Chapter 195: Sandbox Game and Core Aspects (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)
Chapter 195: Sandbox Game and Core Aspects (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Pass)
The content development for Don't Starve wasn't particularly difficult.
After all, it was a game with a very small scale.
Art and Music were steadily progressing in output.
The most tedious aspect, however, was actually creating better MOD Development Kit tools to enhance the player experience.
Whether a game can generate a large number of MODs depends not only on how enjoyable the gameplay itself is.
The game's inherent support for MODs is also a crucial factor.
Meanwhile, during the development period of Don't Starve, the popularity of Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame continued to rise.
After selling nearly 5.5 million copies worldwide in its first month, Dark Souls maintained strong performance in its second month, with domestic sales dropping to 1.1 million copies and overseas sales to 1.3 million, still contributing a cumulative total of 2.4 million copies.
During this time, the first boss in the 'Death Mode' was finally conquered by players.
It wasn't one of the bosses from Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame, but rather 'Yhorm the Giant' from the original game.
Retaining the characteristic of being highly vulnerable to Storm Ruler, most high-level Dark Souls players formed teams to tackle the boss.
Finally, 19 days after the new mode launched, a team of three well-known overseas Dark Souls veterans completed the first kill. Interestingly, within less than 10 minutes of that achievement, a domestic Dark Souls攻略 group刷新ed the speedrun record, improving the time by nearly 15 seconds.
This sparked much discussion among Dark Souls players, naturally leading to debates—was the team that achieved the first kill stronger, or was the攻略 group that slightly lagged but set the new speedrun record more skilled?
However, it was clear that both攻略 teams were不服气 and believed themselves to be the strongest.
The very next day, the overseas team that achieved the first kill刷新ed their own time.
Meanwhile, the domestic攻略 group反超ed after two days of attempts.
No other bosses had fallen—only Yhorm the Giant had been injured.
For games like Dark Souls, although the Numerical Design and content no longer required modifications, Lin Tao's separately established project team would continue slowly developing DLC content. However, due to online multiplayer features and the ability for players to leave in-game messages, just like Fall Guys, Overcooked, and Sanguosha, a dedicated operations team was responsible for ongoing maintenance.
Of course, as player numbers gradually decreased, these operations would eventually merge with other games, allowing a single team to handle operations and maintenance.
But Chen Xu's精力 had clearly shifted away from Dark Souls.
Inside the project office, Chen Xu was discussing certain aspects of Don't Starve with Ruan Ningxue and Qin Yi.
"The entire game revolves around Survival—that's the overarching Core Aspect. But from this central theme, we can break it down into various smaller needs."
"For example, the protagonist has Hunger, Health Value, and Sanity. Combined with environmental factors and encounters, these values will gradually decrease. If any one of them reaches zero, the player dies, meaning the survival requirement has failed."
"Thus, under the broad survival objective, players naturally develop more specific goals from these branching mechanics."
Chen Xu explained Don't Starve's core design to the team.
These mechanics were precisely why Chen Xu had chosen Don't Starve as a Trial Run for sandbox games.
As for Don't Starve's story, that could be set aside for now.
Every one of its mechanics served a very clear purpose.
Even players completely unfamiliar with the Sandbox genre would never look bewildered upon entering the game.
At the very least, they would immediately understand one thing: keeping the character alive. Survival was the only core.
Eat, stay warm, and maybe throw in some entertainment to keep the character's Sanity stable.
Around these basic needs, players would naturally begin to explore, gradually understanding what sandbox gameplay truly meant.
"This sounds really interesting!" Yang Xin nodded as she listened to Chen Xu dissect the game's Core Aspects.
"Even though it's a small-scale game, it feels like it offers tremendous freedom!" Qin Yi, responsible for Numerical Design and Level Design, had the most direct impression.
"Indeed. I think playing online with friends could bring a lot of fun," Ruan Ningxue agreed.
"But the game is about surviving day by day. What if one day, the home base a player painstakingly built is suddenly burned to ashes in a large fire, or the character dies unexpectedly—then all the effort, whether it's several hours, dozens of hours, or even hundreds of hours of work..." Yang Xin suddenly raised a possibility.
Hearing her words, everyone instinctively turned their gaze toward Chen Xu sitting nearby.
You didn't even need to experience it firsthand—just imagining it sent shivers down your spine!
It was like grinding for countless hours in Dark Souls, without using a Trainer, finally obtaining an 802-level powerhouse character with all items collected—only to have your Saves vanish overnight.
How utterly devastated, broken, and heartbroken would the player feel?
"Ahem... Don't look at me like that. I've said it before—it's not a game meant for players to suffer. It's not like 'Hammer Swing Ascension' with no save system. Players can save anytime and back up their Saves," Chen Xu said, lightly coughing as he noticed their expressions.
"Besides, I have to say, if players don't understand my original intention, fine. But how could you guys think I make games just to watch players suffer?" Chen Xu said, speechless.
"Alright. Next, according to my plan, after completing Don't Starve, we'll develop and launch another game before the year ends. Don't Starve is more of a test for the market. After completion, we'll also roll out updates with new content and open up the Workshop (modding platform), guiding players in creating their own mods."
"So, try to finish Don't Starve by mid-September and launch it on the platform."
"Understood," Qin Yi nodded.
"Over a month should be sufficient time to develop Don't Starve. But remember—quality comes first," Chen Xu emphasized, looking at Qin Yi.
………………
After chatting with Qin Yi and the others for a while about the development style of Don't Starve,
Chen Xu called Zhang Yida into his office.
Unlike previous games such as Dark Souls: Age of the First Flame and It Takes Two,
the launch and operations strategy for Don't Starve would be different.
Although it was a mini-game, Chen Xu planned to invest some promotion resources. For this, he needed Zhang Yida to prepare a detailed plan according to his requirements.
(End of Chapter) <