaking battles, not expecting different ranks.

"This is to retain players; otherwise, the online mode lacks motivation and players would quickly tire of it." Chen Ba shook his head.

Without such a ranking system, players would get bored with the online mode after just a few matches, lacking the sense of accomplishment and motivation to continue.

This wouldn’t do at all!