Chapter 98: Self-Promotion?

As time progressed day by day, the development progress of Dark Souls was going extremely smoothly.

With a large number of outsourced art assets being received,

the entire team entered a state of high-speed operation.

Meanwhile, on Chen Xu's official Weibo account and the Nebula Games official website, the warm-up promotion for Dark Souls was gradually being rolled out.

Simple interactions with players, along with releasing new promotional artwork and similar content.

Basically, just making their presence known.

However, during the same period, there were other games undergoing promotion as well.

The most eye-catching was the promotional battle between NetDragon and TengHua—two top-tier domestic channels and game companies.

Both were concealing VR games, and both had participated in the previous gameplay Expo.

Although their spotlight had been stolen by Nebula Games at the exhibition,

these two games were now pulling out all the stops in their marketing campaigns,

each trying to outshine the other.

Still, despite the massive promotional efforts, the impact on Nebula Games wasn't particularly significant.

After all, these two games were VR titles.

Apart from that, there was also the ongoing Game Design Competition with its anti-war theme.

By the end of July and the beginning of August, the Official Game Platform had already seen the launch of numerous anti-war themed games.

Some were mobile games, others PC games.

As for genres, they were all over the place—RPGs, FPS, and more.

Additionally, quite a few games adopted the same format that Chen Xu had used last year with To the Moon to win awards.

Yet none of them stood out, and many received extremely low ratings from gamers.

Numerous players took to online forums to grumble inwardly.

‘Man, this year’s Game Design Competition theme is... indescribable!’

‘Mainly because for an anti-war game, you have to show the cruel nature of war, right? You need grand scenes. With such a short development cycle and the competition never attracting major developers, these games just feel awkward.’

‘+1, it feels like these games are old-fashioned moralists lecturing me, and worse, the lectures are damn boring.’

‘Stop complaining, quickly check Chen Xu’s official Weibo account—he seems to have joined this Game Design Competition too!’

‘What? Isn’t Chen Xu working on Dark Souls? How did he manage to join this competition? Does this mean Dark Souls is already finished!?’

‘Who knows? But anti-war isn’t an ordinary theme—can Chen Xu really pull it off?’

‘Who cares, I’ll just buy it and play it first. Anything from Chen Xu probably won’t be too bad in quality—at least better than these current anti-war games on the market, right?’

‘That’s true!’

Regarding the launch of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, Chen Xu didn’t conduct any large-scale promotions.

He simply posted a brief announcement on his official Weibo account and added a short introduction for Valiant Hearts: The Great War on the main page of the Nebula Games Platform.

But clearly, this was different from the past when Chen Xu had little fame and needed to resort to special tactics to promote his games.

The previous popularity of Fall Guys and Sanguosha, along with the ongoing development of Dark Souls, had already earned Chen Xu considerable recognition and a loyal fanbase.

Once news of Valiant Hearts: The Great War was released, players quickly noticed it.

However, while players were pleasantly surprised and Chen Xu remained calm,

many game designers participating in this competition felt their Mindset crumbling.

‘Holy crap, isn’t Chen Xu developing Dark Souls? How did he manage to make this game too?’

‘Yeah! I thought Chen Xu wouldn’t participate in this competition this year!’

‘This is way too damn hard!’

Many game designers felt somewhat broken, though a few with stronger Mindsets clung to hope.

‘Let’s stay positive—maybe Chen Xu’s game this time will actually bomb!’

‘Exactly! Dark Souls has been constantly promoted recently. Chen Xu’s main focus must be on Dark Souls—after all, it’s Nebula Games’ and his own first blockbuster.’

‘Right, and anti-war themed games require depth. Chen Xu might not be able to maintain his usual standard.’

Even as they discussed, like many players, these designers still purchased and downloaded the game, eager to see just how good—or bad—the game truly was.

Compared to last year’s To the Moon, Valiant Hearts: The Great War was priced at 20 Yuan, available on both mobile and PC platforms.

…………………

On Shark TV, the hype surrounding Fall Guys, which had once dominated the entire live streaming platforms, had cooled down significantly.

Although many streamers were still broadcasting it, with some even dedicating entire streams to Fall Guys and Sanguosha,

most streamers had returned to their usual formats. At most, when they had no other content, they’d invite a few familiar streamers to play Fall Guys together for entertainment effect.

The launch of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, however, attracted the attention of many game streamers.

In Liuliu’s live stream room on Shark TV, she had just gone live and was chatting with her audience.

‘Alright, that’s enough chatting for now. Next, let’s play that new game just released by Nebula Games.’

‘Not Dark Souls—that one’s still just a pie-in-the-sky promise, no idea when it’ll come out. This is a new entry in the Game Design Competition called Valiant Hearts: The Great War. Judging by its scale, I’d say it fits the standard of an Independent Game, though Nebula Games can’t exactly be called an Independent Game developer anymore.’

In her live stream, Liuliu introduced the game she was about to play.

She had been closely following Nebula Games.

Aside from Outlast and their groundbreaking debut Mirror (Game), she quite enjoyed games like Overcooked, Fall Guys, Undertale, and To the Moon.

So, upon learning that Nebula Games had entered this competition with a new game, she immediately decided to stream it.

As she spoke, Liuliu opened the Nebula Games Platform and instantly spotted the game featured on the homepage.

The game’s cover showed a soldier in uniform and a war dog,

rendered in a cartoon animation art style.

She clicked into the game store interface, where the title Valiant Hearts: The Great War stood out in bold, thick text.

The game description read:

A heart-touching Adventure Game with a unique atmosphere and art style.

Blending elements of Search & Destroy, actions, and Puzzle Solving.

Help the game’s Hero survive the great war by solving puzzles or infiltrating enemy lines.

It tells the story of four men and women and a loyal dog whose fates intertwine during war—a tale of revenge, family, and friendship.

This fictional story will transport you back to the famous World War I battlefields, reliving the major campaigns on the Western Front and immersing you in historical events.

Before Liuliu could even react, viewers in the live stream room already had mixed opinions, rapidly sending bullet comments to express their thoughts.

‘Is this description just bragging?’

‘Yeah, isn’t this just a small-scale game with a cartoon graffiti style? And judging by the genre, it’s 2D side-scrolling. How can it possibly relive the major battles on the Western Front?’

‘Exactly! How can such graphics convey the cruel nature of war?’

‘I trust Chen Xu, but this sounds a bit too exaggerated. Reliving World War I scenes? I’d believe it if it were a Major Production, but this game?’

‘Right, this is stretching it!’

‘Even Nebula Games themselves haven’t promoted it much!’

After reading the description, many players were bewildered.

This self-promotion was excessive!

After all, this was just a small-scale 2D game with cartoon-style Art!

How could it possibly portray the depth of war? How could it relive those historically cruel battles?

But Liuliu’s focus wasn’t on the game’s description.

(PS: Daily request for recommendation votes and Monthly Pass, wuwuwu...)

(End of Chapter) <>