Game Making: Start By Healing the Player

Day by day, the deadline drew ever closer. 

By now, the vast majority of contestants have uploaded their games to the official platform. Many major participants and gaming companies even ran huge promotional events centered around their entries. 

There were mobile games and PC games, with most of them being single-player titles. But some of the more daring ones even submitted online multiplayer games. 

Not everyone was here to win prizes and accolades, some were simply trying it out for the experience or just for the fun of it. 

After all, why not get involved? It’s not out of the way from their usual work, and who knows? They might happen to win something. 

Once the game has been submitted, the next step would be the entry test, otherwise known as the preliminary review. 

Problematic and sloppy work will be filtered out here. 

Of course, how the filtering is carried out will not be made public, only the results. And the eliminated games will remain available on the game platform.

But even with such measures, not too many games will be removed this way. After all, the only entry requirement is to be a certified game designer. 

But not this time. This time, the process drew attention from the gaming media as well as the community. 

All because of Chen Xu, who has famously spent only about 10 days to develop his entry. The people were curious, would his game be eliminated?

Here it comes, here it comes, the list of eliminated games. 

It’s not here. 

• [ Woah! Does this mean his game was acknowledged? It’s actually good enough to contend? ]

• [ So I guess it’s at least a playable game, right? ]

• [ Found the title! It’s called ‘To the Moon’ ]

• [ Pretty cool name, you think it’s some kind of space game? ]

• [ Only 15 yuan? It’s so cheap! ]

• [ Eh? There are two different versions. What does this mean? Even ‘Undertale’ didn’t get this treatment ]

• [ I’m so excited, I’m shaking. I need to know what Chen Xu cooked up ]

With the entry list now fully available, players across the platform began to pick and choose, downloading games from studios and designers they were interested in. 

Among them, ‘To the Moon’ was naturally one of the most downloaded titles. 

……………………..

In the gaming section of Shark TV.

A huge number of streamers were also broadcasting their live testing of the games in the list. 

This could be seen as an unofficial partnership between Shark TV and the Game Department. After all, this is somewhat of a national event, the combined publicity of the two entities created a massive wave of interest and viewership. 

So naturally, the more astute would be ready to ride this wave and take advantage of any benefits they could find. 

Dong Zhen, a streamer on Shark TV, was one such person. 

His stream started early in the morning, titled in bold and all caps: SCI-FI CONTEST LIST. WE OUT HERE. DROPS ENABLED. 

• [ Good Myorning, Nyan ]

• [ Where am I? What am I? Why is it so early today? ]

• [  I can’t feel my face ]

• [ WE RISIN BOIS ]

All sorts of messages started scrolling down, making him laugh. It’s good that they were as excited as he was. 

“Ahem!!!”

“Alright, alright, alriiiight. Mornin’ lads. You guys voted on what games you wanted to see, so we got a long ass list today. Gotta start early ya?”

As Dong Zhen made casual conversation with his viewers, he was also running some tests on the recording equipment and software in the background. It was a habit every respectable streamer should have. 

He logged in and showed off the list of games downloaded in his official platform account. 

“Ok guys, let’s get the big one outta the way first. The one we’re all dying to know about, the one made by Chen Xu, creator of Undertale.”

“I’ll be honest with you, I’ve really been looking forward to this one.”

“Why? I mean, were you here for my ‘Undertale’ playthrough? C’mon, that was a really good game. Probably my game of the year.”

“This new one, it’s called ‘To the Moon’. Here’s some context for anyone who doesn’t know. This game was made in less than half a month, maybe even around 10 days. And it actually passed the entry test! That’s wild, absolutely wild, so I’m curious to see what it’s all about.”

He clicked on the game’s store page, reading the summary. 

“Changing memories, an old man wants to go to the moon. Now that is an unconventional setting if I’ve ever seen one. Alright lads, we’re going in!”

The icon for the game was very simplistic, two children seated on a log, staring at a distant moon. 

He skipped the Nebula Games intro logo, too familiar with it after restarting ‘Undertale’ so many times. 

Soon, a lighthouse appeared beneath a starry sky, fluffy clouds drifted slowly by. The moon was full and bright, illuminating the scenery. 

The name of the game “To the Moon” is engraved on the moon.

The camera slowly panned downwards, and a soothing piano piece was playing in the background. 

The entire scene gave off an ethereal feel. 

Down the lighthouse, past the meadow, and into a large house by the edge of a cliff. 

The camera panned into the house, where an adorable little girl was sitting in front of a piano, playing it smoothly despite her size. Next to her, a little boy was playing with some toys. 

At this point, the background music changed, and a more simple, lighthearted piano tune began to play. 

• [ Can we take a moment to appreciate how good the music is? ]

• [ If you close your eyes, it feels like you’re in the forest, and a gentle stream is next to you ]

• [ Chen Xu seems to always have good music ]

• [ These two piano pieces are great. Does the game description include the sheets? ]

• [ The music was great in ‘Undertale’ too ]

• [ Do you remember the ‘Mirror’ soundtrack? Shit slaps ]

Dong Zhen agreed with his chat, the game hasn’t really started yet, but the music is already really good. 

The screech of tyres and the sound of a crash broke everyone’s immersion in the music. The screen shook and the children were startled. 

The camera panned outside the house, to see that a futuristic looking black car had crashed into a tree. 

A pair of people clammored out of the car with disheveled looks, one man and one woman. Both wore the signature white lab coats of doctors and scientists. 

[ Where were you looking, Neil? ]

[ Well excuse me for heroically evading that squirrel coming out of nowhere! ]

[ …You ran over it anyways ]

[ …Oh ]

[ You ran over it and hit a tree… ]

[ Look, don’t worry, it’s a company car ]

[ Are you kidding me? The boss is going to kill us! ]

[ Hm… We’ll just say I was saving a puppy. He likes puppies right? ]

[ He’s more of a cat person ]

[ …Why does the world have to be so complicated? Fine, whatever furball he fancies. Crisis averted ]

[ Good, go write that on your report later. Let’s grab the equipment from the car and move already ]

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