An increasing number of players online, along with gaming media, were discussing the game Valiant Hearts: The Great War.
In terms of sales, Valiant Hearts: The Great War clearly couldn't compare to games like Fall Guys.
Launched at just 20 Yuan, it sold 310,000 copies in three days—only 20,000 more than last year's To the Moon.
The price difference wasn't significant, after all, it was only 5 Yuan more expensive.
The main reason was that To the Moon had launched at a better time—right when players were paying close attention to Nebula Games.
During the launch of Valiant Hearts: The Great War, there wasn't nearly as much player attention.
Aside from a brief mention by Chen Xu on the official Weibo account, the game was mostly promoted through Nebula Games' own platform recommendation slots.
Still, achieving this level of sales proved one thing:
Nebula Games' influence had grown significantly compared to last year.
Various media outlets reported on Valiant Hearts: The Great War, highlighting it as a unique anti-war themed game.
After all, among other anti-war themed games released around the same time, it truly stood out.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War was essentially the only one worth mentioning.
For many ordinary designers participating in this year's Game Design Competition, the feeling was entirely different.
On various designer forums within the gaming industry, designers who had played the game were filled with complaints.
"I'm disgusted! I finally finished making a game, and then Chen Xu shows up!"
"Exactly! At least say something when the Game Design Competition was announced. Now my game is nearly done, and this guy suddenly appears out of nowhere!"
"Who could've predicted this? He was constantly promoting Dark Souls, and then suddenly joins and actually releases a game!"
"This is so frustrating!"
"The worst part is, Valiant Hearts: The Great War is incredibly strong in both depth and story!"
"And compared to last year's To the Moon, the puzzle gameplay in this game is also much richer."
"Feels like this year's Game Design Competition has no suspense at all!"
"If it were about sales, I think a few games might still compete with Valiant Hearts: The Great War, but for the awards... forget it, I won't say more."
Two weeks after launch, the Game Design Competition judging officially began, and Valiant Hearts: The Great War unquestionably won first place.
On the official game store, Valiant Hearts: The Great War secured a top recommendation spot on the homepage, accompanied by an award review written by the Game Department:
'As a game themed around World War I, this work doesn't use grand scenes to reflect war. Instead, it reflects on the pain war brings to people through the experiences of ordinary individuals caught in its grasp.'
'By depicting the hardships, joys, and sorrows endured by several ordinary people of different nationalities, ethnicities, and identities during the war, it profoundly illustrates the tragic nature of war and the immense suffering it inflicts.'
'Without chasing visual spectacle, the 2D side-scrolling cartoon graffiti style makes this game, like the historical stories it reflects, feel aged yet deeply moving.'
'Although it's a war-themed game, its depiction of bloody scenes avoids gory realism. Scenes like artillery impacts and charging soldiers falling one by one are rendered in a cartoonish style, making them appear somewhat absurd and comical. Isn't this the greatest satire possible for a war that had no true 'just side' at all?'
'This is a work that completely overturns traditional war-themed games. The sacrifice of an ordinary person for an unjust war is the strongest indictment against war itself.'
The review was extremely high praise, focusing primarily on the game's achievements in story and thematic depth.
However, aside from small circles such as the independent gaming community and Chen Xu's fanbase, winning this competition award didn't cause much of a sensation among the broader player base.
The main reason was that, unlike last year, players weren't suffering from a game drought during the competition.
Instead, the market was filled with many highly anticipated blockbusters.
NetDragon and TengHua, two top domestic giants, were promoting their latest VR titles.
Meanwhile, on the PC platform, Nebula Games—last year's sensation in the independent gaming community—was now teasing its first major AAA-tier PC game, Dark Souls, alongside new titles from two other game developers.
Unlike last year's game drought, this period was incredibly lively.
Therefore, while Valiant Hearts: The Great War was excellent, it was clearly impossible for it to generate a huge sensation among ordinary game players.
Just like last year, Chen Xu received the trophy from the Game Department and met again with the relevant leaders from the Modu Game Department. He had already submitted his application for the Game Designer job title review, and obtaining the senior job title was practically guaranteed.
The usable resources available from the Official Game Engine had also increased by another 1G.
At Nebula Games,
Ruan Ningxue took the certificate and trophy from Chen Xu and placed them into a wooden cabinet, her face glowing with excitement. "Another certificate and trophy! It feels like one day we could even open our own offline store, just like the big companies, and display all our company's honors inside."
"That day will definitely come!" Yang Xin said, equally hopeful.
"Let's talk about that later," Chen Xu smiled.
After chatting briefly with Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue, Chen Xu stood up and headed toward the project team to check on the development progress of Dark Souls.
He also needed to finalize the promotional strategy and timeline with the marketing and operations team based on the game's current progress.
For a game, especially a AAA-tier game,
this was extremely important.
There were already numerous exemplary cases from his previous life.
Therefore, Chen Xu placed great importance on this aspect.
He wouldn't allow a situation where the Marketing Department hyped the game to the skies, promising players all kinds of grand features, while the project team hadn't even finished a playable prototype.
Arriving at the Dark Souls project team, Qin Yi watched Chen Xu reviewing the game content and hesitated, clearly wanting to speak.
"Mr. Chen, could we really not lower the difficulty just a bit, or at least add an optional setting for players?" Qin Yi finally couldn't hold back as he watched Chen Xu designing the game map.
Currently, the entire Dark Souls Combat System and various related numerical designs were basically complete.
All that remained was integrating them into the game, such as placing monsters across the map.
Through these values and core gameplay concepts, Qin Yi and some of the other developers on the team had already grasped the charm and characteristics of Dark Souls.
It was completely different from typical ARPGs.
In this game, you weren't guided step-by-step from weak enemies to progressively stronger ones, fighting monsters and leveling up along the way.
Instead, it felt more realistic.
In traditional ARPGs, no matter how skilled the player, they were always constrained by numerical balances. You could never beat the final powerful boss with a level 1 character.
But Dark Souls was different. Although numerical values still existed,
if you were skilled enough, even at level 1 with no equipment—armed only with a small wooden stick resembling a chicken leg—you could still defeat the final boss.
This was the charm of Dark Souls: there were no unbeatable monsters. If you couldn't win, it was simply because your skill wasn't good enough.
Equipment and level were merely tools to assist you.
But charm aside, Qin Yi already found the map design excessively hostile.
And now, what was he seeing!?
In the early game, so many powerful monsters had been placed.
And in that small room before crossing the Wyvern Bridge at the High Wall of Lothric, the first treasure chest the player encountered turned out to be a monster!
Not to mention all those trap mechanisms.
Even the hints written on the ground were deliberately misleading.
For example, next to the suspension bridge in the Catacombs, there was a message:
'It says the bridge will break,' which naturally made players think the bridge would collapse when they walked to the middle.
But in reality, the player had to actively cut the support rope to make it fall.
And if the player, fearing the bridge might collapse, chose the alternate path instead, countless swarms of Skeleton Blademasters would teach them a lesson: 'All Lords of Cinder are trash—common soldiers like us are the strongest!'
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