"Here it comes, here it comes! Au is coming with a 40-meter greatsword!"
"I've been waiting for this Au for a long, long time. Come out!"
"They say... they say that Aus based on fanfiction are usually focused on delivering angst, and in all sorts of creative ways, really satisfyingly so!"
"Based on my experience playing fan-made Au works for over a year, anyone brave enough to launch a game is a ruthless character who licks the blade of a sugar-coated dagger."
"I think I'm seeing something extraordinary."
...
Undertale!
A magical pixel art game, and Lu Li's debut work as a new designer.
It not only led the entire gaming circle's shift towards the 'torment-style' + 'angst' genre but also ushered in a great era of high-quality fan-made content with its open-source code.
The most absurd thing is that two years later, the game's popularity has not only not waned but has even been soaring due to the emergence of more excellent fan creations.
To the extent that a slight hint from the official Weibo instantly overshadowed the popularity of the 'Call of Duty: Causality' arc.
Of course,
This is not to say that 'Call of Duty: Causality' was not successful. After all, the vast majority of people who don't speak up online are the true majority.
There's another reason: the barrier to entry.
First, the price. Not every player who loves games can afford to buy it for several hundred yuan on a whim.
Secondly, the 'Call of Duty' series is a military-themed game. Due to undisclosed reasons, the background can only be set overseas, which naturally leads to some lack of immersion.
But,
UT is different!
'Undertale' has been free from beginning to end, with a low barrier to entry and a large user base, forming a nested circle of communities.
This has led to a diverse and varied fan base within the community, with many voices, and naturally, quite a few strange ones.
"Fanfiction works can also be put on official platforms? Ling Jing is regressing."
"I used to really like Ling Jing's works, but now... they've run out of ideas."
"Undeniably, the game is good, but because the community is too young and the obsessive UT fans are constantly being obnoxious, and with..."
For him, Aus are just semi-finished games that are slightly processed from the original fan-creator's settings to suit the market; there's no real difficulty.
Moreover, these works are only aimed at fans and have minimal effect in attracting casual players or new users to join the larger Ling Jing community.
He is mainly focusing his energy on selecting and restructuring PC games from his previous life to create VR virtual games that suit Blue Star's aesthetics.
"My current net worth is less than 9 billion. To exchange for 'The Three-Body Problem', I need 10 billion, not including the processing fees for System-chan's own work. It's difficult, so difficult~"
Truly, a penny can't buy a hero. Lu Li scratched his head, looking troubled.
He really wants to showcase the world of 'The Three-Body Problem' to Blue Star players, allowing them to experience Liu Yishou's grand and magnificent imagination.
However,
He overlooked one problem—System-chan's commission.
Back then, he naively thought that VR adaptation of 'The Three-Body Problem' would cost at most 2 billion to appease System-chan into working on it. Unexpectedly, this black-hearted tsundere girl directly doubled the price!
Exchanging for the game requires 10 billion, and handing it over to System-chan for finished product craftsmanship costs another 20 billion. In total, 30 billion Emotion Points are needed to see the finished VR version of 'The Three-Body Problem'.
As Da Shi would say: Black!
It's too damn black!
Of course, the main reason is that 'The Three-Body Problem' had no relevant game templates in his previous life. All the frameworks were handed over to System-chan to start from scratch, consuming a massive amount.
At the current rate of collecting Emotion Points, without the addition of new games, 1 billion Emotion Points in less than two months is barely achievable. The gap is too large, so Lu Li can only look for other games.
Then, he will continuously accumulate Emotion Points until he can appease System-chan.
Currently, the frequency of delivering angst is too high, especially for fans who have just finished an Au. They will likely experience physiological discomfort at the sight of angst.
Therefore, he plans to produce a pure torment-style game next, allowing players to experience the unique charm of 'Souls-like' games in the VR world!
But,
There are so many 'Souls-like' games.
Which one is suitable for the current situation?
...