Chapter 40: Heated Discussion

Chapter 40: Heated Discussion

In the Game Department of Modu.

Unlike in his previous life, in this Parallel World, various entertainment industries weren’t governed by a single overarching authority.

Instead, they were divided into separate departments.

The Game Department naturally handled all matters related to games.

Domestic agents seeking to import overseas games, domestic games requiring censorship, and even games that had already passed domestic review and were ready for export—all required approval from the Game Department.

Moreover, unlike the previous life’s blanket censorship approach, this Parallel World implemented a detailed Rating System.

This was largely due to the fact that certain technologies in this Parallel World were more advanced—especially in areas like online real-name authentication for games, which had been fully implemented.

Minors wouldn’t even dream of accessing adult content—it simply wasn’t possible to find.

Precisely because of this safeguard, the censorship policies were significantly more lenient than in the previous life.

Of course, if someone deliberately tried to push explicit content, that was still a no-go.

Just like Chen Xu’s first game, Mirror (Game), which could only be exported before being re-imported for domestic circulation.

It was a gray-area business—officially unsupported, yet not outright banned.

Additionally, the Game Department had publicly released its Self-developed Game Engine.

It was roughly equivalent to the Unreal Engine from his previous life.

Except one was commercial, while the other was state-owned.

And the technical capabilities weren’t even on the same level.

Currently, at the Game Department in Modu, the officials and judges responsible for the Sci-Fi Game Design Competition were holding a meeting to discuss the current situation.

Unlike ordinary players, these judges played through nearly every submitted game. Their scores were based on summaries provided by lower-level reviewers, combined with their own assessments of the games’ content.

After all, given the limited time and the sheer number of entries, it was completely unrealistic to expect them to start from the beginning and complete every game’s entire story.

Also, considering the strong player backlash against past selections, this year’s competition adopted a hybrid scoring model combining official evaluations with player votes.

The Game Department’s purpose in hosting this competition was to better guide the domestic game market.

And the market itself was ultimately shaped by players.

If the official selection favored certain games, but players disliked them, how could they possibly influence market trends?

"Let’s start with the voting for the top-tier First Prize. Everyone, please state your reasoning one by one," said the lead judge seated at the head of the table.

"NetDragon Games, designer Meng Zuo’s Galaxy Heroes—there are some flaws in story presentation and numerical design, but the Level Design pacing is truly outstanding," began the first judge.

"Nebula Games, designer Chen Xu’s To the Moon—while it doesn’t offer anything particularly remarkable in terms of gameplay, its use of a reverse-chronological narrative mode is masterfully executed, with near-perfect pacing."

"I second that. Although Chen Xu’s game differs from his previous work, Undertale, and doesn’t showcase any particularly dazzling systems or settings, the pure story alone is powerful enough to be deeply moving."

"Galaxy Heroes is indeed excellent, and To the Moon is also great. But personally, I believe most Regular game designers simply don’t have the resources to create something like Galaxy Heroes. To the Moon, on the other hand, is more accessible. From that perspective, I lean more toward To the Moon."

"While I acknowledge the game’s excellence, can To the Moon really be considered a sci-fi game? At its core, isn’t it really just a love story?"

"Strictly speaking, To the Moon isn’t sci-fi. But if we applied that standard strictly, over forty percent of this year’s entries wouldn’t qualify as sci-fi either."

"Still questionable. I remain more supportive of Galaxy Heroes."

………………

The lead officials overseeing this event became deeply embroiled in intense debate over the game evaluations.

Meanwhile, online, countless players had already begun experiencing and trying out the competing games.

In terms of early popularity and promotion, many of the competing games had received significant marketing exposure.

Yet, the most attention-grabbing figure remained Chen Xu.

After all, the hype from Undertale hadn’t fully faded, and then Zhong Mei—previously feigning death—had resurfaced only to be utterly crushed by Chen Xu.

As a result, Chen Xu had completely seized the spotlight.

This caused a massive wave of players to immediately try out To the Moon.

Across forums and player groups, passionate recommendations and heated discussions were everywhere.

"Seriously, everyone should go play Chen Xu’s new entry, To the Moon—it made me cry!"

"Bro, are you really crying over this? Isn’t this just a game Chen Xu made in a few days?"

"So what if it was made in days? If it’s good enough, it’s awesome! The story is genuinely heart-wrenching—you’ll understand what ‘tough guy shedding tears’ means once you play it."

"Damn it! Reading your comments and I’m about to cry again!"

"Is it really that exaggerated?"

"Why don’t you just play it yourself? This game showed me just how low my emotional threshold really is!"

"It’s that good? Damn it, I’m buying a copy right now."

"Who are you voting for? I’ve already decided—To the Moon, no matter what!"

"Same here—I’m voting for To the Moon too!"

"I was deeply moved too, but does To the Moon really count as a sci-fi game?"

"I don’t care if it counts or not! I’m voting for it anyway!"

Players who had experienced To the Moon firsthand voted for it without hesitation.

As for whether it strictly qualified as a sci-fi game?

After being moved by its touching story, few players cared about such technicalities.

Whether it was sci-fi or not—why should they bother?

They believed the game was outstanding. They believed it touched their hearts.

That’s all it took—vote done.

As for whether it met the official criteria, that was the authorities’ problem to sort out.

………

Soon, the three-day sales figures for the competing games were released.

To the Moon stood alone at the top, achieving 193,000 sales. In second place, Galaxy Heroes, reached 87,000 sales.

These numbers were already extremely impressive.

However, the massive sales lead could be attributed to two main factors.

First, To the Moon was a dual-platform release, available on both mobile and PC, giving it a much broader player base.

Second, To the Moon’s price was only 15 Yuan (Chinese currency), while Galaxy Heroes was priced at 65 Yuan.

Granted, the low Pricing of To the Moon was related to its game length.

The entire experience, from start to finish, lasted only a little over four hours.

But the low price undoubtedly had a significant impact on sales.

Thank you to ‘L_ys’ and ‘agxusvswh’ for your 1,500 Yuan donations.

(End of Chapter) <>