Chapter 143: It Takes Two (Sixth Update—Please Subscribe and Vote for Monthly Pass)

After explaining the relevant content of It Takes Two to everyone, they all returned to their respective tasks.

The New Year's Holiday was approaching soon, so during this period, Chen Xu mainly focused on explaining to Qin Yi and the others the core gameplay concepts of It Takes Two.

Meanwhile, he instructed Ruan Ningxue's Art Team to begin producing assets.

Actual game development would commence after the holiday.

The decision to develop this game was primarily to offer players a change of pace.

After all, Dark Souls had just accumulated a massive amount of player怨念 points.

Creating a more harmonious and heartwarming game to let players feel the warmth of sunshine was necessary.

Moreover, it would naturally enrich the variety of game types available on the Nebula Games Platform.

And following Overcooked, releasing another couple's cooperation game after a year would undoubtedly generate considerable discussion.

Once work began, Ruan Ningxue, who was in charge of art, immediately noticed the distinct characteristics of It Takes Two.

"This game feels a bit like an animated film!" Ruan Ningxue exclaimed, looking at the storyboard drafts in front of her.

"In a way, that's true," Chen Xu smiled and nodded.

Overcooked had a cartoon art style, but the cartoon style of Overcooked was different from that of It Takes Two.

In It Takes Two, the contrast between various scenes and the relationship between characters and themes created an exaggerated theatrical style.

Even the composition and color choices emphasized a strong sense of cinematography.

This style was more commonly seen in animated films.

While development was underway internally,

externally, the impact of the recently concluded Game of the Year event was still unfolding.

Thanks to the event's influence, sales of numerous games under Nebula Games saw a noticeable surge.

Especially Dark Souls, which had won Best Role-Playing Game, welcomed a new wave of kindling souls.

Of course, once these new kindling souls entered the game, they immediately felt Chen Xu's ever-present 'love' and 'passion' for players in the world of souls.

'Dark Souls,' 'Nebula Games,' 'Chen Xu'—these were the key terms of the moment.

While these topics were being widely discussed, the nation also entered its annual Spring Festival travel rush.

But for the gaming industry, the travel rush had little impact.

More players, designers, and media professionals were eagerly anticipating what Nebula Games' next project would be after the massive success of Dark Souls.

………………

On the eighth day of the new year, employees gradually returned to work.

Chen Xu gathered Qin Yi and the others in the meeting room.

During the New Year holiday, Chen Xu had already completed the design concept drafts for It Takes Two.

Compared to his previous life, he had made some modifications to certain game content.

For example, in the original version of It Takes Two, there was an Easter egg referencing another game, A Way Out, by the same game designer.

Chen Xu left this unchanged, as it had minimal impact.

Additionally, the game contained numerous movie homage lines.

For instance, the line Cody says after being captured by the space ape: "In space, no one can hear you scream."

This was a classic line from the movie Alien in Chen Xu's previous life.

There was also the audio Easter egg of the game designer saying "Fuck the Oscars" at The Game Awards.

These parts required modification.

There were also some relatively dark scenes in the game.

Although It Takes Two featured a cartoon art style,

similar to how Grimm's Fairy Tales were originally collections of European folk tales from the 17th and 18th centuries—written during the war-torn era brought by Napoleon—it was a fairy tale meant for adults.

Thus, it naturally carried some dark and profound core themes.

These stories were much like Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio—

appearing as fairy tales but filled with numerous metaphors.

It Takes Two was the same: although cartoonish, it was not meant for children.

Especially since many of its visuals leaned toward the disturbing.

The vacuum cleaner in the first level, and the pink elephant later on.

In terms of content, there wasn't much of an issue.

But in terms of presentation, in Chen Xu's previous life, many people criticized it.

Therefore, Chen Xu made some optimizations here—ensuring that, at the very least in visual presentation, it wouldn't be as disturbing as in his previous life.

Art style, cinematic camera features, the unique two-player split-screen camera usage, the story's plot and core ideas, level pacing control, scene characteristics, and each scene's corresponding special abilities and gameplay.

Chen Xu essentially laid out all the core elements of It Takes Two.

Compared to the simple explanation before the holiday, Ruan Ningxue, Yang Xin, Qin Yi, and the others now fully understood the game's core.

They also understood why Chen Xu had previously said time might not be enough.

Because although this game sounded like an Independent Game, its actual content was far from minimal.

In fact, it could be said that among all the games Nebula Games had developed so far, only Dark Souls surpassed it in scale.

Even the earlier Outlast fell slightly short.

After Chen Xu finished his explanation, the Q&A session began.

"Mr. Chen, will the level complexity of this game be a bit too high?" Qin Yi asked.

The levels corresponding to each major theme, along with their special abilities, left Qin Yi utterly amazed.

But one thing concerned him: he noticed that certain levels, especially those involving platforming, seemed to require extremely high player coordination.

If players coordinated well, there would be no issue. But if they didn't...

For some reason, Qin Yi's mind flashed back to Overcooked, and the countless arguments he'd seen in videos and on live streaming platforms.

How did the nickname 'Breakup Kitchen' come about?

Exactly like this!

"During BOSS battles, as long as one player is alive, the other can respawn infinitely. Plus, the game uses real-time save progress, so players won't have to return to a previous checkpoint due to a single failure."

"The game's difficulty is actually quite reasonable. Furthermore, we'll add a dynamic difficulty setting later—if players are stuck on a level for a certain amount of time, the game will provide corresponding prompts," Chen Xu explained, noting these as modifications from his previous life.

After hearing Chen Xu's explanation, Qin Yi nodded in understanding.

Next, Zhang Yida, responsible for game operation and promotion, took the floor: "Mr. Chen, what's the plan for promoting It Takes Two?"

"Follow the same model as last year's Overcooked. I'll edit a promotional video for you before Valentine's Day. The game's promotional slogan will be 'couple's game,' and the promotional direction will focus on 'passion,' 'cooperation,' and 'friendship.'"

"As for the game operation strategy, we don't need to repeat last year's buy-one-get-one-free offer. Instead, any player who owns the base game on the Nebula Games Platform can invite another player to join them. Let's push the platform promotion again," Chen Xu said after some thought.

(End of Chapter) <>